Orange

16 again...with extra feels


I've seen 17 Again, and all I can say is, Zac Efron will look like Matthew Perry when he gets older, despite there being no resemblance whatsoever. But I do like the Audi R8 that features in the movie. Gotta love R8s.

There's no link between 17 Again and Orange at all. So don't get too excited/disappointed/whatever you feel about this because I just remembered 17 Again as I was watching this. Hence the subtitle.

Ok so, Orange. It's a "change the past" type anime with ERASED and Anohana vibes to it. Like a lot, with almost as many feels as Anohana, but more animated characters than either of these anime. You'll see what I mean.


Orange follows the story of Takamiya Naho, a now 26-year-old married woman who has many regrets from her high-school years. Somehow she's able to send letters to her 16-year-old self to try to change the past and save her future self from those regrets. Kind of confusing, but if you think of it as more of a parallel universe kind of anime, it'll make more sense.

Where do the ERASED and Anohana vibes come into this? Well, and I'm not spoiling anything here because you find out on episode one anyway, Naho's biggest regret is the death of Naruse Kakeru, a new high-school student who becomes friends with her from day one, and knowing that he could have been saved. That's the ERASED part, but without the time travel (again think parallel universes). For Anohana, it's more of the "what can we do to make the dead person happy?" element, only this time Naho is in the past/present trying to make the alive Kakeru as happy as she possibly can in order to prevent his death, with the help of her friends. Add that in with the feels you get whilst watching each episode as we get more depth in the story and how everyone tries to change the events in the past/present and affecting other events, especially the love triangle between Naho, Kakeru and Suwa. That's all I'll say about that, but Suwa, you are such a gentleman! ToT

Orange has a great story, with a bunch of characters who make you smile and laugh one way or another, and give you the same amount of feels too as they do what they can to try to make Kakeru not die. You also get to see the future Naho and co and how they're living 10 years later, as they think about the past and how they could have saved Kakeru if they were just more aware of what was happening back then. It honestly made me think of ERASED and Anohana during each episode, and it's one of those where you'd talk to the characters to say or do something just to change the past. Like Naho, why didn't you give the bento sooner?! You'll get what I mean once you've watched that episode.

I highly recommend Orange. The feels, drama and wanting things to change hooks you, and I'd happily watch it again. But I do think that, along with Kuroko no Basket, it would have been better if I watched it as the episodes released weekly rather than binge watch it. It does take away some of the suspense seeing as you don't even get a preview of the next episode, but either way, it's definitely worth watching.

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