First Impressions / Fuuka / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「Climber’s High!」 by 沼倉愛美 (Numakura Manami w/ Arrangement from SHO from MY FIRST STORY)

 

Episode 01 – 風夏!

 

Episode 02 – はばたけ!

「EP1 風夏! / EP2 はばたけ!」 (EP1 Fuuka! / EP2 Habatake!)
“EP1 Fuuka! / EP2 Take Flight!”

I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about Fuuka. It has parts that I really enjoy but at the same time it also has a few things that give me a dreadful feeling about what’s to come. Overall though, I really liked what we got (makes me nervous for all the negativity I saw in the preview). And based off of these two episodes (double episode release ftw!), I can honestly say I’ve been adequately pumped with enough “stuff” to keep me coming back for episode three.

General Impressions

Boy, where do I start with this one? With a strong opening that led to the destruction of our MC Yuu’s phone, you can bet I was pretty pissed off. Especially in a world like ours where cell phone ownership is ubiquitous, how the hell can you go and smash someone’s phone simply based on an assumption? Minor gripes and sour first impressions of Fuuka aside, the show definitely hit its stride right after that. Throwing us into Yuu’s world and Fuuka’s by association, I loved how all the minor things were tossed aside in favor of supercharging the beginning of Yuu and Fuuka’s relationship. Promptly hitting all your typical flags from awkward meetings to accidental cute interactions all the way to Fuuka taking the initiative and avoiding a disaster during their first date, it felt like the pair’s relationship was all but sealed.

That is, until the monstrous appearance of Hinashi Koyuki, the super famous singer who is also Yuu’s childhood friend. With a simple DM and an honest phone call after, it was clear that we had a good old fashioned love triangle about to form. Now, I’m never one to turn away from an interesting love triangle, but something about this one feels like the impact of when everything collides is going to be catastrophic. With both girls focusing on music because of some inspiration from the guy they’re both going after, it feels like we have two trains speeding toward each other, just waiting to crash into each other. And honestly, I can’t wait for it to happen since the show is doing a fantastic job at building it up. And by fantastic, I mean how things didn’t just come crashing down when Koyuki saw Yuu at her concert standing alongside an enthusiastic Fuuka.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed what this first episode gave us!

Cringe Factor

Boy, does this show love to make you cringe or what? With episode one nearly topping the charts for the amount of times I had to look away or hit pause because of second-hand embarrassment, I must say that the show did a pretty good job at unleashing all of that cringe without hitting my threshold. It’s tough to describe, but there’s always something right around the bend when it comes to the story that’ll alleviate some of that embarrassment just in the nick of time. So yeah, good on you show for not killing us with cringe.

Looking Ahead

Man, I have no idea what’s going to happen and I absolutely love it. With a fairly wide range of characters and a clear direction for where Fuuka wants to go with her life, I’m excited to see where her Light Music or K-ON! (:^)) club ends up going. How convenient for Yuu to have an opportunity to learn bass, huh? In any case, I’ll probably be back next week since there’s no way I’m going to miss an episode with the word “triangle” in its episode title. See you then!

P.S. Please avoid any spoilers in the comments by using the spoiler tag! I think I stumbled on something by accident, and I almost flipped my table. Hopefully I just misread whatever it was since I clicked back as fast as my hands would let me.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「ワタシノセカイ」 (Watashi no Sekai) by 中島愛 (Nakajima Megumi)

51 Comments

    2. If it follows Suzuka, be ready to get pissed off, especially if they put on us a Fuuka scenario and the love triangle is just for drama. Check Suzuka and you know what I mean.

      Syaoran Li
      Reply

      1. Oh man I didn’t even know this was a sequal to Suzaku. If it’s anything like its predecessor, I’m going to end up throwing my own phone on the ground out of irritation…

        Fox
        Reply

    1. i think RC should be a bit more strict or place some control on spoilers posting. if some folks wants spoilers, have them find it and not us spoon-feeding it to them. this series has some potential.. spoilers can destroy that potential.

      Jeffers
      Reply

    2. I haven’t found any spoilers on the site (didn’t check in with the Preview post too much though, so not sure about that one)

      In any case, I try my best to keep an eye out for my posts and spoiler tag if people forget.
      If you see anything in general on any post though, you can always drop me a line on twitter @rctakaii or e-mail!

      Takaii
      Reply

  3. What kind of rational person charges into someone, blames them for not moving out of the way, accuses the person they charged into of taking pictures of them, breaks their phone and slaps them in public?

    It feels as though Seo Kouji newly discovered what Twitter was when writing this. And, boy, the show is cliches abound.

    jcoe
    Reply

  4. if one can ignore the early panty shots and nude… nude? errr undergarment scenes, fuuka is certainly enjoyable and with 2 episodes out, long term otakus can deduce already that this series will become a train full of emotions waiting to get wrecked in the end and spill all of it out. overall definitely a strong start for this series for me.

