An eye underwater, the moon in the day sky, nostalgic piano, uplifting violin. A male voice, five female voices, one after the other. Surrounded by high-school imagery, we see flashes of our main characters, who express their life philosophies in terms of “the blue,” the obstacles in life, and the way we try to find our own rose-tinted shade of blue. Our protagonist, Chitose, covers the moon with his hand, perhaps reaching for a dream, as the voices sound in sync and the music comes to a close. Cue the title and Chitose’s thoughts on the first day of spring. He comes to class, flirting with some girl acquaintances and joking around with two sports captains. In the classroom, two other girls flirt and joke with him. You see, Chitose is one of the cool kids, always surrounded by girl friends and nasty comments. His sense of humor makes him loved and hated in equal measure: there’s a distinct group of three guys and a girl who make a point of reacting nonchalantly to his attempts at jokes. But he is a good guy. No, really. When the teacher tells Chitose about a classmate who has stopped coming to school, he cannot resist the impulse to go help him if he can. On his way back, he finds yet another girl, a silver-haired bookworm who seems to get him more than people at school do. We’re in for some heavy Chitose monologuing, too. Even the dialogue feels strangely monologue-y. Oh, well. You look at the time, and discover this is a 49-minute-long double premiere, and you’re only twelve minutes in…

At one point in this episode, our protagonist mentions how his peers either love him or hate him. Somehow, I feel this show will strongly connect with some people who may resonate with Chitose’s philosophy of life. But if that philosophy feels a tad pretentious, you’re out of luck with this one, because the entire story basically exists to illustrate it. In my case, after a cool, immersive, eye-catching beginning, I found that the characters started to feel a tad too verbose, events a bit too convenient, and soon it became clear that the sport captains were not going to have luck with any of the girls. It’s Chitose’s town, baby, and the blue has nothing on him. Not in vain is his name in the title: everyone else talks about him, thinks about him, and mostly exists to exchange quasi-monologues with him. Even the haters seem to be stubbornly resisting the pull of our MC. To his credit, he seems to me like he is engineering his way out of this unwanted harem situation, but even in this respect, he is so cool and self-confident that he might as well be playing on easy mode. After the credits, we’re treated to fifteen minutes of two of the show’s voice actresses visiting Fukui, the city the show is set in, and trying the food at various restaurants. If you want to visit, it might come in handy. All in all, despite the strong art style, the music, and the distinct personalities, I think this is just not my rose-tinted shade of blue. Perhaps you’d feel differently, though.

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle is available on Crunchyroll.