Are you perhaps in the mood for a romantic anime movie with great music? Well, you’re in luck! Crunchyroll recently added The Moment You Fall in Love, which is the second film based on the HoneyWorks' ~Romance Series~ vocaloid songs, to its ever-growing catalog. The first film, titled I've Always Liked You, has already been available for viewing on Crunchyroll for a couple of months now. I’m sure you’ve heard of HoneyWorks (aka Haniwa) before, or at least unknowingly listened to some of their songs, which have been used as opening theme songs for shows like Blue Spring Ride or Gintama’s fourth season. However, both movies don't only feature various HoneyWork tracks – they’re actually based on the songs themselves.
The second movie, The Moment You Fall in Love, revolves around the HoneyWorks songs "Ima Suki ni Naru" (I'm Falling in Love Now) and "Sankaku Jealousy" (Triangle Jealousy), which should already give you a rough idea about the story. The romantic coming-of-age film centers on Hina (the younger sister of Yu from the first movie), who, after a disastrous initial encounter with the shy Koyuki, finds herself falling for him. Drawn to her upperclassman, Hina decides to enroll at the same high school as him once she graduates middle school. And determined to finally confess to Koyuki, she’ll soon get to experience all the ups and downs that love entails.
Since I assume that most of you still haven’t had the time to check out the movie, I’ll keep the spoilers to a bare minimum, and solely focus on the show’s setting from here on out. Obviously, a romance movie like The Moment You Fall in Love needs an equally romantic setting – and Shakuji Park definitely fits the bill.
* All images were taken with GOOGLE STREET VIEW
Just like Koyuki himself, Shakuji Park also often gets overlooked, mainly due to the more famous parks like Yoyogi or Ueno. Located in the east of Tokyo, Shakuji is one of the city’s largest parks and serves as a nice getaway from the vast metropolis.
Located in the center of the park are two large ponds, Shakuji Pond to the east and Sanpoji Pond to the west. A pleasant little stroll around the quiet ponds during dusk definitely makes for a romantic date. Furthermore, the park also has a couple of smaller shrines and the remains of Shakuji Castle to offer.
And if that’s still not romantic enough, how about renting a swan-shaped pedal boat?
The park also contains a stage. Who knows, maybe the theater troupe from Hinako Note, which usually performs in the not too far away Inokashira Park, might also perform a play here?
The nearby Nerima Shakuji Park Furusato Museum is a special kind of museum that not only has galleries and exhibitions to offer, but also an outdoor swimming pool. The museum also serves as a recreation center.
Located a little further down the road is the Nerima City Public Library.
The best way to reach the park is from Shakuji-koen Station, called Yoshida Station in the anime. Like with most of the films locations, they’ve already appeared in the first movie, which made finding them easy for me. I actually poured a good amount of time into finding the locations from the first film, but never had the chance to share them, so I’m kind of glad that my effort wasn’t in vain.
Across from the station is a large Isetan department store. The collaboration with the Lawson convenience store chain also becomes apparent here, as the FamilyMart in real life gets replaced by a Lawson in the anime. This happens twice in the movie, another FamilyMart near Toshimaen Station also gets fictionally replaced by the convenience store competition.
Brand name knock-offs in anime always bring a smile to my face, and so does Honey Wild Burger, which is based on a Mos Burger near the station.
Rokusuzu Station here was modeled after Toshimaen Station. It took me a while until I figured out why the station immediately seemed so familiar to me, but turns out it was because of The Devil is a Part-Timer. Both the station and the Toshimaen Amusement Park came up in that show’s tenth episode.
Both of Hina’s and Kotaro’s houses also exist in real life, though they’re not as close to each other as in the anime. I didn’t include the exact location of them in the map below, since these are private houses.
Wadabori Park.
And last but not least, the anime’s Sakuragaoka High School was modeled after Tokyo Toritsu Igusako School, which is south of Shakuji Park.
Did you enjoy The Moment You Fall in Love, and what’s your favorite HoneyWorks song? Sound off in the comments below!
---
You can follow Wilhelm on Twitter @Surwill.
No comments:
Post a Comment