Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii Ep 1 [First Impression]

Eva’s First Impression
Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii had quite a different start compared to the rest of the shows this season. We weren’t introduced to the Sun King, Livius I (who is a kid) until the very last second of the episode. The being said, although the episode itself was nice, it felt very short yet at the same time not rushed. It was a different approach since the episode focused on introducing our heroine, Lady Nike Lemercier, the youngest of four daughter and is known as the Rain-Summoning Princess. I like her character because while she is naive as the Sun Kingdom’s harbor is full of shady business, she also isn’t stupid as she was able to calculate the difference in the Principality of Rain and the Sun Kingdom’s currencies. She also has awesome powers and can not only summon the rain but use the wind. It appears that in certain environments she is unable to use that aspect of her power. One of the characteristics of the Sun Kingdom Nike had said when she described it was that it was dry. It made her wonder whether it would hinder her abilities at all.
Speaking of which, the Sun King, Livius I mentioned in the preview that he wants to see her summon the rain. We were told in this episode by the little girl that while in her town they get storms every now and then, the capital doesn’t get any rain whatsoever. I do look forward to how Nike and Livius will interact and what kind of requests he is hoping to make. One of the things I wanted to discuss was how we were shown two different sides of Livius’s reputation: From outside of the country, rumor has it that he is a cold and cruel and is like a monster who wants to conquer the world, where as within the country, some villagers like Liza are grateful and love what he had done. He had invented many things, fixed their economy and been so far a reliable leader. However despite that, there are (as per usual) people who want to remove him from power.
It a good thing that Nike went off on her own instead of being formally escorted by the ambassador and guards since those guys are plotting to overthrow the King and were hoping to get rid of her. Something tells me they aren’t entirely aware of the fact she has awesome powers and is capable of kicking people’s ass. Hell, she ended up brawling the guards in front of the palace after they thought she was a suspicious person!
The overall animation quality was pretty solid. Studio Pierrot did a good job adapting the character designs, something I was a bit worried about at first, but thankfully turned out good. The OP Sequence was nice, but it felt really short to me. I wonder if they will add the King in the future because right now it just revolves around Nike. The ED Sequence on the other hand, nothing special really, just plain simple along with a naked butt shot, I snorted when that happened (made me think of Kamigami no Asobi, which I am still laughing about- that show killed me).
I don’t know about you guys, but did anyone find that the background music (original soundtrack) was overshadowing the characters’ voices? I was curious to know whether it’s just the media-player or this is actually a production thing. At times I couldn’t even hear them talking. Hopefully this is a one time thing because while I definitely enjoyed the pieces from the Original Soundtrack, I know this kind of thing will annoy me in the long run.
Although I have named this my *temporary shotgun of the spring season, I don’t feel this episode provided me enough certainty that I can and would like to cover this show from start to finish. So depending on what my co-writers think of the show, I may step aside for another writer to take, otherwise I will give it three episodes and see whether I will enjoy blogging it. Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii has a great story and since it’s been a while since I’ve read the manga I won’t notice (unless I end up re-reading the manga and get up to date to the latest chapter) what has been cut or not . This is a good thing because this way I can judge and grade the anime as an anime viewer as oppose to a fan of the manga series tuning in to watch it.
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate
Possibility of watching: Guaranteed
Sidekick’s First Impressions
Hey, this was surprisingly good! The whole marriage thing is a little too textbook shoujo for my liking, but it’s not like we see a lot of shoujo titles being adapted into anime anyway, and I felt that everything was executed with enough dignity to be refreshing. I loved the old-school shoujo vibe I felt while watching this first episode. The comedy was decent without being mind-numbingly stupid or overwhelming, the drama and foreshadowing of what’s to come was done subtly enough without being too Light Novel-y a la Pilot’s Love Song, and the characters were fun too. This first episode introduced us to Nike herself, whose character I enjoyed. She doesn’t play on the extremes of any shoujo trope and remains rather refreshing and memorable. The other characters were pretty decent too, especially as only side characters.
The animation was surprisingly solid as well, it didn’t need to be some really KyoAni-tier stuff, but it definitely achieved what the series needs, and I loved it’s color palette that really helped to further establish the rich setting the characters are in. The music was kinda underwhelming and not really noticeable if I wasn’t paying attention, but I think at this point that would be asking a little too much out of a series that managed to deliver such a solid, entertaining first episode when my expectations for it were pretty low.
 
Possibility of Blogging: High
Possibility of watching: Guaranteed, unless it turns to shit later…a la Pilot’s Love Song.