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Genres: Comedy, school-life
Studio: ufotable
OP: “A Happy Life” by Megumi Hayashibara
ED: “Lucky & Happy” by Megumi Hayashibara
Official Site: http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/manabi/ | http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/manabi/ | http://www.ufotable.com/manabi/

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Wow, talk about a giant loli fest! You are bombarded with cuteness and moe the instant you begin watching this show, and that’s an especially good thing for those lolicons and paedophiles out there. Apart from the lolis. A few famous voices are also present. A few you might notice are Hirano Aya, who voices Mei; Horie Yui as Manabi, as well as Nonaka Ai who does Mika. Nonaka Ai is the seiyuu who voices Konoka from Negima by the way. Even so though, it’s a bit frustrating since I’ve heard these voices before, but they were all attached to more matured bodies than this. Thankfully, my tolerance of bad or unfitting voices will save me from this in no time. Storywise, Manabi Straight has a lot of potential, but being a school type anime, it can only go so far. The quality is very high, while the colouring, backgrounds and the hair gradients are all especially pleasing to watch. I will definitely blog this, though being an anime about nothing will be pretty hard to write about each episode. I’ll come up with something though.

Short Summary:

Not exactly sure but, it seems like Amamiya Manami (aka Manabi) is on a train to her new home when the episode starts. Why isn’t her brother or family with her? Who knows! All that’s important is that she is teary eyed, probably because of leaving her old home, but at the same time bursting with joy for her new life (emphasized by her screaming out “t’s beginning!”) Anyway, as Manabi heads to school late on her first day, she meets up with a fellow student called Mika Inamori, who is also a member of the student council. Manabi takes out her hover scooter and gives Mika a lift to school, where her class is having a swimming competition.

After getting herself and Mika wet by falling into the pool, she changes into her swimsuit and prepares to race. Being new, none of the other students know who she is, but she sure makes a lasting impression by getting tangled in the pool dividers as soon as she dives into the water. Fast forward a bit to a day when Mika is giving a speech about the student council and candidates for a new president to a sleeping audience, Manabi crashes into the hall and announces her wish to be a candidate for the next president. However, she is not allowed to do so as she does not know anything about the school council.

Manabi then gives a speech about the student council and other related stuff, but only ends up boring the audience further. In the end, she gets up on stage and sings the school song. Everyone is so touched by this that she is made president of the school council. Of course, when everyone closes their eyes and unanimously envisions an environment full of beautiful cherry blossoms, you know how much they like the song. Later on, Manabi introduces herself as Amamiya Manami to her new class. And throughout the episode, various characters from her new class are introduced.

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