Windy Tales

Nao is the president of her junior high school's digital photography club, which only has one other member: her best friend Miki. She likes to take pictures of the clouds above the school from the roof top, although she claims she is trying to capture the wind.

One day she sees a strange cat, which appears to be able to fly in the sky. When she tries to take its picture she discovers a whole swarm of such cats, seemingly floating on air streams. The surprise makes her fall down from the roof, but before she can meet her demise she gets saved by the wind manipulation powers of her math teacher, Taiki-sensei. This is the beginning of a quest for the secret of the wind manipulation techniques, in which Nao and Miki get joined by Miki's boyfriend Jun and Ryouko-chan, who also appears to master some wind manipulation herself.

Windy Tales (Japanese: Fuujin Monogatari), produced by Production I.G. and released in 2005 as a 13-episode anime, has a very easy-going pace and the wind manipulation powers of Nao, Miki, Ryouko and Taiki-sensei are used as a device to string along various stories about the significance of wind in people's personal lives. Of special note is the artwork, which is quite different from the moe-influenced design of most other anime with its emphasis on slender girls and big eyes. The character designs in this show have an almost sketch-like and permanent Super-Deformed quality to them, but with some of the most expressive facial features ever.

For lovers of heartwarming Slice of Life shows, Windy Tales is highly recommended, especially with the top-notch Japanese voice acting in this series.


 * All Just a Dream: Nao dreams that she and the other two girls.
 * Baka: Poor clueless Jun-kun gets called this a lot by Miki and Nao.
 * Blow You Away
 * Cats Are Magic: Every cat in the show seems to have wind manipulating powers.
 * Cherry Blossoms: Which make for a great combination with wind manipulation powers.
 * Coming of Age Story
 * Cute Kitten: Dozens of them. And they fly.
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Nao, Miki and Ryouko, even though their powers are comparatively limited
 * First Kiss: Miki makes a big deal out of Jun getting kissed by a girl.
 * Furo Scene: Nao has few, but they're not particularly fanservicey
 * Hartman Hips: Every female in the show, but especially noticeable on the adults.
 * Idol Singer: Nao's whole class applies for an idol audition..
 * Iyashikei
 * Kissing Discretion Shot: During kiss.
 * MacGuffin: The wind manipulation power.
 * Magic Skirt: Despite all the wind manipulation the girls pull off.
 * Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: When Miki is telling Nao about her vision.
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone: The girls have strange dreams, which turn out to be about.
 * Slice of Life
 * Thirteen Episode Anime
 * Tsundere: Miki, to some degree.
 * Two-Teacher School: Averted, since the school staff is not only realistically sized, but also plays an important part in the story.
 * Sitting on the Roof: The school's roof plays an important part in the series.
 * Sweet Dreams Fuel
 * Theme Tune Cameo: Nao sings the ending theme during her idol audition.
 * Time Skip: Nao and Miki are shortly shown first as high school students and then in college, living in dorms.
 * Weird Moon
 * Weirdness Censor: You'd think that the hordes of flying cats would get some more attention--not to mention the girls who simply hop off the school's roof.