What’s it about? Osanai and Kobato vow to change into “regular” once they attend highschool collectively, however their plans to get sweet are quickly foiled when Kobato’s buddy asks him to assist resolve the mysterious disappearance of a lady’s bag.
This premiere is gorgeous to observe, nevertheless it left me feeling… not a lot, which is a disgrace for what’s (if the synopsis is to be believed) a thriller sequence. By all accounts, I must be feeling a way of intrigue and suspense, maybe the satisfaction of a solved case. But this episode floats in a wierd in-between area the place it’s concurrently extraordinarily down-to-earth, rooted within the trivia of every day life which can be richly drawn and articulated within the animation and background artwork; and elevated and floating, symbolic and cerebral in a method which means I am unable to fairly get a deal with on something.
I undoubtedly perceive and recognize the artistic choice to maintain character motivations a secret early within the story, to indicate refined interactions and let characterization communicate for itself quite than feeling the necessity to clarify everybody’s internal worlds and backstories. I am additionally at all times up for lovely set items that make a world really feel actual and lived in. However perhaps it is at refined and at lovely – the general impact of SHOSHIMIN’s efficiency is that this unusual sense of distance between the viewers and the individuals on display. It feels extra like there’s this (admittedly lovely) shimmering veil between you and the characters, blinding the attention however finally stopping you from understanding what precisely is happening with anybody. What do you do implyare you on a mission to change into regular? You appear fairly regular simply the way in which you’re, kiddo—dare I say boring. All the plush background artwork and poetic dialogue on the earth can’t maintain an viewers engaged if they will’t get hooked up to the characters.
The character with essentially the most tangible motivations on this episode is our feminine lead, Osanai, and I simply felt sorry for her, each throughout the occasions of the story and within the meta context. She’s a quiet, shy little factor who spends many of the episode ready for or hiding behind Kobato. All she needs to do is get a restricted version strawberry shortcake with him, and she or he spends half the episode sitting awkwardly on a bench whereas he will get sucked into trying to find the bag. The brutal cliffhanger on the finish of the episode—the closest factor to actual drama—is these coveted shortcakes getting smashed when somebody steals her bike. I wish to care about her as a principal character, however I simply really feel sorry for her and don’t know if the story will give her any emotional decision—and even focus or interiority.
She additionally acts as Watson to Kobato’s Holmes as he discusses his speculation about who took the bag and the place it’s, and goes together with him to assist discover it, all earlier than a grand reveal that… effectively, sorry, nevertheless it’s a teenage boy who steals and hides a classmate’s bag as a result of he was embarrassed by a love letter, so it is not precisely a riveting climax. There are methods to take advantage of mundane mysteries and riddles thrilling and worthy of the detective fiction framework; SEVEN selected none of them and it feels, paradoxically, very unusual in a method that makes it boring to observe. Osanai is the nervous sounding board for a really uninteresting “aha!” second, which does not actually construct my confidence that she’ll change into an fascinating character in her personal proper.
With its calm, austere tone, fantastically detailed setting, and give attention to mundane however essential schoolyard mysteries (from the viewpoint of a boy attempting his finest to remain beneath the radar, in fact), it is paying homage to the 2012 KyoAni sequence HyukaThe large exception is that the characters in Hyuka have been crazier and a little bit extra archetypal, one thing SHOSHIMIN’s grounded strategy could attempt to keep away from. That may definitely work for some individuals, however I personally discovered this premiere to be energy-less. I would not say it is fashion over substance, as a result of it appears clear that there one thing effervescent gently beneath the floor with these characters, however… between that airy-fairy aloofness and the way in which the supposed feminine lead is sidelined and characterised, I am not tremendous impressed to stay round and watch for the present to delve into these hidden layers.
