Anime / Waiting in the Summer

The cast from left to right: Kaito, Remon, Tetsuro, Mio, Kanna, and Ichika. Rinon is the little guy floating in the air.

Kaito: "Summer break was about to start."
Ichika: "One we'd never be able to forget."
Kaito: "An unforgettable summer."
Ichika: "I'm sure..."
Kaito: "...everyone felt the same way."
Ichika: "Happiness and sadness. Pain."
Kaito: "All of it put together in one package."
Ichika: "There'll never be another one like it."
Both: "That summer is about to begin"

Waiting in the Summer (あの夏で待ってる — Ano Natsu De Matteru) is a 12-Episode Anime and the latest installment in the Onegai franchise (Please Teacher!, Please Twins!).

Kirishima Kaito is an Ordinary High-School Student who likes to film things with his grandfather's old super 8 movie camera. One night while he was out trying new high speed film something terrible happened to him... but when he woke up the next morning, he was in his own house without a scratch on him or any idea how he got home. That same day, a new student transfers to his school, and he can't help but feel that she's familiar somehow.

If you live in North or South America, the series can be legally watched at Crunchyroll or at The Anime Network.

Seven years after its original release, Sentai Filmworks confirmed an English dub for this series, released in August 2019.

---

Tropes:

• And the Adventure Continues: In a strange way. Although the show had good sales and the show itself and special, both have an obvious Sequel Hook in combination with the open end, after five years the sequel still was not released.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Tetsuro pats Kanna's head in Episode 8 while she's talking about the festival, to which she protests, "Don't just touch a girl's hair like that!" The same exchange happens again in episode 10 when he confesses to Kanna and convinces her to confess to Kaito.
• Alliterative Name: Kaito Kirishima and Kaori Kinoshita.
• Almost Kiss: Kaito almost kisses Ichika before being interrupted by Kanna
• All Just a Dream: Subverted with Kaito's repeated imagine spots, where he thinks he's just playing out a scenario in his head but is actually saying everything out loud.
  • In Episode 10, he wakes up with memories of starting a relationship with Ichika. Clearly just a dream, he thinks. She tells him it was real.
• Beach Episode: Episodes 6 and 7, featuring the vacation to Okinawa. 6 has most of the actual beach and swimsuits.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Rinon seems scared of Ichika after the latter accidentally drops a knife in front of it. She also later calls Rinon to help teleport her to spy on Kaito when he's hanging out with Manami, and threatens to do something if Rinon doesn't comply.
• Bland-Name Product: "Fusika" = Fujica. Kaito has a P300 and Remon a ZC1000.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Kaito is definitely attracted to Ichika's large breasts, and most characters acknowledge them to be part of her charm. Most of the characters seem to share the assumption that bigger breasts are better—all other things being equal—but Tetsurou apparently thinks that Kanna is just as pretty with her more average chest size.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • Kaito seemed like he was going confess his feelings in episode 2, but Ichika stops him. Then it just gets kind of awkward as both are thinking different things altogether, and attempt to clarify it later. Manami later gets a bit flustered when she realizes both of them utilizing this trope.
  • Seems to apply to Kanna as well towards Kaito. Then Tetsuro at the end of episode 5 straight up tells Kaito that she likes him.
  • Meanwhile, on the other side of the love polygon, Mio finally spits it out once Tetsuro gives her a lecture about hiding her feelings from the group.
  • Averted as of episode 9, when Kaito finally confesses, and he and Ichika finally share the first kiss they're both conscious for, followed by a second after Ichika finishes listing off all the kisses Kaito hadn't been conscious for.
  • Averted twice as of Episode 10, since everybody has confessed.
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Kaito had one with Kaori. He wasn't serious about it. She was, however. Sorta. In episode 7, she confides to Ichika that she was dumped by her boyfriend and was on the trip just to get over him, and was mostly on the rebound with Kaito.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Kanna towards Kaito, especially when she hears about Ichika living with him.
