One Week Friends Overview:
Hase has been interested in Fujimiya for awhile but when he finally finds the courage to ask her to be friends she bluntly rejects him and then runs away. Later, he finds her on the roof and for a week they start to talk and get close before she starts to push him away again. Turns out Fujimiya forgets her friends every single week (total reset). After learning this, Hase becomes more determined than ever to make friends with her, every single week.
Click here for more anime reviews.
One Week Friends Review:
I often wonder where writers for manga and anime get their information about how amnesia works. While it isn’t totally impossible someone would forget part of their memories each week, nor is it totally impossible that they would just forget what aspect of their life, but to forget just one specific set of memories every single week on the exact same day is probably pushing the notion just a bit for the sake of a cheap plot device.
And it is a cheap plot device. They can go through the same sequences of events over and over, the conflict is built right into the premise, and there’s all sorts of things that can go wrong for the main pair. Everything about this story is designed to make you feel for their plight but the question remains of whether or not it succeeds.
One Week Friends succeeds at being an interesting take on the troubles of teen friendship. Why do people make friends? What stops them from being friends? How much work does it take to actually become a friend? And at what point are you friends rather than just acquaintances?
It also succeeds relatively well at being an okay slice-of-life drama thing with the gimmick of memory reset just being the device that stops us from getting too gushy as Hase and Fujimiya get closer and closer.
Where it fails to succeed is at making either of these main characters actually likable and as a direct result while there is interest in the premise the actual steps on their journey kind of lacks emotional impact.
Hase is too nice. He just is. He wants to be Fujimiya’s friend for whatever reason. I know he explains it and he justifies it to his friend (particularly when his friend points out that this particular friendship is more trouble than it actually seems to be worth at the time), but I never buy his attachment to Fujimiya other than he’s the nice guy who can’t leave the puppy out in the rain. The side-effect of not really getting his drive is that some of his actions become questionable.
For instance, when Fujimiya loses her journal (in one of the most contrived ways to ramp up tension in a story I’ve ever seen) and also knocks the sign on her door that tells her to read her journal down, Hase ends up spending days looking for said journal in the long grass by the river where he’s convinced (despite a lack of any evidence) she must have lost the book. There’s optimism, there’s plot convenience, and then there is sloppy writing that we’re supposed to forgive because isn’t it sweet how they made up.
Conversely, Fujimiya is just kind of dull. At first she’s stand-offish and you get that she goes through the pain of forgetting people each week if they get close to her and her friends act all horrified the next week when she can’t remember them so it is easier to avoid people.That part of her character is totally understandable and is by far the most interesting part of her character.
Once she starts with Hase though she quickly becomes just a nice girl. She’s incredibly passive, allowing the uncertain Hase to drive almost every encounter and step they take as she works toward recovery of memories, and mostly she does not seem all that interesting. Instead, Hase and Fujimiya start doing all the usual high school things as though they are dating but they are just friends. Hase asks her to be friends each week. It’s all very, “What’s the point?”.
Saki and Shougo as support characters fare better but Shougo is pretty laconic so while he does drop a rare gem of a common sense line of thought into the story he is far too often silent and merely watching the action. Saki is irritating in every way as a character but she balances out Shougo and her appearance in the story very much helps make Fujimiya just a little bit more bearable so all and all she’s kind of a necessary introduction to the cast.
I’m not going to talk about the trauma that caused Fujimiya’s condition or how this story resolves but to be honest there are better shows out there if you just want to watch someone’s heart get stamped on week after week. There are better shows for manipulating the audience with contrived plots, and there are better shows for developing teenage characters. Other than the gimmick itself of memory loss there’s just nothing here that is new or fresh or interesting.
That doesn’t make this bad. If you ignore the limited possibility that anyone could have such a condition, the story plays out as it needs to and moves along at a slow but steady pace. It isn’t particularly flash but it gets the job done and there are some good scenes that genuinely make you think. So it isn’t bad, but it isn’t great. Your enjoyment will largely come from whether you find Hase’s relentless desire for Fujimiya’s friendship appealing and whether you accept the overall premise that the show lays out before you.
If you’ve seen this one I’d love to know your thoughts.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
I thought this was such a sweet show. There is a live action film which I have yet to check out but I fear it will be hyper saccharine in its execution.
