Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.



Genre: Coming of Age, Comedy

Description: Five girls of a high school literature club spend their days reading novels aloud during club activities. But lately, they've been reading more mature novels that include some fairly descriptive sex scenes within them. The pending release of a new novel by one of their favorite authors starts the conversation, "What's one thing you want to do before you die?" One of the girls responds firmly with, "Sex."

That single afternoon starts a series of thoughts and interactions the girls have all over school and at home with each of the girls realizing that their adulthood is rapidly approaching.

Episode 01
Episode 02
Episode 03

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I waited a while to start watching this series.

But it is like...really good.

The girls are remarkably well developed within the first episode or two, you get a good idea of each of their personalities, their potential issue/hang-up with the overarching theme, and how each of them attempt to handle it (some of them well, some of them catastrophically in an amusing way). I like Coming of Age stories the most when it isn't so much a gradual progression, but some event or personal conflict that throws the characters into a state or rapidly adapting. And this does that well.

The girls don't exist in isolation either, like some other series. Their classmates are sexually active, and not quiet about it. Their love interests are at various states along the same path. It focuses on the five girls, but they live in a fully realized world.

It reminds me a bit, thematically, of A Silent Voice. It doesn't shy away from reality. It stares it down.

The art is beautiful and fitting. It has this soft watercolor feel to it, and Ishii Kaori's character designs are somewhere between Murata (Last Exile) and Tony Taka, with a moeblob filter over it. They're detailed but soft, is why I'm trying to say, I think.

Great cast, mix of veterans and newbies.