Asatte no Houkou

[Rove]

This thread is brought to you by the 'Hidden Gem of the Fall Season' association.

If I had to say what Asatte no Houkou feels like, I would probably say that it is a mixture of Fancy Lala, Honey and Clover and something else that I can't remember right now. From the watercolor palette to the character interactions, it feels like a more human version of Honey and Clover. But first, let me explain what this is all about.

Asatte no Houkou is a series about two women/girls who are unhappy with their current age and situation. Hiro is Karada's older brother, he has taken care of her since their parents death four years ago, when he had to leave the US to take care of his little sister. Karada looks a lot younger than girls her age, and gets upset that her brother has to look out for her. She would love to be older so that she would stop being such a burden to her brother.

Shouko is a woman who misses her childhood days as a sort-of child prodigy and wishes to start from scratch, and desides to move to a small town to start over. As fate would have it, Karada and Shouko meet, for better or for worse their wishes come true and a relationship that relates Karada, Hiro and Shouko is brought to light. There are a couple of side characters too.

The reason as to why I said that this feels like Honey and Clover only more humane is because the characters here are not one-faced. In H&C, all the main characters were, as cliche as it sounds, 'pure of heart'. They had issues, but none of them had that touch that made them feel human, some experimented jelousy, envy, anger, stalker tendencies and other things, but none of them were evil. None of them did anything out of spite, in Asatte no Houkou, the characters are not completely likeable, not even Karada, who is for the most part of this episode, the resident loli.

What I liked best about this series is the color palette, character designs and the flow of the series, nothing felt too rushed or too slow, things unfolded at their pace. The OP and ED are interesting as well in the sense that they fit perfectly with everything overall, I'm sure if they establish the atmosphere of the series, or if the series just improves with them there. It's hard to explain.

Official site (http://www.tbs.co.jp/asatteno/)
ANN link (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6547)

I would love to discuss certain aspects and details of this first episode (along with awful and pointless comparisons with Honey & Clover* that would require spoilers) but first I want to make more people watch this in the first place!

*For example, that both shows are done by JC Staff which also did H&C -along with a hundred anime studios or so- and that if Takemoto was ever made into a bishounen with a slight beard, he would be Hiro (as far as looks go).

I wanted to post screenshots to show others how beautiful and subdued this show looks, but I ended up picking way to many screenshots, so I think it is better for others to just go and see it for themselves first. Another thing, it is unfortunate to say, but Asatte no Houkou suffers the TBS curse, which means that the show is airing in 4:3, when it should be airing in 16:9 (widescreen), meaning that we are not seeing the show as it was originally intended and that all those gourgeous backgrounds have been cut somewhat. Good news is, that in a couple of weeks the widescreen release should come out in its full watercolor glory. As far as I know, it is based on an going manga (3 volumes out) and it should be around 13 episodes long.

Enjoy.

[Sorrow-kun]

Give me something, anything to watch. This season has been made of so much fail so far.

I'll watch this.

[Sae]

Sae-chan simply must see what the commotion is about! It sounds as though it may just be Sae-chan's type of series! At first Sae-chan thought "If this has magic in it and they switch ages, then this is sooo cliche *cough* full moon and nanaka 9/16 *cough* " though you said it was more human so Sae-chan shall hope for the best. Sae-chan is in!!! ^-^

Sae-chan

[soundchazer]

Hmmm... I don't know if Honey and Clover is best comparison out there. It reminded me for a few minutes of Aishteruze Baby, not necesarily in terms of the plot, but the underline story of two "siblings" (and I put that in quotations since the guy in Aishteruze is not really the girl's brother).

As far as the watercolor backgrounds, they reminded me a little bit of the ones used in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, although these have greater detail than the ones on YKK and it serves the anime well, given that the character design also has more detail to it.

The ending really got me intrigued. While not really a unique plot device (there have been at least four high profile movies that used it), the circumstances surrounding it are interesting, given the strong emotions that are part of the two lead female characters.

This anime could be a winner. It really got me hooked.

[Datsun]

Well, if you mention Honey and Clover to me, then I'm interested, but just looking at the ANN screen shot, I instantly thought Aishiteru as well! Not that that's a bad thing at all coz Aishiteru was still good to watch.

But I gotta agree with Sorrow-K with the dearth of quality anime this season so far. Perhaps it's more of a result of being slightly spoilt with top-drawer shows in recent seasons. You're gonna have a dud season one time right?

