Anime Meta-Review
Bewitching Nozomi
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Title Info
- seen: 1 of 3
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- genre: sport
- people: Adachi
- Series state: Can't find any more to watch.
- made: unknown
- Review created: Tue Jan 30 19:09:10 EST 2001
- mod: none
Wow, it didn't take too long to be able to spot an Adachi anime within about the first five minutes. Which was unexpected, because the title (or the more literal `witch nozomi') sounded a bit like a hentai title to me. Anyway it takes about 10 minutes longer to realize that he's planning to follow his formula again. This is the anime representation of a manga epic about thugs punching each others lights out, with a side order of cute and innocent romance.
Okay, okay...it's actually about boxing (like there's much of a difference). We get to follow a typical adachi hero as his life changes shortly after moving to a new school. He's typical in that while good natured and innocent he's a bit shy and underconfident. He's also pathologically (like most adachi hero's apparently) bad at spotting that a person is female without clues like naked breasts and long hair. Thus it comes as a suprise to him (but to no one in the audience) that the strange guy he plays soccer with ends up being one and the same as his beautiful but boyish new neighbour. She seems to take a shine to him (obvious because she hits him) and decides he's going to be a champion boxer to fulfill her dream. He's completely bewitched by her (thus the title) and is easily manipulated, so before you know it he's a promising member of the school boxing club.
And, what do you know, it just might be that he's got the talent to go to the top. In fact we know this because we keep seeing flash's of him fighting at a championship level. There's all the normal sports stuff about believing in yourself, fighting for the love of the girl you adore, and assorted blarney. Meanwhile there's always some realization, or clue, as to a technique that can move him over the current obstacle. There's also the desire to see if the relationship between the two will ever become serious. And finally there's also the promise of discovering why Nozomi requires him to become a boxer, with several unsubtle reminders of this unresolved mystery.
Personally I recognise this as really skilled stuff. The author does have a sense of character, an ability to render the innocent discovery of both love and skill and a slow but very firm sense of pace. On the other hand it is depressing that, with the tiny amount of stuff i've seen, this already feels like such a formula piece. You can basically imagine him working his way through all the sports, adding another unresolved romance between a clueless guy and a complex girl, until he passes away of old age. It's skillfull, and even enjoyable, but I don't think i've ever seen anything that is so obviously a heartless piece of product. If you like romance there's enough to keep you watching but probably not enough to satisfy. If you like the whole sports philosophy thing, or the skills and practice of boxing, then you'll probably get a lot more out of it...but that's not my problem. And personally, since he's obviously naturally talented, I don't find his quest that interesting. I prefer the flawed characters of Takahashi's "One pound gospel" if I must watch boxing.
As for the animation. Wow, it looks almost exactly like his manga style. As a result it has a fairly open and plain style, with cute but boyish girls and definite similarities between many of the character designs. There's also similarities between this couple and many of his other character designs. Still, while quite stylised, it's not an unpleasant style and as a result the animation is very watchable. There's even a bit of fan service, and nozomi's plenty cute, to keep us interested. The boxing itself is quite well represented, but not overly impressive or common and somewhat repetitive. There's signs that the author has done his research, but it's delivered in such a simplistic manner and doesn't really interest me. The voices are pretty solid, and the music didn't really stand out.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:15 WST 2009