First Impressions / Special A

「光・慧」
“Hikari / Kei”

The first episode introduces us to the heroine of the series, Hanazono Hikari, who has been trying to beat Takashima Kei in almost anything since their childhood, but has never been able to. As a childhood flashback quickly reveals, the two of them were introduced to one another by their pro wrestling loving fathers.

Fast-forward to the present where the two of them are now attending Hakusenkan, a prestigious school with a “Special A” (S.A) class for super elite students. Within this S.A class, each student is assigned a rank according to their grades; however, they all seem to excel in other areas as well (e.g. sports). S.A students wear a different uniform (white, instead of an ugly brown), attend classes in different classrooms (…in a greenhouse I guess? o_O), and take different lessons from the rest of the students.

Surprisingly enough, despite the fact that they all coming from super rich families (minus Hikari) and have an elite school status, the S.A students don’t seem to have the ego to go with it (except Kei). This is an interesting contrast to Ouran High School Host Club, where the characters unknowingly flaunted their money in poor Haruhi’s face over trivial things such as instant coffee. As Haruhi would put it, 「くそ，金持ちどもね」 (Kuso, kanemochi domo ne) “Damn rich bastards”. As enjoyable as Ouran was, it’s nice to see something different, so I’m glad Special A didn’t focus on the rich aspect of the characters.

 

Below is a list of the seven S.A students (in ranking order), including tidbits revealed in this episode:

1.) Takishima Kei (滝島 彗) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤) | Childhood (幼少期) / Shimizu Kaori (清水 香里)
– Son of the Takashima Group President (滝島グループ社長子息), most likely an investment group.
– Has a slight air of arrogance and teases Hikari by calling her 「二位さん」 (Ni-i-san) “Rank 2-san”.
– Tells Hikari, “No matter what we do, the result will always be the same.”
– Tells regular students who resent him to stop complaining and get into the S.A class and surpass him (if they can)
– Evidently has feelings for Hikari, despite his cold nature towards her in front of the other S.A students.
– Has a father that loves pro wrestling.

2.) Hanazono Hikari (華園 光) / Gotou Yuuko (後藤 邑子)
– Entered Hakusenkan to compete with Kei and not to get into the S.A class. Ended up doing the latter because Kei happened to be in the S.A class.
– Has an older brother named Atsushi (亮).
– Seems to love festivals.
– Is oblivious to Kei’s feelings for her.
– Has a father that loves pro wrestling and is a friend of Kei’s father.

3.) Yamamoto Jun (山本 純) / Yonaga Tsubasa (代永 翼)
– Son of a Music Producer and a Naturally-gifted Vocalist (音楽プロデューサーと天才ヴォーカリストの息子).
– Plays the violin… or at least tries to.

4.) Yamamoto Megumi (山本 芽) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
– Daughter of a Music Producer and a Naturally-gifted Vocalist (音楽プロデューサーと天才ヴォーカリストの令嬢).
– Jun’s twin (older) sister.
– Seems to always communicate by making signs with her sketchbook (which seems like a waste of Ayahi’s talent, who most of us know played Isurugi Noe in true tears and Feldt Grace in Gundam 00 last season.)

5.) Karino Tadashi (狩野 宙) / Shimono Hiro (下野 紘)
– Son of the School President (学園理事長子息).
– Frequently annoys Akira and gets abused for it.

6.) Toudou Akira (東堂 明) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Daughter of an Airline Company President (航空会社社長令嬢).
– Seems to have a thing for Hikari, calling her 「私のかわいい光」 (Watashi no kawaii Hikari) “My cute Hikari”.

7.) Tsuji Ryuu (辻 竜) / Horie Kazuma (堀江 一眞)
– Son of a Sports Maker President (スポーツメーカー社長子息).
– Seems to get along with animals.

 

The S.A students seem to hang out in the campus greenhouse drinking their tea most of the time, which must be some sort of super elite student trend that I’m not aware of. In fact, two of them even share the same Hanazono surname. o_O

The rest of the episode involves:
– Hikari challenging Kei to a vaulting horse (跳び箱) competition
– Kei winning by eclipsing Hikari with a Rock Lee Shadow Dance-like (影舞葉) jump (for you remaining Naruto fans out there)
– S.A class haters Nakamura, Takahashi, and Oogawara trying to tempt Hikari with pictures of the exam so that she can finally beat Kei
– Kei and Hikari teaming up, with OP song and all (which I found somewhat cheesy), to beat up the aforementioned haters. (I’m assuming Kei unbuttoned his shirt here for some shoujo fan-service. *shrug*)
– The S.A recital featuring Jun and Megumi as a birthday gift to Kei. (Jun and Megumi, despite coming from musical parents, seem to have no musical talent.)
– Hikari scoring 100 on all her tests, only to find out that Kei scored 105 for finding a mistake in the teacher’s exam

