Anime — Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers)

A quiet little story of school-girl romance, very sweetly done; and with a delicate and restrained art style, presumably heavily post-processed photographs in the main. The story follows childhood friends Fumi and Akira though Fumi's first romance with an older and generally very popular pupil from her school, and the messy break-up that follows. But even through that, all the characters involved are just all-around nice -- no real catty or bitchy episodes (unlike the superficially similar schoolgirl story in Marimite, with the insufferable Touko-chan).

Based on an on-going manga, it ends like a chapter ending rather than the tale being all told, but for all that it comes to a satisfying conclusion. Alas, poor DVD sales means a second series is unlikely -- which is disappointing as it's one of the better shows in what has been a dreadfully thin year for new anime.

Presumably there aren't enough trainspotters to buy it on the strength of the many railway scenes during Fumi and A-chan's commute to their adjoining schools (if Aria can be considered scenery porn, this verges of the train porn at times).

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Sample frames and a YouTube link removed following DMCA complaint. If the buggers can't understand fair use quotation for purposes of review, then my recommendation would be to not reward them with any of your hard earned.