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「太陽の傾いたこの世界で -broken chronograph-」 (Taiyou no Katamuita kono Sekai de -broken chronograph-)
“In this sunny world -broken chronograph-“
So many things about this anime and this first episode were just so spot on that I can barely contain my excitement long enough to write this excerpt.
General Impressions
Seeing how I covered this show for the season preview, I had some definite concerns before I hit that play button. Adapted from a light novel that had exposition oozing out of its pages and enough descriptive adjectives that I could create a clear picture in my head of both the characters and the environment they lived in, you can bet I was concerned that there’d simply be too much for a studio to adapt into a regular 26 minute or so per episode anime. Luckily, it only took about five minutes to realize that we had a gem on our hands here.
Starting with the story, the world of Sukasuka is vibrant and brilliant. With a contrasting tone between the world that we see on screen versus what the exposition is setting up for us, I loved how there was already this sense of unease even when the picture of screen was telling us that everything was okay. Be it when Wilhelm is calmly brushing past the stare of the other races staring at him when his hood is off or his constant questioning of the situation he’s been put in when clear answers aren’t being provided, you can tell things are okay but at the same time that they’re not. And while it remains to be seen whether or not the show and story can keep up with this once more fantasy and magic enter the mix, I think it’s okay to be positively cautious especially if you use this first episode as a measure of what’s to come.
Leaping over to the character side of things, I must say that Sukasuka has done a fine job of giving all the characters in this show some real backbone. Besides the most background of background characters, I love how this show juggles side characters around without breaking a sweat as the spotlight revolves around Wilhelm. Something that is probably going to become just what makes or breaks a show like this since it feels like the success of the story is going to fall on whether or not the characters are able to tell their story without it becoming a giant mess. Now I could go on and on about how I like certain characters and how I really like certain characters, but I’ll keep things short just by saying that everyone we’ve met so far has such a clear and distinct personality that it’ll probably be tough to pick favorites. That said, outside of the “weapons” I think Nygglatho is probably my favorite. I’ll hold judgement on the rest until they’ve received more screen time.
So, if you couldn’t tell, I’m really happy with what Sukasuka did with its first episode. Diving headfirst into the thick of things, the combination of its stellar storytelling and fantastic male lead as well as a ton of adorable and/or awesome side characters turned what could have been an okay episode into a great one. And while it remains to be seen whether or not future episodes will be able to put out the same quality of material, I’m going to remain optimistic that things are only going to get better from here. In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week for another episode of Sukasuka.
See you then!
ED Sequence
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ED: 「フロム」 (Furomu) by TRUE
Preview
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The thing that makes me the most depressed about the series is that…only 12 episodes!!! :*(
I really hope that changes into 2 cours or something…because there’s 5 novels to cover, and 12 episodes won’t cut it lol.
Anyway, that aside…I couldn’t wait for this to air, and watched it the instant the subs went up, lol. Though, I hate how they mispelled the main girls name. =/
Considering the first 5 novels are finished and form the first part of the story it is afe to say this adaptation will cover all of them, not too happy considering there is going to be 12 eppisodes but we can only pray they don´t butcher the source material.
The purple-haired boy looks almost exactly like Sasa from Omamori Himari…
Yeah, Nygglatho is probably my favorite so far, too. At least she’s up front about her *ahem* needs.
Good first ep, even if I had to rewind a couple of times to get a few things straight, and some of the exposition was a little “well, if you had read the LN, you would already know that” level stuff that a lot of LN adaptations love to do.
I haven’t read any of this series, but the anime as a standalone thing looks interesting.
But I have to admit that I have a bad feeling that by episode 12, I’m going to be in a corner with a box of tissues. >_>a
https://randomc.net/image/SukaSuka/SukaSuka%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
goshujin-samaaaa…do you want to be eaten on the table? or do you want to be eaten on the bath? or~ do you want to be eaten on the bed~?
Doujin artists will act fast I guarantee it.
Man, she hungry… If she weren’t a man-eating troll in maid form, I wouldn’t mind “eating her” if you know what I mean… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Almost every first episode this season has been spot on one way or another. Jeez. Please keep it up. I’ve got like 6 anime or more that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as I did.
