Well folks well. I had plans today to blog and post 3 anime posts today. THREE! I was going to bam bam bam them all out. I was going to start finishing them all up during the soccer/fotbal game today and post them all in a row. Then...well if you watched the game you know what happened. During half time I had to update the husband who just came home from work, then we had to watch the game, then we had to talk about the game all over facebook/texts, and then we had to watch all the commentators basically destroy..the events that happened. Obviously nothing was going to get done in that huge chunk of time. Since when am I so into sports? What is wrong with me?!
I think I forgot to post my 4th of July photos...
So yeah folks....now that the excitement has died down and the instant replays are on pause...it is time to finally finish at least one post and get it posted before I go to bed. I won't make any grand plans for tomorrow since amazing things might happen again. Yet I don't want to get too far behind this new anime season again. So lets get to it. Up now is the new anime series Glasslip. A series that looks wrong every time I spell it. Spoilers for chickens and meaningful glances.
Voices from the future have physical form. Duh.
Episode Summary: In a smallish looking town people gather around to celebrate a festival of some sort. There is a little bit of focus on a boy traveling by train to get to said town and then him walking around disinterested in the festivities but most of the action involves a friendship core of 4 (5) people. One friend Sachi is at home watching the festival from her window while her friends Yanagi, Hiro, Yuki, and Touko hang out and do different festival stuffs. The girls Yanagi and Touko do small games while the boys go to different booths to gather food. While watching the fireworks Touko gets a vision of a boy and hears his voice. She looks confused and tries to focus on the fireworks. At that time the boy on the train walks by. He looks at her all confused which makes her feel as someone is watching. Shaking that off the girls join the boys at the top of the hill near a temple where it is snacking and ramune time. Yuki seems very focused on Touko which makes Yanagi a bit pissed off. Yanagi starts talking about how they are high school seniors and this will be their last year meeting up for the festival. The other three find that rather negative thinking. Yanagi sees it as being realistic as they don't know the future. Touko wishes for her future self to solve any problems that may arise...and sees train boy walk by again. The next day the 4 plus Sachi are chillin at a cafe which Hiro's grandfather seems to run but different kids take turns helping out. Yanagi seems to make fun of Yuki as he waits on grandmas. They hang out a little while more with Hiro showing signs of liking Sachi. Later Touko goes home briefly to tell her mother what she wants for dinner and to help with the family business which is glass blowing. Sachi is at home reading and thinking about the gifts her friends got for her at the festival. When they were at the cafe earlier it caused problems between the APPARENT siblings Yanagi and Yuki. Touko then goes to their school to draw a picture of the school's...chickens. Train boy turns out to be transferring to Touko's school and she accidentally refers to him as David (the statue of David) when she first sees him. He (Kakeru) starts acting awfully friendly with Touko right off the bat which makes the girl nervous. He asks about the chickens and Touko explains they are free range that everyone takes turns make sure are alive. Kakeru thinks the chickens should be in cages. Touko is calm when she says most animals don't belong in cages but Kakeru starts going on and on. That cats might eat them or something. When Touko says the cats aren't an issue and the birds can fly away. Kakeru gets a really, REALLY odd look in his eyes and Touko freaks out, shooing Jonathan away and standing in Kakeru's way.
I will totally drive you and your chickens around tee hee.
Touko calls Hiro and Yuki to gather up the chickens as there are 5 friends and 5 chickens. Hiro's sister picks and drives them around. Sachi and her chicken do just fine. Yanagi is beyond pissed to come home and find a chicken in her room. She is even more pissed that it is a favor Yuki is doing for Touko. She starts to say really mean things about the situation and stomps away. Touko acts like a chicken with her head cut off dealing with her chicken. Mom decides to make a chicken meal for the occasion and talks about her first date with the dad. While watching the chicken Touko wonders if she is really doing what is best for them. The next morning all the chickens are back at the school and all the kids are at the cafe, this time Yanagi serving the food. The kids talk about what they should do on their break, by picking something Sachi can do. Yanagi comes over and pretends (maybe) to be mad about the chicken thing. They all want to know what Touko was thinking with taking them home and she starts talking about Kakeru when suddenly he is there behind him. She is like oh this is the new exchange student and Yuki and Sachi are all glare city who the hell are you insane. Hiro is like err should I be mad while Yanagi looks at Yuki, then sorta glares at Kakeru. Touko is confused so Kakeru decides to confuse her more by saying he saw what she saw on the firework night, a vision of the other person. THE END!
