I just caught the first episode on animate.tv and I’m very happy to announce…. the quality is very, very good!!! :D Although the anime looks simple, with slow panning shots, etc, they made good whatever little animation there was in the anime, walking, talking, blinking, etc. The characters were translated nicely into their anime versions and came alive because of the sheer prettiness of it all. Beautiful backgrounds and lovely colours! Almost every shot and angle looked lovingly drawn and animated. Pacing was ok too.
Each episode is about 11 minutes long (with opening and ending). Yep I just found that we can catch the first episode FREE. Sign up for a free account there.
Register: https://licence.animate.tv/regist.php
Watch: http://www.animate.tv/anime/details.php?id=68
My connection was kinda slow, so I try to forget the fact that I just spent 1+ hour trying to watch a 11 minute broadcast by compiling the screen caps of the first episode! Before I knew it, I actually took over 150 of them lol~. There are just too many pretty images! :P
Updated with youtube video below the cut! English subs will probably be out soon. Don’t read on if you don’t want to be spoiled. SPOILER SCREEN CAPS + ENGLISH SUBBED VIDEO BELOW THE CUT.
Summary:
Yahisa Tsukiko is the first female student to enroll at Seigatsu Academy, a former all-boys school specializing in astronomy. She is closely watched over by her childhood friends, Nanami Kanata (Pisces boy) and Touzuki Suzuya (Cancer boy), who often protect her from the male student body. Throughout the story, she befriends other young men whose personalities are based on the Western zodiac constellations.
In the first episode, not long after Tsukiko transfers to Seigatsu Academy, a half-French boy named Tomoe Yoh (Capricorn boy) follows suit to pursue her. This action stirs up emotions from Kanata and Suzuya, both of whom had long loved Tsukiko.
Spoiler Screen cap + summary start:
The anime starts with Capricorn boy, Tomoe Yoh reminiscing the past… what a cute little boy.
One day he was gazing at stars. He dropped his telescope and couldn’t find it among the bushes. A girl found it and handed it to him.
They began chatting about why they liked star gazing and all…
Then the girl noticed that Tomoe Yoh had very different colour eyes. He was sad because he was teased a lot for it.
But she found them very pretty! And introduced herself as Yahisa Tsukiko :D Such a cute shot. Even I am won over lol~
Back to current time. Tomoe Yoh is thinking that he is finally going to meet Yahisa Tsukiko again. His mum enters his room. He apologies for making a selfish demand but she responds kindly to him. Next day he attends Seigatsu Academy as a transfer student.
Teacher Haruki Naoshi sensei gives Tomoe Yoh an introduction about the school and the subjects that they teach.
Giving us an opportunity to look at almost all the boys in their beautifully drawn anime form. Tomoe Yoh asks about the only female student in the all-boys school. He will be in the same class as she is.
Flash back to why he made the decision to join the school. His parents are planning to move to another country (I can’t remember… US? I think) for an astronomy research job his father is taking up. As he lived in Japan for a period of time when he was a child. He requests to go back to Japan because he has an important person to meet before joining them. It has always been his dream to be able to study astronomy (If I’m not wrong). They are very supportive and give him their blessings to find his important person because they found each other in Japan too.
Back to the class. Childhood friends Yahisa Tsukiko, Nanami Kanata and Touzuki Suzuya are chit chatting. Haruki Naoshi sensei enters the class and asks Tomoe Yoh to introduce himself.
Haruki Naoshi sensei asks Yahisa Tsukiko to take care of Tomoe Yoh since they will be sitting next to each other. Yahisa Tsukiko greets him and he reveals that this is not the first time that they met.
That catches the attention of Nanami Kanata and Touzuki Suzuya… and it concludes the first episode.
The ending animation is very pretty too. But… try to overlook the glaring spelling mistake of “DISTINY” (Destiny) and bad grammar ^^;;
Very nice in general. This is definitely THE bishonen/otome anime to watch out for in the coming year besides the BL anime Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi in 2011 :) I’m so glad!
Title: Starry Sky vol.1 -Episode Capricorn- Special Edition DVD
Price: 5,800yen
Release date: 23 February 2011
DVD includes episodes 1 to 2, pillow case, booklet and a special DVD with bonus 10 minutes footage.
