Summertime Render

[MFauli]

After his parents died, Shinpei Ajiro lived with the Kofune sisters, Mio and Ushio, but he has since moved to live on his own in Tokyo. But after Ushio drowns while trying to save the young Shiori Kobayakawa, he returns home to mourn her departure. However, bruises around Ushio's neck bring her cause of death into question.

Taking a step back, Shinpei becomes convinced there must be another explanation. Dangerous entities roam among the islanders, and a vision of deceased Ushio asks him to "save Mio" as her final request. He is certain that something is afoot—and Ushio's death is only a piece of the puzzle.

---------------------

Episode 1:

Alright, let's gooooooooooooooooooo. Dat end lol

I've tried watching tonally similar shows before, but the thing that always made me quickly drop it was the character designs that I disliked. This anime has sympathetic, likeable character designs and it makes all the difference.

As for the story, it's intriguing. Maybe a little too many construed mystery scenes, but that's to be expected. My expectation is a nice, little island mystery with some neat twists. And that's fine.

[neflight86]

Alright, I'm in. Let's go.

Time loops can be pretty fun, and the style reminds me of early 2000's punk, for some reason. Here's hoping the story pans out to at least half of its potential.

[MFauli]

episode 2:

I like the pacing, we got a lot of new stuff this week, but the mystery still feels far from solved. I also like the "no bs" attitude, like, most anime would have added plenty of minutes wasted on dumb reactions a la "i dont believe you" or "the photo is fake!" or whatever. This anime just stepped past that bs and went right for the core. Good decision.

Of course, that Mio knows doesn't really help anything for now, only adds one anxious person, lol. Calling police is useless, too, because there's only one police guy on the island who's not exactly capable from the looks and is one of the first victims himself. Shinpei literally must solve the mystery himself or all is lost.

But apparently he's a shadow himself, huh. Well, he must be special in some way to travel back in time during death. Definitely another good episode.

[shinta|hikari]

Episode 4:

Damn, this was actually the best series this season.

[neflight86]

Intriguing, for sure. I like introducing the time loop and having it almost immediately deduced and countered by the enemy. I'll pretend the fireworks were still going and covered up that shotgun blast. I heard this is slated for 25 episodes- if so, can they keep it up? I want to know more about the shadows. I'm still a little unclear on the catalyst for copying a person. I get its the photoflash, but does it require touch or anything?

[shinta|hikari]

Doesn't seem like touch is necessary.

These shadows are waaay OP.

I also like that Ushio2 doesn't have the memory of a shadow and is called a traitor. It presents a dilemma to the other characters. If you know it is fake, but it is effectively the exact same being, what is the right thing to do?

[MFauli]

The actual story and twist was nice, but goddamn, I hate everything about this Ushio. Not only is she ugly as hell, but her behavior made ZERO sense. Even if she is a kage, she doesn't know that, so she thinks she's human. How would a human react if she suddenly found herself at a beach in a swimsuit at night? Fear? Panic? Crying? Shock? No, it's: "I wanna go to the fireworks with Shinpei!" :/

And the scenes at the festival were handled really badly: This is supposed to be a small island town where everyone knows everyone ... and the just deceased Ushio, the only girl with blonde hair, is ruinning around there in a conspicuous swimsuit? Give me a break. Honestly, the scenes with her almost made me drop this episode. THere's 2 possibilities know: Either she's actually really dumb. Or it's a case of "anime". And I don't like either option. Why can't we have good, logical story-telling for once

At least the end of the episode answers one important question: You CAN actually fight against the shadows. Although that also doesn't make quite sense, when Shinpei just experienced that the kage are too fast to even see, at least after the first hit, the Mio-kage should have rushed up to tiddie-woman and killed her. Eh, maybe the hit weakened the kage or something.

Anyway, I hope the anime puts Ushio at the side and goes back to Shinpei-scenes. He's in for a reboot anyway with his broken arm. I expect tiddy-woman to tell him something like "when you meet my past self, tell me this", and that's gonna be the basis for the next attempt at fighting the kage.

