Na Nare Hana Nare opens with a great looking cheerleading performance that sets the tone for the rest of the show:
An original cheerleading anime done by P. A. Works of all people, with the director, Kakimoto Koudai and writer, Ayana Yuniko, having also worked on MyGo in the same roles. The series even opens in a similar way, with a big incident that happened some time ago, as shown above; the the opening credits roll and we’re in the present dealing with the fallout. In this care it was Kanata, a first year at a school famous for its cheerleading club, the girl launched into the air when the accident happened, who still seems to suffer some sort of trauma from it, even if she wasn’t directly involved. Na Nare Hana Nare is a lot cheerier handling this than MyGo was however.
But about as gay.
That’s Anna from Brazil kissing Kanata because that’s what they do over there apparently, though usually not with complete strangers. They only met because both were following Obunai Suzuha, a student from what turns out to be a very sort of gokigenyou young ladies school — literally called Ojou Girls — who commutes by doing parkour. Anna is interested in her because she wants her to start in the videos she’s making together with her friend, Nodoka, who’s slightly less outgoing. What I like about Anna is she doesn’t talk in the usual highly accented Japanese foreigners get saddled with in anime, but does actually struggle sometimes to find the words she needs. Nodoka so far has been the least developed of the characters, mainly trying in vain to slow down Anna a bit.
Rounding out the cast are Megumi, a childhood friend of Kanata who did cheerleading with her in middle school but got an undefined illness in her last year that left her in need of physical rehabilitation and unable to attend high school. She’s also friends with Shion from the same school as Suzuha, who is a talented gymnast. So we got half a dozen girls, each with their own talents, who obviously are going to do some sort of cheerleading together, but not quite yet. I really like each of the characters and it will be interesting to see how the series develops. The animation is on point as expected from P. A. Works and the little details like Anna struggling with her vocabulary or Megumi having to come to grips with her slow rehabilitation make this extra special.
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