Thread: Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky (TV).

Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky (TV)

It seems Crunchyroll is simulcasting a later showing (Thursday), I caught an earlier one.


This is what the encyclopedia has to say (although I expect someone will at least improve the grammar if not the description later):
The story centers around Kio Kakazu , a high school freshman living in Okinawa. During a memorial service for one of his family ancestors. A mysterious girl with cat ears appears before him indroducing herself as Eris and claiming that she is an alien. However She be more troubling than he first realizes.


If you're like me, that didn't sound too promising. Just another weak harem concept, Omamori Himari and Sora no Otoshimono come to mind as recent examples, but I was very surprised to see it is apparently a lot more. Really quality animation, very good character design, and what's more impressive, it actually seems to have a plot that's more than purely perfunctory.

Granted, this is still a show about an incredibly buxom, apparently simple-minded, mysterious catgirl from outer space that immediately and for no great reason attaches herself to a young, unassuming, easily flustered, bland schoolboy, and she does sneak, nearly naked, into his bed while he's sleeping, setting off the expected accidental fondling incident. But then there's the rest of the story and cast.

The opening sequence had me thinking I had downloaded the wrong show. [spoiler]In this first example of high quality animation, a navy ship is attacked by what it assumed was a commercial vessel. A seemingly super-powered female agent from the Navy ship, who could give Major Kusanagi a fight, jumps into the fray, materializing weapons out of thin air she impales and machine guns the crew on her way to the bridge, where the captain holds a detonator, ready to blow himself up. She disarms him, but when an alien craft zooms by and knocks them both over he regains the detonator and blows the ship into a fireball while she yells "Don't do it!"[/spoiler]

Then there's the introduction of the catgirl, Eris. And let's face it, her story is exactly the kind of silly fluff I DID expect. In body proportions, accessories and attitude she reminds me of Lala from To Love-Ru or Mizuho Kazami from Please Teacher (maturity somewhere in between). [spoiler]Her first transmission to the earth was that she was "coming to play. "She can talk to cats. She comes from a cat/humanoid planet that they too call Earth but decide to refer to as "Caita" instead to make it easier to differentiate, she has a friendly and sentient shipboard computer mascot with a cartoony cat appearance that can contact her holographically through the cat bell around her neck.[/spoiler] It's all really silly stuff... but I think there's actually a strange logic to this. I do however really like how the two discuss [spoiler]how completely unlikely it is for two alien races to resemble each other in humanoid appearance.[/spoiler]

After this introduction we meet what I expected to be a very typical harem cast. In fact, when I saw the preview a couple days ago, I went through the transparent character types as they went by the screen.

The Tsundere tomboy girl next door that barges into the house to fetch Kio. Everything you see reminds you painfully of the exact same character type in Omamori Himari and Sora no Otoshimono. And when she appears she does go through the motions, she teases Kio, calls him a pervert, interrogates and teases him about the girl she saw come into the house the night before and acts sufficiently shocked and humbled by the half naked catgirl who walks down the stairs wearing Kio's shirt, which cannot contain her giant boobs. But when she leaves after introductions and is given proof Eris is actually an alien, apparently to process the strange things going on [spoiler] we see her in her room, surrounded by guns and watching secret surveillance cameras of the two and she's contacting her superiors, confirming what she just saw and wanting to be involved in their further plans.[/spoiler]

We also meet a female teacher and club advisor of the two students. Apparently the requisite hopelessly single beautiful female teacher, a little scatter-brained and can't believe what she is seeing. But when she leaves [spoiler] We witness her reporting to some secret group in a computer chatroom. Together they discuss, how to keep the catgirl alien a secret from the world but NOT because they want to keep alien life secret, but because the alien in question is such an embarrassing example of an alien. A perky big-breasted catgirl alien? no, the want to hold out for a "beautiful first contact".[/spoiler] And there's the logic of Eris being such a ludicrous construct- if she wasn't, there wouldn't be a problem. And it also really tickles my funny bone, a nice little twist on why a group would want to "defeat the alien"

And finally we are introduced to the very typical meganekko. Big eyes behind glasses, dark hair, shy, and though she acts like a friend to Kio as they talk about movies, she obviously has a crush on him. Of course, by this time I knew she can't be what she seems. And sure enough, when their conversation is interrupted by a guy in car picking her up to drive her home we find out [spoiler]she's actually a highly trained and short-tempered professional assassin (to chastise the guy who picked her up for teasing her about maybe having feelings for Kio she informs him he's a dispersible messenger and shoots a bullet by his temple and into his windshield), in fact she is apparently the invincible woman agent from the first scene that we thought had been killed in the explosion. And she's been given the the assignment to kill Eris and Kio.[/spoiler]

So, all in all, a completely unexpected quality show. A show that is apparently shameless in its use of standard character types and story tropes, but wants to turn them around a bit and mix them up with what might be a quality, if still comedic, sci-fi story with impressive action sequences.

I have to say i was very pleasantly surprised with the first episode. The impression you get from the trailer and from the first episode are two completely different impressions of the show.
The first episode introduces a variety of characters that are already in some kind of conflict. So it atleast has the potential to being a show with an actual storyline that doesnt use its ecchi aspects for main support of the storyline. Granted this is based solely on the first episode so i could be completely wrong, but so far i think it definitely has potential.

