Futakoi Alternative Episode 1: Croquettes, Helicopters, Underground Boxing and I

Opening Theme

New World by N.U.B. Be Yumi

Ending Theme

Bokura no Jikan by eufonius

(Yup, the same group who performed the ED for the previous Futakoi)

Summary:

We start out with an attack on an aircraft by a strange, white.. thing. Twins Lulu and Lala are set off to deter the thing from attacking them, while making their escape.
They end up at Futagotamagawa¹.

The next scene shifts to Nikoniko² Financiers, where the main male character, Rentarou Futaba, being held by the Sakurazuki Group, who own the company. A personal vendetta with Rentarou’s father³, which cost Zenji Sakurazuki (CEO of Nikoniko Financiers and gangster boss) his left arm, among other things, was the reason Rentarou is where he is now. He’s now awaiting punishment.

We’re then taken back two hours, where the reason for Rentarou’s current predicament came about. Kankurou Yamada (second-in-command of the Nikoniko Financiers) was entrusted by the CEO himself to take care of his pet bird, while the boss was traveling. Secretly though, he lets Rentarou take responsibility. Apparently, the boss owes Rentarou’s father a great deal of respect, so they consider Rentarou to follow in his father’s footsteps. Therefore, they refer to Rentarou as the nidaime⁴.
But when Kankurou finds out (Rentarou confessed on where the bird, Piko, is) that it’s been eaten by the pet cat he was holding, he was furious and dragged Rentarou for his punishment.

Meanwhile, the Shirogane sisters Sara and Soujo were elsewhere. Soujo was out buying from the local butcher shop, Sugisaku. The butcher shop owner comments on how three hundred yen is enough⁵ for three people (Sara, Soujo, and Rentarou), then comments that it’s a good thing he has "a cute girl" by his side. Soujo denies that, and said that it was her who wanted to help. As a bonus (and for Soujo’s cute decision), the butcher shop owner gives Soujo three extra croquettes. The reporter from the Nigodawa Television shows up, apparently to give an interview with the butcher shop owner. As she gets ready, though, her hands get burned in the process.

Next scene. We’re taken to the Futaba Detective Agency (where Rentarou’s father worked), where someone (Chinese? You could tell by his attire.) is now hiding from a bunch of thugs out to get him. Sara, "out of decency, sympathy, and all that jazz" agrees to help him escape. She then prepares the tools necessary for their escape, including some sort of brown box that she sets up on the bed, then a bunch of ropes in which they will tie in their waists. The guy (we then learn his name is Jun) protests at first, but after some "encouraging" from Sara, they jump out the window (of their office, two storeys high) then borrow one of Gen (apparently he lent his scooter to them), and set off to escape.
The thugs successfully barge in and search the place, when one of them discovers a "strange noise" coming from the box placed earlier.

A zoom later, they were surprised when they found out it was a "self destruct device", and the place blows up in smoke.
The loud noise and the smoke were then observed from a nearby police station, where two patrol officers, were stationed.

A quick scene shift to Sara and Jun, who were now on the run from the members of the Sakurazuki Gang (what, you didn’t know the ones who barged through the office were a couple of ordinary thugs?).

Back on the shop, the reporter takes notice of Soujo, and asks permission from her boss through the phone to ask for an interview with Soujo. The butcher shop owner, Michiru, apologizes to Soujo for getting her hands in bandages, and asks for her to help with shop operations. She gladly accepts, and we now see Soujo’s lightning fast movements as she prepares a few croquettes, just to give it a try. The reporter and staff taste-tests it, and we witness a scene that jogs my memory of Cooking Master Boy.

Back to Sara and Jun. Sara’s trying to contact Rentarou through his cellphone, but he
can’t answer it, given his current situation. The Sakurazuki gang members (now on their car) are in hot pursuit of the two, and have closely tailed them.
They pass by the police station, where another police officer, Hariama Nishimori, gives to go signal on going after them. The Sakurazuki gang members are now dead set on destroying the scooter, while Sara is still frustrated on Rentarou not answering the cellphone.
She then decides to contact Soujo, who still busy tending to the rush of customers of the butcher shop in Michiru’s place, and activates the turbo function of the scooter blasting her way ahead of the car.

We’re now taken to the K1⁶ ring, where Rentarou will be taking the "punishment". The catch: Beat the huge muscle head opponent, or else.

Shift scene to Soujo’s success in making croquettes, and you can tell by the lengthy line that stretches blocks away. The reporter is now talking about the "limited time only" croquettes. Even Michiru and Gen are witnessing this huge crowd of customers.

