{Lighty Lively}

Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~ Episode 1: The Tokimeki Encounter

Opening Sequence
Theme: Yokan
Vocals: Makishima Yuki as Amamiya Sayuri

The music for the opening sequence was average, but there were some interesting characters in the animation. I’d like to see them in action in future episodes…

Ending Sequence
Theme: Kiseki no Kakera
Vocals: Makishima Yuki, Yoshikawa Yukako, Fujita Saki as Amamiya Sayuri, Kasuga Tsukasa, Yayoi Mina

Next Episode Preview

Highlights:
-The male population of the student body is in hot pursuit of Riku for his nekomimi.
-Riku remembers earlier events, when he transfers to the new school.
-He gets confused about the many people wearing accessories (i.e. afros) at school.
-Riku’s teachers are complete weirdos, ranging from the chem teacher who tries to feed a student his potion to the literature teacher who ‘dies’ during lecture.
-The only normal teacher seems to be Riku’s English teacher.
-Riku meets Sayuri, his Class President who every guy has a crush on.
-Riku’s seat is between the school thug and the too-cool-for-school dude.
-During lunch, Riku feeds a crazed, little chick that eventually takes a liking to him.
-The president of the Student Council forces Riku to wear a pair of pink nekomimi to ‘increase his popularity’.
-Riku goes to the library, looking for Sayuri, but ends up helping a girl getting a book from the higher shelves.
-The Student Council announces a contest for grabbing Riku’s nekomimi to every guy in school, in which the winner gets Sayuri’s e-mail address.
-The pursuit for Riku begins.
-The girl who Riku helped is Mina.
-The chick that Riku fed earlier beats up the school thug when he gets close to catching Riku.
-The chasers start giving up on Riku, while Riku is running out of steam and crashes at the base of a tree.
-Sayuri gets Riku’s nekomimi and ends the pointless contest.
-The male students believe that the president of the Student Council has now gotten Sayuri mad and start chasing him.
-Riku is left alone at the tree and he wonders if he’ll live through this school.

Next episode: “The Tokimeki Destiny”

Impression
Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~ exceeded my expectations for the show. Riku’s constant flashbacks to events earlier during the day were confusing at first, but understandable the second time I went through the episode (when I took the screenshots XD). The show has some hilarious parts, like the whacky teachers and killer chickie, and I’d like to see who some of the other interesting characters are (i.e. that track guy). The girls’ angular faces still bother me.

Overall, the art quality is average and non-resplendent, save for the frequent sunbeams. It’s still too early to judge how deep any of the characters, but Riku passes off as a generic, kindhearted guy thus far. There seems to be a subplot about Riku’s attempting to survive through his crazy school in addition to his (unaware?) conquest of the heroines’ hearts, so by that merit, I’m interested in watching a few more episodes of this show and perhaps bloggings another episode or two.