At least the nice, sweet girl wasn't....not nice sweet. I need some sense of normalcy guys.
So....yeah. That was a bit different than what I was expecting. I guess that was a good thing as anime can be sorta formulaic. And it still was at some parts. But I thought it was going to be slice of life, everyone sweet as pie, and the new kid was awkward. I didn't think there was actually going to be anything magical afoot or anyone was going to be anything but sweet as pie nice. Awkward and prone to human emotions yes but...hmm.
Take a picture, it will last longer.
This show has several artist elements that either are really pretty or they are trying to hard to be...special and unique if that makes sense. Like when the screen frames like it is now a picture all sketch like. Like randomly got to stop the action to make the moment seem special or important. Also how the characters were introduced were different. The whole stop screen thing again with the names underneath said character. It helps me as a blogger and a person who is bad with names to learn them better though. Especially in the land of Japan, where people rarely go by their given name as last names or nicknames are much more prevalent. So that is that.
Oh and Touko has a family that I guess is important.
A great deal of the episode dealt with festival fun. I do love a festival episode but most don't start off that way, most animes anyway. Usually we have a few episodes under our belt so we know the dynamics and what not. So when the drama starts to happen it makes sense. This episode was like nope, we are premiering a day before the 4th of July bring on the fireworks. It was a bit odd though watching the fireworks go off and people didn't stop to watch them. Like that is usually the main thing, the last event of the night. Instead all the booths were opened and people watched...then kept on going. Some people didn't even get to the area when the fireworks started. Odd.
Oh and there was this moment that affected Touko and I am guessing Kakeru.
Still there was typical festival fun. Food, prizes, shopping. Girls in cute clothes. Boys looking at the girls in cute clothes because they can't wear the cute clothes themselves. I hope it will be explained why Sachi didn't join her friends. She seems okay to go hiking in the woods and hanging out at the cafe. Maybe she can't handle huge crowds? Don't know. But yay festivals and having fun. Crisp looking fireworks and the beginnings of very complicated relationships that are probably not going to end nice and neat.
Don't worry folks, they aren't related by blood.
Where to start with these kids? At the festival it is clear that this newcomer Kakeru had an agenda. A man on a mission. Didn't care about what was going on around him, he was looking for something. And that something was Touko. Now in the summary for this show it said that Kakeru heard a voice from the future leading him to Touko. But Touko also heard a voice and had a vision so...you know. Still Kakeru looked a little off at the festival. Yanagi seemed to be acting like the older sister of the group, taking care of Touko. But if looks could kill Touko would be dead and Yanagi would claim her prize Yuki. Who according to the internet is only her step brother, not her brother or cousin like I thought and started to poke my eyes out. They probably should have mentioned that in the show so I wasn't gagging and what not. Hiro seems to like Sachi who is about as interesting as a rock. As the show goes on I am sure there will be more relationships and tears but for now that is what I see.
Give me back our friendship bracelets!
I am not sure if I should applaud Yanagi for her realistic view on life or side with the other 3 (maybe 4) with their optimistic view on their friendship. The thing is relationships are slightly different in Japan. People move and the distance can really effect you. Heck being in a different class can effect friendships. So chances are these kids might go to different colleges or start jobs somewhere else than their tiny town. Family commitments might happen right away with people who enjoy procreating the minute they graduate from high school. So Ms. Doom and Gloom Yanagi might be right. Especially if all these love orgies explode in their face. But the others want to believe things will be okay, even if they know deep down it is a lie. I think that Touko actually might believe it though. That her future self will be able to fix any problem and the rest of their lives they will celebrate this festival. Will Touko get her wish?
