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June 5th, 2016
Thoughts on episode 1 of Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto
Anime Relations: Sakamoto desu ga?
Pre-warning: This was mainly brought about by a feeling I've been having recently that I'm not that great at putting my thoughts into words, and is therefore a sort of test for what happens when I try. So it's not gonna be amazingly insightful or anything, and this probably won't be a regular thing I do, but at least it may help me a bit with articulating my opinions. :P
Well, I finally caved in and decided to watch the first episode of ‘Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto’, having had my curiosity piqued by clips I’ve seen on Crunchyroll’s Facebook page, and overall, I quite enjoyed it.
The moments that entertained me the most were definitely the ones where Sakamoto was just being swag-central (unsurprisingly). Using the umbrella to protect himself from the bucket of water thrown over the cubicle and saving that bird in the rainstorm were my two favourite parts. One aspect of the show I like so far is that, even though the others in his class seem to idolise him (especially the girls), Sakamoto doesn’t come across as cocky or aloof – instead, he seems to deal with things in a calm and respectful way, and heck, he evens bails out those 3 guys who were going to beat him up. The show’s done a good job of making him a character you want to support and see triumph over whatever comes his way, and the coolness just springboards off of that to create some great comedy.
Having said that, it did have some slow moments. The parts with those guys playing volleyball went on for a little too long after they’d made their point, and I do wonder how much worth there is in the side characters stating and discussing their opinions on Sakamoto, for example, since this doesn’t seem to be a particularly character-driven show so far. Apart from that, though, I can’t complain too much, since a lot of the rest was just building up to the gags.
The OP and ED are decent, though I’m not too fond of how they’re both very much centred on Sakamoto himself. Compare that to the OP and ED for Tanaka-kun, for example – both Tanaka himself and the side characters are shown, and it’s nice to see them acknowledged in that way, as it makes both sequences feel sincere and satisfying to watch. The OP and ED for Sakamoto only really include him, even though there are clearly other characters who have been relevant to this first episode and who will no doubt be popping up regularly in future (unless of course there are no more gags involving them, but I’m sure that can’t be true). I appreciate Sakamoto’s the star of the show, and I suppose it does make sense that the OP and ED would centre on him to reflect the nature of the show…maybe it’ll just take some getting used to. In fact, it’s likely that I’m just so used to the OP and ED sequences showing off all the characters in most slice-of-life/comedy anime, and a different approach like this is new to me. It may grow on me over time, we’ll see.
The only other thing I’d want to draw attention to is the soundtrack. Most of the music throughout this first episode was very jazzy, which I personally am digging a lot, especially that signature jingle that I became fairly familiar with thanks to the clips I saw before watching this episode. That style really complements the classy nature of Sakamoto just surviving everyone’s efforts to undermine him with the utmost coolness. The BGM alone will surely keep me coming back for at least one or two more episodes. The OP and ED songs aren’t too fresh in my head, I’ll admit, but I remember the OP song was quite on the ‘rock’-side – both songs are fine with me, though, for now.
To round up, then: I’ll definitely be watching episode 2 at some point, just to see if the humour is sustainable over a whole series, but I've got a good feeling about this show after the first episode. At the time of writing this, the total episode count is still uncertain, but it feels like it’ll be a single-cour show, which should be ideal for this sort of anime.
That’s all for now. Have a nice day.
Well, I finally caved in and decided to watch the first episode of ‘Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto’, having had my curiosity piqued by clips I’ve seen on Crunchyroll’s Facebook page, and overall, I quite enjoyed it.
The moments that entertained me the most were definitely the ones where Sakamoto was just being swag-central (unsurprisingly). Using the umbrella to protect himself from the bucket of water thrown over the cubicle and saving that bird in the rainstorm were my two favourite parts. One aspect of the show I like so far is that, even though the others in his class seem to idolise him (especially the girls), Sakamoto doesn’t come across as cocky or aloof – instead, he seems to deal with things in a calm and respectful way, and heck, he evens bails out those 3 guys who were going to beat him up. The show’s done a good job of making him a character you want to support and see triumph over whatever comes his way, and the coolness just springboards off of that to create some great comedy.
Having said that, it did have some slow moments. The parts with those guys playing volleyball went on for a little too long after they’d made their point, and I do wonder how much worth there is in the side characters stating and discussing their opinions on Sakamoto, for example, since this doesn’t seem to be a particularly character-driven show so far. Apart from that, though, I can’t complain too much, since a lot of the rest was just building up to the gags.
The OP and ED are decent, though I’m not too fond of how they’re both very much centred on Sakamoto himself. Compare that to the OP and ED for Tanaka-kun, for example – both Tanaka himself and the side characters are shown, and it’s nice to see them acknowledged in that way, as it makes both sequences feel sincere and satisfying to watch. The OP and ED for Sakamoto only really include him, even though there are clearly other characters who have been relevant to this first episode and who will no doubt be popping up regularly in future (unless of course there are no more gags involving them, but I’m sure that can’t be true). I appreciate Sakamoto’s the star of the show, and I suppose it does make sense that the OP and ED would centre on him to reflect the nature of the show…maybe it’ll just take some getting used to. In fact, it’s likely that I’m just so used to the OP and ED sequences showing off all the characters in most slice-of-life/comedy anime, and a different approach like this is new to me. It may grow on me over time, we’ll see.
The only other thing I’d want to draw attention to is the soundtrack. Most of the music throughout this first episode was very jazzy, which I personally am digging a lot, especially that signature jingle that I became fairly familiar with thanks to the clips I saw before watching this episode. That style really complements the classy nature of Sakamoto just surviving everyone’s efforts to undermine him with the utmost coolness. The BGM alone will surely keep me coming back for at least one or two more episodes. The OP and ED songs aren’t too fresh in my head, I’ll admit, but I remember the OP song was quite on the ‘rock’-side – both songs are fine with me, though, for now.
To round up, then: I’ll definitely be watching episode 2 at some point, just to see if the humour is sustainable over a whole series, but I've got a good feeling about this show after the first episode. At the time of writing this, the total episode count is still uncertain, but it feels like it’ll be a single-cour show, which should be ideal for this sort of anime.
That’s all for now. Have a nice day.
Posted by TKZephyr | Jun 5, 2016 1:01 PM | 0 comments