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ファイト／ステイナイト 
After waiting for almost a day, I can finally see this and it doesn't disappoint. I admit, I'm a bit iffy with the character design. It looks like the kind of character design that can look ugly easily if the animators are lazy or if it's outsourced to other company. However, for the time being the quality is pretty good so I have no complaint on that regard. Unfortunately, this episode doesn't come with the OP theme. Maybe on the 2nd episode we'll get one. The ED theme, on the other hand, is pretty good and is sung by all of the male VAs, including Fukuyama Jun. As for the story itself, it's pretty entertaining actually. I have heard from other posters that the storyline is not that fun and that the characters are not pleasant. From what I've seen so far, sure, they behave like spoiled brats but that's what makes them amusing. I also get the feeling that GONZO tries to capture that Ouran Host Club look since the style of the design here reminds me of that other series. Even the special area where SA students gather look similar to the area where Ouran Host Club is located. Overall, this is a fun and pleasant comedy which everyone should really check out.
Hanazono Hikari remembers that when she was a little girl, she's been trained well by her father. She quickly became confident because she never lost a fight. It was then that she met Takishima Kei. She immediately challenged him to a fight but was easily defeated by him. It was then that her desire to defeat Kei started. In the present time, Hikari makes her way to school and is startled when she gets mass greetings from other students. It appears that other students in this school are obsessed with students from Special A class such as Hikari herself. Despite Hikari's request that the students greet her normally, they still treat her like she's some kind of royalty. Hikari is quickly joined by her classmate, Toudou Akira, who is the 6th best student at their school.
Later on, Akira tells her that it can't be helped that those students are interested in them because their uniform, class, and lesson are different from other students. The two then walk across the school's garden and arrive at some kind of greenhouse that has been outfitted with furniture. The two are greeted by Yamamoto Jun and Yamamoto Megumi, the twin son and daughter of a music producer. Not far from them, a guy called Tsuji Ryuu is busy petting an animal. Hikari tries to touch the animal but freaks out when it tries to swipe its claws at her. Upon seeing the way Ryuu treats the animal, the twins look jealous to the point that they end up sending what looks like electric shock from the eyes towards the animal and vice versa.
The two also threaten to play violin (their play must be really bad) but before they can do that, Akira warns Ryuu about this. Because of this, Ryuu uses a whistle to stop the two brats. Instead, the two end up glomping Ryuu. Akira is impressed by the closeness between the three, pointing out that they've been close since they were baby. Hikari, however, is confused why Akira stopped the performance so Akira explains by telling her that she obviously hasn't heard the two playing music. Akira's explanation is interrupted when someone grabs her shoulder. She quickly realizes that the person smells really bad so she shrieks in terror. The person turns out to be Karino Tadashi, the 5th ranked student in the school.
A few minutes later, everyone ends up eating avocado sandwiches that Akira brought for them. She, however, is not impressed upon seeing Tadashi devouring plates after plates of the sandwiches. Meanwhile, Hikaru realizes that Kei is not around so she asks for his whereabouts. Unfortunately as soon as she said this, Kei appears and asks her if she's sad when he's not around. He then leaves the area after calling Hikari "Ni-i-san" (2nd place person). While inside the gym, Hikari explains how in order to defeat Kei, she asks her parents to go this school even though it's hard for them to afford it. Much to everyone's surprise, Hikari does a perfect job of jumping an obstacle. Despite this, Kei manages to jump over a higher obstacle. This causes Hikari to realize that despite her effort, she still hasn't been able to defeat him.
Hikari refuses to give up and continues to challenge Kei with higher and higher obstacles. Eventually, the obstacle reaches a point where it's impossible for a normal human to jump over. Despite this, Hikari is still able to jump over it. Unfortunately for her, Kei does a better job. He even hovers on top of her and manages to gracefully sommersault his way down. This means that Kei is the winner so once again he calls Hikari "Ni-i-san". Despite the insane challenges that she just went through, Hikari continues to study normally afterwards, Akira reminds Hikari that she's probably worn out after the obstacle jump so she should take a rest. Hikari agrees to do that after she finishes her study. She, however, notices the calendar and asks Akira to confirm that tomorrow will indeed be the 22nd of April.
