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"Lift your head and leap out, okay!"

CITY THE ANIMATION is a gentle hug in the form of a series. Adapting Keiichi Arawi’s work, this anime doesn’t try to teach you a big lesson, nor make you burst out laughing (though it may do), nor break your heart with drama. Instead, it keeps you company. It reminds you that there is beauty in the everyday, tenderness in the absurd, and in simplicity… life.

In the city that gives the title its name, life happens. We have Nagumo, Niikura and Wako, but it feels like there are no absolute protagonists or fixed direction. Young students, college stundets, adults, ... the elderly... A restaurant, an editorial, a soccer team... each with their own rhythms, desires, and quirks, together have a chaotic and endearing connected web. There will be over-the-top events, but there are shared silences as well, CITY lightly and discreetly explores the profound: introspection, identity, community, the uncertainty of the future, and the miracle of small moments.

Because CITY is about that.
About living in the present.
About finding the beauty in the ordinary.
About appreciating a silly conversation, a sunset for no reason, a friendship without labels.

Characters aren’t defined by their titles or jobs, but by their passions, their bonds, even their spontaneous reactions to life! Some don’t even have names, and yet, all of them have a role. In this CITY, everyone matters. Everyone has a story, who could have thought?

Character relationships and dynamics are so, so natural. You can feel the genuine partnership in their bonds. Everyone has their own inside jokes, shared routines, favorite activities, or common goals. It's like watching real friends interact, with chaos and affection. You can feel that these people know each other.

Talking about the animation, wow, it is a celebration in itself: lively, playful, full of detail. You can definitely tell the staff had fun! That the voice actors enjoyed every line! (They even recorded in the same room, together, laughing) There’s love in every frame. Love and laughter. The backgrounds are impeccable, full of detail and personality, they really went out to bring life to the CITY...

Maybe I'm being a cornball, but It fills me with happiness to see the manga that celebrates our ordinary life, the life where we can laugh, being adapted like this, with the kind of laughter that comes from recognizing the absurdity of being human, from remembering that we all stumble and keep moving forward. The first KyoAni's original animation since that tragic incident, and they're still here, aren't they? Still making us smile, and they're smiling as well!

CITY doesn’t dramatize nostalgia, but it lets it show. It doesn’t directly push you to find deep meaning, but it does suggest you look around and ask yourself:
What makes me happy?
What fills me?
What is it that I really want to do?
All with a smile, relaxed in your seat.

It’s not a series that shouts, but one that whispers. And in that whisper, there is warmth.
A pat on the back.
A “you’re okay, keep going.”
An invitation to look up and leap.
A celebration to our lives!

And yet, there are very, very funny moments. Please watch it with a smile!