Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「シグナルグラフ」 (Signal Graph) by Annabel
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼
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「廃部」
“Hive”
There weren’t too many surprises in the first episode of Koichoco, but there were at least enough twists to make the road seem like it might be an interesting one.
Formula is a funny thing when it comes to eroge adaptations. Certain things are expected, even demanded, and anime studios are always left with difficult choices on how to adapt these multi-branching stories to the TV screen. We’ve seen something of a rise in popularity of the omnibus route in recent years, though my favorite recent example of the genre – Mashiroiro Symphony – takes traditional linear path in telling a story with some surprisingly non-traditional developments.
Like Mashifony, Koichoco appears not to be taking the omnibus route but the direct, which means that sooner or later one girl is going to have to win, which will of course piss off a certain percentage of the game’s fans and please others. For me, I have no preconceptions so I’ll just take it as it comes. As the audience avatar we have Oojima Yuuki (Nakamura Yuuichi), who by all accounts seems to be a very typical harem protagonist. He has not one but two childhood friends, Sumiyoshi Chisato (Nakamura Eriko) – also a neighbor – and Kiba Mifuyu (Mizuhashi Kaori). Early returns would seem to indicate that one of these girls (probably Sumiyoshi) has the inside track, but I’ll withhold judgment until we’ve seen the full field in action for a while.
To be blunt, there’s absolutely nothing in the interactions between these three that we haven’t seen a hundred times before, and seemingly about 50 of them with Nakamura-san as the guy in question. At this point I’m going to be looking for surprises from elsewhere, either from the plot or from some of the large supporting cast. The trio are part of a Food Research Club or “Shokken” at school, whose main function seems to be to get together and eat snacks.The club comes under threat because the favorite to become the next Student Council President, Shininome Satsuki (Asakawa Yuu), has proposed eliminating all the unproductive clubs (of which Shokken certainly seems to be one). Apparently the current president (Suzumara Kenichi) is extremely unpopular because of an unspecified incident, which may or not be the one we see play out before the OP in which some sort of spy games are playing out, and a girl photographing illicit activities (seemingly the sister or girlfriend of the current President) was struck by a car driven by the opposing faction, after which she fell into a coma.
There are a bunch of other girls in the club, and the advisor is a busty (and boozy) teacher who also happens to be the older sister of Shinonome Satsuki, Hazuki (Ishimatsu Chiemi). There’s also a rather androgynous boy named Yume (Ogata Megumi) whose family runs a candy company and who likes to talk about his “yaoi stick” a lot. None of these characters make much of an impression yet, but the most distinctive parts of the premiere are the rather odd plot elements. For one there’s some rather serious business here above and beyond school politics, with competing factions vying for power and the stakes high enough to make it worthwhile to run over a girl for a Sim card. There’s also the fact that Oojima-kun is seeing things no one else can see, such as a propeller on one student’s head and another student (a presidential candidate) with a mask covering his face. And the whole setup seems to be somewhere in the near future, as there are several examples of technology that certainly doesn’t seem to be available now.
As is usually the case with first episodes of VN adaptations, it’s way too early to tell if this is going to succeed as an anime. The track record for eroge making the transition isn’t great but there are certainly exceptions. The overall feel of the characters is pretty generic, but there are enough wildcards in the premise to hold at least the hope that the series will rise above formula and produce something interesting. School politics are obviously going to be a major component of things, with Oojima being drafted by Shokken to run for President in order to save the club, and there haven’t been too many examples of good anime that have focused on student politics in a big way . So if these one can pull it off, that will be something really worthwhile – and it does seem as if that element of the story holds the potential to be more interesting than the romance. But then, maybe we just haven’t spent enough time with the right girl yet…
ED Sequence
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ED: 「風のなかのプリムローズ」 (Primrose in the Wind) by Ceui
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼
Preview
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That masked man was… creepy.
The legend of kurrah was good doe
dont know if anyone else noticed but the design of the mask is the same as the design on kekashi’s ninja dogs in Naruto and on the cover of chapter 16 of the manga!!! I find it interesting!
