The story of Saikano takes you to a small place in Hokkaido, Japan. This makes it easy to grab the place of the story, you can relate to it in a way. It makes certain things clear to you from the start, the relation between teacher, family and friends. And it dismisses the ‘this story could happen where ever you want it’-style, which only goal is to play the viewer’s imagination in thinking that he could be the hero.

Then there are the characters. I think they marvelously worked them out. At the end all questions you formed while watching the show where answered. The most important thing of course is that a character moves a viewer, grabs them in their hold and suck them into the story. I can tell you that their wasn’t a moment that I wasn’t touched by things where happening with the characters.

So then we have the place settled and the characters, but they are nothing without a story. Well believe me even that is wonderful. There are some un-natural events, but even with them you are hooked until the end.

Both in art and story it is of top-quality. If you are familiar with the whole ‘love-during-war’ concept, I’m sure you’ll like it. Even though it has a bit of a twist from the normal war stories.

Saikano is a painful love story, with a strong plot and well-built storyline. If someone could watch this series without at the least spilling one tear, I would begin to wonder if that person was human.

At the end I was amazed. I almost forgot to examine the drawing style, which is normally my prior thing, since I was so hooked to the story. I felt heartbroken, as if I had suffered along with the characters. I recommend this to anyone who suffers to love or loves to suffer. And don’t forget your tissues along the way, I think you’ll need them..