Preview

Hirose Takuma has a complicated eye disease of undetermined causes. After his mother dies unexpectedly, his condition worsens to total blindness. Seeking a change of environment, his family sends him to a county city in the hopes for his health to improve.

On his first day to school, he is guided by an unknown girl - Otoha - who claims he is the destined one to change the town. Otoha leaves him as he bumps into a tomboyish girl, Kohinata Hayami, who although helps him get to the school, insists he leave her alone and avoid her - he soon finds out she is ostracized and severely bullied not only by their classmates, but the adults in town.

His will to change this situation and with help of Otoha, Takuma starts off to try and change the hatred and dark aura that lurks on the city, and save Hayami from her gloomy life.

Pacing

H2O is a very different romance, which can only be better described as an intense psychological drama. While not getting as violent nor as graphical as titles like Narutaru or Higurashi no naku horo ni, H2O has some pretty violent sequences, like Hayami being violently hit to unconsciousness by townsfolk - constantly. Yet, the violence is more psychological, and not only important to the plot, but also for the pacing. As much as Takuma tries to help Hayami, the situation only gets more complicated as the town's village chief's granddaughter, Kagura Hinata, seeks his affection with clear ulterior motives.

The title still manages to keep a very pleasant and romantic undertone between Takuma and Hayami, and as he struggles to understand what happened on that town to create this situation, he slowly manages to change some point of views and relationships for the best.

Not only most characters are believable and human, the whole situation can easily be related to nowadays bully and, even more, family rivalry on 20th century Japan. There is a clear reason why the city hates Kohinata, and likewise, why she accepts their treatment - however, not everyone approves such environment, and Takuma is the right seed for change, as Otoha well predicted.

Conclusion

From a dense drama to an entertaining and lovely romance, and than back to a intense drama, H2O is a roller coaster of emotions, which culminates in a very emotional climax ending. People should not expect a conventional harem anime (in fact, H2O hardly feature a love triangle, and Hayami and Takuma romance is pretty much straightforward - and for the romance lovers, the extra good point is that the climax is reached way before the end of the title). Unfortunately, H2O also has place for very sad and depressing moments.

With high production values, an excellent sound-track, top-notch voice acting and a very intricate, elaborate but touching and human plot, all that are only bonus compared to the astonishing character development delivered by the storywriters - and for that compliment to be of any value, here it goes the gold: Takuma as the main lead shines as a strong pro-active guy who ACTS instead of MUMBLING. If you ever felt (sure you did) in other titles that the main lead was a good-for-nothing passive jerk who could not do anything and would either not even notice what was going on around him, or would just think but not say or do, Takuma will deliver a realistic man who really sticks to his words of protecting Hayami and changing the town. This, alone, makes this title shine above most others, and with amazing supporting characters that likewise behave accordingly, H2O delivers plot, character development and entertainment in high doses. The only down side is an ending perhaps too much "magical"

If you still didn't get it, let me spell it out: this is a must, and you will regret missing it.

Note: H2O stands for Hinata Hayami Otoha