ANIME REVIEW
ABSOLUTE BOY
Synopsis:
Ayumu is staying with his father, who is the local vet, in a small town called Tama within sight of Mt. Fuji. It's summer, and it's boring, except that Ayumu's new mountain bike has arrived. It seems that his parents are separated and his mother lives in Yokohama. His father has been checking over a stray cat.
Ayumu meets various other characters who have some role in the story - a small girl and her mother, one or two pretty teenage girls, a youth on a motorcycle, and the elderly director of the nearby astronomical observatory. Ayumu is asked about a one-eared stray cat, which the little girl calls 'Okaka-Babaa' - in fact he saw it in his father's backyard. Ayumu sees a strange light outside his room, and next day meets a strange little girl in a yellow raincoat, down by the river, who is playing with more of the lights, and a flying plastic toy-like thing that appears and de-materialises - and then the girl disappears!
Plot
The series focuses on two major characters, in two different plot arcs, who find themselves caught up in a series of mysteries involving so-called "material fairies" and "material evils". While they are dealing with these paranormal entities, life continues around them as their friends deal with the ups and downs of life.
The plot centers around two major arcs in the storyline, the first involving Ayumu Aizawa, who is visiting his father in the small town of Tana during the summer; the second concerning Kisa Tanigawa in Yokohama, a year and a half after the events of the first arc.
Summer Arc
The first twelve episodes of the series focus on the day-to-day life of Ayumu Aizawa as he visits his father, a veterinarian, at a small town in the countryside. Ayumu has spent his visit thus far aimlessly biking across the valley, but a chance meeting with a girl named Miku sends him searching for a long-lost friend of his, Wakkun. Upon finding Wakkun, he discovers that the boy has not aged since he and Ayumu played as children. Wakkun is also wearing clothes very similar to the raincoat and galoshes that Ayumu wore habitually as a child. Wakkun introduces Ayumu to his two friends, Dosshiru (Doss) and Shisshin (Sense), mysterious flying objects that alternate between a mechanical form and a sphere of yellow light.
These lights seem to be invisible to most of the people in town, but appear in reflections in people and animals' eyes. A local reporter, Akira Sukawara, shows up, attracted by reports of kappa and other mysterious events. She follows the animals, notably a cat one of the local boys saw fighting a kappa, to the yellow lights, and grills a reluctant Ayumu for information. Unable to remember the summer he spent in Tana as a child, Ayumu, with the help of Miku and several other people from Tana, tries to understand what happened when he was a child, and the mysterious connection between him, Wakkun, Dosshiru, and Shisshin...
Winter Arc
One and a half years later, Kisa Tanigawa, a depressed high school student, routinely skips class. One evening, wandering aimlessly around the city, she stumbles upon another mysterious mechanical object. Naming it "Bun-chan" or "Ping" in the English dub, after the sound it makes, she takes it home and treats it as a pet. When she tries building a fish out of old scraps of metal, the top fin of the fish does not stay, so Bun-chan (Ping) helps glue it on. Meanwhile, Sukawara reappears, now trying to prove the existence of the mysterious objects that appeared at the Cat Dance in Tana a year and half ago, which she terms "material fairies", and hears about Bun-chan. Upon witnessing a meeting between Kisa and Ayumu, she calls Bun-chan not a material fairy, but a "material evil", as its outward appearance does not resemble those of the material fairies spotted in Tana. The material fairies and the material evils, however, seem to be at war with each other. When the three meet, Dosshiru, Shisshin and Bun-chan. Dosshiru and Shisshin start chasing Bun-chan and soon destroy it, leaving Kisa very upset that Bun-chan is gone. After a while the connection of Kisa's fish's metal fin starts glowing. One night the fish turns into a sprite form of Bun-chan. Kisa then decides to name it Po-chan.
The city's population becomes increasingly aware of the situation, as pictures of the material evils, spheres of blue light, circulate among cell-phone users, accompanied by rumors that they bring good luck. Murals appear urging people to think and trust themselves. Eventually, a giant spiral, resembling the metal construction of the material evils, appears in the sky, and the police evacuate a section of the city. Some of the same phenomena are present as in Tana, such as the failure of electronic devices.
Summer Arc
- Ayumu Aizawa (逢沢歩 Aizawa Ayumu)
- Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
- Miki Miyama (深山美紀 Miyama Miki)
- Voiced by: Kanako Mitsuhashi
- Miku Miyama (深山美玖 Miyama Miku)
- Voiced by: Chiwa Saitō
- Ryūsuke Sakakura (阪倉亮介 Sakakura Ryūsuke)
- Voiced by: Yasuo Saitō
- Shione Unno (海野潮音 Unno Shione)
- Voiced by: Ai Shimizu
- Takuma Kaburaki (鏑木拓馬 Kaburaki Takuma)
- Voiced by: Yasuyuki Kase
- Wakkun (わっくん Wakkun)
- Voiced by: Junko Takeuchi
- Heigorō Suzuki (鈴木平五郎 Suzuki Heigorō)
- Voiced by: Katsuhisa Hōki
- Asako Tōdō (藤堂麻子 Tōdō Asako)
- Voiced by: Risa Mizuno
- Akira Sukawara (須河原晶 Sukawara Akira)
- Voiced by: Miwa Matsumoto
- Mika Miyama (深山美佳 Miyama Mika)
- Voiced by: Masami Suzuki
- Akiyuki Kishiro (稀代秋之 Kishiro Akiyuki)
- Voiced by: Kenji Hamada
- Junko Aizawa (逢沢淳子 Aizawa Junko)
- Voiced by: Kaori Yamagata
- Shirō Dōmaru (堂丸史郎 Dōmaru Shirō)
- Voiced by: Tadahisa Saizen
- Okaka Baba (オカカ婆 Okaka Babā)
- Voiced by: Yasuo Saitō
- Taruto (タルト Taruto)
- Voiced by: Ai Shimizu
- Roku (ロク Roku)
- Voiced by: Katsuhisa Hōki
- Mikoshiba-san (御子柴さん)
Winter Arc
- Ayumu Aizawa (逢沢歩 Aizawa Ayumu)
- Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga
- Kisa Tanigawa (谷川希紗 Tanigawa Kisa)
- Voiced by: Akiko Kobayashi
- Rieko Yamato (大和理絵子 Yamato Rieko)
- Voiced by: Tomoko Sadohara
- Masaki Makabe (真壁正樹 Makabe Masaki)
- Voiced by: Yuki Kaida
- Shigeki Kobayakawa (小早川成基 Kobayakawa Shigeki)
- Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai
- Jirō Hatori (羽鳥次郎 Hatori Jirō)
- Voiced by: Hozumi Gōda
- Mika Miyama (深山美佳 Miyama Mika)
- Voiced by: Masami Suzuki
- Akira Sukawara (須河原晶 Sukawara Akira)
- Voiced by: Miwa Matsumoto
- Hana Tokimiya (土岐宮はな Tokimiya Hana)
- Voiced by: Misa Watanabe
- Okaka Babā (オカカ婆 Okaka Babā)
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