The next day, Hikari finds out that Jun and Megumi are planning a recital. After reading the words that Megumi wrote on her sketchbook, however, Hikari becomes excited as well because Megumi promises that it'll be like festival and Hikari loves festival. Her excitement, however is interrupted when a group of students from B class comes over. One of them sarcastically tells Hikari that it must be nice to party just before test. One of them also accuses S.A of making fun of them while they try hard to get in it. Kei then appears and tells them that if they want to get into S.A class they should go ahead and kick the rest of them out. In order to intimidate the guys, Kei reveals that he knows their names: Nakamura, Ookawa, and Takahashi. Kei explains that he can remember anything that he sees once and ask them if he should spell out their address.
Later on that day, Kei finds Hikari sleeping inside the library while studying so he puts a blanket over her body. After Hikari wakes up, Kei asks her what challenge she wants to do now, pointing at a letter addressed at him. Before she can talk about the letter, they hear a noise coming from somewhere. Hikari goes off to investigate and finds out that the guys from B class are taking a look at questions intended for the finals. In response, they try to tempt Hikari to take a look at the question as well because then she can defeat Kei. Hikari, however, slaps the camera out of the guy's hand and tells him that there's no meaning to winning something without one's own effort. Not wanting to be outdone, the lead guy claims that is something that the top winner should say. Before Hikari can responds, Kei already knee-kicked the guy.
Kei tells the guy that he has no right to speak like that to Hikari, who works harder more than anyone else. In fact, he thinks she's an incredible person. Despite this, the guys still refuse to give up and try to attack Hikari and Kei so Hikari and Kei team up and use their fighting skills to beat the guys up. Hikari believes that while results are important, what's more important is what one does to get there. After the two beat up the guys, Hikari congratulates Kei because today is birthday. She thinks they should celebrate together....with everyone. Kei is horrified upon finding out that Jun and Megumi are going to do recital together. He asks Hikari if she's ever heard Megumi singing. Before he can stop Megumi, however, she already utters her first tune and obliterates everything around her like an atomic bomb. The next day, Hikari runs to the greenhouse telling everyone that she gets perfect score. Unfortunately for her, Kei also gets perfect score and extra point for correcting an error on the test. This means Hikari is still "Ni-i-san".
Impression:
The relationship between the twins and Ryuu seems a bit weird but I guess they're just inter-dependent on each other like that. After watching this episode, I still don't understand why people think the characters are unlikeable. Granted, they're not the nicest people in the world but they're not bad either. Because if one thinks about it, if they are just normal without any kind of quirk, they'd be kind of boring. Personally, except for Kei, I like every single character in the series. Kei is just a bit boring for me and the character design doesn't look that original. Fukuyama Jun also starts to sound the same from role to role so it's a bit jarring at times hearing Lelouch's voice on this entirely different face. As for Goto Yuuko, I'm surprised at how different her voice here and her voice as Mikuru. I think it's impressive when a VA can sound completely different from role to role. While it'd be nice to be able to recognize a VA's voice like Noto Mamiko, it's even better when one is surprised to know that two different voices come from the same VA.
ED Theme: 「陽だまりのゲート」 - Hidamari no Gate by Fukuyama Jun, Shimono Hiro, Yonaga Tsubasa, & Horie Kazuma - AVI version (19.9MB) | PSP version (10MB)
Preview
OMG OMG!! It looks good! Where's my sub already?
OM*G! This looks awesome!
I want to enjoy this but then I remember that this is GONZO. I hope they don't screw up like they usually do in the past.
The first volume or two are pretty funny and cute. After that, it starts to get a bit repetitive and too treacly for my taste. Minami Maki's art in the manga is really nice, and I do like many of the characters. Are they doing the Tadashi puppet things? Those never get old. XD
Hmmm...can't wait for more anime shows!
Hmmm...can't wait for more anime shows!
Thank you for the screencaps. I hope the subbers will hurry up with this one too. I can't wait to see it.
Am I the only one who doesn't like the lead male character? He looks really arrogant in some of those screenshots.
awww... I want those picture captions... oh well...
awww... I want those picture captions... oh well...
I might do it after I finish all of the summaries but at the moment I'm kind of sleepy and just want to finish one of the summaries asap.
This looks a bit like Ouran-ripoff but I guess similarities are inevitable since both series are set in elite school.
