Kimi no Matsu Mirai (Basho) e

Mastubation station? Matsu-bangarang station? Mastu-chef station?…. Matsubaradanchi Station. Pssshh….Trying saying that five times fast. Kimi no Matsu Basho E is a fairly simple anime. It follows a young, 26 year-old boy, Souta, as he visits his old town of Souka (I honestly couldn’t keep the town name and his name straight), where he meets up with a mysterious woman to check out the various attractions around town. The episode sort of plays out like an extended tourist commercial, where they highlight the numerous “hotspots” and put themselves on a pedestal as being “better than the rest.” It is what it is,I suppose. The animation did have a colorful, pastel aesthetic that looked quite nice. Also, the juxtaposition between images of 1968 Souka and current day Souka were rather interesting. It’s always fascinating to see how towns/cities metamorphosize over such a short period of time and how that shapes our views as people. As an anime, this single episode is not accomplished enough to deserve a rating, but as an advertisement (which is how it should be interpreted), it’s certainly better than those “visit California” commercials. 6/10 seems fair.