Synopsis: Fumihiko Matsumaru is an average salaryman with no girlfriend. He invited his colleague Ms. Tanaka to a movie but was stood up. Right at the time he was about to toss tickets into a trash can, a cute girl appeared and asked him not to waste those two tickets. After movie and dinner, he escorted her home and found they live in the same neighborhood, yet unfortunately her apartment caught on fire hours later. Having nowhere else to stay, rookie seiyuu Aka Onda moved to Matsumaru’s place, and the two had started a “more than friends but not yet lovers” relationship under the same roof while keeping this secret from their employers. (from: ANN)
Genre: Romance, comedy, drama
Status: Anime – completed, 9 episodes + 1 DVD-only episode (Feb to Mar 2006)
Manga – ongoing (10 volumes as of 01/2010)
Age rating: The anime contains some mature content (nudity, suggestive scenes and dialogue, and the like), but I heard the manga does indeed contain mature content (R-18?)
Thoughts / Review: The OP was your typical upbeat tune, though it did sound a bit different than the usual ones on similar types of series. It was done by SHAFT, so there were some touches of their unique visual style/elements present here and there. It has 9 episodes in total plus an extra DVD episode. Each episode is just approximately 12 minutes long (or short, however you wish to refer to it), so I managed to finish it in one sitting.
Upon reading the synopsis, I thought it had a pretty good premise in that it’s main female character, Aka, is a seiyuu who’s trying to make a name for herself in the voice acting industry. Upon seeing episode 1, I was a bit taken aback with how fast everything happened and that right after the fire incident, Aka ends up sleeping with the Matsumaru. … I suppose it’s a moment of weakness because she was confused, shocked, and felt indebted to him for his kindness. Maybe it was supposed to be a one-night stand, but because of a twist of fate, they ended up working with each other for an advertising campaign. So, everything just happens in a day, in a single episode of approximately 12 minutes, and the story starts off from there. Uh, anyway… moving on…
AND THE TWO LEAD CHARACTERS ARE: Onda Aka and Matsumaru Fumihiko. Aka is a cute red-haired 20-year-old girl who’s trying to live out her dream as a seiyuu. She’s a big fan of Audrey Hepburn. Matsumaru is a 26-year-old salaryman who works in an advertising firm.
Each episode is named after an Audrey Hepburn film (Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, etc.) and Aka usually quotes a line from the film the episode is named after (which I thought was pretty cool) and she tries to relate those to her experiences to gain some inspiration or a better insight to her problems.
MY IMPRESSION… Aka is a fairly nice girl. She is a hard worker and everything she does seems to be connected with her job. You’d get a good idea of how hard being a seiyuu can be and the struggles they might face at work. Matsumaru is your average male character, I guess. He works hard, too… the part that I remember most on the hardworking part for him is when he was wearing the Nekoki costume for their product promotion. Whenever I think of him as a jerk or an idiot, he does something nice or sweet, and vice versa. Generally speaking, I didn’t really get hooked on the story. I also didn’t get attached to any of the characters that much, considering it was a relatively short series… Maybe there wasn’t much time for that feeling to settle in. There was some level of character development throughout and I felt some sympathy for the characters every now and then (particularly when they were in a slump and facing their own personal struggles), but I don’t think it was enough to make me empathize that much with Aka or Matsumaru, or them as a couple.
So basically, my first impression was that it sounded interesting as it has a unique premise having a struggling seiyuu as the lead character. After watching the first episode, I was caught off guard. It was quite short and it wasn’t really how I thought the story was going to be. A couple of episodes more, I didn’t mind if I kept watching it, but I still couldn’t say whether I really enjoyed it or not. The anime ended on a sweet note, though. So it didn’t leave me a bitter aftertaste. The series wasn’t anything outstanding, but it wasn’t so bad either. That being said, I guess there’s nothing else I can say other than I thought it was an average series.
