The island defenders are geared up to fight, and they are not planning on taking this lying down. Let’s see how Summer Time Render Episode 17 progressed the story of this hidden classic in this review!
Summer Time Render Episode 17 Overview
Summer Time Render is the latest anime by the Anime Studio OLM, previously known for producing critically and commercially acclaimed anime like Komi Can’t Communicate and Odd Taxi. Ayumu Watanabe directs the series, a director whose career so far has been intrinsically linked with OLM, having previously directed Komi Can’t Communicate and Space Brothers for the studio. The anime is based on a manga written by Yasunori Tanaka.
The series is also referred to as Summer time Rendering or Summertime Render, making this episode’s name also be Summer Time Rendering Episode 17 and Summertime Render Episode 17. You can read our review of the previous episode of this show right here!
– Summertime Rendering Episode 17 Review does not contain spoilers –
Summer Time Render Episode 17 Review- The Human Cost
We usually do this at the end, so let’s switch things up. The production of this episode was different from the show’s usual fare. It wasn’t necessarily any better or worse than the extraordinarily high quality that the show usually operates on, but there were a lot of decisions here that could be called “questionable”, mostly ones based around directing. There were fast cuts where they weren’t necessary, weird shots of moments other than where the action was supposed to happen, and general mishaps that could very well be intentional in this direction but were off-putting all the same.
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Don’t get me wrong, the art direction and the overall animation were still tremendous because the show is frighteningly consistent with its quality. Now, did these direction quirks ruin the episode in any way? Absolutely not. However, if not addressed in the future, they are still a rare miss for the series that deserves to be commented on. The line art and backgrounds in this episode were still terrific, and it also managed to play with the scary silence it sometimes uses, which resulted in a very funny scene.
That funny scene came just before a heart-wrenching scene that served as a great reminder of the human cost of these shadows trying to replicate the whole island. The people being replicated and vaporised will never come back, not unless Shinpei somehow finds a way to go further back than he has ever gone before. Those were real lives that touched other lives, whether they were random strangers who lived across town or Shinpei and Ushio’s teacher, who was responsible for making sure they grew up to be upstanding members of society.
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There is also something very interesting being done with Mio and her shadow. Being a clone of Mio, the shadow or “Kage-Mio” knows the deepest recesses of Mio’s mind, including all of her insecurities and her deepest fears. They are also extremely reasonable for anybody in Mio’s position to have, having grown up as the literal shadow of her own elder sister, Ushio. Ushio was the apple in everyone’s eye, including their shared crush, Shinpei. Even after Ushio’s apparent death, she hasn’t been able to escape that, nor has she stopped blaming herself for it. That is some fantastic character writing.
The more we learn about Shinpei’s powers, the harder it seems for him to come back safe from his adventure to take down the shadows. He has been pushing himself to the brink of insanity and back, and even though he seems to have earned some rest and reasons for celebration, the show was very clear in mentioning how none of this was enough to prepare him for what is to come. He has been fighting long and hard battles to save this island, which is a place that is not letting him go anytime soon. It is extremely hard not to root for him, despite how bad the odds are.
Verdict
Summer Time Render Episode 17 was another firecracker of an episode which featured some directional changes, fantastic writing, and a lot of emotional moments.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!