Running time: 30 minutes
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I didn’t really have a choice. XD; There wasn’t any space for a shelf so I had to DIY. >_<
Yes! Hahaha, kind of like a contented grandpa..? XD
@Luvi: wall-mounted can look good too but you’ll have to dust it more often.
Lol~ yes! Now that you mentioned it, he DOES XDD
True, true. ;_; I have too many things I’m interested in too.
It’s pretty small though. Just a simple wall-mounted ledge. orz I may expand it if I can somehow find space for a small cabinet. >3
I loved the part where he just hugged Tsukiko in the middle of their tea ceremony practice. So cute. >A< …I'll be pretty refreshing to date a guy like that. XD
Hahaha Hoshizuki-sensei was pretty taken by the cat-speak. And it sound so natural for him for some reason. XD;
@Luvi: Yeah… :3
It’s wall-mounted? No wonder your mum calls it the Shrine :D Ah~ a glass cabinet would be nice too.
Yeah, I agree, he sounds very natural compared to the rest of the cast lol~ I can imagine him like a laid back cat who is observing all the frantic action happening around him with an amused look on his face.
@ponytale – Ah. XD Figures and merchandise are usually on the top of my list, followed by games. There’s a higher chance of them selling out during the pre-order period if you compare the two. :3
(Except both the Brother Conflict otome games. They’re right on top no matter what happens. >_<)
Yup. That, and because I'm running out of space in what my mom calls 'The Starry Sky Shrine'. XDDD;;
Oh, speaking of which, have you listened to the ~in Bitter Season~ CD? Tsubasa was so adorable in there. X3
@Luvi: Yeah… we have our weaknesses. If only I like just one thing or two then my resources wouldn’t be spread out so thin (T_T)
Lol~ The Starry Sky Shrine! I would love to see that XD
I listened to Bitter Season! Tsubasa is exactly like his chibi form in the calendar wallpaper. So mischevious :3 I especially liked the boys talking with the “Nyaa” and “Wan” in their speech, thanks to Tsubasa lol lol~ Hoshizuki-sensei is so cool with the whole thing tho’ which makes him even cuter.
@ponytale – Nah, I’ll be too broke to do that in April. >_< I'm getting the Kuroneko nendoroid too. :3
You've gotta love the number of male nendo GSC is churning out in 2011. X3
Yeah, it's the covers that made me want to collect them in the first place. Tokuten, I only collect those with the prettier jacket art. XD;
@Luvi: Ah~ icic Kuroneko is cute too. I’m resisting getting her tho. I have a BL game coming in April =_= so add on the other Nendo boys and the miscellaneous goods (High school Izaya/Shizuo’s dakimakura covers lol~) and CDs I’m sure that will pop up during that period. It will be quite a month OTL.
Yep, I’m glad they’re finally looking at our direction :D
Lol~ at least you’re a practical collector :3 The oyasumi one looks nice too.
@ponytale – Ahahaha. I have 5 nendoroid for April. OTL I’m hoping Starry Sky doesn’t suddenly decide to release some CD or merchandise in that month. >_<
Nah, I'll wait. I want to be the first person to remove the CD from the plastic wrap! X3
I've been collecting every single CD and game Honeybee has released for the series. XD The hitsuji CD with the baka trio is the only exception. :3
I kind of like the idea of the mail-in special though. At least it's free. XD
@Luvi: so far the boys for April: Kyon, Hideyoshi, the two Bakuman boys… you ordered multiple copies of Kyon, right :P
Wow… the collection will look beautiful if displayed cos the covers are so lovely! You also manage to collect all the tokuten so far? :O
Lol~ you have a good point about the mail-in special XD
@Luvi – Yep, Ouran! As for TnC… sigh I kept watching out of loyalty and the hope that it’ll get better but it only got worse. So no loss for you there.
o_O wow that’s very good financial planning. April is going to be such a killer cos there are so many boy figures being released at that time.
Icic. Maybe you can ask her to rip it for you and upload it so that you can listen to it :D Woah! You’re completing the Danna collection! Awesome X3 I always thought that honeybees is really $$$ smart (and evil) to make Ophiuchus as a mail-in only special OTL.
