Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan
Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with three cute girls.
This episode threw me off. With a title like “Shiawase no Pan”, I thought that there was a character named “Pan” or something. Not that the main characters would actually be bakers. Beyond that, this episode… it felt like playing an actual RPG: the characters went from one place to the other, talked to a few people and then went home again. That is not the way you should adapt something like this. RPG adaptations are meant to take liberties in order to weave their storylines because RPGs have things that just cannot be translated to anime format, more than any other kind of source material. So yeah, this was a bit of a boring way to close off such a streak of excellent first episodes. All the characters do is walk around and sell bread. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There were some intriguing parts that will probably be explored later, the characters were all moeblobs with really bad character designs, but they weren’t forced into stereotypes, and this show had a relaxing atmosphere that would have worked… if it wasn’t for one thing: throughout this episode I really got the impression that the creators have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m referring to the bread: it just assumes that the characters can make great bread, but it doesn’t even put an ounce of thought into why this bread is great, or how it’s made, or where they get their ingredients from. It’s just “Okay, we have bread! Let’s give it to people and make everyone happy!” I mean, if you’re going to bother making a show about bread, you should at least do your homework, right?
OP: Granted, this does have that RPG-feel, despite the annoying vocals.
ED: I… just… what did I just watch? Who found this a good idea?
Potential: 30%
Eureka Seven Ao
Short Synopsis: Our lead character will supposedly pilot the strongest mecha in existence.
With Eureka Seven it is of course a bit difficult to really judge its first episode. I remember how I actually dropped it for a while, until I saw how good it got after a while. This epiode of Eureka Seven Ao definitely made a better first impression than the first episode of Eureka Seven did. For starters its lead character isn’t as annoying as Renton, and the creators immediately start by showing some good drama around him, and his feelings towards his parents. His girlfriend still fits the bill of “female lead”, but there are small parts where she sets herself apart from her counterparts. The action and soundtrack also sound very promising based on the small tastes they gave us here. I do have to say though, that this episode also had a lot of parallels with Bounen no Xamdou’s opening episode, and compared to that series’ opening episode, this unfortunately lost out, especially in its characterization. Still, the potential is definitely there for this series to both deliver engaging action and characters. It’s now up to the rest of this series to develop the rest, and it definitely has some good papers for that. It’s a shame that this couldn’t get 50 episodes, but 25 works too.
ED: Not the most memorable ED, but also definitely not the worst. Also who’s the kid?
Potential: 85%
Tsuritama
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute boy.
Above all, this was really refreshing. In a world in which most of the teenaged series try to see who can rip each other off the most, here we have a show who really makes a point in being original. It’s not just the theme of fishing, but the characters and their antics are all delightfully fresh and the cliches that are there are executed different from usual. For example: for as many transfer students that we see in anime, we actually rarely see people move. the lead characters’ grandmother also feels refreshing in her light-heartedness: she was old, yet not the same kind helpless old woman you see everywhere. And yeah, in a season with Shinichiro Watanabe and Sayo Yamamoto, you’d almost forget that Kenji Nakamura also is an incredibly good director. This episode was fun and whimsical, and A-1 at the helm combined with a number of very interesting animation techniques. The end of this episode also hinted that there will be much more than meets the eye at first sight, and I feel like this time, Kenji Nakamura went with a series that DOES fit perfectly in just 11 episodes. After sitting though Guilty Crown, I am really glad to see that Noitamina is back again.
OP: Some actually decent J-Rock. Finally.
ED: Dreamy song, and surprisingly catchy.
Potential: 90%
Not sure whether Tsuritama was chaotic or artistic.
I did however like the soundtrack, everything felt natural.
Honestly though with the cast of characters I’m seeing quite a similarities between this and Kimi to Boku.
Not sure what to think yet. I suppose this is typical noitaminA.
Have to agree with you on the soundtrack. I thought it was superb.
I seriously hope this doesn’t turn out like Life & Times of Drying Paint (aka Kimi to Boku).
