While slice-of-life is one of my favorite genres, I typically stick to romance, but once in a while, I’m in the mood for a good drama, and that’s where Koori no Jouheki (The Ramparts of Ice) comes into play. The synopsis reads like a glimpse into the lives of four high school students, and so, after checking out other series of a similar nature, I decided to see what this one had to offer. Does this offer up a gripping enough story to absorb me?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
Higaya Koyuki had a rough time in middle school thanks to her short stature. She was bullied and looked down upon by her classmates, but all of that changed in high school when she dyed her hair blonde, sprouted a few inches, and closed herself off to everyone and everything around her. By putting up her walls of ice, she has gained a brand-new reputation… a girl that you don’t want to cross paths with… or so it would seem.
Despite this, Class 5’s Miki Azumi seems like the class idol… always popular, always getting the attention of all the boys, but in reality, she likens herself to a gorilla. She’s very extroverted and very tomboyish. On top of that, she just so happens to be Koyuki’s friend. When they study together, Koyuki realizes that Miki left her notebook at her house, so she swings by to deliver it to her, but instead, she quite literally runs into Youta Hino… aka… Mr. Giraffe… a nickname she internally gives him because he’s super tall.
This is the second time they bumped into one another, as they did so prior when Youta saw another boy, Minato Amamiya, seemingly pestering her on the stairwell, when in reality, he was just taking an interest in her because she was making funny faces while staring at her reflection in the glass (she was wondering how other people viewed her). We would see Minato later on as he leaves his group of friends to say hello to her when he notices her passing by.
After the credits, we see Koyuki receive a text from Miki, asking her to meet her somewhere. On the way, she gets tailed by two creeps. She spies Youta across the street and waves him over. It takes him a bit to get there, but we end the episode when he stares down the two creeps.
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – The first episode was fine, everything considered; however, it did leave a little bit to be desired because of one little problem… it seems as if it switches between drama and comedy on the fly. When the show opened, it gave me everything that I could ever ask for out of this series… the feeling of sorrow for a girl bullied… one who took so much of it that she closed herself off to the rest of the world. Right away, it told the story of a girl who needed to learn to let her guard down and find friendship…
But then, you realize that she has a friend in Miki. They don’t explain how they became friends (at least not yet, I’m hoping), but we now must accept the fact that she’s not as alone as they made her out to be. She does admit that she prefers to be alone around people that she’s not familiar with, which gives us a clue that Koyuki and Miki have known one another for a while. Perhaps?
But then, it switches to comedy by depicting the two of them as poorly-drawn chibi characters, which completely changes the tone of this show, and that’s where my expectations falter. While I do think it’s fine for there to be some comedy in a drama series, going from one extreme to the next is a bit too jarring, and it did hamper my expectations of the show a bit. That’s why I’m giving this one a MAYBE because I need to see just how much they balance out the drama and the comedy aspects.
I was a bigger fan of the ending theme than I was of the opening; however, I did like how they introduced the characters in the opening. It reminded me a lot of how Durarara!! Handles its character introductions. In fact, Minato Amamiya reminds me a lot of Masaomi Kida… right down to the hairstyle, hair color, and eye color.
Despite my gripes with the way the comedy was handled, it was still good enough for me to want to keep watching, although I do wish that they presented Koyuki a better. A story of a girl who closed herself off to everyone, yet still has friends, is a bit contradictory. At least, it seems like she only has one friend, and she did have a moment when she was unsure if she should let anyone else into her life, so it’s a bit forgivable.
See things as they are. Not how you want them to be, right?