@ponytale – Ah, yeah. Ouran was pretty well done. :3 Togainu no Chi. orz I dropped the series after 2 episodes. XDD;;
I’m probably about as broke as you are. XD But I try to plan my pre-orders at least 6 months in advance so I can decide on which items are higher up on the to-buy list. OTL
Yeah, I’m going to wait for all the tokuten to be announced before I place orders for the later 3 games. =3= I haven’t received the Oyasumi CD yet. Trying to save on shipping by getting my friend to send it over after she gets the Ophiuchus danna CD. <3
Hmm. Maybe it’s just me being nitpicky, but the animation isn’t as smooth as I hoped it would be. =/ The series that are aimed at guys, Ore no Imouto for a recent example, seem to get the better animators. If you pay attention to the facial proportions of the characters, you can tell they’re jumping all over the place. >_<;
Oh speaking of which, did you get the ~after Spring~ FD? It has a really pretty packaging! <3
I made a blunder and ordered it from HoneyBee's official site instead of Animate though, so I ended up buying the Starry Sky x Hitsuji CD off Y!A instead. OTL
@Luvi: Nope, you’re not being nitpicky ^^ I also agree it is not the type of high standards that people come to expect from usual male-targeted series. But I guess when you compare it to the usual otome anime standards, it’s great but definitely could be better… like say Ouran standards! And let’s not get me started on the atrocity that is by the name of Togainu no Chi anime…
No dear, I didn’t even though I read really good reviews for the game because I’m just too broke. (T_T) I need to win the lottery to pay all my bills on hand already. Anyway, can’t blame you tho… cos Animate didn’t announce their tokuten information until much later. How is the Animate Oyasumi CD? :D I hope you enjoyed it.
@ponytale – Yep, I miss Junjou, so those stars made me think about it too! Deen does a nice work, the animation is better than TnC, A-1 should be ashamed…
Oh my, I’ve seen the last episode, one of the worst last episodes I’ve ever seen, just hate it! My most awaited animes have disappointed me a lot, I had great expectations on Kuroshitsuji II and Togainu no Chi and they ended up being a big crap to me. Now let’s just wait Sekaiichi, it’s more than time to have another BL show on tv!
Ponytale, have a great Holiday time, I wish you all the best, with many bishies at your side! <3
@planck-chan: Yeah… no idea why they went with A1. Must be budget constraints. There are lots of complaints from the Japanese fans too. I read their comments of the screencaps of those incredibly ugly shots of anime Akira and the gang and I laughed ^^;; I wonder how much will be improved in the DVD =_=;;; Maybe it ‘s a tactic to make people buy the DVD OTL;;; I haven’t seen the last episode of TnC yet. Busy busy! I’ll brace myself for the horror later. Thanks for your warning :P
Wishing you all the best for the coming year too! AND YES! Surrounded by your favourite bishies as well XD *HUGZ*
@planck-chan: Just watched the last episode of TnC. The animation of the fighting scenes were truly horrific. OTL. And what’s with all that nipple flashing out of the blue DX
@planck-chan – That’s great! Glad you can enjoy it too! Thanks for the youtube link. I updated the post with it X3
YES. They look so beautiful! Although I have to say… DEEN probably used a few animated bits from Junjo lol~ the yellow bright stars flying across the screen during the transitions definitely got me thinking JUNJO! when I saw them.
Hehehe Engrish XD it’s cute, that’s true! I don’t think they’ll correct it since the DVD is probably already in production lol~
Oh… TnC anime (T-T) sigh… such a disappointment. Anyway they’re showing the last episode today.
@ponytale thank you, I did it before but still doesn’t work here… but I’ve just found it on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tU8lP5OqvM Thanks for the review / summary cos I don’t understand japanese… later we’ll have a subbed version.
Bishies look nice on this anime version, beautiful colors and character design. And it seems an enjoyable show, at least hope it doesn’t upset me like TnC did. LOL ‘Distiny’… let’s wait they correct it next time XD or no, maybe “engrish” is cuter.
@planck-chan – after you click the 1M button, it should take you to the next page with the video. You need to click the play button on the video panel and it should start up :O I just checked. It works. Hopefully it works for you too!
Oh noes, I can’t watch it T__T! Even after registering, everything went well but I click on the 1M button and then the vid doesn’t load =( I want to watch it!