Moé Moé Rabu

Morimiya Yorito goes out one early morning to photograph the morning sun. As he was setting up, he hears a girl kicking a vending machine because the drink won’t come out. Yorito decides to help the girl out and by the time he succeeds, the girl has disappeared. The next day at school, he is telling his friend Ishizuki Mana about the girl he met yesterday, but she changes the subject about a present. Once she sees what Yorito got she sees he has no taste and even gets the agreement of some female classmates. Later on Yorito and Mana head to the hospital to see Aono, Yorito’s sister, to celebrate her birthday. But when looking through the blinds, he sees a beautiful sunset and rushes out to the rooftop to take a photo. He manages to take a photo of the sunset with the church in the foreground.

Later that night, Mana is lecturing Yorito about leaving like he did and how Aono is his only family left. She thinks that all sunsets are the same, but he disagrees and thinks that no two skies are the same. He eventually runs an errand for Mana but gets caught in the rain. Taking refuge by the waterfront near the same vending machine last night, he sees the same girl kicking the vending machine. Though when a strong wind blows, her umbrella flies off and Yorito notices that it has a print of the sky underneath. After the girl recognises him, the two return to the vending machine and the girl attempts to get the can, but Yorito stops her but causing the girl to hit him instead. Though the can comes out and they laugh it off.

Whilst talking to the girl, she asks if Yorito likes the sky, and he replies that he love the sky. The girl says she is interested in the sky as well and shows him a picture of a sunset with the church in the foreground. Seeing the picture, Yorito start rambling on about the different types of clouds until the girl steps out into the rain and repeats what he said. Standing there, Yorito then sees the sky turn blue with clouds and the girl standing in a field of grass, but also sees a tear running down her cheek. After thanking him, she turns to leave and tells him to keep the umbrella, but Yorito stops her and asks for her name. Though the girl gets Yorito to tell his before she says her name, which is Shihou Matsuri.

The next day, Yorito is thinking about Matsuri until he remembers the photo he showed him of the church. Checking his photos he sees that the church in his photo is exactly the same. Meanwhile at the church, Matsuri hears a sound and notices that the door is open. Upon closing she sees a man standing in the aisle and begins to attack her. Running to the windows, the man activates some devices which shine light through them, making Matsuri trapped inside. As the man appraoches, he draws out a sword but suddenly, Yorito arrives at the door to see both Matsuri and the man.

Ending Sequence:

ED: 「mellow melody」 by Ceui

Impressions

This is one of the shows that I was highly anticipating this season, so I had some pretty high expectations. But I am glad to say that I really enjoyed this episode very much. At first it seemed to be a normal high school romance with a mysterious girl, but that all changed once a supernatural element was added. Sometimes a change in scenario works, but here it has worked well most likely due to the little clues given at the start as well as keeping the mystery about Matsuri. Although the first episode doesn’t give us much of a plot, we do see that Matsuri is unable to stand in sunlight which may show that she is a vampire or some sort of supernatural being. However this being written by an ex-Key staff member, that may not be the case.

There are two reasons why I’m loving this so much, from both before and after watching the episode. The original character designer is Nanao Naru who is the original designer of the Da Capo characters and I absolutely love her work. Secondly as stated before that this is written by an ex-Key staff member. So a work from my two favourite galge companies combined is enough to get me all giddy. The art is just gorgeous and that isn’t limiting it to the character designs. The backgrounds used from night scenery, the sunset, and even the sky are just so damn beautiful. A note about Nano Naru’s works is that her drawings look really awesome when using a dark tone, e.g like the galge ef ~a fairy tale of the two~. The animation production is done by Nomad, the people responsible behind the Rozen Maiden series, so I can expect decent quality throughout.

Matsuri is so damn hot and cute, and pretty and other words that I can’t think of at the moment. It’s probably the whole hat thing that has gotten me all drooling simply because Kotori always wore a hat. So yes, I have a thing for girls with long hair and that wear hats. Anyway, she appears to be a very interesting character in which she only appears at night, and stays locked up int he church at night. It so far appears that she could be a vampire, but I wouldn’t give my hopes up that she is something else. Yorito seems your average guy, except with the obsession with the sky, though I do like his character as in a sense I can relate since I enjoy taking photos and I would also run off to take the perfect picture. Damn i wish I could take photos of a sunset like that. Aono right now doesn’t seem that interesting at this point, but seeing the official site with her and Matsuri back-to-back, I think she’ll be playing a vital role later on in the series. Though at this point, it seems that her relationship with Yorito doesn’t seem that strong as a family and i hope to see something develop in terms of sibling love.

Mana appears to be the childhood friend type though I don’t think her role will play much of a vital part, though I could be wrong. I also find it odd how her little sister, Koyori, doesn’t call her “onee-chan”, but I do respect that she is so mature for someone her age. We also saw a loli in a box and the one thing I thought first when I saw her was Suiseiseki, though that was probably because of the green dress (funny how Nomad also did Rozen Maiden, lol). Seems that she and the man are hunting something and that something involves Matsuri.

The music I found to be very nice and very soothing. There was no opening sequence and the opening theme isn’t the official one, although the one used this episode I found it to be calm and subtle. The ending theme I’m not too sure on so I’ll have to listen to it a bit more, but one thing for sure is that I don’t dislike it. The ending sequence contains some artwork of the characters by Nanao Naru and some pictures of the sky which emphasis the theme of the show.

Wow, I really ranted a lot in this post as opposed to other ones, but I guess this shows how much I really enjoyed watching this and how much I look forward to seeing the rest of it. Having seeing the trailer for this and seeing the sword thinking “oh no, not another KyoSora”, I am relieved that it isn’t, well so far, but I don’t think it’ll become anything like KyoSora. So with high expectations, I sit here with high anticipation of the next episode. With the current Spring season showing some very decent shows, this is a set in stone for me, regardless if it turns into something crap.