== Is *Ano Natsu de Matteru* a romantic comedy or a lighthearted romance?

[[Author on *Ano Natsu*
http://ani-nouto.animeblogger.net/2012/05/07/ano-natsu-ends/]]:

> Overall, I think the anime was expertly executed. I am struggling to
> identify a romantic comedy equally good. [...]

(He then identifies *Nodame Cantabile* as a strong contender but feels its
focus was more or less elsewhere.)

I've been thinking about this, and I'm not sure that *Ano Natsu* is
really a romantic comedy; it's a romance, but not so much a comedy in
the way that, say, *Nodame Cantabile* is.

*Ano Natsu* is certainly a lighthearted romance where amusing and
funny things happen (mostly because of Remon), but I'm hard put to
think of actual *comedy* that happens in the show. In fact it's
strikingly missing many or all of the [[painful stock comedy elements
AnoNatsuReview]] you find in ordinary romantic comedies. I think it's a
'romantic comedy' only by default, because we don't have a better name
for a lighthearted, amusing romance that doesn't focus on melodrama or
straightforward love.

(Since I don't watch mainstream American TV or movies, I'm actually
stretching my mind all the way back to memories of to Shakespeare's
romantic comedies as my basis for comparison here.)

*Nodame Cantabile* makes an especially good comparison for this because
it's clear that *Nodame* has significant comedy elements that are played
that way deliberately. For example, Milch spends a lot of the time being
a comedic character that we are supposed to laugh at, we have several
secondary characters as exaggerated comedic foils (even if they develop
their own depths in time), and we have the ongoing saga of Nodame's
messiness versus Chiaki's obsessive neatness. Fundamentally all of these
are played for laughs in a way that I don't think any element of *Ano
Natsu* is. Even Remon yanking people's chains has an edge; it's funny
because she's making people be truthful (even if other characters don't
realize it).

(The closest element in *Ano Natsu* is perhaps what's up with Mio's
odd behavior, but there is very little actual comedy with that and it
becomes a strong dramatic element almost the moment it's really focused
on.)

PS: this entry is brought to you by [[insomnia
http://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/193199299365060609]]; despite the
posting time most of it was written at 4am.