First Impressions – Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
Let’s Make a Game?
Because SaeKano decided it was going to do a prologue episode “00”, I decided to hold off on this First Impressions post until after the 01 episode aired. This won’t be the last one tho, since Isuca doesn’t even air for another week.
Another Harem Show with Kirito-kun
Utaha gets the info from Tomoya
My desire to watch harem shows is probably higher than most people’s. So while I think everyone else is getting a little tired of them this season, I’m not. But I think I might be getting a little tired of the MatsuYoshi virus. Like Kana Hanazawa a few years ago, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu is in seemingly everything this season, and that’s after being a lead character in SAO II and Denki-gai last season. But this might be an unprecedented run, as he is the MC in 3 harem shows in the same season. I have to wonder (after seeing this week’s Shirobako) what were these production companies thinking? Surely this wasn’t a surprise to any of them that he was in the other two, and you’d think they’d do SOMETHING to avoid such a situation, because it doesn’t look good for anyone. And it really doesn’t help that all three shows are pretty… mediocre, since I’m kind to harem shows.
The Generic Heroine to be overshadowed by the generic MC
I am not sure if it was a good thing for this show to open up with the prologue episode, which seems to be in timeline at some point in the future of the series, probably around something like episode 6. While it was a better episode to watch than the other shows, and only partly because of the fanservice, it may have set up some expectations for the series that it will struggle to match. I actually did like the 00 episode because of the way the different girls acted. Seeing them in “mid-season” form was almost a better introduction than the normal expository kind, and was at least something somewhat different. And I also liked the way the girls were actually going after what they wanted… Tomoya, and the various schemes they used to, er, block each other’s advances, finally just teaming up to try to break down Tomoya’s defense. So we’ll see if the show gets to that kind of stuff later, because I think that would be fun to see.
A Bit of a Setback
Eriri attacks
Unfortunately, the show went back to the first episode, and we get to the fairly uneventful, and also fairly uncomfortable, usual introductions. Tomoya has been inspired to make a H-game, by seeing a super-clichéd scene: the pretty-because-she’s-plain girl loses her hat and he recovers it, and sees her framed against the sky as sakura petals blow around. To the story’s minor credit, when he brings his half-baked plain idea to the others, they shoot it down as being bland and half-baked. But part of the problem with the show is the exceptionality of the others. It’s not “a girl that’s good at drawing”, it’s Eriri, the rich ojou-sama who is secretly a well-known H-doujin artist. It’s not “You can write pretty well, it’s “Utaha, who is secretly a best-selling LN author”. At least Megumi, the plain girl who inspired him is… a plain girl.
Utaha is the best character so far
And that might be either the worst problem with the show, or the thing that saves it. I’m sure the show will present to us some reason why Eriri and Utaha are so in love with Tomoya that they, both popular and pretty, eschew everyone else to compete for him, and hate each other’s guts as they go about it. But that’s certain to be something pretty lame, because it always is. It’s much more likely that Megumi, the plain girl who doesn’t have anything going on, would end up with a plain super-focused otaku like Tomoya, who doesn’t know exactly what he sees in her, because she’s almost completely unknown to him, but he’s interested. Unfortunately, I don’t think the show will get away from the ways they had the girls act in 01, which I found a bit tedious, especially the encounter with Eriri (and since you asked no, I didn’t really care for the twintail attack). The worse part was Tomoya’s incessant wheedling about his game. It feels like a stupid premise in the first place, and serves only to make sure that Tomoya’s not looking at these girls who are helping him, not because they like the game, but because they like him.
Finally some truth between these two
I liked the 00 episode a lot more than the 01 episode, and that’s why I held off on this FI post until the series really started. I thought they did some interesting character introductions with hanging a lampshade on the standard harem monologues, giving the characters a chance to show us established personalities, and throwing in some fanservice. Too bad that 01 threw that away with going back to the boring character introductions, and spending far too much time on the thoroughly uninteresting Tomoya and his even more uninteresting game idea. The only point that got good in the episode was at the end when they finally had Eriri and Utaha interacting, with a little bit of honesty starting to creep into their conversation, even if couched in insults. I hope that the show goes a lot more towards the 00 episode as it goes along.
