New Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning

Original Title: 新きまぐれオレンジ★ロード そして、あの夏のはじまり
Romanized: Shin Kimagure Orange Road: Soshite, Ano Natsu no Hajimari
Literal: New Whimsical Orange Road - And Then, The Beginning of That Summer

Plot Synopsis

19 year-old Kasuga Kyosuke is starting college. His day starts with a phone call from someone claiming to be him, warning himself to watch out for the car. Not heeding this strange message, he is hit by a car on his way to classes, and finds himself three years in the future. In his own future, things quickly become very complicated: his old flame, Hiyama Hikaru, is back from New York and still has feelings for him while the love of his life, Ayukawa Madoka, seems to be pining for him, and he can't get up the courage to talk to her yet. He soon finds that he is going to need the help of his future self to get back to 1991, but this isn't going to be easy--his 22 year old self has disappeared while working as a student news photographer in Bosnia. Time is running out, and Kyosuke is beginning to disappear--will he find himself in time, and what is going to happen when this old love triangle is reassembled?

Quick Review

Rating: 5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-08-23

It might seem forced to try to make a sequel to I Want To Return To That Day, but KOR: Summer's Beginning is a vital part of the ongoing story, giving us a peek into the future that we could only speculate about after the first movie and addressing Madoka and Hikaru's friendship--and aspect of the characters' relationship that was conspicuously absent from it. This movie, in addition to the bittersweet romance, is a quiet but moving look at the ongoing lives of the three main characters, with appearances by almost all of our old friends from the KOR series (including an appearance by that idol singer from the OAVs, but with the unfortunate omission of Yuusaku). Keeping with the maturing characters, this movie isn't just another story about the same people--both the characters and the treatment of their relationships have matured. The youthful innocence of past incarnations is mostly gone, but is has been replaced by the relationships and trials of the adult world, something not usually treated in a realistic manner in anime. The Japanese language version features the same talented cast handling the subtleties of the now older characters appropriately. There is also a dub, but that seems a little odd since none exists for the rest of the series, and this is absolutely not the place to start--it may be enjoyable, but you're missing too much background to appreciate the relationships properly.

Summer's Beginning isn't the place to start watching KOR--even if you could follow the plot it would only take away from your enjoyment of the rest of the series--but for existing fans who have seen the first movie, this is absolutely required viewing.

US DVD Review

The DVD (there are two, but apart from a different cover and reduced price I don't know of any differences between them) features stereo Japanese and English dubbed soundtracks, a subtitle track, and basically nothing else. The original 2001 disc features an attractive drawing of Madoka in the infamous red hat on the cover; the 2005 version features a cel of Hikaru on the front and a slightly lower price. The artwork change is a bit disappointing, since the older one looks better and fits with the cover art on AnimEigo's DVDs better.

Content Guide

ADV calls it either 15+ or TV-14 (same film, different releases) which is about right on account of significantly more adult themes than past incarnations. Note that there is one scene in particular that parents may take objection to.

Violence: 1 - Some relationship conflict, and a few flashes of the war in Bosnia.

Nudity: 2 - Brief nudity, but no detail.

Sex/Mature Themes: 3 - Nothing explicit, but several scenes with overt mature content, and mature themes in general throughout.

Language: 1 - Mild language.

Notes and Trivia

Follows the firs Kimagure Orange Road Movie, I Want to Return to That Day, which concluded the KOR OAV series, which in turn followed the TV series, which was inspired by the comic book series by Izumi Matsumoto. The first movie is pretty much a required prerequisite to viewing this, and you should definitely have seen several of the OAVs, at the least, before watching that movie. Note that everything else in the series--TV, OAVs, and Movie--was translated by AnimEigo, not AD Vision.

This move is based on the first of the "Shin KOR" novels, a new series of novels that follows the story of the original series. The new novels deal with the characters' later lives (in College and beyond), and deal with much more mature subjects than the original stories.

A note about the names: Kyosuke has called Madoka by her family name, Ayukawa, for the entire series; this isn't that strange in Japan, but it does show that he's a bit awkward and overly formal in the social department. They made a point of the switch to using her given name in this move, because it signals a significant change in how comfortable he is with her. Likewise, Hikaru has always called Kyosuke either Darling (a common overly affectionate term), or Sempai (meaning something like "Upperclassman")--that is not an unusual term of address, though it does reflect subtly on their relationship, and you might notice that she calls him "sempai" throughout this movie, too. Madoka generally refers to Kyosuke by his family name, Kasuga.

Finally, a note about the translation in the subtitles (at least in the VHS version--this might have been fixed in the DVD), but don't read it unless you've already seen the movie, since it's a bit of a spoiler. In the scene when Hikaru and Madoka are by the pool talking about their relationship with Kyosuke, Hikaru says that she wouldn't apologize for her feelings toward him. Madoka's reply is "Sore de ii jan." This is a sensitive, understanding comment meaning something like "That's ok.", and it sums up their relationship from the TV series (and before). But in the subtitles this is translated as "You can say what you like," which sounds very much like a flippant or even angry remark, something it was not intended to be.

Availability

Available in the US from AD Vision on bilingual DVD. There are two functionally identical DVD releases; different cover art is the only substantive change. It was previously available on subtitled and dubbed VHS.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store