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「東京」 (Toukyou)
“Tokyo”
Episode at a Glance:
After getting off the plane and taking a bus into the city, Sora gets lost on her way to school and ends up arriving terribly late because of it. Along the way though, she manages to prevent a semi-truck that ran off a viaduct from crashing into everyone below. In addition to saving an old lady, Sora also ends up saving Midorikawa Gouta, who tells her she doesn’t need magic training if she can already do something like that. After attempting to slip into class unnoticed and failing to do so, Sora has to give a quick self-introduction, where she explains that her motto is “trial and error”. She then quickly makes friends with Yamabuki Hiyori, and they along with all the other students in the class, are given a sudden test by their teacher, Kawada-sensei. They then have a short recess before continuing on with a class to practice freezing water.
Back in the classroom, Hiyori notices that Sora seems to know Gouta, after which, Sora creates a large chandelier-like sculpture following a random outburst at Gouta. Seeing this, classmate Asagi Honomi doesn’t want to feel outstaged, so she tries to sound smart by asking Kawada-sensei whether or not the rumour about there being magic that can bring someone back to life is true. According to Kawada-sensei, it’s just a made-up story by people who don’t understand magic, as no level of mage can manipulate life like that. This prompts another student, Kuroda Kouji, to tell Honomi that she could’ve figured that out herself is she thought about it for a bit. Naturally, this annoys her, so she tries to upstage Kouji, only to find out that he made a similar ice structure as her. Wanting to compete, they both ask to re-do their assignment, but are told that magic isn’t a competition. At the end of class, Morishita-sensei finds out that Gouta wasn’t able to freeze his water, but comforts him by saying that there are a lot of people who aren’t good with transformation magic.
After talking to Kouji for a bit about tomorrow’s class, Sora heads towards the Hara Mahou Office where she’s staying at, but spends some time exploring the city first. After finally getting to the office, she’s greeted by Hara Seiichirou, who also tells her that there’s another mage-in-training staying here. Leaving introductions for later, Sora then heads upstairs to her room, only to look out the window and see that Gouta is the other mage.
Next Episode:
「ソラ」 (Sora)
“Sora”
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Impressions:
I wasn’t going to write up a post for this episode yet, as I’m not sure if I’ll continue blogging this series, but given how Sora moved from Hokkaidou to Tokyo and a lot of the scenes looked pretty familiar to me, I felt inclined to say a few words about it. To help depict the large number of scenic shots this series seems to emphasize, I’ve also included quite a few more screenshots than usual. As for some pretty reminiscent scenes, there’s Japan Airlines, Narita Airport, the ticket machine, Tokyo Tower, a kouban (police box), a long staircase of torii (Japanese temple gates), and just the skyrises and streets in general. It was also interesting to hear Sora read out various station names along the Yamanote Line, as I went to most of them while I was there. All of this kind of makes me want to go back to Japan already.
After two episodes, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ still continues to look really nice, but I can see how the relatively uneventful pace of the show would turn people away. With that said, I’m patient enough to continue following it, but I’m not quite sure if I’ll continue blogging it. The reason for this is because I might be picking up Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu instead, bringing my total number of shows on Thursdays to a ridiculous four. Things will be pretty damn hectic then, so I’d like to blog only one or the other, and I’ll decide as soon as I get a chance to watch the first episode of Nogizaka Haruka. I still feel that this is a nice series in a very calming, tranquil kind of way, but I think a love-comedy about a school idol who’s actually a hardcore otaku would be much more fun to write about.
Cast:
– Suzuki Sora (鈴木 ソラ) / Hanazawa Kana (花澤 香菜)
– Midorikawa Gouta (緑川 豪太) / Maeno Tomoaki (前野 智昭)
– Asagi Honomi (浅葱 ほのみ) / Inoue Marina (井上 麻里奈)
– Kuroda Kouji (黒田 浩二) / Namikawa Daisuke (浪川 大輔)
– Yamabuki Hiyori (山吹ひより) / Takahashi Mikako (高橋 美佳子)
– Hara Seiichirou (原 誠一郎) / Koyama Rikiya (小山 力也)
– Shiraishi Saori (白石 沙織) / Takano Urara (高乃 麗)
– Mage Kawada (川田魔法士) / Soumi Youko (沢海 陽子)
– Mage Morishita (森下魔法士) / Okite Porushe (掟 ポルシェ)
– Suzuki Seiko (鈴木 聖子) / Takamori Yoshino (鷹森 淑乃)
– Gouta’s father (豪太の父) / Tatsuta Naoki (龍田 直樹)
– Oohara Jitsu (大畑 実) / Matsubara Daisuke (松原 大典)
– Narusawa Satoru (鳴沢 悟) / Miyazaki Hiromu (宮崎 寛務)
– YASUKO / Sasau Miku (笹生 実久)
– Elderly woman (老女) / Miwa Katsue (三輪 勝恵)
– Old woman (お母さん) / Hibi Aiko (日比 愛子)
– Older brother (お兄ちゃん) / Yamakawa Kotomi (山川 琴美)
– Older sister (お姉ちゃん) / Yamana Eriko (山名 枝里子)
– Bus’ male student customer (バスの男性客) / Takagi Akihiro (高木 章裕)
– Bus’ female student customer (バスの女性客) / Toudou Maki (藤堂 真衣)
– Bus’ female student customer (バスの女性客) / Shouji Umeka (庄司 宇芽香)
first?
woo
Yay! ^_^
It’s a shame you may not be blogging this anymore, but I can understand with Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu.
