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「流星群の夜」 (Ryuuseigun no Yoru)
“Night of the Meteor Shower”
I wasn’t planning to post about this series at all, but AIC continues to produce amazing-looking series even when they’re taking on five concurrently this season, so I wanted to share some thoughts on their adaptation of Windmill‘s adult visual novel game. Cutting to the chase, this first episode covered everything described in the official’s site’s synopsis, which I already summed up in the Summer 2010 Preview. The quick rundown is that the story takes place in the oceanic city-state of Ert’Aria, which is also known as “The World’s Treasury” since merchants, tourists, and adventures alike gather there in hopes of having their dreams come true. Here, we follow an adventurer named Leicester Maycraft (Okamoto Nobuhiko) and his childhood friend Carina Verritti (Koyama Kimiko), who are members of the Oasis clan house. Carina also happens to be Oasis’ master and the head of state’s daughter, so she’s well-respected by the people. Every seven years, a harvest of crystal energy sources known as Eeru (Ale?) takes place and a mysterious meteor shower coincides with the joyous occasion, which Leicester and Carina go to see tonight along with some new friends. When the spectacle begins, a meteorite hits a nearby cathedral and reveals a room with an automaton in it, who awakens to find Leicester before her and immediately calls him “Papa”.
My immediate impression of this series is that it looks just as great as I was expecting from an AIC production, but I am still at a loss on what to make of it as a whole. For now, it just comes off as really cute show that drifts into harem-esque territory. It becomes quickly apparent that Carina has a thing for Leicester, and not too long after, it turns out the Tortilla twins, Ritos (Gotou Mai) and Salsa (Yunohara Ari), have an interest in him as well. The one thing that threw me in for a whirl is Leicester’s mother Shelley (Takano Naoko), who is way too young and beautiful that she causes misunderstandings really easily when she clings onto him in public. I’d say all of the above is pretty much expected from an adult visual novel, but the bright lush colors and setting make this series seem far from anything along those lines. Evidently, the story is intended to revolved around Minette (Kadowaki Mai) and her wish to become more human-like (or so it would seem). Along for the ride are self-proclaimed best doll maker in the world Agnes Boulange (Mizuhashi Kaori) and Temple Knight Chelsea Arcot (Imai Asami) in addition to Leicester and Carina.
I had my reservations about this twelve episode adaptation coming in, with the only real appeal being that AIC is taking a stab at a clean adaptation of an adult visual novel. Much like 11eyes, the added bonus is that all the seiyuu who voiced the characters in the game make their return here in the anime, albeit without their eroge aliases. Quite honestly, I was on the fence about watching this one, but this first showing piqued my interest enough to continue following it. I mentioned before that I don’t mind going blindly into series based on adult visual novels as they tend to have surprisingly decent plots, so I’m likely going to do just that. Admittedly, I’ve kind of been suckered in by the Tortilla’s twins antics, which were fun to watch with the way Gotou Mai voices Ritos. As such, I’m not really in a position to make a recommendation on this series one way or another, other than saying that if you like what you see above, then it may be worth checking out. I doubt this series will attract many viewers, but surely there are some out there who are mesmerized by the abundance of cute characters and vivid colors like myself and are interested enough to check out a few more episodes. I have no plans to blog this series further however, so those who interested now are on their own to find out how this one turns out.
* There were no opening and ending sequences included with this first episode, though the ending theme “Mirai Kaikisen” by Hashimoto Miyuki was played when Leicester discovered Minette.
Preview
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this one was extremely cute
I was hooked by the intro, the overall episode was so so, but the first three/five minutes and the very last part was really well done.
puro fanservice en este anime, espero que este bueno asi que le voy a dar un voto de confianza
Stay in your own yard, damn mexicans….
You do know that 21 countries in the whole world speak Spanish right?
u know ppl hate the ones like u rite ? … damn u racist !!
At least I could congratulate this troll for being smart enough to know that Jezreel speaks spanish. Unfortunately not all spanish speakers are mexicans.
And for Jezreel… Seria buena idea que uses ingles por respeto a los demás lectores.
It would be a good idea to use ingles in deference to the rest of the readers. Even if there are other spanish speaker. Or are you doing that just to brag that you know spanish? That could also be considered trolling. At least from my point of view.
@Daniel Tosh, Great comment racism moron keep trolling, otherwise maybe I will watch this there too many anime I can’t decide.
At least speak in english or stfu.
I love ignorance!!! Personally I’m fluent in 3 languages, can understand 3 more and learning thai right now. So does that makes me mexican, italian or english ? Will stop at this while can, don’t want to stoop more.
ALL THREE! jk, just wanted to reply that.
I’m wondering how this turns out.
I’m on the fence with this one. Some parts were cute, others boring, and a few funny.
I need more Tortilla twins.
Its so werid seeing my name (Carina) in an anime. Carina is not a common Japanese name.
It’s not a japanese name. As you can see, none of the characters in this show has japanese names.