The author’s currently writing a sequel to Shuumatsu, that’s been running since April 2016.
The 1st series is complete at 5 volumes, so the anime may likely cover all of it.
https://randomc.net/image/SukaSuka/SukaSuka%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
Wait a minute… Is that the “Eternally 17” Kikuko Inoue voicing Nygglatho? (*Surfs MAL, voice confirmed*) Oi, oi…
So the girls are the weapons? I wonder if they’re like the “Edel Reids” of Elemental Gelade. Also, I sense that this anime might be as tear-jerky as anything from Key (the fact that Chtholly looks like planetarian‘s Hoshino Yumemi and the setting being almost similar certainly isn’t helping matters).
That said, I couldn’t keep a straight face when some of the girls’ names were mentioned… Seriously, some of them are a few letters away from the names of certain eldritch abominations or creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos.
That’s one hell of a title. Just gonna rename it Yadda Yadda Yadda in my head.
https://randomc.net/image/SukaSuka/SukaSuka%20-%2001%20-%2036.jpg
526 years ago? What the heck is our main character? How “alive” is he?
do not try to compare anime logic and magic with real life ones.. it only hurts your fun watching it 🙂
Well, the first dialogue pretty much telling us this is not going to end in a good way. Though that’s what I like about it. It’s weird in a refreshing way to see that the human(or non-beast,since Ctholly isn’t human) are on the receiving end of the strange stare, makes you feel “wow we’re not the majority here.”
Also really like the VA here, have been wanting to hear their voice since the PV, and I’m not disappointed. One thing that looks wrong for me is how Willem’s build seems smaller than his daughter. Probably bc of his clothes? Or her daughter is half-human and half-beast/troll?
@theirs
if you read the synopsis @MAL here’s a line about Willem:
Thanks for that. Made things a little bit clearer and opens up some interesting possibilities.(looks at red head troll, hmmm)
Guess this jumped real high on my watch list.
Spectacular first episode, there is pretty not nothing not to like at this point, I have big expectations for the upcoming eps!
*there is pretty MUCH nothing ..
QUESTION: did someone recognize which song is playing in the very first minutes?
The song that is played at the scene when Willem and Chtholly are exploring the town is called Scarborough Fair. But you probably have to wait for the ost to come out, however there are many covers of the song online (including japanese)
But if you are literally talking about the first few seconds of the episode, that’d probably the anime’s opening theme song.
Title is “Always in my heart”, but I can’t really find the exact song. It does feel familiar though.
Then again, the second song: “Scarborough Fair” tugged at my heart strings. Got an image of a melancholic medieval setting from it. Not really sure why. But that’s the problem with music, it goes to your subconscious and you might not remember why it’s familiar. All you get are emotions.
Final post from me, on ANN’s database the opening song is DEAREST DROP by Azusa Tadokoro, you can hear 3 minutes of the song in the anime’s long promotional video
It’s been on youtube since march: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZIdIS2vjc&list=LLDfX0tDUg69srjw6s9YvjkQ&index=17
With the exception of all the sequels this season, this was the best first episode. Really good stuff.
Pretty good. I’m not as enthusiastic as some are for this, but I did like it well enough to keep me around for at least another couple episodes. Had some nice, visually appealing scenes. None of the characters really grabbed me, but on the plus side don’t have any significant issues either. Wilhelm seems a bit older than the typical ML for these things which is a plus for me. The 4 girls were cute (weapons or not). Nygglatho had some personality though her “I want to eat you (literally)” act may get old after a while. Chtholly (blue haired girl) was straight up OK for me.
Totally agree with Incognito about some of the names. Did remind me of Cthulhu Mythos (and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san).
Human appearance as “disfigured” twist is a bit different. Kind of curious to see if/how this will play out with Wilhelm & maybe the girls as well.