Looks funny! And although it doesn't seem like the plot will go anywhere, at least it'll be fun while it lasts.
Garten.. welcome back to the world of anime blogging !!
^_^
we missed you!
Garten.. welcome back to the world of anime blogging !!
Thx :D I'm just glad that there are some interesting series that I can watch this season. The last few seasons' offerings have been a bit dry for me.
Heh, this was pretty funny. I really like the fact that there are so many characters so if you don't like one, there are 5 or 6 others.
In real life, people like Kei can be quite annoying. I can understand why Hikari-chan is frustrated by him.
LOL, this is such a typical GONZO that they don't even have the OP ready before the episode went on air.
It's not that the characters are unpleasant in the manga. To me, I lost interest in the manga after a mere 5 volumes because the plot was very repetitive.
Hikari tries to outdo Kei -> Kei wins, of course -> Hikari frustrated ->something happens and Kei saves her -> is v. v. obvious that Kei loves her -> Hikari totally misses that fact.
But I actually liked the manga at first, so I'm definitely giving the anime a try. Pretty sure I'd like it XD
yumi "LOL, this is such a typical GONZO that they don't even have the OP ready before the episode went on air."
How is it typical? I can only think of Blassreiter atm that doesn't have an OP for the first episode. Is there other series produced by GONZO that also doesn't have an OP that I don't know of?
If Gonzo can put in as much effort as they did with Kaleido Star it's going to turn out good. For those worried that it's a Gonzo "Work" it's also joint project with AIC who produce Seto no Hanayome together.
I think people are getting sick of GONZO messing up their projects. While it's not fair to associate bad quality with them, sometimes it's hard to deny that they don't have good track records when it comes to quality anime.
As for this anime, I am not convinced that it's going to be as good as Ouran but I like the direction that it takes.
The style of animation itself looks like it's trying to cash in the Ouran fandom. But then again, it can't be helped since the story/setting has a few similarities, as Berceuse said.
I think the more recently released chapters are the more interesting ones [though those too are pretty episodic] so I wonder how they're going to continue the pacing of the series.
Considering the preview for the next episode, I hope they do well with Kei's facial expressions.
You guys are being too critical of this. I don't remember Ouran being a thought-provoking kind of show either. It was a light, fluffy fun and there's nothing wrong with that. I can see myself liking some of the characters in this episode.
The animation style is pretty good considering the original source. You have to remember that they can't stray far from the original design or else it wouldn't be Special A anymore.
@Belle, I Sometimes believe it's harder for people to admit Gonzo can do good work, alot of good gonzo show are loved without acknowledgement of the production company by the fans.
Well I'm semi-bias since I like Gonzo for creactivity and most of my all time favourite has been Gonzo shows in particular Blue sub no. 6, Last Exile, Gankutsuou, Kaliedo Star, Sunabouzo, Chrono Crusade, Saikano and Vandread. Some note worthy ones are Red Garden, Basilisk and Kiddy Grade.
I'm not going out in limb to defend gonzo work since they can make bad quality anime as well. If there is a real problem is that they try to make too many anime in the one season.
About Special A, I'm liking what I'm seeing. I'm curious to how Yoshikazu Miyao is going to handle directing S.A. He hasn't done much full time directorial job so its going to be interesting.
I like this. I don't think you're meant to laugh outloud at the jokes but rather have a big grin every once in a while. I sure grin when I saw that girl nuking the school just by using her voice.
Thank you for the screencaps. I haven't watch the episode yet so it's nice to be able to take a sneak peak like this.
This is so similar to Ouran that I wonder who copies who.
Damn, those limbs sure are long. I don't recall it being that long in the manga but at the same time, I think the characters look better here (they're just generally cuter).
Ouran >>>> S.A.
Seriously, FukuJun and all the other VA's can't sing :S
>>Seriously, FukuJun and all the other VA's can't sing :S
I can just imagine the meeting with GONZO: "hey guys, we don't have enough budget to hire one of those boybands so you have to suck it up and belt a tune or two. We'll mix things up so it won't sound like falsetto".
LOL. First picture on row four looks like the guy is in love with that animal.
I luv Akira!! She and Tadashi could be an interesting couple. Ryu in 3some with Jun and Megumi?
