What also fascinates me about this series: it’s two cours long, and already really engaging. This isn’t like Sankarea or Nazo no Kanojo X that just go on for one season. It’s got me intrigued, because it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen such a long romance series that made good use of its time.
This episode was quite sappy, but I liked it a lot. The point of this episode was pretty much to get Sorata to stay at Sakurasou, but the way in which they made him realize this was something I really liked. There were a lot of subtle and not so subtle hints thrown at him, and I really like how Shiina turned into his inspiration to pursuit game development.
Jin meanwhile is quite a bit unpleasant to watch at times, not necessarily in a bad way though. It’s not just his utter refusal to date Misaki despite his obvious feelings for her, but also how he stops Misaki from running after Sorata… only to go after him himself. As if he doesn’t trust her with anything.
EDIT: Holy crap, I just realized that Rintaro, my favorite movie director along with Satoshi Kon, directed the ED for this series. The ED indeed is quite stylish.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
Don’t speak too soon Psgels. This is the turning point. This show is based on a series of light novels and considering the ending of this episode I say we reached the end of the first one. In light novels the first novel is usually the best one in the series and many tend to go downhill afterwards. You yourself have experenced this. (Remember dragon crisis?)
There are pitfalls this anime can fall into. The most dangerous one is the standard collect a harem format. So we shall see.
@Aidan:I can see where you are coming from yes from the fact your experienced with light novels and the possibility of things going bad is there I guess but have you read the light novels for this series?
My understanding with the Light Novels and the Anime is that they are going to do something like Toradora! and complete the whole series just as the Light Novels finish. Volume 11 is due out soon and the final volume (12) will be out early next year.
As to whether it will go downhill from here .. well in my opinion the question that should be asked is have they introduced you to some interesting characters and do you want to see what happens to them? For me that is what sold Toradora! to me. Torodora’s basic storyline was fairly generic but it was populated with a bunch of interesting complex characters. For me Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo has succeeded so far in doing the same.
I was looking at your Autumn 2012 Anime Preview post, and you said that you’ve never watched Speed Grapher.
You don’t watch subbed stuff (i’m assuming), but if you’d like, I’d be happy to upload Speed Grapher episodes that I have on me right now, on a download site of your choice.
My understanding is that Jin stop Misaki from running after Sorata because Misaki won’t be able to understand the guilt that Sorata while Jin could.
So much drama but it’s not bad. Interesting to say the least; kind of felt like a last episode. Hopefully it won’t fall flat on it’s face, it’s a 2 cour anime after all.
Would anyone fault me if I said that this series reminds me of Honey and Clover? I do not mean it in a detrimental way, but it feels like it is echoing HxC, which I am more than happy to see.
I really hope that this series does not go downhill. It has been a while since we’ve seen a good romance+shounen story.
Ahhh I feel like it had some good life lessons in there.
I also like the ‘twist’ in this anime. All the females, are ditzy in their way, but at the same time extremely capable in their field. Even the childhood friend girl works many part time jobs to realise her own dreams.
I liked that it’s finally explained why jin doesn’t go after misaki, it’s a motive I can emphatize with.