Impz is generally not associated with giving praise to mecha shows. Most mecha shows run into a major problem of trying to use mecha as the source of all penis envy, and eventually decide that mecha without anything else will satisfy anime viewers. Sadly, for a viewer that generally enjoys shoujo and romance, I do need some form of character development or some resemblance of plot to feel like it’s not yet another crap mecha show that wastes my time by flashing better, more powerful and cooler mecha every few episodes to keep the manly adrenalin rushing.
Boring. Just me though, don’t take it too personally, mecha fans.
Then, Asura Crying came stumbling along. I have to be honest here. I didn’t really go crazy over this show during the preview because I felt that the graphics are rather old school. I have nothing against old school animation, other than the fact that I am a superficial person who generally hates anything that does not resemble modern graphics. It’s mecha too, which never help matters for me. Still, the story was interesting in the preview. Will it be decent?
Episode summary
A boy was in an intensive care unit, with a girl overlooking him on his bedside. Three years later, Tomoharu was surviving well, and his friend Takuma came over to pack his things in Tomoharu’s house. Misao also appeared, a cute female spirit that seemed to be a former close friend of Tomoharu. Tomoharu’s brother’s friend, Shuri, also came over to pass Tomoharu a mysterious metal box.
Tomoharu thought that it was for his brother, but Shuri said that the box was for “them.” At night, Tomoharu was assaulted by a shrine maiden in his bedroom, was told to pass her the “extractor.” She also seemed to be able to see Misao too, and suddenly ran off.
At school, Tomoharu met up with An. Tomoharu also met with Kanade (shrine maiden), but she denied that she crashed through his home yesterday. Shuri also invited Tomoharu to her science club, and commanded him to join the club so that she would explain more about that mysterious box. As he left the school, he found a sorry note in his shoebox.
At his part-time job, Tomoharu and An discussed about the contents of the box. At night, Reishirou’s group (church), An (part of some mafia) and another group came to grab the box. Eventually, Tomoharu went over to get the box in the attic to pass to any of them, as he feared for his life. Sadly, he was cornered by the three groups. Shuri told Tomoharu to open the box, and a darkness appeared and surrounded him.
Thoughts
I was pleasantly surprised at Asura Cryin. Sure, there are many stereotypes that are apparent in the show. All the way from the annoying friend, the energetic childhood friend to the huge bosom girl that everyone adores, it seems that all of the cliches of a school life romance drama appears. Of course, the graphics seemed all right, but hardly eye-catching by any means. Even the OP and ED sounds likes some strange attempt at techno or something? All that seems to indicate a poor first episode. Except that the story plot is pretty strong, and the future of this show seems to promise so much more.
The main mystery of this dark box, and the bit and pieces of the story are important parts of the story. Asura Cryin manages to balance the tough act of trying to provide as little information as possible for its show without making everyone confused about it. It is not your typical Sunrise dorama (I apologize if I am stretching too much with the stereotype, sorry Kaioshin ^^) where they throw you off with way too many things in the first episode that you are wondering… wait what?
Of course, Sunrise series generally tend to do good to very good after they explained it, but you sometimes wonder if they could have given more time to think about the story transitions. No such problems here for Asura Cryin. There are enough things in the first episode that needed answers but the story is told in such a way that it’s easy for you to catch on. In essence, there are only two main kickers for the show, one being the box, and the next thing I am going to mention.
Obviously, it must be Misao. The spirit known as Misao is one of the most interesting entities in the show. I presume that part of the mystery is to understand the relationship between Tomoharu and Misao. How is it possible that Misao continues to stay by his side up to this time? This is one of the biggest mysteries of the show, and the box seems to be the one that will answer this question. Of course, Asura Cryin might turn out to be yet another crap mecha show. However, it does have a lot of potential, if they manage to explore just these two plots.
All in all, despite the paultry production values, Asura Cryin has great potential if they manage to give a compelling story for the next 12 episodes. Let’s hope it does. So, if you want some mecha with a proper story, you might want to keep a close look at Asura Cryin.
11 Comments
DID MR.IMPZ GIVE UP ON SKIP BEAT!?!
I didn’t see one screencap with mecha in it.
Second, Skip Beat is over man, so there’s nothing to say. Other than the fact that it ended off just before Ren was gonna pull his awesome sauce off.
It’s gonna suck though =[ I don’t want to read chapter by chapter. All in one go was so exciting for me.
I’ll hold off until the first 10 episodes of this thing before I judge. Impz usually has similar taste to me albeit for different reasons, so it probably can’t go wrong!
I have to take my socks off and admit that I did enjoy this one. I’m already having theories as to Tomo and Misao, that those two are like Reishiro and that “Hisui” name he yelled when Tomo was about to open the box. Yes, I’m darn interested in this show and you’re right about it having lots of potential. Let’s just hope no one botches this one up.
The first episode should’ve been called Tomoharu box -360
sounds decent, really enjopy those “friendly ghost” ideas
but I guess i’ll stalk for just a little bit longer (mostly due to unappealing artwork)
Question
How does Misao change her clothes?
She is seen wearing at least 4 different outfits during the course of the day.
Asura Cryin looks pretty solid so far, I like the action and suspense elements. We’ll see if the bishoujos can match up to it.
Overall I liked the first episode. Misao really helped there since she’s a pretty likable character. To the clothing question I figure she can just change it through her thoughts. Plenty of questions so will certainly stick around to see how they get answered.
I enjoyed the first episode. For some reason, I think Tomo made a deal to save someone, but he lost his memory of that event to insure Misao’s safety just in case those mafia and religious groups or other scientists find her location. Just a guess.
Pretty good pacing and the characters have room to grow, giving this anime a huge potential. The comedy was standard, but still funny. I can see some alchemy coming into play too.
I hope it doesn’t become my mecha is better than yours or an end to cults or war by using mecha kind of anime.
I waited for subs before I watched it. Pretty standard fare for a first episode so far. Lots of stuff left to be explained but it wasn’t confusing at least. I didn’t know this would be a mecha till I read your blog. They hadn’t said there would be giant robots in the preview. I like Misao and I agree with the above comments in that Tomo must have forgotten parts of his past. Hopefully the mecha doesn’t need frequent power ups to fight. I’ll be watching this show this season.
@D=: I simply avoided all the mecha parts of the show, since I know it always might degenerate into “your mecha is stronger than my one!”
@13sugars: YAY, anime for us to watch together. Wee!
@Vin: Yep, sadly, the animation for this anime is hardly revolutionary. As I stated in the preview, it felt so old school.
@cherubium: never explained. It was a question by Tomoharu too.
@Calawain: heh, it caught your attention too? It must be one of the few animes that we agree on then.
@Flare: Ya, the good thing about the show is that the main female lead is someone that doesn’t grate on you. It’s really problematic that most female leads are either whiny or annoying.
@Soyahoney: We will see how it actually goes. I think that it will be interesting to see if Misao is actually human before, or that she is transformed into such a form in order to save Tomoharu. To that, we have no answer but to wait.
@Incognito: Well, I do see some robots here and there, but they do not seem to be the main point of the show. Which is a good thing.
Girl in container is Misao in coma ? and that projected whatitsnameagain is supposed to be her soul and mind materialize in hollow picture?
and i think Tomo knew all this before or perhaps that was his brother, which i have a feeling IS Tomo.
Man . . . i am messed up