Tsurune

I think after episode 2, I feel much better about where Minato wants to go with archery.
I think he had an easier time of being able to relate to someone else who went to someone who went through a similar experience. And I love that owl! Who makes me think of Hedwig from Harry Potter.
 
Ep2:
Wow, Seiya, you're a bag of dicks.
But I like how Minato actually cries into a pillow after that. It's oddly human for a confused teenage boy. Also how distressed he was when he believed the guy would disappear like a ghost. And how embarrassed he was after that.
I was really afraid the show would be full of ham-fisted melodrama, but the drama is more grounded and well-made. At least for Minato so far. I like that boy. And his relationship with the archer guy. He really looks up to him and they really clicked together.

Also, fuck Seiya.
 
Episode 2
I agree with the above poster. Fuck Seiya. Like what kind of friend is like that? Not anyone I know. Minato's PTSD with the Panic Targeting is something different. This show had the potential to mess it up, but it turned out wonderful in this episode. Can sympathize with the MC, his actions tug on the emotional strings, really a good showing.
 
I just watched the first episode. I really like this so far!

Incidentally, this is the fourth time I've encountered a character named Kaito XD
 
Episode 2

This was 10x better than the last episode, thank god.
This new guy is wonderful, I love him and his owl. Every scene with him and Minato was absolutely great. Like, THIS is how you try convince someone into retrying a sport---show some understanding, respect their space, and give them time.

Then you got Seiya over here, showing his true colors as the manipulative bastard he is. I actually really like that the show is outright portraying him as a jerk now. Before, my big issue was that Seiya was acting like a dick but the show was presenting it as him just being a Good Friend. But now it's all off the table and MAN it felt good to see Minato call him out on his bullshit. And Minato angrily yelling into his pillow afterwards hit me hard, it was such a real emotion.

Also just a bit of theory crafting, I bet that the reason Seiya needs to "atone" is because he somehow sabotaged Minato's equipment or something during that competition ten months ago. I could be wrong, but that entire flashback was so suspicious and it felt like something we don't know about was going on behind the scenes.
 
Episode 2:

LMAO WTF

What the hell was the point of having the dead guy plot point if they weren't gonna commit to it anyway? Oh no, he's dead - WHOOPS, turns out it's all one big misunderstanding, kid, I'm actually not dead! Stupid turn for the story there, causing drama for the damn sake of it, as if the MC didn't already have enough problems of his own.

A lot of bizarro character choices here, as I'm not really sure what they're even thinking or why they imagine it'd be a good idea to behave this way. One character exists to rile up everybody including his best friend, while there's another one who insists on calling the MC a coward despite meeting him for a record one day. Too bad about those two too, since their voice actors are still giving me a reason to stick around for now, despite my better intentions.

There's a nice, easy mood being set up here, and I'm comfortable with the contrast it sets up against the characters' conflicted emotions. It continues to look and sound good, but the characters are all kinds of iffy and weird. I wonder if the MC is just too nice a guy or if I'm too much of an asshole, because if I were him, I'd have cut off all ties with the asshole best friend already. Not just for what happened today, but for that time he forced the MC to use the bow and arrow again in front of an audience, in spite of the past trauma. What best friend does that, for real? I know what I said about the first episode, but this second one soured my opinion of glasses guy completely.

I also gotta get it off my chest: the overly-happy archer who was introduced alongside the redhead... his voice is so annoying.
 
Episode 3

What a weird episode. It felt like a lot of the events and development from the last two episodes just got swept under the rug and erased from the plot.
Where we left off with Mintato and Seiya last episode, we basically had Seiya telling Minato "making you cry would be a trivial matter to me" and Minato being overwhelmed with frustration at Seiya's lack of understanding and storming off. But during this episode we got lines such as

2MPKY.png

2MPKZ.png

Like what??? Where was this human decency during the last two episodes? And in general he and Minato this whole episode were acting like they hadn't just gotten into a huge fight last night..

