Summer Pockets is yet another anime adaptation of a Key/Visual Arts visual novel, the creators behind titles like Clannad, Little Busters!, Angel Beats!, Kanon, Air, Planetarian, The Day I Became a God, Charlotte, and others.

Interestingly, most of the titles I listed had direct involvement from Jun Maeda, who eventually stopped working on anime entirely after The Day I Became a God to focus on the much more successful Gacha: Heaven Burns Red. As a result, Summer Pockets, despite sharing a similar feel to previous Key works, has mostly different writers, which can make it feel somewhat derivative of earlier Key projects.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the Summer Pockets anime does some things better than previous Key works, whether they were visual novels or not.

In most visual novel anime adaptations, you may or may not know, the source material often features routes where the main character dates a heroine, navigating their drama while building a romantic relationship. Anime adaptations tend to tell these stories without the romance, except in specific cases like Kurugaya in the Little Busters! anime or Tomoyo and Kyou having their own separate romance OVA, as their routes would otherwise overshadow the main Clannad plot.

Due to how the plot works in Summer Pockets, I appreciated how the anime retained the romance in each heroine's arc. Instead of cramming all the characters and stories into one timeline where the main character ends up with the main heroine, as seen in Clannad or Little Busters!, Summer Pockets takes a purposeful omnibus format, similar to Amagami. The protagonist pairs with a heroine, goes through their romance, and then time rewinds to the beginning of the story, where he chooses a different girl.

I'm thrilled a big-budget anime adopted this omnibus format. The only other times I can recall this being done successfully were in the adaptations of Amagami and Yosuga no Sora.

For the most part, the heroine arcs are probably the most consistent among all previous Key works. While I wouldn't say any of the four main arcs before the final one are amazing, they are at least consistently decent or better. In contrast, arcs in Clannad, Little Busters!, and Kanon/Air were often much more uneven in quality.

The anime also does a great job of carrying on the tradition of using background music straight from the original visual novel, much like Clannad and Little Busters!. This really enhances the atmosphere of a chill summer vacation on an island.

In general, the anime balances lighthearted slice-of-life moments to introduce the characters' personalities while building up the darker, dramatic elements, ensuring the emotional climax of each arc is at least decently impactful and makes sense for the characters. I liked all four main heroines—Shiroha, Ao, Kamome, and Tsumugi—fairly well.

The final arc was probably my favorite part. It delivered the best emotional payoff and tied into the true main character and heroine effectively, even if it leaned into the usual Key trope of over-the-top supernatural elements. Compared to other Key works, the supernatural aspects of Summer Pockets I thought were at least better built up and consistently executed and used from the beginning as opposed to other Key works where the buildup is really vague and usually only real reveals happen at the very end of the story.

While I think Summer Pockets is generally pretty good and consistent, it has some issues that prevent it from being truly great and, sadly, make it a downgrade compared to at least half of Key's anime titles.

The comedy, for instance, is hit-or-miss at best and generally not that good to me. There are humorous moments here and there, like Ao being a closet pervert or Kamome's unpredictable quirkiness. I personally think Shizuku's obsession with boobs is the funniest joke in the show. There are also some one-off jokes, like Tsumugi and Hairi having the conversation at the beginning of her arc about wanting to find herself while she's just sitting on the lighthouse.

However, many jokes fall flat or feel repetitive, like Shiroha's "dosukoi" catchphrase or the constant references to people failing at making fried rice. The humor around the two "bro" characters, especially the shirtless guy who keeps getting hit with a water gun, isn't funny at all.

As I've alluded to, while none of the typical Key "feels" is bad, it's not particularly standout either. It can feel overly melodramatic, relying on predictable surprise plot twists to evoke sadness rather than unexpected character development, especially if you're familiar with how Key plot twists and drama work.

This is the Key work with the highest amount of supernatural elements in its routes. Every character has some kind of supernatural power, and while some are explained in typical Key fashion, many are barely justified beyond "it just happens" or "something happened to me" toward the end of an arc. This isn't my favorite type of Key storytelling.

While I generally liked the final arc the most, it's probably the least gimmicky compared to the true routes of other Key titles like Clannad: After Story or Little Busters!. However, I wasn't a huge fan of how the main character, Hairi, suddenly became irrelevant. It was a fun twist, but it made me question why we followed him for most of the show if he ultimately didn't matter as much in the final arc of the story.

As I mentioned earlier, Summer Pockets feels very safe and familiar. You can trace many narrative elements and supernatural "feels" to previous Key works. While this isn't necessarily bad—it allows time to polish everything, ensuring consistency—the lack of originality makes it a fun but not particularly memorable experience.

That said, this makes Summer Pockets probably the most beginner-friendly Key title for both anime and visual novel fans. If you're unsure whether you'd enjoy a Key title, this is a great way to explore their signature elements. From there, you can decide which title to dive into next if you like it enough.

Summer Pockets offers a good mix of fated scenes, friendship themes, romance, supernatural emotional moments, character dialogue, and solid pacing, all wrapped in vibrant visuals with a strong buildup based on the established characters.

Overall, I think Summer Pockets is an enjoyable experience, especially if you're familiar with Key titles. In terms of quality, it's pretty middle-of-the-road among Key adaptations. While that's not necessarily a bad thing—other Key titles have had significant issues that made them less enjoyable—Summer Pockets feels derivative and predictable. Still, its consistency is a strength, and a consistently enjoyable anime in 2022 (assuming the MAL release date) is hard to come by, especially for visual novel adaptations. The omnibus format is a definite highlight, making it a solid, recommendable watch for those seeking emotional character-driven stories with a touch of supernatural flair.

PS For anyone who wants comparisons to how it adapted the original visual novel. While I have not read the original VN, I know a bunch of people who have and have talked to them about it. I also watched a YouTuber @Genchaku who reviewed the anime and read the VN and he said that for the most part each arc was pretty faithful although usually the dramatic parts of the VN are a bit more rushed compared to the first half with Shiroha's arc being the shortest in the anime being only three episodes when the other three main heroines had four episodes. Also, the anime is most clearly based on the original VN, not its "enhanced" version Reflection Blue. So even the tweaked ending of the true route ending of Reflection Blue is not in the anime. And the only reference to Reflection Blue is a really quick cameo appearance of Shiki in one episode.