SUMMER TIME RENDER

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CAST

MANGA ActionSummer Time Render

REVIEWS

• 

  Mcsuper

  81/100
  A Show That Had A Ton Of Suspense, But Lost Some Steam

  The art of mystery is always a tough thing to achieve perfectly. It’s one thing to be suspenseful, a bit scary, and leave viewers at the edge of their seat, but to have the story done without convolutions or questionable points is what’s difficult. This show looks great, and is pretty good in showing off its brutal moments, but has its share of questionable moments that took away a little from the immersion. For the most part, this show was pretty good, but as it went on, it kept losing steam towards the finish and sputtered to an ending that probably could have been better.

  My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

  STORY: 17.5/25

  The story at first, was very engaging, and Episode 1 was a great hook to the series. The mystery of how Ushio met her demise before Shinpei’s arrival to the island was a good setup for the story. The investigation of the Shadows was interesting and had its share of suspenseful and horror elements that had me on the edge of my seat, and those themes were executed to near perfection. However, as the show went forward, while it did maintain a good chunk of its quality, I don’t know whether I could call this show too long, or too rushed. There’s a lot of dialogue and meandering, while the advancement of the main plot points went by in a flash when it decided to advance. In my opinion, for the most part, I think that it probably should have been in the realm of 30+ episodes to really flesh everything out.

  To compare the first and second cour of this show, both cours had its share of elements that were intriguing, and backstories that were a little emotional/messed up. Towards the end of the second cour, I could see the rather obvious contrivances rearing their ugly head, but it’s not bad to the point of me hating what happened at the end. Throughout the story, I could draw elements of Re:Zero, or Higurashi, though the comedy was ridiculous sometimes, perhaps comparable to something like Jojo’s, because those tonal shifts between action and comedy were so abrupt sometimes that it felt like that.

  All in all, this had an intriguing story at first, that started to lose me more and more towards the end, which was to be expected, though perhaps doing this show in a split cour format would have kept my attention a bit more.

  ART: 9.2/10

  The animation was pretty good throughout, with its vibrant, yet dark undertones, and great sakuga in the fight scenes.

  MUSIC: 9.2/10

  The OP and ED in the first half of the show were very creative, and I enjoyed those two a lot, and the OP and ED in the latter half felt more “normal”, but had some emotional weight in the final episodes. The soundtrack throughout matched well with the show.

  CHARACTERS: 15.5/20

  Believe it or not, I was never wholly invested in the characters, because their overall development wasn’t that strong, but every character had their share of good moments. Shinpei is a decent protagonist, not the dumbest you can imagine in stories like this, as he tries to decipher mysteries and control his powers, but still makes questionable decisions, like telling the villains too much information, for example. He’s quite the dumb one at the beginning, but I’m glad he developed a sense of awareness and became a much more likeable protagonist near the end. Ushio was a strong character, but she was also the character who contributed to the most tonal shifts due to her bubbly personality, leave it to her to make a joke in a tense moment. Won’t spoil much more about the characters, but Mio, Haine, Shide, Hizuru, and others all had their moments of emotional weight and badassery to impress me.

  ENJOYMENT: 13.2/15

  I enjoyed this a lot, but my enjoyment did fall off a little throughout the series.

  THEMATIC EXECUTION: 16.3/20

  The horror and suspense elements were done rather well, as the eerieness and quietness of some scenes really had the edge of your seat, as the show waits for the perfect moment to cut that silence. The nightmare fuel wasn’t cut, and there was a lot of vivid imagery for sure, which is always welcome. There were some themes that were unnecessary, like some of the comedy, and the shots of fan service as well.

  OVERALL: 80.9/100

  A quality show that I believe most people would enjoy, which is why it really was a shame that this show was locked behind Disney jail, which limited a lot of the discussion that could have been intriguing. It has its share of convolutions and shock factor that didn’t feel very strong, but if you’re looking for an action and mystery series, this one would be a decent one to pick.

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• 

  LordSozin

  40/100
  The detriment to Summertime Render is how absurdly contrived it is to sit through.

  I had high hopes for Summertime Render at the beginning. A show that was seemingly different than the rest of the seasonals with its focus on suspense, murder mystery, and thriller as the foundation of the story. The first episode was so good I didn’t know I was hungry for some good old murder mystery thriller until Summertime Render hit the Spring Seasonal charts for 2022. The show in the beginning had everything set up to be at least an enticing suspense show for me to indulge in for the rest of its runtime. What could go wrong? The show demonstrated with absolute certainty that there won’t be any contrivances or complete divergence from the original gripping story beats. I was convinced that if any changes were to occur, it would only strengthen itself with good and competent writing. Truly, I was so convinced nothing could go wrong for Summertime Render that I once gave in to the idea that this show would become the dark horse of the Spring Season as some eagerly touted it was.

