After watching Gundam SEED Destiny, I decided to move through some different genres. I had accumulated several different types of shows, and the first I've decided to catch up on is a show called Suzuka.

I'm going to continue using western style naming conventions, even though I know that in Japan, the naming is reversed.

Summary:
Yamato Akitsuki is about to become a new student at the local high school (which seems a bit confusing, as much of it is like college). On the way to his new home, an apartment building/bathhouse owned by his aunt and ... another relative (unclear on translation), he walks by the schoolyard to see a girl in training on the high jump and is enthralled for a moment. At the apartment, he will not only be living there, but also doing manual labor to "pay" his share. In the apartment, he meets an interesting cast of characters who live in this female apartment. One of these is the girl he saw in the training yard, Suzuka Asahina. He also meets up with Yuka Saotome and Megumi Matsumoto, two college girls who live nearby and use the bathhouse. It is during this time that he discovers that Suzuka lives in the apartment next to him. After a series of misadventures, Yamato goes to clean the steam room only to find that Suzuka has fainted in there from staying in too long. He rescues her, but she doesn't seem to appreciate his efforts. She does ask him to come help her train. At first, when she fails to make her jump, she thinks it is because she is doing badly until they both realize that Yamato set the bar incorrectly and she really set a new personal record. Thus begins the new series, with the two seeming to have reached a sort of understanding.

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I do have to say, when I first started watching, I was wondering if they could rip off Love Hina any more (not that Love Hina is the first "harem" show ever to come out of Japan). There are some key differences: instead of an anime centered on the idea of getting into Tokyo University through academics, the series looks like it'll be centered around the school and its sports team (judging from the closing credits anyways). Yamato doesn't seem to be a nerd like Keitaro, and more importantly, he doesn't seem to be a failure in everything he does. Unlike the early Keitaro/Naru interactions, he dishes out his fair share of sarcasm and jokes, but also shows a gentle side at times. The chemistry is somewhat different from Love Hina - it doesn't seem like its a harem series, more like an interpersonal relationship series. Plus - in all reality, we have a series that's named after one of the women, so at this point, it's a fair guess that's who Yamato will end up with. Overall, the series isn't slapstick like Love Hina, so we'll have to see where it will go.

Some thoughts: the story seems to be told from a rememberance phase by Yamato. Could it be he won't end up with Suzuka and that he's just thinking back on this time period? It's too hard to say.

I'm not clear what the family link is in this show. There is clearly an aunt, but I'm not sure how the little girl is related, be it cousin or sister. I'm going to guess cousin, since my Japanese skills are pretty bad.

Anyways, this show has an interesting beginning, and I'm looking forward to future episodes. Hopefully, they can continue to distinguish it from Love Hina (not that cloning Love Hina would be a bad thing, it's just that I've been reading the manga of late, so I'd like something different personally.

UPDATE: I've been told Suzuka is based off of a *long* manga itself. I'll have to look into reading that if its true.