Some Quick First Impressions: One Week Friends

Captain Earth

Short Synopsis: Our lead character must use Captain Earth to protect the planet from evil aliens!
This show gets it: what makes a great opening episode. I’ve mentioned hinting many times before, and the creators here are really good at that. The entire episode just kept hinting at stuff over and over again, either to things that it would showcase a few minutes later, but also enough hints about the course of the rest of the show, about the different characters, the villains. This really was the kind of episode that made me excited to see more about this show, to learn more about the characters, and to find out how the setting works here. That’s pretty good for a show that at first sight deems like a generic mecha series. On top of that, this series also really knows that it’s an anime, and you can see a lot of stuff being said inbetween the lines, with nonverbal communication. This episode was very compact and it used that time optimally to show as much about the different characters as it could, including a short flashback. The soundtrack is excellent as well. If it can keep this up then this will be a killer.
ED: Boring song, and I hope that next week we’ll get more than a black screen
Potential: 90%

One Week Friends

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a girl in high school
Wheee…. another high school series… how exciting… what an original setting…. Sarcasm aside, One Week Friends at the very least is a good show about dating. It shows the main couple spending time together, there is a visible chemistry between them, rather than them being totally not a match, their conversation feels quite natural. Really, the only thing I can really fault it is being boring. Really, I’m nust not in the mood for watching a show that’s entirely about the romance of a bunch of high school kids, but for what it did, it did a pretty good job. So because of that it’s a good thing that the second half brought in a bit of interesting and surprisingly good drama, and the success of this series will depend entirely on how they’ll use the main gimmick of this series. If we’re just going to watch the same episode over and over again, this will obviously become a failure. However if they continue to challenge all characters involved in different ways, then this can actually become something.
OP: Nice art.
ED: A good ending that actually segues in from the end of the episode. Finally another series that gets it.
Potential: 75%

9 thoughts on “Some Quick First Impressions: One Week Friends

  1. Captain Earth’s animation looks great honestly, but the moment I see (what looks like to be) underage girl in school uniform being mysterious and a naked (what looks like to be) underage girl in a sphere being mysterious and probably have special power and fated to be awaken by the main character, I just couldn’t help but rolled my eyes.

    1. I had the same feeling too. The first then minutes felt really good, then it showed that scene and my entusiasm for the series fell down. I still look forward to it though.

  2. Nothing wrong with a generic storyline as long as it’s done right. Looking forward with Captain Earth!

  3. Isn’t there a significant risk that Captain Earth’s random mumbo jumbo turns out to be no more than, well, random mumbo jumbo? I’m not a fan of shows that throw a ton of weird terminology at you just to confuse you and give you a feeling of mystery without there actually being any – it happened so often I am now wary and try not to get myself too involved in a series that might be doing that. Other than that, Captain Earth was off to a rather good start, so it could as well be great.

    1. Well, it may be random mumbles but as long as it’s interesting or you force yourself to make it interesting, I don’t think it matter. Lesson from Bakuman: Everything goes as long as it’s interesting 😀

  4. Captain Earth, then Lady Jewelpet, then Tenkai Knights, then Buddy Complex Season 2 in Summer and then Fate/Stay Night Remake in fall….goodness this year is starting to become good for watchable anime Typically for Bones they make mistakes, even Tenkai Knights may have some screwups on some episodes.

    So let’s hope this is better than the Eureka Seven AO.

  5. I have to say the first episode of Captain Earth annoyed me no end. It was like one non-sequitur after another. I mean, really? Jumping over a fence and picking a lock qualifies for planet-saving mecha piloting duty?

    I’ll take “I ask of you, are you my master?” over “Are you a captain?”, any day.

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