  Summertime Render firstly hooks its viewers and glues them to the show's mystery, setting, and tone in an enthralling fashion. The first three episodes or so do this extremely well in showing this through Shinpei Ajiro, a former resident of Hitogashima Island returning for the funeral of his deceased childhood friend: Ushio Kofune. During the funeral, however, Shinpei quickly discovered strangle marks around Ushio’s neck before the closing of the coffin of her laying body. As expected, he became suspicious and doubted that the cause of Ushio’s death was drowning as the rumor goes. This reveal was the first instance of murder mystery that Summertime Render was destined to be but never was. Substantially, the episodes that followed deliberately heightened the suspense when we see others around Shinpei began to act suspicious. They were questioning and watchful of Shinpei’s doings, giving the implication of distrust and secrets which they wish to withhold; as if they were trying to prevent Shinpei from discovering the cause of Ushio’s death.

  At this point in the show, I was on board. It was delivering everything I want in what I thought was a murder mystery thriller. But the exact breaking point was in the same episode when Mio Kofune confided to Shinpei about similar deaths and disappearances that had been occurring due to a phenomenon called “Shadow Sickness”. A phenomenon derived from the island’s folklore where these entities called Shadows kills their targets before they copy the said target and act as them. It’s then implied by Mio that Ushio’s death is somehow linked to the Shadows.

  Naturally, the plot then revolved around the Shadows and became everything to Summertime Render. The Shadows are the catalyst for its narrative and uncovering Shadow’s relation to Ushio’s death was the driving force of the plot. The introduction of the Shadows also served a second purpose: a way for the show to continue the suspense but in physical threat to Shinpei and the rest of the cast alike.

  To do this, the Shadows were presented to have assimilated into the larger human population of the island. Additionally, their known ruthless killing and copying of people naturally provided a constant sense of danger to Shinpei and the rest of the cast. Cause from then on, they have to be wary of who were and who were not Shadows. However, I think Summertime Render made the first grave error when it actively chose to reveal Ushio, the plot’s driving force at this point, to be alive in Shadow form.

  Not only was Ushio revealed to be alive and well in her shadow form, the Shadow retained Ushio’s memories and personality; meaning that she was not a threat to Shinpei. This also sets the precedent that Shadows like her, who retains the memories of the people they killed or copied, would not be a threat to the cast either. The existence of Mio’s Shadow later in the show is the proof. But what I want to get at is that the existence of Ushio’s shadow completely threw away the essence of Ushio’s character in the show. Her death was the sole driving force for the plot of Summertime Render and its characters. Bringing her back with no reasons other than to be the reminder that she’s the main love interest to Shinpei and that she can fight with her new hair powers just completely crumples the show.

  This is where Summertime Render begins its comical contrivances to justify the existence of a plot.

  With the abandonment of its original objective and frankly, the narrative and the elements that defined Summertime Render in the first place, the show has to resort to the less exciting, more predictable methods that further require contrivances as it goes. To justify the Shadows’ existence, the series first made the impression that these Shadows are invaders. Their sole purpose was to serve as a superficial threat in the series for Shinpei and others to have conflicts with. Then, through the reveal of Haine, the Shadows' reason for all the havoc, killing, and copying are so they can go to the land of “eternity”. This, however, was never expanded on because the show proceeds to abandon it as soon it was introduced and favored a more tragic manipulation route: Contriving sympathy for Haine. Haine, over the course of an episode, went from a literal feared being among the Shadows to a sweet little innocent girl who was the victim of the curse that she unwillingly obtained from a Shadow Whale that happens to lie on a coastal beach hundreds of years ago. Summertime Render then uses this to pinpoint the real evil on Haine's righthand man who turns out to be manipulating her for three hundred years for his selfish gains.

  The plot progression that Summertime Render undertook is exacerbated when all the meaningless fights, conflicts, and drama are sandwiched in between. The conflict and drama served no purpose whatsoever.

  So what’s left of Summertime Render? Nothing. For one, its sole original captivating element was the murder mystery, which the show forsook. Two, the shift in focus on the shadows and their reveal felt flat and shallow; it lacked the anticipation and tension that the series entailed in the beginning. I would say that Summertime Render could’ve easily just stuck to the path of a murder mystery without justifying the shadows' existence. It had everything and every reason to do so.

  This series isn’t even worth a second of your time given that the characters are just as flat, boring, and skimpy as the narrative in itself. Summertime Render has a large assembly of casts and each of them gets the bare minimum character archetypes and relations in the grander landscape of anime tropes. In a series like this, tying the characters to specific anime tropes is not the problem, the problem lies in how the series utilizes the trope and further develops the characters associated with it. But of course, Summertime Render chooses not to invest much into its characters but more so into an already heavily contrived narrative.

  The product of that choice is the main character whose original goal is shifted from finding out the causes of Ushio’s death to saving the Island to learning about the shadows and whatever the heck the plot needs him to be. That’s not interesting. That’s not something for me to get behind. For the entirety of its runtime, there’s not a single ounce of depth that’s naturally developed in Shinpei and the rest of the cast alike. We learn little to nothing about his relations to the Island and Ushio besides the surface-level “family” and “love” that the creator wrote it into—it goes to show how little the creator thought about this. And any “depth” that the series loves to remind people of is the poorly contrived ones like the relationship between Hizuru and her long gone but still exists in shadow form brother.

