Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Tomadoi Bitter Tune” by Miran Himemiya and Chocolate Rockers - I don’t think the OP is bad at all. I like how some of it is presented, like with the magazine going through a Photoshop type program at the start. Other than that, it’s pretty standard stuff though.

Summary:

A boy named Ayase Yuto watches anime on TV at night, but he is disturbed by his loud family downstairs. These two people are his sister Ruko and a teacher named Kamishiro Yukari. Before leaving his room, Yuto can only wonder who would be watching anime so late at night. In other places, a girl named Nogizaka Haruka is doing just that. Yuto prepares breakfast for Ruko and Yukari the next morning, but he suffers their abuse while trying to wake them up. While on the way to school afterwards, Yuto is bothered by his male friends about his lack of interest in women. Yuto explains that it is not that he isn’t interested in girls, but that he has given up on them because of the suffering he has gone through because of Ruko and Yukari. The boys are suddenly distracted by a melody coming from the school, as they realize that it is from Haruka. Haruka is revealed to be a perfect girl, excelling in all sorts of things at school. She is quite popular, but when boys approach her, they are typically turned down.

Reaching the classroom later, Yuto’s friend Asakura Nobunaga approaches him about the anime that aired the previous night. Nobunaga talks very enthusiastically with Yuto about the series, but Yuto is forced to remind him that he is rather indifferent about such hobbies. When Nobunaga mentions the rare anime magazine he has obtained, this catches Haruka’s ear. She suddenly stands up in excitement, but puts it off as nothing when everyone in the class sees this. Nobunaga has Yuto takes his magazine to the library after school, but while Yuto is there, he is surprised to see Haruka attempting to hide her face. Haruka checks out an anime magazine, but she panics when Yuto has seemingly witnessed this. Yuto attempts to convince Haruka that he hasn’t seen anything, but when Haruka’s awkward movements cause several bookshelves to fall, she finally despairs and runs away from Yuto who has seen what she was holding. Yuto returns Haruka’s bag that night, but she seemingly avoids him throughout the following days.

Yuto eventually tries to have a proper talk with Haruka, but when those around believe he is harassing her, they quickly move in to stop him. Yuto is finally able to meet Haruka on the school rooftop later, and despite her wish for him to stop pursuing her, Yuto states that he will not tell anyone Haruka’s secret. Having believed that she would be made fun of and ruined for having such a hobby, Haruka expresses her gladness and thanks the understanding Yuto. That night, while thinking about how different Haruka is from the two girls living with him, Yuto receives a call from her asking for help. Having not properly checked out one of the magazines at school, Haruka has Yuto help her enter the school. Haruka clings to Yuto while traveling through the halls, and when Yuto mentions how strange Haruka is, she expresses that it is actually Yuto who is strange for talking to someone like her so naturally. After completing their task, Haruka thanks Yuto once again. She expresses her wish that he would call her by her first name, and after agreeing to, Yuto allows Haruka to do the same.

ED: “Hitosashiyubi Quiet!” by N’s: Kana Ueda, Mai Goto, Rina Satou, Kaori Shimizu, Mamiko Noto - The ED is certainly one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen in awhile. The song itself is done by several of the main seiyu, and it’s not bad at all.

Impression:

You know, I have several mixed feelings about this show. Before coming into it, my expectations were quite low for a few reasons. Despite enjoying her before, I have stopped liking Noto Mamiko’s roles recently. There was very little promotion for this show until earlier this week, and shows that come out later in the season usually fail at catching my attention very well. With a show I like much more airing on Thursdays, Hidamari Sketch, I have actually started wanting to focus on covering it purely on that day. There’s also the issue of keeping the number of shows I cover at a reasonable level, with series that I enjoy talking about getting priority. But with all of that said, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this episode. Noto’s role didn’t come off as bad as I thought it would, and there were a few other notable voice actresses introduced through this episode and the cast list. Matsuki Miyu, for one, seems to be playing a role very similar to the one she plays in Hidamari Sketch.

I found the set up for the plot to be pretty funny too. I don’t consider myself to be an otaku, and I will admit that I dislike the type who openly display their obsessions so easily. I obviously enjoy anime quite a bit, but this fact is very hidden when I interact with people offline. With that said, I’m not sure if I’m feeling a relation to Yuto or Haruka in this series. The romance set up, on the other hand, was very stereotypical lovcom. I typically don’t mind this at all, but it was very easy to point out cliches as the episode went on. I also had a bit of a problem with the pacing of the show, which kind of seemed like it was all over the place. This may have just been for the first episode though. By the end, I was definitely looking forward to seeing more developments in the next episode. As for blogging this though, I’m still not sure if I will or not. I’ll have to think about it, but as of now, I’m almost certainly dropping To Love-Ru which this would replace.