Moé Moé Rabu

OP:“Last Regrets” by Ayana

A boy arrives at a snow covered town waiting for someone to arrive. A girl arrives and sees that snow has piled up on the boy and the boy explains that he has been waiting for two hours. It’s been seven years since the two have met together and the girl asks if the boy remembers her name. The boy asks if she remembers his name, and of course she does, his name is Yuuichi. At first Yuuichi calls the girl Hanako and Jirou, but he does in fact remember her name, Nayuki. Thus the two walk off together.

We hear a girl’s voice talking about seeing a dream everyday. An endless dream with red snow and a red world. She sees a child crying and wanted to wipe away the tears, but her hand wouldn’t move. Seeing the tears and not being able to do anything, the girl felt sad. But she says its ok and not to cry, since it’s a promise.

In the morning, Yuuichi wakes up and looks outside to see that it is covered in snow. Coming out of his room, Nayuki says good morning to Yuuichi, but Yuuichi asks her what she is doing, but Nayuki corrects him that he should always say good morning in the morning. Nayuki is looking for her school uniform, which Yuuichi remembers that it was washed by Nayuki’s mother, Akiko. Although it is winter break, Nayuki still has to attend school as she is the captain of the track and field team. Whilst putting on her shoes, Akiko appears next to Yuuichi with a pot of hot water. Yuuichi wonders what it is used for in which Akiko shows him it’s used to melt the ice on the gate. Just as Nayuki is heading off to school, Yuuichi asked if she could show him around town after her club meet and she says that it’s ok with her. A little while later, Yuuichi is helping Akiko shovel snow off the road and recalls that Akiko is his mother’s little sister. He used to come to this town to play when he was young but it has been seven years since he last came. Nayuki eventually comes home and takes Yuuichi around town like they had promised. Nayuki says that since that he’ll be living with them for a long time, he has to get familiar with the town, but Yuuichi is not so sure about it but thinks he’ll stay till graduation.

Nayuki takes Yuuichi to show him the school that he will be attending, where the hospital is, and around town. Eventually the run into two of Nayuki’s classmates, Misaka Kaori and Kitagawa Jun. Kaori is Nayuki’s best friend and Jun obviously likes Kaori, but Yuuichi sees him as a bag carrier for Kaori. Jun warns Yuuichi not to take Kaori away from him, but Kaori responds by stomping on his foot and leaving him behind. Watching them leave, Yuuichi has a small flashback of a grey coloured forest, but is brought back to reality by Nayuki’s voice.

Standing on top of a hill, overlooking the town, Nayuki comments that it hasn’t changed much, but Yuuichi responds that he doesn’t remember much. But Nayuki reassures that he’ll remember little by little over time. But then a rustle in the bushes reveals a small fox behind them, which Nayuki tries to approach, but it runs away. Yuuichi tells her that foxes won’t allow humans to approach them so easily, but Nayuki says that the foxes here are special. Later on Nayuki needs to do some grocery shopping but Yuuichi wants to wait outside, Nayuki says it’s ok as long as he doesn’t go off somewhere. As Yuuichi is waiting, he feels that something similar happened seven years ago. A girl wearing a duffle coat and winged backpack is running down the pathway, yelling at Yuuichi to move out of the way. Unfortunately Yuuichi was a bit slow and the girl crashes into him. With a teary look in her face, the girl grabs Yuuichi arms and takes him with her as she is being chased by someone. Running into a nearby cafe, the girl notices someone outside and hides her face. Yuuichi looks outside and sees an old man wearing an apron. The girl explains that she was buying taiyaki from a store but as she was paying for it, she couldn’t find her wallet. A cat jumped up onto the table and the owner yelled at the cat, but this surprised the girl and she ran off. Yuuichi sees that she is at fault and decides to take her to the store to apologise to the old man.

Whilst walking down the street talking, Yuuichi notices the winged backpack the girl is carrying. The girl doesn’t know what he is talking about and starts spinning around it circles trying to see them. When she finally sees them, Yuuichi calls her strange. Later just as they were about to part ways, the girl introduces herself as Tsukimiya Ayu, and the same for Yuuichi (Aizawa is his surname). Learning his name catches Ayu by surprise, but she claims that it’s nothing. Wanting to meet him again, Ayu says that it’s a promise, and this triggers a flash memory in Yuuichi. Ayu asks him what’s wrong, but Yuuichi says its nothing. As he watches Ayu run off, he suddenly remembers about Nayuki. Arriving back at the supermarket, he sees Nayuki sitting there waiting for him. She sees him, but turns away and calls him a liar.

Back at the Minase house, Yuuichi and Nayuki are still arguing, but they stop after Akiko tells them not to argue. Nayuki then forgives Yuuichi since she was late in meeting him yesterday. Out in the hallway, Yuuichi sees all the boxes with his belongings with it and he wants to find his alarm clock, but Nayuki says that she can offer one of his. Up in Nayuki’s room, Yuuichi is surprised to see so many alarm clocks and says that he only needs one. Asking if it’s a hobby of hers to collect them, Nayuki says its not and decides on giving him a clock with a cat on it. Just as Yuuichi is going off to bed, Nayuki tells him to say oyasuminasai (good night) at night.

As Yuuichi falls asleep, he dreams about the past when he was younger. Nayuki wanted him to go shopping with her so he can carry the bags. Making him promise to wait outside the store, a girl ran into Yuuichi right after Nayuki went inside. Baffled by why the girl is crying he tried asking for her name but she only replied Ayu. Drawing attention from the people around them, Yuuichi grabs the girls hand and ran off with her.

ED: “Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho” by Ayana

Preview:

Impressions

All I can say right now is, OMFG!!!!! I have been waiting so long for this and it has lived upto my expectations. From the first 5 minutes I was surprised it followed the game pretty damn close if not exact (my memory is a bit fuzzy since its been a while since I played the game). The animation is top notch and it flows very smoothly, as expected from KyoAni. Though with KyoAni’s recent list of anime series: Suzumiya Haruhi, Full Metal Panic TSR, AIR. All which are 13 episode series makes me wonder if KyoAni can keep that kind level of quality for 24 episodes. Its indeed a long shot but I think they can pull it off.

The use of the original game soundtrack with some remixed version was great, KyoAni did the exact same with AIR, and it feels rather nostalgic to hear it once again. But of course the seiyuus being all the same, except for Yuuichi, who is voiced by Tomozaku Sugita just makes me think of Kyon. But the good thing is that Sugita has a good sarcastic nature in his voice, and Yuuichi is that type of person, so it suits quite well. I’m a bit disappointed in the OP since it builds up but then just fades out. But given the amount of time an OP goes for that can’t be helped. The ED I find better than the OP as it gives a slightly different feel to it over all.

Well I’ll definitely continue blogging this, but with so many other people blogging this makes me wonder, how many are actually reading this? Also for the fact it took me over 12 hours to download this via torrents. GOD DAMN INTERNET AND ISP. Though I’ve taken the liberty to write so much, and take a lot of screenshots, but that just shows how much I enjoyed watching this. Re-light my BURNING PASSION!