[Sorrow-kun]

Winter was a dud. Best goddamn show I can remember watching from that season was Shinigami no Ballad. That's not good.

Fall is traditionally supposed to be a fairly strong season. I can only hope it's starting slow and all the winners are sleepers this season, but the early indications are showing a long season filled with fail.

[KiraraKim]

I agree that this could be the hidden gem of the season. Some of the loli aspects bother me but I do enjoy that the characters show real emotions and faults. The look and feel of the show is also gorgeous.

[Rove]

Winter was a dud. Best goddamn show I can remember watching from that season was Shinigami no Ballad. That's not good.
We must have seen different Winter seasons then. Have you seen Yomigaeru Sora - Rescue Wings and the Bake Neko arc of Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Horror~? Not mentioning several excellent Fall 2005 series that carried over to the Winter season such as Noein and Mushishi?

I do agree with you that there have been better seasons in recent times, but even when the bad:good ratio is 9:1 I'm still glad that we have at least one show which is worth viewing. I think this Fall season has 65 new series and some TV specials (not counting movies and OVAs), and perhaps not even 10 shows will be worth anyone's time (not that that will stop others from watching worthless stuff), so why bother with the bad shows when you can focus on the good ones? Just try researching a bit before you watch something, it should save you from digesting loads of shit in the long run.

I agree that this could be the hidden gem of the season. Some of the loli aspects bother me but I do enjoy that the characters show real emotions and faults. The look and feel of the show is also gorgeous.
Hey, you liked H&C and that one had one hell of an infamous loli too, we could have a pattern here! ^_~

Sae, could you do me a favour? Could you stop referring to yourself in third person? You might think it's cute, but it really, really isn't. Thanks.

[KiraraKim]

Hey, you liked H&C and that one had one hell of an infamous loli too, we could have a pattern here! ^_~

I think the difference for me at least is the intended audience of H&C and this show are different. H&C is based on a Josei manga so the target audience is female (and Hagu was more moe to me than loli. She did annoy me at first though).

This series on the other hand is based off a seinen manga and thus the target audience is male. I always question why there are loli characters in series aimed at male viewers but overall this series does give me a nice innocent slice of life vibe and I do think it's going to be a keeper. And that all being said I actually like Karada as a character. I like that despite looking so young she wants to be respected and treated more like an adult. I especially loved the note on the refrigerator. I think this reflected her relationship with her brother quite well.

[Rove]

I think the difference for me at least is the intended audience of H&C and this show are different. H&C is based on a Josei manga so the target audience is female (and Hagu was more moe to me than loli. She did annoy me at first though).

This series on the other hand is based off a seinen manga and thus the target audience is male. I always question why there are loli characters in series aimed at male viewers but overall this series does give me a nice innocent slice of life vibe and I do think it's going to be a keeper. And that all being said I actually like Karada as a character. I like that despite looking so young she wants to be respected and treated more like an adult. I especially loved the note on the refrigerator. I think this reflected her relationship with her brother quite well.
Here's the thing, josei and seinen are just target demographics, just because you're not a 12 year old Japanese boy doesn't mean that you cannot watch Naruto or Bleach, or if you're not a college male then clearly Berserk is not for you. Another thing, seinen is a huge age group as it is, under it's wing you can find manga series such as Berserk, Blade of the Immortal, Vagabond, and titles such as Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Binbou Shimai Monogatari, Ichigo Mashimaro and Asatte no Houkou. To put it more bluntly, Blade of the Immortal and YKK used to run in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine, well, until YKK finished this past February.

Another another thing, if you had not known that AnH was based on a seinen manga, would you have said that it was one? Or for example, would you say that Ichigo Mashimaro was a show targeted at adult males if didn't know that it aired in Japan very late at night? All this 'is this loli/isn't loli' argument is for the most part pointless because more often than not, if you didn't know it was targeted at a certain age group in the first place, you wouldn't make these assumptions that are just preconceit no matter how you look at it. If you ever get a chance to flip through the Ichigo Mashimaro manga you will notice that there were plenty of times when the author could have included fanservice (in the form of panty shots and such) but didn't. Why? Because it's target demographic isn't interested in it as much as the whole 'return to innocence/peaceful state of mind/heart warming childhood stories/escapism, if the readers ever feel that they need some loli yuri Ichigo Mashimaro porn they can go to doujinshis. And the same goes for Honey and Clover, do you think that just because it is josei it is not fetished behind it's back? How about the show's attention to Yamada's legs, or Miwako in a bikini at the spa, is that fanservice, portrayal of reality or what? How much does our knowledge about the show, it's target audience and other external factors affect how we look at it? In more Asatte no Houkou matters, could you say this show had fanservice? For example that the camera spent a few seconds on Touko's (coffee girl) ample bosom during a shot at the beach? How was Karada loli-fied (is that even a word?) during this episode? Am I reading too much into this?

