Well, it has been a long while since I have updated the Anime side of my blog, so here is my first post for a few months. Ookami Kakushi is the only Winter season of Anime I will be actively following, and I thought I’d post my first impressions of the openning episode titled “The Town of Jouga”. Already it has that slight RyuKishi sort of Higurashi feel to it, and for some reason, that slightly annoys me… But being a fan of Higurashi and Umineko, I’d thought I’d follow along with Ookami, and see if the ride will be any good. (Even if it turned out like Umineko… I was dissapointed…) One major difference between RyuKishi’s other animated works and Ookami is a change of studio. This time, Peach-Pit (Rozen Maiden, Zombie Loan, etc.) will be working on this, not Studio DEEN. (Thank god?)
The Opening Scene – I dunno… Mixed feelings… The openning scene is the scene that draws you in. Personally, I feel that it’s the most important part of the first episode. The whole “I know I love you” thing was… awkward… It did set up a nice sort of build to the show, as there is that sense of mystery that RyuKishi is praised for. Though I can’t help but feel as though it’s a little recycled…
The Characters and Setting – Jouga… is interesting. A city, seemingly, pretty much split in two, an old side and a new side. Those on the old side “oppose” the new side. Hahaha… I’m definately agreeing with everyone here. The main, Hiroshi, is a guy. I have to remind myself that… He does seem weirdly feminine? Having Koobayashi Yuu voicing him doesn’t help that much either. =P As he moves into the new school, everyone seems to love him! (I remember reading the plot synopsis and I could not help but think “Oh, that’s so Higurashi again…” and I don’t feel that statement is wrong…) He is surrounded by girls… As Hiroshi moves into the town of Jouga, the first person he meets is… Shall we call, the “Rena” of Ookami? ‘Cept Isuzu is annoying… rather than “moe”… She is… VERY forward from the looks of things… The discussion about visiting “the old town” reminded me of the famous “Uso-da!” scene quite a bit. But was no where near as awesome, and if there is something “mysterious” behind it, that scene didn’t really ‘excite’ me about the old town that much. The rest of the characters set some things up nicely… As always, “the one who doesn’t talk that much” obviously does… something…
Music and Sound – “Toki no Mukou, Maboroshi no Sora (時の向こう 幻の空)” by FictionJunction. *likes* I had heard the full version before the anime was officially out and unlike most OPs, I could tell that I liked it, and gave me an insight into what the Anime may very well be like. It will take some more listening before I can safely say that I *love* the OP, but it is very nice. The same goes for the OP’s visuals. The chase scene background score was epic. It’s gotten me excited over the OST already! Overall, the choices of Seiyuus seemed to match well enough. Looks like Koobayashi has played a fairly substantial role in all of RyuKishi related works so far. The ED, “Tsukishirube (月導)” by Yuuka Nanri, (also a member of FictionJunction) wasn’t that substantial to me… Interesting animation to go with it though.
Art and Animation – Unlike DEEN, Peach-Pit does care about animation!!! Finally one of RyuKishi’s creations isn’t ruined by terrible animation! Well, not yet… I always have mixed opinions to those “3D” style animations… I remember Trinity Blood, where it didn’t really work out that well… The character designs are nice and simple, nothing outrageous. (Some still go on about Mion’s unnaturally flourencently green hair…) Peach-Pit is a good choice. I hope.
Overall – There is that feeling that RyuKishi essentially will be recycling Higurashi for Ookami… Whether that’ll be good or bad… That’s something else… But for now, I do say, the first episode is intriguing, and I will most definitely be following along. For an opening episode, I do give it a 7 out of 10.
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