Kobato's toughest test: Crowd control.
Bookending this series are to very nice themes. The opener, "Magic Number," is sung by the great Maaya Sakamoto.
The ending theme, "Jellyfish's Confession," is also very pleasant as it is sung by Megumi Nakajima (a.k.a. Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier). Nakajima also has a role in Kobato., though her character hasn't appeared yet.
What about the show itself? Well, the first episode is highly enjoyable. First, we have the titular character Kobato. Many may call her "moe," but I don't agree with giving her such a label. Yeah, she does pretty much fit the bill of an innocent, childlike bishoujo, but she portrayed to naturally be that way. It doesn't feel like her innocence is forced or gimmicky. At least not on the level of a series like K-ON! or Taisho Yakyu Musume. (Taisho-Era Baseball Girls). She just wins you over with her natural charm, a la Yotsuba in the popular manga Yotsuba&! (which is also one of my favorites). Complementing Kobato is the blue, diminutive dog-like creature Ioryogi. His gruff nature makes for a great counter to Kobato's magnetic charms.
Gotta love Ioryogi's sadistic grin.
The first episode is Kobato's origin story. She first needs to pass Ioryogi's test in order to get the bottle she needs to contain the shards of scarred hearts. This is needed in order to grant her wish, as she has someplace she wants to go. Her adventures in the first episode range from throwing away trash, to making nabe, to settling down a crying infant with song. Kobato's singing is easily the highlight of the first episode (her voice actress, Kana Hanazawa has a very nice singing voice) and ends up being the clincher for Ioryogi to award her with the necessary heart-shard-carrying bottle. Top all this off with very good visuals from Madhouse (which is to be expected from them), and you've got the makings of a winner.
I wonder if Kobato's nasty-looking
nabe would really be good in real life.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Got something to say? Then post it, darn you!