Hello everyone,
Today we'll talk about the marvelous first episode of the winter season 2011/2012 anime series Ano Natsu de Matteru that following the footsteps of "Onegai Teacher" (pretty closely to be honest), manages to merge sci-fi and romance in a single package.
The hand of Yoosuke Kuroda is pretty clear here, especially if you look at all the parallels we have in Ano Natsu de Matteru compared to the much older Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins done by the same screenwriter.
The episode was well paced with introductions and story development and never looked boring, even when the show shifted toward being more comedy and fanservice.
The story follows the life of a normal high school boy named Kaito Kirishima who, together with his close friends, end up involved with a strange girl named Ichika Takatsuki who seems to be an alien from an outer civilization.
With all the information we got till now, it's "Onegai Teacher" all over again and this is where I would like to see this story diverge focusing more on the romance and on the "filming" concept they eagerly presented in the first episode.
The cast is one of the most likable I got from so much time, I like ALL the characters shown till now with no exception and that's quite a feat to be honest.
My only problem (as shown in this little cute sequence showing my dear Remon) with the series till now is that I'll be forced to choose between Remon or Kanna as my favourite character of the series.
Remon, voiced by Yukari Tamura (Nanoha Takamachi from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha or Fear from Cube X Cursed X Curious), is the cool and dangerous girl with the plus that is also a little and cute fellow.
Kanna, voiced by Kaori Ishihara (Reki from Hidan no Aria and Madoka Kyouno from Rinne no Lagrange) on the other side is the energetic girl kind (that I love) with the plus of being childhood friend with the protagonist...>_<
What about Ichika? I honestly don't care much about her and while I agree that she's cute and hot at the same time I don't feel much attraction for her character.
I have also to make a positive remark over the best-friend of our protagonist named Tetsurou Ishigaki, he has a nice personality and is one of the few kind of best friend that I like to see in anime.
Next episode will probably mark Ichika's proper introduction where we will finally know if she's an alien and what is her purpose on earth. (aside from killing innocent guys)
Ano Natsu de Matteru is a definitive must-watch series of this winter season 2011/2012 and I'll be watching and bloggin about this regularly on this blog.
See you soon,
feal87