This episode shifts the focus to Gouta, who has largely been ignored up to this point. Gouta spaces out during class and remembers the normal life he had until his father’s mage lineage was revealed, which caused his parents to have an argument and split up. Once the word spread, Gouta faced discrimination as a mage from his classmates and former friends at school.

Gouta’s current magic request is to help a freelance writer find an insurance card. Once he and Saori-sensei arrive, the client asks the mages to clean his house and the card will eventually appear in the process. The client’s demand angers Gouta, but he and the instructor have to honor the request. Meanwhile, Sora and Hiyori enjoy a day on the town. Later that evening, Gouta treats Sora to dinner at a turntable sushi restaurant.

Gouta’s and Saori-sensei’s magic request the next day is for a woman trying to remember a nostalgic taste. After hearing the description of what she wants, Gouta makes a suggestion to Saori-sensei to conjure breast milk in a glass. Gouta explains that it is, “a taste full of love”. The client is truly grateful and thanks Gouta for knowing what she wanted. Later we also learn a bit about Saori-sensei whose daughter ran away from home three years ago.

Thoughts:
Gouta finally gets some screentime. Though his past was briefly explained, his story and relationship with Sora are still shallow. At least the mage discrimination point so prominently featured in the first two series was finally brought up. It’s an accurate insight that normal people fear and loathe those that are different. Gouta’s shallow friends were quick to accuse and shun him for his mage lineage. They sound like great friends to me. I think Summer Skies may be oversimplifying the discrimination but at least it’s getting covered.

The way the anime is going, I don’t think the Sora/Gouta relationship is going to happen. The two bonded from the very beginning of their manga meeting with an initial love-hate relationship, but Gouta hardly talks to Sora in the anime. The relationship would have progressed nicely had Gouta told his backstory over dinner. At least that way they still wouldn’t seem so distant from each other with 1/3 of the story now finished.

I’ve said this a couple of times before and I’ll say it again. Anime Sora and Gouta are totally different from their original counterparts. They’re kind of like Twinkies with the cream filling taken out. They still look like what they’re supposed to be, but they’re lacking that special something… The spark. Well no matter. I’ve made myself hungry just writing this. I’m on the fence about dropping Summer Skies. Next episode will be make or break time.

Sora undertakes her first magic request, but Hara warns her that this client is very peculiar. The client, Motohashi, is an older woman with a request to open her safe. This woman does not have the key but always locks the safe again after checking the contents, so she is continually calling upon the mages to unlock the safe when she wants to look inside. Likewise, all the other students in the mage class undertake their own requests except for Gouta who is still a novice.

As Sora begins to explain the details of her request to Hiyori, Miss Kawada enters the class and explains that all client requests are confidential. She then tells all the students that they are strictly prohibited from using their powers without authorization from the Bureau of Magic.

After class is over, Sora and Hara go to the client’s house to fulfill the request. Sora opens the safe but runs outside with the contents, several photo albums, hoping that Motohashi will come outside the house. Hara chases after Sora and warns her not to get involved with the client’s problems. They return the albums to the safe and the client tries to close it, but Sora reveals that she actually destroyed the locking mechanism.

The client is naturally upset, but Sora explains that she needs to move on with her life and not continue to seal up her memories in the safe. Sora’s words reach the client and they look through the album together and talk about their experiences. Sora gets teary eyed when she sees the similarities that the client and her mother share. Meanwhile, a discouraged Gouta is ready to give up mage training but his instructor convinces him to keep trying.

Thoughts:
This is make or break time for Summer Skies, because the first episodic client episode should give you a proper handle for the show. If you liked it, keep watching. If not, drop Summes Skies for something else. Summer Skies has more room for subplots and probably won’t have as many client episodes as the original, but expect to see a few more.

Looks like the next episode will focus on Gouta, who has so far been really boring. I’m not going to go on a Gouta rant, but the manga introduced him as a much more interesting character. The story just isn’t the same without the initial love/hate relationship between Sora and him. In the manga we learned quite a bit about Gouta during his introduction. His importance to the story has really been understated in the anime after three episodes.

This section wouldn’t be complete without complaining talking about the animation, which seems to have taken a step back. One point that continues to bug me is that the shots are either too wide or too close. It’s like there’s no medium ground between a wide shot and a close up. Maybe that’s due to how the show is animated. Second point is that too much headspace is cut off in close up views. I don’t know if it bothers anyone else, but it really bugs me.

