The look is artistic, the emotions and relationships interesting, and the comedy delightful. And the new young seiyuu who plays the lead, Sasaki Nozomi ささきのぞみ, has something special. Her voice is not smooth and professional, but it is real and fresh, and under some control. She can be beautifully comic, emotionally expressive, and amazingly moe -- as long you don't mind a bit of whine with the feast.
This show seems to be flying under the radar. Some posters have quickly rejected it for appearing to be standard shoujo, or for the sketchy but artistic visual style. There are comparatively few posts on AnimeSuki (English) or 2channel (Japanese), and the raws are very slow to appear. But it may be more popular in the Chinese world: there were four different Chinese fansubs of episode 1.
sound
The sound effects this week were striking. Flipping the pages of a book. Stomping down the hall. Maybe a little overemphasized, but intriguing and vivid. And Sasaki Nozomi did some very interesting things. I'm not sure whether to credit her or the director, but a broken little "mm" near the end, for example, was wonderful. Or the way she made her voice break when she was confessing. Or the humorous way she said "deshou?" when she was telling the class who was going to star in the play. Or the way the emotion in her voice matched the emotion in the face on-screen saying "hontou ni suki?"
episode summary
Takahashi Nanami ("Nana") hears the rumors about the object of her affection, Yano, dating his sempai, Yamamoto Nana last year. Then we see our Nana running beside that other Nana's younger sister, Yamamoto Yuri, and saying how happy she is that Yuri is well enough to do phys. ed. now, after her heat stroke during the cross-country hike. She tells Yuri she got 34 on her last math test, up from the previous zero. Yuri says she'd better get 56 next time, since she'll fail if she doesn't get an average above 30. Nana says to herself that she'll work hard. As she runs along, she sees Yano smiling with a friend and thinks: he never changes.
Back in class, she sees some girls looking at a picture of Yamamoto Nana in a yearbook. She turns away, in a complex of emotions, only to find Yano himself coming in asking if anyone can change a Y5000 (~$50) bill. Nana says to herself again that he's always the same.
She comes back to the empty classroom after a long committee meeting and happens to see the yearbook. She's starting to look for Yamamoto Nana's picture when Yano comes in. She puts it away, embarrassed, but he asks her to show him the picture, which he hasn't seen. He asks if she wants to see it, and she refuses for about five seconds. She didn't really want to see it under these circumstances. She doesn't know what expression she should have when she looks at it. Then she sees how pretty the girl was, thinks Yano only likes beautiful girls, and feels that she can't compete.
She asks who was in love first and Yano says it was him, that she had a boyfriend when he first met her. She says he must have been proud to have such a pretty girlfriend. He answers that she was the first girl he really loved. She knows she really didn't want to believe there was someone Yano loved, but having him tell her so directly is a bit comforting. Then she blurts out that she likes him. He doesn't seem to react at first, so she starts laughing and pretending she didn't mean it. But he says: "So let's go out together, then."
"Just a minute," she says in shock. "Do you like me?" After a pause, he says: "Uh-huh." She notices the pause and asks if he really likes her. He says he likes everything about her. She says she means does he really, really like her. He pauses and says he doesn't know. She says that isn't enough, that she will wait until he does before they go out. "Understood," he says. Later, on the roof alone, she thinks about the fact that it was the first time she's ever confessed love to anyone, and she was totally confused by his answer.
In class, Yano is almost asleep. The teacher has him to the board and he can't do the problem. The teacher comments how unusual that is. Perhaps Yano's a bit overwhelmed by Nana's confession, too. Nana sees him in the hall and gives him a yogurt drink she has left from lunch. It's supposed to be good for anemia. He says it tastes awaful. But she is pleased they can talk normally to each other after her confession. But then he says she kept asking him if he really, really liked her, so he wants to ask her if she really, really likes him. She finds it hard to answer, so he says she's the same as him.
