First Impression – Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete
Four girls In Search of a Lost Future
My first FI of the Fall season is Ushinawareta Mirai no Motomete, In Search of a Lost Future. What does this future-set school drama have in store for us?
Everything’s Normal
The Tenmongakkai (from left – Kenny, Airi, Sou, Kaori, and Ichigo Remon Nagisa)
That’s the first impression you have from this show. It’s pretty much your normal high school romance-y show, this time with the main couple being osananajimi (childhood friends) but living in the same house. Sou Akiyama (the second lead role for Takuma Terashima this season with Log Horizon) and Kaori Sasaki (Hatsumi Takada… uh, you wouldn’t know her. In fact, let’s not look at other anime works that the ladies in this cast have done. How about let’s point out that it’s the original cast from the eroge) are the couple in question, and everyone knows that Kaori likes Sou, and I think most people think that Sou likes Kaori, but is too oblivious to how she feels. They’re both in the Astronomy Club, which seems to be the club for special people, those two excepted. President Airi Hasekura is the school’s enforcer, always willing to settle someone else’s argument for them. She gets help at that from Kenny, and then whenever a ‘cleaning’ is needed, senior member Nagisa Hanamiya just always happens to be around to ‘fix’ things.
“So, how long do you think we need to stall to get them to be rabu-rabu?”
And one thing they all want to fix is Kaori and Sou’s relationship. Even to the point of Airi giving up on Sou so that Kaori can have him. It takes all episode, with a lot of sulking on Kaori’s part, but finally she confesses in plain language, and tells Sou to give her an answer when he’s ready. And then Wham! But then something weird happens. We’re back in the past, and the mysterious cube that Nagisa had is doing something different. Is there some key to changing the future? And who is the mysterious naked girl found by Sou at the top of the stairs?
Kaori finally comes out and confesses, and doesn’t exactly get the reaction she hoped for, but not the worst
And then… At least everyone is there
Impressions
Airi’s not afraid to show them
The Main thing you notice about this show is the lack of detail in animation. I don’t know if Studio Feel is going cheap on it, doing this for stylistic reasons, or didn’t get it finished, but the animation is very what I would call early 2000’s with current character designs, so it’s got a weird dissonance going on. This is also somewhat odd since the VN that the series is based on is from 2010. That explains a bit of the CG feeling for some of the character movements, tho. We’ll see if it stays the same way going forward. There wasn’t really an OP or ED this episode, so can’t really talk about them. The show so far is really not doing anything with the supposedly future setting (somewhere around 2100), with no advanced technology really present (except for that cube). It’s interesting that there’s almost no change in people’s daily lives. I think that would be quite odd if that was the case in another 80 years.
I think the story is pretty much wide open. I have no idea where it’s going to go, and no idea what the death of Kaori once means, or the rewind in time. Is there going to be an element of “You shouldn’t be alive”? Is it a split future? We’ll see how much the name, In Search of a Lost Future comes into play. And of course, there’s the mystery of the naked girl at the top of the stairs, Yui. She’ll be a major character (she’s one of the main heroines in the game, along with Kaori, Airi, and Nagisa), but we’ll see how the anime takes the storyline.
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: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Childhood friends almost never win ;_;
I’m also quite lost myself. It started off normal but then, BAM, dead main character. And suddenly she’s alive and then we find a new girl Terminator style, though thankfully the place is still in one piece.
The first few minutes of the episode plus that cube seems to hint some time travel shenanigans or something. As if I didn’t have enough of that after watching the finale of Buddy Complex and reading the detailed summary of vol11 of DAL. Maybe they’re trying to reverse that accident through the new girl?
It got me interested to continue watching so let’s see what this is about.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Quite a while ago I stumbled onto an article about which girl does the MC in eroge usually end up with and the osanaji was at the bottom of the pile.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Well I guess its time for me to come out of the rocks again for the Fall anime season. Been really inactive for quite the while but we will see how long it lasts.
There been quite the uproar in the anime forums when the anime design is unveil because apparently it butchers the VN art style. But personally, I think the anime art style is passable since there just no way to replicate the VN art unless you have mountains of $$$ to throw and I don’t think this adaptation has a lot of budget either. Though the drawn over CG is a bit of hit and miss but it looks OK for the most part and i don’t really notice it until after watching it for a while.