That hit-and-run is from Michiru’s route but I don’t think it confirms that it’ll be her route. The first episode feels pretty rushed, skipping out Michiru’s introduction, and the Oojima roll! While I’m hoping for Isara end (あはっ！）, I think it’s probably gonna be Chisato.
I don’t know anything about the other girls, really, but Chisato seems to be flagged.
Of course, Mashifony totally surprised me, so…
Mashiro-iro Symphony surprised me as well but in a bad way. :/
As for the show, I’ll see how this school politic will work out. It looks pretty intense with a girl got run over.
Surprised me in a very, very good way! But that’s something it’s better not to spoil here, for those who haven’t seen the show.
Oh and by the way, there’s supposedly a planned cameo of the characters from sprite/fairys’s next game Ima Sugu Oniichan ni Imouto Datte Iitai
I would link to the official site but foreign IPs are blocked lol.
I’ve been wondering which route the anime will adapt. I’m thinking it might do a combo between Chisato and Satsuki – Show Spoiler ▼
Thanks, I’ll pass…
there is limit to the maount of cliches I can handle… not one but TWO childhood friends? I havent got any! go and XXXX yourself, protagonist, you are not MINE avatar!
EDIT: after watching the first episode, I’m putting it on 3 episode probation, simply because the whole school student politics aspect complete with assassination attempt of the inquisitive girl made me curious… (cue random curiosity joke or Chitanda reference…)
Who’s here praying for an Amagami SS-like approach for the heroines? Heh, I’d love that but it’s pretty obvious that it’s Chisato they’re following for she’s the main heroine.
+1 for Mashiro-iro Symphony. Really unappreciated show. Although I wanted the first girl there to win, I still accepted the ending.
The character design was somehow familiar. When I checked it was done by the same one as Amagami. Plus AIC. Should have known. That Shinonome Satsuki looked at lot like Morishima.
It hasn’t captured me yet but Mashiro-iro took time as well so let’s just wait. That hit-and-run in the beginning looks serious stuff even if the whole premise is about eating sweets.
Yaoi-stick *shudders*
I might give a chance to watch this show. I don’t really like Mashiro Iro symphony TV anime but I like the story of PSP game since Miu’s route is much interesting.
I know there are people who disagree with my comment. But I still don’t like it. ^^
So should I watch this anime? I didn’t watch yet just waiting for answer on whether I should watch or not…
You should just try to watch it and then decide.
This is strictly my opinion, but the opening pales in comparison to the VN’s version :/
A shame that the art couldn’t translate into the anime too. I know that it would take a lot more time and money, but one of the reasons why the VN appealed to me so much was because of its artwork.
I guess it will be uncen when the BD comes out right?
An anime where the childhood friend is actually the probable love interest of the MC? Yes this is going on my list
oh my look this more to it something mix of all in it from drama, harem, comedy, main guy got same voice as Tomoya Okazaki, sweets, fun, big JUGS, a teacher drink beer with big cup, etc so much.
it also got a conspiracy with hit-run doing adding also rid of evidience memory chip like take a potato chip & EAT IT!!!
yet also chocolate http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs38/f/2008/359/c/3/did_you_say_Chocolate__by_MegansAmazingArt.jpg
hmm stick with it to see what else to expect?
*surprised* Enzo blogging anime like this
Didn’t watch the episode, only skipped parts (10-20 interval) and from what I can notice : character stereotypes, typical school harem anime, & annoying censorship (they’re just underwear for crying out loud)
I’m just too biased. I’ll give it an ep or two, for I suddenly feel like rooting for a heroine who is mostly the main heroine. I usually root for the underdogs, so this is kinda rare to me (She looked like an underdog to me at first)
The lines are SO THIN! LIKE SILK!!! *sparkly eyes*
I know I’m just being picky here, but “For one there’s some rather series business” –> “For one there’s some rather serious business”
c h o c o, koi o shiyo
Chocolate Chocolate mitai ni
ichido tabeta narayami tsuki ni naru no
c h o c o, kimi to shiyo~!
