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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Tuesday, 05 July 2005 11:50 |
 I want a word the the 'truth in advertising' people - Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu
gives you the distinct impression of have some UFO action going on, but
turns of to be a slice-of-life highschool romance. With a bit of
a twist. Still, it's good enough that I'll forgive the naming,
especially as it seems the action side of the story may still be to
come...
1 - Close Encounter of the Third Kind
When high-school kid Asaba Naoyuki sneaks into school late at night to
make use of the pool, he finds he's not the only person with that idea
- young girl Iriya Kana is also there, and Asaba arrives just in time
to save her from drowning. Better than any chat-up line.
After spending some time teaching Iriya to swim, they're interrupted by
a
man claiming to be Iriya's older brother, but something about both of
them just doesn't seem right. At the start of the new school term
next day, Iriya transfers into Asaba's class - but Asaba's already had
a brush with the Men in Black, who have tried to remove all memories of
his meeting with her. Even on their second meeting, though, Asaba
realises there's something not quite right about Iriya. During a
school air-raid drill, he gets his first indication of why when Iriya,
thinking the alert is real, tells him that Earth has been at war since
1947 - people just haven't noticed yet. Asaba immediately draws
the connection between the date Iriya gives as the start of the war,
and the first recorded sighting of a UFO...
2 - Love Letter
The club chairman has an assignment for Asaba - go on a date with
Iriya, and find out whatever he can about her. To be honest,
Asaba doesn't have any problems with the 'date Iriya' part, although
he's not so sure about the 'find out her secrets' part. What
Iriya and Asaba don't know is that there's a huge surveillance
operation going on around them, with Iriya's minders keeping a close
watch on her, while the chairman and Asaba's little sister are keeping
tabs on him. When Iriya realises she's being watched, all hell
breaks loose...
The chairman & Asaba's little sister make a good couple - their
battling in episode two was great fun to watch and probably the comedy
highlight of the show. For some reason the chairman also reminds
me of Taishi from Comic Party, although that's not entirely a favourable comparison.
For the most part, Iriya plays pretty much like a
fairly
typical highschool romance - it's only in occasional scenes that hints
are dropped about Iriya not perhaps being entirely human, and about
things going on that the general populace don't know about. This
side of the story never even comes close to making it into the main
story - it's just used to give something of an other-worldly feel to
events. I like how that's been working so far & the way the
relationship between Asaba & Iriya's being developed, but I have to
admit that
I also want to see some of the war that's obviously going on & that
Iriya is in some way a part of.
So far, though, so good. This is a six-episode OVA series -
hopefully the remaining four episodes can provide enough from all
aspects of the story to tie this up nicely. Worth checking out.
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