OP Sequence

OP: 「君だけを・・・」 (Kimi Dake Wo…) by Mi
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1 Mirror 2

Summary:
Takahashi Nanami wants to make a lot of friends at her new school. However, the person sitting beside her is a quiet girl named Yamamoto Yuri. Nanami soon becomes acquainted with another group of girls, and all they talk about is a popular boy named Yano Motoharu. But when Nanami mentions Yano’s name, Yamamoto declares that she hates him. As the day goes on, Nanami’s new friend talks with her about joining the class committee, and Nanami offers to nominate her friend for a position. Unfortunately, Nanami forgot her new friend’s name and asks a nearby boy. The boy tells her that the name is Mizuhara, but Nanami finds out that that’s wrong only after she makes a fool of herself in front of the class. Incidentally, the boy she asked was none other than Yano. Somehow, Nanami gets chosen as the chairman, and when she confronts Yano about lying, he just pisses her off more. That afternoon, she runs into him again and he tells her “Bye bye” as she’s walking away. She runs back just to say “bye bye” to him too. Their next big encounter is on the rooftop of the school after Nanami failed an exam. She finds Yano sitting there alone, and the two talk about his seemingly superficial problems. Yano reveals that one of the things he hates is flirtatious girls, prompting Nanami to ask him what he’d do if he were going out with such a girl. He answers that he’d kill her. Nanami ends up telling him that she’ll listen to any of his troubles, and she starts to feel that maybe she likes him. Before Yano leaves the roof, he tells Nanami that troubles are a privilege of living people. Nanami thinks that at that time, she didn’t understand the meaning of Yano’s words.
Sometime later, the class goes on a walking excursion trip. The teachers won’t allow the students to bring their cell phones and even search Yano, but don’t find anything. During the walk, Yamamoto starts feeling sick, so the girls take care of her. Yano had gone ahead, but comes back after his friend Takeuchi told him about Yamamoto’s condition. Yano checks Yamamoto’s forehead and determines that she has a fever, so he takes out his hidden cell phone and calls his friend. He figures out where the teachers are and decides to go get them. He’ll need a way to contact the girls again, but no one else has their cell phones…except for Yamamoto. What’s even weirder, Yano seems to know Yamamoto’s cell phone number already. Nanami joins him on the walk towards the teachers and asks him about Yamamoto. Yano knows that Yamamoto has never talked much and actually had a sister. But that sister died in a traffic accident. After they reach the teachers, Nanami thanks Yano for being there today. That afternoon, after she parts ways with Yano, Nanami almost immediately feels that she wants to see him again. On the train home, she runs into Yano’s friend Takeuchi again. The two of them start talking about Yamamoto’s sister’s death, and Takeuchi reveals that Yano didn’t cry after Yamamoto’s sister’s death. This gets Nanami confused, so she asks Takeuchi who he’s talking about. The next day, Nanami playfully hits Yano for teasing her. She knows that she really likes Yano, but she also knows that he’s a liar. She remembers that Takeuchi had indeed been talking about Yamamoto’s sister, who was also Yano’s ex-girlfriend.

ED Sequence

ED: 「アイシテル」 (Aishiteru) by Mi
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1 Mirror 2
The opening and ending song are alright, not that great. I like the ED a little better than the OP, but not by much. Neither the opening or ending animations were impressive either, with the opening one showing some shots of the main couple and the ending one recapping the episode. I did find it a bit odd that they started playing the ending song over a minute before the credits and continued it all the way through the preview.

In the time between when I wrote up the Summer Preview and now, I went and read the first two volumes of the manga for this series (not bad, typical shoujo). The first episode of the anime followed the manga very well, though at times in the first few minutes it felt like they were blazing through the story. And so to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy watching this. The simplistic animation style did bother me a little, as did the fact that the story felt rushed at parts (which I realize is a side-effect of having read the manga). I really wanted this to be good series, I truly did…but it wasn’t for me. Near the end of the episode, it felt like I was forcing myself to continue watching just so that I’d finish it. Maybe it’s because I’ve watched and read so much shoujo material that this just became boring, but anyway, I know I won’t be watching any more of this series.
The disclaimer here is that if you DON’T know the story, and this series looks interesting to you, then I would advise at least to stick around for the first few episodes because there is a semi-interesting shoujo plot here that gets better as the story goes on; one involving love, death, betrayal – all the good stuff.

And finally, as a (not so) random thought, Yamamoto is very reminiscent of a certain humanoid interface for contacting organic life created by the Data Integration Thought Entity….

