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5.0 out of 5 stars
TRUST IS TESTED, September 24, 2006
This review is from: Boys Be..., Vol. 2 - Summer (DVD)
We're into the summer arc of Boys Be in Volume 2 but there's a bit of rain still left before the spring is over and it's got Aki thinking of a boy she used to love in middle school, Ueno, who channeled all his passion into photography instead of her. She stumbles upon him in the rain where of course, he's taking pictures at a botanical garden. Has he changed at all? Did he ever care about her? The next episode follows Kyoichi and Makoto as they get summer jobs at a beach shop run by Chiharu's cousin with luscious babes surrounding them on all sides. Will Kyoichi's faithfulness be tested? Meanwhile, Chiharu faces her own challenge at the running camp she is attending. She meets a rich playboy who begins to stir feelings in her she only reserved for her boyfriend. Back at school, Yoshihiko, the good-natured but lazy baseball star strikes up a friendship with a girl named Natsue whose dream is to play on the high school team. Nobody has the heart to tell her that girls aren't even allowed to play! I love this show even though I can't really put my finger on why. Maybe because all the characters seem so real that you forget they're anime characters sometimes. There are no flying robots or karate moves or fantasy creatures or slapstick comedy here. It's about relationships. The comedy and drama you get in Boys Be is of the variety you find in real life. The characterization and voice acting is done so well that the episodes need very little plot to work off of. The show excels on personality. The colors are bright and vibrant. The character design could have used some work, especially Chiharu. Her face is so lopsided sometimes that she looks like a monster from the movie CHUD! That's really the only complaint I have about this volume. Excellent excellent show! For a similar series from a woman's perspective, check out Diamond Daydreams.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Summer Angst, December 27, 2007
This review is from: Boys Be..., Vol. 2 - Summer (DVD)
Volume 2 of Boys Be... consists of four episodes that set the stage for much of what takes place in the two remaining chapters. The first features Aki, the "party girl", running into an old junior-high flame; the second features Makoto and Kyochi encountering a frail, reclusive girl named Nao while doing a "summer job" at the beach; the third finds Yoshihiko dealing with a spunky girl named Natsue who wants to be a baseball player; and in the fourth, Chiharu, who is at "track camp" for the summer, finds companionship with a handsome older boy named Yuuki. I found the first of the episodes here merely OK. Aki could be an interesting character, but I didn't find the "ex" to be fleshed out very well, Aki's flirtatious charm is almost absent, and the story itself is too static. The third, with the "jock" and would-be player Natsue (OK, nice commentary on sexism in sports), is also not that engaging, except in the Boys Be... general way that girls-know-what's-going-on-better-than-boys-do (there's quite a bit of that in Boys Be..., though mainly in Kyochi and Chiharu's on-and-off "relationship," as will be seen later in the series.) The second and fourth episodes are better. Nao, the "mystery girl" who's the sister of Makoto and Kyochi's "boss", turns out to have an interesting (and touching) secret, and the whole episode is ultimately about how Nao makes friends (and "mellows out" her brother) through that secret. Even if there's really not that much plot here, there's a strong "feel good" atmosphere at the conclusion. Not so for the last episode on the disk, though it marks a major event in this series that hangs over the succeeding episodes like a cloud, only slowly dissipating in the final episodes. Chiharu, somewhat estranged from Kyochi after he belittles the importance of her athletic activities, is at summer training camp, where an older boy tries to "hit" on her. At first spurning his advances, eventually loneliness, an injury, and a bad phone connection lead to an ultimately unfortunate decision by Chiharu. More cannot be said, though in the long run, remember the theme song of Boys Be... translates as, "we'll be OK".
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Incidents and Accidents, April 7, 2007
This review is from: Boys Be..., Vol. 2 - Summer (DVD)
This wonderful tale continues as Yoshihiko finds his passion, and a potential girlfriend, in the last place he would ever think of looking. Meanwhile, Kyoichi and Makoto get the ultimate summer job, if they can survive their new boss. But, one girlfriends's loneliness, and the things left unsaid by her boyfriend, eventually lead to a major miscalculation, which threatens the future of one of our favorite couples. It's just another adventure in this smart, and well constructed series. It's very well put together from a technical standpoint, and the storytelling is very believable, to the point that most of you will probably remember making some of the same mistakes yourselves when you were their age, and that is an experience that's worth the price of admission.
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