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: iLurker with 15 comments
Heh…
To be honest, I’m a big fan of Maruto (the author of White Album 2, as a reference), and I already know the story quite a bit. Tomoya came over as exceptionally unlikeable in episode 1. Rude, egotistical… I wonder how many people will drop the show simply on the first impression (or, as one could argue, the second after ep0).
The charm of the story will become apparent once the backstories of the lead girls are explained. It’s obvious to the new viewer that Tomoya HAS a past with them, but other than in most other shows of this kind, the backstories actually matter. We’ll get into them in time. This is where the gold is buried.
Until then, we got to be a bit patient, I’m afraid.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
If the show can get more towards that form it felt like in the 00 episode, I’ll definitely like it. Like you say, Tomoya really didn’t come off well in this 01 episode, and he didn’t leave too much of an impression at all after the 00 episode. But it was pretty obvious that both Eriri and Utaha had something in their past that Tomoya mattered for, and despite Eriri’s minimization of it in her conversation with Utaha, it’s something that will probably be more important than ‘just being there for you’.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Sempai > Plain > Cousin > Twintails
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’d switch Cousin and Plain.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
However, Imouto will trump them all.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Twintails>>>>>>>>>>>>>Plain>>>>>>>>>Who else was in the show now?
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Ore TwinTails ni narimasu!
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Yep, episode 00 was a lot better than the first one, with the meta introduction and the outrageous situations that were shown. I’d be fine with the show continuing from there and, if needed, include the first few episode scenes in between flashbacks.
But still, even though I’m not watching them all, I think SaeKano is the most promising harem show around. It’s not trying to make a badass MC (having his VA ends up making him badass anyway… oh god kirito). The girls have really different personalities and tastes and they are all weird all around. And the one who’s supposed to be the female MC is… er… Definitely not the stereotype of a MC.
I’m hoping that from this introduction, they are going to make things get to crazy situations. I love them.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
I just read a few chapters of the novel, and it seems like the first episode of Saenai Heroine seem to be made up of mostly anime original material as about +/- 30% of the first chapter and some element of the prologue made it into the anime. For the record, every scene with Utaha and Eriri is not in the first chapter and I haven’t seen them in chapter 3 as well.
Still, most of the first chapter consist of the MC trying to come up with a scenario for his doujin game (and failing at it) and him hanging out with his light otaku friend while throwing a bunch of shout out to various VNs/WA 2/harem tropes and whatnot along the way. So those aren’t the important scenes anyway or at least it feels like that so far. But yeah, it looks like the removal of these elements seem to hamper your enjoyment of the show and it worth mentioning that the EP0 is written by the author himself.
Honestly though, I think the heroine personality and the MC dorkiness sold Saekano to me. I don’t even think its that generic anyway but my standards are a lot more lenient compare to most ppl here (or so it seems to me) so maybe its just me.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
As usual when you fill us in on what the source materials have, I think they made the right choice. More time with Tomoya trying to think about his game would have felt interminable. I actually think that the specifics of the game are the weakest part of this show so far, and I’m pretty thoroughly uninterested in a bunch of in-crowd self-referential stuff in my harem anime (put that in Shirobako and it’s great 🙂 ).
I didn’t really have a problem with the writing in this one, mostly just the focus on Tomoya’s idea for a game.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
This was in interesting way to get the horse out of the gate. We’ve got tons of anticipation about where 00 fits into the grand scheme, and I like the buzz that generates.
And yes, I like the Twintail the best. Obvious tsun is favorite tsun…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
This was fun and for some reason it gives off white album vibes for me even though there is no music going on it feels like a fairly fun series that isn’t focused on ecchi moments as much as episode 00! I guess we will see what happens after all the girls get together…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
White Album or White Album 2? I haven’t seen the former, but it doesn’t really feel like the latter, which to me always had the ominous feeling of “this is gonna get all twisted up”.