Carina is a italian name, mean pretty.
I’m expecting this anime to turn out to be somewhat like Zero no Tsukaima, having overall loose atomosphere but yet cute series. Some people would call it boring but so far I like this.
@Divine It’s Mizuhashi Kaori who is voicing Agnes.
I Love this anime, I hope it continues, they’re all cute, kawaii…
My first impression from the trailer gave me the Aria vibe, so if its any close I’ll tune in. =D
I heard this was an extra ecchi series but the first episode was surprisingly tame; the only ecchi we really got was Leicester’s mom hugging him and Salsa’s position after falling from the roof. That aside, Leicester seems like a good main character, not flakey at all, but I’m hoping Minette is only given a daughterly role (way too much of a loli), even though I know that won’t happen lol. Also, nice MILF action, I was really surprised when they said that Shelly was his mother.
As far as the other girls go, none of them particularly stands out yet. Agnes was a bit amusing but Carina didn’t really leave much of an impression, despite being focused on the most. The loli Tortilla twins stood out the most with their combo of genki girl and deadpan loli, so they’ll definitely bring the lulz to the series (hopefully). Chelsea wasn’t really focused on too much this episode so I can’t comment much on her, although I thought it was retarded when she started to pull out her blade in the face of a meteor.
Anyways, overall this is more or less going to be the generic harem comedy, which I’m fine with. Should be entertaining to watch, so I’ll stick with this.
Oh and Divine, you linked to the wrong picture for Chelsea Arcot lol. It leads to the twins.
overall it is an overly cute anime… cant see the plot yet either but i give this anime a 3 episode test to decide whether i would like it or not.
good introduction. need to see more so i can see if its good or bad
good show to me much better then most of whats out.
i was impressed with the quality also the harem-esque territory also helps will watch this series
Good first Episode, I think I’ll give this series a try.
“but surely there are some out there who are mesmerized by the abundance of cute characters and vivid colors like myself”
XD For some reason I find this statement strikingly cute. Yay for vivid colors!
It’s nice to see the variety of shows covered on RandomC, seeing as shows like RAINBOW could be called the polar opposite of shows like this. 🙂
I am not sure about this Anime, it seems like a bland.. almost childish show.
But they also throw in some random fan-service every now and then and it just feels really out of place to me. :/
I am going to give this show maybe… 2 more episodes before I drop my final verdict though.
Chelsea Arcot picture link goes to Tortilla twins.
From the first episode, it at least has potential – whether it will live up to that or not is something I’m eager to see. I look forward to more, particularly considering that some of the other first episodes so far this season (Ookami-san, Mitsudomoe, Amagami) don’t seem to be as good as I was hoping for based on the quality of shows from last season.
Wow the quality of the characters are SO nice. I already love it 🙂
The characters certainly are cute. This episode gives me mixed feeling though. There are humors, but the pace is kind of awkward.
I thought this was boring. I felt like all they did was introduce each other over and over again.
Mmm, prefer mitsudomoe, don’t like romantic comedies, i prefer black humour. 🙂
Haha, Thank you for blogging this. I’m really dissapointed when I see you do have this series in your Schedule. Of all series this season, this the one that I most expecting and looks like this series can meet my expectation very well. It is not often I want to watch an episode repeatedly
Oops, re-reading your post, I realized you won’ be blogging this series further. Ah, well. Thanks anyway.
The characters are cute but the main characters’ state of perpetual blush is off putting, otherwise a slow but honest start.
Definitely a watch for me
The first thing came to mind was Kobato (colors and character design) until the sisters came into view. Can’t with for Salsa to do-Ritos 🙂 free advertising yay! The names are complicated (the setting does looks Aria style) still here’s hoping to have the Oedipos finale.
That’s One Hot MOTHA!
Carina and her dress and Shelley look the best here.
Found it boring to be quite honest.
The first thing came to my mine when I saw Leicester Maycraft was Negima ( both of them are a natural born male Gigolo).
But I do plan on continue watch this, what can I say I am a sucker for cute anime :).
all these bright colors remind me of the environment of some cute anime mmorpg
Same, the fantasy aspect seems to aid that thought.
I don’t know what to make of this show yet. I’m not really one for harems but the comedy wasn’t too bad.
What’s with the constant blushing btw.
It’s a trope of some animes. As to the why, no idea.
i don’t get the point of this anime… is this a slice of life set in a fantasy world or what? is there an actual plot?
In contrast to Divine’s opinion, throughout my anime-watching, I’ve never really came across an eroge/game-based anime that actually was worth watching with the rare exceptions, e.g. Utawarerumono and the Key series. Watching this anime was an excercise of patience, I have to admit. It was like eating cotton candy: sugary but no substance. The entire episode was spent introducing cliched characters (a fallacy of eroge/game adaptations) without introducing the main point of the plot, or a somewhat tepid attempt at introducing a plot. Like a couple of other users, I’ll be giving this series a 2-3 episode test to see if it catches my interest.