We’re close to that time of the season where decisions really have to be made.  And while there are exceptions, it’s quite rare for me to pick a show back up for blogging purposes once I’ve dropped it so I like to be sure.  Sometimes that’s harder than others, and Iroduku Sekai no Ashita kara is turning out to be one of those times.  I’m still not quite ready to make a final call, but I can say that I’m leaning towards the negative more than I was a week ago.

The fact that Kakihara Yuuko created this series has been a point in its favor all along – she’s excellent at adaptions, and there’s no overstating how great her work with the original Tsuki ga Kirei was.  But there comes a point where the resume becomes irrelevant and it’s only the performance that matters, and right now Iroduku isn’t connecting enough as far as my palate is concerned.  It feels very conventional (apart from the Nagasaki setting, which is another point in the show’s favor).  The character interactions have a forced, overly-mannered way about them.  And while I admit it’s a personal thing, I have a problem with anime where the characters smile too much – like, all the time – especially when the camera focuses on them in close-up constantly.  And most of them do with this show.

I ride KyoAni about this a lot, but P.A. Works is guilty of it too – they have a studio aesthetic that tends to override the individual creators a lot of the time (with KyoAni I call it “the Homogenizer”).  There are exceptions with both studios – more so with PAW I would argue.  Uchouten Kazoku was a perfect example, a case where the studio clearly put Morimi-sensei’s vision first and did a series that was frankly out of character for them.  But too many P.A. Works shows tend to have an obsessive focus on their cute yet busty female leads doing things that are warm and cuddly and having adorable little arguments and snits which end with everyone laughing.  There’s a definite “you know it when you see it” quality to this – and I see it here.  Tsuki ga Kirei was a custom job – Iroduku Sekai no Ashita kara feels very much like a mass-produced model.

The other key factor here was the arrival of teen witch Kohaku, which I suspected was going to be problematic based on the way it was overhyped.  She certainly did shake things up – that was inevitable – but on balance not for the better, I would argue.  As I feared she’s an awful lot to take, and what we’re clearly supposed to take as charming eccentricity mostly plays as vainglorious childishness to me.  And seriously – why is no one batting an eye over the outlandishness of the idea that Hitomi has jumped back sixty years in time?  We’ve seen no indication that time travel is a known art or technology in this world – shouldn’t at least some of these kids be, you know, freaking out?

I do like some of what we have here, mostly where it involves the all too rare interactions between Yuito and Hitomi and the gorgeous Nagasaki cityscapes.  But ultimately, that’s not enough to sustain me for an entire cour, and unless Iroduku Sekai no Ashita kara shows me a significant reason next week to suspect that will change, that’ll probably be time to cut bait.  It won’t be a decision I’m happy about, but I’m pretty sure it will be right one.  Here’s hoping we get a pleasant surprise instead.