(L) Summertime Render

[Kanon]

Spoiler for episode 3:

Shiori really was the shadow, after all. And she "flashed" Shinpei again, oddly enough. Nothing happened though, maybe because he was already copied during the funeral. I doubt they can make several copies of the same person.

Shinpei asked around for the big breasted lady in the morning which is exactly what that guy said he did in the first episode, and I of course assumed it was his shadow who did it then. I'm not sure if there is more to this, like some timeline overlapping fuckery, or the shadow simply looking for that woman and describing her the same way because he has his memories. But then, why didn't it do that in this timeline?

I assume Tokiko is Sou's sister? I initially thought she was his girlfriend, but it was made clear quickly afterward that Sou loves Mio.

The way Shinpei's inner thoughts were depicted is extremely suspicious. Like there's another guy inside him. Could be that his shadow is stuck inside him this time around. Sou saying Shinpei could be a shadow also seemed like obvious foreshadowing.

Super confused by the ending of course. Is that Ushio's shadow, the real Ushio who went into hiding after killing her shadow (it's after all odd that Ushio's body didn't disappear like the cop's and Koba's), or Shinpei daydreaming?

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Loving the discussion and that people are thinking as well as seeing subtle hints. But there is one no one here has mentioned. It bugged me during these first two episodes and the first few chapters. I'll refrain from mentioning it until the first relatively blatant aspect of it occurs. Someone might see it by then.

If you noticed when reading the manga and the anime kept it, it's fine to post it. I'm rather curious what it is. I'll take any hints as long as there's not spoilers. I'm finding this story fascinating, I love a good mystery.

[Last Sinner]

Episode 3 sure did hit the points it needed to. The core characters now know it has hard to be certain of who hasn't been killed and replaced. The tension music definitely worked better this episode. The perspective shifts/pathing during movements was of a good standard. Shinpei barely managing to avoid the mistakes of the first time around happening again. Rie Kugimiya as Shiori was chilling as heck. Visually, the rain scene and the plants in it were very striking. The green soft serve was an interesting touch (presuming it's matcha?).

But that is all a prelude to the climatic finale for this episode...hell...did they do this scene justice, drawing it out, those timely fireworks and that exact perspective. SHE! IS! HERE!!!

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Spoiler for episode 3:

The way Shinpei's inner thoughts were depicted is extremely suspicious. Like there's another guy inside him.

There's a scene where Shinpei is floating behind himself (at 4:09). We hear Shinpei's thoughts all the time, but I don't recall an earlier scene where he is depicted as having an out-of-body experience. His floating self berates what we think of as Shinpei's real self for not having saved Shiori-chan and her family.

Ushio did something to Shinpei at the very outset of this story. Whether that gave him the vision to see Shadows, or turned him into a Shadow, I don't know. And was that "real" Ushio? If so, where did she get that power whatever it is.

What a sad little love polygon we have. Mio knows Shinpei was in love with her sister, and she knows she's in love with Shinpei. Notice how quickly Shinpei blows past Mio at the end of the episode. Mio noticed it too. Meanwhile Sou has his own story with Mio.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

There's a scene where Shinpei is floating behind himself (at 4:09). We hear Shinpei's thoughts all the time, but I don't recall an earlier scene where he is depicted as having an out-of-body experience. His floating self berates what we think of as Shinpei's real self for not having saved Shiori-chan and her family.

It's something that started in this episode but it happened more than once in it. It struck me as very odd.

[Ragashingo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

It's something that started in this episode but it happened more than once in it. It struck me as very odd.

I think we saw it for the first time as he was dying in episode 2 after being stabbed in the neck. He's floating above himself and says "I was finally able to take a step back." I think the implication here is he is good and analyzing and solving problems if he has time to think. They're just putting more emphasis on his thought process now.

That same floating self does sorta seem to get sucked back into the time loop... so there may or may not be some of that at play. But my first guess is simply analytical mind.

[grecefar]

I'm liking this because everybody is suspicious, even if someone is the real then the next scene it can be the shadow.

[FlareKnight]

There's a lot of layers going on here. All the more so since just about everything is in the dark. What are the shadows even? Beyond killing people what exactly are they even trying to accomplish? Even their mentality is hard to read. They can seemingly copy a lot from the original person, but they don't seem to have any sense of hesitation regarding killing.

Odds seem good that the friend looked into things and then was killed by the shadows. That he knew the password is pointless since we've already seen that they can retain memories to some degree. Unfortunately the only viable avenue is presuming every single person they interact with is a shadow. But it's hard to fight off an unknown number of unknown enemies when trust is basically non-existent.

And if my presumption is right then Shinpei basically tossed Mio to the wolves. Not that I don't get him being shaken by seeing Ushio. But he literally dropped the one thing he was supposed to be doing. All the more so to chase someone that is supposed to be dead. In the best case scenario Ushio's shadow is the one that died and for some reason Ushio has been laying low...in her swimsuit...for several days...without being seen. Ok, so Shinpei will die in the first 5 minutes of the following episode. Possibly after finding out that he's gotten Mio killed.

