Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata ♭: Koi to Junjou no Service-kai

Alright, let's be brutally honest here. This isn't some kind of recap of season one, nor is it a plot-heavy prelude to the second season. It's an episode solely designed to show off just how lascivious, almost criminally so, Misaki Kurehito's character designs are. Oh, and there's a little bit of story there too.

In a very simple note, this episode serves to remind us of what elements characterized the first season and almost certainly will be a recurring feature in the second. First, romance. The episode doesn't even try to hide the fact that all of the girls are competing to vie for ... male lead Tomoya's attention. Nor does it have any reason to; after all, this is a romance show.

But first and foremost, it's a series about a doujin circle, Blessing Software, and their endeavours to create a dating sim in time for a Winter Comiket release, and fortunately this episode isn't all about swimsuits and skinship. It does show off a segment of genuine teamwork within the circle with Michiru handling BGM, Eriri handling art and Utaha handling the script. And while minimal, I do hope the season has more of the teamwork and less of the screenshot-worthy moments though.

...forgive me if I'm a little tired. I've been using the Windows key and the Print Screen key together for quite a lot in the past 24 minutes.

In the end, it's important to that this episode is almost certainly not an indication of what the second season is likely to entail; it's more a chance to show off Kurehito-san's art. And what a showcase it was.

Saekano, the show that keeps on giving regardless how fan-servicy it can be. As a special episode that premieres before the main series' debut, expectations coming into this was more for popcorn entertainment value than anything else. Let's face it, even the title (Fan Service of Love and Pure Heart) of the special implies fan service and really, you'll get it right at your face.

The first few minutes of this episode has some of the most suggestive camera angles in the franchise. It invites attention with the main heroines in skimpy swimsuits. There's actually a reason for this as Blessing Software is looking for new ... ideas for their project. Megumi is still the centerpiece of their work and so as a way to make her feel "comfortable", everyone decided to go to the pool as a more fitting setting. Tomoya also ends up there where he seems to be trying to rid of his earthly desires.

Romance rivalries is still pretty evident. Two of the main girls make moves to get Tomoya's attention. In fact, Utaha makes a bold move to manipulate events as part of an elaborate plan to spend alone time with Tomoya. Michiru still displays her tomboyish personality while not being afraid to use her sporty body as an advantage. That leaves Eriri where she's more of an oddball in this rivalry. She's still the same Eriri we come to know yet she isn't as bold as the other girls. There's probably a reason for that as she has an inferiority complex about her body. The main title of the series, 'Saekano Flat' might even be a reference for this. Finally, we also get a familiar reappearance of Izumi as she returns to thank everyone.

Beyond the fan service, the episode itself serves as a reminder that Saekano is still about game making. Blessing Software still work as a group regardless how silly their methods are. Tomoya is caught in the middle while Megumi fills the role of the ordinary protagonist. The fan service serves more as a way to give fans a treat as all the girls looks fairly nice in their swimsuits. However, this special isn't and shouldn't be used as a way to give audience an impression about the entire second season. It merely serves as a way to get viewers back into the franchise. It's been over two years since the debut of the first season after all.

I can't believe that my first review would be something like this, but seeing the amount of positive ratings Episode 0 of Saekano Flat is getting, I might as well type up a short review. Here we go.

A series is usually going to suck if the first episode gives you a bad impression. Just look at Digibro's "How to Recognize a good (or terrible) Anime (In Just One Episode)" videos where first episodes of popular anime are either praised or ridiculed in great detail before discussing how elements from episode 1 are seen in the rest of the series.

With that said, I can safely say ... right now that Saekano Flat's first episode is not good, and is not motivating me to finish the rest of the series.

To begin, let's look at the "plot" of this episode. Basically, Aki and co. are at a luxurious hotel to work on the visual novel. We wouldn't know this for the first few minutes because all we see is a bunch of fanservice shots and discussions regarding how "That anime" got a second season" with bickering between Utaha and Eriri about how "That anime" is either bad or good respectively. And thus begins the problems. This episode has NO real plot. At all. The episode is just Aki and co. fooling around at either the pool or other parts of the hotel, with the pool scenes taking up the majority of the episode. These scenes are just nonstop fanservice with the only person trying to work on the game there being Eriri. The other scenes are slightly more tolerable, but still very annoying, especially the scene where Utaha tried to force Aki to head off to a love hotel. Point being, despite the title "Fan Service of Love and Pure Heart", emphasis on the first two words, using fanservice to cover up a severe lack of plot is a definite "No go" in my book.

And then we get to characters...Oh boy. Aki is still your typical cringy LN protagonist, but what saved him previously was how effective the other girls were at calling him out for basically everything. Not so in this episode. Aki gets away with everything this time around, from cringy statements such as this series getting "Six seasons and a movie" to sensible behaviors such as running away from Utaha during the bar scene. In other words, to throw one of S1's saving graces away with a snap of a finger is just distasteful. As for everyone else, Eriri is still the jealous and angry childhood friend, Michiru is still the "interested" cousin, Megumi is still cute and boring, and Izumi is still Eriri's rival. As for Utaha... what happened? Utaha was hands down the best character in S1 with her interesting behavior, sensible actions, and nice design. Here, she's just as annoying as the other girls, throwing out her old behavior in the process, with no amount of "Rinri-kun" being able to deal with her this time around, the bar scene being the best example of her change. Essentially, degradation of characters and already bad characters staying this way yield a crappy cast.

As for audio/visuals... they're still good thanks to A-1 Pictures, but S1 looked and sounded better. I found many more choppy pieces of animation this time around, and the annoying colored filter from Season 1 is back. The new OP is decent, I guess, but I'll forget it in a week. Same goes for Izumi's song at the end.

Saekano Flat Episode 0 is bad. Very bad. Between a nonexistent plot covered by fanservice, bad characters, some of whom were once good, and slightly worse audiovisuals compared to S1, this episode completely sucked. I will not be watching the rest of Saekano Flat; this episode showed me that the series in general will probably suck, so screw this. Good riddance, Saekano.