One Week Friends | Episode 1 | TFP Review
Buckeye: That was just a nice episode here, and one filled with emotion. It certainly is tough living life like this knowing full well that friends can’t be made. However, Yuki is there to try and change all that. For now, it starts with becoming her new friend every week.
EmperorBrandon: This was so cute (really liking the character design style), sweet, and emotional. Hopefully it keeps it up, as it’s really looking like it could be one of my favorites of the season (maybe even the favorite).
stardf29: Yeah, this was a very nice first episode. Gently-paced, low-key, but still full of emotion.
This was definitely the show I’m looking forward to most this season, and it definitely did not disappoint. Very much looking forward to more.
Sly05: I liked it. Hopefully there is no Ghost Kaori like a certain other recent series which featured amnesia prominently.
Library-chan: That was very sweet, but the character designs makes everybody look tired.
Sensuifu: Can’t help but think of ef. I’m not expecting it to be near as dramatic, but should be interesting to see how this show develops.
Hitsugi Amachi: Same immediate thought, though I’m not really liking the plot device here as much because it’s much more arbitrary and focused to do nothing more than set up the same repetitive situation at the beginning of the week. Notice also how in this case, the “memory reset” does not affect her memory of her family, just anyone not family whom she gets close to. That’s just far too random. I’m not even sure how this could be possible in any way except as some kind of psychological illness (since it can’t be physical; if there were a physical cause, she wouldn’t be able to remember her family either).
And yeah, we get it, Hase is a nice guy. But I’m not sure how much I can put up with such a manufactured condition, created solely to make the scenario work.
On the other hand, I’d be happy if Hase’s interactions with Kaori work as therapy to remove this condition she has. That would be rather uplifting. If it’s just “memory reset” followed by Hase making friends again and again…I’m not sure if I can put up with that.
bctaris: I know this is almost obscene coming from me, and speaking to you guys, but I think this misses the point and spirit of the show. 
Also, explaining and setting it all up in the very first episode–like Ranma, say, but unlike Golden Time–properly orientates the story and its themes and intents. It’s not, now, a crutch or a mystery (beyond its original source, which, note, is not Hase’s concern; he cares less the “why” than the “making her feel normal regardless”). It’s simply, from the beginning, the rule of the game. The arbitrariness, too, seems to tell us not to think about logical means–this is fable-like, magical realism; if you need an explanation for what causes someone to be like this (and the only real life parallel are medical conditions where stroke/trauma victims lose the ability of short-term memory) then think to magic, a curse from a god, whatever.
So, I am intrigued. Charming little show. More of the soft-filtered animation style so in vogue these days, but he underlying design and line-work is very nice.
GingaDaiuchuu: Ah, this is off to a very nice start. I really love the whole visual design as well; obviously the art styles are drastically different, but comparing this to Kawai Complex, despite them being the same studio the gap in animation quality suggests this got about twice the budget.
bctaris: I don’t see this gap. Both seem to have a lot going for them, budget-wise. Little more fluidity to this, true, but more detail to environment and close-up facial animation in Kawaisou. The color filtering techniques are different, but that’s short-cut computer stuff, mostly–and are also, I believe, merely the difference between the styles of the shows’ art directors. The underlying design work for both seems to show a lot of work. To compare, as well, at the moment I don’t know who the animation staff is behind this; Kawai Complex, however, has some intriguing personnel in the animation director chair (though they can’t all be 1st directors, unless each handles a different facet of the mixed animation style there). Brains Base shows normally have a design I go back and forth with–too pretty, too soft–but I’m warming to both of these shows a bit better, in two different ways. Though quicker to One Week Friends.
