Summer Time Rendering

Imagine if you crossed Higurashi with Erased and dialed up the production values by several points, you would essentially get Summertime Render. I went into this anime without any real expectations, the source material was not one I had previously read, and I assumed this was going to be another poorly made horror anime given the description. However, I was pleasantly surprised, while not original in concept, STR is one of the most well executed psychological thriller anime produced to date, with a great cast and stellar production. This review will expand on why I personally thought this series was excellent and will attempt toprovide an answer as to why this anime is overall worth watching along with explanations on the aspects at which it excelled and what it overall lacked. The single most important aspect of a psych thriller is the execution of the story, as far as storytelling goes, STR handles a fast paced action oriented plot quite well. The first episode starts with a very calm but somber summer atmosphere as Shinpei visits the island he grew up on to attend the funeral of a childhood friend. There are a number of comedic moments like Shinpei diving headfirst into a pair of breasts and another childhood friend getting into a minor bike accident which led to her flashing the main character with her panties and getting soaked in the ocean. Despite how ridiculous this stuff sounds, bear with the show, these events actually end up plot relevant in an interesting way down the line, although I won’t go into it here. The day progresses and he goes to the funeral, and this is where the atmosphere starts getting a bit tense, Shinpei realizes that Ushio might have been murdered instead of dying in an accident and also learns a bit about supposed fantasy creatures called shadows. Out of nowhere near the end of the episode, Shinpei comes across a shadow, basically a clone of Mio who proceeds to murder Mio and then him. The story would have ended there if not for the fact that there is a time loop going on and the entire plot from this point on becomes a story on Shinpei retrying the same timeline over and over until he wins or is permanently killed. Sound familiar? While this premise is definitely not unique in the slightest, I do have to praise the actual execution. A lot of these time loop anime don’t truly explore the potentials and the pitfalls of time travel that effectively, they downplay the absurd advantage time travel provides by dumbing down the protagonist or they cheapen losses and any drawbacks through the nature of endless repeats. STR manages to avoid these pitfalls by doing the following, first Shinpei is actually an intelligent protagonist, after his first 2 loops he is already aware that he is in a loop without any doubts, and he starts immediately using it to his advantage. In addition, STR manages to create a threatening atmosphere by limiting the time loop such that every loop he goes through has a shorter time window due the loop starting a little bit later. This means that after a certain point death will be permanent for side characters, Shinpei will run out of tries and there is an upper limit to the time he has to save people and potentially the time he has to remain alive himself. By adding these limits to the time travel, along with making Shinpei intelligent enough to use the time travel properly, there is an effective tense atmosphere where the stakes feel real, and the mysteries are interesting. Of course, there is one other key element that makes STR stand out in terms of execution, the antagonists themselves fight in an intelligent manner and the shadow duplication mechanic carrying over the Shinpei’s memories to his clone give his opponents a way to mitigate the advantage of him repeating the timeline. There are some other additions to these mechanics and abilities each side possesses later on, but these are the core abilities, and they allow for the series to have an actual threat to the protagonist without dumbing the protagonist down in a very annoying way. There are definitely some flaws to the story telling, especially the one instance during the festival where the main antagonist spent a lot of time flexing their win over Shinpei and ended up allowing him to repeat the timeline, this was a real low point for the writing and possibly my least favorite moment in the series. However even considering drawbacks like the occasional plot convenience where the antagonist suddenly starts acting very dumb or out of character, STR ultimately had an excellent execution for a time loop mystery story that stayed interesting from start to finish, the actual explanations for the mysteries and the ending were satisfying as well. Moving onto production, this anime is absolutely gorgeous, from the first moment I saw the animation for the sauce rolling over the katsu dish at the diner in episode 1 I already knew this show was going to be great in terms of visuals. The backgrounds, objects, camera work, animation, character designs are all so well done. We have a beautiful island environment with thoroughly designed vegetation, caves, and a realistic looking small island town. The food, weapons, cars, and even regular household items like kitchen tools and phones are all drawn in a very realistic manner with minimal to no use of CGI whatsoever. The camera work involves a lot of scenes where there are minimal cuts and instead the camera follows the scene in its entirety, this usually leads to a lot of still scenes in many other anime, but STR remains dynamic which is a testament to how good the camera work is. The angles for the camera are also