This! This is everything that rocks about Noitamina: a focus on adults, a great director who is able to show off his skills, terrific production-values, excellent acting and a focus on a much different target audience than usual. Plus, an amazing cast of characters and a delivery full of emotion.
Seriously, this series blows away all other anime this season, this second episode only continues this even more; yes, this episode was even better than last week’s installment. The acting still is completely amazing, for all three main characters. I like how we’re also given an in-depth look into the mind of the main female character, because this episode showed really well how she dealt with the loss of her husband.
With this episode, the creators also showed how well they are able to use the main gimmick of this series. Over the top facial expressions are often used as fourth wall jokes (nobody seems particularly bothered by them. Here though, they were used in a different way: in order to make the male lead feel uncomfortable. It just adds wonderfully to the fantastic chemistry in this show. Seriously, these characters make the cast of Sakamichi no Apollon look like simple romantic cliches.
My only gripe: the sudden forced sickness; either build this up or just allow the characters to play out naturally.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
“Seriously, these characters make the cast of Sakamichi no Apollon look like simple romantic cliches.”
Isn’t that because the cast of Apollon were simple romantic clichés?
That’s true. And this isn’t much better either.
I mean, who would talk to a ghost when somebody else is listening – much less when being on top of a woman? It’s a very sloppy way of writing yourself out of that situation.
Rokka has no personality and the voice acting is atrocious in her case.
kind of weird that you asked a rational question, when he’s facing a ghost and all. Who talks to a ghost at all?
Sayaka Ohara has always been a pretty money cast in the past for me, From Alicia of Aria to Yuko of xxxholic to the recent Irisivel of Fate/zero. I dont feel like she’s doing a poor job at all here either, just because she does have much exaggerated expression in her line as the male characters so far, I’d hardly say she has no personality
*doesn’t
Perhaps what he said was a bit too much, but still: while he was making his move on her he was looking right into the face of that guy. How could you not be pissed off by that?
Also I disagree about the voice-acting, which for me is the best of the season.
The sickness wasn’t sudden, Shimao kept warning her not to sleep like she did (of course his attempt failed .. more it that later) and people do get fevers some times due to the slightest of reasons/mistakes .. specially if their emotional state is down.
That said, it is also clear what kind of development this is going to lead to IMO, now Shimao realized that he really can’t do anything to help his former wife or make her happy in any way, he was there for her, he saw it all, but he couldn’t do anything .. he couldn’t even call for help .. this situation is definitely going to change how he sees Hazuki as a rival … it also showed that Shimao’s wife still cares thinks about him and respects his memory.
And damn .. those funny faces Shimao made this episode were pretty hilarious (and of course damn effectively annoying for Hazuki).
that’s kind of rough to ask for build up of a cold…
I don’t think the sudden sickness was sudden. It was actually cushioned by Shimao. He did say that you shouldn’t sleep like this and having no blanket will get you sick.
I was pleased by how this show handle first episode confession, this episode so good i can easily ignore the sudden sick problem
About the sudden sickness thing, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, since they’re following the manga closely.
I was a bit surprised that this episode moved so fast onto one of the major points of this “love-triangle”. I thought they would drag it a bit more until showing how Shimao can’t really be there for the woman he loves. I really like how balanced both rivals are in terms of being sympathetic to the viewer.
They’re not exactly rivals though, aren’t they? Shimao is an invisible ghost tied to that apartment/shop. The only thing he can possibly do is accept her moving on and move on himself.
Well, not in the way an actual love triangle between two men and a woman would work, but they are rivals. They love the same woman. Atsushi, despite his whole “let’s get divorce” talk, isn’t exactly ready to let go, his antics speak volumes of this and to Ryosuke Atsushi is a major obstacle, not only because Atsushi is a ghost but also because Rokka still loves her late husband and at this point is pretty fickle because of it.
Speaking of which, in real life a rival doesn’t necessary mean a living breathing person, if a gut tries to woo a widow who still cling very much to the memory of her husband to him that image is a rival of sort,no ghosts needed.
But back to this episode, I wonder if Atsushi’s attitude will change or will his antics become worse in the next episode, he clearly felt helpless here, will he give up or will he tries even harder to chase Hazuki off, thing out to get at least a bit weirder between them now.
It look as if he stayed because Rokka ask him to stay, so he failed to move on. The ghost is a pretty childish person, I’m pretty sure give up is not an option
He did stayed because Rokka asked him to, but he was obviously jealous about Ryosuke taking Rokka’s right side, which was his when he was alive. So i think it was a little bit of both. But yes, he seems to have a rather stubborn personality, but then again Ryosuke is stubborn too (and Rokka doesn’t fall much behind either).
I loved this episode! I mean, seeing anime talk about sex in a relationship…. That’s rare! I’m enjoying seeing a more mature relationship being portraied! I mean, it’s always the confession thing, dragging throughout the anime, and the grand finale is a kiss… This is such an improvement!!
WOW!
This episode was fantastic and stepped up from last week’s, I love it!
That bit where Shimao shoves himself in to prevent the kiss, made me laugh out loud
And dear lord, the quiet scene with Shimao speaking to his wife who can’t hear.. I’ve always been a fan of Jun Fukuyama, but in that scene I could really hear how beautiful and calming his voice was.
I could listen to him all day <3
NTR please?
lol jokes aside, this anime is definitely the best romance this season.
There’s some natural setup for the sickness. But we’ve seen that ghosts also make a person feel cold (and possibly drop the temp physically). And it’s a Japanese staple that bad things happen in the vicinity of a person who’s filled with helpless jealousy and envy and illwishing. Usually this is seen as something a woman’s malice does, but in this case it’s a man who’s helplessly jealous.