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Dated 19 February 2006: Rec

Aka
Needs more of this sort of thing.

Rec seems to be an amusing little show with half-length episodes and an ongoing Audrey Hepburn theme. It's too early to tell, but I think the show deserves a chance since it actually allowed its romantic leads to (discretely) have sex.

Dated 4 March 2006: More on Rec

With regards to REC, I'm calling my shot: The final episode will be entitled "My Fair Lady."

Maybe I should back up a bit.

Aka
Aka.

REC is a love story with a somewhat unconventional "boy meets girl, boy sleeps with girl, girl moves in with boy, boy and girl may or may not sleep together again for the rest of the series" kind of show. Based on the eponymous manga, REC stars a mopey 20-something salaryman named Matsumaru who takes a liking to the chipper hopeful-voice-actress Aka, who wants to be the seiyuu answer to Audrey Hepburn.

It's a short show, with half-length episodes and a reportedly nine-episode season. Perhaps due to its brevity, the shows seems a little frantic, particularly in its attempt to reconcile its unconventional storyline with the general anime idiom. That is, most anime love stories are platonic. Comedies in particular conspire to keeps their would-be lovers sexually frustrated and intensely fearful of any form of intimacy. (See Ai Yori Aoshi.) However, Matsumaru and Aka consumated their new relationship after less than 12 minutes of air time. Naturally, this makes it difficult to tell convincing, celibate stories that fit within the typical romance anime framework.

Thankfully, I get the impression that REC is well aware of this conflict, and will manage to resolve the issue within its short run, likely bringing Aka and Matsumaru back to each other's embrace by season's end. Paralleling this development will probably be the advancement of the ongoing Audrey Hepburn theme, with each episode taking cues from her movies. My Fair Lady seems a logical choice for the final episode, albeit a somewhat obvious one. And don't even try and tell me it's going to be Always.