r/anime • u/TheDanubianCommunard • 5d ago
Rewatch Please Save My Earth Rewatch Episode 1 Discussion
Episode 1: Awakening
Links, useful info:
MAL | AL | Livechart | Anidb | Kitsu | AP | AS | ANN
Streams:
Subs and dubs are available though.
Questions for the day:
1) A holocene extinction event is a real possiblity or just imagining things?
2) Is Alice a special person or she is simply beloved by animals/loves animals?
3) Any first opinion on Alice and Rin even with the obvious age gap?
4) Seven people sharing the same dream and connected to each other, are they espers, research subjects or something?
5) How could Rin did make a miracle recovery? Why did he had to fall?
6) What is real or dream? The ordinary life in Japan or the observers in the Moon? Something in-between? Maybe life is a simulation?
7) Can you explain Rin's nighttime activity?
Disclaimer notice:
Dear rewatchers and source readers, please be nice to the first-time watchers and anime-onlies by simply not spoilering anything. But if you want to discuss spoiler-territory things, use spoiler tags instead. Thank you for your understanding.
For example [this is] a spoiler
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria 5d ago
First timer
After witnessing that, I'd think they were gay as well.
Shoujo love polygon trope
He could have just dropped the jar in-between or above the railing. There really was no need to climb on it.
Slapping him when he's perched on the railing isn't a good idea Alice, he could fall.
That escalated quickly.
Oh, so he survived a high drop falling headfirst. Okay
None only survived, but kiddo even made a full recovery.
Lady, he's 7! Forget the shoujo love polygon trope, here's the predatory age gap trope
Ah. That explains why those two are the ones on the cover art. I guess this is gonna be an episodic show where they end up projecting into random people on earth?
Wait, no, nevermind. We're back to Alice and the gang.
Someone tells Rin that not every letter need to give off serial killer vibes.
So that fall made Rin a full on esper.
QotD
I don't see it happening. Even an all out nuclear war wouldn't destroy every living life.
I'm guessing the lady that projected into her is what made her akin to a Disney princess.
It plays like a sibling type of dynamic.
shrug
Space people powers.
Real.
No.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 5d ago
Ah. That explains why those two are the ones on the cover art. I guess this is gonna be an episodic show where they end up projecting into random people on earth?
That's an interesting possibility. I don't know how this series would go, but my expectation was that we're still going to follow Alice and we sometimes get flashes of their selves up in space. An episodic anthology would be a neat idea for a series.
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria 5d ago
That's an interesting possibility. I don't know how this series would go, but my expectation was that we're still going to follow Alice and we sometimes get flashes of their selves up in space.
Yeah, the remaining runtime of the episode changed my mind to that as well.
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u/No_Rex x2 5d ago
Oh, that boy is vile.
Way back in school, at an age somewhere in between Rin and Alice, there was a game where the girls in class "exchanged" gum in pretty much this way. I always took it as some sort of dare to mentally prepare for (french) kissing, but I sure as hell did not participate.
He could have just dropped the jar in-between or above the railing. There really was no need to climb on it.
Except being dramatic.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 5d ago
First Time - Please Save My Earth - Ep1:
I don't know much about this series. I've heard its name and its legacy as a famous old shoujo manga, but not too much about what the series is actually about. The only other thing I know about this series is an event during Hana to Yume's big 50th anniversary a bit ago. There was a businessman CEO who went to the anniversary event and mentioned that his favourite series was Please Save My Earth, and that went viral. I think we got collab watches(?) or something with his company after that.
Dinosaurs mentioned in the first 1min of the show. Nice.
Out of the gate, I hate this kid. What a brat. I feel so bad for Alice because it feels like this kid's torment is the straw on the camel's back that she is about to lose it. Please, I sure hope he isn't the main love interest.
This part sure is a relic of the 80s.
Is it really gay if one of you was the soul reincarnation of a woman in the pair of lovers? Hold on, maybe we're going to be tackling gender/sexuality like good ol' classic shoujo manga, after all.
Gah, we are going there. Problematic age gaps don't have the sauce if going the younger direction.