Before watching it I was thinking that this will be another fluffy ecchi show with the inclussion of a catgirl with the crazy explanation of being an alien. Then when I started watching I was wondering if I was watching the right show, how does this fit into fanservicey catgirl.

Afterwards there was what I expected, strange girl with cat parts shows up and no one cares, they are partying and he doesn't even question the fact she said his pet told her to come. [spoiler]For some reason the uncle thinks it is a good idea to leave the stranger in the house of a past out teenager. We find out that the aliens speak Japanese, have cat ears aswell as human ears, and also their planet was called Earth, and being the superior species decided to change it to Caita.[/spoiler] Seriously this is pretty rediculous.

Then we are introduced to other characters, all the typical archtypes, nothing really original, but there is more then we see at first. It turns out [spoiler]that the three other characters each belong to seperate groups/organisations. Childhood friend is a spy, teacher is some sort of secret society and shy female friend is a cold blooded assasin. And each have been assigned along the lines of silencing or killing him and his new ET catgirl.[/spoiler]

Who would have seen all that comeing? This show might actually be quite the surprise if you expected mindless fanservice, the first episode in itself though just an introduction may have set the plot along more then just mysterious girl appears.

I also was expecting something as awful as Omamori Himari with a cliché, weak, jealous childhood friend and a harem setting. There seem to be harem, which can be good if executed well, but the childhood friend seem surprisingly strong and interesting for once. In fact all female characters seem more interesting than usual, though I strongly suspect our male protagonist will eventually save the day with some classic "lets not fight"- and "alien or human, Eris is Eris"-speech.

I'll be disappointed though[spoiler] if the story really is about killing miss alien because she is an "inappropriate" first encounter. Would bacteria be any better?[/spoiler]

This is... pretty dumb, so far, even despite some not so usual developments (which I still remain skeptical about). But catgirls are relevant to my interests... Maybe I'll give it another episode or two.

[spoiler]As no one is who they seem[/spoiler] I have the suspicion that the Uncle[spoiler] isn't just some joe schmo either.
... although as these type of stories go, the Uncle/Grandfather secretly being part of some organization that the orphaned nephew/grandson is now destined to be part of, maybe taking the place of deceased parents- IS the stereotypical storyline (Hello Maharomatic), so maybe that will be changed around too.[/spoiler] The thrust of the show does seem to be to change things around just enough to surprise.

I'll be disappointed though [spoiler] if the story really is about killing miss alien because she is an "inappropriate" first encounter. Would bacteria be any better?[/spoiler]

I'm expecting/hoping that this simply shows that the comedy is a bit more self-aware and satirical than the usual slapstick and nosebleed variety and will integrate the comedy into the drama instead of splitting it, like almost all action comedies these days. The usual pattern for a show like this is for the comedy to be all about the girls and guy's antics, but then the drama is taken discordantly seriously.

^ That's true. I think it'd be a shame, and an inevitable failure if the show suddenly decided it could be something more serious, or on the contrary, pursued only the routine (let's call it "Way of the Bounce"). It does have comic potential, with all those different agents having to play their roles around Kio, - the question is, how will they handle it.

This one was a nice surprising. May have to keep watching if it continues to be more than light hearted fan service.

Rewatched it on CR to catch the "official" translation and was curious if there would be any other differences... if one was "censored" or not-- not that there was really anything to censor. There was a sunlight glare on Elis in bed in both cases but that might not have been censoring.

Instead what I realized is that it benefited from a second watching. After seeing it once you now know who the girls in the opening sequence are and what they're talking about. Some other little details are seen and then there was also a scene you have to pause to see right [spoiler]of another girl we haven't met elsewhere walking out of Kio's room right before he wakes up, she's reflected in his glasses. the next episode should feature a girl with very long black hair, a large round sunhat and a large striped purse.[/spoiler]

And happily the CR dub gave a credible name to the cat. The fansub I watched tried to write it out phonetically and transcribed it as "Alrah" ??? It was of course "Aura". :lol:

Oh, how... unexpected to find a plot, and my favorite seiyu.
I must say that I didn't really like catgirl. I think I always face this problem whenever I see a character whose boobies went through a mutation or something. There's not enough jiggling for christ's sake!

So, that's why it's called Asobi ni Ikuyo.

So, back to my favorite seiyu... she's doing a role similar to Angel Beats' Tachibana, back when she was still the "Angel".
Whether she's is a typical archetype doesn't really matter. I doubt I have seen that many in this group done properly, and it's usually a class used for the "clumsy yet evil" type.

Just have to wonder, how much effort did they put into making the protagonist... generic? I can see that his role will be that of a talking statue.

The other characters were okay. Didn't expect his neighbour to start[spoiler] filming[/spoiler] them, though.

[spoiler]Specially liked the car scene. I really thought Aoi shot the man.[/spoiler] But she didn't, and I really doubt he'd ever make any other silly jokes while she's around.
So far Aoi seems the only character capable of bringing this anime some good serious moments.

Anyway, I think this could be pretty fun, and the potential is there.