You know, I found this site nearly two years ago, when I chanced upon your Ouran blogging. And man, I've been occasionally looking at this since. Sad to say, after Ouran, no other anime attracted my attention - but now a new, lighthearted anime has come and I'm so happy you're blogging it! :D
Thanks so much! :D
I really wish they had chosen someone else as Kei's VA. Jun Fukuyama is not bad but he plays so many characters this season that I'm starting to get deja vu everytime I hear his voice.
This is actually pretty similar to the manga. I think the anime can only be as good as the manga's character design and the manga's design was so so.
I guess the sub is not out yet? I still can't find it anywhere.
I saw the opening song footage that was shown at TAF Spring 2008. I guess they wanted to use the past introduction as an introduction to the series first...not the opening theme song^^. We'll get to see it in the 2nd episode probably.
Yeah! S.A is out! But Kei seems more handsome in the manga.... anyway, y is GONZO much hated??
YAYAY!! now gotta wait for sister to dl it, i love the twins, and their 3rd counterpart, and akira, tadashi and the main characters, i love all of them, its funny how they're so arrogant tho ^^ that was in the manga anyway....
I finally saw this and it's not too bad even though it does look a bit like Ouran lite. The problem that I have is that neither the heroine nor the hero have any charisma like Haruhi and Tamaki (as stupid as he was).
The manga illustration is better than this. Kei looks like some kind unruly thug in this one.
The ending sounds funny. The boys can sing but they sound nervous and un-co-ordinated. Maybe if they had more preparation they'll be better.
Not really for me. I think I have a major dislike for long-limbs characters. They look kind of freaky.
"Am I the only one who doesn't like the lead male character?"
No, you're not the only one. I don't see the attraction whatsoever. He doesn't look that interesting and although Tamaki is dumb, at least he's adorable like that Teddy Bear you can squish.
I'm glad you decide to blog this. I'm a big fan and would love to see more of the anime.
I think this show is for preteens and kiddies.. I read a one-shot by the same manga author a while ago and enjoyed it, but this was nothing more than a mindless mess of cliché characters, environment, and plot.
And yea... the Male lead was annoying, but no more so than the female. Most of the episode sounded like a stuck record player repeating the same thing over and over. I am going to try the manga, I read somewhere that the anime didn't seem as funny as the manga.
@ Nami
"I really wish they had chosen someone else as Kei's VA."
Agreed. I wish they had kept the drama CD's VAs, although that's rarely ever the case. As splendid as Fukuyama Jun's acting is, Suzumura Kenichi sounded a lot better as Kei. Same goes with Asano Masumi as Hikari, but I'd still give Gotou Yuuko well-deserved credit for her performance here.
This is a bit too close to Ouran that I can't help but thinking how after Gonzo watched Ouran and they told the writers that they need to copy that show stat!
I feel quite disappointed with this anime. The characters aren't likeable and I didn't find it remotely funny.
S.A reminds me of Ouran a bit, but it's completely inferior to it. I'll give it another episode or two, and see how it goes. :/
Oh come on guys, just because it's a bit similar to Ouran, it doesn't mean it's not good. Besides, it's only the first episode.
Lol, it really reminds me of Ouran. XD And I prefer Kei blonde. :(
IMO, the reference to Ouran was intentional. GONZO knew that it was a success so they probably wanted to imitate the success by making this series as close as possible to Ouran.
The subs are out on youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLfZOXPVkvc&feature=related
Yay!
Tadashi is so cuteee!! I love how he licks the plate and just being generally greedy when it comes to food.
The characters could be less one dimensional but since this is just the first episode, I guess it's hard to judge just yet.
The sub version seems to be pretty okay. Not outright funny but it made me smile anyway. The girl is such a competitor. She was the one who attacked the guy in the first place and then can't accept that she lost against him.
I'm glad to know you'll blog this. It reminds me of the time when you blogged Ouran.
Utterly terrible, so many clichéd and overused lines ... it's like the shell of every other generic comedy anime.
@wingus: I totally agree. Can't get through the manga without pushing myself. In the end I only read till like 2nd volume.
Hopefully the anime is better. Watched the 1st ep and wasn't impressed.
The anime is okay. It's not exactly top of the range stuff but it's not bad either. At least stick with it for the next few episodes.
OMG i really wanna see this
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