Natsu no Arashi!

Plot

Thirteen-year-old Yasaka is a boy staying at his grandfather's house during his summer vacation. One day he entered a store and met Arashi, a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl working there. After trying to protect her from a man who claims to have been hired by her family to take her back by force, Yasaka ran away with her and now she stays at his grandpa's place with him. It didn't take much time for Yasaka to figure out that his new friend is far from an ordinary girl, as she possesses mysterious powers. The plot thickens when he finds a sixty-year-old picture of Arashi and another girl named Kaja, and to the surprise of all Kaja suddenly appears, and just like Arashi, her appearance hasn't changed at all since then.

Two other characters introduced so far are the place's owner, a woman whose name is still unrevealed and rumored to be a high level con artist, and Jun Kamigamo, a student of Yasaka's age whom he met at the store, and works there with him since then. Despite being a girl, she keeps dressing and addressing herself as a boy to the other characters. So far only Kaja and Arashi know her secret.

Characters

Hajime Yasaka (八坂 一, Yasaka Hajime)

Voiced by: Yūko Sanpei The main male protagonist. A 13-year-old boy who is spending his summer vacation in his grandfather's house. When he met Arashi from the first time, he established a connection with her when he touched her hand, and since then the duo gained the power to travel back and forth in time. He is infatuated with Arashi's beauty and kindness, but is afraid to convey his feelings to her. He is a friend of Jun.

Sayoko Arashiyama (嵐山 小夜子, Arashiyama Sayoko, Arashi for short)

Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi The main female protagonist. Despite still looking like a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, Arashi is in fact a ghost who lived during World War II times. Since then her mission had been traveling back in time to rescue those in her community from air raids by American warplanes. However, to travel back to the past, she must do it accompanied by a living person from the present with whom she made a "connection". Her relationship with Hajime is a bit more complicated than it seems. In the second season it is revealed that Arashi's first love was a time-tripping Hajime.

Kaja Bergmann (カヤ バーグマン, Kaya Bāguman)

Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka Another ghost from Arashi's time and her best friend. She was an exchange student from Germany who studied at her school. Her polite and cool demeanor opposes to Arashi's lively and carefree personality. She possesses the same time travelling powers as her, but she can only make a connection with a living girl due to her shyness around boys. Her favorite dessert is ice cream.

Jun Kamigamo (上賀茂 潤, Kamigamo Jun)

Voiced by: Chiaki Omigawa She is Hajime's friend that has made a connection with Kaja and jumps through time with her. Hajime misunderstands that she is a guy. In the second season Jun starts to have feeling for Hajime. In the first season Her secret was revealed in episode 5. She used to have long hair which showed in the anime and she has great acting skills.

Sayaka (さやか, Sayaka)

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame A con artist who owns (more like uses, cafe is abandoned in manga) the cafe in which Hajime, Arashi and the other girls work. She seems to have a crush on Yamashiro. Her grandfather is foreign soldier, making her face looks like westerner and source of many grief in her past. She lost her family early, making her an orphan.

Hideo Murata (村田 英雄, Murata Hideo)

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto A private investigator. He is the son of a man Arashi saved from certain death by preventing him from fishing in the river, on a day when an air-raid struck the area. He loses his right eye when he defended his family from yakuza, for unknown reason. He became butler for Kanako and Yayoi and energy-source for Kanako after their conflict with Arashi and co. solved.

Yayoi Fushimi (伏見 やよゐ, Fushimi Yayoi)

Voiced by: Ai Nonaka Just like her friend Kanako, she is another ghost who died during the war and an acquaintance of Arashi and Kaja, her ethereal body has been weakening through time. Due to a horrifying accident, she's half-paralyzed and can't walk without wheelchair. Her paralysis is more to psychological condition. However, she was healed when she went back to the past and met Kanako again for the first time. Her personality is the polar opposite of Kanako, especially her naiveness that worries Kanako greatly. In the second season she connects with both Hajime and Yamashiro's dog Josephine and Sayaka.

Kanako Yamazaki (山崎 加奈子, Yamazaki Kanako)

Voiced by: Yui Horie Just like Yayoi, her ethereal body weakened and she resorted to steal Arashi's energy to replace her and her friend's, until she figured out that only by making a connection with a living human, her energy would be restored. She and Yayoi are best friends and spent their ghost-living in a run-down mansion. She is very protective and deeply cared of Yayoi's well-being, up to the point where she does not hesitant to hurt somebody for her sake. She is "connected" with Hideo. She looked tough, rude, and unlikeable at first. This is because she had gone through a lot of hardships since childhood and loathes rich girls such as Kaja, Arashi, and Yayoi. Her encounter with Yayoi changed her perspective and she became able to open up herself.

Takeshi Yamashiro (山代 武士, Yamashiro Takeshi)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita A young man who Arashi saved when he was a child and Hajime's main target of jealousy, as he is always in good terms with her. He is handsome, smart, nice, godd-natured, and comes from wealthy family, which makes "Perfect Man" and this fact nerves Hajime. Former Teen Rebel, until Yayoi met him in time travel 10 years' prior the series.

Shioya (塩谷, Shioya)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita A regular at the cafe who always asks for salt, but never gets it till the end of the second season.

Kazuo Sogoru (十五流 一夫, Sogoru Kazuo)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita

Yoko Himekawa (姫川 ようこ, Himekawa Yōko)

Voiced by: Saki Nakajima Jun's modeling friend. She pretends to be Jun's girlfriend to get a laugh, and then pretends that Jun is cheating on her as to amuse herself even further.

Kyoko Kamigamo (上賀茂 京子, Kamigamo Kyōko)

Voiced by: Michiko Neya Jun's older sister. She's a model too.

Yoshimi Anamori (穴守 好実, Anamori Yoshimi)

Voiced by: Yū Kobayashi She's a manga artist who, on her first visit to Seven, tries to kiss Yayoi and Arashi. It's revealed that she's actually looking for models and has to 'experience' the scene in order to draw it correctly.

Umeyashiki (梅屋敷, Umeyashiki)

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu

Anime

On November 2008, an anime adaption of Natsu no Arashi! was announced. The anime series was directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, Katsuhiko Takayama oversaw the script, the character design was done by Kazuhiro Ota and was produced by Shaft. The series was broadcast from April 5, 2009, it had a total of 13 episodes.

Four pieces of theme music are used during the first season—one opening theme, one closing theme and two special closing themes for episodes six and eleven. The opening theme is "Atashi dake ni kakete" (あたしだけにかけて) by Omokage Lucky Hole and the closing theme is "Kirari Futari" (キラリフタリ) by Ryōko Shiraishi. For episode six, the closing theme is "Hitonatsu no Keiken" (ひと夏の経験) by Ryōko Shiraishi and the closing theme for episode 11 is "Kassai" (喝采) by Yui Horie.

A second season, called Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū (夏のあらし! 春夏冬中, lit. Summer Storm! Open for Business) was announced on June 2009. Two pieces of theme music were used during its broadcast. The opening theme is "Oyasumi Paradox" (おやすみパラドックス) by Etsuko Yakushimaru and the closing theme is "Otome no Junjo" (乙女の順序) by Ryōko Shiraishi, Kaori Nazuka, Ai Nonaka and Yui Horie

Both seasons were simulcasted to English language audiences by the video streaming website Crunchyroll.