Anime/Manga Just Because!

[machomuu]

Just Because!

Studio: Pine Jam (Gamers!, Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desukara)
Genre: Drama, Romance​

Summary:

Spoiler:

At the end of the second semester of third year of high school, four students are prepared for graduation and feel the ending to their high school life. But that changes a little with the arrival of a transfer student.

This show's been on my personal watchlist since the moment I saw it on the livechart, and for no real reason. It was only upon watching part of the first episode that I realized that it was not only by the same studio as Gamers!, but it also has very similar character design, which is to say that the animation can tend to look kind of ugly.

This aside, I haven't seen setpieces this beautiful in a long goddamn time, and while I do feel that they're made this beautiful specifically with this being an episode 1 in mind, the environments really add a flourish of life to any scene that's given a penny's worth of attention, which is most of them. Another point in its favor is that its director, Atsushi Kobayashi, who seems to be completely new to anime, does a pretty solid job with this first episode, even despite the flow being incredibly easy to disrupt.

Anyone else watching this show?

 

[Mawa]

I am not, but it seems interesting. I will add it to my to-watch-later list.

 

[Kenchiin]

I have been following all the PV and stuff about this show previous to its release. I haven't seen any of the shows adapted/produced by Pine Jam, so this will be a first time.
Aaaaaaaaaand, just got the first episode so I'll let you know later.

 

[donavannj]

I'll probably give this a watch since others on PC are watching it so I can discuss it with all of you.

 

[donavannj]

Play by play reaction to episode one:

Spoiler:

mostly silent intro sequence, tho that lady's mouth looks weird for how it's animated

Some healthy back and forth banter among this cast already

This girl is a firecracker

This texting thing overlaying the scenery is a pretty neat way to show the conversations happening. Actually pretty neat.

Photos on the sly. She's a cheeky firecracker.

Oh hey I was wondering when he'd meet one of the others

I didn't need to see this dude in his tightie whities

Huh camera girl at it again

Pres now wants to figure out who this transfer is

And now they've started to pick up where they left off

Oho, did he hit a home run?

He did!

Ah good old fashioned friendly violence.

O dude damn he had an ulterior motive

Wait he knows pres?

 

[donavannj]

Episode 2 play-by-play:

Spoiler:

Is this from middle school?

Lol that's a way to get him not to tell

This might be a fun one.

Lol this guy is all nerves lol

Lol protag winced upon hearing her call his name

Great timing there haruto, you huge bundle of nerves

O jeez this is a loud one here

Dude wtf fondling people without permission is a rude thing to want

Lol his are probably nice and squishy

Izumi is so droll in his tone

Yeah you did haruto lol, but all hope is not lost yet; you can still recover

That's the spirit bro

Lol this naive little sister

Boys, boys, calm down

Oh hey it's a cute dog

Bro he's a bundle of nerves, he needs a wingman/wingwoman.

Lol there's your answer in the non-answer

Lol the kids were brought along

Bro you're doing great, kids love to talk your ear off about their passion

Blocked by the kid, but eh can't do much about that

I'm engrossed in this and have been forgetting to do a play by play hot damn.

O so that's why she ran off

Lol she's annoyed he got a recommendation while she hasn't

Lol he's playing dumb to let her know it's okay to drop it

Yeah figured that would be a way to get some points, bro.

Lol such a creative group name

Lol girl what are you an old lady while in your last year of school?

I know that feel izumi

Lol dude you're pretty high energy about this

Lol that message

And here's firecracker photo club girl

This ED is pretty chill

Oh Canon is a sponsor. Neat.

 

[Kenchiin]

03

So far most of the characters are utterly annoying (and the seiyuus are doing a great job, don't get me wrong).

Spoiler:

I love how Komiya gets so close to Izumi as if they were closed friends since forever, got me a couple of times during the episode.

Also: the bike scene, LMAO

 

[donavannj]

Whoops, forgot to comment on episodes 4 and 5 where some pretty serious happenings went down.

Spoiler: Episode 4 and 5 Spoilers

In episode 4 and 5, we saw Haruto's confession and then a denial and then a potential reneging of the denial by Mio. Meanwhile more people are figuring out Eita has the hots for Mio and Mio might have had the hots for Haruto.

Spoiler: Episode 6 Spoilers

Eita actually doing something by dragging Haruto back to the ball field, this time with his own ulterior motives. Mio's "confession" was a bit unexpected. Haruto is way to ecstatic about Hazuki telling him she needs time to think, lol. Photo club girl is really getting desperate for being allowed to use that photo.[/SPOILER]

I haven't really ever been this intrigued by a high school drama, honestly. Probably because there's not a lot of it that feels written for the sake of drama.