Episode 2 Production Details

Episode Director: Shingo Uchida [Episode Director on Ace Attorney episode 2 / Director on Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I / Unit Director on Blood-C: The Last Dark / Episode Director on FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood episode 39 / Key Animator on Gantz episode 26 / Storyboard on Hajime no Ippo Rising episode 2 / Storyboard and Episode Director on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure episode 18 / Episode Director on Thundercats [2011] episode 8]

Storyboards: Ayumu Watanabe [Director on Ace Attorney, Mysterious Girlfriend X, Space Brothers]

Script: Deko Akao [Series Composition on Anonymous Noise // Series Composition and Script on Amanchu! and Amanchu Advance / Series Composition and Script (episodes 1-2, 5, 8, and 12) / Script on My Little Monster episodes 5, 8, and 10) / Series Composition and Script (episodes 1-3, 6 and 7, 11 and 12) on Noragami) / Series Composition and Script (episodes 1 and 2, 4, 8 and 9, 11) on Akagami no Shiraiyukihime (Snow White with Red Hair)]

This show’s framing is very good. The contrast color balance of yellow against blues and the white clouds add a clean look to Ameagari’s backgrounds and crisp line art to the movement of this series characters and background objects.

Kondo’s comedy is realistic, he’s a carefree manager with a lot of responsibility and many a times he messes up. Yui Nishida brings a fine point to Tachibana’s feelings about love and what makes her heart move.  This episode teaches us that when you give up on something–you will always hold a special place in your heart for the things you don’t want to try for. In Tachibana’s case she is slowly spreading her wings and trying to find her something that makes herself be happy. In this case her track team and how she loved to run with her classmates on the team illustrates her timid behavior.  A directorial choice with an inspired direction with this sequence as we see Tachibana running  alongside a clear sky. The running sequence shows to Kondo how impressive Tachibana is but plays a toll on her injury. Takashi’s clumsiness with the plates was the backbone for this entire sequence to come crashing down literally.  His hyper active personality is quite the difference to Tachibana’s shyness when she’s around Kondo. I really like how this Ameagari plays around with this ideas between vulnerable intimacy and tension with Tachibana’s frustration in the previous episode all while maintaining a sublime mood this show instills to its audience.

This past season we’ve had a lot of series about fantasy, supernatural and mecha anime that its nice to finally have a series so grounded in reality. This show strays away from abnormal jump out animation and highly expressive acted moments and opts for complacent yet complex cast of characters. Allowing this series particularly this episode to present so many identifying characterization moments in a such a short amount of time –Tachibana’s injury and her willingness to help others (ex. delivering the phone back to the customer) and Kondo’s worried nature towards her that all of these scenes are pleasant to watch. Tachibana’s injury doesn’t draw too much expanded attention to herself and that entire scene just rests carefully within the episode’s narrative. The acting is spot on–almost as if Kou Matsuo directed it.  If any of you don’t know, Matsuo has a tendency to have his actors voice before animating a series [Red Garden, Natsuyuuki Rendezvous, Kurenai]. The voice acting is quite good in this because the visual presentation is treated satisfyingly subdued.

The make-up animation especially towards the later half of this episode creates a sense of nostalgia for Tachibana remembering her scar. WIT Studio has a habit these days of creating these well-polished watercolor closeup shots that look super warm on the screen and then there are these side-panel crayon like designs that enhance the details of this series’ characters in a more adult style. A true illustration put into an animated work! Both are incredibly beautiful and mixed with complementary colors that carry a romantic visual quality to it.

If there was one thing I would change it’s how little we see outside of the school, the workplace, and the cafe they travel to. I’d like to see a lot more expressive scenery within the structure of the story outside of these places!

That cliffhanger!

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

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