Looking from these screens, the animation quality is as superb as always, pretty on the eyes or so to say.
http://img.muri.se:8080/Mahou%20Tsukai%20ni%20Taisetsu%20na%20Koto%20~Natsu%20no%20Sora~/Mahou%20Tsukai%20ni%20Taisetsu%20na%20Koto%20~Natsu%20no%20Sora~%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
This picture oddly reminds me of Ash Ketchum but with lighter hair and a way more mature look.
http://img.muri.se:8080/Mahou%20Tsukai%20ni%20Taisetsu%20na%20Koto%20~Natsu%20no%20Sora~/Mahou%20Tsukai%20ni%20Taisetsu%20na%20Koto%20~Natsu%20no%20Sora~%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
for one moment there i though he was Ash from pokemon
Ash on sterioids.
I’d pick Sora over Haruka anytime. I thought Haruka was really bad, too much wannabe-cute, her voice hurts my ears (usually I like Mamiko Noto) and I really can’t sympathize with “Otaku-problems” … but I am not at all the targeted audience either, so my opinion isn’t very representativ XD
Anyway, how about a post about your stay in Japan? Maybe doesn’t fit into this blog that much, but I’m sure you can include a lot of anime references =)
^_^ Please continuing bloggin this anime…
@ChansteR
what do you mean by “always”
there is only 2 eps blogged so far
The title is a mouthful, lol… but I’m going to watch this and see if I like it.
Shame you’re dropping this, but I’ll probably stick with it.
I must say I’m a bit disappointed with this season’s anime offerings. Natsume Yuujinchou, Birdie and this are probably the only ones I’ll probably be watching on a regular basis…. maybe Slayers Revo too.
As for the art style, after watching Ep1, it’s a medley of photographs and hand(tablet) drawn scenery, mostly involving a combo of Photoshop/Gimp + Corel Painter + Illustrator…. very tedious work, actually, especially with regards to getting the opacity of the layers for each frame just right.
Thanx Divine.
P.S…. Recently you’ve included quite a few screenshots with exotic motorcycles in them… the red one’s a 1970s Moto Guzzi. Why Japanese adore foreign stuff when their own tech is so much more pukka, I’ll never understand.
I agree this season is even weaker than the last one. I dropped everything else apart from Slayers, Birdy and Natsume ….. and even those aren’t really awesome, well, only Slayers 😉
@Lithium17:
I’m a bit uncertain as to whether or not I’ll be dropping this, but for now, please consider it on hold. I still need to think about my schedule this season in light of the first episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, which was all right, but my personal expectations left me a bit disappointed. I had pictured some aspects of the series given the premise, but it didn’t turn out to be that way at all. I was expecting more of a sarcastic male lead like Tomoya from CLANNAD or Yuuichi from Kanon, instead of a straightforward and supportive one, so I’ll to watch a few more episodes to see if it’s still my thing.
So far, this is an interesting show to LOOK at… not sure I’m all that entranced with the plot yet.
It does make me wish I could visit Japan more often though… there’s very few places in the world I just enjoy BEING IN – just being there lowers my blood pressure.
The US Pacific Northwest, Denmark, Canada, and especially Japan.
DAMN the story, i’ll watch it mute. LOVE love the scenery!! seems like a cool atmospheric show. YAY!! COREL DRAW!!!!!!!!!!!! and people who actually know how to use it…”effectively”
@Sadsa
Being too technical are we? Even if it is 2 eps so far, I doubt the animation quality will decrease to complete shitness and btw, when I meant “always” I meant as in so far. Seeing how the proof is there with 2 eps, always fits in because it only has 2 eps out and those 2 eps have good animation quality.
my bad dbl post BUT addressing “Lithium17’s” PS. my guess dawg, is that it’s an issue of ROMANCE. i mean its kinda like the same reason my shorty “thinks” she likes her minolos, or like if they was a new SUV manufacturer in say… BROOKLYN, even people that live there would most definitely say “me drive that?? GET THE FU@k OUTTA here”. as opposed to a nice gas efficient *wink* RANGE. i’m thinking if you live in japan and you got ur yamaha’s and honda bikes in abundance certain people don’t want the practicality of a good machine…they want SEXY EXOTIC.
NO, DO NOT STOP!
…Please…
Can’t wait for the subs…
Wait wait, she was sora in sketchbook, and now shes sora in this? I smell type casting.
It’s nice and all…but it’s just too slow, backgrounds seem fake (even if more realistic, feels out of place in an anime)…so i dunno, if it gets more interesting, it should be fine.
It’s gonna be a really beautiful series, don’t drop it! The background settings are a tad like those used in SHnY, which triggered a location hunt write-up that is pretty interesting. Perhaps we’ll get another one soon for this series~ 🙂