First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「跪くまで5秒だけ!」 (Hizamazuku Made 5 Byou Dake!) by橋本みゆき (Hashimoto Miyuki)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2

Summary:

On a train headed towards the port city of Nanahama, Uesugi Ren wonders to sister Mihato if their father is searching for them. She doesn’t think so, and Ren gets frustrated over how he’s thinking about their violent father despite having finally run away from home. His goal is to obtain happiness with his sister, and when the two arrive, Ren starts looking for employment. After a day of searching though, he’s unable to find any job that will allow him to live in too. On his way to meet back up with his sister, Ren notices a beautiful girl conducting an orchestra on a public television screen, and he discovers that this girl, whose name is Kuonji Shinra, has published and recorded many books and CDs. Ren eventually returns to meet up with his sister, scaring off a guy hitting on her in the process, and since neither found suitable work, they’re forced to camp out in a park and eat ramen for dinner. After waking that night from a nightmare about his father beating him, Ren vows both not to return to that home and to make his sister happy.

The next day, Ren is again looking for work when a girl accompanied by an egg-shaped robot passes him by. The girl admires her reflection in a store window, but she then faints from the heat, and Ren notices her robot trying to prop her up. When he goes over to help, the girl claims that it’s only anemia, but he carries her in his arms anyway. She introduces herself as Kuonji Miyu after Mihato comes over to see what’s going on, and Ren ends up carrying Miyu on his back all the way to her house. As it turns out, Miyu lives on a huge estate and has multiple servants who are concerned about her, leading Mihato to think privately that this is their chance to obtain work. To thank them, Miyu feeds Ren and Mihato a meal cooked by her maid Benisu, but Ren attributes the deliciousness to the ingredients, and this leads to an argument between him and Benisu. The main butler – who is referred to as Taisa (Colonel) and is a former mercenary – steps between them before a fight can start, and he uses an energy attack to knock Ren out the window when Ren tries to get violent.

Ren lands in the fountain outside, and after stumbling out of it, he finds himself at the feet of none other than Kuonji Shinra. Since he recognizes her by her full name, she scolds him for being overly familiar with her and wants to be called Shinra-sama. Taisa then comes out to welcome Shinra back home, and when Ren tries to attack him again, he knocks Ren out. Ren somehow manages to stay on his feet even when unconscious, and Shinra finds him interesting because of this. A little while later, Ren wakes up in his sister’s lap, and Shinra gives them jobs at this house after hearing Mihato’s explanation of why they’re traveling. It’s not quite that simple though because they first have to go through a trial period of one week. Everyone then formally introduces themselves, including Yume who is Shinra and Miyu’s younger sister, Natose who is in charge of security, and Chiharu (a boy) who is in charge of cleaning. Afterwards, Mihato and Ren are excited about this chance to work, and Shinra looks forward to how it’s going to get noisy again.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Butler スイッチ オーン！」 (Butler Switch On!) by 後藤邑子 (Gotou Yuuko)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2

After watching true tears, the animation quality of this left a lot to be desired – not necessarily bad, just not that great. The OP in particular was rather drab, but this show clearly doesn’t shine on that production aspect. What it did a lot better was the humor, and the first episode was a lot funnier than I thought it’d be (the guy with the bulge in his pants, the fact that Chiharu is a boy). The talented cast also did a good job bringing out all of their unique characters, and it was especially amusing to hear Itou Shizuka (as Shinra) reference her role in Hayate during the preview.

Having said all that, the first episode didn’t really do much for me. Yes, there were funny parts and interesting characters, but I still came away feeling that this wasn’t that great – fun, but not terribly noteworthy. If you compare this to how Tsuyokiss started, it’s a ton better, but compared to everything else that’s airing right now, I’m just not as thrilled. I attribute that partly to how much Shigofumi ended up impressing me, so this had less effect. Still, this is something I’d at least watch a second episode of, so we’ll see how that goes.

26 Comments

  1. OMG the part when Ren was trying to find a job and suddenly the last guy turns out to be gay and started to take out his shirt was really creepy but somehow it was also funny (all who’s gonna watch this, better watch carefully that part)

    setsuke
    Reply

  11. OMG!!
    OMMMMGGGGG!!!
    LOTS AND LOTS OF NEW ANIMES….
    Today I have downloaded 11 animes( saturday and thusdays are “THE” DAYS )
    If I had a blog like this i´d never had time to watch everything I watch per week!!
    ( come on omni concentrate man…concentrate!!SomeOne have to do it!!Gambare!!! ) ^_^

    Tensai Otaku
    Reply

  12. I also downloaded all the Cyril takayama videos…I mean…” ZENBU!!!”
    I love his charismatic magic shows!!10GB of downloads ^_^when my father arrives from his vacation from Rio de Janeiro tomorow he will watch the shows again with me and for sure he will say:

    ” The man is a quack!!! I saw the wires….I saw he taking of from his sleeves!!! ”

    LOL
    I´ll say:
    ” no dad he is the real deal!!!Hey someone could bring this guy to Brazil!! Nice idea!!!

    Tensai Otaku
    Reply

  20. The preview mention “I’m the school council president. Arh, wrong anime” Spot which char is doing Hinagiku in Hayate no gotoku. The two guys are the seiyuu of Master Asia and Domon. Shining finger, haha.

    tylon
    Reply

  22. Disappointed.

    This is my most anticipated anime of the current season because I like the character arts. But it taste really bad. I don’t like the characters cause they do annoying things. For example the girl with the eye patch jumping and fetch the food with her mouth.

    Hope that it’ll turn out better in latter episodes. I’ll watch a few more episodes to decide if I should drop this.

    dies_irae
    Reply

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