Episode 4:

Damn, this was actually the best series this season.

Nah, that's Dance Dance Danseur that you're all ignoring.

[MFauli]

episode 5:

This anime really is directly on my personal border between "i like this" and "I hate this". There's a lot I like (the characters, the general atmosphere, the serious story), but then there's some bs that just makes it hard to watch. For example, this episode the boobs-girl was fast enough to turn around WHILE the Mio-kage was already rushing at her. We know from previous episodes that kage are supernaturally fast, too fast to even see, instantaneous basically. So boobs-girl really shouldn't have been able to turn around in time.

And then the, more important, complaint I have: The whole story is suuuuuuuuuuuuper constructed. Like, especially after the new info we got this week, it feels more like a video game story now. There's this shitty little island, but somehow there's human-eating shadows with all sorts of magical abilities, and that's supposed to be believed just like that. Honestly, it reminds me of Kokkoku, that also started out nicely but then added too much construed stuff.

Maybe the explanations and solutions in upcoming episodes will give answers that satisfy me, but I'm reasonably doubtful.

PS: Boobs-girl is distractingly sexy. And I don't mean this in the usual "haha, MFauli horny", I mean it in an actualy critiquing manner. Her attitude, her brunette long hair, her glasses, her perfectly shaped body ... it's too much. Especially for a serious story like this. When Shinpei was looked at by her, all I could think was "suck on them! Do it!" or at least start flirting with her. Ofc, he already has two other crushes, lol, but damn. I feel like they could have toned down her attractiveness 2-3 levels, would have been more advantageous for the plot. Oh well. Gimme the doujins :>

[shinta|hikari]

Nagumo has a foresight ability, which is how she dodged the shotgun bullets heading to her face, as well as the stab from Shadow Mio. She wasn't reacting to the attack from behind, but instead foresaw it and countered accordingly.

I like how he is slowly moving forward each reset, giving the entire loop concept a much needed sense of danger.

The art is phenomenal as always. Nagumo is hot, especially with that masculine name and voice. Shotgun toting is a plus.

Shinpei needs a LOT more allies to win this battle. The enemy is like a virus, so he can't try to solve this alone. First order of business is getting Nagumo, and then using her knowledge to reveal the enemy to as many people as he can. It will be like Shiki with humans vs shadows instead of vampires.

[neflight86]

Downs and ups. The first half of the "we will win, all is lost, aren't you sad" exposition was pretty boring. The scooting loop is a great idea that immediately re-injects tension and caps the groundhog day shenanigans to a reasonable level.

[MFauli]

Episode 6:

Eh, an entire episode spent on reuniting with Nagumo. At least it was fun seeing the shadows get owned. Although I wonder: Is the "stepping on their shadows" something the don't like or literally cannot bear? If it was the former, a shadow could use this to trick them.

Also, I wonder how many kage there are at this point. There was a whole bunch last episode at the matsuri, but if there's not many as of yet, taking them out one by one might be a strategy. Ofc, that leaves the powerful leader.

[neflight86]

Good episode that lays more cards on the table. It seems this isn't the first time shadow's have wreaked havoc on these people. Nagumo seems to be on a mission, but how does an author become a supernatural slayer, I wonder.

So, according to the bathroom scene, and the sniper shot, dealing physical damage to a shadow is the same as damaging their real bodies.

[shinta|hikari]

She was probably a supernatural slayer before becoming an author to make ends meet. In her youth, someone she loves was killed by a shadow, so she probably left town in search of ways to defeat them. But then she had to eat, and writing is a better alternative than using her body.

[MFauli]

episode 7:

ugh, they're adding so much completely different elements to this story, starting to feel like a mess. A dual personality, uhuh ...

Also what was that shitty plan? "We know we failed in a previous time to kill the Wakyashi family, but stay out of the house when we try it again this time!". They had no way of knowing whether the attack failed inside or outside the house.

Also, why are they so confidently assuming that kage Mio will appear at the same tme? Chances are high that she found out about the killing of the Wakayashi shadows. Weak writing here.

