A boy transfers to a school in Tokyo, and meets a group of NEETs led by the NEET detective, Alice.
This was mostly a setup episode, so not much happened aside from an introduction to the characters. It seems like the show could have some potential, but there are a bunch of problems.
First of all, the protagonist is your stereotypical transfer student, someone who isn’t special at all thrown into a world of weirdos. It’ll be tough to make the main character somewhat interesting. The first episode was all about him transferring schools and making a friend of sorts, and these were all scenes that have been done to death. Second, there’s way too much talking and not enough doing. Very little actually happened, and instead we were stuck listening to explanation after explanation for the second half of the episode. Third, I’m worried this will descend into a showcase of how cute Alice is and make the actual story of secondary importance. We’ll see how well-founded this fear is.
The setting and the cast (aside from the main character) do seem interesting though, so I’m planning to keep watching.
In case you didn’t see my previous post, I’ll be travelling and this will be the last post I make on a new show until I get back home in a week and a half. There will be sporadic updates until then.
The art looks similar to that of Hanasaku Iroha – and is that another Erio I see?
Please come back and write more! i love your blog >< its so fun to read. after seeing this posst im gonna watch it!
Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. Thanks!
I just finished watching the first episode. There were some good things about this series and some things I didn’t particularly care for.
First – in response to your comment on the main character, I disagree. Even though he profiles to be your typical transfer student, he seems like a character many within the audience can identify with. I think everyone can relate to being stuck going through the motions in some point in life – whether it’s at high school, with family or with friends. Our protagonist openly rebels against that empty feeling – something many wish they had the strength to do – and that’s why he comes across to me as genuine.
Alice would have been cool had I never seen that type of character before. The whole young, cold, genius, loligoth thing doesn’t get in the way though. I got the impression that the directors were more concerned with the moral questions raised in the story than appealing to the audience. They do need a banner character though, and I guess Alice fits the bill.
My biggest complaint was the production. Even though the episode I watched lasted about 42 mins, I felt the introductions were a bit rushed. Hopefully it was just the first episode, but they need to slow things down a little!
When I wrote this, I only watched the first half and didn’t realize it was actually a double length episode. 🙂 And after watching the second half, I have to agree, the main character isn’t all that bad (although his profile is still rather generic). He actually goes and does something about the case, which I have to give him credit for. The first half is really just an introduction to the setting and characters, and the story progresses much more in the second half.