Indian Summer

When it comes to animation and creating something magical, I believe Walt Disney said it best “Animation offers a medium of storytelling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.” While that may be true and that the sun never sets on Disney, there is no doubt that animation from any culture tries to emulate that same sentiment within its animation. But what happens when multiple databases can’t correctly distinguish what genres a story is trying to give its audience? Sometimes it’s a hidden gem; other times, it’s worse than a natural disaster.

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Indian Summer is a 2007 Comedy Original Video Aminated series created by the now-defunct Japanese animation studio Daume. Though the studio hadn’t made any largely successful before their exit from animation, don’t let that ruin potential hidden gems. With anything that comes from an extinct studio, one must tread with utter caution. However, as mentioned numerous times before, everyone should give an anime series a full chance due to many series lacking a tremendous start, they may have a wonderfully done story. After all, what’s the worst that can happen?

Set in the near future, a time where robots are everyday workers for their owners. Takaya Murase has just purchased a maid robot from a robotic doll distributor, MaidWorks. Ready to live a regular cleaning, cooking, and serving life to her owner, though Takaya has other plans in store for his new robot. Don’t let their sweet innocent features fool you; they can pack one hell of a punch. Both Takaya and his latest robot are in for an exciting turn of events. If a potential viewer is reading this thinking, it seems a little off; then, you’d hit the nail on the head. This short OVA series is only three episodes long, and each episode has multiple segments within itself. Though most are not connected, and if they are, its nothing of importance.

The best portion of this story, or lack thereof, is that its easy to follow. There aren’t any complex storylines that some series have that can make the enjoyment plummet if one is looking to unwind quietly. Outside of this, there isn’t anything remarkable, or even noteworthy. The viewer understands the series’s point within the first segment, and the series doesn’t let go of its firm grip on stupidity. Though if one is looking for ecchi comedy, then I suppose that this is a plus?

Unfortunately, this series has the most negatives within a story I’ve seen, which is remarkable! With the lack of an actual story, one could think that the comedy will make up for it, but no, it doesn’t. Having a comedy show without a story isn’t unheard of and can be – and has been – done before, is ridiculous. Another major negative within this series is that it quickly focuses on the ecchi, to the point that it majorly turns into porno in some areas. While some may enjoy the randomly sexual scenes, I highly doubt anyone would since one would see more erotic stimulation from a SpongeBob SquarePants episode.

Even with all that, the most significant and most repugnant aspect within this series is pure shocking. One of the segments stays anchored on playing with an infant’s genitals because it reminds them of an elephant? Being unable to fathom what type of sane person would think that doing such things is comedic, or even believe that this segment would go over well with everyone, is utterly wretched.

While the lack of story may turn away with any die-hard anime fan, the art style isn’t much better. Though this series may have decent animation and production behind it, compared to other series or OVA’s from the same timeframe, it still fails. The only positive aspect that one could take away from this series is that the opening was well made, but even that is hopeless with failure. When one learns that the intro’s production levels aren’t in the actual series, they’ll hopefully understand that they were bait-and-switched and demand their money back.

Though the characters within this three-episode series are slightly diverse, they don’t leave a lasting impression. Simultaneously, if the characters didn’t continuously mention that Yui was a robot, the viewers probably wouldn’t even remember, which is a pure disappointment. Albeit not a disaster, but a major let down since the source material had so many volumes and chapters. The male lead has a few good benefits but continuously gets forgotten due to his lighthearted fetish. The female counterparts are annoying and unlikeable outside of the raging hormone teenage male, and even then, it’s pointless.

I’m delighted that this series was only three episodes at the end of the day because nobody can survive this series. There was absolutely nothing worthy of this series, and whoever wishes to watch this series will truly understand why the studio is now defunct. Don’t expect anything outside of crude sexual humor and subtle sexual predator vibes that haven’t aged well in the slightest. This series is one of those series that deserves to be forgotten and gets everything it deserves.