Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “motto☆Hade ni ne! (motto☆派手にね！)” by Haruka Tomatsu – Man, this resembles the Haruhi and Lucky Star OPs way too much. I blame the director. This is definitely win though. I love Nagi.

Summary:

When Mikuriya Jin was a child, he had come across what appeared to be a large spider on a tree. After seemingly catching it, a girl had appeared behind him with a smile. After a large gust of wind, both the spider and the girl had disappeared from him. In the present time, Jin finally completes a carved wooden statue that he has been working on for awhile. When he returns to look at it while preparing to take it to school, however, he is shocked to see the girl from the past burst out of it. After calming down and inviting the girl into his house, Jin learns that the girl is a guardian of the sacred tree in town. When the girl asks what Jin had used to create the statue she was manifested from, she is outraged to hear that it was from the sacred tree she once protected. When the two go to the tree’s location, the goddess is further shocked to see that the tree has been cut down. Jin had received part of the tree during its original clearing, having wanted to use the statue he created to put in an exhibit. Having been ignorant of the tree’s destruction, the goddess despairs at what she should do now. When a centipede like creature appears near the goddess, she explains that it is an impurity. Believing to be powerless against it now, and that humans would not be able to touch it, she is very annoyed when Jin simply picks it up and throws it aside.

Returning to Jin’s house, the girl continues to act apathetic about her situation. She also refuses to make sense of how Jin was able to touch the earlier impurity, though he only returned it to the earth. Out of awkwardness in his new situation, Jin turns on the TV. The goddess quickly takes interest, and when she sees the magical girl show that is playing on one channel, she instantly takes interest. This inspires her to return to the sacred tree, using a purchased magic stick to exorcize the impurities that are currently there. With new hope in her mind, the goddess finally properly introduces herself to Jin as Nagi. When the two return to the house, Nagi becomes delighted after being treated to taiyaki by Jin. Jin worries about having a goddess, and a girl at that, staying at this house. However, Nagi expresses that it would be better if he helped her with her activities for awhile. Jin agrees to let Nagi stay in his house, but after spending some time with her, he soon realizes how awkward it will be for a boy to live alone with a single girl in his house. After buying Nagi some clothing, serving her food, introducing her to technology, and even preventing her from talking to his friend Tsugumi, the two finally prepare to go to sleep for the night. When Nagi bids Jin a good night, both of them can only smile. Listening to sounds while in his futon that night, however, Jin realizes that even goddesses do things like use the bathroom.

ED: “Musuhi no Toki (産巣日の時)” by Haruka Tomatsu – Well, there wasn’t much to the ED. I found it to be pretty boring. I am impressed with Haruka Tomatsu’s performances of both the OP and ED though.

Impression:

Woo~! NAGI!!! This is probably the show I’ve been anticipating the most this season, and the first episode didn’t disappoint. I was worried about Haruka Tomatsu being cast as Nagi after her performance as Lala in To Love-ru, but thankfully, this role is a lot better on my ears. I’m a sucker for the type of speech Nagi uses, something that just doesn’t come across in text, and seeing her cute childish and ignorant actions makes me explode on the inside a little bit.

This show has been getting a surprising amount of hype because of its director being Yutaka Yamamoto (who was fired from the Lucky Star staff early in its airing, and worked on the Haruhi series quite a bit), but I could really care less about that. A-1’s adaptions are typically faithful, and for the most part, this episode was pretty identical to the manga in introducing Jin and Nagi. The last third, involving Jin freaking out about a girl living in house, was totally thrown in though. I would almost call this shameless, but it was certainly entertaining to watch. There probably wasn’t much they could add from the manga anyways.

I was surprised to see that there was no preview for the next episode, but having read the early parts of the manga, we should be looking forward to the introduction of Jin’s friends at school next. And yes, I am definitely covering this for the season as my Saturday priority. I think the banner says it all.