Anime: Underbar Summer 195c3g

(Reviewer's Note: Another one bites the dust in my quest to review the unreviewed. Ratings/ appreciated so that I can improve for future reviews, especially if my reviews are in tl;dr territory.)

_Summer in a nutshell: Extremely typical "based on bishoujo game" OVA that feels more like a 50-minute commercial for the game than an actual anime series.

Animation:
Back in the 80s and 90s, the words "OVA quality" actually meant something, as in higher budgets for animation that was much better than TV series animation. Not so for this 2006-2007 OVA, whose animation is only marginally better than an average TV series. Of course, this type of story doesn't demand much from the animation, since most of it consists of mundane scenes like walking to school, eating meals, various conversations, and the occasional "Violent Retribution for Accidental Infringement," as AniDB describes it. And despite this being an OVA, the levels of ecchi and nudity aren't much higher than those of TV anime. At least the girls are cute.

Sound:
Nothing impressive, but nothing to complain about, either. The OP/ED are both catchy and upbeat songs, and the voices are pretty much in line with the standard set of characters (see below).

Story:
_Summer might have had potential for a decent story in a 12-14 episode series, but with only two episodes, it doesn't have much time for anything. Expect to see as many standard bishoujo game and high school romance events as possible, like a hot springs scene, swimsuit scenes, the Tanabata festival, fireworks shows, and a few random interactions between the lead male and the individual girls. There's a slightly interesting hook in the "Is there anyone you like?" theme that shows Takumi's process of becoming interested in girls for the first time. But again, there isn't time to develop that angle at all, other than having Takumi kinda-sorta-almost-maybe make a decision about one of them. I imagine the story is better for those who've played the game in the past or will play the game in the future, but at this point these two episodes are all that English-speaking audiences will get, and they simply aren't enough.

Character:
Much like the story, the characters are 100% typical for this genre of anime, and the 2-episode length doesn't give enough time to develop them. The roll call of characters could've been taken from almost any similar anime: The Nondescript Lead Male, The Annoying Male Sidekick, The Childhood Friend (who comes over and cooks meals, of course), The Tomboy Classmate, The Little Sister (but thankfully for little-sister incest-lovers, she's not related by blood!), The Yamato Nadeshiko Senpai, and The Stoic Loli. I would rate the characters the same as the story except that Chiwa, the Stoic Loli, is a visual and personality clone of Ruri Hoshino and that scores a bonus point with me.

Value:
There's nothing amazing or groundbreaking about this OVA, and if you don't like "based on bishoujo game" anime, you probably won't like it. Its best redeeming qualities are that it won't take too much space on your HDD or too much time out of your life. And as I said in the intro line, _Summer feels like a 50-minute commercial for the game; for those who don't have access to the game, its value is inevitably limited. I'm keeping it on the HDD because I have plenty of space, but I don't feel any desire to rewatch it anytime soon.

Enjoyment:
Despite the generally low scores, some enjoyment can be had from _Summer...if you normally enjoy anime based on bishoujo games, like I do. It's an easily digestible morsel of anime comfort food that lets you see some cute girls and experience a sequence of standard, familiar events. The omakes are also enjoyable, since they present a comedic darker alternate version of _Summer's characters.

Recommendations:
Again, I can't recommend this one to anyone who isn't already a fan of the genre, for fear that it will scare them away from romance-game-based series that are actually good. Even within this genre, you can do a lot better; even the Da Capo ripoff Gift ~Eternal Rainbow~ is far better than _Summer. If you're looking for short "quick-watch" series from this genre, check out some 12-13 episode series with half-length episodes, such as W Wish, Wind ~A Breath of Heart~, or Hanihani ~Operation Sanctuary. Those three aren't exceptionally good, but they have better-developed and more complete stories.