Suzuka ep.1

July 13, 2005 | 20 Comments

When it comes to Suzuka, it's easier to describe what the anime is NOT instead of what it is. It is NO romantic comedy, and it is NO harem show. The girls are still going to be cute, but they are NOT fawning over the male lead, who is NOT useless-whiny and who is NOT disinterested or incapable of a relationship. What we get instead is a fairly serious romance drama with a sports background and with some very interesting-appealing characters, stripped of alot of cliches replaced by a healthy dose of tempered realism.

In other words: This anime isn't flashy, and it won't make you laugh or cry early on. It will take a few episodes to introduce all characters and lay out the plot. 26 episodes are scheduled, and I'll be sure not to miss any of them. Feel up to it? Welcome to Suzuka.

Episode Rating: (+)

Suzuka almost passed under my anime radar undetected. The first time I heard about it was when two friends with a very good anime taste told me how much they were looking forward to fansubbing it. Oh? Cute girls, Love Hina setting but more serious, sports romance drama with good characters? Fine with me. I liked the character design for the lead female and decided to give it a try.

The main narrator of the story is not - as the anime title would suggest - the female lead Asahina Suzuka, but a young guy named Akatsuki Yamato. He has been transferring to Tokyo to live with his aunt Fujikawa Ayako and what seems to be his cousin Fujikawa Miho, who affectionately insists on calling him "oniichan" (big brother).

On his way to his new home, Yamato passes the high school he is about to attend, and a young slender girl performing high jump is catching his eye. He is very much entranced by this beautiful sight and continues watching. This in turn delays his arrival at Ayako's residence, which happens to be a combination of a public spa and a dormitory for girls alone - and Yamato, an exception made since he is a relative.

He is awaited by Ayako and a very impatient Miho, who glomps him on sight and berates her oniichan for being late. It's fairly obvious that the 12-year-old Miho is very fond of Yamato, since she regards him as unreliable and needs to be taken care of - by her, of course. There's a wonderful scene from the manga, in which Miho replies with a beaming smile "That's why I can't leave him alone. He brings out my bossy side". Truer words were never spoken.

Yamato also greets his aunt, Ayoko, and thanks her for taking care of him in the future. Yamato will receive free lodging and board, and he will even be paid as a part-timer for cleaning the baths. No problem at all, he says. Well, not so, as he painfully learns in action: The bath is huge.

While he's having a breather, Miho appears, complaining that he's STILL not done. Which is a problem, because dangerous people are about to arrive. Dangerous people? Yes, female college students living in the dormitory, and especially Saotome Yuuka, a long-haired blonde bombshell Kogal. Speak of the devil, there she appears in front of Yamato and Miho: In her best birthsuit, accompanied by Matsumoto Megumi, a busty Meganekko.

Yuuka compliments Yamato's cute face and moves in on him, but is forcefully pushed away by a highly protective Miho, who then pushes Yamato out of the bath. OF COURSE this causes him to trip over Megumi, landing on top of her outside just when the high jump beauty Suzuka passes by, who is absolutely delighted by this performance. Yamato tries to explain, but fails to really convince Suzuka, who makes a face and walks off.

In the manga version, we have one of the dreaded "accidental boob groping" cliche scenes, and he has Megumi land on his face for a "panty closeup". I guess that the unproven new manga needed to cater to fanboy desires back then. Very soon thereafter, these typical cliche scenes completely disappear (thank god!), and in the anime they reduced this encounter to the minimum, only keeping a token scene to explain why Suzuka dislikes him so much right off the bat.

Suzuka's opinion of Yamato definitely doesn't improve when he accidentally mistakes his own room with hers and walks in on her uninvited. It should be noted that in any wannabe-comedy he certainly would have met her in a compromising situation, typically while changing her clothes. Not so here. Nevertheless, Suzuka yells and fights him out by throwing numerous items at him, prompting Ayamo and Miho to arrive and setting his head straight. Ayamo forces an apology from Yamato who is visibly stunned to have HER as his neighbor.

They all together have dinner, and Yamato learns that Suzuka has been scouted by the high school for her talents at high jump. Everybody has high expectations for Suzuka, and she meekly and obviously unenthusiastically confirms that she is trying her best. Yamato tries to lighten the mood with a funny story, but Suzuka is turned off by his laid-back attitude, so she makes an icy remark and excuses herself. Yamato is annoyed that she is taking his story so seriously, and Miho realizes that she has got to do something.

So Miho visits a surprised Suzuka and asks her not to hate her oniichan too much. He might be unreliable, but he's basically a good guy, and moreover he is not guilty of the embarrassing scene in the bath. Suzuka clearly didn't expect this and states the obvious: That Miho loves her oniichan very much. Miho beams and confirms this. Then she notices a framed picture of a younger Suzuka and some beaming guy besides her. Miho guesses boyfriend, but based on Suzuka's reaction it's probably more of a crush of hers. So Miho makes a happy remark that he looks quite a bit like Yamato and leaves. Alone again, Suzuka looks almost insulted and denies any form of resemblance between the two.

Miho scored some major brownie points with me here. Yes, she's possessive and bossy, but she does care for Yamato quite a bit, and the way she handled Suzuka was pretty impressive for a young one like her. Yamato can feel quite lucky to have her.