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NOTE: This is part of the Munito x Munita (exchange gift) series of posts that a handful of Filanibloggers had during our Christmas party. Out of the blue, we were each asked to come up with three 12 or 13-episode anime series to write on pieces of paper, drop them in a box, and draw one which we’re then supposed to watch and write about, and I got REC.
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You might want to check out my other related posts:
I didn’t know it used Audrey Hepburn movies as episode titles. I think that’s a charming touch. I didn’t finish the show when it aired on Animax, but I might watch it again just because.
I rather like stories of working-class adults, even silly romance stories. I might enjoy this too.
It also gives insights on how the seiyuu and idol worlds work (though the idol part works only if you read the manga, since it’s only featured there). You’ll see them struggling on auditions, taking sidelines, and being basically someone who’s no different than any working individual. Toss in the a wacky management agency and an (almost) good-for-nothing “boyfriend”, and it’s as realistic as it can go.
But seriously, to all the others out there, don’t watch it just because it had a sex scene on the first episode.
Really now, if i ever want to see a show about sluts – i’ll watch any random US TV series.
Oh, that’s an interesting gift exchange procedure 🙂
Have not seen this anime, but I might check it out once I finish most of my long watch list 🙂
[…] Hazy – REC Posted by Shance on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at 11:02 pm. Filed under Anime, Editorial, Events, Kure-Nai. Tagged Anime, bland and plain, character regression, confusion, Denial, Doubts on Family Ties, emo protagonist, holiday break, incest, indecent, Japanese traditions, kris kringle, Kure-Nai, lame characters, Loli, marathon watching, pedo, power without power, shin likes seven year old girls, smorgasbord, society. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog. […]
REC is a nice over-the-counter series that doesn’t have bad side effects. It’s pretty much cliche-like, but that note made it really nice and watchable for me. Actually I kept watching it on a daily basis of 1 episode per day. The series isn’t lolicon-inducing at all, I’m pretty surprised. Anyhow, I’m glad you liked the show. *brofist*
The series is interesting enough to encourage you to watch it, but I didn’t enjoy it that much because I just can’t relate to the world of seiyuus, even though the show tried to explain how the real world really works. I guess the message is pretty much like this: You are sometimes forced to do things you really do not want to.
I still think though that it’s pretty icky for Aka agreeing to stay at Matsumaru’s unit that quick XD. But I guess the reason’s partly the number of episodes.
@ ghostlightning: I think you might. It’s not too draggy either even if you don’t happen enjoy watching it since it’s just 9 episodes with 12 mins each. 😀
@ Rainbowsphere: I liked that part of it on the seiyuu world insight part. I appreciate their hard work as voice actors even more.
@ Kitsune: Haha, yeah. It totally caught me off guard though since it was done impromptu. I ended up writing down a not-so-good show on my paper, and realized after the draw lots how many nice 12-episode series I’ve seen and should’ve written down instead. xDD
@ Rakuen: I thought it was an OK series, but I didn’t really like it much.
@ foomafoo: “You are sometimes forced to do things you really do not want to.” —-> Lol, yeah. Unfortunately, the real world works that way.
I Must Look This Anime!!!! Thanks for Info Guys 😀
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Hi 2 all… I like 2 comment in this anime because im a fan of this. What would I say is this is a great anime for me. The comedy not corny unlike others. The story are good and romantic sceen are great but to bad it is very shot I hope that there is a second second season of this.
“I don’t think it was enough to make me empathize that much with Aka or Matsumaru, or them as a couple” – that was spot on! I feel exactly the same. I guess it’s because the whole series is over in a couple of hours.
But somehow I keep thinking that Aka or Matsumaru couldn’t become likeable characters, not even in a full-length, 26-episode series.
There was one moment I loved, though: when Matsumaru snaps at Aka, saying hurtful stuff to her even if he doesn’t want to actually say it. People act like that sometimes and then regret it later. I know because I have done it. Nice to see an anime series covering stuff like that.
Cheers.