Often, an anime movie that follows a successful TV series is a summary compilation, like the movies made from World Masterpiece Theater series or Blue Gender: the Warrior. Sometimes, it actually provides a conclusion for a series that ended with unresolved plot lines, like End of Evangelion. Sometimes, it's a side story to the main TV series plot, like Yawara! Sore Yuke Koshinuke Kids!. And sometimes, it's an alternative version of the events in the main TV series. That's the case with the Hiatari Ryoukou movie, Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita (Kasumi: You Were in My Dream), which came out just as the TV series was ending in early 1988.
Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita starts at the point where Kasumi's boyfriend Katsuhiko departs for the U.S. to go to college (about midway in the TV series). Fast forward two years, and Katsuhiko suddenly returns to Japan. In the interim, he's become a star motorcycle racer and is rumored to be involved with another celebrity named Tadona. In fact, he's still in love with Kasumi and has come back to Japan to propose to her. Meanwhile, the boarding house gang have reached the last year of high school and are all preparing for graduation. Keiko-chan intends to go to a music university and become a teacher. Kasumi herself wants to study classical Japanese literature. Shin and Ariyama have plans too. Only Yuusaku is drifting, trying to see if professional photography might suit him. Katsuhiko's determination to get an answer from Kasumi runs up against her ambivalent feelings about choosing between him and Yuusaku. He decides to force the issue by winning a big race regardless of the risks involved, and then...
Because Kasumi is an alternative version, it's pretty clear from the outset that the events in the movie won't be conclusive, because we already know how the TV series turns out. This structural difficulty is compounded by weak writing. One of the joys of the TV series was the side characters, Shin, Ariyama, and Keiko, who figured prominently in the story and the comedy. Here, they have at best walk-on parts.The focus is relentlessly on the central trio of Kasumi, Katsuhiko, and Yuusaku, and their interactions have already been done to death. In addition, the previously invisible Makoto gets many more lines, most of them expository to advance or clarify the story. Another issue is that the TV series is a rom-com with baseball trimmings. The movie is a rom-com with... motorcycle racing? While this change allows Katsuhiko to have his do-or-die moment, it both defies belief and walks away from one of the core strengths of Adachi Mitsuri's writing. The movie feels not only irrelevant to the core story but unrelated.
The TV cast was mostly unchanged, except for Ariyama, who was played by Suzuki Kyonobu, a journeyman seiyuu with many featured roles. The TV director, the talented Sugii Gisaburou, was replaced by Oguma Kimiharu, who had only a few credits to his name. Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita played on a twin bill with the first Kimagure Orange Road movie and used some if its songs as background music.
The original script for the movie came from the defunct ray=out Hiatari Ryoukou project. tenkenX6 checked the dialog, songs, and signs and revised them extensively. M74 timed. I edited and typeset. BeeBee and Nemesis QCed. The raw is a full HD web stream. I don't think it deserves such high resolution - I prefer watching it at 720p or 540p - but it's easier to downscale in a player than to upscale.
If I sound disappointed in Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita, that's because I am. I would have liked a real continuation of the main story, carrying forward Meijou High's baseball quest in true Adachi Mitsuru fashion. Instead, it uses the trite "it was all a dream" trope to spin a yarn and then throw the whole concoction away. Still, if you'd like one last visit with Kasumi, Katsuhiko, and Yuusaku, then Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita is your cup of tea. You can find Kasumi at the usual torrent sites or download it from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news in irc.rizon.net
Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita starts at the point where Kasumi's boyfriend Katsuhiko departs for the U.S. to go to college (about midway in the TV series). Fast forward two years, and Katsuhiko suddenly returns to Japan. In the interim, he's become a star motorcycle racer and is rumored to be involved with another celebrity named Tadona. In fact, he's still in love with Kasumi and has come back to Japan to propose to her. Meanwhile, the boarding house gang have reached the last year of high school and are all preparing for graduation. Keiko-chan intends to go to a music university and become a teacher. Kasumi herself wants to study classical Japanese literature. Shin and Ariyama have plans too. Only Yuusaku is drifting, trying to see if professional photography might suit him. Katsuhiko's determination to get an answer from Kasumi runs up against her ambivalent feelings about choosing between him and Yuusaku. He decides to force the issue by winning a big race regardless of the risks involved, and then...
Because Kasumi is an alternative version, it's pretty clear from the outset that the events in the movie won't be conclusive, because we already know how the TV series turns out. This structural difficulty is compounded by weak writing. One of the joys of the TV series was the side characters, Shin, Ariyama, and Keiko, who figured prominently in the story and the comedy. Here, they have at best walk-on parts.The focus is relentlessly on the central trio of Kasumi, Katsuhiko, and Yuusaku, and their interactions have already been done to death. In addition, the previously invisible Makoto gets many more lines, most of them expository to advance or clarify the story. Another issue is that the TV series is a rom-com with baseball trimmings. The movie is a rom-com with... motorcycle racing? While this change allows Katsuhiko to have his do-or-die moment, it both defies belief and walks away from one of the core strengths of Adachi Mitsuri's writing. The movie feels not only irrelevant to the core story but unrelated.
The TV cast was mostly unchanged, except for Ariyama, who was played by Suzuki Kyonobu, a journeyman seiyuu with many featured roles. The TV director, the talented Sugii Gisaburou, was replaced by Oguma Kimiharu, who had only a few credits to his name. Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita played on a twin bill with the first Kimagure Orange Road movie and used some if its songs as background music.
The original script for the movie came from the defunct ray=out Hiatari Ryoukou project. tenkenX6 checked the dialog, songs, and signs and revised them extensively. M74 timed. I edited and typeset. BeeBee and Nemesis QCed. The raw is a full HD web stream. I don't think it deserves such high resolution - I prefer watching it at 720p or 540p - but it's easier to downscale in a player than to upscale.
If I sound disappointed in Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita, that's because I am. I would have liked a real continuation of the main story, carrying forward Meijou High's baseball quest in true Adachi Mitsuru fashion. Instead, it uses the trite "it was all a dream" trope to spin a yarn and then throw the whole concoction away. Still, if you'd like one last visit with Kasumi, Katsuhiko, and Yuusaku, then Kasumi: Yume no Naka ni Kimi ga Ita is your cup of tea. You can find Kasumi at the usual torrent sites or download it from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news in irc.rizon.net
Thanks for the write up
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