Refrain Blue

Refrain Blue is based being at the beach, a long lost promise you remember, a long lost promise you don't remember, multiple people falling in love with you, tragedy, and giant breasts or ecchi. The main character made a promise to a girl a long time ago by the ocean, and then she died. Nao is a girl who is also at the beach, who also had a boyfriend die in the past. Colors were scattered and didn't fit one particular color palette, but were vibrant, thus making everything look a bit odd. While it wasn't anything fantastic, the music was probably the only thing that helped the series not such as much as it did, since it fit the mood quite well. Voice acting was fine. The two main characters both are depressed and have had people die in the past, period. There are tons of annoying secondary characters as well who have no substance and really not a lot of function in the OVA. Refrain Blue sucked, period or unless your goal is to watch anything romance related, don't pick this one up.

Pain. Sadness. Grieving. Healing. Memories. Losing a loved one is painful, and all of us will experience it at some point or another, finding our own ways to cope and move on from the sadness left behind in our hearts. Refrain Blue takes us on a short little journey of emotional healing with our two heartbroken main characters and a mysterious young girl at the beach. The story is rather good, albeit short. It doesn't feel too rushed, thankfully, as it still tells a complete story. The anime is an adaptation of a Visual Novel that came out a year prior, so it's not a surprise that there's inevitably going to be some story cuts to condense it into a 3 episode OVA series. The art is classic late 90s - early 2000s style. If you have a soft spot for that older look, you'll definitely enjoy it. I did not notice any art inconsistencies when I watched it. Sound is easily the biggest highlight of this series. If you've ever watched the Clannad series, you'll know exactly what kind of soundtrack you're in for. It's very calm, emotional, which ramps up a little during dramatic moments. It's almost worth watching it for the soundtrack alone! The characters, while are the main focus of the series, are also a bit on the weaker side. This is mostly attributed to the short length of the series, the characters aren't quite as fleshed out as you'd like, especially when the big focus of the series is their emotional struggles. Side characters don't add much to the main story, outside of one character's actions, but I suppose they play larger roles in the VN (This is designed to get you to pick up the VN, after all). I ended up really enjoying this short series. I was a little worried because of the low score, but it really doesn't deserve that in my opinion. It's an enjoyable hour long emotional healing series that doesn't try to play off the emotional moments with corny jokes. However, keep in mind it does have ecchi scenes. Overall though, it's a very enjoyable series that is worth picking up if you want a bit of an emotional story. It doesn't take too much of your time, after all.