Summer Pockets Is Delightfully Peaceful and Relaxing

Release any anime from Key or Jun Maeda (Angel Beats, Charlotte, Clannad, etc) and I will be there. So once I found that the popular visual novel Summer Pockets was getting an anime adaptation during this Spring 2025 season, I had to give it a go. Early on, Summer Pockets is endearing in how relaxing and peaceful its setting is.

The story is quite simple in Summer Pockets: Takahara Hairi is a young man that travels to the island Torishirojima to stay with an aunt and help with the aftermath of his late grandmother’s passing. At the same time, the story quickly hints that Hairi is running away from some sort of recent unfortunate event, possibly related to the swim team he was part of.

The first episode of Summer Pockets is pretty darn slow, and not a lot happens at all. Normally, this would be a detriment to a series. However, Key and animation studio Feel happen to make this work in the series’ favor, at least to start. This is because few other anime series handle immersion and atmosphere as well as this one.

The island of Torishirojima is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Every inch of the island is so bright, cheerful, and full of vibrant colors. The stunningly blue ocean is frequently in the background of scenes, with the warm aesthetic giving off such a strong summery vibe. It also helps that the soundtrack is noticeably great as well.

Unlike a lot of anime series that feature forgettable soundtracks or far too many moments without songs, it feels like Summer Pockets constantly has music going in the background. Even an early montage of Hairi exploring the island felt so alive and grabbed my attention because of the high-quality music that accompanied it.

At the core of the series, though, is Hairi’s relationship with the girls that he meets on the island. You only get a tiny glimpse of this in the first episode, so it is hard to say how the romance will go here. This is especially interesting to see since the original visual novel has multiple routes focusing on each girl.

That said, Hairi’s few interactions with the main characters are adorable and fun. I even enjoyed his little moments meeting and getting to know his aunt. She also happens to be up there already for an early pick for one of my favorite female anime characters in 2025.

Few anime this season have the setting like Summer Pockets. This is even seen in a scene where Hairi’s aunt sends him to eat dinner at a local restaurant. This goofy moment has only him and the cook in the restaurant, which throws off the urban boy. These scenes do such a great job at building out the world and reminding me of my own time living in Japan in the past.

At the same time, the heavy summer vibe also has me wanting to lay at the beach all day. It is for this reason that I actually really wanted to take a nap after watching the first episode of Summer Pockets. This may sound bad at first, but it actually isn’t. Instead of boring me, this series managed to relax me with nostalgic summer vibes to the point where I wanted to just take a peaceful nap.

If the first episode is anything to go by, Key is back once more with its anime adaptation of Summer Pockets. If you like series like Kanon and Air, you will find yourself right at home here. The detailed atmosphere of Torishirojima is one of the most relaxing you will ever find in anime and it has me hooked enough to see how the romance there plays out between the main character and his love interests.

Summer Pockets is streaming right now on Crunchyroll. You can also purchase the visual novel on PC via Steam.