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.

I really debated whether or not to blog this show since it’s already gotten a lot of attention from the anime community. Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~ Natsu no Sora is actually the third entry in the franchise, receiving preferential treatment over its predecessor, Taiyo to Kaze no Sakamichi, with both an anime and a live-action movie. For ease of convenience, I’ll simply call this series Summer Skies rather than go by the romanized Japanese name. For episode 1, I’ll also include a manga comparison to the first chapter.

Summary:
Sora Suzuki seems like your average country girl from Hokkaido, not at all like a person who possesses the rare ability to use magic. The first episode highlights her last day of her normal, slow-paced country life at home before she travels to Tokyo for her mage training.

She hangs out with her best friend Michiru, who is feeling down since Toyama, the guy she likes, is going to move away. Michiru mentions that the guy wanted to see Hokkaido’s winter snow with her but it won’t happen now. Sora takes it upon herself to help Michiru with her problem and sets up a meeting between Michiru and Toyama for later in the evening.

Sora’s mother gives her a banquet of her favorite foods for dinner and the two enjoy a lively meal. After dinner, Sora gives Michiru some final encouragement before she confesses. Michiru and Toyama meet as planned, and Sora uses her magic to make it snow for the two as Michiru makes her feelings known. Afterwards, Michiru e-mails Sora thanking her for the small miracle.

Sora has an emotional parting with her mother before going to the airport. Michiru e-mails Sora again and wishes her the best of luck in Tokyo.

OP: Thyme – “Fly Away”

ED: Micc – “Hawai ta Hana”

Manga comparison:
Sora has more friends in the manga compared to just having Michiru in the anime. Her goofiness and father complex are downplayed in the anime. She’s also much more liberal in her magic use in Hokkaido. In the manga, she sets up the guy that likes her (whom she obviously likes back) with another girl by making the snow fall with her magic. Sora originally takes a train to Sapporo and then gets transferred to Tokyo. She subsequently meets and saves Gouta from some thugs on the train.

Thoughts:
The anime is already drastically different from the manga. It’s much like the first Someday’s Dreamers anime which didn’t faithfully follow the manga version, opting instead to use the original material as a guideline.

Summer Skies features relatively new seiyuu talent as the two lead characters, Sora and Gouta, with a veteran cast backing them up as support. Sora’s voice has been all right so far; At any rate it’s much better than Yume’s anime voice from the original Someday’s Dreamers. I’ll judge Gouta once he shows up, which is probably the next episode.

Summer Skies was different from what I expected, but not really in a bad way. The art direction is interesting with the composite/rotoscoped/whatever photos as scenery. There were a couple time that I forgot I was watching a TV show and thought it looked like a high budget anime movie. However when watching this episode, I couldn’t help but feel that the focus was on the scenery instead of the characters. While the scenery is admittedly gorgeous, the animation feels a bit choppy at times and the character details are underdeveloped. The choppiness stems from the fact that it really seems that the characters have to work around the background; There is the occasional hiccup between their integration. I’ll give Hal Film Maker points for being daring though.

I also have a complaint with how much the characters barely resemble Kumichi Yoshizuki’s original art. See the manga comparisons above. Sora was a lot more gorgeous in the original manga, but the anime Sora is kind of cute in her own way. The little quirk in Sora’s magic also didn’t show up in this episode. Well you’ll probably see that next time. Summer Skies is technically a shoujo anime but doesn’t feel that way at all. I’m a guy that typically doesn’t like the genre, but I really enjoy this franchise.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora (Things that are precious to a mage: Summer Skies), the third entry in the collaboration between writer Norie Yamada and illustrator Kumichi Yoshizuki, is tentatively set for a July air date. The series is more commonly known overseas as Someday’s Dreamers along with its sequel Someday’s Dreamers: Spellbound.

Like its predecessors, Summer Skies takes place in the same world where mages possess the rare gift of using magic. Likewise, it is a coming of age story about a girl named Sora Suzuki who is a bit of a screw-up and travels to the city to refine her skills. Taking the reins from J.C. Staff, Hal Film Maker will be doing the animation for this sequel.

I’ve been reading the scans and the story is more polished compared to the earlier entries in the franchise. So far it’s been pretty interesting, and I’ll definitely blog this show once it airs.