  • Ichika gets quite jealous when she sees Kaito with Manami, Tetsuro's sister in episode 4. Manami decides to tease them a little bit afterwards once Ichika shows up in the apartment.
  • Both girls decide to question Kaito together in episode 6 after Kaori shows up claiming to be his fiancée. Even Rinon seems a bit uncomfortable around the two women in that scene.
  • In episode 5, Tetsuro tries to help Kanna get closer to Kaito. Kanna responds by saying that he'll find someone too, but he mentions to himself that it won't happen. Mio, overhearing this, and massaging Remon's shoulders at the time, suddenly presses a bit too hard after hearing him saying that.
  • Mio managed a Megaton Punch to knock off Chiharu who tried to force herself on Tetsuro.
• Compulsory School Age: Because the first thing a teenage Human Alien that crashes on our primitive world would do is enroll in High School. Implicitly justified by her obligation to keep an eye on Kaito while her nanotechnology is healing him.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Nanami takes good care of herself and Kaito, and is willing to let Ichika stay with him while she's gone on business (though she warns him not to try any funny stuff).
  • Tetsuro's sister Manami is a subversion, as she has a nice car and seems mature at first glance, but turns out to be rather childish and irresponsible.
  • Ichika's older sister Emika counts as this when she shows up in the eleventh episode, as she ends up trying to help Ichika and Kaito find a loophole in the alien's law that will allow them to remain together.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Kaito tells Tetsurou that it was wrong and probably illegal to persuade a teacher to tell him Ichika's measurements, but he thanks him for it anyway. He also has fantasies about suavely putting the moves on Ichika, and often can't help himself from staring at her breasts and hips.
  • Kanna gets pretty frisky whenever Remon loosens her up with Dynamite Drink, and always jumps to the most scandalous conclusion when imagining what Kaito and Ichika are doing alone together.
• Crazy-Prepared: How exactly did Remon-sempai get her hands on an 8mm camera, various viewfinders or the Dynamite Drink; and how did she know she would need them anyway? Even further, how'd she guess that a van that's secretly a robot would be useful at the very moment they needed it?
• Cypher Language: Lots of alien script, such as in this example◊. It's a substitution code for the English alphabet.
• Date Peepers:
  • Remon, Tetsuro, and Mio all follow Kaito and Kanna around in episode 3. Ichika follows them as well, but doesn't quite catch up to them and instead runs into Kaito later.
  • Ichika does it again when Manami forces Kaito to go shopping with her in episode 4.
• Deadpan Snarker: Remon oh so much. In her defense, she says just about everything deadpan, but then, every time she opens her mouth snark comes out.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Kaito ends up accidentally doing this with hilarious results nearly every time he has an Imagine Spot with another character nearby, starting with the time where he really invites Ichika to stay at his house even though he thought it was only in his head.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: During the Okinawa trip, Kaori's friend Chiharu persistently tries to force herself on Tetsurou. It's Played for Laughs all through episode 6 until she learns her lesson in Episode 7, but she seems to have missed the point that it would have still been wrong of her even if he didn't have somebody else he liked.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Both Kanna and Ichika display this in episode 6 when Kaori, Kaito's childhood friend, who also claims to be his fiancee, shows up. It freaks him out when he sees their looks.
• Expy:
  • Yamano Remon is very evocative of Ichigo Morino, right down to her signature Evil Laugh; except without the Soap Opera Disease. Fittingly, they have the same voice.
  • Ichika looks very obviously like teacher-mode Mizuho.
  • Kanna shares a very similar attitude, hairstyle, and hair colour to Akane Tendô.
• Fanservice: There's plenty of close-ups on the girls' assets, especially during the Beach Episode.
• The Federation: Inverted: we are the primitives who must be protected by their prime directive... even if it means tearing the young lovers apart.
