Aoi Honoo - First Impressions

I saw the first episode without subs, so I only summarized the main parts of what I understood.

The story takes place in the 1980s. Moyuru Honoo (Yuya Yagaira) attends his first year at the Osaka University of Arts. His future plan is to become a famous manga writer/artist.

The first assignment that the professor gives to class is to make a Parapara manga which is a flipbook drawing where you draw small movements on each page. When you flip the pages, the images will look like it's moving. Honoo has great confidence in his Parapara. He draws a simple figure running towards the viewer. But when returns to school the next day, he hears that there's another student who did an amazing Parapara. The student's Parapara is a detailed image of a car crashing on top of another car. Honoo goes into shock mode, seeing that there's someone who is better than him. He has found his competitor, Anno Hideaki (Ken Yasuda), the future director of Neon Genesis Evangeline.

The second assignment that the professor gives to class is a group project and they have to make a five-minute short movie. When it was time to present the short film. Honoo feels very proud of the movie (I didn't understand this part, but I'm guessing) because he helped set up a really awesome action sequence. However, when the film ends, it was a big letdown. He gets really angry with one of his group members because they have cut out his part out of the movie. When it was time for Anno's group to show their film. Everyone loves it. It has a Ultraman theme and they added animated special effects with the live-action. Honoo is the only one who is not impressed with Anno's work. He tells Hideaki that he will never acknowledge him for anything that he makes and storms out of classroom. 

I almost did not recognize Yuya Yagaira in the drama. The last time I saw him was in the movie called Nobody Knows, he was about 12 years-old back then. By the way, it's a really good movie, and I recommend anyone to watch it if you haven't seen it yet. He really has grown up and he looks great. Actually, he's is the only actor that I recognized from the drama.

I've never read the original manga. But just judging from the drama, it looks like it will be something fun to watch. Especially, if you like anime, manga and anything in between, you will like it. I'm already enjoying the show. I love the comedy. It's hilarious to watch Honoo's frustration and struggles he has to go through. But I do want to see Honoo succeed in becoming a manga/anime artist. (Ganbatte, Honoo!) It'll be interesting to see how anime was made back in the 80's. They that didn't have computers back then and everything has to be drawn by hand. Can you imagine life without computers....no, I can't.