 

Next Episode:
「プライド・プロレス」
“Pride Pro-Wrestling”

ED Sequence:

ED: 「陽だまりのゲート」 (Hidamari no Gate) by 福山潤, 下野紘, 代永翼, and 堀江一眞 (Fukuyama Jun, Shimono Hiro, Yonaga Tsubasa, and Horie Kazuma)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2

Despite Special A’s classification as a shoujo anime, I honestly didn’t get that impression aside from the character designs. They’re all fairly tall, stalky, and have relatively long limbs, much like CLAMP’s character designs seen in CODE GEASS. Personally, I don’t mind this style, but it’s just something to be aware of.

Animation-wise, I really like the super-deformed characters and bold outlines used in comedic scenes. Also, with scenes like this, the comedic aspect of Special A is very reminiscent of ARIA’s, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Since Gonzo is animating this, I’m sure everyone is apprehensive after the Dragonaut fiasco last season, but at least it’s comforting to know that their writers aren’t involved this time around, nor are they the only studio working on S.A.

Comedic-wise, I actually found the running 「二位さん」 (Ni-i-san) “Rank 2-san” gag funnier the second time through and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more blocks of 「二位」-shaped concrete falling on Hikari’s head in the future. 🙂 If you’re not used to it by now, Hikari’s 「二位って言うな！」 (Ni-i-tte yuu na!) “Don’t say Rank 2!” line is probably going to become a mainstay in the series.

Seiyuu-wise, it’s a pretty all-star cast with Fukuyama Jun (Lelouch in CODE GEASS, Lawrence in Spice and Wolf), Gotou Yuuko (Mikuru in Haruhi, Kuonji Miyu in Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de), Nabatame Hitomi (Hanazono Shizuma in Strawberry Panic!, Margery Daw in Shakugan no Shana), Shimono Hiro (Hirono Hiro in ef – a tale of memories, Touhouin Ikuto in Nagasarete Airantou), and Takagaki Ayahi (Isurugi Noe in true tears, Feldt Grace in Gundam 00). Originally, I was a bit worried about how Yuuko would play Hikari, but after watching her performance in KimiAru last season, all my worries were put to rest. For those who have seen KimiAru, you probably know by now that Yuuko can play a comedic role very differently from Mikuru (in a good way). 🙂

All in all, I actually see a lot of potential in Special A and would say it reminds me a lot of School Rumble, but probably more-so Ouran High School Host Club since they’re both shoujo. While I still don’t really know what to expect from S.A (especially from the first episode alone), having writers who worked on Minami-ke, Rozen Maiden, and sola gives me hope in this series. For now, I guess we just need to continue watching to see what the producers have in store for us.

 

Note: since I took over Omni’s original post for this episode, please see his initial impressions below, including those for the ED song.

I know I haven’t been the most positive about some of the songs so far this season, but this one really takes the cake. It’s sung by the four male members of the SA, and while I like their voice actors, they apparently don’t have the ability to sing well together. I’ll admit that I’m no expert in music, but those guys just sounded out of sync and couldn’t hit any of the high notes that kept coming up. As for the OP, there was none this week, though they did play the song during the brief fight scene.

-Well I’m a bit underwhelmed. I thought the manga was pretty funny, but the jokes in the anime version (when they were there) generally fell rather flat for me. It might have been that the comedic timing was off or it could be because I’ve already been exposed to the material, but I think I laughed only twice during the episode (both of them towards the end).
-Voice acting, however, didn’t bother me like I thought it would. The more I listened to Gotou Yuuko as Hikari, the more I got used to her. And Fukuyama Jun was, well, his normal self (he’s in freakin’ everything this season). Actually, one of the times I laughed was when Fukuyama Jun did his serious voice because all I could think of was CODE GEASS. I didn’t mind the animation style either, though since this is a Gonzo produced series, I expect the quality to get worse as time goes on.
-And so, despite the name, I didn’t really find much special about Special A. Given that I enjoyed the manga, I’m going to give it a few more episodes to see if it can get better, but I’m not keeping my hopes too high.

