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Rumbling Hearts: Betrayal Is A Bitch Vol. 1 episodes 1-5
01/09/2007 . Source: Phil Jones 
region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72401. 1 DVD 120 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK) Buy Rumbling Hearts: Betrayal Is A Bitch in the USA - or Buy Rumbling Hearts: Betrayal Is A Bitch in the UK  check out website: www.revfilms.com and www.rumblinghearts.com
Originally based on a game released in Japan in 2001, this fourteen episode series follows the romantic entanglement of four high school friends. The first disc contains the first five episodes with textless opening and closing sequences and trailers.
!!OK, first a warning this review contains spoilers so if you just want to get an overall impression skip to the last paragraph. !!
The show was originally released in 2003, the first two episodes introduce us to the characters. Haruka is shy and is friends with Mitsuki who is more out going and on the school swimming team. Mitsuki befriends Takayuki in a ploy to get Haruka and Takayuki together. She knows Haruka has a long term crush on Takayuki and wants to act as a matchmaker to help her friend.
Mitsuki engineers a meeting with the two of them on the hill with a single tree and slowly an awkward relationship forms. They walk home together from school and both have an interest in picture books. Both Shinji, Takayuki's best friend, and Mitsuki keep an eye on the forming relationship and quiz Takayuki on his romantic fumbling with Haruka. The relationship becomes more serious but one evening Takayuki is late meeting with Haruka. When he arrives, he discovers Haruka has been in an accident.
Up and till this point you think its just going to be a superficial teen school romance. You'll notice as well the music is fairly insubstantial and in the background for the first two episodes until the dramatic conclusion of the second episode reflecting the content and context quite distinctly. The world of this anime is radically changed and darkened in subsequent episodes.
The third episode moves to three years on. Haruka is in a coma, visited regularly by Akane, her younger sister. Mitsuki has formed a caring loving relationship but things are still uneasy. On the face of it everything seems OK but beneath the surface everyone is still haunted by Haruka and what happened.
Mitsuki goes from wanting to move in with Takayuki to deciding not to. This reflects the general unease of the relationship. Mitsuki loves Takayuki but she is not sure if her love is returned. Things are thrown into more turmoil when Haruka wakes up. When the two visit in the morning they both receive a huge amount of hostility from Akane. Her feeling is explained when we return to just after the accident in episode five. Takayuki breaks down and Mitsuki helps to keep him going by visiting him and cooking meals for him.
They both visit Haruka but after a year or so, Haruka's parents tell Takayuki to stop visiting as they can see it's destroying his life. Akane though is unaware of this and just sees that Takayuki stops visiting. We also get to see how Mitsuki and Takayuki's relationship first comes about.
This is not your run of the mill romantic anime. For one, it's not testosterone filled. It deals with very difficult and morally complex issues. The adult nature of it comes as a pleasant surprise and yes it does have adult themes so don't just go on first impressions. The complex love triangle and how each member tries to deal with the difficulties it presents is interesting explored. The anger and hurt of one character is often explained later on. Almost like an emotional onion, layers are peeled back exposing events that have lead to these emotions being shown. Often in a heartfelt way and not always easy watching. I think though this is the beauty of this series, in that it does challenge you emotionally. The animation and music are generally understated. There is a mad moment at the end of each episode, starting with episode three, with the two waitresses from Takayuki's workplace providing a comic aside. During the episodes, themselves these two provide comic banter when Takayuki is working and I'm not sure if it altogether works. I can see why it's there, to provide comic relief to what is other wise an emotionally heavy series. I think the interludes with both Takayuki's boss and Mitsuki's would have been enough, but it's a minor quibble.
The disc is fairly light with extras, only textless opening and closing sequences although the music for these is rather good. The English dubbing is generally above par and overall an interesting start to the fourteen part series. Recommended.
Phil Jones
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