Now and Then, Here and There – 1 [A Girl Admiring The Sunset] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to another season of Throwback Thursday! We’ve been on a run of good shows recently, what with Haibane Renmei and The Vision of Escaflowne, so I’m hopeful Now and Then can keep that going. We have a lot to talk about so lets skip the rest of the preamble and jump right into it.

Starting with production, Now and Then looks alright. Color and design wise its pretty basic. Lots of flat colors with little in the way of complex lighting or color blending. Coming from The Vision of Escaflowne, a series released 3 years prior, that’s a bit of a step down. The same thing can be said for the character designs which, by and large, are lacking in complex details and linework. However for all that may sound like a criticism this does give Now and Then one very important benefit: It’s a lot easier to animate. And we can see that in just how much animation it actually has. Like seriously, the amount of small details in these shots, the expressiveness of each characters body and face, is great! I love how every motion is a full-body event. Hopefully it can keep this subtle movement going for its entire run.

Moving on to the actual story, I was surprised! I wasn’t expecting this to be like… an Isekai thing. Sure its more sci-fi than fantasy, traveling time/dimensions than getting hit by a truck. And yeah I did absolutely no research into Now and Then beyond a quick PV and asking my fellow writers. I figured this would just be set in a post-apocalyptical setting from the beginning, like Girls Last Tour. Instead I’m getting some major Noein vibes from Now and Then with what I presume is a dystopian future, what with its eternal sunset and raging desert. To be clear, that’s a good comparison. I really liked Noein. But it is putting some thoughts into my head. Is this time-travel? Will we be going back and forth to try and save the world? Is this some kind of critique on nuclear/nuclear war? Only time will tell.

Next up I want to talk about the characterization. I think Now and Then did a pretty good job of establishing who our lead is for just its first episode. Already we know that Shu is a bit of an arrogant, if caring, blowhard. He’s very relaxed in everything he does, believing that he can always get better and try again tomorrow. He doesn’t really think things through or the consequences of his actions and is very confident in himself, even if he maybe shouldn’t be. We also know that he’s a bit of a flirt, as we see through his interactions with the one guys sister and our secondary lead, Lala Ru. For just a first episode, I think that’s a pretty good accomplishment. The question now is simply where does he go from here. Will he get a satisfying character arc? Or will he be a static disappointment?

On the other hand, I can’t say I’m sold on the aforementioned Lala Ru yet. To be fair to Now and Then, she really hasn’t gotten the chance to do much. This episode was all about Shu and Lala hasn’t even gotten a voice line yet. So it’s unreasonable to expect our story hook, the mysterious girl on top of a tower, to be anything more than that. All I really want to say is that I’m never huge on the “Captured Princess” kinds of narratives. Some series can make it work, it’s a perfectly valid trope and I’m hopeful that Now and Then can do the same. It would just be remiss of me not to mention what is, so far at least, my literal only concern with the series thus far.

Finally I want to talk about the bait and switch Now and Then pulled with Shu’s town. Before the jump to the… future? Other dimension? Before the jump to whatever, Now and Then did a great job establishing Shu’s home town. Between Shu’s walk after school and the view from the stacks we got a really clear view of where everything was. The entire place and all of its inner locations were established relative to each other, it was really handy. On top of that we also got a really good idea of Shu’s connection to the town, getting the viewer attached as well. Only to then rip it all away just it did to Shu. I think this was a great way to put the viewer in Shu’s shoes (My god) and to establish the “Fish out of water” narrative. Hopefully its not the last we see of it!

So yeah all in all I’m intrigued by Now and Then. I wasn’t expecting a kind of sci-fi Isekai, more a modern post-war kind of thing from how people described it to me. There are a few more things we could talk about before I go. Like the giant robot snakes and the badass lady in uniform. But I don’t want to ponder to much on things that will no doubt be expanded on next episode. I don’t want to spend a lot of time lambasting all the ways it could go wrong just to be told to “be patient” and watch as next week none of it happens. So instead we are going to start with something light and then dive deeper and deeper as Now and Then reveals what the hell is happening.

So I hope you all have a good weekend and I’ll see you next week for episode 2!