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What is Graduation?

Graduation began as a Lif Sym game [life simulation] that grew extremily popular in Japan. Later on OAVs were released due to this popularity. It is the predicessor to Graduation M and then later GIZoku.

The game...

In the life simulation game Sotsugyou  ['Graduation'], the player becomes a teacher, and guides five high school girls in their last year who each have a some kind of problem. The goal of the game is to introduce a love element to the girls and to help them eventually graduate.

The OAVs...

The first two episodes of this OAV series are about 5 high school girls Mami, Reiko, Kiyomi, Shizuka, and Mika graduating from High School. A few weeks before they are supposed to graduate, they all re-evaluate their lives, and cherish what they consider to be their final moments together. They decide to take a group trip to a local hot spring, where they discover just how strong their friendship is and discuss what the future holds. Important decisions are made by each of the 5 girls regarding life after high school, and what kinds of careers they want to start. The third and fourth episodes comprise a parody called Sailor Victory, featuring the 5 girls from Graduation as heroes fighting crime in giant robots on the streets of Tokyo.

My opinion....

Okay, Graduation is about 5 anime girls - so no eye candy for me. But, I found the series very touching. The problems faced by the girls are some of the same that I faced growing up. They realize that it will be very hard to keep in touch and may lose their friendships because some will get married, have careers, etc... after they graduate high school. They realize that each of them will have to find her own way in life separate from her friends.  Sound familiar? It made me really sad since I have lost touch with many of my high school and college friends though we swore we would be friends for life.