Rating: 6.8/10

Considering Natsuyuki Rendezvous was one of two anime in the noitamina lineup this season, before it even started airing I had high expectations for it. It was a realistic drama with a ghost added in the bunch. Not too bad a premise, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that this anime had lost itself somewhere along on the way. 

To say this is an anime about a guy who loves an older woman but can’t get close to her because the ghost of her dead husband is haunting her, would only be half the story. This is also  a story about a ghost named Shimao who steals Hazuki’s body to reunite himself once again with his wife. That second half to the story is actually the most important taking up most of the show’s length. It’s only for the first four episodes that Hazuki really has his own body, and this few episodes were used more just to set-up the plot.

Though, the problem with that is just when you think the story was about to actually begin, it doesn’t go anywhere. It takes up the next six episodes just building up at a snail pace and doesn’t deliver. I put my faith in the show and I kept telling myself it was just building up to deliver something great, only to fall flat. It was a weak ending that delivered the expected along with a dash of inconclusiveness and a convenient reminder that this had terrible pacing.

One part of me believes that this series needed more episodes to create a story that could flow better with more convincing characters. Taking four episodes just to establish the rest of the plot doesn’t make any logical sense. I feel this series would need a three arc format. After the first two parts, it would have another third part where the characters were all back in their normal places and roles and the some believable romantic developments could take place.

The other part of me is screaming that this series already was straining to fit its eleven episode run. The story was so slow at its buildup, that I was just left bored. Not to mention, the storybook storyline with Hazuki in that second part of the show didn’t have much purpose. Sure, the animation used was unique and the colours were good, there also were some themes expressed through fairy tales of the characters worries, but it wasn’t strong, and the whole thing ultimately came across as filler.  Especially considering, it wasn’t given much closure or proved to have any purpose for the characters by the end.