  I simply can’t understand the praises for Summertime Render no matter how I look at it. The series is full of dull moments, weak characters, lackluster directing in action sequences, and artificially created drama. The captivating element from the beginning of Summertime Render was the mystery surrounding Ushio’s death. And Shinpei, the series protagonist’s relationship with her. It’s safe to say I was utterly disappointed with how it was all played out. The shift in direction prompted the series to take on a path that’s less about its original element that hooked the viewers in the first place, but more on the side of mindnumbing exposition dumps and boring action drama.

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• 

  Namaryu

  100/100
  Emotional time-loop story with suspense and logical extension of its ideas

  Time loop stories are no easy type to write and most of the times they leave viewers unsatisfied. Its extremely hard to execute such tale well that would leave little to no complaints. To my eyes, however Summer Time Rendering has managed to provide and enjoyable experience from start to finish that I would gladly return to in the recent future. Let us embark on a journey to Hitogashima where various secrets lie beneath that will change the person striving to render for a new tomorrow.

  Characters are important factors in a story and its mostly due to them that we keep enjoying a tale. If they are not interested or engaging in are eyes then we as viewers would have less incentive to keep following them but if the opposite happens then we gladly continue observe their every move and get invested in their fate. Shinpei is the protagonist of the story whose most important trait is that he is very smart and learns from mistakes while also implementing new ideas based on various experiences and its this trait of his along kindness that makes audience sympathize and root for him. Ushio who is a friend of Shinpei and one whose story strongly revolves around is also a force that makes people want to keep watching due to her funny personality and chemistry that she has with Shinpei and the rest of the cast. The opposite could be said about antagonistic forces who are very smart and cunning which makes their tackles with protagonist that much more interesting to follow and the way in which Shinpei and co try to overcome those obstacles combined with bonds that they build is what is so appealing.

  Story is part where people opinions would mostly differ and it depends on the mindset that you put while watching the show. Given its premise and what has been established throughout there are a lot of ideas that the author uses later on that were placed from the start and carefully introduced and expands various concepts to keep things fresh and interesting to follow. While the mystery aspect is one of the driving elements that initially dragged many into the show there is another element that makes each episode that much more intriguing and it’s the psychological aspect that both the protagonist and the antagonist share which makes their encounters so great in the first place. Usually one force would overcome the other through sheer power difference and there would be no way for the other to even touch the opponent but once mind comes to play many various doors appear to open with different ways to tackle opponent, however opening these doors alone and finding key is not enough when an enemy adapts so quickly to the protagonist and outwits them in a way that most of the times doesn’t feel cheap but its something that is a logical conclusion based upon the evidence that was brought before and the way to beat it has also been there. While I should not be mentioning a release model In a review due to the way we experience medium in a different way but I believe that those elements that I mentioned heavily shine once watched on a weekly basis because a mystery series heavily relies on clues, thinking so having time to slowly process that is an important element.

  Animation is an aspect that is the most appealing to many people and seeing various clips would convince one to take a chance with a series and while Summer Time Rendering does have its share of impressive episodes what I have to say is the consistency in drawings throughout consecutive 2 cour was maintained and neither felt way off or distracted from experience. When it was necessary to have dynamic movement and camera the staff and freelancers brought thanks to connections managed to pull it off in spectacular way which added this fantasy element that sure was present from the beginning but added this new flavor to it. There were also cases of subtle character animation that is slowly fading away as time goes on but is aspect that brings character to life through expressions, movement and subtle elements that combined could add to the immersion too. The OST while feeling out of place at times for the most part was an integral part of the story that set the mood correctly depending on the circumstances sometimes delivering intense music with choir and vocal while in others a calm and soothing type like the sound of waves crashing on the surface.

  I had a very good time watching this series partially due to being an anime only but other that I was heavily invested in the characters and story presented. Each episode made me want to see more and left me with various thoughts that I could use in order to figure stuff out and it this weekly experience is what in my eyes made this such a memorable show. All of these aspects mentioned above combined into something that was no doubt worth the time investing into even if it took months to get it done but even so the hours spend on watching and bonding with these characters were certainly not for naught and I’m sure that those feelings that I had throughout be it sad or happy will remain in me for years ahead.

  Those 3 days were short but felt like an eternity. The presence of time depends on how you how you love it and with whom you live it. The memories and bonds you share with others will make the dullest day one of the brightest ones. Though we may never experience something as unnatural as this story what we could get from it is a lesson to be remembered. It may have been a dream and it may soon fade into nothingness but I’m sure that even in parts of a puzzle they would remain in your heart and shape you into a better person, but whatever you shall do with this memory and will you toss it away or not depends only on you alone.

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