• First Kiss: Kaito and Ichika in episode 9. Ichika counts it as her fourth as she's done mouth-to-mouth on him three times before for Intimate Healing. When he murmurs about how unromantic that is, she gives him a "Shut Up" Kiss, which she counts as her fifth.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In episode 3, a gust of wind almost blows up Mio's skirt but she catches it just in time, frantically making sure that nobody saw anything. This is because she was raised as a nudist and often forgets to wear underwear.
  • Episode 4 climaxes in a woman's apartment. While Kaito and Ichika have a conversation, we can see what appears to be some sort of model car box in the background. Because it's not her apartment. It actually belongs to her teenaged brother and his family.
• Gargle Blaster: Yamano's Dynamite Drink (spiked lemonade). Which is apparently sold in cans.
• Girlish Pigtails: Remon had long pigtails and the most child-like body in the cast, despite having the personality of a Dirty Old Man.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: Ichika's glasses serve as a hidden interface for her alien technology.
• Gratuitous English: Used Episode 3: "Men in Black!" and "My God!" Problems with her alien technology tends to provoke gratuitous "Engrish" exclamations from Ichika in general.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: Whenever we see Mio at home, she's nude with her naughty bits covered with a random stuffed animal (usually a giant panda).
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot in episode 6 has Manami passed out on Tetsuro's table with something like 10 empty cans of beer next to her. She's at it again at the end of episode 12.
• Home Nudist: Mio is often shown not wearing underwear, in a Naked Apron, sleeping nude or just naked at home while talking on the phone, usually clutching a stuffed panda that provides Scenery Censor. This turns out to be because she is legitimately a nudist. This causes her some issues such as fearing rejection by Tetsurou should he find out.
• I Have This Friend: During one lunch period, the camera cuts back and forth between Kaito and Ichika asking for advice from Tetsuro and Remon, respectively, by discussing the budding romantic feelings between a hypothetical boy and girl referred to as "A" and "B". Everyone obviously knows who they're talking about since the sock puppets acting out the scenario in their collective imaginations look just like Kaito and Ichika, and Tetsurou and Remon both even realize that Kanna is "C" independently.
• Imagine Spot:
  • Kaito, Ichika and Kanna get some based around the events of the previous night. Kaito lampshades this with, "Why am I having such unfortunate fantasies?"
  • A reoccurring theme with Kaito. He also has a tendency to accidentally act out his side of them in real life, such as the time he prompted an "I don't swing that way" response from Tetsuro, and when he accidentally invited Ichika to live with him.
• Implausible Hair Color: Lampshaded for Ichika; everyone stares at her strange crimson hair. Averted for everyone else, who have more subdued shades.
• Intimate Healing: When Kaito falls unconscious at the end of episode 1, Ichika cradles him in her arms and kisses him in order to control the healing nanomachines she put in his body. Just as Kaito's sister and Kanna arrive home, at which point her bath towel also happens to slip off she has to explain it's Not What It Looks Like.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Tetsuro in episode 3 seems to be heading this way with Kanna, but Mio, who likes him, calls him out on it, saying messing with others love life will come back to bite him. He does it anyway.
  • Kanna in episode 5 seems to be heading towards this trope, until Tetsuro straight up tells Kaito at the end of the episode that she likes him. Played Straight in episode 9.. She falls into this trope again in episode 9, although she's not very happy about it. She invoked this trope's name almost word for word twice in episode 11.
  • Similarly, Mio seemed like she was going this route until Tetsuro points out that as her friends, she needs to trust them with her worries and feelings. She immediately confesses.
  • Kaori towards Kaito. She tells Ichika she was on the rebound from getting dumped by another guy. But Kaori also warns Ichika that if she doesn't take him soon, she will.
• Love at First Sight:
  • Technically Kaito only catches glimpses of Ichika at first—her hand when she saved him at the dam, and her bright red hair while she was riding on a train—but each of those moments take his breath away, and upon getting a proper look at her he hopelessly falls for her. in his Love Confession to Ichika he tells her that he probably loved her from the very beginning.
