(L) Aoi Hana (TV)

[Von Himmel]

what ?
It's out already ? o.o;

[Theowne]

It streamed on "crunchy roll" ealier today. I guess I was the only one who didn't know about this site, but I'm impressed.

[KnightHart]

just watch ep 1
it gives me different feel than the manga I guess? xD;;
I really like Fumi's seiyuu! o_o;;
can't wait to see Yasuko-senpai xD

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Siscon aniki... (´・ω・｀)

It's the image he gives off, but no he's far from being a siscon.

[scr]

I see this anime gets mostly positive first-episode impression, and personally i think it's deserving.
If there's anything i want to say, it's that the whole anime feel very Takako Shimura.
As usual, another adaptation done right by J.C. Staff *looking forward for Hourou Musuko*. :-)

[Phantasmagoria]

It's been a long time since a yuri anime came out.

Now that I've something to look forward to..

The first episode is brilliant, especially towards the last part you'd see A-chan going, "You are always so quick to cry". That's pretty touching enough - I've been waiting for such vibes and it's finally here.

[MeoTwister5]

This show was also on my list of to watch for this season but after CR licensed it, it's pretty much ballsacks for me, since I'm region-blocked from CR. Really kinda sucks because I was told it was one of the Yuri stories that actually worked.

[Vexx]

Region-locking for the lose... anyway, google is your friend.

I'll give Crunchy Roll another shot with this series, though I was pretty disappointed in their handling of Saki.

[MeoTwister5]

I'm sure fansubs will pop up sooner or later, but that of course depends whether CR will send C&D letters out to stop it. Oh well.

[alamarco]

Watched it on CR yesterday. The video quality was excellent, and the episode was fantastic. Fumi is quite cute with how she acts. I really want to see more and see how she develops.

Anime has potential after the first episode.

[vuori]

Watched the first episode, looks quite promising. They stuck to the mange quite closely, the first episode corresponds to chapter 1. I wonder if they're going to notch up the speed or is this season going to cover just the first two volumes (assuming this is 13 episodes)...

Definitely not Saki, at least. (Saki has its merits in zeroing your brain with its sheer cheesiness, but one Saki is quite enough.)

[Matrim]

Absolutely superb. Unlike certain other first episodes (cough, Umineko, cough), this captured the atmosphere of the source material right from the start. The character designs are beautiful, the characters were introduced properly, the pacing is good and there is lots of cuteness plus the right amount of angst - just like in the manga.

[Deathkillz]

Colour me surprised at how enjoyable this was for me...

Since I wasn't expecting anything from this I was really surprised at the fact that it was really such an enjoyable episode to watch. While I may have shrugged it off as being a typical SoL feeling series with "not so appealing" character designs, the episode simply blew me away with it's simplicity but powerfully subtle developments.

Fumi turned out to be an interesting "tall but cry baby" type whilst A chan was the usual go getter but because their different personalities (and appearances) compliment each other so well, this Yuri business might actually work. Plus they are both osananajimis who haven't seen each other in 10 years so there is a lot to catch up on as they rebuilt their former friendship.

This plus the fact that Fumi has already shown some yuri vibes when she was disappointed at her female cousin for marrying already. Even though she doesn't actually state it, her actions speaks volumes and this is the serious type of subtle development (which requires you to use your brain to figure things out) that I enjoy very much.

But at times serious series like these tend to flop due to being so grindingly slow and painfully boring. Thankfully the first ep was nothing like this and the pacing was consistent and kept my attention for the entire episode.

Good setting, good story, nice BGM and OP/ED themes. This could very well be a gem for this season. I'm impressed

[Shiroth]

In the long run, i just hope more people here check out Shimura Takako's (the author) other titles. She's such an incredible writer, along with her art style that accompanies her outstanding story telling. Would be even better if it leads to more of her works being animated.

[wandering-dreamer]

I checked out the first episode today and I liked it well enough. A bit slow but from what I had gathered this was going to be more of a slower paced, maybe slice of life, sort of show. And I liked the art a lot, it reminded me of a pencil with water color drawing and it matched the mood of the show so well.

[scr]

Originally Posted by vuori

Watched the first episode, looks quite promising. They stuck to the mange quite closely, the first episode corresponds to chapter 1. I wonder if they're going to notch up the speed or is this season going to cover just the first two volumes (assuming this is 13 episodes)...

mahou.org says that this anime will be 11 episodes. Can anyone cross-check this with authoritative source? (More and more anime released in 11-episodes format... sigh. *cough* Johnny *cough*)

Originally Posted by vuori

Definitely not Saki, at least. (Saki has its merits in zeroing your brain with its sheer cheesiness, but one Saki is quite enough.)

Huh? Why are you comparing this anime with Saki?

Spoiler for spoilerrific speculation! don't read!:

I think the anime will cover up to the point where Fumi break up with Sugimoto.

[rg4619]

Originally Posted by scr

mahou.org says that this anime will be 11 episodes. Can anyone cross-check this with authoritative source? (More and more anime released in 11-episodes format... sigh. *cough* Johnny *cough*)

CrunchyRoll and the DVD solicitations serve as confirmation.

With noitaminA and NOISE shows, Fuji TV has increasingly favoured 11 episode runs, so this shouldn't be too surprising.

[Sorrow-K]

I don't think I've ever seen Kasai direct an anime that wasn't good.

Ep 1

I know it's early days, but this first ep got me so excited. This has "win" stamped all over it. The characters are down-to-earth and are each facing interesting dilemmas. You get the feeling that we're starting this story at a point just before these characters are about to undergo some massive changes and experience love and loss for the first time. And Kasai's direction is just first class. He's set up the perfect mood by keeping everything subdued and slow paced. He's constantly using the camera to slowly pan across the characters' faces to really let us take in exactly what they're feeling and thinking... it's a great way to let us understand just what the characters are going through, since it goes right to the "show, not tell" approach to things. The soft artstyle is great, the music is great. All the elements are there for a very good anime. Fingers crossed that they can bring them all together, because I'm very excited about this series.

[TubZzz]

nice first ep... was enjoyable

[MeoTwister5]

Some groups are apparently going ahead with fansubbing this so I guess CR isn't planning on asking them to stop.

Saw it and... this might be the first Yuri show that I'll actually enjoy. I've tried my hand at the genre before but most of it had my eyes rolling everytime one of the girls starts going crazy-gaga over another girl. This first episode actually didn't cause my blood glucose levels to spike at random. It felt sweet but not saccharine, the story was slow but very well thought-of and paced, the animation was superb given what I've seen of J.C.'s work recently.

More importantly though, while the romance isn't obvious from the get go, it's really believable.

I think I'm going to enjoy this.