The police officers (actually, it's only the two officers from the station) have set up a barricade, for Sara and the Sakurazuki gang members. Seeing that halting is impossible, Sara and Jun now try to boost their way past the barricade, while the gang members collide on the barricade, with several cars behind them suffering the same fate.
Soujo and Rentarou still can’t be contacted, since they’re busy with their current situation (Good in Soujo’s; bad in Rentarou’s).

Back to Rentarou. We learn further that the match was about the Piko affair, and that this will be treated as some sort of "cruel reward". Zenji then instructs Rentarou to give the opponent "the middle finger" (with the gloves on) so that fight will be finished quickly. Rentarou already has a bad feeling about this, and has to disagree, but he can’t.

Shift to Sara’s condition. Looks like the Sakurazuki Gang now have motorcycle accomplices, making it harder for the two to escape. Sara and Jun now try to find Rentarou through GPS.

Back to Rentarou, again. He’s now going to use "the finger" against his opponent, and it made the guy rather pissed of, barraging Rentarou with punches.

Sara passes by the butcher shop, noticing the long, thick line. The gust of wind then follows, apparently caused by Sara using the Boost function (again), causing everyone’s clothes to fly up. We then now know that Sara’s being chased by a helicopter this time (owned by the Sakurazuki Gang, of course). The reporter goes after the chase, with Soujo coming, of course.
Now we see Sara, kicking up on after burn, getting blown up by the helicopter, but later we see that she wasn’t.

With the action is still on, we learn about what makes Rentarou great in Sara’s and Soujo’s eyes.

While they were talking, we see Rentarou finally beating the big guy (his opponent) with an uppercut. This leads to the Sakurazuki Gang losing their twenty million yen bet.
The helicopter reaches the kickboxing arena, where the two police officers are waiting... with some "heavy artillery". (Able to blow up a helicopter with a single bullet?)
Sara and Soujo have now reached the kickboxing ring.

Back to Rentarou. Now we see that his victory has a pretty bad consequence, with Rentarou now begging for mercy, while the gang now executes him. However, it was foiled with Sara and Soujo now arriving at the scene. Also, we get to see a rare standoff: three men pointing guns at each other‘s heads.
Sara’s not happy with Rentarou not answering her call, and reprimands him good. Soujo catches up to the pair later, and Rentarou treats both of them (and himself) with some good ol’ croquettes.

They’re now back in the Private Detective Office, which is now in shambles (thanks to the self-destruct device Sara planted earlier to escape). The three are cleaning up the place. After that we get to witness fellow anime blogger Stripey’s patent pending 2NNJ theorem:

2 girls, 1 hug.

No jealousy.

No catfights.

Just a pure Rentaro (or insert protagonist name)-centric love.

Analysis:

When I first heard about the series from Matthew’s Anime Blog, I became skeptic.
"An alternative, eh? I have to see this."
Then I watched the first episode to answer some speculations I had in my mind about it, and to say I was surprised is an understatement.
The new animation team, ufotable, sure worked their butts out to create such fluidity in the movements of the various "objects", for a lack of a better term, in the series.

Fast-paced action!

Intense scene shifts!

All pack this in 1 episode at a time!

And the returning cast who voiced the same characters in the previous Futakoi (except for the main male lead) have shown me that they can talk while the characters they voice are in rapid action.

A few question that I had to raise, though:

1. In Episode 1, doesn’t that guy, Sakurazuki Gang Second-in-Command Yamada Kankurou, look like one of the main characters from Getbackers? Was it Ban? I forgot who. (The spiked black hairstyle and glasses were some sort of clue.)
2. Is it just me, or is the fanservice in this show part of its appeal, aside from seeing some of the twins in action?
3. Does it make your wonder why they have to wear their school uniforms throughout the show, knowing well that it’ll get torn and blown off during those swift paced action scenes?

ufotable have outdone themselves up to this point, but seeing the first episode isn’t enough to judge the show. I have to see the succeeding episodes before I can pass final judgment.

¹Futagotamagawa literally means Twin-Egg-River, because "out of ten people, more than half are twins".
²nikoniko means "smile", but that’s not the case in this company. It means whatever debt you owe the company, you have to pay it twofold, thus the company name.
³We don’t get to know his name until the next episode.
⁴means "the successor" or "the second"
⁵Food in Japan is more costly than what most people think.
⁶K1 is another term for kickboxing.