Life is always rosier on the other side. At least, that’s how the protagonist views his not so ideal campus life. We meet Watashi bounding through his first day of college, searching for the club that will fulfill his campus dreams of fame, fun and romance. His choice? The tennis club. With the ball in his court, he and his ghoulish buddy, Ozu, end up goofing off for 2 years, leaving him with dismay at everything he didn’t accomplish, watching his rosy campus life scatter like petals in the breeze. He blames it on his circumstances and wishes he had been in a different club. The hands of time turn back and he re-lives his campus live over and over.

The story was very relatable. How often I have looked at circumstances, focusing on the things that didn’t happen, rather than the things that did happen, making the best of circumstances. It was quite frustrating, watching him re-live the same time-period in different clubs, but with the same results. That was the point, though, to show the futility of wishing for circumstances to change, when it is human beings who often have the power of their choices and the curses of the habits we fall into.

The characters were colorful, not just in design, but in personality. Higuchi stands out as one of the most eccentric personalities, although everyone takes their fair share of the cake. From the outset, it is made clear with Watashi’s name (Watashi means “I” in Japanese”) that he is meant to identify with the viewers. I liked how they wrote Watashi’s development in the end, where he learns to accept himself and the people around him, gaining the courage to become an active participant in his live, rather than passively swept along by events. I found it interesting, how the character's personalities and appearances reflected Watashi's perspectives of them. At first, I disliked Ozu, agreeing with Watashi that he was the worst thing that happened to him. His seemingly no good persona was well personified in his goblin-ish apperance. In the end, Ozu grew on me, especially after he became more humanized when Watashi realizes that the trouble his buddy brought was actually the fun and spice in his life that was sorely missed when absent. I love how even this is reflected in the projection of the character, in how Ozu loses his gremlin look and comes to look more like a human. The love interest, Askashi, seemed rather distant, which was rather symbolic of how the things we want in life can seem so elusive when we don’t seriously try to reach them.

The art was crisp and colorful, helping to create the vibrant, eccentric atmosphere of the show. The photographic-like inserts throughout the course of the show were interesting. The music was also fitting. I enjoyed how the opening and ending sequences were illustrative of the maze of navigating one’s way through the endless doors of opportunity in live.

Overall, this was a wonderful coming of age series, highlighting the frustrations and futilities of youth and power we have to make what we can of our lives.