Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho - 01 July 4
OP Sequence
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OP: 「DOLPHIN☆JET」 by 彩音 (Ayane)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2
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Ah, summer. Beach, mizugi, boobs – the “natsu triumvirate.” Umisho is about a guy who can’t swim, and yet helps out with the swim club. Why? Because every anime chick has a rockin’ body. Can’t fault the guy for being a loser – not his fault he’s the male lead, but mad props for choosing a good place to live it out.
Problem is, I’ve never had much of a thing for girls in swimsuits. Don’t get me wrong, I love it as much as the next guy, but it’s my belief that swimsuits lack the appeal of underwear, even though they both might be showing the same amount of skin. Apparently, the anime gods were listening. The main girl’s swimsuit of choice? Her birthday suit. Or a men’s dress shirt with nothing underneath. Now we’re talkin!
Ninagawa Amuro, the wide-eyed green-haired girl with FTW written all over her, shows up in some One Piece-lookin house raft and a huge freakin smile on her face. Yep, she’s that kind of super genki girl that everyone gravitates to, except this one is scantily clad and voiced by a complete newcomer seiyuu, so she’s got that raw, unscripted type of voice that just oozes a feeling of freshly-cut grass and freshly-squeezed orange juice. And that feeling you get when you down half a bottle of ice-cold Gatorade on a hot and humid day. Ahhhh.
Her hair is a real point of interest, actually. Green-haired girls have traditionally been the superfun genki girls (Yotsuba, Tsuruya, Asa-senpai), and really not to an annoying extent. More like, she’s the kind of girl that makes you look forward to going to school with, because you never know what kind of awesomeness she’s gonna pull that day. What stunt is Yotsuba gonna bust out? What kind of new wordplay is Tsuruya going to treat us to nyoro? And let’s not forget that Asa-senpai pulled the greatest upset in harem anime history by claiming the male lead for herself as the FOURTH place girl. When has this ever happened? Not even the third girl has ever won it all. Love it, love it, love it.
For those smart asses who point out that Yukino is a rather stupid character in Nagasarete, I counter with this – her mom is FTW!!
Oh wait, I’m supposed to be summarizing. You know what, this episode is all about introductions, so let’s just get it out of the way quick:
Speaking of classic matchups, did any of you watch the hot dog eating contest on ESPN today? 6-time winner Takeru Kobayashi was beaten by American Joey Chestnut by 3 hot dogs. Last year, Kobayashi set the world record of 53.75 hot dogs in 12 minutes, which was trumped by Chestnut’s amazing 59.5 dogs at a qualifying round this year. In the main event today, the two were practically neck and neck for the final 5 minutes – in the end, Chestnut scarfed down 66 (!!!!) hot dogs to beat Kobayashi’s 63 in one of the most amazing matchups in sports history. Epic sight to behold.
Oh wait, back to the summary.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Splash BLUE ~太陽とレモネード」 (Splash BLUE ~Taiyou to Lemonade) by 村田あゆみ (Murata Ayumi)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
Ok, back to rambling. For those people who only read these posts for the thoughts, read up, cuz all the thoughts are there. The only real summary bits are the ones in bullet points. Anyways, considering the crappiness of every new show so far (exception goes to School Days, there’s actually some major potential in that one), Umisho is a breath of fresh air with its crisp color palette, nice animation, and one awesome green-haired chick.
Here’s another great thing about it – it makes my mind wander, kinda like what happened in this post. Normally that means the episode is a complete bore, but in this case, my mind wandered to happy places. Made me remember nice memories, made me think of nice people, and overall put me in a good mood. I love these kinds of shows – I walk away satisfied, energized, and looking forward to the next episode.
Oh, and the boobs. The animators took special care in that department. Plenty of subtle jiggles, every curve and wet reflective surface is embellished to bring out the full 3 dimensions.
My only complaint is the seeming null-role that the male lead plays. In terms of this episode, it would have been pretty much exactly the same had he been taken out altogether… that said, he does have some childhood trauma from getting pulled underwater by some green-haired mermaid (omg foreshadowing!) and sorta kinda serves as the glue to bring the various characters together (but not really). Whatever, nothing new.
If the next episode can keep up this level of enjoyment, I’ll be continuing with this series.
-jaalin
Omni at 8:27 pm on July 4th, 2007
Out of everything I watched yesterday, Umisho’s OP remains the one song that I liked and got stuck in my head. The animation was pretty clean too (refreshing even), so I was pretty happy with production quality. I’m interested to see how they’ll keep up all the fanservice and if the show takes any type of direction with the story.
layla at 8:48 pm on July 4th, 2007
looks great
anim3guy at 9:00 pm on July 4th, 2007
this first episode has more boob scene than any other first episode show that is not a hentai.
luv it must be a good comedy/fanservice anime again
Gil at 9:13 pm on July 4th, 2007
Holy crap!
You weren’t kidding when this show’s about breasts,swimsuits, and more breasts!!!
I do like the art style though. I don’t know why, but I think it’s similar to Gurren Laggen artwork.
AvexMode at 9:16 pm on July 4th, 2007
Im not a fan of blatant ecchi anime (although i don’t mind Gainax’s ecchi offerings), but going to watch this anime just for the green hair chick. She looks like a fun character to watch.
jaalin at 9:20 pm on July 4th, 2007
i totally left out the most awesome green haired chick of all… C.C.! !!! ! ! ! !
can’t believe i forgot that one
Gil at 9:23 pm on July 4th, 2007
^
yea, but how is she “super genki”?
jaalin at 9:27 pm on July 4th, 2007
she makes me super genki
even better
quigonkenny at 9:38 pm on July 4th, 2007
@jaalin: “can’t believe i forgot that one”
Well, in your defense, the topic at that time was “superfun genki girls,” and while I’m sure C.C. is “superfun” under the right circumstances (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more), she’s about as genki as Yuki.
And speaking of the animation, while the rest isn’t similar, greengirl’s face reminded me a lot of Koyuki from Keroro Gunso. Must be the :3…
Oh, and who voices the ahoge loli? She sounds very familiar…
delicatessen at 9:41 pm on July 4th, 2007
I….LOVE….fanservice!
Mercury Lampe at 9:42 pm on July 4th, 2007
That green-haired girl had an almost similar hairstyle as Asa from Shuffle!
jaalin at 9:54 pm on July 4th, 2007
the ahoge loli is ai shimizu, aka onodera karen (onegai twins), minawa-chan (mahoromatic), the pink haired bimbo from Gift, and most recently Koyori (sola).
GStrike- at 9:58 pm on July 4th, 2007
fanservice ftw
Chiu^2 at 10:04 pm on July 4th, 2007
Did somebody say fanservice and breasts? I’m so watching this series now.
Sailor Enlil at 10:23 pm on July 4th, 2007
I never thought sharks could be such perverts XD
Slade_64 at 10:43 pm on July 4th, 2007
Actually the first thing that came to my mind as far as styling goes was Inu Neko Jump…have no idea why though…
Alex at 10:55 pm on July 4th, 2007
Although this seemed like a typical fanservice show, the art direction has a very interesting stlye to it…going to have to check it out.
dward at 11:03 pm on July 4th, 2007
Fanservice time!!!!! LOL….I’m so watching this :p
Kite at 12:10 am on July 5th, 2007
Yuri Rocks at 12:32 am on July 5th, 2007
Good Lord, we are outside the realm of subtlety in a big way with this one. Now, the big challenge. Where do we find places with women swimming with nothing but a men’s dress shirt in the real world. The beauty of harem animes. Every single female character is stacked, and can give directions with their boobs. Ahhh, some things never change.