I presume the floating person he's talking to is just a representation of him trying to analyze the situation. He's visualizing another version of him so he can logically work things out.

There's just a lot to unpack. Shinpei definitely talked to Shiori when he arrived on the island. Presumably he was copied then or at the funeral. Whether the version we're seeing is the shadow or not I don't know. Probably is because that would be more dramatic. But regardless there's just a lot of unknowns going on here.

It's funny that while survival is the big thing, I still feel bad for Mio's romantic troubles . She's definitely into Shinpei who is into her sister who may have been into him. It'll be interesting to see how the loops or whatever impact his feelings. A lot of the journey seems centered on keeping Mio alive. Whether Ushio we saw there is the real one or an evil copy will impact Mio's overall chances. But regardless, we're getting into some interesting stuff. Hopefully she at least survives the show to have the time to be heartbroken...

[EroKing]

[Kanon]

I didn't think this series would get Megami posters. I'm hoping there'll be one with Mio showing off her tanlines.

[HandofFate]

Expected him to keep dying every episode, but I guess he's a bit more collected than Subaru in Re;zero and isn't so prone to sudden deaths every episode

[Last Sinner]

Noticed something interesting today. Apparently the translated manga is available to pre-order in full and the final volume released September 6th. That's actually damn fast compared to most releases. Also in omnibus versions so only 6 volumes with ~500 pages each. Which just begs the question - what are Disney+ doing? Were they targetting July because it's the one season this year with no shounen competition? But with Yuru Camp, Kakegurui, Made in Abyss and a lot of other notable titles having sequel seasons, it's not like there's truly a safer season to get Summertime Rendering out there. Also noticed that the manga is titled Summertime Rendering yet the anime isn't?

Anyways, cool thoughts people are having but no one brought up what struck me from very early on. But that should be a mute point next episode on the current pacing. Episode 4 will be wild. Will see what people think after that episode.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Also noticed that the manga is titled Summertime Rendering yet the anime isn't?

The title of the manga in Japanese is Summertime Render. The title was changed to Summertime Rendering in English for both the manga and the anime (Disney Plus has a page up).

[EroKing]

We got introduced to Ushio and she seemed like a really fun character.


Hard to guess at this point what this Ushio really is. So far hasn't shown any signs of glitching/rendering like the other Shadows. Maybe a version of her real self that time-traveled before she got into the mess that killed her?

Anyways, this seems like a far complex show compared to something like BokuMachi. There's so many events taking place at the same time yet the direction of it all is so good that following it isn't that difficult. The mystery aspect so far has been great and loving every second of it.

[Kanon]

Spoiler for Episode 4:

I'd say this Ushio is a Shadow, since the other Shadows are calling her a traitor. Shinpei brought up the pendant but it doesn't prove anything. Both the real and the fake Ushio would have a pendant, regardless of who died. What seals the deal on Ushio being dead is how hard to kill Shadows are. Shadow Mio got half her head blown off and she was still standing, mere strangling wouldn't kill one.

Shinpei said it didn't seem like she was acting, and I agree, but Shinpei's own Shadow has proven how good they are at acting the part. He had me completely fooled, I never noticed the switch.
Shinpei thinks he was copied by Shiori but I'm still pretty sure it was during the funeral, as it's the only explanation why there was another Shinpei asking around about the big breasted lady in the first loop.

This loop is totally fucked, and what's more worrisome is that the Shadow's "mother" is aware of the phenomenon, although it doesn't know who retains memories. And of course, the fact the Shadows enact their plan the night of the festival is bad news since that only leaves two days to solve the problem.

[grecefar]

This only got more difficult, the shadows are too powerful copying everyone and now we know they retain all memories and are hard to kill. They are the best actors too.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep4:

Wow, what every horror protagonist wishes for. A character of the same race as the enemy but actually an ally.

Now we got some Mother Brain stuff going on, and the traitor is able to function on her own because she isn't wired to her. Definitely seen that before.

And yeah, love how Ushio existing means school swimsuits in every scene

[Last Sinner]

The opening 5 minutes were perfect. This was everything this scene needed to be. Those fireworks, the gradual changes in Ushio's behaviour adapting to the situation mixed in with her normal behaviour and Shinpei gradually losing the plot (and a chunk of his organs from that punch, oof!). Ushio is such a spanner in the works and it is glorious. That swimsuit wearing, punch-wielding, loudly blaring, blonde bombshell! And damn, those fireworks looked great.

And then it all went to heck fast. Ushio gets a metaphorical gutpunch with Mio outright rejecting her. Shinpei is outsmarted big time and really made to feel it. The Shadows can learn (although whether they can retain knowledge into future loops is still an unknown) but Shinpei's shadow seems to have way more of a clue than the others. Figures the one time Shinpei might need to die, the Shadows won't kill him. That said, there would be no challenge if the Shadows didn't have the ability to counter in their own ways. There is now the constant threat of whatever Shinpei learns in/during a loop, they can get it from him.

