Asatte no Houkou (The Path of Tomorrow) Episode 1 - Wishing Stone
OP - Hikari no Kisetsu (Suara) - it’s a pretty song, the animation’s pretty, it’s all… pretty. This is so wrong! Why do I like this show?
ED - Sweet Home Song (Yuumao) - another nice song. I do worry that Karada’s going to get hit by a train someday, though.
Karada and her elder brother Hino live together since their parents died; Karada is about to enter junior high but hates being treated like a little girl especially as she shares responsibilities with her brother. When an old flame of Hino’s, Shouko, comes to town, she lashes out in her bitterness at Hino leaving her when his parents died and upsets Karada about her childishness; Shouko is a damaged, unhappy woman who claims her arrival in town is purely accidental. However, the two of them make a wish at a shrine before any of this happens, and one night they magically trade places; Karada transforms into a young woman, and Shouko into a little girl.
This show is supposed to be moe crap; why is it so good?!?! The visual design and direction of Asatte no Houkou are brilliant; the atmosphere is like Uta~Kata without the pervy lolicon panty shots, and the small (thus far) cast of five are all compelling to watch (I missed off Tetsuya, who appears to fancy Karada, and his older sister Touko). They don’t really do all that much, but I found myself really engrossed in this episode, which is something I really wasn’t expecting at all.
I have to wonder where it’s going to go; the “body swap” style trick has been done before, and I hope the mangaka came up with some decent scenarios to explore this in a sensible way. Thre’s also the mystery of Shouko’s past and why Hino really broke up with her, but that could end up being stupid and melodramatic for all I know.
Anyway, Asatte no Houkou (literally “The Direction of the Day After Tomorrow”, but that makes no sense in English; I kinda want to say “The Way of the Future” but that doesn’t sound as poetic…) has turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, and I’m very interested to see what they do next. I certainly wouldn’t believe it’s a JC Staff show!
October 11th, 2006 at 3:15 am
This is the same art director as Simoun, Figure 17, Windy Tales, Angel’s Egg and a host of other beautiful series. The scripts are coordinated by the script writer for Paranoia Agent and Paprika, and a contributor to Boogiepop. Plus the director of Gunparade March (which I quite liked) and Tsukihime (which I didn’t).
“Moe crap”, probably not. Something unpredictable, quite likely.
October 11th, 2006 at 7:13 am
the shows nice and all, but to quote an anime blogger, i cant stand how Hino looks like a hentai game character 80% of the time
October 11th, 2006 at 10:26 am
“This show is supposed to be moe crap; why is it so good?!?!”
“I certainly wouldn’t believe it’s a JC Staff show!”
Quoted for truth.
But I also agree with Aesir about how Hiro is dangerously similar to the typical eroge protagonist… Hidden face and few lines… I hope he doesn’t stay that way and gets explained at bit more.
dm: Maybe the original was meant to be more moe-focused, but it’s because of this director that it veered into a more meaningful direction.
I hope it keeps up!
October 12th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
“This show is supposed to be moe crap; why is it so good?!?!”>
It feels good to watch and hear and everything. I thought it came at the right time, though summer is over, its very cool and breezy. Watching this is almost like going on a vacation! It has a mysterious special quality; perhaps correlated with adult Karada, but hey that’s not the only thing it has going.
Hino seems kinda weird at times for sure.
cheers
October 17th, 2006 at 1:34 am
If you want an example of poor pacing, charachter development and ‘dramatic’ structure this is your series. By the end of ep. 2 I was wondering how a team with such a good history could put out such a crappy series. There were some good aspects but the afore mentioned issues greatly overshadowed them.
October 17th, 2006 at 7:18 am
True, it’s slow as molasses, but I’m still really enjoying Asatte no Houkou; as usual, it’s not for everyone, but even though the second episode got pretty much nowhere in 22 minutes I still thought it was very interesingly directed and had plenty of character development.
Then again, I enjoyed Shingetsutan Tsukihime, what do I know…