Animegataris / First Impressions

「アニケン, ヤットハイブ」 (Aniken, Yatto Haibu)
“Anime Club Finally Falls”

As it seems, the Principal’s decision to end the anime club was a red herring towards the real mystery behind his behavior; his role as the creator of Minoa’s favorite anime! Minoa tripping through the crawl space to his office began with the Principal being openly offended by the anime short, but as their conversation continues, he slowly unravels until the truth is out. This episode was very effective in how it revealed the Principal’s motivations and identity as he kept leaving a trail for Minoa and the club to track down the anime he directed, beginning from his familiarity with what Minoa was talking about via his other inspirations (If you wanna feel old, RahXephon was one of the anime that inspired the show Minoa loved as a toddler). I enjoyed how his taste in anime matches the shows he grew up with as Macross, Sailor Moon, and Urusei Yatsura appear in his thoughts.

It was pleasant to see how they establish quickly that the Principal isn’t outright malicious, and from his perspective, he was just a hardcore anime fan who happened to become disillusioned when the show he directed was cancelled in its first episode. His pain is relatable, at least to Miko, and his willingness to talk with Minoa about his passion for anime and have her take notes on how to look at it from a different angle make him extremely likable. He does leave by the end of the episode, but it would’ve been nice to see him helm the school being the passionate anime fan he is, especially since he regains his positivity after seeing that there were other people than Minoa who were huge fans of his cult classic.

Whereas the Principal is going along with everything merely because he wasn’t a fan of the anime short, Kouki is the real mastermind holding the reins towards the anime club’s demise. Even after the anime club falls for his obviously fake sob story to rejoin the club, he continued to look as sketch as possible about any development to find out the anime the Principal made (Kudos to the show for having 2chan save the day). However, their alliance looks like it won’t last so long knowing that Minoa just found out that a boy that looks like the split image of Kouki was one of the Principal’s classmates when he was a part of that anime club. What this means for the anime club, and how we’ll find out how Kouki kept his looks all these years will hopefully be reveled by the next ep. And if the OP is of any indicator, I’m wondering if Yui will have a deeper role in the future of the show, or if her memetic status as the show’s choice for tasteful fanservice will continue carrying on the tradition.

18 Comments

  2. The story in this ep. is totally unexpected. I like how Arisu live steam made online community helped them found the name of that legendary anime. And that OP, they really know we want.

    BTW, are you not going to comment on the fact that Principal’s dark aura, dark cloud, rain and thunder are all real?

    Marina2
    Reply

    1. Perhaps my Path of “Why did she choose this Boy over me!? I am Mr. Loverboy on this School i get all Girls!” can be right. Bit i admit, i way thinking of the principal, not of Kouki

      See what unrequited love can do? He sabotage the Club or Company, and still have this grudge

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

      1. But then, how Old is he really? he must be the same age as the Principal and someones Daddy

        Also, perhaps he wants revenge. Because he see their “Love child” everyday in front of him. Deep Grudge indeed. Or this Son looks like his father and took his venom. “He got poor and got sick and died of sickness. It is your fault!”.. But then why they got cut after only 1 Episode? Someone insisted or forced the ones in charge to shut it down

        Last comment

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

  5. I also laughed at the show making otaku on the internet look like a giant bunch of plebs. I love it when anime takes little digs like that, Girlish Number did it too. Obviously they’re not including gentlemanly individuals with patrician tastes like me, of course.

    Puffles
    Reply

  7. Am I the only one who understood the Osomatsu reference in Kouki Story?
    From one moment to another this show turned into an Anime of cliche, even they added the “obligatory” drama from the 3-4 last episodes of the season that a lot of animes (ab)uses
    Maybe when they opened the door all started to change

    Random Human
    Reply

  8. Dome, Mikan, Slam Dunk, Captain Tsubasa, Lamu, RahXephon … I’m getting old because i understood all the “old school” references ^^; …

    This anime is cute even if i see what’s probably going to happen … I even liked Samurai Flamenco anime ^^; haha …

    Happy New Year everyone! ^^ .

    Usagi
    Reply

  10. Maybe Nakano-senpai is an anime character that came alive and he was modeled after that club member that looks like him. He is probably a nice one who wants to protect Minoa and everyone from that ¨Metallia¨ evil aura that is going around there XP …

    Usagi
    Reply

  12. Ep 11:

    I still have this feeling like the Girl in this Episode..

    But… As if someone is watching.. many “hints” of this episodes reminds me of someone…

    asking if Aurora-senpai has older Siblings and such…

    Well, i am surprised. Yes, you got me…. But admit it, you run out of ideas or i hit every jackpot you planed for the future episodes…

    Well, you want to be some sort of Shirobako…

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

      2. where is this one, that mentioned that in episode 1 she put this hat on her head, all began there.. where you the script writer?…

        Mommy.. i need my mega strong chill pill express delivering

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

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