First Impressions: Castle Town Dandelion

Tuesday, July 14, 2015
First, apologizes for the delay; things came up off-line that took antecedence.

Now onto the post:

There have been quite a few series from this season that had manged to captivate my attention even months prior to the start of summer. Snow White with the Red Hair as one, but there was a few other titles as well, one of which is Jōkamachi no Dandelion- or if your prefer, Castle Town Dandelion.


Castle Town Dandelion is a adaption of a 4-Panel manga series that centers around the lives of nine super-powered children of the kingdom's royal family as their every move is filmed on camera and then broadcasts across the nation to help the citizens decide who they will vote to succeed the throne.

Castle Town Dandelion plays off a few different themes that I cannot say I have ever quite seen meshed together before; fantasy dipping into science-fiction elements with the array of powers each of the children bestow, slice-of-life and reality television mixed in. That alone makes things interesting and gives a lot to play with in addition to having such a large cast. The latter I admit I enjoy as I really do love large, ensemble casts.

As I write this the second episode has already up on FUNimation's web-site for streaming, but due to length I will be saving the next episode for a post that I hope will be posted later this week.


-Episode One- The Sakurada's Family Nine Siblings 



The series first introduces us to our main protagonist, Akane and the rest of the members of the Sakurada's family as they attempt to get ready for the day and overcome the ever changeling feat of being able to use the soul bathroom.   

From there the scene changes to the dinning table where breakfast is being served, and it is then when the illusion of normalcy is shattered and proved to be simply that as their father's  paper is pulled  from his hands and his face revealing he is sporting his crown.

Despite being royalty, the family lives a fairly typical life; living in a regular home rather than the castle, having home-cooked meals together and the siblings walking to school normally as they say hello to fellow patrons. That is except Akane, who towers behind her siblings and averts eye-contact with passersby due to her shyness. A characteristic that her siblings are shown to be use to, but none too pleased about as the comment is even made for Akane to 'get over it already'.

Aoi quickly tells Kanade to leave a nervous Akane alone as they continue on to their route to school. As they do so Akane narratives how it was their father's, the King's, policy that they all lead as normal lives as possible- but there are drawbacks to this- severance cameras placed around town that record every movement the royal family makes. Upon seeing one Akane becomes a sight of dismay and rushed out of view, something she had not been counting on as she had memorized their locations before being moved out of desire to not be filmed.

As Aio tried to comfort her sister, Kanade and Shu find themselves marveled at the fact that Akane had memorized such. At one point Kanade adds if she had done so she would use that kind of knowledge to show of to the citizens. This prompts a reminder about the election and flashes back to when the family was informed of the affair that is slated to take place after Aoi, the oldest, graduates from high school to see who will become the next king.

Even after the fact Akane still has a hard time believing that her father was serious. Rather than dwelling on the election the focus is snapped back to the present and Kanade and Shu, not wanting to be late, take off for school. Seeing her sister upset over the cameras, Aio offers to walk ahead and detract them as Akane makes her way to school. In theory it seems like a good plan- until Akane finds herself before the lens of a newly upgraded camera that prompts her to run as fast as she can.

Upon escaping the upgraded technology, Akane and Aoi are stating to run late. Not wanting to allow her sister to be late on her account, Akane uses her powers to fly the duo towards school. And all is going well- that is until Aoi request that her sister flies slower on account of her underwear showing. Prompting her to become embarrassed and lose her contraction.

The second half of the episode takes the core focus off Akane and her relationship with Aoi as the first half did, but rather places it upon all of the siblings as they take part of a game their father crafted for each of the children to show off their powers to the public as well as their personalities. In order to raise already high stakes, the lowers must clean all of the bathrooms in the castle. Seeing as Akane does not want any more attention on herself than she has already drawn, she is more than willing to stay on the side-lines and allow her siblings to partake as she takes the punishment. That is until she is reminded of all the people she would have to deal with if she lost.

Just looking over my summary of the episode (not even a full one at that!), we got to see quite a bit happen. Something that does not always happen with some first episodes, but I will admit it was not the strongest opener I have seen.

The pacing was good and it was great to see the different sides of Akane's life and get introduced to the cast and establish the plot.  Even though we seen quite a bit of Aoi I still feel like there is a ways to go with her as we have only seen her sister-y side. Akane, on the other hand, is well on her way to becoming a established character, she is a bit aloof and shy- but often times reminds me of Usagi from Sailor Moon.

And now I am starting to ramble, he-he.

Overall, Castle Town Dandelion is off to a good start and holds promise. I just hope  that they can keep it up. Naturally I will be watching as I am curious as how the story will go, more so as I have never read the manga due to a lack of English version.

4/5.
Picked-up.

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