Today I embarked on the (apparently) wonderful journey that is Myself;Yourself, Dogakobo's finest creation. /sarcasm What I first noticed is an art style I like to call non-vivid, which basically entails a very dated dead and artificial look lacking in details but not in a charming way; this look uses a simple color palette but not to good use. Think H2O: Footprints in the Sand but maybe a bit more colorful.At the same time, the use of framing is uninteresting and does not add variety or depth to the anime.
I honestly do not know what happened in the first episode's "past." The flashbacks were confusing and I'm way too lazy to go and puzzle it out. This show managed to get something right within the first few minutes somehow. There was a character who played a violin, which was actually rather nice to listen to; somehow the violin had more attention to detail than the actual characters. I didn't quite catch the context, though. Someday I'll learn how to watch anime. The non-diegetic music was pretty bland and forgettable though. I didn't like the opening or ending themes either.
The basic premise of the show is that Sana-chan, the main character (also the person getting slapped), is returning to the town where he grew up after five years. If you think Kanon, you won't be far off. He marvels at how things have changed since he was last there. One theme that seemed to come up was urban sprawl and the conversion of "tradition" into modernity. I can't say a lot of good things about this episode because I didn't enjoy it. I do, however, like that a character is setup as spying on Sana-chan but retreating every time he seems to notice her. This event is continuous with the flashback where Sana-chan gives a friend (Nanaka) a bracelet. In the climax of the episode - really the best part - Sana-chan is slapped by this friend presumably for never keeping in touch and male privilege ego exertion or something. These events of distant past, near past, and present work together to let us see Sana-chan as a dense but kind person who seems out of touch with his past. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Sana-chan and this person have some form of romantic tension and the episode does actually construct these events nicely.
A lot of the episode features this character named Aoi-chan who is apparently a maniacal bookworm but otherwise a very bland character. So far Nanaka is the only character with any amount of real personality, so I'll definitely be focusing my attention on her for the rest of this series. I was bugged by the framing of the show focusing so much on Aoi's breasts, which is a very overdone joke. Sana-chan has dinner with Aoi's parents; during this, her mom joked that Sana should marry Aoi. But the SanaxNanaka event is more clearly presaged, so what gives with this inconsistency, show!? We are told, though, that Sana fantasizes about seeing a grown up Nanaka. The next day, Aoi wakes up Sana and gives him a tour around the school prior to class. Then Sana meets some old buddies - these two are siblings in the same classroom - and gets asked about his life. One point I want to reiterate is that the dialogue is very bland and forgettable because the characters are so simple and superficial. Though I have to admit that Sana getting warned before being physically vituperated by Nanaka was rather funny. As it stands, Nanaka has made the most meaningful action. Sana notices that she is wearing the bracelet he gave her but it is too late - she walks away with a distasteful look. I should feel bad for him but I'm not sure that I do.
Overall Myself;Yourself is rather mediocre so far and I will likely find it plodding. I do like the interactions between Sana and Nanaka because they differ from the other meaningless exchanges in the show. Fortunately for me, this plotline seems to be the major one, so hopefully I'll at least get entertainment. If I am to be perfectly honest, even if that situation isn't done well I tend to find it interesting when you focus on a "cold" and gloomy female character. Such a situation differs substantially from the usual gender role of girls being cheerful.
Works Cited
Myself;Yourself. Dogakobo. 2007. Dir. Yasuhiro Kuroda
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