Potential New Anime - Ikoku Meiro no Croisée (episode 1)

We got tons of slice-of-life series this season, and Ikoku Meiro no Croisee is one of them. I was skeptical after watching the trailer as I thought this will just be another loli-moe anime, but after watching the first episode, it turns out to be a heartwarming anime with interesting characters.

Claude, our young  and talented blacksmith

Enter Claude, a blacksmith who specialize in metalcrafting, who owns a family business in Paris. One day, his grandfather came back from Japan and brought a young girl clad in a kimono. The girl, Yune, is destined to be a servant for the store, and is apparently a tradition that has been going on in Claude's family. Yune is an innocent, cute, and hardworking young girl, while Claude is a hotheaded young man who can be rough at times but does show a compassionate side every now and then. The first episode focuses on how the two met, and how the bond between them is formed.

Yune, the cute little Japanese girl

The impression I have from the first episode is that the story will revolve around the dynamic between the pair and that the bond they share will be the driving power of the whole series. Now, the first episode does the job flawlessly. It gives a light introduction on the main characters, fleshes them out, and put a bit of drama inside that works quite well to set up the stage for the next episode. The pacing might be a bit slow, but it flows perfectly well.

Now the setting, is very fresh and beautiful. 19th century Paris is drawn beautifully here, and is a suitable stage for the story to ensue. The setting is also the main element that differentiate this anime from other series of the same type such as Kure-Nai and Usagi Drop (which is another contender for this genre this season). Instead of Japan, they use Paris, and that gives a fresh and pleasant feeling to the viewers.

The music in the episode is also wonderful. The soft tones and slow music blends well with the pacing, and enhance the feeling obtained from each of the scenes. The opening song is soft and a bit cheerful but the opening animation fits quite well with it. The ending song has a slow and mellow tone, and is a calming and soothing piece that fits the anime, and will probably grow as we hear it more and more.

The beautiful overlook of 19th century Paris

The animation here is quite good. The characters are well drawn, and the most amazing thing here is the background, as all the buildings, the streets and the town in general is drawn beautifully. The scenes are animated well and I can only hope for a constant animation quality throughout the whole series.

Now, my only worry is that the series will insert useless fillers in the middle, or maybe, the story will not really move forward. Anime of the same genre suffers from these fallbacks most of the times, and I can only hope that the story in this anime will always try to move forward and gives a proper closure by the end.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee is a promising new series that I will try to follow this season on top of other great shows. The first episodes shows some promising sign and it looks to be a fun and worthwhile series to follow. But whether it will turn out to be an epic series, or whether it will be a sluggish and pointless drama that goes nowhere is yet to be seen.