While I found the episode to be a largely satisfying deal, in terms of character interactions and mood, both of which gave a sense of genuineness to a fairly typical setup, I will echo the sentiment that pacing was on the slow side. I was definitely caught by surprise how long the search for Sakuno went. (On that note, how does she manage to get lost by going to her neighborhood's mall
).
On the upside, the calm approach allowed to set up a nice and sincere mood that put a fairly warm accent on Shingo's and Sakuno's sibling relationship, but the flip-side is that not much happened in the episode as a whole. The whole episode basically spent time easing viewers in to its slow pace, and while it helped the atmosphere a good deal, there wasn't all that much accomplished, story wise.
Personally I don't mind at all, but it will be interesting to see what anime-only watchers think of it, and the pacing employed. While they chose a pretty good spot to end the episode at, I could definitely see the complaint that it was slow-moving as a legit one.
Be as it may, the overall impression was a positive one. A sincere atmosphere surrounding the characters and their interactions, characters designs and general animation style that I found quite appealing and a "cliffhanger" (
) ending. Was nice to see Airi's resolve falter a bit when coming face to face with the two siblings, and finding her two newfound friends among those she is about to denounce. But hey - at least it means there is a guy among the crowd who might be able to leave a positive impression on her.
So .. yeah. A good, if a bit slow, episode all around, so the hope that Manglobe might deliver a satisfying adaptation of MashiFoni still lives. Cautiously optimistic about seeing how it unfolds further.