Comments on: Asatte no Houkou – Anime First Impressions

By: Meruko

Meruko — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:06:29 +0000

Agreed with hashihime and MrWasabihead. How can you say it’s not your conventional shounen-service anime? You have the cute little “sister” who needs to be protected from the jealous evil ex-girlfriend.. Your little girl cooks and takes care of you, and look cute in her little kiddy clothes and bows. BUT it’s ok to be a pedo because she just LOOKS young, she’s actually in middle school. Which makes it legally better. AND that’s not all. You get to see her grown up into a “hot and sexy” woman, all within the same episode. Satisfies both the loli and bishoujo complex. Oh and the h-game protaganist? If that’s not a sign of “your typical shounen anime”, I don’t know how dumb those other ones are. I’m sure Hiro’s position is like every otaku’s dream. Hiro’s character is as flat as pancakes. If there’s any character depth in Hiro at all, I don’t see it going anywhere good.

By: MrWasabihead

MrWasabihead — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:23:07 +0000

I too was thinking that this would be a nice series until ep. 2.
Which left me furious. The unrealistic charachter development was painful.
To do nothing after the initial ‘switch’, go to sleep [after shouko turning off the phone probably knowing that Karada's bro is freaking about his missing 10yr old sister!]
wake the next day and STILL do nothing. Except go back to the shrine only to say, [what] NOTHING when Hiro shows up and mistakes them both for other people.
Come on. Do you REALY find this interesting?

By: Hung

Hung — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:02:42 +0000

Hmmm. I totally thought that Tetsuya was older, like almost as old as his sister (who is quite developed).

I was guessing that Karada was more like 8, but if she’s going into junior high, she’d be around 10 I think.

I was watching this raw, so I probably missed quite a bit of stuff that was implied.

By: wontaek

wontaek — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:58:29 +0000

>>> Tetsuya seems waaayyyy too into Karada. PEDO!

We have a small problem here as Tetsuya and Karada are in same class, thus their age is at most 2 years apart. There is a mention that Karada looks younger than her age, which I believe is 11 or 12 judging from the dialogue, and Tetsuya looks mature for his age as well. The question is, can you call someone a pedo for liking someone their age? Should we define pedo by the female’s look or relative age to the male counterpart? In Anime world, that is rather serious question, as Saeki Kyoushiro from Koi Kaze could qualify as a Pedo judging from how Nanoka looks.

By: kikuchiyo

kikuchiyo — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:43:26 +0000

@hashihime:
If I understood correctly, they mentioned that they were together in America a few years ago, but the boy suddenly (and without a word) left the melancholy girl (her name is probably Shouko), because his parents died and he wanted to take care of his sister.
Shouko says at the beginning of the episode that she came to that little town to “begin everything from zero”, and it was clear that the meeting with her ex-boyfriend was completely unexpected.

By: Hung

Hung — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 22:26:44 +0000

If I didn’t know that lolicon existed, I’d probably never think that the show was even slightly loli. But knowing that it does exist, I can see what you mean, kikuchiyo.

By: hashihime

hashihime — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 21:53:58 +0000

I agree completely. I really had no expectations of this show and was delighted by the intelligence, beauty, and emotional touch of the first episode.

A couple of things: I think this is not the town where the melancholy girl and the elder brother were bf/gf. I believe they both moved by chance to the same new town. And I would rather call her melancholy and beaten-down than cynical. She seems as if she will be a complex character. I certainly hope the situation will be played for emotion rather than comedy. And I don’t see loli fanservice, just a cute little girl. I understand it’s possible to see it the other way, but I think there’s a difference. For loli fanservice, watch (or don’t watch) Sumomomo Momono.

By: kikuchiyo

kikuchiyo — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:58:45 +0000

Am I the only one disturbed by the blatant loli fanservice in this episode (and judging by the preview, in the rest of the series)?

I do apreciate the melancholic atmosphere, I do appreciate the romantic drama with real human characters instead of cardboard cutouts, I do appreciate the consistent and fitting visual style… but I can’t get over with the hardly diguised lolicon aspect that runs behind the whole thing.

By: Link

Link — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:47:32 +0000

Asatte no Houkou was my most awaited series and it didn’t disappoint. If anything, it exceeded my expectations with the engaging cast, beautiful backgrounds, and fitting mood. It’s like Zettai Shonen, but better.

By: Ryan A

Ryan A — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 19:30:52 +0000

The animation really looks great. It looks like it will be a solid show, fun, enjoyment, sentiment, awesome! I’ll be watching as well, someone will probably sub it, but if not I could manage to catch the raws in the spare time.