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Episode Summary

Ikuto runs away from home due to relationship issues with his father, and while on a boat during a storm he falls overboard and is given up on by the crew. It seems like he is drowning, but then he wakes up on an island where a cute girl - Suzu - is trying to “save” him. She ends up making him worse and bringing him back to her grandmother’s house. Suzu’s Grandmother tells a story of how a boat of Japanese people were shipwrecked on that island and named the island Airantou after the ship.

Ikuto is put in Suzu’s care and the two travel back to her place where they are attacked by Ayane, who wants Ikuto for herself. Suzu thwarts Ayane’s efforts and the two arrive at Suzu’s, where Ikuto takes a bath and she joins him, causing him more than a little discomfort. When his pervert-induced nosebleeds subside, Ayane kidnaps Ikuto and runs away from him, only to be tripped by a waiting Rin, who gets all shy when she tries to talk to Ikuto about going back to her place. Yukino shows up with Kuma Kuma and tries to get Ikuto to go on a date with her. This irritates Rin and Ikuto escapes as Rin and Yukino fight.

As Ikuto passes through the village he thinks about how he needs to escape as soon as possible, and is very wary of women at this point. He runs into Chikage, who he thinks is a nice girl at first, but then she gets close to him with a scary expression and he runs away from her, only to almost be shot by a miko-girl hiding in the bushes.

At this point Ikuto is now running away from pretty much the entire village, but before he is caught Suzu jumps out and stops their advance. Her grandmother shows up and explains that he’s the only man on the island. Appalled by the notion of man-hungry women, he runs away again.

Ikuto tries to escape the island over and over again, driven by memories of his father’s taunts, but the whirlpools surrounding the island are too much for him. He finds a gap between two whirlpools, but is blocked by a whale and eventually learns that beyond that gap is the biggest whirlpool around the island. Saved by Suzu, he lays on the back of the whale and accepts he can’t leave the island, and then gets a nosebleed as he realizes how little Suzu is wearing.

Characters

Ikuto

Calophi: He’s a really nice and determined kid, and I guess the series wouldn’t even be happening if he wasn’t sort of innocent-ish. Any playboy in this situation would have let himself be passed from woman to woman, but it’s funnier to watch a guy struggle, I guess. I’m surprised he isn’t dead with how much blood he lost in this episode. Someone get this boy some nose-tampons!

Suzu

Calophi: Suzu must be the most innocent, ignorant girl in the village. Even the main girls younger than her know what a date is, and the difference between boys and girls. I have no idea why her grandmother would raise her this way, but it will turn out to be her advantage, because she will be the only girl that doesn’t want to, well, possess Ikuto, which will make him be in her company more often. As the series goes on, she will almost assuredly end up being jealous and not know why.

Suzu’s Grandmother

Calophi: Suzu’s Grandmother is taking the role of the mentor or overseer here. She will most likely keep herself out of the “unique” situations that Ikuto will get himself into and just observe what’s going on. She probably hasn’t had this much entertainment in years.

Ayane

Calophi: I don’t like Ayane. I think she’s annoying, and sort of reminds me of a combination of the Shiho’s from Mai HiME/Mai Otome. What will she do once she has Ikuto? I bet she has no idea. She probably just doesn’t want Suzu to have him, and possibly considers herself a rival to Suzu in general. She’ll probably be the first to realize she loves Ikuto further on in the series.

Rin

Calophi: Rin is strange. She started off looking like she was the stoic tough-girl type, but she got all blushy and giggly and weird when she was trying to get Ikuto to go back to her place. She’ll have funky mood swings like that throughout the series, most likely.

Yukino and Kuma Kuma

Calophi: How old is this girl, like, seven? Which mother is letting this kid run around terrorizing a boy with a bear? She’s much too young to even consider having Ikuto as hers, though at least it seems that she only knows what dates are and not what being with a boy could eventually lead to, which is good. I’m sure later we’ll be told how she met Kuma Kuma (I’m almost positive Kuma means bear in Japanese), but I don’t really care about her.

Chikage

Calophi: Now Chikage is an interesting character. Usually girls that look like her are really sweet, and she seems that way at first, but then she goes all mad-scientist and wants to use Ikuto for research, and that’s just hilarious. I totally dig the evil glasses-girl thing she has going on. I’m sure we’ll be seeing weird inventions from her later.

Miko Girl

Calophi: Although Ayane is wearing more traditional clothing, this girl wearing red seems to be more miko-ish. They haven’t given her name yet, but since in all the group shots she’s one of the people that gets to be clearly drawn, she’ll have more of a role to play in the future.

Storyline Thoughts

Calophi: The storyline…meh. I don’t see much happening really - he’ll end up spending time with each girl one by one and making them fall in love with him somehow. That’s how this sort of thing works. What would make this series good or bad is how he does it, and how the characters develop because of their interactions with him. Also, I feel the need to predict… the first girl wins.

Eurkos: I didn’t really have anything to add to the character thoughts (again). As a first episode in a series like this, we didn’t really get to see a whole lot of character personality except for Ikuto and Suzu. Like Calophi said, storyline probably won’t be the main drive here. It’ll be mostly back story of things about the island, and character development.

Final Verdict

Calophi: Even though it seems like it will be fairly predictable, my interest in how relationships will develop lets it pass to the 6-episode test. It better be damn good for me to keep up with it though, because besides character development I can’t think of anything else in particular it has going for it at this point.

Eurkos The fact that its as light as it is might be what gets me to keep watching. It was kind of amusing for the most part. It’ll have to pick up some slack to keep it going, but it could be a refresher series, so the other ones I’m watching that are story heavy don’t make me feel burnt out.