Aoi prefers indoor hobbies and is afraid of heights, but her childhood friend Hinata loves to show off her passion for mountain climbing. As young children they once watched the sunrise from the top of a mountain, and now they've decided to take up mountain climbing in hopes of seeing that sunrise again. They have cooking battles with mountaineering gear, climb small hills in their neighborhood, and meet new mountaineering friends as they learn the ropes of the hobby. When will they finally see that sunrise again? Another new show, another new short. This season seems to be full of 'em. Encouragement of Climb (or Yama no Susume, if you prefer) starts with a rather awkward-feeling faux-3D pan through Aoi's classroom - before normal visual service resumes when ultra-genki Hinata bounds energetically back into Aoi's life, reminder the shy one just how much trouble her primary-school friend used to be. Now that they're reunited, Hinata's going to make sure that Aoi follows through on her old promises to go mountaineering - and pay no attention at all to Aoi's protests that's she's now afraid of heights. Hard to get a feel for a show in 3 minutes, but so far, so good. Unlike most short-form shows of late, this isn't a gag anime - this episode seems to be setting up (*gasp!*) a STORY, and while it's having some fun doing that, it doesn't feel as though the comedy's the main point of the show. And while it's clearly not had a budget lavished on it, it doesn't look too bad either. THE GOOD: Different from the usual short-form idea, and seems to actually be going somewhere... THE BAD: ...although it remains to be see how well that works in this format. And I'm still smarting from the loss of Poyopoyo this season, so all short-form First Thoughts will probably end with "..and it's no Poyopoyo". Will be keeping it on this list for now - and at only 13 episodes, and a few minutes each time, it's likely to stay there unless it really makes a hash of it. Encouragement of Climb is streamed by Crunchyroll.
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