Anime has certainly made in-roads into American popular culture.  Some of the most popular cartoons shown on TV today are made in Japan, and local video stores are slowly increasing the amount of space that they devote to anime.  There are plenty of mecha DVDs, along with sports and comedy shows, but one sub-set of anime that hasn't gotten a lot of attention are shôjo titles, shows that are aimed at young women.  Geneon has taken steps to remedy that with their release of the first volume of Koi Kaze, a quite story about a girl and her big brother.

Koshiro is a 27 year old salary man working at a company that caters and arranges wedding parties.  He's just broken up with his girl friend, but he's really not that upset about it, or so it seems.  Though she told him that she's found someone else, his life goes on as if nothing happened.

That is until he meets a young high school girl one day.  Having a pair of tickets to an amusement park, he invites the girl, Nanoka, to spend some time with him and she agrees.  The two have a fun time, and both admit to each other that they've had a hard time with love.  Koshiro finally breaks down and cries, and admits that he just doesn't understand love, and isn't sure if he ever loved his girlfriend.

After the rides, Koshiro takes Nanoka to where she is supposed to meet her father, and much to his surprise, Koshiro's father picks her up!  It turns out that Nanoka is Koshiro's younger sister.  Their parents were divorced many years ago, and Koshiro hasn't seen his sister since they were children.  Now Nanoka is coming to live with Koshiro and their father to make the commute to school shorter.

The problem is that Koshiro doesn't feel comfortable around his sister.  She's seen him cry, and he's admitted his weakness to her, something he never would have done if he had known who she was.  For her part, Nanoka really wants to have a good relationship with her brother, but tries to hard.  She shows up at his work and makes him lunch, but won't give him the space he needs.  Can these two people live together in the same household?

Much to my surprise, I found myself enjoying this show quite a lot.  It is a gentle and quiet show, which is a nice change from the hectic intergalatic adventures that many anime shows contain.  It reminds me of Someday's Dreamer a lot, they give the story time to unfold at its own pace, and don't rush things along.

The main theme of the show is that these two people are almost exact opposites.  Not only in age and gender, but also the place they are in their romantic lives.  Koshiro is having trouble getting romantically attached to anyone, and Nanoka is eagerly looking forward to her first romance.  The show was able to accurately capture both the young girls enthusiasm and bright-eyed hopefulness, and the older man's unsettled feeling at having been around the block a few times and still coming up empty handed.  I was able to put myself in both of their shoes and relate to how they felt, which makes the show all the more interesting.

Audio:

This disc has both the original stereo Japanese soundtrack and an English dub in stereo.  I alternated tracks while viewing the show, and thought they were both fine.  The show is mainly speech based, and both tracks did a good job of presenting the dialog.  While there wasn't much use made of the soundstage, there wasn't any audio defects either.  The background music was clean and crisp, and it was reproduced well.  A nice sounding disc, even if the soundtrack wasn't exciting and dynamic.

Video:

This show is presented with a nice anamorphically enhanced widescreen image.  The picture was sharp and clean, with no aliasing or other digital defects worth mentioning.  The show uses a lot of earth tones which are not bright and flashy but it gives the program a more realistic feel.  This fits the tone of the show very well, and the transfer does the color scheme justice.  A nice, if not flashy, looking show.

Extras:

This disc also features a clean opening, the original Japanese opening, and a series of previews for other Geneon discs.

Final Thoughts:

Kio Kaze isn't a show that will sate your thirst for action and adventure, and those looking for a rapid paced show with intrigue and danger should look elsewhere.  This is a gentle show about a young girls first romantic thoughts and a man's questioning what love really means to him.  A thoughtful yet fun drama that was surprisingly engrossing.  A high Recommendation.