H20 ~Rocks Your Soul~ – 01
OP: “Katayoku no Icarus (片翼のイカロス)” by Yui Sakakibara – Didn’t rock my soul. I’m disappointed.
Summary:
While a girl is being beat up by two boys in the rain, a blind boy sits alone in his home. A girl named Otoha runs while dragging this boy away from a pig during the day. The two get separated, however, forcing the blue haired girl from earlier to save the boy. The boy finds out a bit about the girl’s features, but gets into trouble because of his blind state. He introduces himself as Hirose Takuma, but the girl only points him to the school before leaving him alone. Two girls discuss the arrival of a transfer student, before running into a girl named Hinata who is carrying too many books. The girls offer to help, but the girl named Hamaji gets into usual trouble with one of their acquaintances. Hinata soon finds herself being violated by a stick afterwards, but it is only from the blind Takuma who is unable to find his way.
After Takuma is introduced to his new class, Hinata helps him to his seat. The girl from earlier, Kohinata Hayami, then enters the room late. Recognizing her voice, Takuma prevents Hayami from being punished by the teacher by claiming that she was late because of saving him earlier. As Hayami takes her seat next to him, Takuma tries to continue a friendly conversation. While a group of girls shows Takuma around the school, he amazes them by recognizing club rooms by their smell. The group is stopped by a girl named Tabata Yui soon after, as she introduces herself as the leader of the school. When Yui goes after Hamaji as usual, Hinata gets into trouble with Takuma again. Takuma is taken to the school infirmary afterwards, which Hinata insists that he stay in. As Takuma thinks about how nice Hinata is, Otoha jumps on top of him through the window. When Hinata returns to class, she finds Hayami in front of a damaged notebook.
Takuma is brought outside by Otoha, who is convinced that he would be able to see. Takuma believes that this is impossible, but Otoha continues to insist that he is her promised person. As she gets closer to Takuma, he jumps back with open eyes. Takuma finds himself in the classroom at lunch time, but Yui brings up some trouble with the food. The blame is placed on Hayami, causing two boys to quickly assault her. Takuma attempts to defend her, but Hayami simply leaves after causing a mess. Takuma suggests to Hinata that they go after her, but he finds that even she is avoiding Hayami. Takuma does his best to navigate through the school by himself, but Hayami is forced to save him from falling down the steps when he finds her.
Takuma is taken to a room that Hayami usually spends her time in, and discovers that it is common for her to get into similar trouble. Takuma realizes that Hayami is preparing instant ramen that he enjoys, and she even gives him a bite. Takuma expresses how wonderful it tastes, making her smile. The two are interrupted soon after, however, by the two boys from earlier. Takuma attempts to defend Hayami again, but she has the two leave with her. Hayami tells Takuma not to do unnecessary things, as he cannot do anything. Hinata meanwhile meets with her elder, and Hayami goes home damaged as the sun goes down. Takuma is greeted by his cheerful father at home, but he is only able to think about the words Hayami left him. He wakes from a nightmare late that night, but finds Otoha next to him again. When she grasps his hand, the two appear on a sunny beach. Otoha has Takuma walk a certain distance to her, before assuring him that it is not as if he cannot do anything. In the morning, Hayami is surprised to see Takuma with his eyes open on the town’s green hills. Takuma expresses his surprise that everything was so beautiful, before extending his hand for Hayami.
ED: “Kazahane (カザハネ)” by Haruka Shimotsuki – Didn’t rock my soul. Fails!
Impression:
Wow. Not only did this rock my soul, I’m ready to call it the best anime of 2008 already. From the spectacular BGM to the wonderful animation, I was totally blown away. I thought all of the characters were extremely unique, and the use of a blind protagonist was totally original. Otoha’s influence on Takuma was also extremely intriguing, and was wonderfully used with the perfect placement of humor and drama in the episode. Being the huge bishoujo anime fan that I am, I cannot wait to see more H20. This will definitely be on my blog list, and I am dropping Clannad and Shana to make it a priority.
………………………….NOT.
Ok, this honestly wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I definitely laughed a lot, though it wasn’t because I was suppose to. I mean, the concept is just awesome. You’ve got a blind protagonist that totally violates chicks with his walking stick, and he gets away with it because of his disability. The girls are all over him because he is blind too, except for that one tsundere that will probably end up with him by the end of the series. Honestly, I’ll probably be watching this at some point along with a lot of other “so bad it’s good” shows that I have on backlog. If you think I’ll be blogging this though, you obviously haven’t been reading around my site for very long. Oh, and for those of you who haven’t rocked your souls yet, look here.
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“violates chicks with his walking stick”
haha.
No soul rocking is going to take place then?
I totally thought that you would blog this trainwreck, since you have a tendency to blog these kinds of shows. xD
ruki: It even rhymes.
Leon: Might be too early to say, but it’s a possibility.
Hinano: LOL I feel insulted….but it’s so true. I wonder if picking up shows just to make fun of them is really a bad thing sometimes. xD
Yeah, Nozomu-sensei is still cool as usual. Great humour as expected from SHA—wait, this blog post isn’t about ZSZS! Sorry, wrong place!
Er, about H2O… um, hello ZEXCS, how about using some of your Rental Magica staffs to do this? I’ll be watching this though, that self-proclaimed “spirit” girl really rocks my soul.
