![]() ![]() ![]() There was a very formulaic, predictable quality to all of it. OK, getting past that… I found the story itself and its execution – even the music – to be pretty generic. As with the exposition it’s a shortcut, a cheat, reflecting either an unwillingness or inability on the part of the writing to do the heavy lifting of telling a real story about real characters. This was standard moeblob pap of the variety that’s become distressingly common in anime. The protagonist, the human girl Somali, grated on my nerves from the first scene she appeared in and that never got any better. Getting past that (hopefully that sort of thing won’t need to be repeated) we have larger and more systemic problems. I know that’s one of my buttons but seriously, that’s terrible storytelling. One exception to that was the appallingly clumsy exposition scene in the cafe – that prompted outright irritation on a high level. And frankly, this premiere left me feeling mostly indifference. But you can’t force it – affection either comes or it doesn’t. It does indeed look very pretty, as the previews suggested it would, and in both look and feel it has a distinct air of Ghibli about it. It features an interesting staff headed by talented French artist Vincent Ngheim as Art Director. It features a director of a show I dearly love ( Ikoku Meiro no Croisee), Yasuda Kenji, and comes from the always potentially interesting Satelight. It would be a lot easier if I liked Somali unreservedly. So to say I went into this series with pretty high hopes is no misrepresentation. While I didn’t (and don’t) really know anything about the source material, I knew the previews were good and I knew the premise sounded appealingly closer to high fantasy than anime in the 2010’s was wont to venture. And it begins with a show that was solidly in my upper mid-range of expectations, Somali to Mori no Kamisama. Another season, another year – and so we begin this merry dance again. ![]()
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