  • Kanna became curious about Kaito even before she saw him when she heard rumors about the New Transfer Student who had lost his parents. As soon as she watched him introduce himself for the first time and saw how he kept trying to smile even after something so painful, she started to like him.
  • Mio fell for Tetsuro on the day that Kanna introduced them to each other in class three years ago.
• Love Dodecahedron: Mio likes Tetsurou who likes Kanna who likes Kaito who likes Ichika who likes Kaito in return but takes a while to realize it. This actually makes for an almost linear chart but does have a large number of people in it. It's even lampshaded in Remon's "secret notebook" where she has drawn arrows between portraits of all the participants. A major part of the character development is people finally getting up the courage to confess, or otherwise pull the strings of the dodecahedron—namely, Tetsurou told Kaito that Kanna loves him, and Mio finally confessed to Tetsurou after he didn't react with disgust at finding out she's a nudist.
• Magical Girlfriend: Ichika is pretty much the woman of Kaito's dreams, and she also happens to be an alien who can use advanced technologies like teleportation and healing nanomachines. True to form, she ends up moving in with him in order to monitor his recovery, setting the plot of the anime in motion.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Ichika has crimson red hair because she's a Human Alien. Subverted as everyone thinks it's unusual. This is despite the fact that everyone has a unusual hair color, but apparently crimson red is just too weird.
• Marshmallow Hell: When Nanami and Kanna walk in on Ichika wearing nothing but a bath towel while she's trying to heal Kaito after he collapses in episode 1, Ichika ends up pressing Kaito's face against her breasts after her towel falls off, making it even more difficult to explain that it's Not What It Looks Like.
• The Men in Black: A Running Gag is Ichika being terrified of them. When they do show up, they turn out to be The Cavalry showing up at the behest of their leader: Remon.
• Moment Killer:
  • Remon is a master at spoiling other people's moments. One time Kanna and Kaito are having a serious conversation, and suddenly realize that Remon is kneeling right there filming them.
  • Kanna kills a moment between Kaito and Ichika at the end of episode 7 by showing up drunk wearing cat ears.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Kaito mentions to Ichika that his 8mm handheld camera belonged to his late grandfather. Those familiar with Please Teacher! can surmise that he is referring to Kei.
  • Remon's school uniform is the same as the female student cast's, minus Ichigo, in Please Teacher!. In fact, Ichigo's school uniform looks very much like the featured school's in this series ...
• Naked Apron: Mio in Episode 10. Continuing Mio's deconstruction of Nudity Tropes, it's not for fanservice — it's just what nudists wear while cooking, after all.
• No Romantic Resolution: Not for the main couple ( although the show has an open end for the sake of Sequel Hook), but Tetsuro still seems unattached at the end, although Mio doesn't seem to mind it. Averted in a special episode, where they become a couple and go to study together in one university.
• Not What It Looks Like: When Nanami and Kanna walk in on Ichika's Intimate Healing for an unconscious Kaito, the towel she was wearing begins to fall down. Ichika instinctly moves Kaito's head to cover it, giving off a worse impression to both girls, and causing Nanami to faint in the very next episode.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In episode 2, Kaito seems ready to say something to Ichika. However, she stops him before he can say it. Then in episode 3, they sort of realize they both had the wrong idea about the attempted conversation. Kaito thought Ichika was going to tell their friends how she rejected his attempted Love Confession. Ichika, on the other hand, thought he figured out she was really an alien and was going to reveal it to them, and didn't want him to say anything about it, lest she gets taken away and therefore wouldn't be able to find the location she came to Earth for.
• Perpetual Smiler: Remon seems to wear a perpetual Cheshire Cat Grin.
