When a childhood friend resurfaces, Aoi’s life may find itself reaching some new heights.

What They Say:
Aoi spends most of her time alone, but an old friend from middle school has arrived to make good on an old promise.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga Yama no Susume by Shiro, which has one volume out so far since debuting in the summer of 2011, Encouragement of Climb is a new short-form anime series animated by Studio 8-Bit for Toyko MX. Short form series can be quite hit or miss depending on how well the team behind it handles the use of it, especially with it being a three and a half minute show. Some have really excelled at it, such as Chi’s Sweet Home and Poyopoyo, but others tend to not really know how to structure things well in this form.

With this being a slice of life show with a twist, we’re introduced to two high school kids named Aoi and Hinata. Aoi’s pretty much an introvert in a way and is having a hard time connecting with other kids now that she’s in high school, but things take a nice twist along the way. While she’s a pretty nice girl overall and has plenty of simple and expected interests, it’s the arrival of Hinata after being separated for several years that will draw her out. The two were friends in elementary school and made a promise to climb lots of mountains when they were out as children together, but Aoi has largely forgotten it due to her fear of heights. And now Hinata is intent on achieving those hobbies, and drawing Aoi out a lot more so she can make friends. Hinata is your typical catalyst counterweight to the personality that Aoi has, which will be amusing if the show has some actual forward momentum.

In Summary:
The opening episode of the series certainly has some cute slice of life appeal to it, but there’s also that feeling that the show could be a bit more. While most series tend to just do the spot gags as you’d expect for the run time, you can’t help but to feel that there’s a chance for real growth and challenges ahead for these characters if Hinata can actually start getting her out there to climb mountains. Both main characters are fairly standard fare at this point, but it packs a lot of setup and foundation into the three minutes it runs here and I’ll easily admit it has me curious to see if it can shake off some of the doldrums I’ve been finding with other short form series that have come out recently. I’m coming away pretty optimistic here.

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Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.