 

Cast:
– Hanazono Hikari (華園 光) / Gotou Yuuko (後藤 邑子)
– Takishima Kei (滝島 彗) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
– Toudou Akira (東堂 明) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Karino Tadashi (狩野 宙) / Shimono Hiro (下野 紘)
– Yamamoto Megumi (山本 芽) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
– Yamamoto Jun (山本 純) / Yonaga Tsubasa (代永 翼)
– Tsuji Ryuu (辻 竜) / Horie Kazuma (堀江 一眞)
– Childhood Kei (幼少期の慧) / Shimizu Kaori (清水 香里)
– Hikari’s father (光の父) / Imaruoka Atsushi (伊丸岡 篤)
– Hikari’s mother (光の母) / Nabei Makiko (鍋井 まき子)
– Nakamura (中村) / Fujii Keisuke (藤井 啓輔)
– Takahashi (高橋) / Satou Yuudai (佐藤 雄大)
– Oogawara (大河原) / Ichiki Mitsuhiro (市来 光弘)

61 Comments

  7. I’m not really fond of the art. It looks weird. It looks a bit different from the manga, though I can’t put my finger on just how, exactly. Something about Hikari. And I was rather upset about how masculine Akira looked, since when I saw the caps, I was like, “who’s that guy?”

    Magical Poof
    Reply

  10. Wow, I like those voice actors so I figured the song would sound great, but that completely took me by surprise. The episode was alright to me though. It wasn’t as I expected it to be, but still fine.

    Final
    Reply

  11. *surprised* This was actually much more pleasant to the eyes than Vampire Knight and Itazurana Kiss. I actually got impressed that the sparkly shoujo-style backgrounds didn’t bother me at all (like in Ouran).

    And yeah, Code Geass rules!
    I can only (and actually deliberately) think of Lulu when I see & hear Takishima Kei.
    And I don’t even care about the real Takishima Kei or the other characters. (OK. I’m such an evil anime watcher. I think I should watch this after my Code Geass fever has gone down.)

    Yukiruchan
    Reply

  12. “Fukuyama Jun was, well, his normal self (he’s in freakin’ everything this season)”

    As much as I love his voice and his acting, it’s becoming terribly distracting and a bit annoying to always hear the same thing. My top picks this season were Geass R2, Amatsuki, and S.A. That uh…yeah.

    Ou-bento
    Reply

  14. I would say the Op will be even worse since it’ll be sung by Gotou Yuuko, eventhough the animation looks ok but i would rather like it if the drawings follow the manga’s drawing (from around chapter 6 onwards cause that the part when the drawing looks better). The only good part i like on ep1 is when Jun Fukuyama sounds like Lulu towards the end 😀

    setsuke
    Reply

  15. I’m kind of looking forward to this. I did read a few chapters of the manga before stopping.

    And yeah. I agree with Fukuyama Jun being in nearly everything this season. Hahaha.

    sakura sake
    Reply

  16. Looks like Fukuyama Jun got a load of work this season.
    He is on Code GEASS R2, Amatsuki, Vampire Knight, Special A, xxxHOLIC Kei and even Macross Frontier! It’s quite a lot of work here.

    suckoja
    Reply

  18. To Magical Poof

    Thats, because the art is different from the manga. Different ways are done to show expression and even the greeting scene was done differently. To me, Hikari lost some air of confidence that she had in the manga. In the manga, Hikari would be able to tell them to greet them normally. And although she was called #2, she wouldn’t be totally knocked off by it. Infact, one of the first times she was called #2, she says I’ll Kill you! A little disapointing, but the minor character reaction/personality change may turn out for better or worse.

    Sora no Kaze
    Reply

  19. Pretty nice first episode. I actually thought the pacing was quite good and the jokes worked for me. Also, AIC and Gonzo are doing this show together, so I’m not worried about the animation, as they did a fantastic job on Seto…

    funguy19
    Reply

  22. This first episode had jokes that didn’t do much justice to the manga’s. All of the laughable parts just felt..awkward~
    But still it was a pretty nice episode, though not impressive enough. The manga was so much more enjoyable than this first episode.
    Btw, Fukuyama Jun totally suits Kei. When I read the manga, his voice kept booming in my head lol. The manga was screaming, “FUKUYAMA JUN TOTALLY FITS THIS ROLE.”

    Tiff
    Reply

  23. Just saw the first episode, I must say that both the story and the characters are quite durable, while the art is at least tolerable.
    However, I still can’t see how Takishima was able to unbutton his shirt just by pulling off his tie (in what seemed to be an act of fan-service), must’ve been a hidden mechanism in the S.A. Uniform.