• Prone to Tears: Played for Laughs with Nanami, who starts crying Tender Tears when she jumps to the conclusion that Ichika must be an orphan too. When she has to say goodbye to Kaito as she leaves on her trip, she's bawling every step of the way.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Ichika's glasses are actually a head-up display interface for her alien hardware.
• Race Against the Clock: The group needs to find the place Ichika mentioned earlier in the series before rescue comes because there's possible evidence of First Contact and if they could find it, it could get Earth upgraded from a Class F Planet (Protected by a Alien Non-Interference Clause) and so Ichika wouldn't have to be forcibly rescued again.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A heartbroken Kanna gives a scathing one to Ichika in episode 9, because by this point she finally realizes beyond a doubt that Kaito likes Ichika, and yet Ichika just keeps dodging the subject altogether with him. A few moments later, Tetsuro tries to comfort her, which puts Mio in the same exact situation with Tetsuro, and she sobs quietly nearby.
• Refuge in Audacity: Remon constantly drops hints that she may be much older than she looks.
• The Rest Shall Pass: Throughout Episode 11 and 12, each of Kaito's friends stay behind to ensure the pursuing drones do not capture Ichika.
• Romantic Runner-Up:
  • Kanna towards Kaito, and Mio towards Tetsuro. Made more painful by the fact that Kaito was told Kanna likes him, and Mio outright confesses to Tetsuro, and they still end up rejecting the girls.
  • Near the end of the eleventh episode, Tetsuro asks Mio out to a movie sometime, just the two of them. They happen to be evading an alien robot/rescue pod/terminator while riding a small scooter at the time.
• Running Gag: Tetsuro always dies a few seconds after appearing on-screen in the movie they're filming. Lampshaded when Kaito asks him how many times he's died in the movie.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Happens to Ichika when she strangles Rinon helping her follow Kaito around in episode 4, and again when Kaito finds her standing behind him while at Tetsuro's apartment with Manami later.
• Scenery Porn: The attention paid to the backgrounds cannot be ignored.
• Secret-Keeper: All of the main cast promise not to reveal that Ichika is an alien, although they're not really shocked by it at all either when they first find out.
• Sequel Hook: Remon studying Rinon, who is technically a spaceship. and Kaito says several times that "our story is not over yet," means an open end.
• The '70s: Though the story actually seems to be set in the present day at the time the anime was made, you'd be forgiven if you thought this series was set in the seventies. Manami's car, Kaito and Remon using film cameras instead of video (can one even get Super-8 film anymore?), Kanna's dial phone, the apparent lack of any computers or cell phones, and the complete lack of all non-alien high tech all appear to place this work in the late seventies or early eighties at the latest, an impression reinforced by Ichika's and Kaito's "back then" past-tense narration. On the other hand, cordless phones with caller ID, a car from the 2000s, and Remon's reference to CG special effects in movies are more contemporary. If we assume that Highschool of the Dead show in the movie theater is the real-world show, that would make 2010 the earliest possible timeframe. The Bland Name Magic game being played in one episode would point to no earlier than the mid-nineties.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Deconstructed with Mio. She's a modest Shrinking Violet who was raised as a nudist, and tries to hide this fact from others due to her feeling that this makes her a weirdo. Some of her beliefs still leak out, however — she has a tendency to forget about panties, she can't sleep unless she's nude (even in a group), and her idea of a "modest bathing suit" is a bikini more daring than even Ichika's (which she hid with a hoodie). "Mio is a nudist" was a popular fan theory given how frequently she was shown casually nude at home in previous episodes, until she outright confirmed it in episode 7 in response to Tetsurou's stalker Chiharu calling her an exhibitionist.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Both Kaito and Ichika deny this when Manami asks about it. She then teases them both a little bit about it, but gets flustered at how dense both of them are about their feelings.
• Shipper on Deck: Kanna attempts to do this in episode 5 when Remon suggests that Tetsuro and Ichika be the main actors. It backfires horribly on her though, as he gets himself "killed" twice in the film (the second time claiming to be the brother of the first guy who "died"), and Kaito is forced to take part in playing the new male lead.
