Name: Candy Boy
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 8
Aired: November 22, 2007 – May 8, 2009
Based On: N/A
Director: Takafumi Hoshikawa
Produced By: AIC
US Distribution By: Not Licensed

Cast

Review

Candy Boy is about two fraternal twin sisters – Kana and Yuki Sakurai – who attend a private high school together.  They’re very close, holding hands often, and share a single room together, sleeping in the same bed even though they’ve been provided a bunk bed.  However, the twins, Kana especially, is often assaulted by their openly lesbian underclassman Sakuya who usually clings to Kana, comes up with various plans to try to set up dates and whatnot with Kana, and who begs for pictures of Kana from Yuki (much to Kana’s displeasure).

The love that Kana and Yuki share for each other is never really clearly defined outright.  It’s highly suggested that it is romantic in nature, but the two don’t really do any overtly “romantic” things (ie kissing, etc) even when alone.  The two many not even know what the nature of their relationship is like, as they clearly want to stay around each other and make plans to be with each other for the indefinite future, but at the same time don’t seem to struggle with other issues such as “how far they should go.”

The total amount of screen time for this show is pretty short – about 90 to 95 minutes all told over all 8 episodes.  However, despite this, the show does a reasonably good job at exploring the lives of the two sisters, though even given it’s length, it may start to grind on after a while for some.  The show also does a good job keeping fan service to an almost non-existent level despite the fact that, being a web animation and the topic at hand, they could have gotten away with quite a bit if they wanted to.

Overall, animation seemed to be pretty good, though the resolution of the episodes over torrent wasn’t exactly the biggest or the best quality, so a full evaluation of the animation is hard to do, but it appeared to be quite good.  The music didn’t seem to be anything special, but I guess was more good than bad.  Overall, if you want a quick watch with quite a bit of comedy, some drama, and nary a guy anywhere, then you might want to give Candy Boy a shot.

Scores

Story: 4/5
Animation: 5/5
Music: 4/5
English Dubs: N/A

Overall: 4/5

First Watched: February 2008 – May 2009
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

Also, sorry for the subs on some of the screenshots. The only raw was really crappy and the only sub was hard subbed so, yeah, sorry, I tried to work around them as much as I could.

Yuki starts working at a bakery to start saving money to help Kana attend an Arts prep school, which would give Kana a better chance of getting into an Arts college. However, Kana still has reservations about it, because Yuki still has to study herself, and Kana still doesn’t like the idea of Yuki working to pay for her schooling. Kana also says that the financial problem isn’t the only problem, since if she goes to the prep school lab, she’ll have almost no time left to spend with Yuki.

One day when Yuki and Kana are walking home from school, they find Shizuku sitting in front of their dorm, having traveled there to see them over their break. While the twins are off to class, Shizuku finds a paper regarding the prep school Kana wants to attend, and confronts Kana about it, noting that’s why Yuki has started working and chides Kana for relying too much on Yuki.

That night, Kana waits for Yuki to get off work and tells Yuki that she’s going to do the mini-lab instead of the full prep school lab course. They then eat some pastries that Yuki brought from work, when Yuki gets some stuck to the side of her mouth, which Kana then, er, takes care of.

I watched this episode twice before writing this, and I think I’m maybe 75% sure of what’s going on, but I’m not 100% sure. I understand that Kana wants to go to an arts lab to help her get into an arts college and Yuki has been working to help pay for it – something which Kana doesn’t like. However, I’m trying to figure out how doing the mini-lab helps. I mean, yeah, it probably costs less, but unless she’s going to have her parents pay for it, then isn’t there still the same problem? I’m kind of assuming that’s the situation, but it was never really stated outright.

Perhaps if I understood exactly what was going on in that respect, I would have liked the episode better, but since the story in this episode was Kana’s over-reliance on Yuki, and I couldn’t tell that Kana did anything decisive to break from that dependence, I’m not sure this episode was as strong as it could have been.

In any case, this wraps up this series – one that took a full year to release 7 episodes. Hopefully I’ll have a full review up for it in not too long of time.