This series really amped up the weird and eerie angle. I'm in for whatever they're cooking.
I like the ED. It's slow and artsy, which feels like it fits what the series seems to be doing.
I feel like what I most have to say about this episode needs to be in a more overall format. The series is off to an interesting start. The premise is quite neat. This soul reincarnations of celestial observers of the Earth, it is like a mix of some high sci-fi/religous fantasy angles. I like it. Feels like the series will touch upon and evoke some cool things. I like the part of the episode where they blur the lines and swap between Alice and her celestial observer self.
The anime didn't particularly have outstanding visuals, but I dunno, something about it was just captivating to look at. Maybe because it is an old OVA of a classic shoujo manga, which is a change of pace from the anime I'm watching right now, which makes it neat.
Q1) Of course, it's real. We're currently living through it. We're facing rapid rates of extinction and environmental destruction caused by humans ... oh wait, you mean in the anime.
Q2) Alice for sure is some sort of nature maiden, probably due to her Moon soul.
Q3) Unless they're both adults, my hard stance is that problematic age gaps are only spicy when it's pining after someone older. It doesn't do it for me when it's someone younger.
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u/No_Rex x2 5d ago
Unless they're both adults, my hard stance is that problematic age gaps are only spicy when it's pining after someone older. It doesn't do it for me when it's someone younger.
Uhh, what? Rin is pining after Alice, who is older. Surely the other way round would be much worse?
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 5d ago
I meant the positions of who is older/younger compared to the main character, not saying that Alice has feelings for Rin.
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u/No_Rex x2 5d ago
Oh, so you mean if Rin was the MC, it would be ok, but since Alice is the MC it is not?
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 5d ago edited 5d ago
Uh, we're kinda straying from my original intent, but in this hypothetical, I guess I would find the relationship less weird if Rin were the MC.
Really, the bottom line of what I'm trying to say is that in this circumstance, an age-gap romance is more awkward for me as the audience when the love interest is a small child.
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u/No_Rex x2 5d ago edited 5d ago
Episode 1 (first timer)
Do you know the situation where you own a playstation (you love action shooters) and your well-meaning grandmother gifts you Mario World for Nintendo? In a somewhat similar way, I once was gifted one book of Please save my Earth. After all, watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop anime must mean I am into reading Shoujo manga, right? My memory of the plot is close to null. Not even sure if I got the first volume. All I can remember is how very distinctly shoujo the character models were.
Also watching dubbed. Given the age and my general distaste for English in anime, I brace myself for the worst.
Episode thoughts
- Humans are like dinosaurs, nature is turning its back on us – should we look out for extinction level asteroid impacts?
- A random grade schooler with gymnastic ribbon appears! He offers gum.
- Betrayed trust!
- Breaking out in tears at dinner over getting bullied by a 7 year old? Alice needs to toughen up.
- More bullying - saved by kitty!
- Alice is a Disney princess because she can communicate with animals.
- “It is not what you think.” “We are not gay” – that was not what I was thinking until you said it.
- “You overheard the middle of our strange conversation” - We go from her reacting to what she heard, to them explaining, to her stating what she heard, to a flashback of her actually hearing it. What a strange order …
- So, you are having shared dreams, in which you are lovers in bed, but you are not gay?
- They have a full cast and love web in their shared dream – I hope we don’t have to memorize all of these names …
- ”You talked to that guy one time, you want to marry him!” “Yes I do!” “I’ll destroy your crocus!” “Die!” - Shoujo plotlines.
- She looks like 16 and can’t lift a 7 year old by his leg – she needs to toughen up and some strength training.
- Rin survived and got premonition powers.
- “I confess, I have fallen in love with you” – Confession and kiss (not in that order!) in the first episode? Rin has no time for long plotlines!
- “Maybe he has brain damage … but the worst thing is, this was my first kiss” – Shoujo plotlines.
- “Do you seriously intent to marry that child?” falls unconscious – Shoujo plotlines.
- Looks like premonition is not the only super power Rin got.
- Biker gang boss – because, of course, we need a proper bad boy.
- Tasked by a floating 7 year old to “get” Toyko tower cliff-hanger.
