Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ - 01 July 3
OP Sequence:
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OP: “Fly Away” by THYME
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
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ED Sequence:
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ED: “Kawaita Hana” 「乾いた花」 by micc
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
「美瑛より」 (Biei Yori)
“From Biei”
Next Episode:
「東京」 (Toukyou)
“Tokyo”
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Impressions:
So my theory is that HAL Film Maker’s goal with Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ is to leave us in visual awe with backdrops near the level of Byousoku 5 Centimeter (a.k.a. 5 Centimeters per Second), in conjunction with high definition sharpness and fluidic animation on par with Dennou Coil. I mean, if that’s really their goal, they’re doing a pretty damn good job in my opinion. While I realize a lot of the backgrounds are rendered in CG (update: or edited from photographs), the coloring and shading make everything blend seemlessly into the anime-type scenes. However, the backdrops look almost real at the same time, to the point where it almost doesn’t seem like an anime anymore, so it’s like we have the best of both worlds. Simply put, I’m very, very impressed and found myself speechless quite often when I was watching this episode. My internal reaction basically went, “Wow… just wow”, followed by, “I wonder if they’ll be able to keep this level of quality up for all twelve episodes.”
With that said, my other concern is that a lot of scenes were distant shots that didn’t show the characters very well (or at all), which left me wondering if HAL spent all their time on the backgrounds and skimped on the characters and animation. When there were close-up character scenes, they looked simple, but clean and smooth (animation-wise), so it’s not like the team’s incapable in that department. I just hope the series doesn’t end up being a stunning, visual, picture book more than an anime.
As for the cast, the very pleasant sounding Hanazawa Kana portrays the female lead, Shizuku Sora, a country girl who’s moving to Tokyo for mage training. This is actually Kana’s second time playing a lead character named Sora, having been cast last fall as Kajiwara Sora in Sketchbook ~full color’S~. This series also features Koyama Rikiya (Shinigami-sama in SOUL EATER, Yamato in Naruto Shippuuden) as Hara Seiichirou of the Hara Magic Office (as seen in this episode), plus Inoue Marina (Yoko in Gurren Laggen, Minami Kana in Minami-ke) and Takahashi Mikako (Adilicia len Mathers in Rental Magica), and Namikawa Daisuke (Kumohira Thobari Durandal in Nabari no Ou), who will all make appearances later on.
Given the amazing production quality by HAL Film Maker (who also worked on the ARIA franchise), Hanazawa Kana in a starring role, and the somewhat simple yet intriguing premise, I’m pretty inclined to follow this twelve episode series. However, given that there are several other shows I’m considering covering, I’m just not sure if I’ll have time to blog this or not, even though I plan to watch it. Nothing is set in stone at this point, but I should have a better idea of what I plan to do this season in the upcoming weeks. For now though, I recommend checking out the first episode even if it’s just for the visuals alone.
Addendum:
For those of you wondering, “Mahou Tsukai ni Taitsetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~” translates to “Important Things to a Mage ~Summer Sky~”. Also, I’ve hedged my statement above about the use of rendered CG for the backgrounds as I originally suspected that they were edited from photographs as well. While some people commented on filtering, I kind of looped that into the “rendering” part of the statement, but I agree there’s some confusion there as they’re clearly different things, hence the rewording you see above.
Regarding the requests for the OP/ED, I’ve been having a bit of trouble re-encoding the x264 raw I have using my notebook here in Japan, and I haven’t had time to figure out the exact problem yet. Speaking of which, lack of time from packing and last minute shopping are also the reasons why I don’t have posts up for Allison & Lillia 14, Strike Witches 01, To LOVE-RU 14, and possibly Hidamari Sketch x 365 01 yet (although I did happen to watch the last two on TV here).
I’m heading back home tomorrow (Sunday) though, so I should be able to upload the OP/ED for this series then, catch up on the current backlog, and be back to timely blogging. As a side, I’ve also been working on another post unrelated to the shows that I’m currently covering, so that’s something to look forward to too (for some people anyway). ^_^
Finally, I asked Omni to add my e-mail to the Contact Me page last week, so if anyone should want to talk to me about anything (or pass on some information), feel free to shoot me a mail.
Cast:
- Suzuki Sora (鈴木 ソラ) / Hanazawa Kana (花澤 香菜)
- Hara Seiichirou (原 誠一郎) / Koyama Rikiya (小山 力也)
- Shiraishi Saori (白石 沙織) / Takano Urara (高乃 麗)
- Suzuki Seiko (鈴木 聖子) / Takamori Yoshino (鷹森 淑乃)
- Satou Michiru (佐藤 みちる) / Ooura Fuyuka (大浦 冬華)
- Tooyama Tetsuya (遠山 哲也) / Nara Toora (奈良 徹)
- Satou Tsuneyoshi (佐藤 恒良) / Aono Takeshi (青野 武)
- Satou Yoshiko (佐藤 芳子) / Matsushima Eriko (松島 栄利子)
- Yuusaka (優作) / Okabe Masaaki (岡部 政明)
- Woman (おばさん) / Ono Yooko (小野 洋子)
- Passerby’s father (通行人の父親) / Miyazaki Hiromu (宮崎 寛務)
- Cabit attendant (キャビンアテンダント) / Hibi Aiko (日比 愛子)
- Airport announcer (空港アナウンス) / Takagi Akihiro (高木 章裕)
- Airport announcer (空港アナウンス) / Yamana Eriko (山名 枝里子)
- Radio personality (ラジオパーソナリティー) / Ono Yuuko (小野 優子)
- Radio personality (ラジオパーソナリティー) / Satou Mami (佐藤 麻美)
otanga at 10:56 pm on July 3rd, 2008
wow.. i can’t wait to watch this!!
