First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「DRAMATIC☆GIRLY」 by 神田朱未 (Kanda Akemi), 大原さやか (Ohara Sayaka), 葉月絵理乃 (Hazuki Erino), 関山美沙紀 (Sekiyama Misaki), 辻あゆみ (Tsuji Ayumi)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1 Mirror 2

Summary:
Arisaka Kazuki is really excited that her childhood friend – and first love – is going to be moving back next door to her after 10 years. She’s so happy and energetic at school that her friend Chihaya notices something is up and asks her about it. Kazuki explains the situation and Chihaya even finds a photo of the boy in Kazuki’s wallet. At home, Kazuki notices that the movers have arrived next door. After making a cake and getting teased a bit by her older sister Hatsune, Kazuki goes upstairs to change. Staring at a picture of herself and her sister along with the boy (Yuuji) and his little sister (Marie), Kazuki starts having fantasies about Yuuji being her prince. She then gets her change of clothes out from the closet, but before she can put them on she hears a boy calling her name. Standing on her veranda is a familiar looking face. His perverted eyes catch sight of her underwear and he immediately leaps onto her. As she tries to push him off, Hatsune and Marie come into the room. It’s through Marie that Kazuki realizes that the boy on top of her is Yuuji. Kazuki punches him twice, but that doesn’t get him off, so Marie transforms her teddy bear into a gun and starts pelting her brother with paintballs. Unfortunately for Kazuki, Hatsune throws Yuuji right back at her, straight into her breasts. This time Kazuki manages to push him off, but realizes too late that her bra has gotten all messed up. Yuuji is staring, so she punches him again and knocks him out.
After Kazuki gets dressed, the four of them gather in the living room downstairs. Kazuki’s not happy because her fantasies of Yuuji being a prince have been shattered by his true perverted self. She and Yuuji start arguing, culminating in Kazuki proclaiming that she hates perverted guys. Her older sister is a lot more accepting, and even allows Yuuji to bury his face in her large chest. Before Kazuki can do anything, Marie pulls out her gun and starts shooting her brother again. Marie has taken it upon herself to fix her brother’s behavior by using force. Hatsune points out that Kazuki was looking forward to seeing Yuuji again, but Kazuki denies it. Yuuji then makes an appeal to her memories of them together and says that he wants to make more good memories. He reaches his hand out because he wants to be friends with her again. But before she can take it, he grabs her body, and so once again, she knocks him out. Later that afternoon, Kazuki is in her room contemplating eating the cake she made all by herself. As she is remembering the first time she meet Yuuji through the veranda, he has meanwhile entered her room again through that same veranda. In anger, she kicks him out without giving him any cake. After the sun sets, Kazuki hears Yuuji calling her again. She’s a bit surprised when she finds out that Yuuji remembers how they met for the first time on that veranda. Kazuki asks him what he felt about her when he first saw her and he answers that he thought she was pretty cute. She decides to bring the cake out to him after all, but is even more surprised to find Yuuji, Hatsune, and Marie waiting on the veranda for her with dinner. The four of them toast to their reunion and then dig into the cake. However, Yuuji starts gagging and Marie wonders if this is supposed to be suitable for humans to eat. It seems that Kazuki’s cooking is horrible.

ED Sequence

ED: 「逢いたい気持ちから ~Placid time~」 (Aitai Kimochi Kara ~Placid time~) by 神田朱未 (Kanda Akemi), 大原さやか (Ohara Sayaka)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
Opening and ending are both seiyuu songs, nothing too special. The only comment I have to make about the opening animation is that the fifth image above looks awfully like the opening of a certain other super-popular series.

I read the manga for this series a long while back, and this episode was just how I remember the manga: cute, lots of fanservice, light romance-comedy. Kazuki is fairly strong-willed, but has a soft spot for Yuuji, regardless of how ecchi he is. Her sister comes off as the slightly air-headed type who loves to tease Kazuki. Yuuji is the pervert with few redeeming features. His voice actor is Yoshino Hiroyuki, the same guy who voices Kai. I only mention this because Yuuji talking about memories and all reminded me a bit of what Kai told Saya in today’s episode of Blood+. Anyway, my favorite character from the manga remains my favorite character here, and that would be Marie with her teddy bear gun (aka. the gun-totin’ loli).
Under different circumstances, I might have actually watched this series all the way through because it’s that right type of romance-comedy-fluff. But Tona-gura is airing on Saturdays and I’m more than content with the other strong shows already airing (Blood+ and Tsubasa Chronicle), so I’m going to have to say no to this show.

27 Comments

  10. Σ（゜Д゜; Ripping off SHY?! That is just…WRONG! May the iron fist of judgment of Haruhi-sama fall on those poor souls…(-∧-)

    Uh, beautiful love bond between childhood friends. Always works for me.

    Rasmiel
    Reply

  12. Why is it that a lot of the recent animes are all the same…. similar characters, similar storyline, packed like a womans luggage with cliché and enough generic fanservice to make me think nothing of a bunch of 8 year olds running around with victorias secret, a set of double D’s and incest tendencies…

    Varis
    Reply

  14. Looks just like the manga. The manga had some perverted scenes, but the story seem pretty good. In a way, I enjoy this series more than Love Hina because of the story. Later, Kaduki wasn’t always punching Yuji for nothing unless they change it in the anime…However, I’m been looking forward to this series (beside Tsuyokiss) since it’s just something to have fun with this summer.

    sento
    Reply

  15. Wow, that OP screencap looks just like Suzumiya. With the color change in the background, the girl’s uniform looks like Haruhi’s–the color and all. And the girl in this anime has the headband on which looks like Haruhi’s signature yellow ribbon. @_@

    Lily
    Reply

  18. Yay! more fanservice, excellent.

    From the comments made by the anti-service brownshirts here, I guess I’m one of the few/only traditional males who reads this blog. Don’t worry guys, Gauken Heaven is still airing and I heard another season of Princess Princess is in the works for you too.

    Anyways, it looks fun. I’m off to get the raw.

    baka-kun
    Reply

  20. First thing I thought when I watched the anime = Yuuji is a jerk, and I hope that Kazuki will NEVER end up with him (regardless of how slim that chance may be). He may had uttered a few good lines in the episode, but all of em were simply to throw Kazuki off guard.

    Fanservice is always good, but unfortunately, I was feeling sorry for Kazuki through out the entire episode, I rarely had the chance to enjoy em. In fact, I think I like Ikko (Amaenaideyo) better compared to Yuuji.

    While I’ve not read the manga yet, I’m guessing (from the first episode) that there’ll be few serious moments where Yuuji acts like a real hero in the series. And even if there were, they’ll prolly end up with Yuuji turning back into one of those cliched crazed-sex-maniac in the end. If that were the case, I’d rather re-watch Amaenaideyo 5-times over.

    Anyway, I’ll prolly catch the 2nd episode and see if things improve. Or perhaps I’ll grab the manga and see if the story is any good.

    JoshieJosh
    Reply

  22. I’m highly prone to watch this show from head to toe for the summer season.

    And why do I get sort of a Love Hina-esque feel in Tona-Gura?
    Except there’s no inn and no promises of going to a prestigious University.

    Guido
    Reply

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