I'm really glad I didn't read too much into this anime before going into it as that might have have really ruined the twist at the end of the ep, but Even after reading the Synopsis for it they don't really give anything away.
I honestly can't say I saw that coming and I'm actually kind of impressed they played it straight up till the end. Most anime would give out tons of hints and ruin the surprise but this one restrained itself really well and in looking back on it there were a few hints but done really well and subtly, but I won't go into details as I'd like to avoid too many spoilers.
I almost want to re-watch the first ep with the different perspective. I think the whole thing is extremely clever and pretty well executed.

I'm a real connoisseur of SOL anime but when watching this I couldn't help but feel the characters were a bit dull and forgettable. It almost felt kind of like the type of anime you'd expect to see get 3minute eps streamed online.
That was before the end of the ep which really flips the show on it's head. The characters almost instantly went from being boring and generic to making me wonder what's going on in their heads and how they can act the way they do with all that's going on around them.
I was really at a lose for words when the ep ended and couldn't decide how I felt about it. I think it's very well done as I said, but part of me is screaming to drop this show now, while the other part really wants to see where they're going with this. I'm definitely gonna have to give this a few more ep to try and see what direction they're going in. There's only two paths I can see them taking, and one of them I really don't want to think about..

edit:
I just found out what direction they're going in based on the manga.. and I'm dropping it.

Post edited on 10th Jul 2015, 12:28am

I love the manga and I will totally check the anime adaptation.

What a tweest. I like shows with cute girls, and this one is kinda going towards something original, so I'll keep watching it.

>>23471
I agree with the first part. It left me speechless by the end.But seriously Mii-chan was reading The Stand by Stephen King. I saw that and knew everything was going to go down hill but in a good way. I definitely want to watch it again but maybe just watch the series over once its done airing. I loved it though and plan on watching it all the way.

The animation was done really well too and honestly even if it was just a slice of life the humor is done pretty well. I laughed so hard when the dog opened the door.

>>23474
That book was kinda hard not to notice. I didn't think much of it though since girls in anime are always reading books that have little to nothing to do with the plot. I will say though that at times it felt like they were shoving that book in the viewers face, like they wanted people to see it.
Still, lots of sol anime do weird stuff that one who doesn't know better might think has darker implications but don't. Rize in Gochuumon for example caries a freaking gun on her for no reason. So stuff like girls reading questionable books or carrying shovels around could easily be written off as just character quarks.
Even though I said I've dropped it, it still left an impression and there's a part of me that still wants to keep watching even knowing what I do. Morbid curiosity I guess... ...I really liked that teacher ;_;

This episode was by far the best first episode I've watched in a while. The director really understood exactly how Yuki's psychosis works in narrative, and went above and beyond to portray that in a way that gave winks to the fans of the manga series, and naturally guided the uninformed to the revelation. The only students besides the surviving ones that had visible facial features were the ones that immediately sat around her, with the others in the class simply having vague features and identifiers, and some obvious stand-ins for concepts being monochrome and having limited movement. There was a very visual and unspoken way of getting the point across.

Not just visually either, the usage of open air sound effects in the hallway and the general silence on the school rooftop was a great choice in sound direction. There was simply so much going on in the episode to set up Yuki's delusion in the mind of the viewer, and a general understanding to how memory works that I could easily write a paper on it. Which strikes me as a surprise me that the director's career is so sub par outside of White Album 2. This isn't something that most directors get, at least not in practice.

However, therein lies the problem: they will likely not top the first episode. The manga itself is good, and the episodes following this might certainly be good in their own right. But they've simply set the bar too high.

>>23475
It's likely a call back to Mii's backstory in the manga. She was at a bookstore buying English language novels for study when everything started going to hell. It was by sheer irony that she was looking at a copy of The Stand when her and her friend ran for the employee rest area. Great book, by the way, but a horribly depressing thing to get stuck reading. Considering how the world is considerably worse off in that novel, it will at least provide necessary inspirational material. Maybe.

Post edited on 15th Jul 2015, 2:10pm

Will they protect that smile?

>>23512
Oh you just wait.

This might be a bit off topic but I decided to check out The Stand because of this anime. Now I feel really sorry for that girl to be stuck reading such a horrible piece of garbage. Easily one of stephen king's worst works I've come across yet, and not just because of the heavy handed religious themes but over all it just felt so lazy and slapped together.

They did a really good job of building tension this episode, even if it's something we've seen a thousand times in apocalyptic stories it was presented really damn well.

The French weren't that good in WWI.

I watched this shit because someone said there are zombies, which ruined the twist a bit

But I mean, holy fuck, end of episode 1 and this shit got really fucking dark really fucking fast.

Aww shit, I fucking knew it.

I had my suspicions from the very beginning:
1. she wears a cross, were Christianity is not very popular in Japan, and it was too big to be fashion
2. people keep ignoring her
3. she didn't drive the car.

And then this episode she ended up in the music room all of a sudden.

Pink's hat on the title looks suspiciously like devil horns.

>>23811
You've never seen necomimi before?

This is one of the shows l enjoyed watching the most from the current season so far, expected it to do well in Japan, but sadly l was wrong last time l checked the sales.

Even though the zombie apocalypse is used over and over in all kinds of media, mixing it with a slice of life setting is actually an original idea in my eyes.

Will pick up the manga later on.

>>23812
I have, in real life too, no less.
But for the title, it looks more like horns than ears.