It’s good to see that the most important element of the Ryza no Atelier games has been kept:

I think I recognise this first episode as basically the game’s tutorial mission, from when Kiara streamed it a few years ago. A good idea to get all the setup out of the way, even if it did take a double length episode to do so. The plot so far is simple. Ryza is a farmer’s daughter with no interest in taking up the family farm. She has two friends, Lent, a muscular himbo and Tao, a weedy bespectacled book worm. She drags them into an adventure leaving their home island to explore the mainland, something that’s taboo and end up rescuing a visiting merchant’s daughter before being rescued themselves by the merchant’s ad-hoc bodyguards. One of which turns out an alchemist, which leaves a deep impression on Ryza and by the end of the episode all three friends have become the duo’s apprentices.

The story is okay, the animation is decent and there’s a lot of emphasis on Ryza’s thighs and other physical attributes. This is an adaptation that knows why people played this game. It is somewhat equal opportunity fan service however. The first shot we see of Lent is also focused entirely on his waist, penis bones and all. I liked this first episode but do hope they tone down the fan service a tad.

One of the hidden strengths of anime are its backgrounds and how just a simple shot can convey a setting or mood. Case in point, this shot from episode ten of Yamada-Kun To Lv999 No Koi Wo Suru:

This perfectly captures the feel of the city late at night. Darkness only broken by the artifical lights of the lamp posts, passing cars and shop windows. There are still plenty of people out, but they’re all on their way somewhere, nobody’s just hanging about. You can tell that the day’s heat hasn’t dissipated yet. No need for clock or caption to show what time this takes place. All of it shows just how odd it was for Yamada to show up at Akane’s apartment that night because he was worried for her. It immediately lends an intensity to the episode in a way that your average ‘your crush cares for you as you’re home alone sick with the flu’ just doesn’t have. The scene later in the episode, where he has to take her to the hospital in a taxi? I’ve been there.

An almost diametrically opposite mood is set in this scene from the same week’s Skip to Loafer episode, nine. It’s the Summer holidays and Mitsumi is back with her family, gotten out of bed late on her second day staying there, just munching on some water melon and letting her thoughts drift. As she eats her melon, she idly looks at her mother doing the dishes, before looking out of the window. There follows a series of landscape shots, with only the sound of her eating the melon for company. Again, it perfectly sets the mood. Haven’t we all had those moments of laziness, slowly waking up when you know there’s nothing that you need to do but relax?