Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka

[Ryllharu]

Image courtesy of moe.imouto
This is the new love-comedy series for the season. However, from the look of the first episode, in a refreshing change of pace, there's quite a bit more comedy than romance.


[Synopsis is a bit spoilerish of the first episode, but as this is also the set-up of the entire situation, I have little choice. Read at your own risk.]



A fairly standard plot device begins the series. Junichi Nagase, known as the Geno Killer due to a series of ever-increasing rumors about him, protects a cute girl on the street being harassed by two other students. Both of them leave the encounter not knowing each other's names but wondering about the other. So in perfect love-comedy form, the girl, who's name is Yuuhi Katagiri, becomes a transfer student the very next day. Following a series of misunderstandings by other classmates, Yuuhi and Jun are suspected of becoming an item. In a glaring moment of excessively poor judgment, Jun kisses Yuuhi, and she responds violently. Later that night, she shows up at the house Jun shares with his sister, declaring him to be her fiancee.


[end spoilers]


A pretty funny episode, and I was surprised to not only see more humor than anything in this episode, but a very impressive cast as well. Rie Kugumiya not using her standard Louise/Shana-tsundere voice, but rather the one I can only describe as her "gentle voice," and rarely used in most of her roles. Hatano Wataru (Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu) as Jun, Inoue Marina (Minami-ke, Gurren Lagann) and Ishida Akira (Slayers, Mai-Hime) as Jun's friends, Aya Hirano as Jun's sister, Katou Emiri (Soul Eater, Lucky Star) as the excessively rich, class-rep like character, and Rie Tanaka sneaking in as an almost revoltingly cute class president.

There also appears to be an odd spy sub-plot to the series. I'll leave the speculation to you for now.

First episode out by Eclipse
Akasaka eps 01 (h264)
Akasaka eps 01 (xvid)

[Xelbair]

I just finished watching first EP - it hooked me up to this series. another one on my list to watch, well i dont have anything to add - i complelty agree with post above

[Board of Command]

A very promising first episode with a very high caliber cast.

[narutosharingan]

That was a pretty fun first episode. I'm looking forward to the rest of this. Does anyone know how long this is supposed to be?

[Yukimura]

Loved it, Myself; Yourself character design with better animation, excellent VA's, Top Class immouto and a wrathful loli who's not your typical wrathful loli. This show seems stocked up and ready for great comedy.

[Dark Dragon]

Loved it, Myself; Yourself character design with better animation, excellent VA's, Top Clas immouto and a wrathful loli who's not your typical wrathful loli. This show seems stocked up and ready for great comedy.

Minus the creepy School Days vibes that made me not enjoy Myself, Yourself. No psychotic bitches in my romance comedy thank you very much.

[TheBladeChild]

The sister makes think of Nanoha of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. It didnt seem that great to me, but ill give it a few more episodes.

Btw, does anyone think that the person who was rescued in the beginning is Yuuhi's father? Because you see someone who I assume is her dad in the preview, even though its only a back of the head shot. So does that mean that the fathers made a agreement to have their children marry?

[Kraco]

I was thinking when I saw the ep that the rescued man indeed was Yuuhi's father and as thanks for rescuing him, he gave the spies, in this theory Geno Killer's parents, his daughter (and half of the kingdom). It seems like a nice theory for sure...

[Kraco]

Fathers' agreement:

Episode 2 HQ - Eclipse
Episode 2 SD - Eclipse






- - - - - -



Looks like the obvious guess was correct. And the target of such an agreement isn't too happy. Naturally the dude isn't quite as sorry. One thing the arm lock scene made me wonder, though, is how the dude seemed to lack martial arts skills yet the sister, judging by her words, possessed them. It's a bit strange if Geno Killer is the weakest of those three. Actually it would piss me off if such a thing was the case.

[Ryllharu]

I thought it was interesting how close Minato and Yuuhi have become in such a short time. I've seen a shallower version of the concept in other series, but this one comes off different. Minato is pretty thoroughly on Yuuhi's side, even with the slight brother complex she seems to have.

There were also a lot of very quick moments where they hint at deeper things. Minato's rather extensive knowledge of armlocks, "I've already mastered that move." is her answer? The flash of panic that crossed Minato's face when Yuuhi jokingly stated that they do't seem like brother and sister at all, and her absurdly keen sense of observation.

The look of panic seems to illustrate that we may soon have a growing love triangle, or perhaps a development where Minato is left to decide whether she cherishes being a happy family, or fulfilling a potentially deeper relationship more.

I don't think that Jun will turn out to be the weakest of the three. Perhaps Minato exceeds him (if anything, I would think Jun is the biological outsider of that family) but she hinted that the time where Jun was left all by himself was an unpleasant time for him, and he lashed out, creating the legend around him. His friends don't actually seem to know definitively about his past, they just enjoyed spreading the rumors.


Then we even have the "class rep" girl, Ayanokouji Karen, who has been rather insistent with Yuuhi about her relationship with Jun. I thought about it a little in the previous episode, but with her asking once more about the two of them, I am beginning to wonder if she is interested in Jun as well. Perhaps she's just too "proper" to have shown any interest in him before, but she's become more active about it since Yuuhi suddenly became so close.

[animus]

I'm getting tired of hearing Kugimiya Rie's voice. I've been hearing her in a lot of anime recently, and like 3 anime's this season.

[Board of Command]

I'm getting tired of hearing Kugimiya Rie's voice. I've been hearing her in a lot of anime recently, and like 3 anime's this season.

Yeah, it's like she has been casted in every series for the past year or so.

[Dark Dragon]

From this season alone Rie Kugimiya is is cast in Toradora, Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka and Rosario + Vampire 2. Pretty soon she'll appear in Gundam 00 too as Neena.

edit: i checked again and she also has a supporting role in Linebarrels of Iron.

[Board of Command]

She also just finished Zero no Tsukaima and Mnemosyne.

Oh, and Nabari no Ou is still running.

[animus]

And she's cast in this season's Kemeko-DX

[Marik]

[Eclipse] Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka - 03 (XviD) [B95961AA].avi

[Eclipse] Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka - 03 (1024x576 h264) [7737CC4E].mkv

[animus]

This show sucks.

[Kraco]

It did look better in the beginning than what it has already become by now. It's a bit stale, as if it had so soon lost its way and is not quite sure what to do with itself. But I guess I'll still watch at least the next ep to see some fanservice.

[Buffalobiian]

[Nipponsei] Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka OP Single - Hatsukoi Parachute [Hashimoto Miyuki].zip

[Board of Command]

This show sucks.

Yeah. Suspended until further notice.