Koko wa Green Wood

This came as a surprise. I often mention "folding" in my anime and film reviews, it's a term coined by some cognitive scientists who study the film industry, it can be roughly defined as the dynamics of how we create stories on different levels of abstraction, especially using a visual vocabulary, sometimes it's too obvious it verges on the ironic, but it's to my utmost interest when it's done very subtly the normal viewer wouldn't notice it usually. Anime and manga is semi-primitive compared to cinema in this.

Here's a classic example though, the folding is explicitly ironic, we have in the 3rd episode a show ... within a show, filmed as a play inside the dorm of the students, it's clever fan service and narrative twists and turns for girls who love to see pretty boys around each other, it's worth observing compared to other examples, and there's a spark of innovation with the role of a mangaka who actually caused all of the narrative around this specific fold, that's something. Midori, Evangelion and Millennium Actress tried to explore that more creatively. There's also another folding device with a sensitive girl ghost who enters the fantasy of one of the boys, possibly mirrored by a soap opera show one of the characters is watching. I also liked how the characters developed and grew within each other.

It's lite and fun stuff, but I'd recommend it only if you're interested in the making of the thing than the final result itself.

This anime is an odd beast, many of these OVAs start out lackluster and then get better as they go along. With this one I felt like it was the other way around, it charmed me from the first episode but then started to fall apart as the show went on.
The art is nice looking and the style is nice, the animation is a bit choppy but ok for an OVA like this, the music and sound is ok, but nothing really stands out.
Where the show really falls apart though is the character development, or lack of it. This anime was obviously made for fans ... of the manga and absolutely no one else, and as such they expect you know EVERYTHING about these characters already. This isn't about there being no real overarching story, I know what a slice of life anime is, and I appreciate them. But there are huge gaps, things that should be filled in and it just leaves the viewer confused and frustrated. Over all this anime is a huge disappointment but I feel like an anime based on this manga could work and be wonderful, maybe it will be revisited by more competent hands one day
If you are a fan of the comics I might recommend it, but otherwise I'd say give this a pass. You will just end up confused and frustrated like I was.

I was super excited to watch Here Is Greenwood after reading about it. The general concept sounded like fun, and I had heard good things about it. I even purchased the old DVD of it to watch it properly. The DVD version has a different english dub than the original english dub on VHS and LaserDisc, though. I've heard mixed opinions on both, so I wasn't sure which one to watch. I settled on the DVD version, anyway. The other night I put it in and watched all six episodes in one sitting. Yes, there's only six episodes. They're relatively short and easy to sit ... through. By the time I was done with the series, I felt extremely disappointed. It definitely wasn't for me. Each episode involves the cast going through a random situation. The situations don't have the most entertaining plot lines in the world, either. I found a lot of the material to be quite boring. It certainly lacked clever writing and humor. The last two episodes do go together, however. They were also a bit of a letdown for me, though. The series didn't feel like it got a true ending like it deserved. It's all over the place, and anything but captivating. As for the positives, I did like the main character, Kazuya. A lot of the characters didn't do much for me, though. The animation also looks really nice. I'm a fan of the old-school look, so I liked it. It's nothing too crazy, but it did embody the standard look of the time period. Overall, I found this anime to be lacking in almost all fields. The story did nothing for me, and I don't think I laughed once. I wasn't moved by it in any way. Maybe I'll have to give this one another try someday. If you want to watch something that's lighthearted and sort of fun, then give Here Is Greenwood a try. It's short, and it's watchable. It's the kind of show that I can imagine some people loving for its simplicity and nostalgic features. Sadly, as much as I wanted to feel that way about it, it just didn't affect me like it does with others.