First Impressions / Hatsukoi Limited

OP Sequence

OP: 「Future Stream」 by スフィア (sphere)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

 

Summary:

Aihara Ayumi is a junior high school girl who’s wants to be confessed to by a prince, but the person who actually gives her a confession letter is more like a monster. Ayumi is distraught over how to respond to such a scary person and tries to get her older brother to take care of it, but even he’s afraid of this Zaitsu Misao person. Since Ayumi doesn’t respond to him immediately, Misao follows her around, scaring everyone around her and bringing her to the brink. Ayumi appears to find her real prince though when one of the boys in her class carries her to the infirmary because she’s not feeling well, but she laerns afterward that this guy is actually the little brother of Misao. Eventually forced to face Misao, Ayumi ends up crying and telling him that he’s troubling her. She also asks him not to follow her around and runs away from him. Unfortunately, Ayumi then bumps into a guy who proceeds to capture her because he and his friends want to get at Misao. After what she said to Misao, she doesn’t think that he’ll come to save her, but he does show up, and he even takes hits from the thugs to protect her. Realizing that she’s responsible, she tells him not to worry about her and frees herself. This gives Misao the chance to finally take on all the thugs, and once they’re all down, he gets kicked by Ayumi because she had been scared. He doesn’t mind though because it allowed him to see her panties. In the aftermath, Misao continues to watch over Ayumi from a distance, and Ayumi feels that her love has only just begun.

ED Sequence

ED: 「初恋limited」 (Hatsukoi limited) by marble
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Spoiler ▼

Both the opening and ending are okay songs, but nothing special. The accompanying animation sequences focus on the five main girls plus some of the female supporting cast, however none of the guys in the series (and there are quite a few) show up at all. I guess that’s as good an indicator as any of who the target audience is. I’d also like to point out that Tomatsu Haruka is part of the sphere group that sings the OP even though she doesn’t have a role in the actual series as far as I can tell. This only reinforces my notion that she’s everywhere these days.

Preview

Well that was a decent first episode. The jokes were pretty amusing, and the plot followed the manga’s first chapter pretty closely, which means that it still centered around these idealized forms of school romance, but there’s nothing wrong with that if you don’t take it too seriously. It’s worth pointing out though that Hatsukoi Limited is essentially a series of short stories or one-shots tied together by a complex web of characters, so I wouldn’t say that the story is ever going to be its strongest point. That complex web of characters – and the situations that occur because of it – is the real draw, and this episode (more specifically, how Misao likes Ayumi, but she likes his little brother Mamoru) shows just the beginnings of how things can get messy really fast.

Where this anime adaptation falls short is in the animation quality or sometimes lack thereof. The characters (the girls anyway) are appealing thanks to Kawashita Mizuki‘s original character designs, but there’s a real lack of detail and overuse of white in the backgrounds. There’s also not much animated movement in a number of scenes; they’re relying more on panning or moving mouths/heads, and that gives off a very static feel at times. Assuming J.C.Staff wanted to put their best foot forward for the first episode, this might not bode well for future episodes. If none of that bothers you though, then this could be a fun romance series. For me, this first episode still leaves me unsure if I want to follow this or Cross Game. I probably don’t have time for both, so I need to see a couple more episodes of each.

47 Comments

  4. The anime I’ve been waiting for all season! Since you read the manga, I’m glad you know where this series is going and will not dismiss it like others. It is a very wonderful series with idealized romances. I love the first episode and I’m glad they didn’t stray away from the manga. I was afraid of that. Other than that, I can’t wait for the story about a certain bro complex. 😉

    http://heysayanime.kokidokom.net

    Minnie
    Reply

  12. ^ lol @ fail pooper and Jaalin’s comment.

    Well that was interesting. I also noticed how they had to rely on the appeals of the characters, and how there aren’t that much animated movements.

    So, I’ll give this another episode as well. Though, I have a feeling that not much will change in the animation department…

    Ehe.

    Pfft
    Reply

  15. Well, I’m iffy on this. I got drawn into the manga because of the wide number of character interactions (and this really isn’t the author’s fault but more WSJ) but the way she ended it was disappointing. In my opinion. I’ll give it a shot though.

    Who
    Reply

  19. In your Valkyria Chronicles episode 1 blog, you said whether or not you’re blogging Valkyria Chornicles depends on the quality of this anime (Hatsukoi Limited).

    Do you still plan on blogging Valkyria Chronicles?

    asdffdsa
    Reply

  27. to be plain, the big brother looks just ugly, if he is looking dangerous, fierce etc. i’m fine with it but he just looks ugly and that may be the fun but i don’t like it.

    i know it sounds just stupid dropping a show, because of such reasons but some other people may be attracted to this show by this same stupid reason.

    tomtom
    Reply

  32. I’m still not sure if I’ll watch this. I finished the manga quite a while ago, and although I overall enjoyed it (definitely better than Ichigo 100% which was just too long and got boring after a while) I’ve had it with romance series for now. Maybe I’ll check it out later. Then as Omni pointed out you shouldn’t look for a big story here. Also the fact, that the animation isn’t that promising is turning me off; especialy when you look at the cute original designs from the manga.

    mutio
    Reply

  34. Man I actually got to to read the entire manga last night and -whoa- it was great! The 1st ep basically followed chapter 1 almost to the letter. Can’t wait for the next eps, especially the one where Meguru shows up Show Spoiler ▼

    Sailor Enlil
    Reply

  37. *sigh*

    Can’t even bring myself to watch this. If the animation is underwhelming, then there really is no point… it would basically just serve to remind me of how depressed I was that this manga got cancelled in the first place.

    I want it back, I do. T_T

    cnet128
    Reply

  41. This episode was decent, but like you said could have been a lot better.
    After you had your cross game episode 1 review, i went ahead and read all the chapters up to 146. and in my honest opinion, especially after watching the 1st episode of cross game, i really think that’s going to be the stronger and better planned anime.

    jho
    Reply

  42. alright! after seeing that there was a hatsukoi limited anime, i checked out the manga. I definitely love this one; the complexity of the relationship web is what got me. I just wish they gave Chihara’s brother more screen time in the anime.

    Thi0s
    Reply

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