150th G-View: Uta Kata

Hey doods and peeps, welcome to another episode of The G-Views. This next show is another one of those anime that explores human emotions, similar to the likes of Shigofumi, which I already covered last year. How well does this one delve into the subject matter? Let’s take a look at Uta Kata.

Genres: drama, magic, romance

Themes: magical girl, shoujo-ai, yuri

Number of episodes: 13 (12 TV and 1 OVA)

G-Rating: 7/10

Plot Summary: On the last day of the school year, 14 year-old Ichika Tachibana comes across an old, busted mirror in an unused campus building. When Manatsu, a mysterious girl from inside the mirror, steps out and offers her friendship for the summer, she also offers Ichika magical powers. Now, Manatsu must help Ichika unlock the powers of the 12 Djinn in order to complete her magic training… but perhaps this is something that will prove too difficult a task. Some offers may appear too be good to be true and this one just may turn out to do more harm than good.

The story has a somewhat spoilerific narration as Ichika clearly reveals how the series will end, so this show is literally a “Journey over Destination” type since we already know how it’ll end during the prologue narration.

As I mentioned before, this show deals with both positive and negative aspects of human emotions. This one chooses to explain the matter in a Yin-Yang perspective as hinted by the keychain charm Ichika has in the beginning. For every positive emotion, there’s a negative one to go along with it. Some examples include, affection and resentment, temperance and hubris, devotion and rebellion. There are more but you’ll have to see for yourself to find out which ones they are. Ichika experiences these close up and hard…I mean REALLY HARD!

I also noticed besides reflections, another symbolic image being used are bubbles. I guess they represent the fact that nothing lasts forever. I just wanted to point that out.

One warning, you’ll have to be patient with this one. Expect to wait a while before everything begins to make sense. Some hints are revealed but the real answer the viewer is looking won’t be revealed for a long while.

You’ll see these swimsuits at least 3 times on the show.

There will be fanservice in this show in the form of the swimsuits seen in the above picture but especially during the transformation sequences every time Ichika summons a Djinn. Sometimes the transformations are safe but most of the time it’s like this show should be rated PG-a3, which looking at the subject matter, shouldn’t be surprising. Thankfully, it isn’t in your face or frequent so it’s no big deal.

The animation’s okay imo. The girls are nicely drawn, I also enjoy shows taking place far from the city so it’s nice looking at the backgrounds. Not much to complain about there. Oh, but for obvious reasons, during transformation sequences, the nipples aren’t drawn. They’re not blurred or anything, you literally don’t see them. I’m honestly thankful thy aren’t. A fun fact is that each one of Ichika’s Djinn costumes is drawn by different artists who worked on other shows.

The music is so-so, both for soundtrack and the two main songs. They aren’t particularly memorable but fit the show’s theme.

Characters: Before I go into more detail, I should point out that for the longest time, that safe for one girl, I didn’t like or cheer for most of the characters. Maybe it’s because I’m not a girl and don’t understand how an adolescent girl thinks. However, over time they grew on me and the show found a decent way for me to care about them a little bit more, especially two in particular. Let me put it this way, I highly doubt you’ll meet teenage girls like this in the real world, but for when the time this show was made, which was before our youth became completely corrupted by the WWW, it works fine.

Ichika Tachibana: She’s a kindhearted girl who is always nice to everyone and hates lying most of all, which will obviously come to bite her in the derriere. Because of this, she will have a hard time telling others what she really feels deep down. She’s a decent protagonist and is your typical coming of age type.

Manatsu is a young girl that Ichika met in dreams and a mirror.

Manatsu seems to be the polar opposite of Ichika in terms of personality. When Ichika is hesitant, Manatsu is carefree and assertive; where the former is reserved, the latter is cheerfully outgoing. She has a crush on Ichika.

Satsuki Kitagawa: Ichika introduces her friend Satsuki as “a very responsible and strong person. You can always count on her.” She is a brash young girl who often takes the lead of Ichika and the other friends. Somewhat of a tomboy.

Ichika describes her friend Keiko as “a proper young lady from a good family, gentle and kind.” She is the type who is easily amused by simple things, such as shaking a duster in a sunbeam. At first she’s the character I cared the least about…but after unexpected circumstances…

Michiru Munakata: Ichika says of her friend Michiru, “She’s really into literature, and her instincts are amazingly sharp.” Due to being a miko and having the “power of vision”, she can allegedly see ghosts and spirits, and is a quiet, if not shy, person. She speaks in a subdued voice and I like quiet, subdued girls because they’re usually the most interesting or likable characters to me, which is why she’s my favorite.

Two more characters I MUST MENTION are Ichika’s parents. Why? Two reasons. Not only are both well balanced people and dare I say, NORMAL (For the most part) but for the majority of the series…THEY LIVE TOGETHER IN THE SAME HOUSE!

I know, major shocker.

Lastly, being a well known yuri guy, I should talk about that. Without spoilers, aside from Ichika and Manatsu, whose relationship is there but it’s kinda complicated for an obvious reason you’ll find when you watch the show, there’s another couple who become official later on. How does it happen? Let’s just say it happens in a cliche, understandable way. In short, the hard way. Still, they do make a cute couple once they start going out.

In conclusion: It’s a decent anime that takes a somewhat creative look at human emotions and how people come to terms with said emotions (If at all). It’s not a great watch but definitely an interesting watch. Check it out when you have the time. You may be surprised and enjoy more than I already have.