Sasaki and Miyano ep1 – The Meet-Cute

Scott and I collaborated last season on an AMAIM seasonal review, which we will pick up as soon as the second cour airs. However, Scott mentioned that he was enjoying our collab so I pounced! 

I had read the Sasaki and Miyano manga and enjoyed it. I always thought that it was a very cute and lighthearted story. So when I saw it was getting an anime, I knew I wanted to watch it as it aired. And when Scott just sort of politely said our collaboration was fun, I took a mile and roped him into reviewing Sasaki and Miyano with me. 

So everyone, please thank Scott for being such a good sport! Thank you, Scott!!!

Hi Irina! Oh you don’t have to say that, but you’re welcome. I think this one should be fun.

Truth be told after watching Rakugo (which had these same vibes) and Given, I guess I was just interested in knowing a bit more. So yeah, I feel like this was an opportunity to check out this genre a bit more and I get to collab with you at the same time. I think that’s a pretty big win :). 

Sasaki and Miyano is a sweet slice of life story that is structured in short vignettes. It’s a lot more about the impression you get from watching or reading it than about what actually happens. And I realize now, that may not be the best choice for an anime to review weekly. Oh well…

I will say that this is possibly one of the sweetest and most overtly romantic BL anime that I have watched. Which I like but I wonder what you’re thinking Scott. There’s not much drama here to cut into the cuteness, is it giving you diabetes?

Well, that’s ok. I think there is still a lot to discuss on a weekly side. I mean, I do like some 4 koma anime and they are structured in the same way. I mean, I just finished Komi last week and that was about the same if a bit more linear. 

And honestly yeah, that was almost like pure sugar the entire way through. Damn it, what is it with this season that just has shows with this much sugar content in them? Yeah, I liked it too. These characters seem to somehow naturally do everything it wants to do.

I’m curious about how people are going to like the art style. Once again,  was expecting it but it does seem to be a bit more streamlined in the anime. It’s giving me retro vibes for some reason. Like a style that used to be popular but isn’t much used anymore. Although, I’m not really sure what I’m basing this on.

What did you think of the art style? In fact, what did you think of the production overall? It’s not a powerhouse but I’m digging the over-the-top floweriness of it all.

Oh, I do like the art style in this. I think it reminds me of Clamp’s art style perhaps? I mean, the way that Sasaki is so tall compared to the shorter Miya kind of injects that thought into my mind.

Still, generally pretty good. The anime just generally flows pretty well in terms of its production. The simplicity kind of just helps it moves around in ways that makes sense for it. I guess this is Studio Deen so they don’t have the best production levels, but they have shown a lot of good direction ever since they worked on Rakugo a few years ago.

One of the most striking aspects of this episode is how it was essentially a collection of the moments after Miyano and Sasaki meet, told in an achronological order. I thought it added sp,e interest to the episode and made me engage a bit more with what was happening as I was trying to piece the story back together. But it did make the timeline rather vague and I wasn’t always sure exactly what the course of events was.

I think this is likely to annoy some viewers even if it did work for me. What did you think, Scott?

Yeah honestly Irina, I was honestly a bit lost in the terms of the order of events at first and had to think about how each scene is related chronologically from the last and so on. But, I think it works in terms of the characters themselves. It feels like a narrative that flows on character thoughts and feelings. I like that fact.

I wonder how this show will handle the timeline as it moves forward a bit more.

Oh I really like that. The order is a stream of consciousness from the characters’ pov. That’s cool!

All in all, this first episode was exactly what I expected and wanted out of the show. It was very cute, very sweet, funny in bits and made the 25 minutes or so just fly by. I’m hoping for another Horimiya. Any thoughts on the first episode?

I’m kind of there with you, Irina. I didn’t know what to expect other than you telling me you liked it and what it was, but It was really sweet. So cute and so relatable in some ways when talking about manga and getting people casually into something deeper into it. Yeah, it just felt really comfy.