H2O Footprints in the Sand 1, a first look at a new series.

 

     This anime is based in an Japanese adult visual novel for the PC and the PlayStation 2 and it was first released in June of 2006. The anime starts of with a basic retelling of the poem “footprints in the Sand“, with the visuals of a girl getting beat up by two guys, and then a boy sitting on a porch finishing off the poem. Then the show picks up with the male lead Takuma who is apparently blind being chased by a wild boar and just as it’s to get him a dark haired girl throws herself at him, knocking him to the ground and causing the boar to miss them. She gives him directions to the school but does not go with him, later when he finds his way to classroom the girl that saved him ends up sitting next to him.

     Later at school Takuma gets to meet several strange but cute looking girls who attend the school, then the spirit girl Otoha makes another appearance and she tells him that he’s the promised one and that she’ll lend him her power to help him see. It seems that the girl who helped him earlier in the day (Hayami) is being bullied by the other students and no one tries to help her. Hayami flees the classroom in anger, Takuma is shocked that no one aids her, and one of the other girls tells him not to get involved. Takuma feels badly about this and attempts to go after her, he stumbles through the halls and manages to find her and they talk about the incident. The other kids eventually find them and start bullying her again, Takuma tries to intervene but Hayami tells him to butt out and that he can’t help anyways. Later that night Takuma wakes from a dream and Otoha comes to him and asks if he hates being powerless and he says yes, she says that she’ll grant him a gift and it’s up too him whether he uses it or not. Otoha tells him that she’s the spirit of the sounds of time. The next morning Takumi meets Hayami where they met the other day and Takuma tells her lets go together, and it’s looks like Takuma has some sort of sight restored to him. That’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     OK, before watching this episode I had high hopes for this visual novel’s anime adaptation, but after watching this I was very disappointed. I didn’t find myself the least interested in the male lead Takuma, sure he blind and he’s nice but to me he’s boring. I did find Hayami kind of interesting, and I really felt sorry about her situation. The other girls in this anime are typical harem girls, you got a mean girl, a clumsy girl, a energetic girl and so forth, no new territory here. But my main problem with this series is the animation quality found here. If you look at the shot on the left, notice the lack of detail found in the girl’s face, in the middle picture look at the poor detail found in the girl’s eyes, and in the picture on the left notice the poorly drawn facial details of the two thugs, I don’t want to hear someone say that “there bullies and supposed to be ugly” that’s no excuse for poor quality.

     Now to the issue of fan service, look I don’t mind a good dose of fan service when it’s properly done, but give me a break, panties in the face of a blind guy, couldn’t they have found a better way to give us a dose of it. See pictures below.

     The plot-line of this anime might get a lot better, but unless the animation quality in this series gets a whole lot better I feel this series is mediocre at best. As the saying goes “you can’t put lipstick on a pig and make it look good”.