38. Seto no Hanayome (Anime Predictions)

Raw image by Makoto Uezo, GONZO & avex mode, no infringement intended.

Blurb/1st Episode Impressions:
Seto no Hanayome, or as I call it, Seto's Springtime Love.. HOLY! what a high quality production! When I first saw the posters I was drawn to this show immediately. I generally don't like things in the romance category, but this show's reference to Shakugan no Shana, ZERO no Tsukaima, and many others are just so many that it is WORTH IT to watch it. Plus, it is done by GONZO, which has just finished with PUMPKIN SCISSORS, the crisp-lined style will live on in 2007!

Anyway, from the above poster (taken from the official website) the readers can get an impression of how colorful this show is. The light shading from the hair's semi-coverage of the eyes is very like other animes like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and is part of the growing family of character designs using that model. The story of this anime is very simple: Guy saved by mermaid, mermaid wants to marry him, guy falls for mermaid. (I think) But let's take a look at the first episode.

Seto no Hanayome ep.01 screencap, no infringement intended.

The 1st episode starts off with the drowning of Michishio Nagasumi (last name/first name), and the opening song plays. SUN&LUNAR's Romantic Summer is a bad song, with lyrics like: "I'm romantic, you're romantic..." but it does fit in with the happy springtime youth theme in the animation. So the story begins by rewinding back to the summer with the Michishio family's trip to their beach house, and Nagasumi's drowning rescue is replayed. That night, while the family sits on the porch relaxing, the mermaid, Seto San (who names their kid San?! San-san?!) now appearing as a girl, asks the entire family to be Nagasumi's bride. The Father Michishio gets distorted cartooned and beat his son, thinking he knocked up the girl. Then some thugs/gansters show up and take the father/mother/son away to a shore, in which they were forced to jump down. Nagasumi faints for a bit (LOL), and when he wakes up he's inside a dojo-like place. The room is filled with thugs, and San's father, Seto Gouzaburou, screams at the three for... oh around 5-7 minutes, and San's mother explains some moonlight/first love crap about San's choice in Nagasumi. Nagasumi hesitates to the engagement, and Gouzaburou sends thugs after him to capture him. In the chaos, San takes Nagasumi up (yes it was all underwater) to the shore, and they have a little moment. Then the thugs and Gouzaburou show up, Nagasumi got slingshotted by a giant squid, and lands at Gouzaburou's feet. Gouzaburou (now equipped with a sword) tries to kill Nagasumi, but he finally says he accepts the engagement, that he wants to be San's husband, and that he would call Gouzaburou "dad". Episode over. The ending theme is much better --- similar lyrics/theme/feel --- but not as corny. Plus it has a cool picture of Fujishiro Shark (whom will become important later, I think.. :/).
The next episode preview shows that ep. 2 is about San and Nagasumi's first date. Go go Saito! I meant Nagasumi..

Seto no Hanayome ep.01 screencap, no infringement intended.

The animation of episode one is very decent. Very GONZO, by which I mean the character's facial distortions (when angry) and the cute/stiff cartoon effects (when acting cute or acting sarcastic) are incorporated freely. The proportions of head to body, people vs. space are very nice. I know the quality might deteriorate a bit in some of the later episodes, but this first episode is a good representative of the overall quality of the show = high.

P.s. one final thing of interest is the use of many calligraphy-style writing all over the screen throughout the show, look out for them! The ending credits are in the traditional left scroll to right style too!

Seto no Hanayome ep.01 screencap, no infringement intended.

SS Prediction Scores:
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Anticipation: [70%]

-Otaku ratings: [N/A (9/10)]

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Availability:

-Possible Community Size: [5,000,000]
Jap: [3,700,000]
RoW: [1,300,000]
-Possible Fansub Speed: [Less than 5days]
-Possible Seeder Number: [500-2000]
-Possible Bootlegged Music: [100%]
-Possibie # of Discussion Sites/Blogs: [30+]

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Future:

-Possible Aftermath Length: [2 Yrs]
Jap: [1 Yr]
RoW: [3 Yrs]
-Possibility of N. America Ver: [75%]
-Possibility of Accessories: [100%]
-Possibility of Sequel: [10-30%]
-Possibility of Target Character Obsession: [41% San, 34% Seto, 15% Shark, 20% Misc.]

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Aesthetics:

-Factors most likely to Love: [Colors, animation, action, sweet moments]
-Factors most likely to Hate: [Dialogue, music, off-manga]
-Manga/Anime adaptation ratings: [92% Anime seems solid.]
-Marketing poster(s) rating: [9.3/10]

SS Predicted Success: [93%]
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Review by SilentMic, research with help from about 4 different websites. No directly copied text whatsoever. Copyright 2007.