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「再会と再開」 (Saikai to saikai)
“Reunion and Restart”
You know rings a new anime season in best? Why a new alternate world show of course! With no less than three such series gracing our screens this season we’re going to be seeing a lot of isekai before all is said and done, although Shichisei no Subaru might be the fortunate (or just plain lucky) one to break through the competition. Having hyped this one in the handy dandy RC Preview I had high hopes my expectations wouldn’t be unceremoniously ruined, and while we are still in early days, things are looking up quite nicely for SnS.
For anyone even remotely familiar with RPG themed stories SnS’s premise and setting should be no surprise. We have the widely popular MMORPG that everyone (including foreigners) play, the boss battles, the typical party makeup and general (read: cliché) roles and banter, the special game mechanic determining the cream of the crop, and even the romance sure to develop from spending inordinate amounts of time together with the opposite sex. Sure SnS might deviate from recent convention by repeatedly indicating in-game death results in no respawn and account deletion (important plot element guaranteed), but that’s just basically SAO with some extra steps—hell just look at the game technology, you know perfectly well which franchise first and foremost inspired this story.
The key for SnS, however, was never going to be its setting as much as its story, and it is here where we find the first signs of ingenuity. Rather than some save the world premise, we have a form of AnoHana-esque murder mystery where certified cutie pie Asahi (Oomori Nichika) dies in real life after a boss fight only to somehow reappear six years later in-game before her devastated future lover (ring swapping never lies) Haruto (Takanashi Kengo). How she’s still present and, mostly importantly, seemingly unaware of what happened following her death are the elephants in the room, although appearing in a random treasure chest after a dungeon glitch-out certainly doesn’t hint towards anything good. Provided the show focuses on Haruto trying to square this circle we are effectively looking at a less abstract and philosophical .hack//Sign, where the mystery of Asahi and its investigation are front and centre and any game mechanics (barring the Sense system itself) are used mostly for flavour. This approach is already evident too from the focus on the game’s—i.e. Re’Union’s—function in selecting executive members for the game developer’s staff, the requirement for players to have a Sense ability, and those aforementioned remarks on in-game death permanency—the reason for Asahi’s death and Pleroma Industry’s ulterior motive (because there is one guaranteed) will be the primary driving force behind SnS.
Before we get into such super serious topics though, first comes the characters and properly reuniting the destinedTM couple. There’s a lot of emotions for Haruto to sort through before he can start figuring out Asahi’s shocking return, and that’s before considering the other Subaru members waiting to come back. Designated NTR boy Takanori (Ishikawa Kaito) in particular is going to be fun to watch interact with Haruto considering where his heart very clearly lies, and no need to mention poor Satsuki (Kito Akari)—we all know what happens to such childhood friends.
SnS may have been more teaser than proper introduction this episode, but you can be sure that will be more than made up for next week. With a mystery to solve and a party to reunite, it’s only fun and games (and probably more death) from here on out for this little alternate world story.
OP Sequence
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OP: 「360° 星の才ーケストラ」 (Hoshi no Ookesutora) by petit milady
Preview
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https://randomc.net/image/Shichisei%20no%20Subaru/Shichisei%20no%20Subaru%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
I’m sure that’s Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Source LNs for Shichisei are currently at 6 volumes and ongoing.
://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichisei_no_Subaru
Honestly if one has to pick isekai to watch this season, I will recommend Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria instead of the other two, even though it has the most cringe-worthy name I’ve ever heard.
Still giving this a try though.
I’ve got my hopes up for this one more than Valkyria, but that’s mostly due to the latter being more conventional iskei than SnS. Never know, I’ve had my expectations thoroughly thrashed before haha
https://randomc.net/image/Shichisei%20no%20Subaru/Shichisei%20no%20Subaru%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
kirito: sachi….
haruto: wrong girl dude, but i know how you feel..
I already like this way more than a lot of Isekai series if simply because of the balance of genders in the main cast. I’m really sick of Isekai harem shows with a bunch of whiny waifus who fawn over the main guy and stand around looking sexy. I’m really hoping this show can steer clear of too many of the romantic trappings of these shows and focus on a good solid character driven RPG story with a likable cast of characters. It could very well go down a bad or mediocre direction but I’m choosing to remain optimistic if only because I like being miserable.
Never considered it before but you’re right, the sex balance and the associated romance is going to be something to watch out for. It all depends on how Haruto, Takanori, and Satsuki wind up coming to terms with each other, because I could easily see this turning into a ridiculous (melo)drama fest with no proper conclusion at the end.
There are 4 isekai shows this season
Granted, it’s only 3 if we are talking about actual debuts and don’t count Overlord III because it’s a continuation.
Make it 5 then. Yume Oukoku starts with young bizneswoman waking up to discover she’s in another world and she’s long lost princess or something. It’s average though so not really worth watching. Just saying.
Haha yeah Overlord is out for me mostly for it being a continuation, it’s advanced so far now it’s not really isekai as much as a fantasy.
All Isekai eventually become fantasy. Unless it’s Multi-Isekai. I can’t think of a multi-isekai show or anime. What I really want is a different kind of isekai. How about steampunk or space opera isekai? It doesn’t always need to be Swords & Sorcery. Even Knights & Magic dosen’t break the mold that much.
I was worried that we’d get another protagonist that
gives long emotional speeches before doing anything,
but looks like we’re dodging the b****t in this case.
I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be another Re:Zero.
(BTW, I really miss the “Preview Comment” button…)
Don’t discount that happening just yet, there’s still plenty of time for such grandstanding 😛
As for the preview button I really want it back too, but I imagine we’ll bring it back once we finally get around to properly overhauling the comment system.
Wow… Despite the negative remarks i read in reddit primarily the “this anime is SAO imitation”, this is pretty interesting for me. Its a mmorpg virtual world but it has its own plot device. Even i would wonder how the F a dead person is living in a game
The premise is good but can’t say the same about anime as a whole. Bland character designs, boring dialogue, terrible exposition, unexciting fight choreography, overdramatized scenes and repulsive 3D monster. This was as average as something can get. And yeah, it so blatantly references SAO in so many elements that I don’t have high hopes for this. As far as I’m concerned it barely earned the right to watch another episode.
The only part I felt a bit put off by was Haruto being blamed for Asahi’s death by Takanori when Haruto didn’t do anything to actually cause it…
For me that part felt pretty believable given the ages of the kids and Takanori’s jealousy of Asahi’s closeness with Haruto. Takanori’s friend and crush just died, being shocked he naturally looked for any reason to explain it away. This was easily provided by the decision making of Haruto during the boss fight, giving Takanori all the reason he needed to lash out. He was wrong to do so (no reason the fight would have turned out better with different decisions for example), but given his emotional state it does make some sense.
The real question will be how long Takanori holds onto this grudge once he reunites with Haruto and discovers Asahi may not actually be dead.
Terrible so far. A vaguely interesting premise (albeit reminiscent of Hack/Sign) but boring characters even by the genre’s standards, no personalities, boring action scenes, and boring character designs.
Not too sure about this one. I’ll give it 3 episodes.
When the boy try to open treasure chest. I just feel that “the girl is inside the treasure chest” I bet many peoples who ever watched gurren lagann feel like me too.
this seems like AnoHana ina virtual reality?
it can be nice