Overview:
Yuzu’s mum has just remarried and so she’s transferred to a super strict girls’ school where make-up, accessories and even her phone are banned (oh the horror). On top of that the student council president, Mei, turns out to be her new step-sister.
Review:
For all the hype around this one prior to it coming out, I kind of was curious about it and looking forward to this first episode. However, the thing about romance is that I have to actually care about at least one of the characters involved and this first episode crashed and burned horrifically at making me even vaguely want to know more about either of the main characters. I’ll get back to them but I also had real issues with the set-up involved here.
What kind of parent just neglects to tell their daughter she is going to have a new sister? I mean really. She already knew her mother got married (though her not meeting the husband before the marriage is also super weird), but the mother doesn’t mention a thing about a sister even when buying extra groceries to feed the extra person. Who does that? And because it is an anime the father is of course over-seas and the standard absent parent (Mei apparently hasn’t seen him in five years, but it is fine). Anyway, I’d have just gone with the set up if I liked either of these characters but they really worked hard at being pretty painful.
Yuzu is vain and air-headed. She doesn’t learn anything about her school prior to attending it (surely there’s a handbook given to students before arrival or an orientation or something), she has the correct uniform and dismisses it for her colourful flair, and then gets all upset because she gets called out on it. She sulks, she whines, she acts like she’s some sort of victim of persecution. Even then, characters have bounced back from poor beginning but her judgement of Mei as someone who must lead a boring life with no time for love just because she follows rules is where my patience with her snapped and I ceased to care.
Mei on the other hand is nothing in this episode. Strict rule follower except when making out with the teacher behind the school. No basic ability to just make polite chit-chat with her new sister even if that sister is a bit silly. And then she attacks Yuzu. Admittedly, it did shut Yuzu up which was nicely done, but I’m just not sure that it says much about her character that she’d rather force her new sister down on a bed and kiss her then actually just have a conversation.
Clearly this story and I are butting heads on a number of issues so rather than have a frustrating season, I’ll just leave this here. On the otherhand, if Yuzu and Mei do work for you as characters, this is a very nicely produced show with little to complain about on that end, and the use of colour in particular was very well done in this first episode.
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Karandi James.
