First Impressions / Snapshots

「きょぜつ色のクッキング」 (Kyozetsu-iro no Kukkingu)
“Rejection-Colored Cooking”

Two episodes later, I’m not so much impressed by Manglobe’s adaptation of Mashiro-iro Symphony as I am intrigued by how it has all the makings of just another high school romantic comedy, yet always seems to stop a step short of actually becoming one. It’s very odd I must say, because as soon as it looks like things are going to fall into an overused trope, the characters prevent that from happening. It feels like there are abnormally long pauses in anticipation of moments that never come, as the progression breaks off in an unexpectedly civil manner shortly after.

The most prevalent case is with Airi, who’s very much like a typical tsundere except for the amount of restraint she’s shown when Shingo inadvertently walked in on her in the washroom, buried his head into her chest, and took a peek at her underwear. If this were any other show, Shingo would’ve been flying across the room or bruised and battered beyond recognition in at least one of those three cases if not them all. The fact that he got away unscathed with only his reputation tarnished a bit is like getting away with murder as far as romantic comedies are concerned. Heck, it’s even worse than that as he’s increasing his number of encounters with Airi, which Kami nomi’s Keima will tell us is fundamental to winning over an eroge dating sim girl. When I take that into account, it’s pretty easy to see that the stuff Shingo gets away with here is absolutely criminal. Criminal I tell ya!

Now what amazes me is that I don’t particularly mind how the “laws of anime” are broken here. I don’t find it all that unbelievable that a diligent model student like Airi wouldn’t resort to violence. After all, she’s proven to be a lot stricter than her easygoing mother Ranka (and her psychotic Yuri-like laugh), plus her first meeting with Shingo was on very good terms. What’s more, Airi’s friends with Sakuno, who probably wouldn’t take well to any unnecessary abuse to her beloved stepbrother, and Kagamidai didn’t just send random students to Yuijo to poorly represent the school. (Hayata is the student council president for example.) Objectively speaking, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Airi wouldn’t lash out at every opportunity, yet at the same time, I’m completely astonished by the fact that she actually doesn’t. I’ve grown so accustomed to seeing how those scenarios play out (read: brainwashed) that it’s downright strange when they turn out rather normally. The same goes for the “special curriculum” cooking class, where all the guys were helpful with both preparing the chestnut rice and eating all the excess that Ange made so that their class wouldn’t get in trouble. It’s all so civil — TOO civil.

In any case, I am curious to see where things are headed now that Miu has formally introduced herself (with Pannya) and Shingo/Airi have been nominated as class representatives. I’m pretty set on watching this series just to see if it continues to avoid all the typical anime tropes (which are arguably the medium’s pitfalls too).

 

Preview

46 Comments

  1. Manglobe’s really doing a great job here with the art and animation. Anyways, the whole premise feels a bit generic… and kind of not generic at all ya’ know? Somehow it feels like the series is just purposely dodging the usual tropes and not giving anything back in return which ain’t really bad, but the end result isn’t too great either.

    Click
    Reply

  2. Basically it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it just enough innovation thrown in to make things feel (somewhat) fresh(er), while staying true to itself/the genre (or more cynically, risk-averse animators sticking with “what works”- i.e. “what’s boring”).

    Zen
    Reply

  3. I absolutely love the art and animation ^^
    After watching Kyoukai Senjo, I keep imagining Toori’s face whenever Shingo
    gets into trouble = =

    If its another show eh??? (Ichika and Houki…….heads be rolling)

    oh and

    @Divine Wasn’t Ranka her sister???

    oliviaven
    Reply

  8. I don’t find Shingo to be an entertaining character to follow- It’s not that he’s bad per say, but rather he just doesn’t give good reactions to make things interesting ^^

    btw Divine, are you guys also going to cover at least the second episodes of all the shows that aren’t covered by anyone in your Fall schedule?

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  10. Pretty spot on with the review Divine. I was thinking the same thing with the whole scenario of how everything feels rather generic for a series like this but yet somehow still doesn’t. Especially in the incidents with Airi. I was already prepping myself to see Shingo getting leveled after he inadvertently did all those things to Airi XD. The fact none of it happened made it feel kinda weird but rather refreshing too. I am rather partial to Tsunderes so Airi is already a winner in my book, but if they had actually followed through with the whole hammering of main protagonist thing i don’t think i woulda liked her as much.

    Animation wise, its really superb considering the genre for this series. If they can keep this up all the way, i would say it will be the best animation for a series of this genre that i’ve ever watched.

    PS: Really starting to like the OP song too 😀

    Euzio
    Reply

  11. I still haven’t gotten around to watching this anime yet, but from what I’ve read, It actually seems kinda interesting! And I have somewhat fallen in love with the artstyle too haha. XD

    And as the poster above me said, I’m really liking the OP! 😀

    Chiisai
    Reply

  14. The OP is growing on me rapidly, and only after two episodes!

    one good sign of things to come, and this feeling that it treads a good line between being cliche and yet fresh keeps coming. Now THIS is the kind of romcom I like instead of the beat-me-ups. Here’s hoping they won’t ever fall into that generic category.

    Owaranai
    Reply

  15. This show is catching my interest faster than I´ve expected, the characters have really good personalities (there is something that I love about Airi and Sakuno) and the the development of the story is good, at leas it doesn´t fall in any cliches I know of. Please keep blogging this show Divine, I´d love to know your analysis of this turns out. BTW, that thing that looks like a cat keeps reminding me of Kyubei from Madoka, that is just so creepy in so many levels.

    haseo0408
    Reply

  16. I don’t see anything completely groundbreaking in this eroge turned anime. It seems similar to Fortune Arterial without the vampire setting. So, I’ll just enjoy this at face-value.

    xcswmboy
    Reply

  19. Is it bad that, despite not having seen the episode and only scrolling through the screen caps (and missing the initial first cap of her) that I immediately knew Sakuno was a step sister? They all look the same >_>

    lolz
    Reply

    1. …

      It’s not your blog. The author can blog whatever they want. Second, aren’t you judging the series too quick? Keep watching it until a few more episodes than judge.

      On the other hand, yes it would be awesome if CubeXCursedXCurious was blogged as well but I think they’re already blogging quite a bit of stuff and probably are really busy.

      Silver
      Reply

  24. I enjoy this anime – a season could always use a light hearted romance with a light hearted comedy, not too heavy either side 🙂

    Not too normal, not too crazy, somewhere in between? Of course, with a harem touch.

    acolyte
    Reply

  26. Very Very well animated series, but my only problem with it is that the characters are really not that interesting or likeable and the plot really is sooo overused and generic. I really harem shows, but Im starting to get sick of these overused plot and settings.

    Kazuma
    Reply

  27. Keima doesn’t exactly play eroges. He plays any and ALL dating sims. Everywhere from terrible art games to mega bugged games to bishounen, or otome, you know directed towards girls lol, games.

    Everyday Otaku
    Reply

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