#Somali to mori no kamisama ep 1 series#

For his latest mission, he must investigate Ostanian politician Donovan Desmond by infiltrating his son's school: the prestigious Eden Academy. Operating as Westalis' master spy, Twilight works tirelessly to prevent extremists from sparking a war with neighboring country Ostania.

But you can’t force it – unfortunately.For the agent known as 'Twilight,' no order is too tall if it is for the sake of peace. I very much want this show to win me over, because it’s not like Yasuda or Satelight are all that prolific and it’s not like 2020 is looking like an especially loaded anime year. As vanilla as the execution was the general premise of humans hunted to near-extinction by faerie creatures has some appeal from a world-building standpoint, and the visual side of the world-building is certainly attractive. I didn’t hate the premiere, so I’ll give Somali to Mori no Kamisama another shot to prove my initial impressions wrong. Sometimes I don’t write much because I’m enraptured by what I’m seeing, but in this instance it was just because I wasn’t engaged enough to bother. But my notepad was conspicuously empty as the episode came to a close – I just couldn’t find anything that seemed interesting enough to write down. Ngheim’s backgrounds were indeed lovely, and I quite enjoyed the designs of the faerie creatures the titular Somali and her forest spirit guardian met in the city (especially the very Cheshire-like cat). There was a very formulaic, predictable quality to all of it. OK, getting past that… I found the story itself and its execution – even the music – to be pretty generic. As with the exposition it’s a shortcut, a cheat, reflecting either an unwillingness or inability on the part of the writing to do the heavy lifting of telling a real story about real characters. This was standard moeblob pap of the variety that’s become distressingly common in anime. The protagonist, the human girl Somali, grated on my nerves from the first scene she appeared in and that never got any better. Getting past that (hopefully that sort of thing won’t need to be repeated) we have larger and more systemic problems. I know that’s one of my buttons but seriously, that’s terrible storytelling.

One exception to that was the appallingly clumsy exposition scene in the cafe – that prompted outright irritation on a high level. And frankly, this premiere left me feeling mostly indifference. But you can’t force it – affection either comes or it doesn’t. It does indeed look very pretty, as the previews suggested it would, and in both look and feel it has a distinct air of Ghibli about it. It features an interesting staff headed by talented French artist Vincent Ngheim as Art Director. It features a director of a show I dearly love ( Ikoku Meiro no Croisee), Yasuda Kenji, and comes from the always potentially interesting Satelight. It would be a lot easier if I liked Somali unreservedly.

#Somali to mori no kamisama ep 1 series#

So to say I went into this series with pretty high hopes is no misrepresentation. While I didn’t (and don’t) really know anything about the source material, I knew the previews were good and I knew the premise sounded appealingly closer to high fantasy than anime in the 2010’s was wont to venture. And it begins with a show that was solidly in my upper mid-range of expectations, Somali to Mori no Kamisama. Another season, another year – and so we begin this merry dance again.