    Tom
    Reply

  25. Special A and Nabari no Ou. Problem solved. 🙂

    I actually like the lineup I have on Sundays right now with those those 2 shows, CODE GEASS R2 and surprise-surprise, Wagaya no Oinari-sama.

    These 4 shows are so different from one another, so it’s a nice mix of everything.

    divine|s
    Reply

  29. Agrees with Tiffs comment. Manga was unfortunately more impressive then the first episode. Fukuyama Jun fits nicely as Kei. Hard picks. Btw, its kinda amusing how the people who wanted Special A’s bloged right away only left their note in Nabari no Ou, but not here. Oh well, I’m fine with whatever one you choose, although I hope you do both shows. Oh and I’ll pray for Gonzo not to screw up the storyline/animation quality @@. Damn it, I wished Bonez did this one.

    Sora no Kaze
    Reply

  34. Am I one of the few people who did not manga, but really liked what was done for the 1st Episode of the Anime?

    Yeah, maybe I have weird tastes…

    Yuko Goto as Hikari came as a bit of a surprise, though.

    Yay, Lulu Kei!!!! XD

    Mega Ultra Chicken
    Reply

  36. Just wachted the first ep with sub. I think its kinda overdone, the humor is a but TO much and actually I didn’t laugh at all. Also the first Ep kinda felt like it was the only one, the way they built up the story-line of this ep. But I still enjoyed wachting it so I wil continue wachting this serie. I do kinda like the charater’s and art style.

    Fukuyama Jun’s voice is s recognizable o .o

    voxune
    Reply

  39. the stroy looks good so far.
    on the side note: i have swwn a lot of promising series, so i dont have any problem regarding quality of anime this season. BUT i have not come acrossed any good OP or ED songs yet T_T

    mysterious
    Reply

  42. kyaaaah!!! fukuyama jun!!! i love his voice!!! there’s something about it!!! anyway…i enjoyed the first episode (but not as well as the first few chapters of the manga) but i sure hope that this anime will turn out great in the later episodes (since the manga’s great too)…for me, the ending song was at least ok…hehe i love fuku jun!!!!

    xxxchoppyxxx
    Reply

  51. mmh, Ouran is a parody of shojo stuff like the “elitist bishonen circle”, while Special A uses exactly these clichees very seriously … so I don’t think you can really compare those series.
    In Ouran you are supposed to laugh about Tamaki, while he is likeable, his way of behaving is completely over the top and visibly ridiculized. In Special A you are supposed to like them and really think that they’re cool, at least Kei. (Same goes for Vampire Knight f.ex.)

    Anyway, I thought Special A was really poor comedy, full of all those shojo clichees that series like Ouran and Yamato Nadeshiko make fun of. That “number 2” joke was so … boring and really no fun, especially since they kept repeating and repeating, really overusing this … what kind of running gag is that oO

    The “fight” at the end was also … ugh, what? I really felt like I was watching some kiddie show …

    Instead of Ouran I’d say Special A is like Gakuen Alice and Shinshi Doumei Cross, while Gakuen Alice was more fun and it is not quite as bad as Shinshi.

    But comedy-wise Special A really doesn’t compare to Ouran, not a bit oO;;

    Most of all, I was reminded of Kare Kano … and seriously, Kare Kano is still better even today.

    minikui
    Reply

  52. I must agree with minikui… Special A doesn’t compare to Ouran at all… Ouran is more like another style of laughing at. This is more loveable in a cool way then is a funny and stupid way like for exsample Tamaki.

    But I found this anime pretty enjoyable and looking forward to the whole anime! =D

    Lillymoon
    Reply

  55. Well, it’s a bit hard to tell off the bat whether a series is good or not, so I tend to give most of them the benefit of the doubt and watch a few episodes. Also, what’s considered “good” varies from person to person.

    If I enjoy a show, I’ll continue watching it. I only tend to judge a show after I’ve seen the entire serie, because I feel this is the only time it’s fair to do so. Of course, this doesn’t mean I won’t point out things I like/dislike along the way though.

    If you read my posts and it sounds like a show you’d enjoy, feel free to check it out and decide for yourself. I just hope my posts give people a better sense of what’s out there.

    divine
    Reply

  57. ARiGaTou FroM PictuRe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    QReeenZZZ BuanGEt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Yoko_KAo
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *