Actually, there isn’t a ton of service in this episode. But the story certainly seems to be going places.
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The last two shots above were edited to remove the nudity, which we know thanks to an unusually early BD content leak.
The episode also leads off with a similarly cropped image that might also turn R-rated on BD:
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I have to say, for a show with confirmed nudity that’s based on an eroge, I was surprised just how little service this first episode had.
As far as the anime goes, I have to say it’s off to a surprisingly nice start.
The animation is a bit of a 3D cel-shaded effort that’s well done for the most part. The CG is only occasionally noticeable in a bad way, and the motion animation is surprisingly fluid. The overall production values feel a bit on the low side, but it’s in the easy to get used to kind of way.
There’s no forced plot and character cliches are nowhere to be found. There seems to be a bit of a harem going for the MC as could be expected, though it’s not rammed down our throats but telegraphed through facial expressions and reactions. WaraMete does a good job of allowing the characters to show us the feelings inside, rather than telling us.
There is a big twist at the end of the first episode. It’s not so much a revelation but rather an introduction into the strange alternate-dimension world Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete exists in.
It’s weird since most eroge are essentially porn, but eroge adaptations to anime have often been among the better anime ever produced. I’m not saying WaraMete is on its way to being on the same level as School Days or even Shuffle!, but it definitely feels a lot closer to those animes than it does to standard fare ecchi series such as Seikoku no Dragonar or Rail Wars! .
It’s been an usual season so far. How rare is it to get a true ecchi anime that’s actually good on an anime level? All the ecchi shows from this season are definitely giving a real effort at storytelling. It’s going to take some getting used to, though I would love to see this kind of thing be the new normal for the genre.
