Part of a well-established tradition of middlebrow literature in which the fleeting joys of childhood are expressed through the protagonist's love for a girl who is too cool to go out with him, originated or popularized with Soseki and probably best known in the West today through Murakami and early-00s Gainax. The soundtrack and the simplicity of the 2003 fan translation cultivate exactly the kind of sentimentality that theme needs to work.