Totali your reversals in your impressions are plain hilarious. I just hope people don’t have read them.
For some reason I actually feel interested in this. Though Ami Koshimizu voicing the lead seems a bit off (don’t get me wrong. Ami Koshimizu is going to have great role coming up….January 9th)
and ROX UR SOUL. will probably be the next meme for while.
Nai: LOL you’ll have to wait till Saturday. xD
That spirit girl is crazy. t.t
Avisch: It’s the “so bad it’s good” disease. You just think it’s interesting….and you end up watching it anyways!!!
I’m not the biggest Ami Koshimizu fan in the world, but she’s done some roles I like.
and lol, I’m waiting for those people who only skim through the first part of my impression to go into the first episode with that review in mind. XD
Got cured in the first episode huh??????
Wow, What a twist. I thought he will be blind until the last but it seems like the True story would stort now. Cant predict what will happen next and it seems like its be a HAREM like show or some kind of echii…. Ill probably watch this and plz blog this show………. Thx
Di Gi Kazune’s first snide remark of the season here. (The very first was at hinano’s).
Only the trap rocks my soul. And is the cutest of the girls as usual. :3 Not watching unless extremely bored. Hell, my summary is not watch anything from this season unless extremely bored. If this show shows the Hscenes, then I’d watch.
kencute321: I dunno if he was really cured. I think they kinda left that ending open. Er….I don’t think I’ll be blogging this show, but it looks like Hinano and Omni plan to.
Di Gi Kazune: You mean second! lol I’ve totally been spoiled about the trap already by Aroduc. I’ll probably be watching this because of how bad it is…but I dunno if I’ll be following it this season. ;P
I like this anime…it was a lot better than i thought. It’s a harem but it’s not one of those annoying one’s where the girls are all over the guy. This was funny and sad at the same time. My favorite female characters so far are of course Hayami and Otoha!
Can’t wait for the next ep!
Buubuu! Hamaji is the best female character! :3
“I’ll probably be watching this because of how bad it is…”
Kinda like Ninomiya-kun last season, eh? ^^;
Orihime: Heh, I can see why people enjoy it I guess. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it unless I was making fun of it though ;P.
Di Gi Kazune: I think Di Gi likes traps as much as I do lol. I could probably watch this show just for that….but uh, don’t quote me on that. xD
Zakarum: No way, this is way less torturing than Ninomiya. This is like so bad it’s good without even trying!!
This show rocked the lower limit of production values.
To be honest, I don’t see anything particularly bad about this. Aside from the low production values and fanservice (which isn’t overly excessive, IMO), it strikes me as a typical eroge adaptation – nothing more, nothing less.
This genre covers at least 80% of what I watch these days, and I can say that Ep. 1 stacks up relatively well; it’s certainly better than the openers for Da Capo or Gift (and infinitely better than stinkers like Green Green and Tsuyokiss), and perhaps on par with this year’s School Days.
Sometimes I feel that opinions are too often swayed by superficial hooks, such as pretty animation, shocking violence (School Days, which started generic and fell apart in the second half, but still won many fans), or dubious promises of “deep” mysteries (Myself; Yourself, which the online community was all over despite how shitty the writing/direction was). I understand that hooks help a series stand out from the pack, but can we actually say they make things better?
I actually enjoy H20 more than I should have, but it is probably the woman beating of the tsundere that captured my attention. I will watch a few episodes to see the reason for justifying woman beating and the condoning of such behavior by the whole class.
Kabitzin: WHAT are you talking about, the animation was the most stunning I’ve seen since Clannad. No, ok…..no.
Skua: Eh yea, to be honest, it wasn’t horrible. It’s just that I’ve had it with watching so many of these eroge adaptions. There’s so many…and they’re only slightly different from each other. And, I don’t think you can compare School Days with the rest xD
Impz: lol!!!! Dude that was so bad. I think that got everyone’s attention. But yea, I think everyone had the same reaction.
Still not watching yet… but let’s see how much Hamaji can seduce people to watch. :3
This is sad… I watched it. And only for Hamaji. The SD is cute. The rest of the show isn’t terribly interesting. The OP/ED is okay, typical Elements Garden, but addictiveness isn’t there like… the ninomiya ones >_> OP better than ED.
Animation is okay, nothing outstanding. BGM, okay, nothing impressive.
Summary:
Agree with the comment “didn’t rock my soul”. Would add, not even r0xx0rz my b0xx0rz. If continue to watch, will be like the ninomiyapile, ie, watch it for Hamaji only. Probably Otoha/Maki. Otoha should go “Boku wa Nero, Anticross Nero” and summon Nameless One sometime for fun or just attempt Paella magic.
Most likely will let totali/hinano do the hardwork blogging the summaries first then decide to continue or not. >_>
lol what is this long post from Di Gi I see in the comments here! But yea, you pretty much got everything right…..except I’ll probably just be looking at Hinano’s random babble about it too xD. Also, traps.. \o/
I think the bashing this show is getting is really undeserved. Sure it is unintentionally funny and all, but it’s more of the same kind of eroge conversions we see season in and out. But I think we can definitely see the effort in there even if it’s all a jumble for now.
As for the plot, I think it’s interesting enough for now. We just don’t know how interesting it can get with the blind guy. I think there is a potential there.
There doesn’t seem to be as many interesting shows (or even the same number of shows) as last season, so this will stick in my ‘must watch’ category.