Fall 2020 Anime: Adachi & Shimamura

Synopsis

The second floor of the gym is the place they always hangout during class time: Adachi, the one who rarely shows up during class, and Shimamura, the one who often skips class. They met accidentally, but as they spend time together on that second floor—playing ping pong, eating lunch, or just talking nonchalantly—gradually they started to become close. However, as Adachi realizes that Shimamura also has other friends beside her, she begins to realize something different. Is it just wanting to become friends, or to become someone special?

Comments

Razif Kurniawan (The Indonesian Anime Times)

“I want her to think of me first when she thinks about friend.”

In some recent yuri anime, for example like Bloom Into You, there tend to be depictions of physical-contact, be it kissing or something more. But Adachi & Shimamura takes a different approach by focusing more on the inner monologues of the characters. It starts with a simple question about “friends”. What does it mean to have a friend? Is being a friend just means that you want to get close with her? And more questions like that appears in many forms through the monologues of Adachi or Shimamura.

Things started to become more complicated when Adachi said the thought presented above. From there on, it becomes the question whether this is friendship or love. It gets difficult to draw the border between them, and the monologues of the two main characters do well and inviting thoughts and pondering about a lot of things regarding human interactions.

There are also relatively few characters involved, with each character having different thoughts about the other, and they debate about it inside their own mind. The emphasis on the inner thoughts makes for a fascinating point to pay attention to.

Facts and Figures

Screenshots and Trailer

The Indonesian Anime Times