27 Comments

  1. I’ve been reading manga uptill volume 8, and it gets interesting right at the end of volume 8 (hopefully anime will reach that point), but I still dislike Yano ~_~… I think it has too much of the typical shoujo stuff. So sad that ArtLand had to waste their great skill on this. Better luck next time…

  2. I feel like the opening for COYOTE Show Time is not bad even it is played in the end of the first episode. By the way, Omni, are you going to blogging for this show, which I think the first episode is pretty imppressive.

    Suiseseiki
  3. Ohh I really liked it
    I’m probably the only one lol (I tend to like stuff no one else does haha…)
    But if you read the manga and you DISliked it, I guess I’ll stray away from that so it doesnt’ ruin it for me XD

  4. When I watched the raw, everything looked so gray and washed-out… maybe it was just the picture quality? I thought that the animation would be better, though. It looked really bright and colorful on the official website. It was sort of annoying how everyone was super-deformed chibis for a good part of the show.

    That aside… everything seemed so mellow… and too quiet. It was sort of uneventful. I dunno, but I got a little bored from it. Maybe generic shoujo isn’t my thing. I guess I’ll watch a few more episodes just to see how things go.

    ~ Noodlehead

    Noodlehead
  5. ZZZZZZZZ.

    LOL, sorry, I couldn’t help it.:P

    I gave up on the shoujo genre a few years back after reading/watching enough titles recycling cliches and coming out with plots so bland its insulting. Ouran and Honey & Clover sort of pump back some of my faith into the genre, but I’m still treating it with caution.

    Anyhow, it does have some cute chibi moments and humor going on, I guess I’ll just hang on for a few more episodes before writting it off completely, haha.

    But hey, if this is your cup of tea, enjoy it!! 😀

    PS: I sound very morbid in this post.

    Zoe
  6. I loved episode 1. I liked it even better the second time I watched it. I think the animation and the look are outstanding, very artistic, and I like the two lead seiyuus: the unknown girl plucked from a workshop in Kobe, and the teen-aged stage actor. The first file that was torrented was small (95mb) and seemed washed out, so I looked at a file double that size, but it wasn’t much different.

  7. Ohh!!! I’m reading this manga!!! it’s….really….greatttt!! I love it!! I only hope that anime won’t make that “Bokura Ga Ita” seems the tipical shojo -.-UUU, the pics are good, but I prefer the manga style >o

  8. As Tsubasa mentioned, the manga is really really good but i didn’t fall in love with it at first oo. Almost gave up at the end of the 1st book becasue it’s really slow. So it’s not really Art Land’s fault.

    This is the only comic that has me hooked for the past 2 years though. The characters are really really well developed and it’s a surprisingly realisitc shoujo anime. Nothing is simple because people aren’t. Most shoujo anime couples are troubled by circumstances, but this manga explores the most basic of problems.

    So far I still like the manga better than teh anime from teh first episode. The main girl’s voice is overtly cute and Artland seems to be restraining themselves in the comic scenes

    Kriyn
  9. are you guys gay or what… i dont understand the guys tha like shoujo… if the same story was released in harlequin or stuff like that ud never read it, but just bcoz its mangaor anime suddenly ur intersetsed
    lame

    lol
  10. This is only shoujo series I’ve been reading. Animation may suck x.x but read the manga…
    Many good quote and storyline.
    I read up to vol.9 and I just can’t seem to wait next volume T_T

    Recommanded!

    Jae
  11. Well it’s a pity I won’t be able to use Omni’s blog to check up on this anime, as after the first episdoe, I am completely hooked on it. It reminds me alot of Aishiteruze Baby animation and pace wise. Guess I’m one of the few who enjoyed it’s slow pace, and emphasis on character interaction.

  12. my my… i just got the sub one. the animation really bothers me. the drawing and all is ok but i wonder y they did such animation? maybe i’ll try to get used to it after several episodes or else, i might just ditch this one.

    Kamemada
  13. Don’t understand why the animation bothers some people. Not all anime needs to have the animation quality of say Air to be enjoyable. Just look at Aishiteruze Baby, Fruits Basket, and others.

    Oh well to each their own. I watch anime for story and characters. Not pretty explosions and such. 🙂

  14. I like Honey & Clover and it has the same quality of drawing/art(whatever u call it) as Bokura ga Ita. Its the movements of the characters and the surroundings that bothers me, hence the ‘animation’. While the colour for H&C are as ‘dull’ as BGI, the former’s movements are slicker than the latter. Maybe its kinda new to me. I was having a headache when watching BGI… Dont get me wrong, I’m not really into 3d/hightech animation. As long its enjoyable to watch.

    p/s i watch anime for stories and characters too… 🙂

    Kamemada

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