Pretty confident it won’t with the director of Trapeze at the helm.
So yeah, so far, this season seems to be a winner. Haven’t seen you give such high ratings to so many shows in a long time. Can’t wait to dig in! 😀
Hey. Was first season of Eureka Seven set on Earth too? O_o How did I miss that?
It was revealed really late in the series that humanity left Earth, colonized other places and then came back, having forgotten where Earth was, and re-colonized it thinking it was a new planet since the surface was completely changed by the Scrub Coral. It’s something you really have to be paying attention to to catch.
Is that from the movie? I thought in the TV series, the Scrub Coral came to Earth but couldn’t communicate with humanity. Humanity thought the Coral were alien invaders (I suppose they were half-right – the Coral needed a place to stay and were willing to coexist but there was a lack of communication) and there was a war which humanity lost and the Scrub Coral basically took over the planet and terraformed it but have been trying to communicate with humanity ever since, hence the advent of human-type Corals like Eureka. Ended with the Scrub Coral and humanity learning to communicate and coexist, with the old Earth continents opened up to humanity once again. I think the Scrub Coral had been covering it like an outer shell and humanity had been living on the Coral for so long, they’d forgotten their own history. Renton and Eureka wind up missing after a final conflict but are together somewhere.
I’m trying to recall from memory. I remember watching the 2nd half of this series on some poor fan-subs.
A bit surprising that humanity seems to have reestablished their old historical nations and territories after all this time.
It looks to me that E7 AO is not a direct sequel of either the movie or the series.
You could be right. But it’s so weird. That FP tech they’re using for their flying cars depends on scab coral to work. Plus it looks like Ao is Eureka’s son. I’m thinking 15 years after Eureka 7? But what happened to all the Scab Coral? All those coral popping up randomly reminds me of the Angels in NGE. Looking for Nirvash? And maybe Ao? What the heck happened and why does civilization in that area look so similar to pre-Coral civilization?
Those old geezers from Pied Piper…are they returning characters from Eureka 7? Can’t place them off hand right now but it looks like they’re looking for Eureka for help.
Hm….I wonder if I should stop speculating here and leave it to Bones to surprise us. ^^; This definitely looks epic.
hmmm i’ve been wondering too 😀 since the original E7 was set 10,000 years after mankind discovered space travel ! but AO is set in 2025 XD ….. And btw which ending is canon E7 manga or anime ??
In Tsuritama, I loved the scene in the bus because I have been there so many times. For once the main character’s awkwardness feels realistic and well portrayed. and of course I loved the artistic direction.
Very pleased with Tsuritama. If it maintains this level of quality, we’ll have a real winner on our hands.
NO RENTON in the new Eureka seven, HELL YES! Not only was that kid annoying, but also the physical abuse the adults inflicted on him for half of the series. Cant wait to see the new series!
If they decide to use “Sora mo Toberu Hazu”, how don’t they just use “Sakana”? lol
Well, I have to admit Tsuritama is a pleasant surprise. It actually kind of remind me of the first season of Honey & Clover.
Sakana is the better song anyway, I would’ve prefered to hear that song in this anime
I like both songs. Sakana felt closer to the theme, since it is a fishing anime, and there are even fishes in the ED. But Sora mo Toberu Hazu is a better hit, and more populaire, while Sakana is more of a love song. Also Sakana is not from Honey & Clover. It was produced long time before H&C, the anime just use it as interlude song, because Umino Chika is a huge fan of Spitz.
Sakana was played in the tenth episode of H&C.
Knew that most of H&C songs already sung before the anime even started
You’re right it was never in Honey and Clover.
Lol. It just seemed to me that is in Honey and Clover because I listen to Honey and Clover’s soundtrack, and I USED to listen to Spitz, Suga Shikao, and Suneohair’s albums 2-4 years ago. So hearing the song just made me think of Honey and Clover
suga shikao is awesome to listen to.. and great live <3
Hearing Spitz was the icing on the cake! Hearts for Tsuritama!