I’m not sure how I’d go with this in live action. And if it was a movie rather than a series it might just feel a little too superficial.
I loved watching this series! I thought the main characters were so cute! And I thought the memory loss element was really sad. Maybe it’s because my mom had early onset dementia and often would forget things that she should have remembered. To me, memory loss is like losing a part of your self.
Memory loss is quite painful and I am sure that it is part of what makes this series so effective.
Already saw this in a movie, a rom-com called Fifty First Dates. Only there she lost her memory every day instead of every week. Doesn’t make it a bad anime, just that if you like one you might like the other.
Very different tone in the delivery.
Never finished it, but I remember really liking what I watched, and slowly realizing that as sweet as it was, it wasn’t going to be anything but heartbreaking, and possibly cliche by the end. I was watching too many Kyoto-Key romances at the time, and couldn’t deal with anymore senseless sentiment.
So I enjoyed, but knew better than to finish.
The way I saw it, the two leads are in love with each other. Might be looking too into it, but I’d bet money on them having a thing for one another, hence the overeffort of Hase to do whatever he can to remain her friend. For that, his “overniceness” becomes justifiable, as men (nice boys, specifically) will do really out-of-the-way things for the one they love. I’ve been in that boat, and I felt Hase was relatable in that sense. Whether this makes his actions in the greater scheme of things justifiable is pretty debatable.
I will agree with you on plot. Amnesia has a horrible stigma for plot convenience and it doesn’t change here. I’d almost prefer this anime if it wasn’t there at all, but they have to distinguish themselves somehow.
Also thought Shougo and Saki were a more likable pair, at least when compared to the main duo. Even so, I felt Hase and Fujimiya had enough awkward similarity to make them a cute watch. The slice-of-life effect definitely helped the atmosphere, while the drama soured it to substantially annoying levels. Last few episodes weren’t really my cup of tea.
Good on ya for a balanced review. Really liked the amount of detail you gave in why you felt it wasn’t as effective.
I will admit, the slice of life stuff was done well in this (though that probably didn’t help it in appealing to me given it isn’t a genre I jump on board easily). If the drama or any of the other elements had been a bit stronger it might have worked.
I can see the two leads being in love. It isn’t how I viewed it, but I can definitely see enough going on in the show to support that interpretation and it certainly does make some of the more excessive moments more sensible if love is the driving factor.
Thanks for your comment.
This anime got me into watching SoL. I agree that the premise is a bit too convenient and the drama isn’t well-executed; but I enjoyed this because of the slice of life elements: the warm and pastelly art and the chilled character interactions made watching it a sweet and pleasant experience for me.
That is a very specific kind of amnesia. For all that it reeks of plot contrivance, the premise itself seemed interesting at first, like it would pave the way for this bittersweet love story. But after reading the rest of your review, I think I’ll choose to pass. Nether of the characters sound like they’ll be compelling enough to sell the story.
The whole premise wherein the female lead has a weekly reset of memories is kind of a really convenient plot device (but hey, it’s fiction, so can’t argue).
The show, for me, was too naive when it comes to the character interaction – the friendships themselves. I wasn’t able to sympathize too much with the characters since it was really annoying for me how they were thinking like this and that.
I wished the whole thing went deeper rather than “Despite your ridiculously stressful amnesia, I will remain as your friend.” The ending was too blunt and anti-climatic – in the end, there was no major change.
Hase still hasn’t done that much of a boon in regards to helping Fujimiya. Still friends. Anime should be titled “Forever Friends.” (lol)
Saki x Shougo best ship. Too bad didn’t sail.
The picture showing the friends as they study together just reminded me that I really loved that episode.
I can believe anything is possible as long as it is kept consistent within the rules it set up.
When I first read the premise for this I was immediately intrigued by it. After reading further in this review, my excitement for it diminished. Still, I also enjoyed Orange a lot, and this feels a bit like that show. I think I will give this one a go, when I have some time, and have finished a few of the bigger shows I still want to see 😊 Great review!
so, the problem with the mind is that it’s mysterious, which tends to give ppl license to manipulate it in any way they want. specific amnesia like fujimiya’s is theoretically impossible with a purely physical condition because it’s kinda like selective anterograde amnesia. that being said, her trigger is psychosomatic, and you could theoretically repress anything in that situation. neuroscience is hard.