REC

REC is a Japanese manga written by Q-Tarou Hanamizawa, an anime adaptation was animated by Shaft and consist of nine twelve-minute episodes in an unusual format. The anime's opening theme is "Cheer!~Makka na kimochi~" performed by Kanako Sakai, written by Hiiro Misaki, and composed and arranged by Kōhei Koyama. The anime's ending theme is "Devotion" performed by BRACE;d, and written, composed, and arranged by a.k.a.dRESS.

This is the love story about a common man and a girl who has a dream to be a voice actress. The story begun with Fumihiko Matsumaru, an average salary man with no girlfriend, he is outside the movie theater waiting for his invited colleague Miss Tanaka to arrive. Suddenly his date didn't arrive and he crumples his movie tickets in frustration. As he is about to toss the tickets into a trash can, a girl approaches, and in the "voice" of the tickets, implores him to not waste them. It convinced him to used it and they watched the movie together which is Roman Holiday and take a dinner. During the movie, he notices that the girl is reading the subtitles out loud and at the dinner he find out that the girl is twenty-year-old aspiring seiyū, her name is Aka Onda.

After that Matsumaru escorted Aka going home and found they live in the same neighborhood. Matsumaru goes to bed, but he can't sleep. In the darkness, he hears the sounds of sirens; there is a fire in the neighborhood. When he goes to investigate, he discovers that the girl's apartment has burned down. Having nowhere else to stay, Aka moved to Matsumaru's place, and the two had started a "more than friend but not yet lovers" relationship under the same roof while keeping this secret from their employers. After a day that Aka's apartment burn, Matsumaru's proposal about the marketing concept "Nekoki" as the mascot of the snack product called "Ha" was approved. This is a big success for him and they conduct an audition for the voice of that mascot. Furthermore, Aka is chosen to voice Nekoki. They decide to keep their live-in relationship a secret from their employers due to Aka's worries about an appearance of impropriety. She also insists they are not a couple just from having slept together once in a moment of weakness, and that she will merely be lodging with him. The series is heavily concerned with the developing dynamic of their relationship.

As the story goes, there's a lot of trials in the relationship of the two. One of those is when the second proposal which is the sequence of the concept "Nekoki" for new flavor came. Matsumaru's proposal disapproved and the project goes to his co-employee. While Aka's career became brighter and brighter, she got a lot of offer and became popular. This situation gives a strong impact to Matsumaru. He felt useless being disappointed in his job and to Aka as well. However, Aka manage everything and made a right choice in life by choosing the man he really love.

This anime caught my interest in the way how aggressive the character is. I didn't expect that Matsumaru and Aka is both pervert by sleeping together in one night even though they didn't know each other a lot. That seems stupid but it happens in reality somehow. I think what happen to them is a so called "one night stand", the only different is their relationship continue as a friend and further develop as a lover lately. The story is based more on real life than fantasy. I'm also fascinated on how the character was made Aka is absolutely gorgeous, sexy and hot. One thing that I learn in this anime, "that love sometimes came from nowhere and suddenly will hit your heart and will make you crazy".

Here are some of my favorite scene in the anime: