Japanophile Isle

What is precious to a mage?

I’ve been waiting for this anime for a very long time. Original series to this day remains of of my favorite anime of all time, not to mention Slice of life mixed with magical realism is my favorite genre.
After falling in love with the first series I followed the characters to the first manga series with absolutely beautiful Kumichi Yoshizuki’s art (no other manga artists handles color as good as him IMO)and then to Spellbound (the second manga series). At the same time a new studio: HAL Film Maker quickly became one of my favorites, first they wowed me with Aria and then with equally charming Sketchbook. So imagine how happy I was when second series of Someday Dreamers was announced, not only that, but it was revealed that HAL will be making it. Not that I have something against JC.Staff who handled the first series, but Someday Dreamers+HAL? One of best slice of life properties handled by the biggest slice of life specialists? It’s like a dream becoming a reality for every fan of this type of stories. So obviously the expectations were high. Did Summer Sora deliver in it’s first episode? HELL YES!

OPENING

The OP seems to be made from episodes’ footage, not animation specifically created for the title sequence, it does look nice though and most of all the song is simply wonderful. It’s stuck inside my brain now and I’ve re watched the OP at least 30 times already. I need a single… now! Easily best OP track this year so far.

ENDING

The ED animations are warm and charming. The song is also nice, it’s not as good as Opening or as good as “Under the Blue Sky” from the first series, but it’s still pleasant and fits the show well .

Overall the musical side of the show delivers in spades so far. Both songs are good and the soundtrack is also nicely composed. I especially liked the upbeat violin track

Now about visuals; that’s the first thing we notice, isn’t it? At least the male part of the population

Here the first impression is “wow…dear God! Would you look at those backgrounds?!” The backgrounds are a mix of photographs and CGs edited so that they look 2D. Whatever the exact method is they look absolutely stunning.

The characters obviously don’t match this level of detail, they’re pretty simplified, reminding me a bit of Beck’s chara design, but I really like how busy they look, they animation might not be ultra smooth, but the characters are almost constantly in motion, never standing still like in most other shows. Also HAL made a good choice and shown most scenes from far away perspective, which not only hides the sometimes low detail of characters, but also puts even greater focus on backgrounds, which gives the whole show an unique picture book like look, which I absolutely adore

In the first episode we’re offered a gentle introduction to Sora, the young mage soon to leave for training in Tokyo and the main heroine of this series.

She’s sweet and innocent without being childish. I took an immediate liking in her which bodes well for the rest of the show. I also enjoyed her relationship with her mother

it’s cute, lovable and natural, something that’s pretty rare in anime.

And her conversations with dead father were also a very nice touch.

Natural is a word that comes to use often when thinking about this show. There aren’t any super deformed characters here, typical anime comedy scenes or character that would fall into typical one dimensional anime cliches.

This calm realism is present in relationship between Sora and her friend. It’s always good when shows like this do this. Grounding everything in reality makes the eventual supernatural elements blend well into the whole story.

There was just one spell this episode; making a snow fall inside a barn to help friend’s love confession be special. It was a beautiful scene and done much better and more subtle than the first display of magic in the original series.

The first episode is obviously just a mere taste, but I enjoyed it a lot. From amazing visuals, through great music, ending with promising plot threads and great writing all of this makes me hopeful the series will now only live up to my expectations, but surpass them. And most of all this episode left me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside my chest and a nice smile on my face and isn’t that what spice of life stories are all about?

rating: 9.0/10

PS. Many thanks to the lovable Agata, who I share the rented house here in Scotland, because it’s thanks to her kindness that I’m able to do some blogging here