Long ago, a
five-headed dragon lived in the sea and terrorized the coast around Enoshima Island,
until a beautiful woman came down from the sky and saved the day.
In the
present, Yuki Sanada lives with his grandmother Keito and moves around a lot because of her work,
so he’s never had the chance to make friends in school. It doesn’t help that he
tends to have panic attacks when put on the spot, giving him a snarling,
red-faced expression that makes people assume he’s angry.
After they
move to Enoshima, Yuki has a panic attack while introducing himself that earns
him the nickname ‘demon face’ from his classmates. Right on his heels is a
second transfer student named Haru, who cheerfully declares that he’s an alien
and decides Yuki’s his new BFF. He has a water gun he can use to control
people. And decides he’s going to live at Yuki’s house. Keito’s completely OK
with this.
After school
Haru drags Yuki to a fishing shop where their classmate Natsuki, a
national-level fishing champion, works. Haru begs him to teach them to fish and
he finally relents (with a little help from Haru’s water gun). Yuki is
uninterested and clashes with Natsuki, but then he meets Haru’s sister, who
insists the world will be destroyed if he doesn’t catch a particular fish for
them. When she whips out her own water gun he relents and makes amends with
Natsuki, who agrees to keep teaching them. After Keito is sent to the hospital
Yuki seems to give up again, but his anxiety ends up spurring him to renewed
efforts.
They’re
being spied on by an Indian boy named Akira Agarkar Yamada, who transfers into
their class. He’s actually 25, has a pet duck named Tapioca, and works for a Men in Black-type organization. It seems
to have a duck motif.
Thoughts
I gotta
admit, this seemed kinda ‘meh’ at first. I mean, it’s an anime about…fishing? Isn’t
that right up there with golf and baseball in the list of sports that tend to
get characterized as boring? Yuki even lampshades this quite succinctly when he
thinks to himself “fishing’s for old guys; it seems so boring.” The characters
didn’t start out that interesting either, and were mostly defined by a
particular quirk. Yuki gets panic attacks when under stress, Haru’s obnoxiously
cheerful and can control people with water, Natsuki’s uptight, and Akira, well…I
get the ‘secret organization that monitors aliens’ part, but what’s with the
duck?
After three
episodes, however, it’s starting to grow on me. For one, the fishing stuff is
actually pretty interesting. I know squat about fishing, so the exposition on things
like tying a strong lure knot and doing a proper cast is proving to be very
informative. At least, assuming it’s accurate; I assume the production team did
their homework beforehand, but I wouldn’t know.
The
characters are also a bit more understandable now that they’ve had a chance to
become a bit better defined. It’s hard not to feel for Yuki after his
grandmother his sent to the hospital – an irregular but ongoing occurrence. As
far as we’ve seen she’s the only family he has, so he’d be in a pretty major
bind if he lost her, and he’s clearly feeling that. It makes his embracing of
fishing in episode 3 as a means of coping and connecting with others
sympathetic and believable. His situation also gives something in common with
Natsuki, who’s having family troubles of his own, in his case because his mom
died two years ago and he disapproves of his dad dating again so soon (at least
that seems to be the case). Neither seems to be good at dealing with others
either (probably in some part due to their family issues) and both were dragged
into fishing together unwillingly, so they clash because of it rather than
because they actually dislike each other. Fortunately, Haru’s there to be the
glue that binds everyone together. Sure, he’s manipulating them into doing what
he wants, but it’s played for laughs and works because he’s never used it to
make them do anything worse than a goofy dance, and there’s no worry about it
being abused because he clearly doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body. His
ditzy affability also has the effect of making him so charismatic and earnest
that you can’t help but like him. Akira’s still mostly about his quirks, but
they’re amusing enough to make him an enjoyable kind of weird.
Basically,
it’s a show about a group of guys with disparate personalities who become
closer through a common interest. Hardly an original premise, but it does throw
in the (equally unoriginal) twist that they get to save the world too! It
doesn’t take much guesswork to surmise that ‘five-headed dragon’ will turn out
to be a reasonable description of the fish Haru and his sister want Yuki to
catch, nor that they’re connected to the one who defeated the dragon in the
past. Regardless, everything’s done in a light-hearted tone that fits the
simple premise, and the use of bright colors for the animation complements it
well. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
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