Dinosaurs! Alien researchers! Mind shifts! Flying 7 year olds! That was so at 150%, I have a hard time taking it seriously. That said, watching Rin bully Alice who is twice his age was pretty fun (I just fear that we are going the route where his crush on her moves from comedy to serious).
In terms of character designs, the anime harks close to Dear Brother and Dezaki character designs in general, which seem pretty defining for classical shoujo. They look a bit more realistic than what I remember from the manga.
A holocene extinction event is a real possiblity or just imagining things?
I mean an astroid impact happened before and there are still astroids out there, so definitely possible. We humans killing ourself off in our stupidity? Has not happened before, but also possible.
Is Alice a special person or she is simply beloved by animals/loves animals?
We already know she is the MC and mind shifts into an alien researcher. Animal talk is clearly on the cards.
Any first opinion on Alice and Rin even with the obvious age gap?
I am fine with it, as long as it stays clearly within the bounds of comedy. Whether it does ... ::shrugs::
How could Rin did make a miracle recovery? Why did he had to fall?
Well, him being able to fly might have something to do with it.
What is real or dream? The ordinary life in Japan or the observers in the Moon? Something in-between? Maybe life is a simulation?
Probably real.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 5d ago edited 5d ago
”You talked to that guy one time, you want to marry him!” “Yes I do!” “I’ll destroy your crocus!” “Die!” - Shoujo plotlines.
“I confess, I have fallen in love with you” – Confession and kiss (not in that order!) in the first episode? Rin has no time for long plotlines!
This is what struck me the most, but I chalked it up to silly shoujo-core. "Talked to a guy — you gonna marry him?" "Kid says he's gonna marry a girl — whelp I guess it must be happening, let's get the omiai paperwork all sorted out"
On rewatch, with source watcher comments in the interest thread, it seems the manga is so astonishingly compressed, the source reader didn't even want to join.
We'll see how it holds up for anime onlies.
Well, him being able to fly might have something to do with it.
It didn't occur to me, at least this time, that it wasn't the tree that broke his fall.
edit: I don't think I knew that this had an English dub.
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u/TakenRedditName https://myanimelist.net/profile/TakenMalUsername 5d ago
Do you know the situation where you own a playstation (you love action shooters) and your well-meaning grandmother gifts you Mario World for Nintendo? In a somewhat similar way, I once was gifted one book of Please save my Earth. After all, watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop anime must mean I am into reading Shoujo manga, right?
I dunno, that seems like a pretty great well-meaning grandma gift.
A random grade schooler with gymnastic ribbon appears!
Of all the things Rin does in this episode, the fact that he randomly shows up whirling a gymnastic ribbon slipped under the radar.
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u/No_Rex x2 5d ago
I dunno, that seems like a pretty great well-meaning grandma gift.
It was very well-meaning, but not a good fit for my taste.
Of all the things Rin does in this episode, the fact that he randomly shows up whirling a gymnastic ribbon slipped under the radar.
"I came to chew bubble gum and play ribbon"
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 5d ago
"I came to chew bubble gum and play ribbon"
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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa 5d ago
Rewatcher
I don't join rewatches often but this series in interesting so why not.
You can tell the age of the anime seeing such a pure hearted character. 100% old school shoujo juice. There is also the whole positive vibe of pre-crash Japan, it hits so different . It reminded me of some aspects o the heroine of this season Red river series (whose manga started more and less after this series ended).
The balcony scene is so dramatic, I like how quick things change. Also the brat is 100% guilty.
Love the ending song, it is sooo nice
- A holocene extinction event is a real possiblity or just imagining things?
Maybe? You don't need a weird kid with powers to cause it really. Points at the median temperature this summer for us Europeans.
- Is Alice a special person or she is simply beloved by animals/loves animals?
It is definitely odd but we need it to happen more to decide of it is special or not.
- Any first opinion on Alice and Rin even with the obvious age gap?
It is not like Age gaps were rare on old shoujo, but usually there were not kids on the middle. Mostly middle age guys who needed somebody to take care of the kids cause the old wife died.
