I”s

Genre: Romance
Format: 2 OVA
Allegiance: Studio Pierrot
Director: Morino Yousei
Vintage: 2002 – 2003
Intelligence Agency Report by: Orax
Seto Ichitaka has had feelings for Yoshizuki Iori for a while and wants to confess to her before summer break. Unfortunately, his lack of courage ensures that his goal will never be realized. Ichitaka therefore decides to ride his bike to wherever it may lead him not knowing that his journey will uncover a long lost promise from ten years ago.

Field Agent Report by: Orax
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
3.00
6.00
4.50
8.00
8.25
Overall 5.75
(not an average)

A part of me wants to be thankful that the events that took place in the OVA were not in the manga, yet I really would have liked to see either a reenactment of a part of the manga or at least something better than what the I’’s OVA presented. What you have here is a mix of several plots sloppily put together, none of which being particularly interesting enough.

The only thing that really succeeds is the art. While it’s not drop dead gorgeous, it’s up to the standards of its time. The character designs were slightly changed in the transition from the manga, but I didn’t find it unappealing. The music is not noteworthy but the soft melodies do complement the scenery nicely.

The first OVA was a waste of half an hour, where absolutely nothing happened. To give you an idea, Iori and Ichitaka, the two main characters, don’t even speak to each other until about ten minutes into the second OVA (not including flashbacks). Early on there’s a bike gang that oddly succeeds at turning this romance into a temporary action anime, and it was just senseless and pointless. There was too much focus put on too many things for too long. What irritates me is that while this OVA did have potential, it was wasted by the inability to focus on a single plot. Balancing between the “save the girl,E“try to confess to another girl,Eand “childhood promiseEplots failed miserably.

In the end, the director didn’t have enough time for what the OVA wanted to present and literally wasted a whole episode. You do get a very small taste of who the characters are, but really, you’re really better off reading the manga instead.