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Fumihiko Matsumaru is an average salaryman with no girlfriend. He invited his colleague Miss 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 catched 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 friend but not yet lovers" relationship under the same roof while keeping this secret from their employers.

Fansubbed by:
gg Fansubs
AnimeLito & Doremi & knkf
Ayu
Eien no Anime
Lunar Anime
Miscellaneous
Anime-United
Hanabi Fansubs

Characters:
The two main characters are Fumihiko Matsumaru and Onda Aka (and Nekoki?!). The characters were surprisingly made cute and somehow got the modern style of anime. Matsumaru is just the typical guy with no girlfriend is no good either at taking chances with them. He is kind and benevolent (too kind though to let a girl he just met sleep over his house and into his room) which probably are his merits to his personality, but then again, he is rather quite perverted in a way and is bad at business (but his hardwork did paid off). Aka is really cute bottomline, her voice suits her character very well and as well as her in-story job. She's carefree and kind, and is rather childish in a way, but it does give her the cute atmosphere around her which makes it fun being with her. Nekoki is the mascot for the tv commercial ad and snack "Ha" which is the character Aka seiyuus at, a cute mascot indeed for a half-cat half-tree.

Story:
The story seems to be quite unique. It's the first anime I saw which involves a character wanting to be a seiyuu and coincidentally gets the job for a company the guy the girl is paired with works at. There would seem to be a relationship development on the story for Aka and Matsumaru. It displays the attitude of reaching out for your dreams and as well as the (un)usual love story behind it.

Animation:
The animation was beautifully done, it got the feel of the manga characters very much. It gave the impression of the cute-type characters and modern-style anime mixed together. It's high quality animation gave it more of the modern animation style made nowadays. Colors blended magnificently. All is expected for a new anime.

Music:
Opening Theme: Cheer~Makka na kimochi~ by Kanako Sakai (Aka's seiyuu)
Ending Theme: Devotion by BRACE;d
The music is very good. Especially the opening theme which was sung by Onda Aka's seiyuu Kanako Sakai, having the main character's voice as the opening is a great way of making quality music matching. The cute songs Kanako Sakai makes you feel more comfortable and at ease before watching the anime. Overall, its a great way to make the character's seiyuu sing which makes it more enticing to watch,

Verdict:
Its indeed a great anime to watch, from young teens to mature people. It inspires people to reach out for thier dreams and shows a lot of good virtues perfect for us to immitate. An episode though is just too short for an anime aired only once a week, it's just 12min. I guess that's where it's downfall rises. But on the other hand, taking a look at fansubs each episode ranges from 60-115mb which is really low-consuming for space and is faster to download perfect for people who rushes too much to see it. Most of them are really high in quality which would also be it's merit. Overall a nice anime to watch, the perfect anime quited to kill off time for a short while.

Screenshots:



REVISED: 02.27.06

I've recently been following this through Lunar fansubs and it's a pretty interesting anime. I've been to different blogs and I've seen how alot of people complain about

SPOILER (click to view)

how the main character and the girl have sex at the end of the first episode XD

I mean, i think it's pretty normal for people in Japan. There's also some Comedy in this show, which I like ^^
The animation is top-notch and I love the opening. The only thing bothering me is that the show is only 9 minutes long x_x and there's no ending song. I also heard that there'll only be a few episodes =(

I like these kinds of anime. i haven't watched it yet but based on your review, it seems so nice. added the fact that the animation and color blending are crisp, it's definitely gonne be in my shelf for collection. i also wanne read the manga for this one as well...

The anime is interesting. she seems to easy in the first episode then she just becomes a stronger women. hehehe but i think she does have a nice voice

There will only be 9 episodes for this series, it's disappointing but I hope it would turn out to be a promising show before it finishes..

EDIT: I revised the review, added some two more fansubs..

Only 9 episodes? I would think the there would be at least 12 or 13 episodes. Where did you get the information that there were so few episodes? Are you sure there won't be more? There may be a spossibility of being more episodes at a later date or maybe a second season later this year.

The sarcasm included for the first episode alone was really a boon to this show i guess

Plan to how to get a girl

SPOILER (click to view)

Look sad and lonely, wait for one to pick you up.
watch a movie and later get drunk together
walk home and separate
girl's house is on fire
grab the chance, grab her and let her stay at your place.
you know what to do next.

(hint) you must employ arsonists!

I felt it was not bad I guess...I just find the first episode dissapointing, the rest is ok.
But I am not at all impressed by the story. Too mundane for my taste.

kenichi

Only 9 episodes? I would think the there would be at least 12 or 13 episodes. Where did you get the information that there were so few episodes? Are you sure there won't be more? There may be a spossibility of being more episodes at a later date or maybe a second season later this year.

ANN states it as 9 episodes.

http://animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6008

Modified the synopsis in the first post into a url link that leads directly to the ANN page for REC.

Yeah! That's not a bad anime blurb! I think I wanna have a look at this one!

I espescially like how the main character's life is in the dumps (of course, all main characters have to go through the 'our life sucks' syndrome before anything else, it's a style. Can't hate it. Rather much prefer this to the 'I AM SO PERFECT! HERE MY LION'S ROAR! RAWR!' types.) and then a cute girl appears to make his life better.

Yeah... not bad at all...

It is interesting and I like it but it is kinda disappointing that it's only gonna be 9 eps long...I hope it gets better before it ends.

I have just watched one episode...but one thing that really shocked me...is that main girl..she is 20years old..!! i thought she is like 8 ...it really doesnt look like it!!

I've only watched 3 eps and the story is alright I guess. Probably because the quality that I downloaded isn't that great so it made my desire to watch lessen. At times it's pretty boring too

I never thought of it as boring though, I just tend to keep on watching to see if there will be a development in the relationship of the two main characters.. it goes the same to me on some other anime titles, I watch to see developments :P

I have 3 episodes from ayu but i only watched 2 so far. don't get me wrong, i like the series. it's only dissappointing to hear that it only has 9 15-minute epsodes. i'm holding back since i don't wanna end the series swiftly.

as for the story, it sounds quite plain at first but i really like it nonetheless. i look forward to the development of their relationship.

for the characters, aka looks like a high school kid... that's cute =) matsumaru, if you'll look closely, look a bit like roy mustang of FMA fused with motosuwa hideki of chobits...

animation, so fluid. colors are vibrant. i don't have anything to complain about... =)

I like this anime the plot is interesting and the animation is cool plus the Voice acting is preatty good