Manabi Straight! Episode1 KAWAII-Goodness!
Plot:
Manabi Straight! follows the lives of a group of young high school girls living in the year 2035 while they attend the all-girl Seiō Private High School (私立聖桜学園 Shiritsu Seiō Gakuen?). Due to the fact that birth rate has dropped dramatically, schools are being closed down due to the sheer lack of students available to teach. Morale in schools has dropped dramatically, and Seiō is no different.
The story begins when the main heroine, Manami Amamiya, transfers to Seiō High School, often shouting her personal motto Massugu Go! (まっすぐ Go!? meaning “Go straight ahead!”).
Amamiya Manami , Manabi for short, is this Hyper Active Cute Loli who manages to change the lives of an entireschool , school mates and faculty alike, Seioh Academy (fansubs translation on Seiō Gakuen).
Episode 1
The show starts with Manabi on a train ,teary-eyed and all , I’m guessing she just got transferred, and early on we see a strong-willed trait on our heroine, wipes tears and shouts a battle-cry, She’s gonna be one cute heroine. Now enter Mikan (Mika Inamori), from time to time Mikan would be narrating , as if reading from a diary. Now, If you love the way ichigo Mashimaro was drawn. with cuteness and all, you’re going to love this one. I post some screenshots notable of cuteness factor, not all though (Cute Loli Fan , cant blame me!!) .
It’s cute enough the way they are drawn now to put neko-lips is just over the cuteness factor. Yes Mikan, when surprised you say Nyaa?. This scene is the first encounter between Mikan and Manabi. Mikan is portrayed as a timid and clumsy girl , and as oppose to every anime characters being timid they are the friendliest.
Their encounter led them going to school together. Yup, thats a hover scooter, dont be confuse although episode 1 is titled Alien Manabi, its not meant literally, remember the year is already 2035, We’ll be seeing much more high-tech stuff on this show like that Super PDA their showing, (Blackberry, futuristic anime style). Moving on the story, Apparently Mikan is running late for their Swimming Tournament/Meet . which is where Mucchi is impatiently waiting for Mikan, since Mikan is also a reprentative of their class. When the tournament was about to start Mikan and Manabi finally showed up and with explosive entrance (literally crashing through and over a fence and into the pool).
With both girls soaked, Mikan decided she’ll skip the Tournament and let Manabi take her place. this is where they explained her being a transferred student and evidently should’ve start tomorrow (that’s hyper active Manabi for yah). While Mikan is trying her best to explain everything to Mucchi (Mutsuki Uehara). Too bad being cute doesn’t work on her as you can see her being annoyed here. Mucchi is the short haired girl with a tomboyish personality, whose on the athletes/sports club, and as the way I see it, she’s level headed person on the group next to Mei though.
now see the confidence on our heroine, and the V sign proves it, we have a winner. With the tournament starting Mucchi is getting acquainted with Manabi, when asked what style she uses, with fierce look she said “Manabi Style!”. Confident with those words Mucchi high-fives her. All contestant on the platform getting poised and ready, and Manabi pose on her Manabi style stance, with the crack of the gun. Manabi jumps, twisting 360 into the air , all done in slow motion.
with end result like this who wouldn’t laugh. At the end of the school day Manabi went home bearing a Certificate of Participation, and also boasting how she memorized the school song, although her Oniichan isnt too interested hearing her sing it. The next morning we are now introduced to the 4th member of the Manabi Gang,
Mei-chan (Mei Itoh) who was described as a stubborn girl who tends to be industrious and competitive despite her standoffish nature. In other words a tsundere. We’ll see her wanting to get friendly but somehow is hesitant to do so, looks like a past flashback is in order. ( I wonder what episode will it be). Anyway if you havent notice it yet Mei is voiced by Aya Hirano, thats right, the same person who did the one and only Haruhi Suzumiya, this is like seeing Haruhi the Cute Loli version. And oh another thing if you guys love Ayu Tsukimiya on Kanon 2006, Manabi is no different, because its the same voice actress Yui Horie, although you won’t be hearing the usual Ayu catch phrase “Uguu”. Manabi has her own charms. 
speaking of cute charms, here’s one now, when asking directions, do what Manabi does, pout lips, take the hand of the person, and take aim where she is pointing, then go straight forward thru that direction ignoring any obstacle like big bush fences. This scene presents another queer member of the Manabi gang, the one Manabi asks the directions to.
While feeding some pegions and singing “Poppos, Poppos”, we now meet Momo-chan (Momoha Odori). Is a strange girl who tends to take a video or picture of anything that interests her, this includes Manabi and friends. Which is quite understandable knowing she is a member of Newspaper/Media Club or something. Thus dubbing Manabi as “Manabi Seijin” also known as Alien Manabi or ExtraTerrestrial Manabi whichever you prefer.
In the meantime a school meeting is taking place at the gym, annoucing the vacancy on the Student Council Presidency ever since the previous one transferred. And the person in charge of the annoucement is the one and only active member, the Student Council Secretary ,Mikan. Now seeing the shy Mikan going thru all the ordeal of preparing and then finishing the speech is quite hilarious. When no one was quite interested in the position. Enter Manabi and quite an entrance it was.
with a big Bang , crashing the door, soaring thru the air , while shouting her candidacy for presidency Manabi finally arrives. Like any school what do you think punishment for something like this, by holding 2 buckets of water and standing on the corner of course!, which somehow doesnt seem to bother her. With that all said and done, the teachers and staff decided to hold off on Manabi’s interest for candidacy since she just transferred and all, limits her knowledge about the school. But knowing Manabi it doesnt end there, she now voiced her opinion on what needs to be done when your a Student Council President and lastly pointing out what Mikan said that the only requirement is that youre a Seioh Academy student and loves Seioh Academy. This made Shimojima-sensei (their homeroom teacher) asked the most obvious question “What do you love about Seioh Academy?”, before Manabi could answer, Mei raised her hand and told everyone her annoyance on how they are wasting time on this meeting.Mikan now in a pinch being pressured by Mei suggested to have a Voting decided by clapping, but with silence ensued and Manabi still in deep thought the teachers are now having doubts. Unfaltered by all of this , Manabi answered the question.
By singing of course! everyone was awestrucked to silence.(including me) and it isnt just any song, its the School song Manabi was enthusiastically wanting her Oniichan to hear.
When you sing your heart out the entire room transforms into a Cherry Blossom trance.
With everyone gotten into the feelings of Manabi singing and how they never experience hearing their School song sang like it is sang before they were now captivated by her. After Manabi finished the song she then explains that after hearing the school song on the last Swimming tournament, she knew instantly the she love the Seioh Academy and to answer Shimojii (Sensei’s nickname) question she told that the feelings alone about the song and about the school and the thoughts the song implies should be enough to explain how she loves Seioh Academy. With those words the clapping finally resonate, started by Shimojii’s applause and then all else follows. An applause for the song and the feelings she had for the school and what courage she had to express those.
with the majority clapping, voting was now done and official, Amamiya Manami is now Student Council President.
After the meeting she was now introduced to the whole class and we are now introduced to her catch phrase “Massugu! GO! meaning Straight Forward GO! (other fansubs just Forward GO!)
ENDING THEME
now about the Ending theme I find it , again, really cute the song is called Lucky and happy by Megumi Hayashibara. Some say she was casted to voice Manabi but declined instead did the Opening and Ending theme for the show. heres a Tv version of the song mp3
Lucky & Happy (TV Version) by Megumi Hayashibara
Had it tough? Relax, in time of need I can always be of help.Concentrate and let me focus my energy onto you!
