Anime seasons come and go. Every “season” is about 3 months long, and there are four each year, starting with Winter, Spring, Summer and finally Autumn. Each one of these seasons brings a new wave of anime to an international audience, who are more than happy to consume the tasty new media on the market.
However, with these many new releases, not all of them get the attention they deserve, and some even outright sink in this ocean of novelty – underrated, underwatched, forgotten. For me, those are the interesting ones, the ones that are far away from the bustling mainstream of long-awaited manga or light novel adaptations. Because in this little “underwatched” pile can be small gems, if you have the patience and curiosity to uncover them.
And one of those I would like to present to you, from Winter 2020, the anime short series: “Natsunagu“.
Story
Protagonist Natsuna, chatting with her online friend, Izumi.
College students Natsuna and Izumi have been friends online for many years, but recently, the contact has calmed down a little. They often drew art together and shared many stories about their families and other worries. Despite never having seen each other, only their cute little avatars, they are good friends who can trust each other.
However, one day out of the blue, Izumi messages Natsuna that she wishes to see her.
In real life.
But before Natsuna can answer, the social media platform they had used all these years to communicate shuts down. With this unexpected and sudden course of events, they have no more means of talking to each other.
Natsuna is worried, especially since Izumi wants to talk with her now. She only knows one address, from way back when, and she knows that Izumi lives in the prefecture of Kumamoto.
With no more means and leads, Natsuna decides to go to this address, and check if her online friend is alright.
But as Natsuna arrives at the rural airport of Kumamoto, she soon is faced with the ugly truth: The address is too old. The house that once stood there was destroyed in an earthquake a few years ago.
With no more money in her pockets and no idea where to go next, a small road movie unfolds – to find her beloved online friend Izumi.
Unknown region, no more house, and flat broke: It’s not looking good.
In 12 short 4-minute episodes, we follow Natsuna in her quest to find Izumi, and it will take a lot of help from locals and newly-gained friends.
And these characters in this rural town have a true core underneath it, which is worth looking at.
Fictional Characters, Real Setting
The region of Kumamoto is a real prefecture in Japan which suffered a major earthquake in 2016. And if you look closely in the credits of the anime, you can see that this anime was indeed produced by the Kumamoto prefecture.
This anime was intended to be not only a tourist advertisement for the prefecture, with real life sights and places, but also to raise funds for the rebuilding projects after the earthquake: A region paints a picture of itself to help itself.
And so, the region in this anime is real, but inhabited with fictional characters. Colourful locals from different professions, and they all try to help the protagonist out. If you look closely in the ED of every episode, you can see that the characters depicted change, depending on the story.
The friendly grandma, or the supportive police man from around the corner.
If one were cynical, they might think that this initial setup would just end in a big advertisement that is either sappy or hollow, but it has a purpose within the story. These people show our protagonist what is important: community. More specifically, an offline community, which can help her to find a member of her online community that got shut down.
It is important to support and help each other, and to listen to each other if someone is in need. And even more so if it’s a person you care about. This small rural town in Kumamoto acts as a network in which Natsuna has to find and restore her connection with her online friend.
And as you can imagine, it’s not going to be easy.
In their online world, Natsuna and Izumi used to draw together.
As the series is very short, 12 x 4 minutes, -1 minute for recap and ending, you can watch the entire season in just over 35 minutes. And yet, in this short span, this series managed to deliver an emotional punch in the end that I hadn’t seen so far in anime.
Online relationships can differ a bit in how they perform, if you only have text messages to communicate, without voice or body language. But they are just as valid and important as relationship in real life, even if they have different rules.
If you think about them yourself, what do they mean to you? A friend not reacting to an emotional post you did? Someone leaving you on read? Getting ghosted and ignored by someone you are close to?
And the anime tackles some of those internet-specific rules of online friendships and behaviour that are worth exploring and addressing.
The mascot of the Kumamoto prefecture: Kumamon, the bear!
Conclusion
“Natsunagu” is certainly not perfect or the “next underdog masterpiece”. It sadly feels way too short, the themes that are addressed could take far more exploration – but it could also be easily expanded into a full-length slice of life anime one day.
However, as a small underwatched snack, it is exceptionally pleasant. The style is soft, the outlines are in many different colours melding into the whole pastel aesthetic. The director, Yasuyuki Honda, had only worked so far as a storyboarder and episode director on larger series, (Aikatsu!, Gurren Lagann, Saint Seiya Lost Canvas), this is their directorial debut. But I would love to see more of them in the future, as this style is far too precious to be only used in an anime short series.
I would like to recommend this tiny anime, simply for the niche status it has, and for the heart it displays – for its own real life community and the small story of saving an online friendship.
THE END
Thank you for reading!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumamon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumamoto_Prefecture
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=22911
Elena DS 