(CR) Somali to Mori no Kamisama (Somali and the Forest Spirit)

[Stark700]

The manga series Somali to Mori no Kamisama (Somali and the Forest Spirit) is getting an anime adaptation.

Plot Summary

The world is ruled by spirits, goblins and all manner of strange creatures. Human beings are persecuted, to the very point of extinction. One day, a golem and a lone human girl meet. This is a record of the pair; one a member of a ruined race, the other a watchman of the forest. It tells of their travels together, and of the bond between father and daughter.

http://moetron.net/post/183622028195...somali-and-the

[Stark700]

Staff

Director: Kenji Yasuda
Series Composition: Ikuko Itoh
Studio: Satelight

Official site is up

http://somali-anime.com/

[Stark700]

Crunchyroll announced for streaming.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...nime-this-fall

[Cloudedmind]

It's listed in one of the links but I'll also list it here as well. The cast so far includes:

Inori Minase as Somali
Daisuke Ono as Golem

For those unfamiliar with the manga, it's like Ancient Magus Bride meets Usagi Drop (minus UD's ending, and AMB's "bride" theme)

[Stark700]

It's being delayed to January (Winter 2020)

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...-delay/.147891

[Nachtwandler]

PV is out:

https://twitter.com/somali_anime/sta...99112425783296

[Stark700]

Preview 2

[Stark700]

First episode is out on Crunchyroll (preair but full episode)

I really like the overall setting for the first episode. The world fiction looks vibrant, full of creativity, and in general, I get that classic fantasy vibe.

The character chemistry between the two main leads also adds moments of entertainment. Golem is a character to keep an eye on due to his nature. Even when he says "Golem lack emotions", I do find many of his behaviors to be human-like. The title is pretty fitting for the first episode -journeying parent and child. So far, this anime has a lot of my interest. Been reading the manga for awhile now so I kinda know what to expect.

The theme songs are also very relaxing to the ears.

This show is apparently listed as 12 episodes.

[Lukes YGO & WS on YT]

I knew nothing about this title until I watched today and I must say that I was impressed.

I thought this was pretty good and look forward to watching more.

[Kismet-chan]

That exposition scene about humans was terribly done. That is not how you do an info dump. Everything else was fine.

And both the opening and ending are absolutely lovely, both in terms of visuals and the songs.

[Dop]

I like the setting, I think I want to see more of this world. But the titular child just annoys the hell out of me and that might be the deal breaker. I'll give it a few more episodes for now.

[Guardian Enzo]

To echo: that exposition dump was one of the clumsiest and most awful I've seen in ages. And Somali is incredibly, fantastically annoying. Some people are saying she comes off much differently than she does in the manga, but I can't speak to that - I only know that this version was insufferable from the first moment and only got worse.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Kismet-chan

That exposition scene about humans was terribly done. That is not how you do an info dump. Everything else was fine.

And both the opening and ending are absolutely lovely, both in terms of visuals and the songs.

It also smelled of revisionist history. We had issues (Humans were mean to us and weak.), went to war with the humans and proceeded to make them our dinners. Drove them into extinction. Now we live happily ever after!

[Eater of All]

Originally Posted by orion

It also smelled of revisionist history. We had issues (Humans were mean to us and weak.), went to war with the humans and proceeded to make them our dinners. Drove them into extinction. Now we live happily ever after!

Agreed. If that's the whole backstory and there's nothing more, then it could've been doled it out much more slowly over the course of the story as part of world building. But if it's given out all at once, I suspect it's because it will be broken down. Although that probably suggests this series will be more plot-heavy than I originally expected.

[Cloudedmind]

Finally got around to watching the episode, and after expecting the worse, I have to say as a manga reader, I enjoyed it. Somali's general characterization is in tact. Her behavior in the anime is much the same as it is in the manga. I would say my only criticism is that her voice actress is reading her as one note. Almost every line is said in almost the same manner and volume. But, all in all I'm looking forward to more.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for first impressions:

So basically fantasy slice-of-life with a father-figure and a child?
I think it was a fine first episode as far as slice-of-life goes, but the ED is strangely CG and it is true as above posts have said that the explanation couldn't have been more unnatural.

Also, I'm not sure why the golem would go out of his way to help the girl. Hopefully there is an explanation outside of just because.

I'm going to guess the big finale of the anime involves people finding out she is human.

[SeijiSensei]

I watched this after reading a tribute to its background illustrator, Vincent Nghiem, from Thomas Romain. https://twitter.com/Thomasintokyo/st...89210435661824

French creator Vincent Nghiem is background director on the show. It’s the first time he is working at this position and wanted to create something very special.

The problem being that Japanese background studios are not used to work in styles very different than the background art you usually see in anime. @AYMRC had the same problem on the Ping Pong the Animation a few years ago.

The only solution is to make incredible sacrifices. He had to check and correct every background (by himself around 300 cuts x 12 ep = more than 3000 backgrounds) in only a few months.

I did find Somali a bit annoying, but not enough to drop the show. I'm more concerned I'll find it boring after the first couple of episodes, but I'm hoping I'm worried for no reason.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Spoiler for first impressions:

So basically fantasy slice-of-life with a father-figure and a child?
I think it was a fine first episode as far as slice-of-life goes, but the ED is strangely CG and it is true as above posts have said that the explanation couldn't have been more unnatural.

Also, I'm not sure why the golem would go out of his way to help the girl. Hopefully there is an explanation outside of just because.

I'm going to guess the big finale of the anime involves people finding out she is human.

Unless our definitions are different, I wouldn't call this "slice of life". It's more of a low-energy journey story. Not a questing type thing like you'd see in most fantasy, more just traveling and/or searching for something like in Kino's Journey or Girls' Last Tour. In this case, exploring the world in hopes of finding a habitation of surviving humans so that Somali can live with her own kind. As for reasons, his purpose is apparently to oversee the natural order of things. While he doesn't interfere with things like predators killing other animals or anything else within the normal flow of his forest, Somali is an anomaly, a being that does not belong there. Perhaps he determined that the "natural order" required she be returned to the surviving humans, if they exist.

[James Rye]

I had no idea this got an anime! <3
I love the manga series of this one, albeit the last translation has been a couple months ago... hopefully this anime revives it again. As for the first episode, I love the colors and colorful people we got to see in just one episode. Given how much humans can already not stand different skin colors or hair styles I could see them reacting negatively to a "monstrous" race, albeit there seems to be dozens if not hundreds of different races, maybe even thousands. I doubt that simple story telling of how the humans went instinct and became pets/food is entirely correct, we will probably get the real story told later by a scholar. But it explains why the Golem daddy is so careful with his human in minotaur disguise daughter, even the cat person got real scary when he found Somali delicious~
If humans got so rare I could see their meat catch a high price on the market, Somali is literally a walking gem for the other people.
And the Golem's body is telling why he is looking for other humans, he won't be around for very long so he needs someone else to look after Somali before he returns to the earth. Question is how long he got and how Somali will take the loss of her papa. That and why he left the forest he was supposed to protect to help a single human child. I doubt it was done out of the goodness of his own heart as he would say he got no emotions (sure, golem daddy, we totally believe you^^) so what is his rational logic behind that move to go on such a long and dangerous travel for a little girl?

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

Unless our definitions are different, I wouldn't call this "slice of life". It's more of a low-energy journey story. Not a questing type thing like you'd see in most fantasy, more just traveling and/or searching for something like in Kino's Journey or Girls' Last Tour.

True, but is there a specific terminology for that genre? Which is why I used slice-of-life, since it focuses on the daily life of their journey.
Adventure sounds right, but that also seems to be a different genre...