Meanwhile, the doorbell to Yamato's apartment is ringing. A bit shocked and hopeful that it might be Suzuka apologizing for her rude behavior, he opens the door to be greeted by alot of booze, a very drunk Yuuka and an embarrassed Megumi. Against his will they make themself comfortable, Yuuka forces Megumi to take some swigs too, who pretty quickly succumbs to Bacchus too. The ruckus is irritating for Suzuka in the next room, so she decide to take her bath now to get away from it.

This was the part I enjoyed least, because it was SO very cliche. Say hello to Taeko (Megumi, busty clumsy meganekko) and Tina (Yuuka, blonde uninhibited alcoholic) from Ai Yori Aoshi. Alas, I can only say that fortunately the manga tones down here very quickly.

Suzuka is spending time in the sauna, thinking about the myriad of people who expect (demand would be the better word though) big things from her. Giving in to the pressure, she overstays the alotted time in the heat to "shrink some more" and consequently falls unconscious.

Yuuka and Megumi have fallen asleep in Yamato's room, so he goes down to the bath to finish the cleaning job. Here, he notices the collapsed Suzuka, and in his panic he breaks down the sauna door to get to her. Scene change to Suzuka lying in her bed in her room, tended to by Ayamo and Yamato, who explains that except for some dehydration, nothing is wrong with Suzuka, much to his relief. Yamato chides him for the violent damage he caused but at the same time pays respect to his determination to save Suzuka and leaves.

Suzuka has been awake and shows no sign of gratefulness towards Yamato. Instead, she lashes out at him by calling him an idiot for crashing the door. Yamato has had enough of the foul treatment and whacks Suzuka for being so irresponsible and foolish for disregarding safety rules. Here, Suzuka falters and breaks down crying a bit, prompting Yamato to instantly back off. She explains that she tried to deal with the immense pressure people place on her and exhibits some serious self-doubts about being able to fulfill these expectations.

Frankly, it was good to see the icy-vicious facade of Suzuka crack a bit, because it gave her character quite a bit more depth. It's obvious that she's under some severe stress, and unfortunately doubts are sapping away her inner strength. I was even more pleased to see Yamato straighten up and give Suzuka a well-overdue piece of mind. I'm so sick of the whiny-wimpy default leads, and it was nice to see that after his caring side was established, he also has the spine to fight and stand his ground where he should.

Yamato senses her tension and tries to help her out a bit. First he teases her a bit to relight her spark, and a few encouraging words that she should stop worrying so much about what other people say about her. Suzuka is obviously surprised and taken aback about these thoughts. It seems that she feels that she might have misjudged him a bit. This doesn't stop from bossing him around a bit more - habits are hard to change, it seems.

The next morning, Suzuka drags him to her morning practice. Yamato is tired and not really fired up, and he manages to tip over the bar. Suzuka immediately demands that he rebuilds the setup and orders him to align the bar at 164cm. He does so, steps away with a "it's higher than I thought" and Suzuka is fired up to prove her ability. However, she barely passes the bar, touching it in the process.

She is really despondent about this result, since she is supposed to pass 164cm with ease. Yamato tries to console her a bit, but she waves it off. Then however she checks the height and freaks out. Yamato has aligned the size wrong, the bar was actually 173cm - 4 centimeters above her former record. By reflex she yells at him for this mistake, before the accomplishment sinks in and her mood softens, causing her to give a honest cute smile, which Yamato visibly enjoys. It looks like her demeanor towards him is softening a bit already.

Review

First let me explain the (+) rating. In hindsight, next to nothing really happened in this episode. So, by its own merits, a full + rating would have been too much. However, we're talking a clear setup here, and I am very pleased about what they did and how they did it. As an investment in the future, (+) should indicate that the foundation for a nice story is being laid here.

The characters of Suzuka, Yamato and Miho are pleasant surprises. Normal romance drama succeeds or fails with the characters themselves, and they are a pleasant change from the usual stuff. I feel that it won't be difficult for me to identify with them.

About the anime itself: It's much easier to describe what the anime is NOT than trying to categorize it already. It would almost certainly be wrong.

It's no Love Hina, since it's no comedy. Yamato isn't flying through the air due to some Suzuka punch or anything.

It's no Kimagure Orange Road, since even though the title of the anime pretty much seems to decide the final pairing, it's not the KOR-like "Madoka gets angry, Hikari is cute, Kyosuke needs to find a way to undo the damage," reset button anime style. Developments are slow and believable, and the results transfer over to the next episodes.

It's no Ai Yori Aoshi, since most of the girls around Yamato don't consider him to be anything special. Some even dislike him.

It's no Ichigo 100%, because Yamato clearly wants a girlfriend and actively tries to build relationships himself.

It's no HYD, because Suzuka doesn't focus on one lead alone, and we don't have the usual together-split-together-split-together-split segments which get a little bit unbelievable after a while.

It's no Peach Girl, because the difficulties arising for the characters aren't trivial and only based on distrust, lies and misunderstandings. The characters have a sincere feel to them and aren't so shallow.

Nope, Suzuka is fairly different from the rest. I don't want to go into too much detail in order not to spoil anything, but the anime does a few things which I always wished someone would do one day. Remove many of the cliches (especially around episode 3 onward if they stick to the manga) and replace them with a healthy dose of realism instead. And it does a few shocking _normal_ things which I haven't seen ANY romance anime do so far. EVER.

I'm VERY much looking forward to the next 25 episodes.

© memento 2003