    —anyway i will watch this more for the idol-commoner relationship plot. i like popular girl idol and a commoner guy type of story. and yeah, i am already seeing a insane wreck of emotion between the two.

    Jeffers
    Reply

  5. An ANN reviewer said this about Seo Kouji:

    “…It would be different if this show was an in-depth exploration of complex feelings between adolescent characters, but Seo has never [been] interested in that kind of writing. He’s a man of simple tastes…who carved his niche in romance by writing basic teen dramas mired in the melodrama of love, just aimed more directly at a male audience than the female audience that tends to dominate that genre sphere. ”

    In short, Seo writes romance stories that appeal to dudes instead of girls and shoujo conventions.

    zztop
    Reply

  6. Seo’s trainwrecks best trainwrecks. Glad to see that we finally got some decent production quality for his works. And that we don’t start the story with 80th chapter this time.

    gusto
    Reply

  12. Three words of the vibe I’m quickly getting from this…

    White Album 2

    …of course, I still love it so far.

    At first, I thought Fuuka was going to be a pretty tsundere bitch most of the time with that kind of introduction, with misunderstandings abound that always get Yuu punished when it’s so obviously Fuuka’s fault, and then she would fall for Yuu after one good deed or something, and thus push me to unanimously root for Koyuki, but thankfully, they managed to quickly shed that part of Fuuka and show a much more likable personality underneath and now I really can’t decide who I want to support.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

  13. How to describe this anime based on these two episodes? I could say that this series is going in the wrong direction in the right order. Since we all know that things are going wrong. We just don’t know how wrong it will be.

    UNFORTUNATELY for me, my friend gave me major spoiler just after I download both episode BEFORE I watch them. So. Yeah. It gave me headache, like every five minutes during I watch this. Probably I should format his hard drive to get back at him someday. Probably will stick for the music now…ugh.

    raxar
    Reply

  14. I couldn’t handle very well the bullshit that Suzuka put me through 12 years ago, with its anime adaptation. So, I don’t know what to think of this Fuuka adaptation, because I don’t like a love story when the author has set in his mind from the beginning how the love story will unfold and we’re just here to see his silly drama between the characters.

    Let’s hope the author has set something different for this story.

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

  15. I kind of like the double episode special debut. I’m sticking around for the ride

    And yes Stilts nee-san… future posts on Fukka (if any) needs to be moderated. I glide past the spoilers here

    Velvet Scarlantina
    Reply

  21. As a reader, I would say Seo’s writing got better. I was pretty annoyed with Suzuka and Kimi no Iru Machi, but I actually look forward to read Fuuka every week. I haven’t seen the anime though but I’ll probably watch it later on.
    By the way, is it too hard for some people to let anime viewers enjoy the story?
    Just keep it to yourselves, manga readers. I’ve read Fuuka but I’ve never felt the need to act immature and spoil the story.
    Let anime viewers decide how they feel after they experience the anime by themselves.

    Seorori
    Reply

      2. Same here.

        Very rarely have I read a manga/LN before watching the anime (Claymore being one example I can immediately think of) – it’s usually the other way around, the anime sometimes making me check out the manga/LN – but yeah, it’s REALLY annoying when I say I enjoyed the anime version of something, having never read the manga/LN version of it, only to have manga/LN purists/elitists jump down my throat, demanding I go read the manga/LN, saying the anime version sucked for X reasons, that I’m not a “true fan” unless I read the manga/LN, etc.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
        Reply

    3. Yo, I’m READY to be pissed off and go full SEEOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! on this ~ I mean, it’s secretly(is it even secretly?) why we’re all watching this right? RIGHT?

      That aside, I haven’t read the manga even thought I’d said I’ll pick it up after reading Kimi no Iru Rage(which I overall enjoyed, with all it’s ups & downs) so maybe I’ll finally get to it after the anime’s over. Good to hear that Seo’s writing got better though.

      Manly Tear
      Reply

  22. Not going to spoil but I wouldn’t bother. The author is one of those types who thinks he’s God’s gift to writing and any writing he does is best no matter how many chairs are thrown into the ring.

    I’d pay CR more if they removed it from thwir manga service.

    Craig A McLeod
    Reply

  23. Seo Kouji stories will always have you flipping tables at some point, so you’re better off not looking around in advance to get the full experience. Part of the fascination of a train wreck is that you aren’t prepared for the wreckage.

    It was nice to see Suzuka and Akitsuki again after all these years, though.

    SK
    Reply

  24. Anyone who has read Kouji Seo’s works will know that it’s similar to any vice. You know it’s gonna be bad for you at some point in time but you just can’t resist.

    Prepare the Tissues and Pitch Forks! (you know you’re gonna use them)

    For those who are coming in blind, enjoy the ride. It’s gonna be an emotional rollercoaster ride but love him or hate him, Seo has this knack for making the audience feel enough that they will be moved to action

    Juan
    Reply

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