pretty great, although there are a lot of fanservice angles I can let it pass due to just how well choreographed so many scenes are. As for actual fight scenes, there are multiple fight scenes that are on par with top tier action anime and various well known animators such as the guy who did the beast titan fight in Attack on Titan worked on the combat scenes in STR. The fights with the shadows are especially impactful and they always feel very thrilling due to how the anime conveys a bunch of dangerous scenes and how they represent body damage, for example a character getting injured on a specific part of their body leads them to slowing down visibly or not using that body part and getting hit to the face has real consequences like impacts to vision or balance. Every character also has a nice striking character design, the girls are all very attractive despite having relatively realistic body types and the guys all have traits that make them distinctive without it being ridiculous. The OPs and the second ED were fairly memorable, while the first season had a pretty subdued OP which reflected the somber mystery atmosphere early in the series, the second season went for a more upbeat battle Shonen OP which conveys that the characters are finally united and found ways to fight back. Both of these openings effectively communicate the atmosphere of the series and the transition that occurs over time. In terms of sound direction overall, STR generally excels in using intense sound effects to rattle the viewer and add weight to scenes, the sound effects of the gunshots and the weapons used are especially good. Background music is also solid, it complements most scenes really well, although none of the tracks are so good you would want to listen to them stand alone, the tracks accompany scenes within STR perfectly. The tracks during the final fight in the last few episodes was especially great for how well they fit the scene and the sound design for the planes and bombing run felt incredibly immersive which brought up the soundtrack to another level. In terms of characters, Shinpei has a few solid points that put him above the average time travel anime main character, the first being that he’s actually intelligent and not in some unrealistic super genius way but in a more reasonable believable way where he analyzes situations and makes decisions that don’t annoy the viewer. Essentially, Shinpei makes decisions that the viewer would expect someone to do if they were in a time loop with clone enemies, he takes videos to prove to people that these clones exist, and he quickly figures out in a few loops on how to tell them apart. He doesn’t make rash decisions and does not let the shadows manipulate him emotionally, he always considers the best moves he can make in his situation and what the most effective way of beating the shadows and protecting his friends would be. Outside of this it is nice to have a main character who understands sacrifices might need to be made, while he hesitates a bit, he is willing to kill shadows that act like humans, and he understands that his victory would lead to the loss of shadow Ushio and accepts this outcome quickly. Shinpei is the sort of realistic and smart MC I have always wanted to see approach a psych thriller series, he isn’t an absurd super genius or unrealistically edgy guy, he’s a normal person with intelligence who can calmly make difficult decisions, this is what is appealing about him and makes him compelling as the protagonist. The other main cast members have a decent amount of depth to them, they all have their own motivations and goals, some of them are a bit more comedic than others like that cop who just wants to pick up girls but still overall I would say the main cast has depth. I especially like Ushio due to both her awesome character design and her straightforward and open manner of speaking, she does what she wants when she wants and is a true partner to Shinpei at every step. There couldn’t be a better partner for Shinpei, and she covers for his weak points, if he struggles with fights she can help or if there is a challenge, he can’t overcome, then it might fall under one of her strengths, she complements him well and makes for an excellent teammate. I also love her island girl accent, it’s such a cute way of speaking and makes her sound like she is emphasizing everything she says, the voice acting for her was done very well. Haine and Shide made for great antagonists all things considered, as did the shadow versions of the main characters, while I would have liked to see more shadow Shinpei in the middle of the anime they did make good use out of an alternate version of Shinpei early on and at the end. I specifically enjoyed that the antagonists weren’t dumb, they noticed all the weaknesses that Shinpei had that the viewers would have also noticed and found ways to consistently beat him despite time loops, they also had compelling motivations for their goals even if these motivations would not necessarily apply to humans. Overall, the mind games between the protagonists and antagonists, the realistic portrayal of these characters, and how much depth was available for a number of cast members made the cast stand out strongly and kept the viewer engaged with the series. In consideration of all the different factors such as solid story, great visual production, decent sound, and great cast, along with how much personal enjoyment I got out of this anime I would have to give it a 9 overall. It is definitely one of the most under watched series of 2022 and its way to bad that this series couldn’t have been streamed on a better platform.