Inconsistency aside, I do actually like what they're setting up with Seiya's character--he seems to be someone who struggles with basic empathy and doesn't know how to understand the emotions of his friends despite deeply caring about them. That's something I can get behind, if the show would stop going all over the place with how he's portrayed.

In good news though, I like that they're fleshing out the rest of the cast now! Pink guy has a personality now and Ryohei's alright--he at least seems to understand that the whole public demonstration ordeal was kinda messed up. The conversation between those two was also pretty nice. And while Kacchan's actions from the first episode are still incomprehensible as hell, I can at least understand his frustration now towards someone who flip flops with club commitments.

So yeah, if I looked at this episode in isolation I'd probably think it was pretty good, but in context of everything that's happened before it was honestly kinda confusing.
 
Episode 3
As I agree with @Cherstal on the points of the previous episodes essentially being white-washed for the appearance of the coach, Seiya not being a dick? And Minato seems to have just brushed their argument right under the bridge and out of sight, out of mind. There was some good though, Ryohei learning his enthusiasm is a bit one sided at times, and showcasing Minato into the kyudo club while his PTSD-Target Panic had him wrapped up was a bad idea. I am interested to see where the team goes, and to the choices. Also Onogi does have a bit of the glaring thug look to him, as a representative, can see why the weak of will left. I also concur with @Franconator that Nao is annoying as hell.
 
Episode 3:

Is it just me or does their old teacher have a weird um... interest... in young people? It's really starting to freak me out a little bit, not gonna lie.

Cherstal said:
Episode 3

What a weird episode. It felt like a lot of the events and development from the last two episodes just got swept under the rug and erased from the plot.
2MPKY.png

2MPKZ.png
Click to expand...

Nothing more from me, since you pretty much summed it all up. I did laugh at that scene, though, like what the fuck, bro? The lack of self-awareness these characters have is amazing.
 
Ep4:
That triangle of crushes between Minato, Kacchan and Masaki is creating quite a homoerotic tension. And Kacchan is jealous of anyone that could take away his sensei.
But it's probably "admiration" in the end.
I like how authenticly the characters are written. They are not exactly likeable all the time, but damn, they are without a doubt boys in puberty. A confused and irrational mess.
Also, Nanao piping it down a bit makes him way less annoying. His voice is still kinda grating, but less so than in the beginning.
 
Episode 4:

I have complaints about the character conflicts, but this show knows to give archery its proper respect. Things got progressively gayer, but Kacchan's getting a bulk of the focus this time, so I'm still cool with this. Seiya has yet to redeem himself though, that shady bastard. Is it weird that I'm more interested in the girl archers this time?
 
Episode 4

Don't have too much to say on this one tbh. Still feels kinda weird to transition from hard drama to slice of life but the episode itself was alright. All the information about kyudo was pretty interesting, especially the etiquette for firing order and when you're supposed to sit/stand. It'll be nice to see that in motion during the upcoming tournament.
 
Episode 2:

Why did I forget the anime is very prettily drawn?

THERE'S AN OWL AND HIS NAME IS WHO. I'M NOW INVESTED. PLEASE CONTINUE.

"I'm not someone who exists in your real life." I suspected this guy might be a spirit or like, someone this kid made up in his head because of his target panic. He's only there at night, random very loyal owl companion, seems like a spirit or some made up shit to me.

Daww he looks just like his mom <3

CALLED IT.

OK SO HE'S NOT A SPIRIT, FINE. .....
.....
....
....
.......
I SHIP THEM THOUGH.
FITE ME ABOUT IT.
tenor.gif
 
Episode 3:

It's so cute that his friends are so concerned about how to help him recover from his target panic.

WHY HELLO CUTIE!
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I love how this guy just happened to have his friends journal handy about how he tried to cure target panic. So convenient.
It wouldn't be such a far-fetched thing for him to have considering the store he owns but like, he didn't even have to look for it just WHAM, right out from under the counter. Like it's a totally normal thing, people need the Target Panic journal on Tuesdays so better keep it handy.

Oooo the non-spirit guy gave him a journal! I wonder if it's the same one!

