I’m not doing somersaults here, or even necessarily breathing a sigh of relief.  But that was certainly better than the first episode.  They took the fuzzy filter off (I’ve heard that Mizukami-sensei requested it on Twitter but cannot confirm that), and that definitely helped.  Apart from that things just looked more competent generally  – this episode had a better flow, and the dialogue was more natural.  It was still pretty devoid of any style at all, and NAZ would be best served to avoid showing anyone running as much as possible.  But on the whole, yes – better.

As a result of the production itself not being such a distraction, the story is able to delve into the characters a little more.  And of course with Mizukami, characters are everything.  Spirit Circle is a deeper and more philosophical – even spiritual – work, but Hoshi no Samidare is at heart pretty straightforward.  Yuuhi and Sami are the heart of the matter, but others become important as the story progresses.  Even the interplay between Yuuhi and Noi (the lizard), while mostly played for laughs to this point, gets quite nuanced as the story progresses.

The essence of Yuuhi’s character becomes clear here.  He’s a loner with a bullet –  to wit, his sicko grandpa (Naka Hiroshi) drilled the fear of commitment into him with the fervor of a religious cult.  This gets into some dark corners like child abuse, but for now it’s enough to understand that Yuuhi is no dilettante when it comes to his quirks.  Samidare is just the opposite, open and seemingly pellucid.  Yuuhi offers his commitment to her by choice – with his grandfather the connection is anything but.  But a lifetime of conditioning is not so easily sloughed off.

The other problem for Yuuhi is he’s a bit of a weakling.  Given his current circumstances that one is even more urgent, since his connection to Samidare continues to get him noticed by golems and such.  Suffice to say this is all developed better and more naturally in the manga, but at least we’re able to grasp the dynamic at work.  Yuuhi wants to get stronger, Sami believes in him, and even her big sister warms to him after a while.  The inference of Mizukami’s writing here is that seemingly normal people often have the exceptional about them – for good or ill – but most people never notice because they aren’t looking for it.

I won’t say I feel hopeful about Hoshi no Samidare, because based on the material it should be fighting it out with Made in Abyss for AotS and it, well- isn’t.  But with two cours (it seems) and a possible subsistence level with the production seemingly not out of reach, we might at least get something workable.  That would be a lot more acceptable if we hadn’t been forced to wait so many years for this moment.  But it’s better than I felt things stood a week ago, so I guess I have to count that as progress.