But hey, all is not lost! Because here comes the shotgun-wielding, glasses-wearing, G-cup bearing, badass blasting fools out of sight!!! Business has really picked up!

(Fyi, the thing I've been eluding to did not happen this episode. It will in Episode 5 - along with a lot more. I'm really relived about the pace in Episode 4, they got through 6.5 chapters and pretty much picked the moment they needed to do a cliffhanger on. )

[Eater of All]

Impressed with the development with shadow Shinpei. I always find that in time travel anime there is a lack of tension because the protagonist can usually just reset - it feels like at worst they can simply brute force their problem by changing an action and resetting if it goes awry. Kind of like saving/reloading in a game. But if there is an enemy that _knows_ about this ability and is smart enough to lock the looper up, keep them drugged, or otherwise disable them, now the stakes are raised _a lot_ more. No more get-out-of-jail-free card.

EDIT: To add to the topic of time travel, it's interesting that shadow Shinpei suggests to keep Shinpei alive because it suggests that it, or maybe the author, subscribes to the resettable timeline theory. In a many-worlds interpretation, Shinpei can be killed in this timeline and it will just continue with nothing special happening - therefore there's no point keeping him alive here except for some very abstract desire for your equivalents in some other timeline to also succeed. I doubt they care about this. In fact there's no guarantee of that outcome anyway - if they plan to kill him eventually without making sure he can't slide anymore, then it's just setting him free to disrupt their plan in some other timeline.

So maybe shadow Shinpei is assuming a single timeline, where killing this Shinpei now would send him back in such a way that their plans _here and now_ would be impacted. I think just mechanically speaking, looping is incompatible with the self-consistency theory - Shinpei immediately embodies the same space upon travel, and the first breath he takes in a slightly different manner will result in a different timeline. So the only mechanism left is a resettable timeline - i.e. upon killing Shinpei, the _entire world resets_, back to the point at which Shinpei inherits the memories of the previous experiences. Yes, individuals (including shadows) that were born will become unborn (not sure how that works - maybe it's no different than death). Anyhow this means beyond just being a nuisance in their plans, Shinpei is basically a walking nuclear bomb they're trying not to set off. It's possible this "mother" of theirs can have a way to disarm or disable this nuclear bomb forever, in which case shadow Shinpei's caution makes sense and can bear fruit.

Realistically I think it's more likely none of this is really meant to make sense and the story is optimizing more for the thriller/mystery aspect, which is totally fair. I just can't resist good old time travel theorycrafting....

EDIT2: I think the contrast between Ushio and other shadows is also interesting. This is not to say definitively that this Ushio is a shadow (might be something new outside the currently known system), but if we assume it is, then it seems she somehow exactly copied Ushio but avoided inheriting any "shadow knowledge". This is as opposed to other shadows, which also seem to be physically/memory-complete copies, but must also have been imparted a deeply rooted knowledge that "they are a shadow". A typical atomic level copy of a (i.e. forked ) person wouldn't believe they're a clone or a shadow, much less know how to behave as one or know the purpose, right after instantiation. What makes more sense to me as a intuition is if you start with a "soulless" shadow with base knowledge, then "flash" an existing body/mind onto it. Or a more indirect way - you fork an exact copy of a person, and then "possess" it with a shadow immediately. If the latter, then the current Ushio is possible - the "fork" occurred, but due to some issue, she was never properly "possessed" or "indoctrinated" or whatever with the right shadow stuff. So for all intents and purposes, this is really just an Ushio.

[EroKing]

That was one badass punch.

This Ushio revealed to be a shadow but for some reason not seem to be following the other Shadows to resurrect their "Mother". More questions as to how Shinpei ended up with one of her eyes. Good thing this is a 2-cour show. Still many months left of this awesome anime.

[Kanon]

Wow. Just wow.

Spoiler for episode 5:

Everybody fucking died.

"Nagumo" is really quite the mysterious character. There were strong hints in this episode that she has two distinct personalities: a male one who uses boku and calls himself Ryuunosuke Nagumo, and a female one who uses atashi. That's not even the most interesting thing about her. She knows about Shadows (that we already knew) as well as how to spot them and kill them, and she's apparently very familiar with their "mother". Also looks like she has the power to see a few seconds into the future, as seen when she avoided the gunshot. It also explains how she was able to tell Shadow Mio was behind her earlier.

Toki's last words were very mysterious. Don't know what to make of that.

Shinpei's right eye is revealed to have belonged to the Shadows' mother, Haine. It is of course what allows him to go back in time. Limitations were already introduced to this power, and I was very pleased that Shinpei is the smart kind of protagonist, as he was quickly able to put things together.
It seems like saved points moved forward 15 to 30 minutes at best, so it may not seem like that big of a deal at first since he has three days, except there's the funeral coming up very soon and he gets copied there. If he doesn't manage to avoid it and this event become set in stone, he could be screwed.

This show is truly one of the most amazing I've seen in recent years. It has everything I love.