And holy hell, a confession from a childhood friend in the first episode!? MADNESS! Too bad THAT happened. Will be trying it out for a few episodes since the ending and the beginning intrigued me not to mention the SF element that is popping up. Somehow I get this feeling that the anime rushed/speed through the common route/prologue though…..
PS Dat Kenny engrish
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Or your studio name is kyoani.
*runs*
*runsbackbriefly*
Or ufotable
*runsawayagain*
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I can certainly see how fans of this art style would be a bit upset at what the anime turned out to be, but I agree that it would be far too costly to try to make an anime with that. Probably more than you, there’s very little in the way of art that drives me away from an anime (that chunky late 00’s style might be one thing).
Confession in the first episode means either that the osananajimi is hopeless and desperate or will end up winning.
Hmm, animes in which the osananajimi wins. All I can think of offhand is Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate (and everyone but me *hated* that couple, I think. I thought the romance ended up fine, but the show just fizzled).
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Some studio animated similar artstyle from key eroge…
I rest my case re: osananajimi is always almost at the end of the pile.
Unless it’s Yosuga no Sora: Nao Arc but I think that series can’t be use as evidence since the Miko also wins, Ojou also wins but most of all…
TWINCEST~~!!
IIRC, #1 is always the new girl, wincest is #2 or #3.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You can’t count omnibus-style series as to who wins. Everyone wins in those.
I thought of another where the osananajimi wins: Kimikiss-Pure Rouge.
I think it’s probably the kind of thing where it’s spread out a little bit more than we think (the majority of harem shows *nobody* wins, sometimes not even the audience). They’ll throw in whoever the director likes most as the winner, probably.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Oh, I also wonder how much of a confounding factor it is when other rivals are supporting the osananajimi. In KoiSenkyo, where Chisato won, she also had the support of Mifuyu, who gave up her own chances to throw in with Chisato. In Ushinawareta, we have Airi obviously giving up her own chances to back Kaori. Will that make a difference?
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Tricky question… I would see it as the #1 throwing her chances for a more deserving #2 win.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
AAAAND spammy obviously hates the fact that osananajimi loses. 😛
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
This didn’t make much of an impression on me, but I’ll give it another one or two episodes to try and hook me. I liked the fact that the childhood friend confessed in the first episode. I hate shows where they spend the entire show beating around the bush or trying to confess, but somehow can’t or get interrupted. I’d rather watch a show about their developing relationship, although it doesn’t look like this will be that type of show.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I also like shows where there’s a single couple and they work on their relationship throughout, but there aren’t that many of them. But I actually wonder how much of the show will be directly about developing relationships, with the way they set it up. Upon reflection, it strikes me as a show where more focus will be on figuring out what’s going on (like a non-comedic NouCome, or the aforementioned Koi to Senkyou to Chocolate) and less on girls battling for position with the guy.
The confession in the first episode points that way to me, because it’s getting that out of the way for other things to happen, especially with Yui (the new naked girl that we saw). And another question is: who is the girl that was in the container at the beginning? If we go by what the hair color seemed to be, it could be Yui. But if we go by the fluffiness of the hair, it could be Kaori.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
The VN that the series is based on is from 2010.
The VN was the only game produced by its source company, Trumple, before it shut down in 2012.
I wonder who owns the intellectual rights to the game and anime now.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I did think of another thing that started to get to me when I was going through taking screenshots: How pathetic could they make Kaori look before she got run over? Dragging her foot (when she hadn’t done that for a day or so)? Stumbling into the street? And getting run over without any debris or anything around the bear. That part was kinda eye-rolly to me.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
She was walking like she was lame. If she truly injured her hoot, she would be limping, not dragging her leg.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I really should read what I write, that was foot, not the other thing I wrote.
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
Yeah I found the way she was walking very weird…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I have to agree with you Highway, the animation was lacking. And some parts just didn’t fit with the rest of the scene, but if it’s CG as you mentioned, that would explain why it felt stuttery at times.
I don’t know about Kaori, I kept getting yandere vibes. The School Days kind. ack.
I really have no idea what happened in this episode, except that the Judo club are delinquents, and the Astronmy Club is full of mixed martial artists with an osananajimi.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
for now it’s on the list of…i don’t know what to make of it, the story is a bit bland though…at least it has pretty colors…that kick! Airi’s FREAKING kick what in seven arcobanello’s was that kick! She broke her back i just know it! it’s so disturbing that made my back hurt