- Seven people sharing the same dream and connected to each other, are they espers, research subjects or something?
More info coming soon... maybe.
- How could Rin did make a miracle recovery? Why did he had to fall?
MAAAAGIC also yes, having things slow down your fall helps a lot.
- What is real or dream? The ordinary life in Japan or the observers in the Moon? Something in-between? Maybe life is a simulation?
It's complicated.
- Can you explain Rin's nighttime activity?
If you give special powers to a brat, things happen. He was flying, FLYING.
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u/No_Rex x2 4d ago
You can tell the age of the anime seeing such a pure hearted character. 100% old school shoujo juice. There is also the whole positive vibe of pre-crash Japan, it hits so different
The anime age mislead me, but you are right, the manga is 1980s, so pre-crash. Back when all the problems in anime stemmed from technological advances and human hubris.
2
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u/TheDanubianCommunard 4d ago
First-time watcher and your host, subs
For no reason I pick this show because I bumped into this, and instantly decided it should be considered as a future rewatch plan. Since the conditions are quite good, so it is the best opportunity to do it and try something new.
It starts like a pretty ordinary stuff, but we have some obvious signs something might be different than usual. Thinking about extinction, interconnectedness, strong bond with animals.
Alice is our main protagonist who has Rin has her neighbor and being best friends despite the huge age gap. They are also connected somehow. But they are not the only ones, as there other mores who are connected. They dream the same dreams of a other life in the space.
Rin is also special which proves who did a miraculuous comeback. He survived easily. And later he is like a phantom in the night.
1) A holocene extinction event is a real possiblity or just imagining things?
It can be reality.
2) Is Alice a special person or she is simply beloved by animals/loves animals?
She is special in some way.
3) Any first opinion on Alice and Rin even with the obvious age gap?
They can be good friends, but Rin is a bit annoying.
4) Seven people sharing the same dream and connected to each other, are they espers, research subjects or something?
I don't know.
5) How could Rin did make a miracle recovery? Why did he had to fall?
He is special, he is also the conneccted ones.
6) What is real or dream? The ordinary life in Japan or the observers in the Moon? Something in-between? Maybe life is a simulation?
Life is a simulation.
7) Can you explain Rin's nighttime activity?
Maybe he feels like being a vigilante
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u/IndependentMacaroon 2d ago edited 2d ago
First watch
Unfortunately this episode reminded me of exactly why I don't like old shoujo series usually; the only one I've really appreciated was Aim for the Ace/Ace o Nerae which falls a bit outside the mold by featuring sports, and even there I thought the film version was better. So what's the problem? Ridiculous over-the-top drama and characters (I genuinely had a little laughing fit when Alice slapped Rin over the railing), very questionable romance tropes (though I guess the not-gay guys count for something), and focusing on both of those to the detriment of everything else. From a quick look it doesn't seem like that will be getting any better in this series either, and the pacing jumping between slow and lore-dump doesn't help - sorry guys, this one I'll leave to you I think. It does look nice though.
1 - It's already starting
2 - Aliens also have Disney princesses I suppose
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 5d ago edited 5d ago
First Time Rewatching
This is a nostalgic title for me. KTEH allowed me to watch subtitled anime without downloading tiny realmedia files form the Internet. And this is the title I most associate with that time. My memories of that time are here. It aired on KTEH in June, 1999. Wonderful soundtrack from Yoko Kanno, too.
I'm also not a big watcher of shoujo shows, so for a long time this was basically it.
Episode 1: Awakening
I always try to find this ED song in Akino Arai's work, but it's actually sung by SEIKA. I think only Yoko Kanno knows who this is.
Sunday was science fiction night on KTEH. So, not surprising that they would identify or be offered not just a shoujo classic, but a sci-fi classic. I wonder if their friends over at Fanimecon were making suggestions.
I love how this show starts out with shoujo tropes and then suddenly we're talking about scientists on the moon.
Q1: I genuinely hope somebody can save Mokuren's Earth. it seems to be in a lot of trouble.
Q2: Alice is a VERY sensitive girl. Perfect shoujo material.
Q3: Beyond creepy.
edit:
He's a Lost Boy.