First Impressions / Snapshots

「図書室と幼馴染」 (Tosho-shitsu to Osananajimi)
“The Library and the Childhood Friend”

Forewords

Seeing Tsugumomo finally get the subtitles it deserves makes me feel really happy. If you have seen the first episode with sub-par translations, I would suggest viewing it again using the new version provided by Crunchyroll.

So far, Tsugumomo has not too heavy on the exposition and drama but still manages to progress fairly well. Therefore, the attention of my post this time will mainly be on certain characters and their interactions with Kazuya.

Episode Impressions

Without further ado, this week’s episode focuses on the childhood friend Chisato, providing insights regarding her current dynamic with Kazuya. Let me start by saying her often unsolicited abuse of Kazuya is not okay – it would surely constitute battery of the illegal variant! Not the Duracell type of batteries, those are cute. The kind of treatment Kazuya endures would certainly be criminal in the UK and many countries, though I am not too sure about Japan. It doesn’t help that anime gives the impression that this level of violence is usually acceptable in Japan but my common sense is telling me otherwise. Can you justify people beating up their childhood friends for such trivial reasons at an adolescent age?

Although I’m still not a really big fan of Chisato, I definitely don’t dislike her as much as before following these sequence of events. In fact, when Kazuya suffers denser than titanium moments leaving Chisato devoid of a soul, it is hard not to feel sorry for her. Having a similar reaction by dying on the inside would not seem too unlikely, if I been misunderstood despite my obvious intentions.

As always Kiriha is so great. She continues to carry the show by breaking Kazuya’s alarm clock not once, but twice. If only I could have someone to do that for me, then I would have a legitimate excuse for not turning up to inconvenient arrangements. We see in her master/servant relationship with Kazuya that she is not infallible either, when he manages to completely trick her. Considering the repercussions one expects from Kiriha, Kazuya’s decision-making was worse than Bronze 5 – that is to say extremely rubbish. Hell hath no fury like a woman stuffed into a compact box for hours on end, though maybe the strict revision oni might be able to contend. Tragically his efforts were completely for naught. He still didn’t even make it to school on time, consequently receiving a whipping from Chisato, and a more extreme beating from Kiriha for pissing her off. Overall, my only conclusion can be that he suffered a huge negative loss.

It may seem like I’m exhibiting double standards, by disliking Chisato’s violence towards Kazuya while finding Kiriha’s abuse of him hilarious. What else can I say, I won’t deny I am a hypocrite. Maybe it’s my subconscious discrimination against Chisato’s character design, since I find her hair unattractive. It did not help that the anime dropped her harisen combo during her home visit to Kazuya in favour of her regular look. I do want to suggest that Kiriha’s abuse is usually not so one-dimensional and that as a character, she possesses various redeemable qualities which I personally find lacking in Chisato. Otherwise, Kazuya seems docile enough to take the hits and kicks without complaining too much. Makes me wonder if he is a masochist who is secretly enjoying all this suffering.

ACTION

Can I just say… GIGA DRILL BREAK! Though this is still nowhere near the full experience, we get more of a taste in terms of the action we can come to anticipate, during the library fight scene. The titan comprised of books presented quite an upgrade compared to last week’s evil wig, and the animation quality was on another level. In terms of faithfully adapting from the manga, Zero-G have done a good job, and have so far paced the episodes quite well. Admittedly, I even preferred the action scene for this instance over the manga version. This unfortunately doesn’t say a lot, since a lot of Tsugumomo’s earlier content was potato, for lack of a better word.

Concluding Thoughts

A commenter on my post last week made me realise that Tsugumomo felt like a comfortable show precisely because it has such an old school vibe. Therefore, I would also recommend this series to people who enjoy old-school action and ecchi series from the previous decade.

Next week, we can look forwards to the introduction of the shrine maiden and expect to see a lot more action going on. However, I will only be blogging Tsugumomo until Episode 3 meaning next week will be my last post for this series. My real-life schedule makes a Sunday series difficult to pick up. Nevertheless, I think Episode 3 is important, because enough things happen in it so that people can decide for themselves whether they want to continue watching this or not.

Having said that, see you next week for my final post on Tsugumomo!

