First Impressions / Miscellaneous

OP Sequence

OP: 「美しければそれでいい」(Utsukushii kereba sore de ii) by石川知亜紀 (Ishikawa Chiaki)

ED Sequence

ED: 「祈りの詩」(Inori no Uta) by savage genius
Both the OP and ED are quite good. The OP is done by Ishikawa Chiaki, who is the lead vocalist for See-Saw.

This first episode of Simoun packs a ton of production quality. Music is great (Sahashi Toshihiko also did the music for Gundam SEED and FMP!). Animation is a combination of CG, traditional animation, and concept art/water-color backgrounds (the latter really reminds me of The Melody of Oblivion, which is another show art director Kobayashi Shichiro has worked on).
This show’s pretty yuri-tastic too…
つづく

42 Comments

  2. “Animation is a combination of CG, traditional animation, and concept art/water-color backgrounds”
    AND a whole bunch of femme mouth-to-mouth!
    In fact, i see 4 occurrences in the screencaps above. Nice coverage Omni.. XD

    Kaito
    Reply

  17. Actually, in a pretty much still male-dominated culture, the influx of yuri outside of very obsure works demonstrates that something must be happening in the industry… people must be getting more open-minded. And if I’m not mistaken, women tend to go for the yaoi, which has been popular and in great supply long before yuri. Call me a fanboy if you want.

    Wererat42
    Reply

  18. i was wondering what stupid excuse they’d use to explain all the kissing..
    like always, its to activate a power of some sort. *the usual cliché excuse to add sex appeal to attract the male viewers*

    this show looks and sounds dumb, its one of those shows that undermine the intellect of the viewer.
    this show looks like one of those forceful shows that try to get the audience to watch it NOT because it
    has a good plot, but for its forced sexaul attraction thats being added in evey possible chance they can.

    well, atleast thats what i think an so i won’t be watching this.

    D
    Reply

  20. The yuri is a gimmick to get people to watch the series. Like I mentioned in my post, Simoun has a lot of production money in it, and a pretty deep story to boot (or at least it seems that way from the first episode).

    Omni
    Reply

  21. Well, that maybe is case for most. For me that was reason why i stopped watching Simoun exactly same moment as they started kissing. As much as i like yuri way it’s showed here is wrong way. Is it too much to ask that anime generally start to treat yuri same way as normal boyxgirl series treat romance genre? Too many yuri series are just useless fanservice shows. And this come from male.

    It’s shame since this had potential.

    Anga
    Reply

  22. This is actually better than the other yuri shows that are currently airing because it has production values, intrigue and a mood that I like

    Reminds me of the first time i watched Laxt Exile or Noein

    T_I
    Reply

  27. Just because the yuri is there to snag viewers doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, the romantic/sensual depth of the way it’s used impresses me. People are free to find yuri unwatchable, as I usually find yaoi unwatchable. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it.

    hashihime
    Reply

  28. The story takes place on a planet different from the Earth. They call their planet the Great Air Continent. There, they are born as female. When they become 15 years old, they go to the “spring” and choose their sex to become “adult”.

    They are at war; the country where the main characters live is invaded by the next country aiming at their superior engine. Day by day, the situation is getting severer. To intercept their attack, they convert the two-seater plane for ceremony, Simoun, into a fighter. Also, they organize an air squad, “Call”, which consists of “Mediums”. They are girls who don’t decide their sex yet.

    The girl who can operate “Simoun” is called “Simoun Siwula”. Because they have special abilities, they can choose when they become “adult” by themselves. However, since the war broke out, they’ve been forced to continue to be pilots, i.e., “girls”.

    yeah see i was right about the plot…….got this off animenfo so cant blame for the whole girl having a choice to be a guy or girl XP

    rkriku
    Reply

  29. Watched the first ep… verrrryyyy strange show.. I won’t comment one way or the other about the yuri business..

    Guess i’ll check out a few more episodes… if a show doesn’t turn off my interest after the first ep I figure it is worth looking at a bit more ^^

    kiryuu
    Reply

  30. As much as I am a shoujo-ai fan, the gratuitous girlxgirl kissing here looks so fanserviss-y, that it REALLY turns be off from watching the show though it is probably the most promising show of the season in terms of story/production and so forth.

    I guess I’ll lurk at blogs for a couple of weeks and will give it a try if they tone down the kissing aspect of the series. So far it looks to forced and out of place to be enjoyable.

    Meh…

    Asterdw
    Reply

  31. Just finished watching the first ep raw.
    The glass on their ships must get pretty dirty with all that kissing they do on it..
    Well, at least the cg isn’t half-assed. It’s pretty good actually.

    It’s strange how their ships are powered by kissing though. Halfway through the ep, two of em kiss and they make a black hole appear…

    Kaito
    Reply

  32. This looks very promising indeed. I can’t say understood much about what they were talking about but the music and animation are great, some of the character designs are quite good and the shoujo-ai element is a nice bonus. 🙂 Anyway, I really hope the plot won’t be too stupid because that would be a total shame considering the other elements of the series.

    Matrim
    Reply

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