Ao to Natsu

Summer is here.

The greenery outside my window takes on a fresh yellow tint in the sunlight. It somehow makes me picture a Pocari Sweat commercial and summer at school. When an image is planted this deeply, you can really feel the power of advertising. I had music videos playing in the background when the video for Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Ao to Natsu” came on.

I almost cried.

The people in it are acting, of course, but there are so many moments that don’t feel like acting. Their expressions hit me hard. A girl at the top of a stone staircase, summoning the courage to shout something to a boy below. We can’t hear her, but somehow you can hear the words of her confession. Boys glancing sideways at the girls as they sprint into the sea. The last boy twists around and falls in backwards, and the movement carries a genuine sense of impulse. The truly joyful faces everyone shows on the school field.

I find myself imagining that director Fujimaru Totsuka and the rest of the crew built a good relationship with the cast and drew out those expressions and movements. A warm glow, then a flutter. The summer inside that screen genuinely moved me.

I’m several laps late, but I’ve fallen for Mrs. GREEN APPLE.