Two for One!
What they say
Kazuya Kagami never goes anywhere without the precious “Sakura Obi” his mother gave him. One day a beautiful, kimono-clad girl named Kiriha appeared before him. Kiriha naturally began to live with Kazuya in his room. Then there’s Chisato, Kazuya’s childhood friend with glasses and a ponytail, who meddles in his affairs. Soon there’s also an overprotective older sister who seems to want to take baths with him. Jumble in a huge-chested priestess, a good-looking sorceress named Kokuyoura, beautiful women, and hot girls, and Kazuya’s happy, embarrassing, confusing life begins…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Tsugumomo has finally become a part of the anime lineup for Crunchyroll! I’ve been waiting to see if anyone would take Xebecs next high-stake fan service series, and I couldn’t be more excited to know that it’s now part of the weekly lineup. Since episodes 1 and 2 came out at the same time, I’m going to be reviewing both of these episodes right now.
The story begins with a dream. Kazuya is dreaming about a girl dressed in a beautiful kimono as she’s walking away. He wakes up with a start while screaming for her to stop, and then thrusts out his hands as though to keep her from leaving—only to press his palms into his childhood friend’s boobs. That’s how this story begins. It automatically sets the tone that this series is likely going to take. As always, Xebec does an excellent job of not only letting you know from the getgo that, yes, this anime will have lots of fanservice, but also introducing our main character in a way that’s funny.
On a side note, the main character, Kazuya, is voiced by the same seiyuu who played Rito Yuuki from another of Xebec’s anime: To LOVE-RU. Furthermore, Kiriha, the obi and durotagonist, is played by the same person who did Nemesis from To LOVE-RU Darkness. I think these are good choices for these characters since this is another fanservice series.
After school, Kazuya is attacked by a wig—yes, a wig. As it turns out, the wig is a Tsukumogami, a type of yokai produced from an object that has gained sentience and is infused with a human’s strong desire. Just when it looks like Kazuya is about to be killed, he is saved by a girl with blue hair, red eyes, and wearing an obi. It’s the girl from his dreams. She calls herself Kiriha and seems to know Kazuya from his past, but sadly, he can’t remember her, which causes Kiriha to physically take her frustration out on him.
I love Kiriha. The greatest aspect of this series so far is definitely her. Kiriha is crass, unapologetic, and doesn’t beat Kazuya when he walks in the bath on her. It was hilarious when, as Kazuya is panicking after he walked in while she’s bathing, Kiriha doesn’t get mad and instead invites him in. Saying that, she’s pretty hot-tempered, so it’s not easy for Kazuya to deal with her, and he still gets abused, but I appreciate that he’s not getting because of accidents.
While the first episode deals entirely with introducing the characters and world, the second expands upon the world by creating what could amount to a one-shot episode. Kazuya and his childhood friend, Chiasto, become stuck in a library, which has turned into a Tsukumogami known as an Amasogi. You can think of this as ane evil Tsukumogami. It doesn’t have much of a will, and springs forth when there’s a dense amount of Malison.
The animation sequences for this series have greatly impressed me so far. Just like most of Xebec’s work, they tend to use a lot of still shots with very little animation, which allows them to focus primarily on maintaining high quality art. It also means when they DO have a more dynamic action shot, they can’ afford to spend more of their budget to make it pop out.
Episode 2 was mostly dealing with the library incident, but there was also a good deal of humor between Kazuya and Kiriha near the beginning. I loved watching how Kiriha tried going to school with Kazuya. Her excuse was that they always went to school when she was an obi. Kazuya, not wanting her to go with him, requested that she transformed back into an obi, then he put her in a plastic bag, a wooden box, and then tied the wooden box closed and left Kiriha at home. That sort of humor is what I like between characters. It adds depth to their dynamic.
While I do think episode 1 was stronger than episode 2, I still enjoyed how episode two further explored the difference between Amasogi like the library yokai and Tsugumomo like Kiriha. The difference is that Tsugumomo are born from objects or tools after many years. Amasogi are born from human emotions and can be created quickly. Time seems to be the major difference here. It can be theorized that dark emotions like anger and jealousy offer short-term power, which creates Amasogi, while love and being well-maintained are what create Tsugumomo. This is keeping in with a sort of light side/dark side theme, which are common in anime that have a lot of action and violence.
I mentioned before that episode 2 is like a one-shot. It presents a problem that gets solved within the same episode. However, the end leaves us with foreshadowing for the next episode.
In Summary
Episodes 1 and 2 of Tsugumomo have created a strong beginning that makes me hopeful. It’s not original, but if you’re watching this series, you probably aren’t looking for something that’s 10% original. There’s enough tropes that have been used innovatively to keep me entertained. My only real concern is in regards to the fanservice. If this anime stays faithful to the manga, then there will be a lot of nudity, which could mean they’ll do some ridiculous level of censoring. I’m hoping this remains a faithful adaptation that does not get censored—otherwise a good portion of my reason for watching this anime will disappear.
Grade: A
Steamed by: Crunchyroll