He better see you again I ship you, this ship can't sale if one of you up and vanishes!

I'm still not 100% convinced he's not a ghost. A ghost would totally tell you he's not a ghost. I'm sure that'd be a thing. So until this nocturnal archer interacts with someone besides our MC I'm calling bullshit. I'm still shipping them if he's dead though, you can't stop me. You're not my mom.

WELL SHIT OK HE'S REALLY NOT A GHOST. FINE. XD
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I never thought I'd be so invested in an anime about archery but here I am.
 
Episode 4:

This is perfect. Cutie McBluehair is the coach now so I can ship them even more since they'll be around each other every day. Yes. this is perfect.

GUYS! Someone on this art team can draw cats! The feet are a tiny bit weird but fuck it the rest looks great. A+ it looks like a cat and it's not bent in an odd way or looks like an anteater or anything. Beautiful.
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This cat is perfection and I love her.
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Man I need the next episode right...meow. :D

I'm loving it so far, can't wait for more.
 
Episode 5
I got a distinct wax on, wax off feeling from Masa-sensei during this episode. However that's not to say it was bad at all, very much a team building effort to bring the boys together. Especially at the end, I feel like Minato realizes a bit, maybe a portion of why he should be the last, he sees the backs of his teammates prior to his own move, maybe to gather strength I suppose?
 
Episode 5:

Still not a fan of the character developments - they still feel so rushed, for some reason - and I think I might have tuned out of the series already. But I still want to know where the story goes from here, so I'll stick around. And I'll be honest, @OneCraftyLady's comments are giving me life. Gotta love how you're so excited about this even if I'm no longer the same way, heh.

renorxukuth said:
Episode 5
I feel like Minato realizes a bit, maybe a portion of why he should be the last, he sees the backs of his teammates prior to his own move, maybe to gather strength I suppose?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that seems to be it. The reason Kacchan gets to shoot first might be because he's the most confident of the group, so he could also be lending a sense of ease to the rest of the members.
 
Episode 5:

I seem to forget, between every single episode, how beautiful this anime is.

The training camp got them all so much closer together, I love it.

I still love that the owl's name is Who <3 So precious.

There was a lot more character building and team building happening at that training camp than those boys realized, I'm looking forward to them getting even closer and rocking that tournament or being ok with each other, whatever the results are, our boy with target panic isn't the only one in the group who needs to grow/change more and I hope we get to see that happen.

10 points too Kyoto Animation for making this anime about some sport I (and idk, most people?) have never even heard of super beautiful and interesting. Even if you're not into the story there is still something to be found in just how pretty things are, the backgrounds are always on point, hell the line work is so crisp. I leave every episode wanting to draw.

Also also, there's no way anyone would be waking me up at 4am to do grunt work like that lol, I bite. It was also VERY BRIGHT OUTSIDE for 4am. Way too bright.

I can't wait to see where the rest of the episodes take us. I suspect our target panic boy will get over it and gain the trust and respect of the rest of the group and Onogi OR he won't and it'll develop the opposite way where he loses but Onogi will have had enough character development and gained respect for Minato so that it doesn't matter and they still support each other. I can see it going either way at this point. Maybe we'll get a non typical 3 option, that would be dope.
 
Episode 6
I see we are getting more into the other school that Minato attended, as well as a few of the members of it. Also, the reasoning for Masa-sensei to become a coach. I like his idea of 'revenge'. I was glad it wasnt some team spirit sort of nonsense or against a rival school sort of moment, it was quite a bit more profound, even if it really didnt dig too deep.
 
Episode 6:

2NA13.jpg

Well, now...

That Merha shit's starting to get really corny, I don't care that they only used it twice so far. Not a fan of the twins in the rival school, it's like the annoying Merha kid multiplied and I don't know why they're being antagonistic for no good goddamn reason. Their second-year senpai's annoying too, the little ass-licker.

On the bright side, the soundtrack continues to be one of the show's few saving graces. The OP, in particular, is really good.

 
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