Hello again everyone,
Here we are for yet another review (this time a little late to be honest as I ended up reading too much the other blogs today) for a rather recent manga/anime series named Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight that aired in 2007 producted by Ufotable.
Let's start with a synopsis :
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.
Yes, this is mostly a slice of life series focused on the normal life of five schoolgirls in a little schoolo on the verge of being closed down due to low birth and low new students.
While there are some serious undertones in the themes talked about in this series, the overall setting of the series is very positive and colorful.
It's rather refreshing to see these girls fight for her own rights in the most classic ways you can even dream of, and yes I've ended up cheering for them by the end of the series.
The series is based on episodic story with a rather strong plot linked between each one of them and in the end there is a rather big arc featuring the end of the series. The story is rather slow so if you're in for big and continous twist in the story, this is not what you'll find here.
I loved especially the final arc when they fight to get what they deserve that is a school festival prepared and executed for the students to have fun!
The characters are few (the main one are just the girls), but well defined, each of them have a particular personality that is well supported by backstory and dedicated episodes.
My favourite character is by far the shy and innocent Mika Inamori with her cute clumsiness and way of talking. (She's voiced by Ai Nonaka famous for many roles like Fuuko from Clannad)
Nice note also for Mei Etoh, as you know "not honest with herself" characters are one of the things I most love in the series and this is a character that follows almost perfectly the stereotype.
The graphical quality is very high even thought you'll need a while to adapt to the character design (it looks too childish to be honest as they are supposed to be high schooler after all), but after that it's quite a good ride due also to the consistent animation during the whole series and the nice effects they managed to include.
The sound quality is also top notch with many famous seiyuu working on this project like Yui Horie in Manami Amamiya's role, Ai Nonaka in Mika Inamori's role, Aya Hirano in Mei Etoh's role, and many other big names.
Nice also the opening and ending songs even thought nothing that will get impressed in your mind for long time.
Concluding, , this is a rather enjoyable slice of life/comedy series and if you have some free time and want to relax a bit with a non-brainer story, give it a shot!
See you soon,
feal87