First Impression – Jitsu wa Watashi wa
Oops, dang I spoiled the whole show…
We’re really getting into the meat of the season now, with almost everything having aired. And right in the middle is jitsu wa watashi wa, which I like to think of as “The truth is, I’m…” although others use “Actually, I am” or even the far inferior “I am” (what the show itself uses). So after all this, what “am” “I”? Let’s take a look.
I Am The Worst Secret Keeper In The World
He’s bad at hiding anything
On the one side, we have the main character of the show, Asahi Kuromine. Described by his friends as a “leaky basket”, he’s apparently constitutionally incapable of keeping a straight face. In everything from giving opinions to playing cards, he’s easier to read than a large print children’s book. It doesn’t seem that he blurts out things he learns (although this might be a character quirk that we just haven’t gotten to yet), but that anyone can figure out what he knows by asking probing questions. And he knows he has this trait, and fights against it… and just can’t. But this doesn’t stop Asahi from being, in general, a good guy with some good friends who support him. They may not trust him with secrets, but they believe him. And who isn’t going to believe a guy that makes it plainly obvious when he lies? But the key point in the show is that Asahi has a crush on someone, and everyone knows it’s the quiet girl Youko Shiragami.
What, you guys knew about that?
Alternate caption: This is how you bro, bro.
I Am A (Darn Cute) Secret Vampire
Uh oh, he picked the wrong time to walk in
But she’s kind of an enigma. Doesn’t talk to people much but doesn’t necessarily avoid people. Arrives at school earlier than everyone else, leaves school later than everyone else. Had a mysterious tan one day, but avoids the sun during outdoor Phys Ed. But it’s partly this mysteriousness that interests Asahi. Plus the fact that she’s a pretty girl. So at the urging of his friends, he seizes the day and goes to confess to her (partly to avoid a reprise of his last shoot down by the class rep). And there he finds out her big secret, that “The truth is, I’m” a vampire.
Didn’t want this happening again
A Cute Couple
I found Youko is a tremendously endearing character. She’s cute in a unique way, due to the fairly unique character designs of the show. It has a loosey-goosey visual style, shooting for a middle ground between standard moe short characters and tall bishie rail-thin characters. They also spend a lot of effort on Asahi’s expressions, allowing him to screw up his face in revealing ways. But back to Youko, she also speaks in a cute kansai-ben, something Asahi hadn’t known since she tries to speak more “properly” because she has a tendency to slip and accidentally reveal her fangs speaking “normally”. And she’s just the right amount of ‘dense’, not a complete brick wall, but more of a “so concerned about her own things that she didn’t really notice other people.” She is the only one who didn’t know that Asahi was interested in her, except she did notice it, and attributed it to him finding out she’s a vampire.
Scary Reporter Girl? Present!
I also really liked the interplay between Asahi and Youko. They worked together as a couple pretty well, and also as two individuals trying to learn about each other, in the limited time they talked to each other this episode. The main setup for the show follows, as Asahi, having finally gotten a little closer to her, can’t bear the thought of Youko having to leave the school, so he vows to keep her secret, even though everyone knows that’s the thing he cannot do.
Looks like someone else has a secret, too
It’s not hard to see what the central tension in this show is going to be, given Youko’s secret, Asahi’s character flaw and the forces arrayed against him, including the muckraking Journalism Club president Akemi, and the equally secret-having Class Rep. I really like the couple of Asahi and Youko, so we’ll see if they have any chance of success, or will we get more of a harem, like the OP seems to show. But this first episode was really cute, and I liked it. And now that’s no secret.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…so why? When given the chance to come clean and not hide behind his shyness, did he not correct her and tell her he was interested? Or is that not part of the “leaky basket”?
Yep, like yourself, I found the character designs to be very well done, and they are having a field day with the boy’s levels of discomfort and pain.
My money’s on Journalism Girl being either A) an extortionist, or B)something odd herself…or maybe even a spy for Youko’s father…
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
I’ll admit I’m a bit pissed off they went the boring conventional route and raised the school skirt hemlines the obligatory few inches. The manga actually felt a bit fresh for having skirts that were actually reasonable.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
Hmm… wonder if the linking feature works here:
http://i.imgur.com/fPFG0BP.jpg
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
For an opening, the episode adapted the first manga chapter fairly well though the character designs are a bit altered. A mixture of the manga designs and what’s usually seen in anime. The expressions are more extreme in the former. What’s different is the choice for Youko’s voice is softer than I imagined.
Given Asahi’s particular problem, he’s got his work cut out for him. Even though I’ve already seen this, I personally thought he took Youko’s reveal rather well but don’t want to believe it’s because he’s already seen something out of the ordinary. His disposition would’ve already indicated that.
Trust me; you don’t know the half of it. Mikan is what I’d call an “S class stalker and snitch”. You already got her motto as part of her self-introduction. If she’s given the slightest hint there’s something worth reporting from anyone, she’ll hound them until she finds something or until a more appealing matter elsewhere that shows up. Not to mention being a shameless moral sadist who enjoys the anguish her reporting brings upon people and dislikes it if she thinks they enjoy it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
One of my biggest problems with just about every manga is that the expressions are stupidly over the top. I know that it’s harder to display a range of emotion in static drawings, but to me it has the effect of portraying everyone as having humongous mood swings. But in this show I liked the range of expressions they had, and the fact that they were willing to use detail of mouths as a way to add to those expressions, rather than just shading and eyes.
I also liked the way he took the information.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
Loved what I watched. It’s everything I expected. The artstyle may not satisfy all the people but I like it a lot. The characters were nice and the introduction had a good atmosphere.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I thought the character designs were eccentric in an appealing way. There are enough shows with moe characters that it’s refreshing to see something different. And I can see that the artists are going to have a lot of fun drawing Asahi’s twisted expressions when he’s trying to keep a secret.
One of the best things in this episode was Asahi’s posse. Those are some real friends who are very supportive. I hope we’ll see much more of them. Since Asahi can’t keep a secret I predict his friends will quickly discover there’s something about Youko that must be kept secret and while they might not learn just what it is they do help him to keep it from getting out.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
One thing I worry about is the time crunch that anime production has, and that it will force out the expressions. So we’ll see if they can keep that together.
I thought it also interesting that they went with the really experienced VAs for Asahi’s friends. It was somewhat shocking to hear those voices that usually do main characters as the side characters, I’ll admit.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
A lot of that may have had to do with the VAs’ schedules in that they had the free time to do supporting characters, but not more.