— “Adapted from a light novel that had exposition oozing out of its pages and enough descriptive adjectives that I could create a clear picture in my head of both the characters and the environment…”
Frankly, that sounds pretty good to me because I do tend to like detailed world-building, but I get the point. Lot of exposition in an LN (or novel or manga) = difficult to adapt to anime. LN/books by nature lend themselves more readily to a lot of exposition & detail. I definitely got a sense that the LN has a lot of terms of art, etc.
Having read a few LNs of this sort and watched subsequent adaptations, I did get a sense that some details were being cut. Not sure if that’s correct, but that’s the impression I got. This wasn’t all that exposition heavy. FWIW, after watching, I went back to the RC Spring Preview (thanks again to RC staff – it’s quite useful!) which helped give me a better understanding of the story. To be fair the show could be just parceling out exposition.
Given comments that the LN is 5 volumes and the anime is likely to adapt all 5 in only 12 episodes (= a bit less than 2.5 episodes per LN volume), that’s some pretty fast pacing which would explain the impression I got. Have to see how it goes, but I hope this isn’t overly compressed.
Why do I feel like this is going to sucker punch me on the feels?
You know the prologue of sorts at the beginig of the episode gives me a really bad feeling about where this is heading. Other than that I have some huge expectations for this adaptation, specially becuase everybody I asked told me the light novels are a master piece.
I think I have found my fantasy-action-comedy show (assuming the “weapons” will get to do some actual fighting…)
Okay, I’m really surprised by this first episode.
This reminds me of a (single heroine) Visual Novel adaptation rather than a Light Novel, probably due to clues of definite ending which looks like have been planned beforehand (I hope they could compress 5 volume of novels well into 12 episode, though). I suspect that it will carry the same weakness as well: Relatively weak slice of life portion. But being a linear story I think the anime has an opportunity to actually be a better experience due to fat trimming in the process of shortening the story.
Now let’s talk about the adaptation itself: It is fantastic. You can see that the setting is rich, but the only time the show went into exposition mode is only at the very end, which is exceptional for a Light Novel (look at other adaptation such as Clockwork Planet to see the bad example). It also avoids some annoying tropes without trying TOO hard on being “original”.
The main protagonist and heroine are very vanilla, in the context that they are typical pairing for this kind of setting (see: Saikano, Planetarian). However, it’s one of my favorite trope for this kind of story and would fit like a glove with seemingly melancholic tone that they are going for (they are basically a safe bet for stories like this).
If they could actually execute a good story and pair that with beautiful setting (the CGI is bad though) and awesome classical fantasy music, then for me it would be a definite winning formula. I’m hoping for the best!
Why am I getting strong Macross vibes from this one? Beyond obvious ‘it’s Satelight’, it really…feels familiar.
Good music and “it’s Statelite”? I’ve watched all of them besides 7 and that’s the only thing I could think of.
well.. i can not deny that some little “Kancolle” vibes was born. An Captain that caretaker above Weapons in Girl forms.. Just here they are some sort of (unknown for me( Weapons i only guess from the first seconds
But this Song Ballade draws me in
Ugh, why do I feel Black Bullet vibes…
Never did I imagine needing to hear a Japanese adaptation of a Simon & Garfunkel song.
Wow, I REALLY loved this. Wasn’t prepared for that …
Thanks RandomC,
Thanky to you i found this music intro very Fantasy like. Also i found an calm episode. Curiosity arises, because “the dead would not come back”. Seems like he is some kind of last survivor. Oh well, enough to get on my 3 episodes watch list
Also this music Ballade reminds me of old “medieval” songs, perhaps you hit an Western Fantasy root of my World tree
this Fantasy Intro Ballade, could fit wonderful into the “Skyrim” Player universe. This are the vibes that appeared inside my head, this kind of Time and Fantasy
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9TdDCWN7g
(The Fantasy power comes from her soft Voice combined with her Hall voice effect. it gives her an Symbol of “Holly/Divinity”)
This is my best try to describe it in words.
Scarborough Fair = instant win for me
The death flags are too obvious, which is good because after watching Logan, I don’t think I can handle many gut wrenching deaths, so this will help me prepare 🙁
But other than that, I think this show has potential.