The sequel to Kimagure Orange Road: Kimagure Orange Road: Ano Hi ni Kaeritai, Summer's Beginningis based off of a manga created about eight years after Kimagure Orange Road ended. People who have just come off of watching the series and movie will notice that Summer's Beginning has a new art style to come with the new decade, and I for one welcome the change in art. The updated art is not just to show off how far anime has advanced over the years, but because it is desperately needed in order to show the new adult versions of all of the characters. Also, Summer's Beginning can be viewed without seeing any of the previous works because it provides enough flashbacks for people who haven't seen anything.

Since Summer's Beginning takes place roughly four years after the end of the series, all of the characters look much older than when they were drawn by one Takada Akemi. The music has also gotten an immense overhaul with tracks composed by Kajiura Yuki, the creator of such soundtracks as Noir, hack//SIGN, Eatman '98, and Hack//LIMINALITY. This is also the first time that she created pretty much the entire soundtrack for an anime but it's as good as anything she's ever made.

Summer's Beginning is a lot like the Kimagure Orange Road series. Most of the main characters are back other than Yuusaku, who has once again mysteriously disappeared. Because it takes place four years after the end of the series, it develops all of the characters a lot and shows us just what became of them. For instance, Hatta and Komatsu create erotic doujinshi and... er, well I guess that actually isn't very surprising. The love story between the three characters is also miraculously developed to its fullest potential in this, even though one might think that the triangle would have ended with the last movie. I really enjoyed all of the development put into the relationship between Madoka and Kyousuke though. It was really nice to watch them as adults and it was also really nice to see Hikaru all grown up.

Unfortunately, the whole story is a little farfetched and in the end turns out to be one big paradox. Also, I found Kyousuke's personality to be a lot different and harder to believe than his past self. At twenty-two years old, he suddenly leaves Madoka and goes off to the war in Bosnia to take photographs without explaining anything to her. Also, he says in the end of the movie that if he had had a chance, he would have gone all the way with Hikaru and wouldn't have gotten caught. There are a few other unwelcome changes to the show, like the removal of Yuusaku and the Ushiko + Umao pair, but overall it's pretty well done.