Nana and a friend are out shopping in the evening and meet Yano's friend Takeuchi, who takes them to a restaurant where Yano is surrounded by girls, one of them feeding him with a spoon. He introduces Nana as his class rep. One of the girls says how quiet and morose Yamamoto Yuri is, that she probably has an inferiority complex. Nana leaps to her defense and says the girl doesn't know Yuri. The girl says she was in the same class for three years, but Nana replies that then it's surprising she could say a thing like that.
The girl says Nana doesn't know anything, that Yuri's inability to pass a message caused a fight between Yano and her sister. Takeuchi tells her to stop talking about such things there. Yano says they shouldn't stop on his account, adding that Yuri is a nicer person than she seems. But then he tells Nana that she shouldn't talk like that, that this isn't a student council meeting. Nana smacks him with her handbag, says he is an idiot who should die, and storms out.
Outside, she realizes she has left her wallet behind. Then she sees that Yano has come after her. He holds out her wallet to her. He says it's the first time a girl has told him to die. She replies that she can say more, and calls him an idiot and a fool and says his mother has an outie (protruding navel). He laughs and says that his mother doesn't have an outie...but that she's a prostitute. And then tells her that his girlfriend was not a good woman: at the time of the accident, she was with her former boyfriend. He blames himself for the fact that she still wanted to see her old boyfriend.
And then he offers to see Nana home. She at first says he doesn't have to, then asks that they go and take a photo in a booth. She wonders why she said such a stupid thing, but off they go. In the booth, she sees that he is cheering up. She says he's strong to be able to tell her what he just did. He says it's easier to blame yourself than others. She says she thought it was the opposite, and he replies that if you blame another person, you're more likely to get too mad and not be able to forgive them. But if you blame yourself, you're more likely to say "Oh, well," and forget about it. They're both smiling broadly in the picture, and she says to herself that she looks like a fool, that her head is bigger than his and she looks like a big octopus. He says she looks cute. "A cute octopus," she says to herself.
Next we see her as the class rep announcing what the class will do for the school festival. Too many classes wanted to run a cafe, so they missed out on that and will do a short play. This is the least attractive thing to do, since no-one but classmates usually comes to see it. But then she announces to great applause that Yano will star. The class knows that lots of girls will come to see him. Yano is surprised. She asks if he wants to get together and choose the play, but he says she should just go ahead. He's just her ass-wiper, anyway, cleaning up her messes. She says she thinks she made a mistake saying she loved him. "I told you so," he says.
She's really upset with him and is saying so to her friends, and drawing a moustache on his picture, when Yuri comes and tells her about the next day's student council meeting to assign rooms to the various classes for the festival. As she's walking along the hall, Takeuchi calls her from outide and they have a conversation through the window. She tells him not to talk about Yano, that he's got a bad mouth and is just horrible. But she adds that he can bring people together, that when she said he was going to be in the play, their classmates got enthusiastic about it. She really admires that in him. Then she realizes she's being nice to Yano and calls him an idiot and stomps off. Then it turns out that Yano has been hiding right there, and probably asked Takeuchi to talk to her.
Nana and her friends are very busy working on the play when she discovers that they have no room to perform in: she forgot to go to the meeting where rooms were decided. People are all talking about her mistake. Yano hears about it, comes and finds out what's needed, and assures her he will take care of it. She is grateful and relieved, though somewhat dubious. Up on the roof, she thinks how contradictory he is: he's very easy-going and seems not to care, but when there's a crisis he's there.
As she's standing up there stewing, he comes to tell her he got them a good room. She criticizes herself to him for seeming like a responsible person, but being so cowardly and incapable and just apologizing and getting other people to do things for her all the time. He says that isn't so bad. If someone is too good, then.... (He's probably thinking about his former girlfriend.) He also says he doesn't think taking her home that night was a mistake. She asks what he means, and he doesn't really answer. She asks him why, when they get to an important question, he always doesn't answer. Why is he toying with her?
He says he isn't toying with her, he just won't say anything that he isn't sure of. She thinks: "There he goes again." But she has love in her eyes.
