Introduction
About to enter junior high school, Karada Iokawa is a cheerful and reliable girl, who hates being treated as a child more than anything. After her parents' deaths, her older brother, Hiro, comes back from studying abroad to take care of her. His ex-girlfriend Shouko Nogami, a composed yet sometimes childish and stubborn young woman, follows him to Japan in order to find out why he left her. Between the two girls, the atmosphere is tense, which eventually leads to Shouko calling Karada childish.
Later, Karada stands before a shrine praying to grow up. Little does she know that the shrine wishing stone would grant her wish. As Karada grows older, at the same time, Shouko, who happens to be nearby, finds herself a child once again. With their ages now reversed, Shouko and Karada must come to terms with one another and ultimately themselves.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
13 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Uggles
I really like the writing of this anime, it's always been my favorite. I've rewatched it maybe 5 times, and it's just so cool every time seeing the depth of the main characters and subtleties. I especially love the symbolism at the end which always wraps it up so nicely. It's one of the only anime to have ever made emotional.
I'm not sure how other people I know would take to it however, though I'd imagine they'd enjoy it. The supporting characters feel less fleshed out, like Amino being in almost every shot shares his emotions but I keep feeling as if there should be more to him. All throughout though, it's poetic and thought out which is why it still deserves a top spot as my #1 favorite anime.
Read at the sourceHikiku11
Iokawa Karada, a young girl, wishes upon a wishing stone to be an adult right away. She gets her wish but Nogami Shouko, a friend of her brother Hiro, turns from an adult into a young girl.
Despite seeming bland or dull, it is not at like that at all. There were a few small plot twists and quite a handful of light-hearted moments. I also saw some meaning and character development in the show, which I feel had important messages for us as we go through our human lives. How the characters resolved conflict imo was quite constructive, which I feel was one thing we could learn from this show. I would love to elaborate more but I feel that I cannot do so without telling exactly how each character changed for the better and that would call for a lot of spoilers, which won't be fun.
I would re…
Read at the sourcesyncrogazer
This is not only a review but also a plea for more people to watch this with an open mind. For all the crying about 'melodrama', here we have drama done right and it's likely been forgotten by most (fuck you).
Say what you will about the plot, the execution is tasteful with a mature sensibility. The pacing is slow and moves naturally, which makes for a relaxing watch. The pace also supplements the drama, creating tension as we wait for the characters to react to what happens around them. These characters don't start off as complete systems, but as fragmented individuals that we learn about over the run-time of the anime and through their actions on-screen. As such, their reactions to events are unpredictable and realistic. You begin to care about these characters, not because the writers…
Read at the sourceAnimeprophet951
When I came to watch this anime, I was expecting a comedy. but I got anything but. The anime does try comedy one or two times, and fails spectacularly at it. However, as mentioned, comedy is not the point.
If there is something that the show definitely pulls off right is pacing. It knows how to be patient and let things happen once understand the scale of the impact it may have on the characters. Everything that happens, even the stuff that lead nowhere, go nowhere or where obvious from way before, all bear some weight (a lot of the times, a pretty heavy weight) and it can definitely get to you in a good sense. If you´re not a patient person, however, or if are looking for something energetic, you may find this quite boring, though, as while having an excellent narrative quality, the buil…
Read at the sourcevegetablespirit
This is a story of amends and of redemption. It is a tribute to the age-old aphorism, "Maturity comes with experience, not age." But most importantly, Asatte no Houkou shows that you can craft an alright drama with any trope, even the most tired or comedic.
Such are the main merits of an anime with a ridiculous premise. In this case, our protagonist, Karada, is a 12 year old girl who is insecure about her young age. Tiny and always feeling left out, she makes a wish in frustration to a local altar—a wish to become an adult. To her dismay, this rash wish is mysteriously granted, swapping Karada's age with that of her older brother's ex-girlfriend, Shouko, and vice versa. The problem? Karada and Shouko loathe each other, yet they're left to work together in secrecy. Or so it goes for a lit…
Read at the sourcevideogrl
Source: Region 1 DVD
Why this series: I have a deep love for Ikuko Itoh. This was one of the only series she was heavily involved with that I hadn't seen, so I decided to marathon it.
Animation/Music: The overall look to the show is very pleasing to the eye. The art and animation are nicely done and remain consistent from start to finish. The animators chose to go with a muted color palette giving the show a very gentle and sweet appearance. The character designs are top notch as to be expected since they are the work of Ikuko Itoh. The only design that didn't really jibe with me was Hiro, who for some reason looked like a homeless person! He needed a haircut so bad it was driving me crazy. He finally gets one in the end, thank goodness. The music is nice but nothing about it stood out t…
Read at the sourceLast_Sinner
Remember that feeling when you were young and taking in all that was reality, yet despite the freedoms that came with being young, you resented the restrictions that also came with it and wished you would grow up to an adult as soon as possible? Or that when adult life gets too harsh, you wonder what it would be like to be young again? Well, what if it actually happened? Are you sure it would be everything you thought it would be? Would you regret the consequences of your decision? Could you cope with the sudden change and the impact it would have on those closest to you?