Wow. Tsuritama just wins. I wonder if it’s a modern take on a well-known japanese folktale or something.
I usually skip most ED songs, but after hearing a familiar tune, I just had to to tune in. The song came from Honey & Clover’s insert song (Artist: Spitz)
Tsuritama keeps surprising – Grandmama’s voice and Narrator’s voice belongs to Lum & Moroboshi from Urusei Yatsura!
Yep! Tsuritama was simply artistically FABULOUS MAX >w<
It felt so… surreal and unique. Even more surreal than Pendrum
The old geezer on the ship in Eureka is Renton. Calling it now!
Also I hope people were watching that ED with a CRT monitor…the colors were orgasmic.
As for Tsuritama, I have to say I thought the show was weird. like several of the other shows you’ve rated highly lately, I am having trouble caring beyond the nice animation or music. The show is just so odd… ::desk drool::
Actually now that I think about it, Renton could not be that old…
Ao’s flashback when he was a toddler(?) seemed to show a much taller Eureka(?) so it’s a big question-mark to me what the time line is like. Aidan’s time-travel theory is interesting (so THAT’S where they went!) but hm…eh? Are we looking at a Gunbuster 2 type loopback? Or some kind of parallel universe thing? (It looks like in this universe, Okinawa retained it’s independence from Japan….?)
About Tsuritama, I found it quite interesting. It looks like your typical high school situation, except with a weird boy alien(?) with a talking goldfish sister who can orchestrate other fish around (even without a french fry). Meanwhile we have another kid, who somehow reminds me of Star Driver’s Takuto, except completely self-conscious and with 0 self-confidence. Big question mark what is real and what is a hallucination for him. He looked like he talked when he gave his self-intro but the Fishing Prince guy commented about him talking during their fishing session like it was his first time hearing his voice. There’s a funny bunch of turban guys with a….pelican? And yeah, I’m wondering how all this all ties to saving the world. (From a five headed dragon? I think it’s based on a legit japanese folk-tale but I think I’d need to ask a native to find out for sure.) Oh, and that grandma is pretty cool. XD This show’s quirky humor reminds me of the better aspects of Arakawa under the Bridge. And it feels…safe to enjoy. At least compared to Ao. Expect some gut shots with that one. I understand the dose of reality of the villagers in a truck scene, and it does add to the texture of the story but I personally hate that kind of thing. Crap. Should they have run off and left him? I have a feeling it’s just going to get worse.
I missed the Adian time travel hypothesis. That would explain a lot of things.
I’ll probably only be watching Shining Hearts
I’m watching that too. I actually played the game, and it’s sequel so I’m curious how the story will play out will all three partners together.
I like this season’s Noitamina, hope they’ll get higher rating than previous seasons. 🙂
Ao’s settings feels vastly inferior compared to the first season.
Idk, it feels it’s been done countless times
Cut Bones some slack. ^^; It’s a sequel after all so they kind of have one foot nailed to the floor. They’re not going to be able to build an original world from scratch. They probably have something in mind to use all those relatively familiar real world reference points too.
I am missing the surf culture the original Eureka 7 leveraged so heavily on in the original tv series. I get the feeling they wound up abandoning it halfway though for some reason.
Is it really a prequel? It makes no sense. Eureka Seven takes place 10.000 years in the future, humanity has forgotten about earth, and it’s only at the end of the series that we learn that the scub coral is covering the whole of the old earth, and that humanity fled the earth because they couldn’t figure out how to communicate with the scub coral and almost wiped themselves out trying to fight it.
Why does Eureka Seven AO take place in the year 2025, and why isn’t the world covered in the scub coral? Why is it called a sequel, when it seems more like a prequel. This seems more like a “first contact” scenario, when the humans first encountered the scub coral.
Yeah, that is a pretty big question mark. It looks like the past but there’s something not quite right about it.
