Tsuritama - 1

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noitaminA is here and with it it brought us Tsuritama, courtesy of the rather impressive A-1 pictures. I don't know why I was laughing so much during this episode and frankly I don't care because I'm already hooked.

I'm going to make a guess and say that fans of Kimi to Boku and Daily Lives of High School Boys, will either consciously or subconsciously be comparing this series to these two slice of life pieces and there's good reason and here's why:

• All of them centre around 4 boys
• All off them seem to be about friendship in one way or form
• 1 of the voice actors was in Daily Lives of High School Boys, 1 was/is in Kimi to Boku and 1 was in both.

The story is very much typical shonen slice-of-life comparable to the two series I've mentioned but what makes it different from them is that it hints to a bit of fantasy. Even though that was only revealed at the end of the episode with Yuki's monologue which would leave me wondering how the series would actually progress from being your typical comedy slice of life to include a plot about saving the world. I also liked how there might be a possibility for romance in this series since we were introduced to a female character who might potentially become a love interest for Yuki, which always does add a nice touch to the series

Of course for most of the episode we were being introduced to the slightly stereotypical/strange yet amusing characters like Haru (Irino Miyu) who instantly reminded me of Chiziru from Kimi to Boku (might have something to do with them both being energetic blonds who are voiced by the same voice actor), Akira the Indian (Sugita
Tomokazu) who appears for a second having dinner with his duck Tapioca, the silent and annoyed type or as I like to think Kanamecchi's cousin Natsuki (Uchiyama Kouki) and the one closest to being the protagonist Yuki (Ohsaka Ryota). I can't say much about all of them yet but seeing as all of these characters have been made
slightly quirky, like Yuki's fear of speaking to others and Haru's random actions.

The animation wasn't what I was expecting - coupled with the music, the start of the episode could have been mistaken for a Disney adaptation - but I liked how the character designs were rougher and the backgrounds were not realistic but instead looked as if they were sketched. That didn't really put me off since it gave the anime a more artistic and unique feel to it, possibly hinting more that this series won't just be another Kimi to Boku. The parts of the episode where we had Yuki "drowning" and his facial expressions during the moments of awkwardness where especially funny and it was aided by the slightly more unrealistic animation and cartoon-like scenery.

Well it might be too early to tell but I have a good feeling that this series could be good IF the story doesn't get too ridiculous. As far as first episodes go, this one made it into my top 3 for this season.