What makes for a better mystery than a guy washing up on an island without a memory and then finding himself caught up in some ancient island legend? Probably lots of things but here we go for island.
I’m really glad I watched both episodes of this together. The first episode is intriguing enough but really doesn’t do much other than have ‘Setsuna’ walk around and meet the various characters who will probably be important later. He thinks he’s from the future but doesn’t really remember and even the name Setsuna is a name he remembers but he isn’t sure if it is him. Of course all the people he’s meeting are cute girls who live on the island and belong to the three great families or whatever and there’s a bunch of legends and folklore surrounding them.
Part of me really wants to enjoy this story and the other part of me is calling this show out on its extreme lack of originality. Amnesia, time travel, a harem of girls, ancient legends, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been employed before and while I’d like to think this anime was going to do something original with the cocktail it actually executes it all fairly by the numbers. possibly worse because it seems to be laying out a lot of explanations early on so unless we’re just getting mis-information I’m not sure how much mystery there’s going to be. Then again, MAL doesn’t list this as a mystery but as a drama/sci-fi and I haven’t seen much sci-fi yet so who knows what this will do going forward.
Despite my misgivings, these first two episodes have made me interested in finding out what is actually going on here so I guess they served their purpose. That said, the characters are so far pretty ordinary and while it is visually quite pretty that isn’t going to be enough unless the plot really steps up its game.
What did you think of Island?
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
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This show reminds me of the old dating simulator shows from 1998-2010. They usually involve common character public events, dates alone, and eventually route mapping each girl. There’s a number of these kinds of anime, enough to be their own genre. They aren’t really a harem show so much as route mapping each girl.
I’m still not really convinced if I am going to watch this. In between yours and Cactus Matts posts I am a bit torn. On the hand it contains quite a few elements I like, on the other hand it also doesn’t seem like an extremely original show. Oh well…if I can make some time, I might watch this on sunday 😊
I’m still not really sure of this one but I’ll give it another episode and see what it does. It isn’t bad but and it did make me curious, but it also wasn’t exactly as compelling as I’d have liked it to be.
I have a little bit less time on my hands this week because of a company dinner and the fact that I have to work on saturday. But I have reserved sunday to start watching some first episoded that I have missed and then decide which ones will be the definitive shows I am going to be following this season: But Angels of Death is one that for me is already a must watch 😊 As for this one, I will let you know after I have seen the first episode on sunday 😊
If I see anything great between now and then I’ll let you know.
That’s cool, thanks for that 😊
This will be the greatest anime of all time if he comes across a basket ball and starts screaming WILSON!