In the October season of 2006, after the airings of the heavily hyped Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Fate/Stay Night, J.C. Staff produced a rather intriguing series called Asatte no Houkou (Living for the Day After To…
Read at the sourcesora_yume
Karada Iokawa hates treated as a kid and she secretly wants is to be a grown up so that she would no longer be a burden to her older brother Hiro.
On the other side, Shoko Nogami, Hiro's ex-girlfirend, envies and somehow hates Karada (I guess..) 'cause Hiro left her in America just to look after her younger sister who lost both of her parents, even though, unknown to Karada, they aren't blood-related. Unknown to herself, he wishes to be a child.
One breezy night, when they meet accidentally at the shrine where they both make their wishes to the wishing stone--the thing Karada believes that grant wishes, they suddenly exchange ages--Shoko's body becomes a body of an eleven years old while Karada became a grown up!
How will they accept what happened to them?
Started airing in Japan bet…
Read at the sourcesaramazing94
The ending came a bit sudden. I would've liked to see the transformation again, and possibly a scene between Hiro and Shouko that wasn't so sped up. But all in all, the whole anime was symbolism to just love who you are and be careful what you wish for. Plus, it's refreshing to hear Satoshi Hino's voice. I enjoyed watching it, and I liked the short amount of episodes. And Tetsu-Kun was adorable, and though he's only twelve, he already seems to have it all figured out! He's really a great character for the story. Not to mention the way they displayed the background between each character was done perfectly. It truly was a great anime, and I would suggest it for anyone looking for something touching to watch.
Read at the sourcetentacle_raep
Yes, the first thing I thought about was Tom Hanks.
Shoot me.
This is a oft forgotten little gem of an anime about people who have fallen out of love with one another, and the discomfort of reunion.
The plot focuses on two girls Karada and Shoko. Karada is a young girl whose adopted brother, Hiro, abandoned her to travel abroad, where he met Shoko--another Japanese studying abroad. Through a chance wish at a shrine the young Karada gains the body of an older woman and Shoko becomes a young child, both seemingly of a desire to gain something they've lost.
The story deals with guilt and selfishness, as all of the characters seem to be motivated by their own ends and desiring their lives to return to an ideal that cannot be regained. In a very symbolic way Karada becomes a childlike adul…
Read at the sourceMugenPein
I'm not usually into the whole twelve episode thing, I normally don't think it's enough time to tell a good story, but did this prove me wrong. Asatte no Houkou is an extremely emotionally complex anime and I was seriously taken by surprise when I learned that by the second episode, because it starts you off making it seem like it just might be a loli anime, but if you keep watching, which thank goodness, I did, you'll learn that not only is she no longer a child after the first episode, but this entire anime is about everyone, including the adults, learning to behave like adults.
Anyway, Asatte no Houkou is about a twelve year old girl, named Karada Iokawa. She's unusually upbeat considering all the crap she's been through over the past four or five years. At least, it seems like she's u…
Read at the sourceMeloria
Characters/Development
The story then flows through both of Karada’s and Shouko’s life with their new ages, and how they come across the problems and emotions that take place. Karada is concerned about her brother, Hiro Iokawa, doesn’t know where she has disappeared to and to get him to believe that she is actually his little sister. We are shown that the two girls come to deal with their problems differently which then reflects their personalities a bit more to the viewer. Karada is shown to get depressed, having some emotional stress and brought to tears quite easily showing off more of her child like qualities. Shouko on the other hand seems to get on with what has taken place while being rather quiet and calm about her situation. However, what goes on inside her mind…
Read at the sourcejimbo1023
I watch all of this anime as it was coming out, and I was not entirely pleased by it. The graphics worked, but I wasn't impressed. They seemed rather drab and uninviting. The characters also seemed to blend into one, with only a few of the secondary characters actually standing out. They all had the same set of emotions which consisted primarily of feeling bad for him or herself. Whether about the past, present, or future, all they did was look off in the distance and sigh.
It was a bit slow, but it was only twelve episodes, so it was not unbearable. If they stretched the series out any longer, I probably would have bailed half-way through.
My major gripe with the anime is the direction they took it in. The main plot revolved around an older woman turning into a child, and a child turn…
Read at the source