A short look at Natsu no Arashi!

A most intersting show by SHAFT this season featuring a couple of girls who have the ability to travel back in time.

I didn’t realise Natsu no Arashi was animated by SHAFT until they started doing references to their previous works such as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei though the animation style did bug me as something rather familiar.

“Zetsubou shita!”

The first episode essentially did no in-depth character introduction whatsoever except to show us the characters involved in the show and bring us on a time paradox road trip.

Typical SHAFT style

The main protagonists of the show are Hajime (left) and Arashi (right). Arashi and Kaya (the white haired character) both have the ability to travel back in time though this seems to have a few limitations. They seem to require a partner in order to time travel and cannot meet their past selves or they will be destroyed. Also, they seem to only be able jump to a particular time and must return back to their original time before they can jump again to yet another time.

“OMFG MAH HANDS!”

Did I mention that there’s a reverse trap in the show?

I guess after one season of delicious trap goodness Maria Holic they decided to go for the opposite end of the spectrum.

Unlike Mariya, her act sucks

Anyway, for this episode, the main focus is this innocent looking strawberry which, despite its unassuming look, is actually loaded with enough firepower to blow your tastebuds to outer space and maybe further. Apparently it is Hajime’s independent study project.

It reads “Strawberry Bomb”

Sleeping Beauty’s apple ain’t got nothing on this strawberry

I guess the interesting part of the show is how seemingly innocent events that happen in the beginning of the show are actually caused by the time travelling hijinks by the characters. I’ve made a timeline listing the events as they unfold. It’s not as complicated as the timelines for certain shows so it should be easy to understand.

You can click for a larger view

However, I felt the mahou shoujo-like transformation scene was in rather bad taste though. Then again, I never did like those scenes.

Based on what I can gather, the characters have some rather interesting backgrounds which haven’t been revealed yet (well, it is the first ep afterall) so this may prove to be an interesting watch. Certainly something I’ll be keeping my eye on.

The cake is a LIE

Random yukkuri is LOL