Why is there LFO tech? Plus it looks like it’s been in use by the general populace for awhile. It’s not a new phenomenon only just being used by the military on an experimental basis. It looks like the appearance of teleporting Coral Scrubs may have been happening for awhile now, since there’s a certain level of preparedness about them too. Tokyo seems to have been destroyed and someone who strongly resembles Eureka seems to be linked to it. The Pied Pipers seem to keep searching the ruins of Tokyo, presumably where she was last seen. Too many unknowns here.
Human-type corals only appeared late in the first Eureka 7 world’s history so why are they already here now? And I could definitely buy Ao as a scrub-coral hybrid. He looks like he has Eureka’s eyes. And where did those courier boys get Eureka’s bracelet? It was being delivered to the Tokyo military but who sent it to them? And what was that tracking thing that crystalized? What triggered the crystalization?
I noticed Eureka AO took a LOT of scenes taken from the first episode of RahXephon, particularly the opening scene and the scenes around the time of arrival for the monster. (and I suppose the general environment compared to NaraiKanai) I didn’t find it offensive, but sort of a laugh when I remembered both series’ were done by Bones. It was a little hard to follow since I also dropped Eureka 7 shortly after picking it up, but it was enjoyable in its own way.
Sooo excited to follow Tsuritama! I found the “Alien” character a little annoying, but I loved everything about that first episode~ All of that visual eyecandy!
Really? I can’t remember now. ^^; I seem to remember Rahxephon was set in a more urban setting. The time-frozen part of Tokyo, right? There were beach scenes but with a lot less green than this. I don’t remember hill scenes or quaint village scenes either. At least not in the first episode. Then again, I haven’t seen Rahxephon in a very long time.
TokyoJupiter was an urban setting, but naraikanai (where most of the series takes place) was rural island and Ayato lived in a house in the middle of the forest. The military headquarters was stationed on a boat in a harbor in the semi-circular harbor similar to the one in Ao. Ao just feels more backwaters where Xephon was more openly populated. But you’re right, the first episode was city-like since Ayato was escaping Tokyo.
Still, that doesn’t mean the scenes were vastly different. The setting, yes, but the occurrences, no. I didn’t do a side by side comparison or anything, but the scenes I remembered instantly were the pigeons around a lone figure in the midst of a rubbled city… and the escape warning to the lead character before the vehicle explodes and he panics. Especially the pigeons since that’s a memorable, key scene in the first ep of Xephon.
Well, as you said, both series were done by Bones so I wouldn’t be surprised if the style around the backgrounds to both series are similar/compatible with one another. But I seriously doubt if they recycled scenes from another series into this one. There may be similarities in terms of locale if the background artist has a favorite type of environment but you’d have to show us a comparison shot if you want us to believe a renowned studio like Bones actually recycled. A lot of anime otaku in Japan are pretty anal about stuff like this, identifying recycled and plagiarized images with frightening efficiency. I doubt any anime company could get away with something like that for long.
Glad I decided not to watch (or blog) Shining Hearts before it even started. I was probably right in thinking it is going to be a let-down.
Out of curiosity, what are you expectations for this story other than it’s a fantasy RPG? I’ve got some high expectations for it cos it’s being produced by Production IG. Artwise, it should be brilliant. And I’m hoping the story will come out well and have some more reveals for people who played the game. FYI, I think this first episode is just a prologue, showing what everyday life is like for the main characters, with introductions to some side characters. Nothing has been revealed yet although there are hints that all is not well in paradise.
Kenji Nakamura doing something genuinely good after Mononoke again? (Trapeze was good but flawed and C was… Very flawed).
After the excellent first ep of Sakamichi no Apollon, Tsuritama&E7 AO also follows it, damn this season is going to be awesome&busy as well, especially since the old Noitamina is back again, now thursday is going to be super busy for me, not that I complaint!!^_^
AO 1st ep is done well despite all the confusion about the settings, etc, I’m totally curious how Bones will develop this supposedly sequel series anyway,so surprise Bones&hopefully it’s going to live up to the original/predecessor series.
Buy the way. The music near the end of E7AO is just amazing.