Episode 05 –
Personally speaking, Haru’s high pitched super-energetic personality still bugs the crap out of me. Aside from his presence though, this episode was absolutely fantastic at showcasing the changes Yuki has gone through since the beginnings of this episode. We’re starting to see him genuinely enjoy the sport of fishing, and his level of enthusiasm is infectiously cheery. The level of pure joy we see in Yuki’s pursuit of fishing, as well as the hurdles he struggles to overcome to match up to this enthusiasm, makes for a innocently fun and captivating tale.
Yuki is without a doubt the main centerpiece to this show, with his struggles to overcome his shyness taking to center stage in this episode. It’s already been well established that Yuki is an extremely introverted and shy fellow, which makes this episode all the more important because it throws him into situations where he must overcome his shyness. The overall result is a gradual push towards him into being more talkative, outspoken, and perhaps most important to note, happy. His growing enthusiasm is coupled with his efforts to overcome his anxiety, and the resulting atmosphere blindingly joyful. I daresay that this series is a iyashikei “atmospheric” series, though this show does have a bit more spunk than what you might expect from a healing anime.
Alongside Yuki’s blindingly bright optimism, though, there also seems to be some shadows brewing on the horizon. Ignoring Haru’s original goal of “saving the world”, the involvement of the Indian dude and the still unsolved issue with Natsuki’s parents still lingers in the shadows as unresolved issues. It seems that the Indian dude is starting to warm up a bit to the notion of “friends”, but it’s still quite obvious that he and the organization behind him have murky intentions based on their observation of Haru. This is just speculation on my part, but I believe that soon we’ll be seeing some extremely dark segments to the story; after all, there are sayings that go along the lines of “it is brightest before death”. Considering the saccharine tone to this episode, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a darker tone in the near future.
Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Distant Paradise 