[neflight86]

7,8

The production is getting a little uneven, in that some scenes are given arbitrary additional frames, and some of the reaction shots, I suppose to provide a bit of levity, are only slightly more welcome than what passed for humor in the old Hellsing Ovas.

In ep seven, they leaned into the horror/thriller aspects more and was a more interesting. LEarning more about shadow physiology and countermeasures keeps me engaged, and learning that the little girl was a abnormality among them (like Ushio) rests at the back of my mind.

episode 7:

ugh, they're adding so much completely different elements to this story, starting to feel like a mess. A dual personality, uhuh ...

I wont speak for how tightly written this is, but more importantly the different elements are coming together to make a somewhat interesting story, and if these new elements aren't in conflict with what we already know, they may be groundwork for plot points down the line, so no complaints from me.

Ushio isn't my favorite character or even type of character, but she is being put to good use. The cataclysmic event looming in these stories are invariably boring to me as they happen, so the more supplemental exploration of the circumstances we can get beforehand, the better.

The show runs the risk of being convoluted if it keeps this loop up much longer though, as a good chunk of information and causality will need to be re-earned, and re-learned by the audience. It is interesting right now, but staying that way will be a challenge.

[MFauli]

I didn't comment on the last episode, because it's honestly becoming a bit of a cheap drag.

Oh the surprise, the shadows communicate with each other, so kage-Mio knew something was up and didn't behave the same as in the past loops - nobody could see THAT coming/s

And I really dislike Ushio. For two reasons: For one, she's unfittingly cheerful and behaves like this isn't a serious situation. I don't care about you telling me "that's her character", in a serious situation, even cheerful people know how to behave on a basic level. Instead she's laughing, grinning, cares more about eating curry than surviving, and just doesn't give any impression of someone who'd be in that situation. And the other thing I hate: She doesn't care one bit about walking around in a swimsuit. That is so dumb. You might call it a minor thing, but she's walking all over town, the island, wearing nothing but a swimsuit. That's not normal, and she would have found countless opportunities to grab some clothing from somewhere along the way, or at the very last instantly ask Jinpei to give her something - not wait until she turns naked for reasons.

She's such an "anime" character that really ruins a large portion of this story, it just takes me out of the otherwise serious atmosphere. Of, big boobs dual personality isn't a great character, either, but she's a bit more subdued than Ushio. Ideally, both wouldn't be the way they are.

I'm kinda not looking forward to this anime of all being 2 cour, but eh, I'm already too far in.

[shinta|hikari]

The swimsuit part was explained by her being a broken shadow. She didn't even recognize the incongruence until it was directly pointed out to her.

Her weird cheerful behavior also isn't just because of Ushio's personality. It is also caused by her being a shadow, who fundamentally think differently than humans. If the real Ushio were thrust in this situation, she wouldn't behave like that, as seen in the flashbacks where she can clearly express a wider breadth of emotion, and her behavior fit her current situation.

[MFauli]

"she wouldn't behave like that", and yet Jinpei keeps saying she's just like the real Ushio.

As I said, I don't care about any tryhard-explanations, it ruins the atmosphere for me. If all of her behavior was because she's a a shadow, the anime did a bad job to portray it like that. One important action to portray this would have been Jinpei NOT treating her like she's the real Ushio, but he basically has already decided that she is the real Ushio.

[shinta|hikari]

Shinpei is comparing the real Ushio in his memories to an alien shadow that copied her. Of course he will get surprised about how uncannily similar they are.

I am not trying to convince you about anything. I just stated what I observed just in case you missed it.

[neflight86]

but he basically has already decided that she is the real Ushio.

Well, he had a knife in hand and was seriously wavering on whether to stab and kill this Ushio. After sitting down for a meal with her, so I think he has drawn a clear distinction between the two (real and fake). If anything he is using her: she protected him from another shadow, and he isn't too worried about her losing an arm. He's making no promises about bringing her back or anything, and he hasn't even seen her for 3 years, so I'm unconvinced he is favoring her irrationally.