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「わたしは星に届かない」 (Watashi wa Hoshi ni Todokanai)
“I Can’t Reach the Star”
Ah another season, another romance, another…yuri? That’s right boys and girls, the (sub-)genre of pure love and cute girls is back yet again with another adaptation to tickle hearts and forge a few fantasies. Not that Yagakimi is going to be following recent trends mind you; as our handy dandy preview indicates this is one yuri which most certainly isn’t like the rest. If you live for fan service and want the spicier things in life you better turn away now because Yagakimi is going to be romance. Pure, wholesome romance.
Right off the bat Yagakimi certainly works to separate itself from the pack. Romances for example aren’t well known for their visual prowess (outside of detailed eye shots), but here? Well Troyca apparently didn’t get the message. No matter opinions on characters and story (we’ll get to that in a moment) it’s hard denying this show is sporting some serious production values, with artwork and animation (and even some funky first person perspective) nicely emulating the manga and soundtrack choices keeping to the soft, cutesy feel Yagakimi’s source works hard to maintain. It may only be early days yet, but should this quality be kept up for the rest of the season I am going to be one seriously happy camper.
As for the premise itself Yagakimi doesn’t waste too much time on the details just yet. We have our new junior Koito Yuu (Tadaka Yuuki) who has a problem with feeling love (or at least converting fantasy to reality), a stunning and charismatic senior Nanami Touko (Kotobuki Minako) who seemingly has all the answers (at least in Yuu’s mind), and the wide cast of side characters who I guarantee will start factoring in once this story gets rolling—particularly the likes of Sayaka and Seiji (hint hint). It’s your basic romance setup which thanks to a confusing confession from Touko seems poised to degenerate into the usual shenanigans (hello citrus), but one I can assure you will not. This series as will be seen shortly is very much a slow burner, it’s focused hard on steady, organic development and relationship building over quick release fan service and other assorted goodies. It may have kissing and the like (as though you could ever do without that), but heavy petting and potential rape? Not in the slightest. Yuu’s and Touko’s relationship is treated rather like those in more conventional romances (ex. Kimi ni Todoke), where the focus on sounding out feelings and either accepting or rejecting them. It may take a bit of time for this aspect to properly reveal itself, but when it does this series will really come into its own.
Just have to wait for the details behind Touko’s abrupt confession and interest in Yuu to start emerging next time to get an idea of what path this little love story is going to be following.
Random Tidbits
While Yuu’s confessor may be a teenager, you’d think the poor kid would realize if he didn’t have an answer for over a month (!!!) that he was rejected. If a girl likes you she’s not going to make you wait and will leave you plenty of opportunities to figure it out—I guarantee it.
ED Sequence
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OP: 「君にふれて」 (Kimi ni Furete) by Riko Azuna
As a manga reader I was quite pleased with the episode, the adaptation was very faithful to the source material. The main concern now is where they choose to end the series, judging by the pace they’re going it might be not include some of the pivotal arcs. It’ll be quite interesting to follow regardless.
I’ve got my hopes up, but it’s definitely a big concern. We’ll just have to wait and see.
As a manga reader myself (for once) I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed. Perhaps I’d been looking forward to the first episode too much for too long, but when it finally turned up I was disappointed. Yes it was faithful to the manga, but let’s not forget that manga and anime are two very different things, and if you stay too close in your adaptation then all you end up with is moving pictures plus a soundtrack rather than something living and breathing.
Anyway, it’s nowhere near 3 episode rule territory so I’m going to stick with it and hope it improves as it gets into its stride.
The only problem for me right now is the pacing, it moved faster than expected, especially the scene where Yuu was caught watching Touko reject the guy. Later episodes will be the tell though, a few of the upcoming arcs will suffer badly if rushed through, especially when it comes to explaining Touko.
Story-wise, I love this manga because it’s well-written and somewhat believable. There aren’t a whole lot of things I have to buy into that I ordinarily wouldn’t believe. (As opposed to Citrus, which was a mess of stupid coincidences.)
I feel like it’s a pretty solid adaptation so far. A couple of scenes were switched around in terms of timing, but there’s no major effect on the plot.
A good adaptation is hard to pull off, because everyone will compare it to the source material, and the readers will all have different individual expectations.
Pacing is always a concern, but I feel that there’s nothing to say until it becomes a real problem.
I really like this. During the time I was watching it, it felt very genuine and innocent, a rarity in this genre. Normally, we would expect something like Citrus when it comes to Shoujo-Ai adaptions but this wasn’t the case here.
Oh yeah this one definitely won’t be citrus, no worries on that front. This series makes a strong effort to stay believable and genuine which stays through the entire story. It may not be the “best” yuri, but it’s certainly one of the strongest we have received to date.
I think the best Shoujo-Ai I know is Aoi Hana(manga). I wonder what yours is…
Didn’t have any expectations getting into this so I’m pleasantly surprised. Hope people will give this a chance despite alot of disappointing yuri adaptations lately.
I have yet to watch this, but it looks hopeful. Could this be the next Tsuki Ga Kirei? The animation looks gorgeous, and if I can’t watch it, I’ll have to read the manga and play catch up.
Potentially, but I’d be hesitant linking the two due to difference in romance and also because matching up to Tsuki Ga Kirei is a serious task. Definitely give it a shot though, if the adaptation keeps like it did this episode it’s going to be a very fun ride.
I’ll check it out if I can find it legally.
A gentle sepia-toned yuri romance… it was entirely inoffensive and even had some charm, but I was hoping for something with more bite to it. This ep seemed a bit thin and slushy. Is there more substance to it later? For me the benchmark has long been Aoi Hana.
I didn’t watch this right away. It wasn’t until the second episode came out that I did. I found the first episode to be interesting enough that I want to see more. If I were to offer any criticism, it would be regarding the flow rather than the pacing. I found that events kind of stopped and started awkwardly. Perhaps that was a sacrifice made to get as much story out as required.
As an aside, I often see comments about Aoi Hana being a genre favourite and I’m always curious as to the reasons. I watched it some years ago and it didn’t leave much of an impression on me (as in I literally cannot recall any of it whatsoever… no plot, no characters, nothing). For what it’s worth, my favourite yuriesque show would be Sasameki Koto, and then probably Marimite.
I see what you’re going for in comparing to Kimi ni Todoke, but I feel like that implies we’re gonna be caught in the repetitive misunderstandings that that series was so well known for dragging out. As an avid reader of this manga, I can say that this series isn’t like that. The characters have fundamental differences with how they interpret “love” and those interpretations change as the plot ensues and as the two of them communicate with each other. Without getting into spoilers, those interpretations are pretty interesting and surprising, making this series unique.
I liked the first episode, I wasn’t blown away by the animation like many have been though. Probably just because the manga’s visual style is a 10/10 in my book and it’s always rough to see manga character designs get short-changed in anime adaptions. The anime’s visual style is a lot brighter and calmer than my impression of the manga, which always felt more dark and even a bit brooding. Loving the VO and some of the visual gimmicks (no spoilers but the underwater effect is well thought out.)