Alt Title: Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!
Plot Summary
The year is 2035 and schools have been suffering from a lack of child birth which has caused many of them to close. An energetic girl named Manami Amamiya transfers to a new school where she quickly becomes the student council president and starts to bring back some vigor in the students' lives.
The year is 2035 and schools have been suffering from a lack of child birth which has caused many of them to close. An energetic girl named Manami Amamiya transfers to a new school where she quickly becomes the student council president and starts to bring back some vigor in the students' lives.
Manabi Straight anime series:
Season 1 [12 Episodes] | OVA [1 Episode]
Season 1 [12 Episodes] | OVA [1 Episode]
The Review
This is a pretty interesting anime. It may be set in the future, but the idea of schools suffering is a modern day thing. At least in some countries it is. Either way, the concept is realistic enough to spike my interesting.
When I was growing up, I changed schools a lot. Every time I changed schools, I would always start off quiet and not socialize with anyone if I didn't have to. However, Manami is the complete opposite. She starts her new school life off with a bang. Not only does she start off being late, but she jumps right into being school council president. The fun only begins there.
The first thing to note is the animation. The character designs are simple, the colors are bright and cheery, and yet the backgrounds are actually quite detailed. They did a great job showing the futuristic world of Japan.
The lack of motivation the students and teachers have isn't all that surprising. I've been to enough schools to know that there are quite a few places like this out there in the real world. It's sad, because school should be a fun place where you figure out who you are, what you want to do, and make life long friends.
The show does an excellent job getting the emotions across to the viewer. You can't help, but get caught up in the world and feel what the characters feel. When they're angry or sad, you start to feel that way as well. There's only a few shows that can pull this off as well as this one. Making this what we could call, a needle in a hay stack.
Ending scene is probably the most unique out of all the endings I've seen so far. The entire ending scene is done in clay animation, which is an entirely different form of media then the actual show. This alone makes it stand out from the rest of the anime I've seen up to this point.