H2O: Footprints in the Sand (2008) User Reviews

Very Bland

[invisibleunicornninja · 4/10 · 23 July 2018]

Admittedly, I only watched episode one, but that's because its really boring.

Animation - The animation is very dull and generic. There is no distinctive style other than all the colors being muted. I don't require an anime to have flashy colors to be visually entertaining, but this show (at least in episode one) has nothing interesting to make it stand out visually.

Audio - The only sounds are the voice actors. There are a few sounds that come when characters are walking, but for the most part its dead air. There is a bit of music for very short periods of time, but its bland, forgettable, and barely there.

Theme - The theme song is incredibly bland, both visually and audibly.

Story - A good opening episode draws you in with some kind of hook or premise. It makes you interested for the next episode. Its a bad idea to start off your show with filler. When you start a series, you have to make every second count. All that happens in this episode is that the blind boy goes to school. He wants to be friends with a girl who doesn't for some reason. At least, that's what I assume happened. Episode one is basically a collection of somewhat disjointed scenes, leading to a confusing and boring opener. In a first episode you also want to establish characters. All I know about the main guy is that he's blind - and I don't think that that counts as a character trait. As first episodes go, this one is very weak, and there is nothing that makes me want to keep watching.

I would not recommend this series.

Tragedy, comedy and fan service

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 13 January 2011]

As this series starts it looks like it will be a fan service heavy comedy as our blind protagonist has felt one girls breasts, touched another between the legs with his stick and had another fall over and land on his face within the first ten minutes; thankfully it isn't that sort of series at all. While it does occasionally lapse back to such things it is a drama for the most parts with many tragically touching scenes.

The protagonist is Takuma a blind boy who has returned from Tokyo to live with his uncle in the countryside. When he goes to school he finds that one of the girls in the class is ostracised by everybody in the village but nobody is willing to tell him why. This girl is Hayami and Takuma is determined to be friends with her and discover why everybody he treats her badly. Eventually he learns that it isn't for anything she did but for the selfish actions of her family which led to them being driven out of town. He isn't satisfied with just being her friend; he is also determined to get her accepted by the remainder of the class. As he does this we learn that Hayami isn't the only person with a tragic past. There is also a supernatural element to the story in the form of a spirit called Otoha, she refers to Takuma as 'the promised one' and early on returns his sight to him.

After a somewhat disappointing opening I was quickly drawn in to this story and grew to care about the characters even though many of them were initially unsympathetic. The viewer must be prepared to several cases of mood whiplash as comedy moments are frequently followed swiftly by tear-jerking revelations about the characters' pasts. There are also disturbing scenes in which Hayami is mercilessly tormented by both her classmates and many of the adult villagers; the fact that she accepts this so stoically makes it all the more tragic. The character designs are of the standard large-eyed type but look good and are well animated.

I'd recommend this to anybody looking for a decent drama anime and can look past the blatant fan service in some scenes; currently it can be watched legally on Crunchroll so is worth watching there if it can be viewed in your country.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.