Just to clarify, this is not a personal attack, and this post should not be read like a rant, but more like a sudden brainstorm of somewhat related aspects that may or may not be all that relevant, of a bored mind on a Monday morning.

[soundchazer]

For the record, I didn't consider the girl loli at all. There are a lot of kids getting into middle school that still look boyish and confused for a younger kid.

I was in fact one of those. My growth spurt didn't start until somewhere between 8th and 9th grade, and I can truly relate with her for not being taken seriously by some people around me because of my looks.

[KiraraKim]

Just to clarify, this is not a personal attack, and this post should not be read like a rant, but more like a sudden brainstorm of somewhat related aspects that may or may not be all that relevant, of a bored mind on a Monday morning.

Actually I agree with a lot of what you said. Certainly I don’t think target audience means something can only be watched by that target audience. I mean my favorite series range from shounen to shoujo to josei to seinen. I certainly would never say to someone this series is not for you because you aren’t the intended audience.

And actually you are right that when I first saw Asatte no Houko I assumed it was shoujo. The reason I found out it was seinen was because I have a tendency to search for information. The fact that the show is seinen does not automatically mean to me that it is going to have disturbing loli aspects. I mean after all Azumanga Daioh is also seinen and I think that is one of the most innocent enjoyable shows out there.

Call it my own personal issue with fans of loli stuff in general. I really only came across the fandom recently and it scares me so anytime I see a loli character in something intended for an audience that the stuff is catered to it does make me a little nervous. However that doesn’t mean I think Asatte no Houko was created for some perverted fans or that it can’t be enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people.

I am not sure if I am making sense here. Let’s just my little reservation is not going to stop me from watching the show or recommending it to others.

For the record, I didn't consider the girl loli at all. There are a lot of kids getting into middle school that still look boyish and confused for a younger kid.

Very true. In fact one of my best friends growing up was very small for her age to the point that she started taking Hormone shots. But Karada was purposely drawn to look overly cute. Maybe she is more moe than loli though

And also what about her classmate? He looks older than he should I think but I suppose that also happens with children.

But in reality it is usually the girl that looks older then the boy since girls develop faster than boys when they are younger.

[Datsun]

Nice first episode... other than at the very very start, it doesn't really give any indication of what is going to happen, which makes the cliff-hanger all the more intriguing. The art style did initially remind me of H&C, and there were also some nice piano pieces at various scenes. Shouko's obviously got some issues, and I thought it was quite well done that you don't really know why until near the end.

Can't wait for the next episode.

[L-sama]

Just got through Episode One after reading this thread. I must say, this series does hold a good amount of promise to it. The characters seem to interact very well with each other, and the art and music are very pleasing. My only gripe is that Hironi looks like a young Kyuusaku at some times, but it's not too often. Overall, this looks to be a very nice series. L-sama will be watching!

[AlterGenesis-X]

This series is simply intriguing. They ended the first episode in such a way that leaves you very interested.

[soundchazer]

Just watched episode 2. I'm so digging this show. For those who loved fast paced shows, this might not be their cup of tea, but I loved the way they took the episode to explore the initial reaction to all involved in this rather peculiar event.

[aeroshadow]

I can only hope it's starting slow and all the winners are sleepers this season, but the early indications are showing a long season filled with fail.Really? Between Death Note, Kanon, Bartender, Sumomo mo Momo mo, and this, I am actually very pleased with this season.

[mmyy]

I can't stand Hiro's unkempt self. It's annoying me too much for my own good. Other than that, this show is brilliant. The piano pieces are something I really enjoy. New episodes can't come faster.

[Datsun]

ep.1 - 7

Well, it's been a nice, rather sedate watch so far though with Karada running away due to her finding out that Shouko and Hiro were once intimate it should add a bit more drama through this conflict.

Really only wanted to bump this thread, as I'm sure there's more you watching this, right?

[Taleweaver]

Watching it. So far, loving it.

Why can't I write stories like that? T_T