A fair bit of the information comes from the future and those who’ve gathered to celebrate his birthday ten years after his passing. His story is woven, bit by bit into each episode, and not in a necessarily getting to know a person sort of way. Future Naho can tell her younger self to do things all she wants, but everything is easier in hindsight.Īs for Kakeru, whose life and death is what sets this whole thing in motion, he’s his own character and not an idealized love interest. Having been a painfully shy teenage girl, I completely understand that, and we see the younger Naho make mistakes that would be easily solvable by someone with a more aggressive personality, but that’s not her. Even with the prodding of her future self, she can’t always break free of her innate personality, and it’s clear that she’s trying the best she can. Though teenage Naho changes small things early on, such as getting the nerve to participate as a pinch hitter for her friends’ softball team, she is still herself, with all the insecurities that come with being an introverted high school girl. Interestingly, knowledge of the future doesn’t mean that Naho has an easy ability to change the past. We know that teenage Naho keeps a diary, so it is not out of the question that the highly detailed letter from her future self is possible (getting events down to the day) because she was probably cross-referencing her diary when she sent it. The bulk of the series takes place during Naho’s high school years, but there are periodic flash forwards that show future Naho and her high school friends ten years later, and the events that lead up to why she decides to send the letter.Įach episode the story weaves in what is currently happening to teenage Naho with adult Naho’s regrets and advice, and the combination works extremely well even when events begin to diverge. Orange at its best can be an emotional watch, not because we know that Kakeru does not exist ten years from now, but because his death didn’t have to happen, and we get a front row seat to all the missed moments that future Naho hopes to change to make a better future. Though she knows from her letter that Kakeru will not live to see the end of the school year, teenage Naho can’t help falling in love with him. Though happiness has not eluded future Naho, she has many regrets over things that she wishes her younger self had done differently.Īs predicted, Kakeru joins her class that same day, and he’s quickly absorbed into Naho’s circle of friends (both male and female). Sixteen-year-old Naho Takamiya discovers a letter from herself from ten years into that future that tells her to watch for a new transfer student, Kakeru Naruse, who will become one of her friends. Orange is a romance/high school drama with a speculative twist.
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