「あさっての方向。」 is a gem.

This anime was broadcast at the tail end of 2006. It’s an old show that aired just before anime became really popular in the west—at this time, Crunchyroll was still a pirate site and fansubbing was a cottage industry. This show wasn’t a heavy hitter like Death Note, Code Geass, Haruhi Suzumiya, or Black Lagoon, which all came out in the same year. It wasn’t a sleeper hit like Higurashi or Ergo Proxy, either.

This year was filled to the brim with amazing shows, so it’s no surprise this gem was overshadowed by such fierce competition. It belongs to the same class of odd, charming shows released in 2006 as Simoun and Kemonozume. But unlike those shows, Asatte no Houkou isn’t wildly experimental or outlandish in its presentation. Its premise—an adult becoming a child and a child becoming an adult—is as strange as it gets.

The show isn’t about the supernatural. It focuses on the ordinary, and the drama is so strangely grounded in a way anime drama rarely is. Unlike most slice-of-life anime, Asatte no Houkou feels very adult. There are no wacky chibi sections with over-the-top comedy.

And yet, it’s hard to think of another show that makes such effortlessly meaningful use of the visual medium it’s been given to work with. The way we’re shown Shouko and Hiro’s backstory with no dialogue and only one of the show’s fantastic soundtracks playing over the top struck me as cinematic, which is strange for a show with a clearly constrained budget.

The title, Asatte no Houkou, is a Japanese idiom that refers to things not going the way you expect. In fact, it means things have gone really off-course. This could easily refer to several character’s situations in the show. None of the main characters’ lives are where they thought they’d be due to unexpected upsets. We soon find out that their problems run deeper than what we may initially suspect.

Each character is given an opportunity to grow and figure out how to live their lives. This is not as easy as it sounds. Being an adult is hard; something Karada quickly learns and Shouko is all too aware of. But by banding together, they discover something new about themselves.

That’s as far as I’m willing to say; I won’t reveal any more plot details about the show.

The soundtrack sticks with me the most. There is this one track that plays when Hiro and Karada are in each other’s company at home. It’s the chorus of the show; it sounds so melancholy and yet there’s this prevailing sense of…something. It’s not hope, but it’s like… Hiro and Karada have each other’s backs. The track is called 眼差し (Manazashi) and it stands out more than both the OP and ED tracks (which are also great). The name means “looking at something” or “a gaze”.

There’s also this little riff, “Pure”, which plays in moments of anxiety or when there’s tension building. It reminds me so much of a similar riff played in Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (Karekano), an anime broadcast in 1998 from Studio Gainax. Karekano gets so much more out of it¹, but it’s used effectively here too.

I was reminded of Higurashi a few times while watching this show; first by the similarities between Karada and Satoko and Rika and Shouko, second by the show’s art (which is no surprise as Higurashi was broadcast just the previous season), and lastly by the small village the show takes place in. Asatte no Houkou feels like an estranged cousin of the Higurashi franchise that lacks in violence but explores similar ideas in more depth.

「あさっての方向。」 is a gem. It might be nearly 20 years old at this point, and I’d never heard of it before, but I was surprised by how much it hooked me. I felt I had to share it so more people knew about it.

It’s available on HiDive (in some countries), with English subtitles. I can’t say I recommend the service, but it isn’t Crunchyroll, and that's the best praise I can give it. You can find out more about the show on its Anilist page.

Karekano is one of my favourite anime. It’s definitely my favourite romance anime; no contest. The music in that show is fantastic, so it’s a high bar for Asatte no Houkou to meet.↩︎