While taking in Tokyo’s many sights, Sora uses her magic to stop a runaway truck from hurting any bystanders. A young man named Gouta thanks Sora for using her magic. She asks him where to find the Bureau of Magic for her training, and he scoffs at her saying that at her level she doesn’t need any training. Sora foots it the rest of the way, enjoying the scenery as she strolls along.

When Sora finally arrives at the Bureau of Magic, she realizes that she’s late. Her attempt to sneak into class is futile, and she is called out by the teacher. After introducing herself to the class and taking a mandatory written test, she becomes fast friends with a girl named Hiori Yamabuki during break time. When the break is over, the students return for their skill test; The objective is to turn water into ice to gauge each student’s magic proficiency. Sora is paired up with Gouta, who coldly (pun intended) requests for a different partner. Sora gets mad and turns her water into an icicle chandelier.

Honomi Asagi, a proficient mage in the class, declares her rivalry with Sora. Asagi then brings up the question of using magic for revival, which the teacher quickly refutes; It is impossible to bring people back from the dead. Another student, Kouji Kuroda, chimes in and tells Asagi to have thought her question through before asking it. Everyone turns their water to ice with varying success except for Gouta, whose tank is still full of water.

After class is over, Sora traverses to her instructor’s home in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa district where she will be staying. She loses track of time as she explores her surroundings again. She finally arrives at her destination and meets her instructor, Seiichirou Hara. After settling into her room, Sora is surprised when she sees Gouta in a room on the other side of the yard.

Thoughts:
One thing that always bugged me about the franchise is that magic regulation takes all the fun out of what’s supposed to be something awesome. I know if magic was actually real, this is how it would be treated though. The lesson is that real life is no fun.

The anime has diverged far enough from the manga that I won’t point out all the differences. Here are a couple major things though. It officially seems that the sunflower quirk in Sora’s magic has been completely removed. What a shame too because that’s what made her unique. In a way she’s more competent but less powerful in the anime.

After two episodes, I’ll also say that Sora’s personality has also been tweaked too. Her anime personality is too modest and meek; She definitely had a much more passionate, vibrant personality in the manga if that makes any sense. Gouta is less of a jerk and more of a quiet guy so far. While he’s supposed to be a jerk, he’s also supposed to be kind of funny and outgoing too. Sora’s teacher, Hara seems a bit different too. The manga portrayed him as a hip 20-something Shimokita kind of guy, but it’s hard to make a proper impression at this point considering he’s only had a minute of screentime. If you’re worried about the side characters, they seem to be intact. I could care less about side characters though. A show of this nature is driven by the main characters because it’s a character driven story.

Tying in to an earlier point, I think it could be said that the sunflower embodies Sora perfectly. Simple, honest, and spirited. The sunflower isn’t beautiful in the traditional sense like a rose but stands on its own merits. With the removal of the sunflower, all the traits associated with it disappear and we get “Sora Lite” in the anime. I think Yume from the original series was also likened to the sunflower as well.

The animation is still inconsistent. It’s beautiful when it wants to be but switches back to the low budget wide shots that showcase the scenery more than the characters way too often. On that note there are also way too many scenery shots that completely exclude characters. I know it’s supposed to be ‘Tokyo through Sora’s eyes’ but it just seems like lazy animating to me. I expect the animation will only get choppier from here.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under Anime, Someday's Dreamers: Summer Skies.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.