Putting that all aside it is time to meet up with Sachi, the 5th member of this group. I already see a problem with two guys and three girls in the original pair. Good thing another boy is showing up. I am just going to assume that the kids get free treats at the cafe because Hiro's relative owns it and they take turns serving the food and what not. It's not really anyone's job but Hiro's. But the group of friends seem happy. They don't have to do everything together but they spend enough time together to be close. In between being jealous of each other. Some light teasing and some I mean it teasing. Especially on the side of Yanagi. This show is going to be a fan of flashbacks I see. I don't know how I feel about flashbacks within the same episode. Seems kinda lame because we just saw the material. But since the flashbacks add to what is currently going on, a different point of view...I might allow it. Since people asked my opinion.
First red flag folks!
After Touko runs back home to torture her family and do other random things she finds herself at school drawing chickens. I have never had a school pet before but I think chickens are a no for me. Just a no. They also seem kinda boring to draw. I would go to the beach if I could draw but that is just me. But Touko had to go to the school so she could run into train boy who magically has transferred to her school with 6 months of school left or something like that. :( What a bummer that is. Anyway the train boy name is Kakeru and apparently he looks like a naked statue. Does anyone else see it? Maybe Touko was blinded by the light and what not. I just don't know.
Where I come from we protect our chickens!
Anyway the conversation between Touko and Kakeru started off okay despite the fact that Kakeru is a bit...you know forward with how he talks and he has been sent there on a mission from a future voice. But it turned very creepy very, very early on in the conversation. Over the boring pet chickens. I do see both points of view. Animals are...animals. They do well in the wild and cages are rather sad. But animals in the wild don't live as long as domesticated animals. And animals don't really know what they are missing if they are raised indoors and what not. Maybe I am biased since my cat is scared to death of outside and seems to be quite happy with her current living conditions. I think zoos are a mixed bag. Not a fan of tiny cages but my zoo has pretty big areas for most of the animals. So yeah....Touko had points and Kakeru had points too, especially around the wild cat thing.
Clearly a chicken killer.
But clearly I am talking about how Kakeru got some crazy look in his eye when Touko thought she was making a good point. Touko was sorta trying to push it aside and Kakeru thought of a good way to prove her wrong. The chicken could fly away can he? So....yeah it looked like Kakeru was going to hurt the chicken. Kick it or something to prove his point. It was just a super creepy/awkward moment that you just feel. Even if Kakeru tried to make it a joke later it was done folks. First impression done, this is a creepy kid. It always starts with the animals! Then you move onto the people. Just...anyone who saw that moment would be creeped out yes?
Also chickens.
Touko was so upset she gathered up all 5 chickens and handed them out to her friends. I am sure as the show progresses a 6th chicken will show up to represent Kakeru. Or maybe he will be a friendly cat. Something anyway. These must be true friends because I would have been um no I am not chicken sitting. Everyone must have pretty cool parents too. The only person who had a problem with it was Yanagi. I mean I see her point of view. You agreed to the chickens, you watch over them. But she had to take it a step further with talking about how Yuki does whatever Touko wants. I mean if she said DIE would you do it? Again it was a creepy moment but Yanagi pulled it back by realizing that Touko is a good girl. Still no one likes chickens and Yanagi is jealous.
Did I miss something.....?
The next morning all the chickens were brought back to the school and everyone had a fun teasing Touko. Like oh you silly girl. Lets sit down now that we are chicken free and talk about the rest of our plans for summer break. Something that Sachi can do. But before we can agree on that...really girl? Chickens. I don't think Touko was going to tell them the whole truth about what happened. She seems like a kind of girl to protect others, even those who threaten beloved chickens. She was just going to be very vague about the new student Kakeru and POOF there he was. And right off the bat EVERYONE ELSE starts acting creepy. I know he whispered something about seeing the vision/hearing the voice to Touko but did anyone else hear it? I think not. No one really knows what happened with the chickens. Yet everyone minus Hiro was shooting Kakeru evil glares. Jealously? They don't want anyone else in the circle of friends? Touko is unable to make decisions on her own? They have to protect her from outsiders? Either way this episode was not how I thought things were going to go down. Everyone was going to be lalala and Kakeru was going to prance in and announce Touko was the one for him and everyone would accept him with open arms and not talk about their jealous feelings. Instead we get glares and chickens. Guess we will have to wait until episode 2 to see how things shape out. Til next time.
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