• Shout-Out:
  • Someone in the Episode 3 preview says "This is a top priority!"
  • Kaito and the teacher were watching ''Highschool of the Dead in the theatre.
  • The region of Japan that AnoNatsu is set in is Iwate Kitakami, though shown from different angles the school that the cast goes to and some of the surrounding areas match the same locations used in The Vision of Escaflowne (the scenes set on Earth anyway) almost exactly.
  • Generally when ever aliens comes up, which is a lot for some reason, visual and audio allusions to Men in Black will happen as well.
• Shrinking Violet: Mio. Yes, the Shameless Fanservice Girl is also a Shrinking Violet, leading to some very odd trope mixups.
• Spell My Name With An S: Is it Remon or Lemon?
• Stalker with a Crush: Kaori's friend, who comes on way too strong to Tetsuro, culminating in what amounted to a near rape.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Remon is a master of this. Considering her status with the Men in Black, she may actually be using some sort of teleporter.
• The Stinger:
  • A blink and you'll miss it one in episode 7. There is another ship en route to Earth.
  • A second one after the credits of episode 10. Ichika's sister comes to rescue her.
  • A third one at the end of 12. The movie is being watched many years later, and has one more scene: Ichika is seen wearing the outfit Kaito's sister bought her, and she mentions that her ship broke down again.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Kaito & Ichika use a "Boy A/Girl B" analogy to describe their problems to Tetsuro & Remon. Not long after, Tetsuro & Remon themselves both call Kanna "C".
• The Tease: Manami in episode 4 does a smirk on her face and starts teasing Kaito and especially Ichika when she realizes that Ichika showed up in the apartment and was trying to drag him out of there.
• Throw It In!: In-universe example. When Kaito and his friends start filming in episode 5, Remon has a basic idea of what to film, then has the actors ad-lib lines and improvise. Tetsuro uses this opportunity to jump into the frame claiming to be part of the Men In Black, and promptly gets "shot" by Ichika's gun. He does it again in a later scene, this time claiming to be the first guy's brother, and once again gets "shot", this time by Rinon. Later they add a Kaiju, a Kaiju-sized super sentai (Tetsuro again) and the model airplane Tetsuro was shown building earlier. Lampshaded when Kaito asks him "Do we even know what this film is about anymore?" Remon later uses Kaori in the film as well in episode 6 when she shows up. Both Kanna and Ichika are not pleased about that.
• Toilet Seat Divorce: Manami threatens to leave her husband every time she gets worked up over some laughably minor offense he committed against her, such as recording over a show she wanted to watch or beating the game she was playing first and then spoiling the ending for her. It's Played for Laughs.
• Undead Tax Exemption:
  • Ichika's unique quirkiness in cooking, unfamiliarity with Japanese society/culture, and different hair color is attributed to her being a Foreign Exchange Student. (And without documents, how did she get into school in the first place?)
  • Rinon also largely gets Hand Waved as a result of this trope as well. It turns out this is a result of Lemon using her Men in Black connections to help out.
• The Un-Reveal: No one seems surprised at all by the fact that Ichika is an alien by the time she reveals it in episode 9.
• The Unseen: Tetsuro's brother-in-law. Turns out he's a squad leader in The Men in Black.
• We Need a Distraction: Tetsurou, Mio and Kanna distract the rescue robot for Kaito and Ichika to reach the lake in Episode 11.
• Wham Line: "She loves you. Tanigawa Kanna... loves... Kirishima Kaito." False Wham Line: It never gets dealt with.
• Wingding Eyes: Arisawa has hearts in her eyes when trying to jump Tetsurou.
• Wingdinglish: The alien script's words mirror English-language words.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Remon. Of course, that's assuming she really is Yamano Remon, 17 years old and not Morino Ichigo, 30+ years old.

---