First Impressions / Series Introduction

Summary:
Since Satou is having trouble writing up a scenario for the eroge, he goes next door to Yamazaki’s place. He thinks that the reason is because he doesn’t know anything about real girls, so Yamazaki tells him that users actually want an escape from reality. However, Satou soon realizes that Yamazaki holds a grudge against real women and prefers virtual ones instead. Satou comes up with an idea of a girl who likes the protagonist for no reason, approaching him out of pure goodwill. This girl has no secret motives and she won’t betray the protagonist. After he shoots down that idea, Yamazaki explains that there are patterns in the characters of these games. The three examples he cites are the childhood friend, the maid, and the robot. In writing this all down, Satou realizes that his earlier idea reminds him very much of Misaki. He also remembers his senpai from high school talking about the conspiracy in the world that they can’t do anything about.
Two days pass by and Yamazaki grows angry that Satou still hasn’t come up with anything. Since Satou says that he needs a model for his characters, Yamazaki forces Satou out of the house so that they can go to the sacred place. That place is of course Akihabara. Yamazaki first brings Satou to a maid cafe, and then to a doujinshi shop. At a store filled with models and figures, Satou notices one of the Misao character who was in one of the eroges he had played earlier. He pretends to tie his shoe just so that he can attempt to see up the figure’s skirt. Yamazaki comes and tells him that the character’s skirt can actually be taken off, but Satou still tries to be not interested. Yamazaki finally reminds him that they are creators who need to behave like their users in order to understand them. In the end, both of them go on a shopping spree for merchandise.
Afterwards, the two go to another cosplay cafe so that they can get down to business. Satou starts getting some wild ideas for their game’s heroine: the classmate of the childhood friend who lives next door. However, she’s a robot AND a maid. Yamazaki loves the idea and immediately starts sketching out a design. Satou rapidly adds on more and more stuff: in a previous life, the girl and the protagonist were also lovers; the girl has a weak constitution, so she relies on the protagonist; the girl is a ghost, and an alien, and she came from the future and was the reincarnation of a Kitsune. Throwing everything together, Yamazaki finishes a composite sketch…that completely horrifies Satou. Yamazaki is sold on the idea until Satou tears up the sketch and kicks over their table. They then go to a smoking lounge where Yamazaki realizes that he forgot something at the earlier store. After watching the world around him for a while, Satou notices that he’s still carrying the contract that Misaki gave him to sign. Just as he’s remembering his senpai again, he hears a knocking on the window beside him. Satou can’t believe that the person standing out there is none other than his senpai.

Ok, I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that they put in a poster for Strike Witches. There are a lot of references to various anime series and merchandise, but this was really the most direct one. And it’s for a show that hasn’t been released yet either. Granted, NHK and Strike Witches are both Gonzo titles, but it was still cool recognizing the poster. This also says a lot about how much I’m anticipating Strike Witches, but that’s a different story.
The childhood friend/maid/robot part was hilarious, made more so by the fact that Satou’s perceptions of maids and robots had to be corrected by Yamazaki. And then there was the picture that Yamazaki drew of the maid/robot/ghost/alien/etc abomination, which was funny and creepy at the same time.
The downside of this episode is that the animation quality went down significantly. It was decent in the beginning, but downright crap by the time Yamazaki was dragging Satou out of his apartment.
Next week, more of Kashiwa-senpai and Misaki.

14 Comments

  2. What did you expect. Gonzo is never consistent with animation quality in episodes. I hope there won’t be a lot of these “Bad” animation episodes. Atleast the episode should be funny enough to forget us about the bad animation.

    Haohmaru
    Reply

  9. I had hopes for Satou and kashiwa senpai, but if they follow the manga, she is really a nutcase, much more that Satou. Misaki is really a nutcase too, even though she looks so sweet so far.

    Manga spoiler don’t read if you don’t want to spoil the anime.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    golthin
    Reply

  13. *Manga spoiles below* (Sorry, don’t know how to make that code)

    So far from my observations from the manga, every *spike* in Satou’s mean appears apparently connected to Kashiwa. I really liked her character when they first introduced her, a mysterious conspiracy theorist and all. Now I’m hating her for, what I’m speculating, turning Satou into a Hikkomori and keeping him that way (everytime he meets her, he goes suicidal). There’s no way those two will have a relationship as it’s almost predictable that Misaki is the heroine in the manga. Who knows, the manga could take a sudden twist like Evangelion did with Rei and Asuka. In a sick twised fasion kind of way, I kind of wish Satou ends up with a cleaned up Kashiwa because of all the shit he’s gone through for her.

    *End of spoiler*

    Viet
    Reply

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