Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Future Stream” by sphere – Eh, I don’t really like the OP. It’s really standard, and there’s just nothing that particularly stands out about it. I also wonder what it is with this new fad of creating group names for anime singles that are actually just sung by their seiyu.

Summary:

Arihara Ayumi, and the rest of her middle school friends Chikura Nao, Dobashi Rika, Bessho Koyoi, and Enomoto Kei, discuss the various hopes they have to one day be confessed to by their dream partners. Ayumi’s ideal person is that of a prince, that would carry her like a princess. While the girls carry on their conversation, they are shocked to run into the frightening high schooler Zaitsu Misao. The girls fear for their lives, but in reality, Zaitsu had simply come to give Ayumi a love letter. This causes both laughter and fright in the girls afterwards, mostly the latter, as Ayumi returns home in worry of what she should do. Ayumi seeks help from her brother Yuuji after dinner, but upon hearing Zaitsu’s name, Yuuji further implies the threatening reputation that Zaitsu has among students.

In the following days, Ayumi is further tormented by Zaitsu’s following her whenever he has the chance. This causes fear among all those around the two, as well as a lot of stress for Ayumi at school. When he sees that she is troubled in class, a boy named Mamoru volunteers to carry Ayumi to the infirmary. This makes Ayumi believe that Mamoru is the prince she has been looking for, but after being dropped off at the infirmary, her dreams are crushed upon learning that Mamoru is Zaitsu’s younger brother. Ayumi eventually decides that it would be best for her to properly turn down Zaitsu, but meeting him in the afternoon, the best she can do is to tell him to stop following her in tears.

Ayumi runs as fast as she can away from Zaitsu, wondering why someone like him had to fall for her, until running into another high schooler in the streets. This boy, along with the rest of his gang, capture Ayumi in order to draw Zaitsu to them. Ayumi doesn’t believe Zaitsu would come after what she had done to him, but to her surprise, he does. Despite Zaitsu’s wish to protect Ayumi, he is easily put at bay by the gang’s using Ayumi’s panties to blind him. This causes Zaitsu to suffer attacks from the gang, but when Ayumi reveals that she wasn’t tightly captured in the first place, he regains the ability to take down those around him. Afterwards, Ayumi delivers a finishing blow to Zaitsu, as a scolding for allowing her so much fear during the event. This makes the boys around realize that Ayumi is actually the strongest, and unknown to her, Mamoru had also seen this from outside the warehouse. As the days continue afterwards, Ayumi realizes that her love has just begun.

ED: “Hatsukoi limited (初恋 limited)” by marble – There’s something about marble and shows like this, huh? It’s kind of fun to see all the girls in various costumes, but otherwise, I’m not really for the ED either.

Preview: On to the high school girls.

Impression:

Kimikiss 2! Now with less Eriko.

Actually, this felt more like Kimikiss meets School Rumble… A lot of super duper anime experts are probably already familiar with Kawashita Mizuki’s Hatsukoi Limited, as it stems from the ever so popular Ichigo 100%. While I wasn’t a big fan of Ichigo in the slightest, I did like the first few chapters of Hatsukoi that I sampled. JC Staff actually managed to keep the humor that was in the first chapter, as well as add a slightly deeper theme of first loves (hence the title, I know) to the overall story. I enjoyed the first episode as much as I liked the first chapter of the manga, but as I haven’t read past chapter two at this point, I’m really not sure if I should expect the quality of the writing to go up or down from here on.

The casting is pretty strong overall, from the lovely Shizuka Itou to Mariya Ise (not as a boy this time) playing the lead protagonist. And while I was alerted earlier of budget saving techniques in missing backgrounds among other things, I didn’t find this aspect of the show distracting in the slightest after actually watching the episode. I can’t say the same about other aspects of the show, however, such as extremely SUBTLE shots of camel toe in the screen’s foreground. But eh, overall, I’m really looking forward to watching more Hatsukoi. I’m sure established fans will be even more enthusiastic.