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When looking for a slice of life Anime, I came across Summer Pockets. A story about a guy who visits an island during summer vacation, meets four girls who lead him on some wild adventures and teaches him about Summer break all over again. Well, little did I know it at the time, but the Summer Pockets Anime is adapted from a Visual Novel, by the same name. You can find that here. Now, let’s get started with this review.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Number of Episodes: 26
Plot
Hairi Takahara goes to Torishirojima, a small island where he plans to help his aunt, Kyouko Misaki go through his recently deceased grandma’s belongings. What starts as a request for help turns into much more when Takahara meets the other local teenagers of the island and befriends them. His Summer vacation becomes more about adventure and rediscovery as each character pushes him into different directions as the anime splits like a visual novel and he romances each girl.
What we don’t understand from the beginning, which I very much liked this aspect, was the Summer repeating itself had a real reason behind it. The fact that Hairi’s daughter, Umi, was trying to create a future where she got to spend it with her mom and also, to save her mom from the horrible future she knew of. By the end of the story, I was ready to go back and watch the earlier episodes to catch all the little hints I missed before and they were certainly there, we just didn’t know what they meant at the time.
Characters
The anime gave us glimpses to each of the characters’ lives and traditions on the island. I feel like they were well rounded and each had their own personality that made them distinctly different than the others. The main character delivered funny moments and had a kind personality. Overall, I found all them likeable, even the supporting characters had their own personalities unique to them.
Pacing
With how often the Summer was reset, the pacing felt off unfortunately. By the time you started to get used to one girl, their story would end and hop to another. It’s something I feel you can get used to after a couple of times but it’s off putting at first. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to finish watching after the first time but I’m glad I stuck with it regardless. If the individual storylines had been two or three episodes longer, I think the pacing would have been overall better.
Soundtrack
In my opinion, the soundtrack for the Summer Pockets anime was absolutely magnificent. They really captured the sounds of Summer or what I would believe Summer to be in Japan. The also change of tone during the serious moments of the series fit so well but this particular sound is what made me feel at home, which may sound weird but it is entirely true.
Scores:
Plot: 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Pacing: 6/10
Soundtrack: 9/10
Overall:
Conclusion
The Summer Pockets anime is a slice of life that you can watch over and over. Either from the very beginning or you can choose your favorite Summers to rewatch. If you’re looking for something fun that delivers some laughs and a good story, you can’t go wrong here.
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