Preview

10 Comments

  1. To the eager Nishizawa Mihashi.

    No wholesome, handmade memes this time. I haven’t slept, the sun has already risen, so I made a difficult choice. Apologies that the memes are about to become my dreams.

    Kind regards,
    Zaiden

    Zaiden
    Reply

  2. I’m not sure how much content out of 19 volumes they could fit into a 12-ep cour, and whether its good content too.
    (I’ve heard of titles which get better in later volumes, but whose early adapted material was quite lacking.)

    zztop
    Reply

  3. Episode 2 certainly followed up on the “classic/old-school” vibe I got last time. For some reason, this reminds me a little bit of ToLove-Ru. Maybe it’s the ecchi + violent (sometimes retribution) comedy. As previously mentioned, I do like some series like this, but honestly I’m on the fence with this one. I don’t hate it, but I’m not really enthralled either. It’s OK, and my initial impressions from episode 1 are unchanged.

    If there’s one other feeling I get from this show besides “old-school vibe”, it is consistency. Manga readers can say better than I, but my impression of the first two episodes is what we have seen is what we will get the entire season in general. While I expect some character relationship development and of course some sort of plot advancement (though plot isn’t established yet from what I can tell beyond amasogi of the week), I also expect characters will largely stay in their lanes.

    So FWIW, my guess is that if one likes the show already, you’re good to go. If not, probably a drop. If you’re on the fence like me, then I guess continue to try it out a bit longer and see if the scales tip definitively one way or the other.

    @Zaiden: Quick question. You wrote that next episode is your “final post on Tsugumomo” which makes sense for weekly coverage due to RL conflict. However, given how you seem to like the manga and are at least fairly pleased with the adaptation, my impression was that you would do a season end review. Not asking for a commitment, just curious.

    Thanks

    daikama
    Reply

    1. Hey daikama, your expectations sound about right, though I reckon there is a chance that the season may end where things start to kick up a notch. That would be my hope!

      If you’re on the fence, I would definitely say make your decision after watching the next episode.

      The possibility of writing a season end review is definitely there, considering that I get considerably more free time once the summer holiday come around. However, I’m not willing to make promises or commitments that I will be unable to keep. It will depend on how things go.

      Zaiden
      Reply

  4. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed with this episode. You know the scene where Chisato finds Kazuya and Kiriha in bed? Well, Chisato full on uses a paper fan attack combo in the manga (rising fan –> stabbing fan –> justice fan –> demon fan) on Kazuya. I still remember laughing hysterically at that panel years ago. Plus the joke gets used a few more times later the in the series. I was honestly waiting for years to see that scene animated because it was those types of jokes and references that really set the Tsugumomo series apart. Instead, the anime pans to a picture of the roof and gives us a paper fan slapping sound *facepalm* Not to mention, Chisato was supposed to come to Kazuya’s place all dressed up only to revert to her paper fan mode upon seeing Kazuya/Kiriha.

    To me this episode set the tone of the anime adaptation. Basically, it looks like the anime is just going to stick to old school anime cliches and skip the fun jokes in the manga. Anime only watchers will probably be fine as it will be decent series to watch given the story, but for those of us who read the manga, I’m already classifying this anime as a subpar adaptation and/or adaptation just to get more manga readers.

    Yeah, I get it, episodes have time and budget limits, but really, why cut the best jokes of the series? Couldn’t the studio try a little harder?

    Sorry for the rant. I’ll still watch the series, but after this episode, I will need bring my expectations way down.

    Aoihoshikage
    Reply

    1. Yup Aoihoshikage, I do talk about my own disappointment that they dropped the harisen combo, as well as Chisato’s attempt to dress up.

      An anime adaption is usually never perfect, so we just gotta appreciate that sometimes corners will be cut. There is simple enjoyment to be found, seeing a manga come to life on the screen.

      No problem about the rant. I think it helped me that I went in with low expectations. I mean, low expectations are win win. You are almost never disappointed, or you are pleasantly surprised that your expectations are exceeded.

      Zaiden
      Reply

    2. @Aoihoshikage; Chisato full on uses a paper fan attack combo in the manga (rising fan –> stabbing fan –> justice fan –> demon fan) on Kazuya

      Appreciate the info. That does sound like something that should have been included in the anime. :<

      daikama
      Reply

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