Telepathy Shoujo Ran

Jinkies! I have to admit that I was rather surprised by Telepathy Shoujo Ran, as I expected something along the lines of Mokke or Mushishi, and instead I was immersed in a supernatural anime version of Scooby Doo (minus the annoying dog - thankfully!). Telepathy Shoujo Ran started life as a series of light novels by Asano Atsuko that were collectively entitled Telepath Shoujo Ran Jiken Note (or Telepthathy Girl Ran Incident Notes). The series was popular enough for a manga adaptation to be made by Ida Toshitsugu which were serialized in Shounen Sirius magazine. The manga was well received by audiences, which encouraged theproduction of a 26 episode anime series which was by NHK. The anime version of Telpathy Shoujo Ran is essentially a slice of life, supernatural cum mystery series. The story begins with Isozaki Ran, a young girl who has just begun junior high school. She is a rather upbeat and energetic girl who is a member of the track and field club, and is in love with her childhood friend Ayase Rui. One day she suddenly hears a voice which simply says "Found You!", and it's from here that her adventures begin. The owner of the voice is Naha Midori, a girl the same age as Ran, who transfers to Ran and Rui's school as she wishes to test Ran's powers. Midori is very clearly hostile towards Ran and Rui, and pretty much everyone else, at the start of the show, but she is pulled along by events in the same way that Ran is until the two become firm friends. The series is actually rather well animated, and the characters are designed to be individuals rather than posessing a generic face and body (unlike so many other shows). The scenery is very well envisioned, as are the various dreamscapes and ethereal planes that appear in the show. A nice touch that was added to the anime was the ability to distinguish whether Ran or Midori was in a heightened emotional state by the change in their aura when using their powers. Sound for the series was also well done, epsecially Midori's attempts to hide her usage of Kanji in everyday conversation. The VAs did rather well with their respective characters, and managed to make them sound like individuals on the whole. The OP is a nice mellow J-rock track sung by a breathy voiced songstress (if anyone knows the name of the song then let me know). The ED is a more typical J-rock ballad featuring Rui running along a beach towards Ran. On the whole, the characters in the anime were rather well done. The main characters of Ran, Rui and Midori, along with Ran's older brother Rin to a certain degree, form the core of all of the stories in the series. There is a certain amount of development given to both Ran and Midori, as they are the two most omportant characters, however I felt that both Rui and Rin needed more development by the end of the show, especially given the fact that Rui seems to act exactly the same as he did when the show begins. Rin is a bigger case for development, especially as Midori has a major crush on him. There were numerous occasions where I wondered why they didn't show him actually being aware of her feelings (which are blatantly obvious by the way her personality changes whenever he's around). Both Rui and Rin needed a few more episodes to flesh out their characters, and it would have been nice if there were more episodes that explored Rui's power and it's uses. That said, I did like both Ran and Midori on the whole. I found the constant arguing between the two to be a nice change of pace to the typical "friends forever" scenarios, and add this to the fact that Ran and Midori had two very different childhoods and you have a formula for some good character growth. Ran is very obviously the "golden girl" - always nice, polite, kind, etc, whilst Midori is very much dysfunctional because of her childhood. The show makes a great play about the differences between the two, especially during the first few episodes with Momoko. I was actually surprised by how much I did enjoy this series, and I'd recommend it to fans of Mokke, or quasi-supernatural romance shows like Air, Gift ~Eternal Rainbow~, Wind - A Breath of the Heart, Kanon, etc, although Telepathy Shoujo Ran has more mystery and less romance. The thing that I was most surprised by whilst watching this show though, was the number of times I expected to see Scooby Doo make an appearance, and how often I expected to hear "And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you pesky kids!"

Many people have overlooked or dismissed this anime. At first glance it seems rather bland. It's pleasant and cute. It has no sex to speak of. There's nothing most people would find offensive about it, even for their children to watch. In fact, what it is, is the perfect anime for young girls before they are ready for young adult material, but after they are children. I'm no expert in defining what age watches or reads what these days, so I am not going to give specific ages. The basis of my opinion is that it hastwo cute girls (not the moe cute type, the real girl cute type); a genial, somewhat nerdy older brother, who is not a great catch in the looks department but is very nice; and a male friend who is cute as someone in the junior high age range is, in the same way that the girls are cute. There are many comedic moments, and the main story is that of discovering that there are other people that will accept the person you are, even if you were rejected in the past. The individual episodes or story arcs are occult or horror mysteries, not terribly gruesome, but just like a ghost story kids will tell at a slumber party or around a campfire to amuse each other. There are even hints of romance among the main characters, without much overt demonstration of it. The general mood is one of light-heartedness, with the reminder that there are serious issues to be confronted in growing up. The opening and closing animations are very attractive to young girls just discovering hanging out with friends, going shopping, or trying on clothes; the closing sequence is a bit romantic. The musical styles of the opening and closing songs are a bit unusual but have a more modern and original pop style than is usually seen in anime. All in all I recommend it highly for young girls especially, but I think other people can enjoy it too.

Story: So the story is mostly solving mysteries with the help of the psychic powers the girls have- specifically supernatural mysteries seek out our main character Ran through telepathy so they get caught up in it. Some of the stories involve ghosts, murders, myths, animals, etc. There is a diversity of mysteries that aren't very predictable. I would rank it higher except it was pretty repetitive. Almost every episode (some of them were a bit longer lasting 2-3 eps) was them solving some form of mystery one way or another. There was obviously character building and interactions as well but yeah. Also the ending twoepisodes got pretty wacky. I won't go into detail but I think they should've just ended it on a more casual note with the same pace and stakes as the rest of the anime but instead they wanted to go out with a bang and created this enormous situation that seemed way to grand and out of place. Still had a cute ending though. Art: Basic. Nothing bad or great about it really. The quality was consistent and there was no 'same face syndrome' which is all I ask for in an anime to be honest. The character designs were good too and it is nice to have an anime that doesn't give crazy hair and eye colors. But there were no scenes that were absolutely gorgeous or anything like that. Sound: I liked having a main character with a kansai accent- that is not very common. The voice acting was good, though Rui really didn't have many changes in the pitch of his voice. I wouldn't be able to differentiate his serious voice from his happy voice etc. But he was a pretty mellow character so it might've been done one purpose. The OST was very well done as well. Character: I loved the characters! They worked well together and each character had a very different personality. There really wasn't much background or character growth though, except for Midori. That isn't necessarily bad though, but for a 26 episode series they could've had a few episodes that focused less on the mysteries and more on the characters. For example: we almost never see them interacting with their classmates- only with characters involved in mysteries. Overall: I think this is a hidden gem anime that everyone should give a chance and I think it is age appropriate for everyone!