There have already been so many “Key-like” events in this one. We had Ayumi obsessing over stars in a suspiciously Fuuko-like manner, potential amnesia (really, who could that guy at the very end of the episode have been? I was getting some Komari vibes from the whole “I don’t remember having a brother, but I see him in my dreams” thing), the reappearance of Key Coffee, the start of a potential tight knit group of friends… The list goes on.
But other than that, the first episode felt different from a lot of what they’ve done before. They weren’t lying on Yu’s profile when they said that he was different from every other Key protagonist so far- rather than being an occasionally snarky straight man that’s actually a nice guy at heart, this guy is just, in the beginning, completely unlikable. (I only say “In the beginning” because it’s only the first episode, and Key IS all about character development, so who knows). Its refreshing to have a character like this, though, even if it’s hard to root for him right now.
Still, though, I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen to Ayumi before the series is over. Those types of innocent little sister types never end up unscathed in these sorts of shoes. Of course, I could be wrong- we can hope, since she’s undoubtedly the most “moe” character so far.
And finally, Nao. She kind of reminds me of Yuri in a lot of really obvious ways, but other than that, she’s the kind of heroine that would usually be a side heroine in a Key work, not what appears to be the female lead. She’s a lot tougher at first glance than any of the earlier lead heroines, and definitely the kind of girl that won’t take no for an answer. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up suffering the typical Key breakdown before the end though.
But with all that said, I really enjoyed the first episode. It was nice to see Key shaking things up a bit with character types and situations, and they left just enough pieces of foreshadowing to keep me interested. Looking forward to next week’s episode, when hopefully we’ll finally get to hear the much-anticipated opening by Lia.
