A very typical high school romance story, a cliche one, indeed. However, what makes Just Because! an enjoyable ride is its honesty. It’s very realistic, a romance that normal people like us could relate ourselves to.
The characters were likable. There are instances that you may come to hate them but that makes them special as we see our reflections on them. They made errors, failed and eventually succeed which is also true applied to ourselves. Every characters in Just Because! represents a certain individuals, it might be us or our friends.
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| Just Because! Characters: Morikawa, Komiya, Natsume, Izumi, Soma |
The visuals were pretty stunning. From the baseball court, to the typical classrooms, even the club rooms; it all gives off a feeling of nostalgia. Finally, the cherry blossoms at the end of the anime is really beautiful.
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The animation were wonderful. It may be average but it was beautifully executed from the baseball field; when Soma and Eita are playing to the part where Ena is taking pictures. Those mild transitions of mood in the story; especially with Eita, Mio & Ena.
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| Just Because! love triangle: Eita, Ena & Mio |
In addition, both the anime’s opening and ending theme song were amazing. The music really sounds soothing and charming.
The narration of the story is pretty enjoyable. From the MVP of this anime: Komiya Ena, she beautifully played her role. She’s a big impact on Just Because! success.
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| Komiya Ena |
Eita and Mio’s story is also commendable, a real life story that many people could relate with. They had been a consistent side-dish in Soma & Morikawa’s story but in the end, it was them that served the sweetest surprise in this story.
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| Izumi Ita & Natsume Mio |
Soma and Morikawa represented the quite unusual kind of romance. Of course, it is not peculiar but they had been giving off this certain degree of maturity in their romance, especially Morikawa while Soma is playing the role of an interesting lively naive. Nonetheless, everyone may agree that this two really resembles a relationship that will eventually ended up in marriage in the future, are they?
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| Haruto Sōma & Hazuki Morikawa |
The biggest surprise is who won the photography contest and what their entry is. For me, it is the most heartfelt scene in the anime.
To conclude this review of Just Because! I could say that it definitely did its part of bringing a romantic story to the audience. It successfully leave a happy yet kind of nostalgic and achy feeling to everyone’s heart.
Rating: 8.4 (JUST BECAUSE!)
Code name: Yu Alexius is an ambiguous entity who loves to talk about anime and Chinese animation in general. An insatiable soul from the Pearl of the Orient, a frustrated writer and a Houtarou Oreki wanna-be. He is a piece of a lunatic and everything crazy.
