In my opinion, the first episode does a pretty nice job to introduce all the major characters while maintaining the interest for the next episode. The storyline in general follows the manga so I’m not expecting too much changes from it.
The OP video just features a lot of still shots with the main characters, and the studio ANIMAX decides to use the pastel color palette for the OP. It does create a nice effect in my opinion, but the OP theme “Sunny Side Up” does not match my standards and it is definitely not one of the memorable OPs such as the ones from Lucky Star or AirTV. The first episode begins with a shot of a teddy bear that a little girl was holding, arriving at the Katakura household. Then the scene changes into school, with the main character Kippei Katakura on the roof with girl No.1 (I call her girl no. 1 because throughout this episode there are just too many girls to keep track of). Just as they are about to kiss, ofcourse the teacher will skip his class and interrupt their romance, telling Kippei to go back to class.
Inside the classroom, the main character Kokoro is introduced, and Kippei being so arrogant, actually believes that Kokoro might like him. Inside the Katakura house, two people are seen discussing about some very important issues. The same little girl from the beginning of the episode can be seen watching TV.
Afterschool, Kippei is attacked by two girls (girl No.2 and No.3)who wants him to hang out and “play” with them. Kippei agrees, but after receiving a phone call from a woman, he decides that he has no choice but to return home. When he opens the door, the first person he sees is the little girl, who calls herself Yuzuyu. While Kippei is wondering whether his sister has shrunk or not, his sister appears, telling him to come with her since she has something to tell him.
Kippei enters the kitchen, and is instantly surprised at the heavy atmosphere. It turns out to be a family meeting regarding Yuzuyu’s future. Apparantly Yuzuyu’s mom Miyako has just disappeared due to the fear of not able to raise Yuzuyu properly. After making jokes such as “this is like something from a TV drama” and such, he fails to lighten the atmosphere. He is also informed by his sister that he will be looking after Yuzuyu. She also warns him not to touch her since she is only five years old.
The very next morning, Kippei is ordered by his sister to take Yuzuyu to her kindergarten. Yuzuyu is all excited about going to the new kindergarten, causing Kippei to ask whether she feels lonely or not. She replies by saying that she is not, but they are reminded by Kippei’s brother that Yuzuyu is going to be late if they do not hurry. On the way they have to stop by UniMart to buy onigiri for Yuzuyu’s lunch, and in the end Kippei finally drops Yuzuyu off, before realizing that he is late for school.
During lunch time, Yuzuyu’s classmate who sits beside her asks her why she doesn’t have a packed lunch and why her mother doesn’t make her one. Yuzuyu replies by saying that she likes onigiri so it’s okay. After school, Kippei is about to pick up Yuzuyu at the kindergarten but is stopped by the teacher since he has to go to extra lessons. While he’s having the lessons, Yuzuyu is seen standing alone in the kindergarten, waiting for him to pick her up.
The kindergarten teacher tells Yuzuyu to be a good girl and wait for Kippei, but as soon as she begins playing in the toys room, she begins to talk about Yuzuyu’s parents with another teacher. Here we learn that Yuzuyu’s mother has disppeared, and her father has also died. Unforturnately Yuzuyu hears the conversation, and begins to remember what happened before her mother has left her.
Kippei finally finishes his extra lessons and rushes to the kindergarten to pick up Yuzuyu, but is shocked to find out that Yuzuyu has disappeared. He begins to run around everywhere hoping to find her, and finally arriving at the park, where Yuzuyu is seen playing in the sandbox. He tells her to go home with him, but she refuses and begins crying. She thinks that because she did not finish all of her mother’s hand-made onigiris, she has been a bad girl and that’s why her mom disappeared. Upon hearing this, Kippei comforted her and promises her that he will make onigiris for her himself. Kokoro passes by the park, and sees both Kippei and Yuzuyu.
At night, Kippei is seen reading a magazine with girls in bikinis, and Yuzuyu comes into the room. He quickly pushes the magazine aside and wonders about what she wants with him, when she hands him a clothing pin, telling him that he has dropped it in the hallway. After giving him the pin, she continues to stand inside the room, and Kippei asks if she wants to sleep with him. She smiled happily, and the episode ends with a shot of the two sleeping peacefully.
The ending theme is also a lot of still shots, showing Kippei, Kokoro and Yuzuyu in their everyday life and in my opinion the song itself is better than the opening theme. After the ending theme, Kippei’s brother is shown nailing something onto the door while saying that he doesn’t really like taking care of children. A shot of the door shows a little sign with words “Kippei and Yuzuyu’s Little House” on it.
Personal Impressions
I enjoyed this episode quite a bit the first time watching it, though it does not seem to be the type of episode that one can watch over and over again. It got boring the second time around when I was taking all the screen shots, and even more boring when I had to play it again to remind myself of the plot and to write the review above. The animation is quite nice in most of the parts besides a few funny spots (e.g. When Kippei got hit by the teacher on the school roof, the proportion of his hands was kind of awkward. To see this, click Here) Like I said in the beginning, the plot follows the manga rather closely so there’s nothing to complain there. The OP and ED themes are not some of my favorites, but after a while one gets used to it. Tomorrow hopefully I will have the reviews for both Episode.02 and Episode.03 if possible. If not, Episode.02 will be up for sure. Last but not least, congrats to myself after writing the first review!