Kana finally turns in her reworked art project, but not before getting a gold scolding from the teacher. Later, Kana and Yuki look through the available rooms in the new dorm when Sakuya arrives with a grand plan: to make the top floor super-large room her “love nest” with Kana by pressuring Kana into stamping the already pre-filled application form. However, to Sakuya’s horror, Yuki and Kana have already submitted their own application form.

Meanwhile, Shizuku contacts Yuki asking if the pair will come back over spring break. However, Kana calls her back and says she can’t because she has to study for entrance exams over spring break. Yuki then tells Kana that she’d have a better chance of getting to an arts college if she attended a prep school first, but Kana doesn’t want to put any more financial strain on her family. As a result, Yuki suggests that she get a job to help Kana pay for attending prep school…

This episode seemed to be rather slow and uneventful compared to some past episodes, with the main Sakuya action being her master plan to room with Kana getting destroyed. However, I wonder how this prep school thing will turn out, as that’s a new wrinkle added in here at the last minute, and Kana didn’t necessarily seem to think favorably upon Yuki spending her time working to pay for Kana’s schooling.

If the original 7 episode announcement is correct, we have one episode left – probably getting released in the early summer.

Kana has a dream where she and Yuki are being all huggy-huggy in the snow at a bus station, which then turns into Kana standing in a grassy field with Yuki, who is in the form of a young fox girl. Fox-girl Yuki starts sucking Kana’s finger, but Kana suddenly wakes up and finds…the real Yuki sucking on her finger in her sleep.

The two start arguing over pics and videos on their cell phones (Kana has a video of Yuki talking in her sleep while Yuki threatened to send a “sexy” picture of Kana to Sakuya) when a dorm mate opens their door to see what the racket is about, and finds Kana sitting on top of an apparently bottomless Yuko on the bed. Soon the pair start getting notes on their doors from other dorm mates calling them “lovebirds” and the like (and Sakuya excited asks Kana if she’ll “play” with her as well).

Soon Valentines Day comes, and Kana fears the worst from Sakuya, but Yuki has a plan: she gives Sakuya a bag with chocolate and tells Sakuya that, due to working so hard on school work, Kana has gotten sick with a fever of 37 degrees Celcius. Sakuya buys this and tells Kana to get better, even though 37 degrees is a person’s normal body temperature to begin with.

Finally, Yuki takes Kana out for a treat at an expensive cake shop, which she can take her to due to getting a coupon for the place from Sakuya.

Well, again, not a whole bunch necessarily “happened” in this episode, though we do see Kana and Yuki getting seemingly increasingly intimite (sucking on each other’s fingers – Yuki in her sleep and Kana while eating cake frosting off of Yuki’s finger). We also see the start of other doormmates at their school making fun of them for being a “couple,” which I have a feeling may come back later, causing the two to really decide what their relationship is.

Shizuki is still depressed about feeling forgotten by Kana and Yuki, causing Yuki and Kana to feel bad about neglecting her. While Kana and Sakuya go out shopping, Yuki stays behind to talk to Shizuki, where Shizuki tells her that she feels like she’s not good enough for Yuki and Kana. Yuki comforts her by telling her that both of them are always thinking about her, and Kana troubled herself to be able to finish Shizuki’s last birthday present, so that’s proof that they still think of her. This finally seems to make Shizuki less depressed.

Later, Shizuki asks Sakuya why she likes Kana, and Shizuki tells her that once at a Cultural Association meeting, Sakuya was complaining about having a summer birthday, and so she was never able to celebrate it with friends, so Kana suggested that she tell her parents happy birthday on her birthday as well (since it’s the day her parents become parents). Sakuya explains that it felt weird at first, but it made her parents and she happy, so she feels like there must be something special about Kana.

Finally, that night, Shizuki asks if she can sleep with Yuki and Kana, where she simply asks them to talk to her more often, so Kana agrees to call her every week, and Shizuki apologizes for making everyone worry…

I’m not exactly sure where this fits into the story overall, but I guess we kind of see that the sisterly bond shared between Kana and Yuki is also felt by their younger sister Shizuki, so it’s not unique. We also discover the origins of why Sakuya likes Kana (though perhaps not why Sakuya is so persistent in pursuing her).

This seems to be the end of the Christas break arc, and I’m not really sure where the story will go on from here.