Sarai-ya Goyou – 01




Well, so I could write another first impression post for Sarai-Ya Goyou and Yojou-Han, but since Noitamina airs so late this season and it was obvious that I was going to blog the two of them anyway, I fail to see the point. Sarai-ya Goyou really was the series I’ve been looking forward to the most, finally showing Tomomi Mochizuki in action again. And so far, its first episode does not disappoint.

This episode was an excellent introduction: it introduced the main characters, it showed who they were, it talked a bit about their past, so that we already have a pretty good idea of who they are. It was produced excellently: the animation is down to earth, but refined in the details and facial expressions. You can really see that it shares its original source-material with Ristorante Paradiso: composed, heart-warming and yet down to earth and composed. This really is going to be an excellent slice of life series, and who knows what it might turn into?

Also, Noitamina will be an hour long from now on, right? The upcoming summer-season however only has one Noitamina-series slated: Shiki. Since we already know that Yojou-han will take only 11 episodes, I have high hopes for this series to be the first Noitamina-series to go beyond 12 episodes since Nodame Cantbile’s first season. It’s really interesting to see this time-slot evolve over the years: it started out as a time-slot for those unique Josei and Horror-series. Starting with 2009 however, it started to experiment much more with different formats, and at this point it has pretty much become synonymous with a high-quality and well produced series.

The art style really is beautiful, and I also love the background music: it’s varied and subtle, and complemented the atmosphere greatly, but what I like most about this first episode was how natural the dialogue felt. The chemistry here was really good, while still remaining subtle. I’m really glad to see that this series lived up to its expectations.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

28 thoughts on “Sarai-ya Goyou – 01

  1. This was definitely my favorite premiere episode. I enjoyed Giant Killing and Rainbow but something was missing that I found here. Looking forward to Yojou-han as well.

  2. Yes. Of to an excellent start. I knew I was going to like it right from the beginning, because of that sequence that leads from the candle being blown out, to Yaichi exhaling smoke. To me it really set the atmosphere and pacing.

  3. Wow…these are by far the ugliest character designs this season. Also, how can you call this well animated? They hardly MOVED this episode. The fight was just stills of people’s heads.

  4. Good to see this is living up to the expectations! I think Yojou-han’s gonna to even be more my cup of tea.

  5. haven’t watched this yet, but I have to say that the eyes in some of those screen shots looks rather… freaky

  6. The summer noitamina will be airing Shiki and live-action Moyashimon. The fall will be the continuation of Shiki and Kuragehime.

  7. If you live in the States, this is available on hulu.com 8 hours after it broadcasts! This is crazy. No waiting a week for fansubs.

  8. my 1st comment here although i continued to read ur blog regularly for an year now .
    i really liked their art style which is quite lovely animated .The OP is good and the atmosphere kinda reminded me of Mushi-shi .. don’t know why but maybe the white hair of Yaichi is similar to Ginko’s hair.

  9. my 1st comment here although i continued to read ur blog regularly for an year now .
    i really liked their art style which is quite lovely animated .The OP is good and the atmosphere kinda reminded me of Mushi-shi .. don’t know why but maybe the white hair of Yaichi is similar to Ginko’s hair.

  10. Interesting episode, although it wasn’t as good as I hoped it to be. The production values were okay, but the animation wasn’t that great. It was mostly talking, but I was hoping for a more creative direction. The music was good enough, but it was a little on the generic side.

    All in all, the art/production/music are good enough to not be a problem, but by themselves they don’t really do anything for me. I’m hoping the story can turn this into something memorable.

    This season is good, but there isn’t yet a really excellent series that will blow me away and make me want to recommend it to everyone. I hoping Yojou-han will be it.

  11. I find the animation beautiful but I don’t think I’ll consider it as down to earth. But I also find this episode excellent. I hope it’ll continue to do so well~

  12. I rather liked these character designs. They aren’t pretty, and that’s the point, these aren’t pretty people. I did get a lol when he called that hideous prostitute the “most beautiful woman he’d ever seen”. The backgrounds were gorgeous though. And while there wasn’t a lot of movement, what there was, was excellent. I think if your expecting an action series here, you are probably looking in the wrong place. It ain’t no Bakumatsu, for sure. This is a character-study, and it is off to a wonderful start.

  13. I haven’t seen it yet, but after The Sacred Blacksmith, I lost faith in Manglobe. This however, looks a million times better.

  14. Yeah don’t worry, it’s way better than the Sacred Blacksmith, although that in itself isn’t much of an achievement 😛

  15. Loved the overall ambiance, and the artistic style (of course since i like the manga that’s a given, but it’s well adapted). I thought the pacing was a bit odd at times, though, like it hasn’t really found its balance yet.

  16. Ah ha! Zombie reflected my thoughts exactly; The albino strongly reminded me of Ginko from Mushishi. I actually find the art unusually charming… a tad creepy but I guess it’s a good change from that otherancientedoreverse-haremanimefloadedwithbishies (and no, I don’t recall the name of the anime…)I’m not highly impressed by this though. I’ll give it another try, it’s hard to judge an anime just by the first episode.

  17. I liked the first episode because it had that certain Ukiyo-charme of Edo…life is fleeting and momentary, yet is is not like a storm, but more like a gentle breeze.
    Normally I’m not much of a fan of history-shows from Japan, because they often either reduce themselves to swordfights, like Kozure Ôkami, or they turn into terrible pop-modern abominations like Hakuôki (which can’t even be called interpretation anymore).

    Even though it’s a topic that appeared through media again and again, it feels kinda fresh and that’s what I like.

  18. This show interested me the most this season. I think manglobe has brought a lot to the mangaka’s style. I had only read some of the first volume ages ago, but the linework is much more consistent in quality than I remember, the backgrounds and ambiance are excellent, and the presence of facial animation make for more compelling characters, while preserving the style’s concordance with the emotional aspects of the story. I can understand some people not appreciating the style, but the animation work isn’t bad.

    I also liked that we’re casually introduced to Yaichi’s past and then are left to discern its influence. Its significance to the name of his gang, how he takes on his servant’s name, the way it influences his interaction with Akitsu when the latter mentions his family, and so on. In a less subtle show this would have been slapped in our faces like a sack of bricks.

    I really look forward to seeing the rest of the show.

  19. story look OK, nothing really stand out at the moment.The style is nice but its animation look inferior compare to all manglobe first episode

  20. the characters are kinda ugly, the action sucks, but the chemistry between characters really made me want more of this, looking forward to the next episode. The atmosphere appealed to me a lot too.

  21. “Also, how can you call this well animated? They hardly MOVED this episode. The fight was just stills of people’s heads. ”
    lol wut. There was no movement? Are you kidding me? There was probably more movement in this one episode of Saraiya-goyou than some series have in their whole run. Sigh, just goes to show you most anime fans really don’t know squat about good animation.

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