Happy 4th of July!So yesterday, I watched one of the first new anime of the summer season to air... it was Nanatsuiro★Drops (duh, can you not read the title?).Nanatsuiro★Drops is an eroge-turned-mahou shoujo anime. I was really looking forward to it due to the character designs being drawn by Noizi Ito. Although I wasn't expecting much of a story like TMoHS and SHANA, reading the description.I guess the opening was kind of nice. It was a tad slow, but I don't hate slow openings, so it wasn't a problem.The first thought that came to mind was that in some scenes, it brought reminisce to Cardcaptor Sakura. Although it isn't supposed to be a rip-off, the shape of her clothes and the way she rides her wand in the opening, along with the plush-like animal on her back might give you an impression that it is even thought it isn't.Sumomo's design is more appealing to me than Sakura's, though. ;)Time for one of my generic and incomprehensive summaries! Skip all the way down for my full thoughts.The story starts off with the lead male character at school, Masaharu Tsuwabuki (who looks like and has the same seiyuu (Hirofumi Nojima) as Ike from Shakugan no SHANA, also drawn by Noizi Ito. Coincidence? Maybe...), who accidentally bumps into the main female character, Sumomo Akihime (very pretty ;)) and spills water on him. Sumomo starts to cry because it was her fault that Tsuwabuki got wet. However, her friend (Nadeshiko Yaeno) sees her crying and thinks Tsuwabuki did something to her, threatening him with a... shovel. All as if Sumomo was a god or something (I sense yuri tendencies from her...). Kisaragi-sensei shows up and says it's a strange combination of people. Sumomo is crying, Nadeshiko is angry, and even Tsuwabuki is there. Nadeshiko says it's because he made Sumomo cry, but Sumomo says he didn't do anything wrong and apologizes. Kisaragi-sensei thinks that this is perfect...Which means dragging Tsuwabuki in the gardening club because the club only consists of Sumomo and Nadeshiko. As Tsuwabuki is busy installing a new sprinkler, he thinks about his friends saying that he should be more social and get along with other people. Then we see Sumomo and Nadeshiko walking along the trail. Sumomo explains everything and now Nadeshiko now knows that it was all a misunderstanding. They go back to see the sprinkler that Tsuwabuki made and Nadeshiko is suprised he installed it properly. But... where is he?Now, we see Tsuwabuki washing his hands. After all that work, he figures that the gardening club must be alot of work for those two girls to handle and thinks that he might end up joining the club after all.A wierdo running with a bag of soda cans comes running and bumps into Tsuwabuki, dropping all of his soda cans. Tsuwabuki notices his wierd ears, which makes him panic. He gives Tsuwabuki a random soda can from the ground and runs off. tsuwabuki, thinking that it was the soda can he had earlier, drinks it.However, as the sun sets, a strange aura covers Tsuwabuki and he shrinks...He wakes up to find that Sumomo is holding him in her arms and calls him a stuff animal. Why was she calling him that? Because it seems that he has turned into a little plush-like sheep!Tsumomo lays the little sheeps down and tell it to wait there because she is looking for a friend named Tsuwabuki (Haha... ^^;;). However, we see Kisaragi-sensei come across him...We are given the impression that he might torture him, but this isn't the case. Kisaragi-sensei uses some sort of magic that lets Tsuwabuki move and talk like normal again, only he's still a sheep.Kisaragi-sensei asks if he drank a soda can from the floor and Tsuwabuki replies with "Why would I-?!" but then recalls the wierd man and his soda cans. Kisaragi-sensei says that the guy he saw was a "Figurare human", a human from a completely different world and transforming is a regular thing there. What he drank was a Figurare transforming drug (Is that some sort of wierd steroid they take there?!). Tsuwabuki, however, cannot comprehend the wierdness of this.They both hear the door knock, so Tsuwabuki goes hiding. It's Sumomo and Nadeshiko. They ask where Tsuwabuki is, because they wanted to thank him for installing the sprinkler. Kisaragi-sensei says that he had something important to do and went somewhere else.Sumomo asks if he's seen a small, cute, stuffed sheep anywhere.No. No, he has not. ;)After they both leave, Kisragi-sensei says that he'll teach Tsuwabuki a way of returning to normal. However... it won't be an easy thing.The scene shifts to Sumomo's house, with her looking out the window. We are now given a hint that she has a crush on Tsuwabuki."I got to talk alot to Tsuwabuki-kun today! *giggle* Haa~~ Haaa~~~!" Blah...Got to admit, that was adorable though. ;PWe see Tsuwabuki fly through the skies into Sumomo's window (Kisaragi-sensei hit him with a bat)...... And into Sumomo's face.Sumomo's face lights up as she is so happy to see the little lamb again. Tsuwabuki remembers Kisaragi-sensei saying that he will send him to his "chosen girl". Why was this girl Sumomo? She notices a note on him and reads