Chocolate Chocolate mitai ni
atsuku moeru hodo torokeru you na koi
Yeah, I was reminded of that (>.>)…
I just can’t stop thinking of Haruka Amami from Idolmaster whenever I hear Chisato’s voice. It’s a good thing Eriko Nakamura is finally getting roles beyond Idolmaster. She’s been voicing Haruka for the past seven years now. I think she’s really talented, but she’s been voicing Haruka for so long that it’s hard for her to get other roles.
Oh, and I’m pretty sad to say this, but this is the first bad Annabel song I’ve heard this year. Her ED for “Another” and her ED for “Sankarea” where the best of their seasons. Those songs contained pretty sophisticated songwriting, especially the latter. Unfortunately, her OP in this show is just ugly noise.
I really hope for isara end…v.touching compared to boring chisato…won’t spoil more for non-VN players but looking forward to the coming eps..
Am I the only one who thought this was actually quite good? Some of the characters and plot certainly seem a bit formalistic at this point and the ep flew by. However, I really liked the visuals and interesting camera angles as well the unsettling feeling created by all the confusing hints, dark undertones and seriousness of the school political system. Plus all the little bits of technology from our supposed future was amusing…maybe I haven’t watched enough eroge adaptions but it looks like my bias just decreased 90% due to this show (possibly,if it can pull this off).
I think it has a chance to be quite good, mainly because there was enough that was slightly off-kilter to balance out the stuff that was very formulaic. For me it’s a classic wait and see situation – it’s for shows like this that the three-episode rule exists…
Amagami style is only good for shows which don’t really have much more than love relationships between the guy and heroines. This show on the other hand appears to have serious school politics situation(2 million yen or 25 thousand dollars is serious amount of money and trying to kill someone is also very serious) as one of the main plot, so I think there’s no point for this show to go that way.
So far this show seems to have a good potential as an eroge/galge adoption which actually has some story and plot to talk about, so I am going to stick at least for a while.
According to a few sites I see Shininome Satsuki seems to be most ppl’s favorite (mine as well), actually all the girls in this one is very nice but theres something about the childhood friend that piss most ppl off, she is too clenchy she act like she owns the main character, sad to say I don’t think anyone boyfriend/girlfriend enjoys it when our partner act too touchy and think they own us..
You can’t be too sure someone is going to win because aside from the recent eroge adaptations with concrete endings (Mashiro), there have been a majority of other eroge anime over the past few years without a concrete choice of selection. The production studio will opt to play it safe instead of upsetting a large percentage by making it a harem ending. This isn’t uncommon and is a marketing and advertising ploy. Concrete selection of heroines like Mashiro is but one of the few which happens to be good ones.
Interesting, I didn´t expect things to get so serious from the start, I´ll to keep an eye to see where all of this is headed. I´d love that the writters take the Satsuki route, I really a lot potential in there, both in drama and romance.
Although the show does seem to be following the usual formula the beginning was a lot more serous and dark than I was expecting. I’ll keep wathing and see where it takes me.
I know next to nothing about the original game except its op vid. It’s a song a very good song with a nice art, though. So, I was quite ecstatic to see this anime, primarily because I’m curious about it.
First Impression, the whole investigating bribery and silence killing things are totally NOT what I expected. I honestly though it will just be some nice slice of life with typical romance plot. It still is, I guess, but with a number of weird elements included and what hopefully be some deeper things behind.
Well, there’s definitely some potential there. Maybe not for an anime of the year, but I’ll settle for an enjoyable ride. Hope the writers don’t waste it.
When I realized that the entire plot of this show was going to be about saving the “Snack Research Club” all I could think about was terrible first world problem jokes. Even not liking a show because it’s about first world problems is a first world problem. -___-
Just recently picked up this series, but I do have a question for your GuardianEnzo, what technology that doesnt seem to be available now are you referring to? Is it the touchscreen computer built into the desk that they were displaying during the student council meeting?
If so, it’s already available a long time ago, it’s the Samsung/Microsoft Surface 2.0 (SUR40), and they displayed being able to transfer excel spreedsheets from one surface to another, so this technology is long available already, but not affordable to ordinary consumers due to such high pricing point, although nonetheless available to all kinds of customers. I myself had the luxury of seeing and playing around with it in the CES.