Ranked #1291

Sora no Woto

Both the first and second episodes of this have been outstanding. I haven't watched a lot of anime in the past few seasons, but my understanding is that storyline has taken backseat to moé. The characters in this show suffer a little for that -- Kureha is trying too hard to be tsundere when there's an immense wealth of complexity and Japanese history packed into her character -- but the storyline is the most intense and deep iyashikei I've seen since YKK ended. I think this story goes straight to the Japanese heart, and folds into it all of the layers of heartfelt belief and warmth as well as a fantasy element with interesting potential. Definitely the one to watch this season. read more

The first episode set a really bad standard.

The art was beautiful (despite the classic raping of still frames), the character were undoubtedly cute and even a favourite voice actor of mine, Yuu Kobayashi, was voicing Rio; however, despite these things, the story that has been displayed thus far is bland and ordinary. The first episode felt more like the ending of a show than a beginning, the story seemed to wrap up and leave nothing open for the second episode, all conflicts were resolved and no foreshadowing that might lead to something bigger in later episodes and the concept of little girls participating in a vaguely explained war and taking it so lightly seems daft, not even the kind that one can just ignore and enjoy, just daft.

However, it does foreshadow many future ecchi scenes and gives off the feel of a harem anime without the male. The gimmick, I do enjoy, I can see that music will become a major part, though the war background seemed a tad unnecessary if the show’s focus is on wind instruments, however the addition of character-made music is far from original, taking into consideration anime like Beck and K-On, it is simply following a fad, and not successfully.

Something that bothered me the most was the zero foreshadowing, explanations or conflicts to leave you hanging and draw the audience in. Kanata just strolled in and was accepted despite many openings for character conflict which left my first impression feeling a little bare. Kanata had some conflict with Rio, though that was easily resolved at the end as they stared into the sunrise (This conflict then resolve contributed to the episode seeming like an ending episode). The animes’ debut episode was lacking and left me uninterested and with nothing to look forward to.

However, it is still the first episode and the anime may simply be a slow starter; something pretty to look at first and then something interesting to get into later. read more