Ryan at 10:57 pm on July 3rd, 2008
FIRST POST n0000bz
YO IT LOOKS EPIK AND VERY MUCH LIKE 5 cm! i excited for more bwahaha
Ryan at 10:57 pm on July 3rd, 2008
DANG.. i mean second
Hister at 11:02 pm on July 3rd, 2008
Se ve interesant, una propuesta madura y bien razonada… u ottra trama chafona con tintes de dratamismo. Como sea se ve bien la animación y las imágenes me hacen pensar que la sere maneja una carga emocional y psicológica muy fuerte, por lo que me veo obligado a verlo. Son de mis favoritos estos animes.
straycat99 at 11:03 pm on July 3rd, 2008
Hanazawa Kana! Such a lovely voice. Definitely watching this one.
Kadian1364 at 11:08 pm on July 3rd, 2008
Wow. First time looking at the screen-caps I said, “What is this live action shit?” Until I looked at them closer and read your impressions. Needless to say I’ll need to find my jaw that dropped into the basement.
Look at the reflections on the lobby floor, the textures of the grass, the light coming in from the airplane window! These are the best anime visuals I have ever seen, ever. This is so far beyond even 5 cm per Second, it’s more like comparing Cowboy Bebop vs. anything else back in the day. Absolutely stunning.
On the downside, the hyper-realistic backgrounds badly contrast with the simple character designs. They really look like flat 2D people inhabiting a rich 3D world. However, that’s just from looking at still screens.
Definitely keeping an eye on this one.
Michiko at 11:20 pm on July 3rd, 2008
Kana Hanazawa? I loved her as Ryoko Kaminagi in Zegapain.
ludacris10 at 1:13 am on July 4th, 2008
Omg wow it’s like 5cm per second!!
Steve at 1:17 am on July 4th, 2008
Looks beautiful. Can’t wait to watch it.
hashihime at 1:18 am on July 4th, 2008
Hanazawa Kana has one of the moe-est voices in anime. I loved her at her moe-est as Shiika in Mushiuta, but here I think she is expanding to something more. And she’s still just 19. Takahashi Mikako’s best role, for me, was Yamada in Honey & Clover.
I love the complex backgrounds and think the characters work with them, too (I’ve seen the episode). They are technically wonderful, but aesthetically I would not put these backgrounds in the Shinkai Makoto league just yet. Let’s see how it goes when we’re in Tokyo, next episode.
And Hister, I can’t write it in Spanish, but have you seen the first series of this show: Someday’s Dreamers? That has its own “strong emotional and psychological cargo,” but a sweet and subtle one.
iEatedyou at 1:21 am on July 4th, 2008
I didn’t even know that this anime was in the summer lineup. Did I read too fast? xD But yeh, it looks beautiful. ^_^ Dunno about the story though, I’ll watch it and see~ :3
AznLegacy at 1:34 am on July 4th, 2008
Just from looks I cant say this is exactly my cup of tea, but it’s not like I wasn’t proven wrong with my hunches with Ouran High School Host Club. (-__-) Gotta check it out for myself.
jusuchin85 at 1:50 am on July 4th, 2008
i know it would seem like a noobie question, but what is the anime about? i mean, what did the first episode tells us (instead of how visually stunning it looks, the cast etc.) ?
Myssa Rei at 1:58 am on July 4th, 2008
jusuchin85: Try looking up Someday’s Dreamers, as this is a spinoff/sequel of sorts to it. it’s basically a modern Earth where magic is very realy, but regulated by the Government. Mages - people with magic power - are monitored and more or less required to register under a specific government agency for ‘training’. If and when they pass muster, they become part of the government themselves, functioning as troubleshooters/problem solvers, but of a more mundane sort; don’t expect explosions here, but stuff like a shopping district manager asking for help fixing the display case windows in the shows of the district (something that happened in the first Someday’s Dreamers).
ruffles at 2:16 am on July 4th, 2008
as nice as the backgrounds are.. i can’t help but feel that they’re a little jarring. the somewhat simply drawn characters don’t help much either. it’s a little distracting to say the least.
cyro at 2:29 am on July 4th, 2008
could u please upload the OP/ED videos or link the youtube if u can find it?
krypz at 2:42 am on July 4th, 2008
these backdrops omg..
Dango at 2:59 am on July 4th, 2008
The backgrounds…look like photograpsh!
setsuke at 3:14 am on July 4th, 2008
Having said that the background is very nice but when they animate the character it looks too simple with contrast to the background. In fact most of the scenes of the character are like simple drawing eventhough i’m not sure whether the manga also has the same kind of drawing but when they make such a thing with the backgound it looks like a simple and cheap animation. Somehow some background looks too real and permanent as if they just take a picture and paste it there then the rest is adding animation (in fact most of the time i think those background are from real life pictures).
Thatdot7 at 4:57 am on July 4th, 2008
=S… the background rendering is awesome, but the characters looks really out-of-place in the uber background