it: "I am a very mysterious stuffed anime. Under some circumstances, I can't get home. I need your help to return to the world of stuffed animals. Please keep me at your house and help me out." Tsuwabuki is suprised and accidentally talks.Sumomo looked suprised at first, but she seems awfully happy that the sheep can talk and move. Sumomo introduces herself and ask what his name is. Tsuwabuki remembers Kirasagi saying that if anyone finds out his true identity, then he can never change back. So he says that he has no name. Sumomo starts to cry because it must be under very cruel circumstances if it doesn't have a name. But then she names it Yuki-chan since it's very white and fluffy like snow. Tsuwabuki says "Yuki-chan to ore ga?" (I'm Yuki-chan?) Sumomo says he has to refer to himself as "boku" since he can't get home if strays from the path of politeness (lol... ^^;;).Sumomo says she'll do her best to get Yuki-chan back home, but she wonders what she's supposed to do. Yuki-chan says that in order to return him back to normal, she must collect seven objects called the Star Drops. The only one who can collect the Star Drops is the chosen girl. Sumomo is very excited that she's the chosen girl and she's very determined to get Yuki-chan back home. Tsuwabuki, in his head, realizes that Sumomo seems like a different person than she really is at school.Yuki-chan then remembers the ring that Kirasagi-sensei told him to give to the chosen girl.The ring makes a red light that points to the direction of where a Star Drop is falling. So there they go into the night... Yuki-chan can't keep up in his sheep-form, so he has to ride on Sumomo's back (o,o).Sumomo uses the ring again to find the Star Drop, which fell toward the school. Sumomo, trembling in the fear of night, wonders where it could've fallen. Yuki-chan says that Star Drops fall where there is beautiful water.So they go to the fountain. They see the Star Drop deep in the fountain, however, Sumomo says its too deep for her to reach. All of a sudden, the ring transforms into a magical spoon wand.Strike that strike, its a spoon-wand. Sumomo gets really excited because it's amazing and spins Yuki-chan around. But Yuki-chan says if they don't hurry, it might melt away.Sumomo says it's not reaching. Yuki-chan gets a book out so Sumomo could learn the command words.Pu Ru Bu La Di!However, the Star Drop gets away, right past the flowers. Sumomo wants to avoid the flowers, but she falls down.She starts to cry because she thinks its her fault that it got away. Yuki-chan mentions the newly installed sprinkler (although he didn't want to finish that sentence because it might give her an idea of who he really is).Sumomo heads toward the new sprinkler to find the place to be all sparkly. She sees the Star Drop pop out of a bush of flowers and chases it.Pu Ru Bu La Di!She finally catches it. This little victory makes her very energetic.Sumomo then puts the Star Drop into a glass bottle that they brought with them. Sumomo is very happy that she was able to get the Star Drop and hugs Yuki-chan. Meanwhile, up on the school building is an OMG ANTAGONIST. She tells a shadowed dog that she won't allow Sumomo to gather all the Star Drops.Sumomo is in bed happily with Yuki-chan because she thought that was fun... and a bit wierd. As she goes to sleep, she wonders how Yuki-chan knew about the sprinkler that Tsuwabuki installed...And the episode ends with a narration.The ending was cute with all the chibi. It fits this series quite well.Thoughts:I have to say this series didn't fully meet my expectations. Of course I like it, but it wasn't all that amazing though. Sumomo is the typical overly-moé and cute female, and her tendency to cry over little things is adorable. Which I like, but isn't exactly a good thing... but I love her. The art and character designs were top-notch though, and the animation was at least decent. Actually, it was VERY colorful, in a good way, and good on the eyes. At times it went crazy with the chibi-mode, but I guess it made it more lively and funny (I hears it happens in the game too).The BGM was nice, although it really didn't stand out to me. The seiyuu stood out more to me... I think I've heard them before, elsewhere. Of course, I've already told you about the Tsuwabuki and Ike connection in the summary, with the looks and voice actors (and being drawn by the same artist...). Actually, he looks like an older Syaoran a little with the hairstyle too. He looks alot like him in chibi form (see the ending). That's really not helping the "Is this a Cardcaptor Sakura clone?!" thing...I heard that Sumomo's seiyuu voiced Jun from Happiness! Thing is, he's a guy. Best sounding trap I've ever heard.So... I don't see myself dropping this series. It's really not bad and I like it. Don't be scared off by the fact that its based on an h-game that has loli, which aren't really loli by the way. They just don't have "D-CUPS... FULL OF JUSTICE!". I heard the game was better though, and it seemed to be pretty popular.PU RU BU LA DI!(Read more...)
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