Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「ハイスクール[ANIME SIDE] -Bootleg-」 (High School [Anime Side] -Bootleg-) by 高垣彩陽 (Takagaki Ayahi)
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「かみさま、アリスのこいが、えいえんにかないませんように」 (Kami-sama, Arisu no Koiga, Eien ni Kanaimasen You ni)
“God, I Pray That Alice’s Love Will Never Be Realized”
This ain’t no city of stars! Let’s move on from all the la-la-ing ~
One of the most glaringly annoying things on this anime, is hands down, Nino’s singing. And not her performance singing – I mean her la-la-la-ing and it’s not even to a particularly good melody nor is it the proper way solfeggio or way of “singing”/reading music. The pitch is definitely getting to me so I’ll try to ignore the singing children voices from here on out.
Anyway! Complaints aside, I think the story is fine. I haven’t read the manga, but I’ve read numerous complaints that the story is told “out of order”. I don’t think it deters from the basis of the story and at least, it’s not confusing. You have a young Nino who is good friends with Momo growing up and they both encourage each other to sing. They have a relationship that’s seemingly closer than just neighbors and “friends” but as kids, I’ll say that it’s deep infatuation (rather than love). When Momo skips town one day, Nino doesn’t really know why but decides to sing a melody which she sees in the sand, in hopes that it reconnects her with Momo. We quickly find out that the melody is written by a young Yuzu (who is coincidentally drinking milk? Why so short then?) and they form a friendship where Nino sings Yuzu’s songs, helping her bring her friend back. Yuzu is a lot easier to read and he clearly likes Nino but he also says goodbye after some time together, leaving her with nothing but a song written in sand. Flash forward to the present…
and they finally meet again in high school.
While there’s nothing wrong with the backstory and the childhood friendships between Nino and Momo/Yuzu, I feel like it’s way to mature for young kids. I remember when I was young, I used to play in the sand and build sand castles – not write music (maybe I just wasn’t talented…) and I definitely wouldn’t hold a boy’s hand (ew, cootles much?). So I feel like “love” is a strong word to use on two very juvenile relationships. That aside, I still like how they built up the relationships that Nino already has with these two boys and why seeing them again might mean a lot! I’m a huge fan of ”second-girl/guy wins” tropes so even without seeing much of Momo (super biased), I already know that Yuzu is the guy that wins in my heart. I like men that know what they want (and he knows that he likes her!) and I like seeing the main protagonist learn to love someone else that they didn’t have their hearts set on earlier on.
With that all said, the ending sequence is beginning to grow on me, and the animation style is starting to slowly get more bearable (or I’m just used to it now) so I can see myself sticking around to see just who Nino picks. Obviously the best case scenario would be either Momo or Yuzu but the worst case scenario would be a cliffhanger or NO ONE at all! So I pray that that’s not the case. The other characters are beginning to get a bit more of the spotlight too and is that another side romance I see brewing? Cute!
Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: This ain’t no city of stars, the la-la-ing from Nino is getting on my nerves. She needs to sing an actual song! That said, I’m usually a second-boy-wins fan so here’s to Yuzu! He clearly gets friend-zoned so hard =( #fukumenkeinoise
I actually find Nino infuriating because she thinks her singing will fix everything, screams a lot, doesn’t listen to anyone, then blames everything else for the problems she created, as “her world” seems to lack anything that isn’t directly related to her just singing with Momo. What a frustrating MC.
I hope she gets super decent development that teaches her screaming and singing won’t fix a dang thing.
As a kid, I think it’s fine if Nino is a bit stubborn and childish… as a teen or adult though, I hope she grows up a bit more. The screaming is certainly annoying and I think the “singing” is just a plot device to show how “deep” her relationship is with Momo. Going forward, I think the story will be more focused on Nino developing as a singer and maybe that will be mixed with her developing into a more mature adult.
This essentially just boiled down to a longer version of the rushed backstory from the first episode. I understand why they did things the way that they did, but I kinda wish that they had started with this instead of how they did. The result is this feeling less like an episode 2, and more like an episode 1-b. I’ll have to give it an episode 3 (or 2) to really get a feel for where they’re going with this.
I didn’t mind the order too much because you often see other anime that will start with a more “interesting” premiere of the present days and then lead into the childhood background story. Given that episode 2 was a bit slower paced and you don’t see much of Momo anyway, I didn’t think it took much away from the general story.
It’s certainly a bit weird to have what should have been episode 1 content in the second episode instead…but I don’t think it’s that much of a big deal either. And I quite enjoyed seeing more of what happened anyway, to the extent I’m curious to see what these things were like from the perspectives of Momo and Yuzu, given that here mostly we get it from Nino’s perspective. And actually I just want to know more about why precisely she might have become so dependent on singing-I mean, she’s was slightly naïve and ditzy as a little kid it seems, and young children don’t have the best social filters anyway (also as exhibited by the bald kid), so I’m not surprised that she didn’t seem to have any inhibitions about just singing whenever. But it seems like she clings to it as a way of literally getting through life, and still does now, which hints at something else. Well, aside from the obvious traumatic impact losing two friends had on her. Perhaps she too has a difficult home situation?? Though to be fair she seems like the type who would have a dash of the eccentric in her no matter what sort of backstory she has, but still I’m convinced that there’s something more to her weirdness and I want/need to know what it is. I’m just really fascinated by her character-it’s frustrating to watch her and honestly sometimes she’s kind of baffling but yet there’s something relatable about her.
Though I do agree with you in that the la-la-la-ing is kind of irritating to listen to all the time, and I’ll probably be trying to ignore it too. And looking forward to proper songs too.
Okay, I didn’t realise just how rambly that comment would end up being. I apologise for that, I think this anime may just have captured me already.
From reading the manga, I had always imagined Nino’s constant singing to be quite different. Although Saori Hayama is actually my favourite voice actress, it absolutely pains me to say they chose the wrong voice actress for this particular role. I can’t bring up an example of a voice actress who possibly could have been a lot more effective but one with a powerful voice capable of producing a rock ballade is surely more suited.
What about the singer who does the opening song?? Ayahi Takagaki? Her voice seemed to go well with that song…though, given she voices Mio already that’s probably a silly suggestion. Maybe, then someone like Eri Kitamura or Nana Mizuki???
I also found myself thinking today that the singer Merami (also known as Meramipop) would have been quite a good choice for voicing Nino, since her voice goes well with rock stuff (she was the vocalist for Foreground Eclipse, who have since disbanded-I love their stuff, I thoroughly recommend checking some of their songs out). The only trouble with that is that Merami doesn’t voice act as far as I know.
While Nana Mizuki would have been a good shout, a preoccupation with her own music career in addition to having two voice acting roles (Hinata in Boruto, Phoebe in Gin no Guardian) this season probably limited her ability to apply for the role.
And yeah, it’s unfortunate but they usually can’t just randomly grab a talented singer who has no formal training in voice acting. If things were that simple, literally every idol anime would probably jump at the chance to have a real idol voice stuff.
I can always give Japanese music a shot, so I will definitely try out the stuff you’ve suggested, although your music recommendations live or die off of this. No pressure 😛
XD No pressure at all…….
It’s pure irony, I agree with you that Hayama isn’t doing a great job at the singing part, but when you cast someone like Takagaki next to her, who’s well known to be graduated from a singing school next to her. Makes me wonder what was the casting director thinking.
From what I remember of her portrayal of Noe in True Tears, Takagaki’s singing was good, but not the kind of voice I would attribute to Nino.