Summertime Render is a time travel story. As many other time travel stories do, it capitalizes heavily on the idea of cognizant recurrence and the horror related to it. As far as time travel stories go, I think Summertime Render is very strong, and easily one of the most ambitious anime that I have ever seen. It’s difficult to assess the quality of plots in anime that have to do with time travel due to their inherent scientific (and often purely logical) faults with random semantic details, which may or may not even be worth docking credit off the whole. It’s often the case that someparadox or convenience that comes to light instantly demerits everything that the anime in question may stand for altogether. I hate to think that such “problems” actually have a bearing on the entirety of any work. My implication isn’t that Summertime Render is riddled by these, but rather that whatever slight inconsistencies there are, they’re quite overshadowed by the sheer amount of complexity and logic that is put into the larger picture. What usually warrant a lower rating are more large-scale issues like pacing, characterization, and production. In the case of Summertime Render, though I will admit that it wasn’t without its faults, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in and constantly impressed by the twists and turns that the narrative takes. I’m a sucker for time travel done right, and I can’t say this is anything but that. Whether it be the century-spanning history, the deep lore and enigma underlying the entire island, or the confusing-but-logical-when-you-really-think-about-it plot contrivances at play, I never ceased to revel in the (fruitless?) pursuit of a happy ending presented in this show. Setting this aside though, I will admit that there are some bipolar levels of thought put into characterization here, with some characters having excellent backstories and motives but others (unfortunately including our main character sometimes) relying on one personality trait to get them out of sticky situations. Obviously, this is imperative in our case to progress the plot, but it does take away from the otherwise incredible logical build-up made through the show in crafting its complex chronology. Summertime Render’s audiovisual quality is excellent on the whole, with occasional dips in episodes, likely due to studio scheduling and whatnot. For a show with a manga that I’d never heard of before I actually watched it on a whim, I was thoroughly impressed by how high the production quality was. Of course, it goes without saying that all 4 OPs and EDs are magnificent. Overall, Summertime Render has revitalized my passion for stories with historical lore that underlies the truth. Through solid time traveling mechanics and fleshed out plot semantics, it was able to pull me in weekly, rendering (haha) me speechless by the end of the episodes towards the second half. I’m very sure that I’ll come back to watch this show at some point in the future just for the thrills, and will likely have an even better time with it than the first time, equipped with the power of retrospect.

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. Ifthey 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.

Summertime Render promised to be The Thing mixed with Groundhog Day; an island where you couldn’t tell friend from foe, and the protagonist would have to utilise their death to figure out how to navigate the threat. It was made for me. Sadly, the reality is that the show abandons this concept almost immediately. The protagonist so quickly gains a method to detect shadows that you wonder the point of the concept, just make them generic monsters and you get the same thing. This show feels like a microcosm of all the problems in anime. It can’t make up its mind whether it wants to bea drama, a comedy, or softcore porn featuring children. It doesn’t excel at either of the first two, and the last one is just a hill that anime insists on dying on. The writing doesn’t understand how to portray emotion except through having characters shout to convey to the audience that this is A DRAMATIC MOMENT. The comedy is heavily reliant on the tired slapstick you’ve seen a hundred times before and likewise leans on shouting to convey that the funny is happening. Eventually Summertime Render decides that it’s actually a romance. This also doesn’t work due to flat characterisation with very little difference between the starting and end point for most. The protagonist is your typical bland insert, who inexplicably has half the women wanting to get with him. For several women in the show trying to get with him seems to be their sole motivation in life. He’s also introduced committing sexual assault, so clearly this guy is a winner. There is a real lack of introspection in the writing. Shadows are perfect copies, not just physically, but mentally too, keeping the thoughts and personality of the original. Yet at every turn the show fails to interrogate what this means. Is a copy the same as the original? How do you feel if someone who died is still alive? Is that life? What does this mean for our understanding of what a person is? How do you handle the mental load of fighting and killing loved ones and children? Not once are any of the questions asked, let alone addressed. The protagonist abandons the island for the mainland, even changing the way they speak to better fit in. Why is their return and the nature of their departure not a barrier or an issue to be addressed? I was none the wiser by the end as to why the protagonist couldn’t have just started on the island. Another wasted opportunity. The writer also loves pulling stuff out of their arse. Regularly situations will develop where one of two things will happen, either some power that has been subject to no foreshadowing will be used to get the writer out of a corner, or we’ll have flashbacks to conversations that happened in previous loops that we never saw. Both are incredibly lazy. I can understand some of this in a manga with regular releases, but an anime should be able to smooth out these rough edges, yet no attempt is made to do so. You start with something that’s relatively grounded, but by the end is an unrecognisable mess of lore stacked on top of lore which just removes all stakes because you know the writer is going to make up something new again next episode. We’re constantly told how smart the protagonist is, yet their every action in the show speaks against this. Time after time they make the worst decision possible in every scenario they encounter. One character makes a comparison to failing to save before a boss fight, but it’s closer to a game where losing a particular unit loses you the mission and the protagonist opts to put this unit in the frontline. It was hard to root for someone who was this stupid, and the show never provides adequate explanation as to why half the cast is following this guy, apart from the ones thinking with their genitals. There’s just nothing to recommend here. It isn’t well written, plotted, or paced. It doesn’t feature interesting characters, it doesn’t interrogate its themes, and its central concept is wasted. At best this is forgettable drek.