Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Yume Oboro” by Eri Kitamura with Mariya Ise & Saori Hayami – The OP has something of a fantasy like feel to it, and is done very well by three of the main seiyu. The actual animation is quite good as well, displaying the various characters of the series.

Summary:

The scene opens up with a girl waking up from having a dream about a group of people practicing magic. We then see a boy (girl? trap?) observing a large town. As he is walking, he gets a phone call. It is from a girl who he addresses as his mother, and she refers to him as Touka. She mentions that he should come over and eat since he has returned. He says that she’ll be fine without him, but she declines. They repeat each others names over and over on the phone afterwards, longing for each other. It then shows a younger Touka and a girl named Momoka, where Momoka asks what Touka would do on a date. He suggests things like movies or karaoke, but she says that is boring and would rather watch hotaru (fireflies). As she says that, they appear as if from her words. After Touka remembers this, he sheds tears.

The scene shifts back to the girl, who’s actual name is Yumiko, mentioning to her maid Nene that Touka is coming back and to prepare some food. We then see a man talking to someone who he refers to as his father. They discuss a loss of power among other things. Upon hearing about this, one of the son’s eyes light up. We then see Touka looking into Yumiko’s house as she talks to Nene. Now in a different room, he breaks into tears as he grasps onto a piece of clothing. He mentions that he would not be able to see Momoka in this world anymore. Light bursts from his body, and a green beam shoots out to cover the whole town. We see the piece of clothing lying alone. He has disappeared.

We then see Nene consulting a crying Yumiko. She excuses herself, and after passing by the man from before we see a flame emit from her finger. However, after seeing a vision of Touka it quickly goes out. The man addresses Yumiko as Yuriko, but she turns around with possessed eyes. He starts to panic after this, remembering a flash back when he entered a girl named Yumika’s house. A man attacked them both, and jabbed a glowing rock into his eye. Another girl had come with a gun to try to help, but missed and shot the other girl. He realizes that it is not Yuriko, as his eye starts to bleed. A boy comes running in, addressing the man as his father. As Yumiko agrees that she is not Yuriko, the rock falls out of the man’s eye. Yuriko is her mother’s name. After asking who he is, the man replies that he is Kamiazuma Kiyotsugu.

We then see a girl in the room where Touka had disappeared, revealing a small statue under the clothing. She says that she is always watching, before and now. We see the young boy from just before leaving the house. He addresses Nene out of all the maids outside, asking about his father. She says not to worry about it, addressing him as Haruhiko as he leaves. We then see a girl named Shouko driving through cherry blossoms. She is wondering about the strange feeling she has as she stops to greet a girl named Makoto. Shouko asks her if she is alright. Matoko replies that she isn’t alright, but she will do her best. In the meantime, Shouko has a personality change after putting on some glasses. (um…?)

Nene is in her room, preparing to travel. We then see Yumiko having trouble with her work. She asks Nene for some tea and is delighted when she sees tea and cake on her table. However, Nene is nowhere to be found. She bursts into tears because she feels like she is alone. The scene shifts to the girl who had appeared before. She is painting many of the statues that we saw when she first appeared. She mentions that the one is finished, as we see Yumiko wake up from crying herself to sleep.

Yumiko is sketching some things, as Nene watches her from outside. She wonders if Yumiko has forgotten that Momoka is a character. She says that she doesn’t need to go there anymore. The scene shifts to a busy city, and to a green haired girl with a hotdog in her mouth. She is practicing swinging a bat around, but stops when a boy comes out of the train next to her. Embarrassed, she gobbles down the hotdog when he sees her. She says that she came to see him again. She calls him Touka. He wonders how she knows his name, and asks her if she is Momoka as they embrace. She confirms that she is Momoka.

Preview: We don’t really get much of a preview for the next episode, except for its title is Uta.

ED: “Kono Sekai ga Itsuka wa” by Saori Hayami – The ED is a pretty slow song, and very easy on the ears. All the animation shows is a young girl bouncing a ball up and down as the background changes colors, but this is done very aesthetically.

Impression:

These were my initial thoughts coming into the series: A Touka and Momoka exist in every generation, and they are always destined for each other. We see some examples of that already, and the two that are continually shown in flashbacks are probably the original. I think their story will be revealed through Yumiko’s work (since she sees the flashbacks), and through the story that is being read on the computer towards the end of this episode. Basically, this is one of those stories where the past mirrors the future, while magic intertwines with fate. I’m just guessing from looking at it, but I think there will be two or three generations shown at different times.

The animation for this episode was extremely beautiful. There were a lot of familiar voices coming from the characters, although some of them had very short parts. I was able to follow the dialogue well enough for the first episode, but I don’t know if my Japanese will be good enough for me to keep blogging it (RAW at least). A lot of people are already getting confused by the plot itself! This seems to be a romance drama with a fantasy feel to it, and I am drawn to that genre just a bit, so I’ll follow it either way and we’ll see how it goes.