Myself, Yourself 1–and Every Childhood Friend Character We Know

You almost fooled me into thinking this was the Nodame director’s work. FAIL

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Boy who has standard harem lead haircut returns to town full of childhood friend characters. Oh boy! What will they think of next? Truth be told, the first 5-6 minutes of this episode were remarkably restrained and, with the violins and all, I wondered for a second whether this was actually the harem show the director of Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabile was doing this season. I still shudder to write those wonderful titles next to the word “harem,” but if anyone could make it could work, he could…

Then I remembered the actual title he was doing, Kimi Kiss Pure Rouge, and once the jiggling started in this show…you pretty much know where it’s headed.

Girls with assets should not have helium voices

Aoi-chan is the childhood friend character in a town full of childhood friends, which means she is not the Promised Girl. You know this is true because she is the first one Sana meets, and because he lives with her. So sorry, Aoi, your assets cannot save you, nor can your bibliomania–to which you are a peon compared to the Patron Saint of Librarians and Humanities PhDs, Yomiko Readman. Plus your voice is very, very, VERY annoying.

No. Instead, because this is a formula show, we know that Promise Girl is Violinist Miko Brunette Tsundere Nanaka.

Every rose bracelet has its thorn

We know it because she has a flower bracelet and bracelets are like pinky promises. And we know what the consequences are when pinky promises are forgotten, which, for the purposes of the plot, our Makoto-haired hero inexplicably does.

There is more than one anime for which this would be satisfying.

Now, I like musicians. Nodame is awesome. Our introduction to Nanaka is of her as a violinist, an instrument I played for a few years myself. I like the idea of an unfinished song as a connecting motif for the show. It’s the kind of sappy crap that I like to put in my own darned original stories*. And violence, when meted out by the girl at the beginning, is always the start to a beautiful tsundere relationship. Which is why I may give this show a couple of more episodes to see whether this might actually amount to anything, whether that glimmer of restraint at the beginning actually meant something or was one of those vain straws one clutches at in order to find something to write about for the new season–

Ahem. I guess this might be a tradition, my first Fall 2007 posts for a random show that I see on animesuki–this along with Da Capo II are the first first new shows translated into English. In the summer, the first post I made was for Nanatsuiro Drops, which I tired of very quickly (in 2 episodes, to be exact). I suspect this will be the same.

But I’m willing, again, to be surprised. Surprise me!

*Warning: following this link may cause sugar shock, cringing at overwritten sentences, and astonishment that the author has the sheer egotism and temerity to promote a seven-year-old story he would probably disown if he reread it again.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.