Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro na – ep 01
As the first battle scene rolled by, I was just thinking that this anime better not be the pits it seems to be. But hey! It turned out quite fine with a few laughs. Cliche setting, poor animation at times, yet attention to details, good timing with humour. Looking promising!
The episode starts off with an introduction to the overall setting. Men have settled on the moon, forming the sphere kingdom, and a conflict had developed between the kingdom and those on earth. A raging war developed, and even after the war, relations were cold between the two. Fast forward to the present, a princess is seen travelling to earth together with her maid.
On earth, in a high school, Asagiri Tatsuya has just finished reading in class about the battle between earth and moon. Class is over, and Tatsuya finds Takamizawa Natsuki having slept through the entire class when calling for her to go to work. Attempts to wake her up fails, and finally, he does saying “welcome”, which is what they do at work as waiter/waitress. This causes Natsuki to wake up and “welcome” the entire class. An embarassed Natsuki turns totally red when she realises what happens.
Going to the school courtyard, they meet Mai, Tatsuya’s younger sister. Tatsuya surprisingly pinches Mai’s nose when she comes over, much to her embarrasment. Their classmate Midori comes over and finds out that Tatsuya has no idea that she was the clarinet section leader. While sad, she accepts Tatsuya’s excuse, and offers her nose to Tatsuya, who does not pinch it, causing Midori to break out in tears. As Natsuki tries to explain that it’s a bad habbit of Tatsuya’s, Mai reminds them that they’re going to be late.
They actually get to Natsuki’s family restaurant on time, while Tatsuya returns to his home next door first to change. There, he sees a note from his cousin Sayaka that she has something to tell them that night.
By evening and after the last person leaves, Samon (Natsuki’s father) sends Tatsuya home first, even though they’re supposed to have one final reservation. Entering the door, Tatsuya is surprised by to see a maid greeting him. Sayaka finally appears to explain what’s happening, that Mia is doing a home stay with them. Tatsuya is even more surprised to hear that Mia’s the maid of the Princess of the moon.
Princess Feena is admiring the moon at the backyard and when Tatsuya greets her, he obviously likes whe he sees. However, just as she’s about to enter the house, she falls flat on her face, tripping on her dress.
Out of a sudden, Tatsuya goes forward to pinch the Feena’s nose, to everybody else’s horror. Mai and Sayaka both think that they’re now just going to die, but the princess seems to accept their explaination. Later without anything noticing, Feena comments to herself that Tatsuya has not changed at all.
Later, Sayaka explains that Princess Feena is here to learn about earth, and will be attending lessons in Tatsuya’s class, when Mia’s stomach starts to growl. They proceed next door, where they are actually the ones with the final reservation
Walking by, they start to hear some arguments going on in the restaurant. Quickly carrying the princess and mia to oneside, they narrowly miss Jin as he is thrown out of the window. (natsuki’s brother) Inside, everything has been prepared for a dinner party, and as Jin offers a toast to the princess, she finds something wriggling in her skirt.
The “thing” is revealed to be a tiny old man, whom the princess explains to be the famous filmmaker Takano Takeshi. Apparently, he’s the only guy with approval to take photos of the princess during her visit.
Finally, everybody settles down…. but outside, a girl is seen floating with the moon as the backdrop.
Thoughts
Heh, I really do like the chibi animation, they always make me laugh. And they are used quite appropriately in this episode.
The setting seems very unreal to me though. But I guess for this sort of storyline, it doesn’t really matter does it?
Mysteries from this episode was what happened when Princess Feena when she visited earth when young, and who is that small girl floating outside.
I’m rooting for Natsuki!
