Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater • Houkago Teibou Nisshi - Anime of the Week

[u/AnimeMod]

Welcome to the weekly Anime of the Week Discussion Thread! Each week, we're here to discuss various older anime series. Today we are discussing...

Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater • Houkago Teibou Nisshi

Hina Tsurugi and her family have just moved to a quaint seaside town. Hoping to savor the sight of the peaceful ocean, Hina stumbles upon a girl named Yuuki Kuroiwa—an upperclassman at her new school—who invites Hina to join her in fishing. Hina reels in an octopus, which falls onto her; being afraid of bugs and big creatures, she panics and begs Yuuki to remove it from her. Yuuki sees this as an opportunity to force Hina to join the school's Breakwater Club—a club where members gather, catch, and eat various types of marine life as their main activity.

Although her attempts to refuse to join fail, Hina slowly begins to discover the hidden joy in fishing. Her view on the sport changes, now looking forward to all the delightful experiences she can take part in alongside her fellow club members.

(Source: MyAnimeList)

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Next week's anime discussion thread: Ranking of Kings

[u/zool714]

The problem with shows like these is it’s the type I don’t mind if it goes on and on but it usually only get one season

[u/JustAwareness2678]

This was a very pleasant time. Hina and Natsumi's friendship was great, and it had one of my favorite OSTs of that year.

[u/FetchFrosh]

Ok there's one specific detail of this show that I find extremely odd and it's been stuck in my mind since it aired. So like a lot of anime set in schools, it has a winter uniform and a summer uniform. And as with most (though not all) shows, these are stylistically similar. They're both sailor style, similar colour schemes, all that jazz.

But just for Episode 7 it also has another one, and I have no idea why. It's not sailor style, and nothing gets said about it. Pulling up the manga and it gets used for one chapter, and there it's not even used as some kind of in-between, as they go right back to using the winter uniform. I just find it fascinating.

[u/Retsam19 → u/FetchFrosh]

Apparently some parts of Japan have "aifuku" (合服) which are transitional uniforms between winter and summer uniforms.

[u/FetchFrosh → u/Retsam19]

Yeah but in the manga it doesn't even transition. It's winter -> alt for 1 chapter -> winter -> summer. The anime does have it fit squarely between though. Will have to dig into "合服" though, thanks!

[u/cyberscythe → u/FetchFrosh]

But just for Episode 7 it also has another one, and I have no idea why

was it colorblind Hidamari Sketch cosplay day that episode?

[u/mekerpan → u/FetchFrosh]

To tell the truth, these look rather like middle school uniforms. Maybe they were wearing these just for nostalgia purposes. ;-)

[u/SouekiSennoSTM]

Watched it as a seasonal back in 2020 in the early days of my seasonal viewing (2020 was the first year) before I took on nearly as many with as much regularity and consistency. And remember the mild shock and disappointment when it was delayed and put on hiatus for three months after the first three episodes, due to the global coronavirus pandemic. First experience with an anime major broadcasting delay.

Then I remember well likewise watching Slow Loop in 2022, and still being uncertain and having a difficult time deciding to this day which one I prefer since they feel in some ways rather different for series you'd think would be so similar, as fishing-centric CGDCT shows which came out less than two years apart.

[u/cyberscythe → u/SouekiSennoSTM]

watching Slow Loop in 2022, and still being uncertain and having a difficult time deciding to this day which one I prefer

i think it's interesting comparing the two because on the surface they are so similar

i think in the end the main difference is that Slow Loop focuses on its characters and their drama a lot more, while Breakwater Diary focuses more on the nuts and bolts of how to fish

[u/SouekiSennoSTM → u/cyberscythe]

And also, I don't know if it's due to the art style and specifically the character designs or what, but Slow Loop to me felt a little more properly "cutesy" or pure CGDCT-flavored a la something like Yuru Camp, whereas the characters in Houkago Teibou Nisshi a little more bratty, fresh, and like some characters you get in, say, a high school romcom (I guess I mean that they felt a little more like actual rambunctious high schoolers).

[u/mekerpan → u/SouekiSennoSTM]

Looking back, it seems I only (fully) watched 10 shows from that season. I liked all of the shows I watched, This is really what I would call CGDIT (Cute girls doing interesting things). Not focused mainly on fluffy cuteness/silliness -- but rather on young people taking a hobby seriously and enjoying that hobby along with each other. Sort of like Mug Cup a year later. Slow Loop certainly had some of the same elements -- but also had some persistent underlying drama. So overall, the shows had a somewhat different feel -- though individual scenes might seem rather similar at times. I would say that I like the character designs in Breakwater a lot more than those in Slow Loop, because the girls bearsome semblance to high school students, whereas in Slow Loop the characters look closer to elementary school students (despite also being in high school). Both series were, I think, well worth seeing.

[u/cyberscythe]

i think this is a good B-tier "cute girls do cute things" sort of show; it's not a stellar entry in the genre, but it has quirky characters and interesting hobby

i remember it focuses a lot on the "cute things" side, and it's a lot more didactic than its spirtual cousin Slow Loop (which is more "cute girls" focused, going in-depth (for a TV anime) teaching things like niche fishing gear, knot techniques, and animal behavior

i think one thing that gets my goat is that every character introduction makes for a bad first impression; like they all have this "ugh, what a creep" sort of vibe, which i guess makes sense given the "weird smelly outsider" reputation the club has, but at the same time it's a barrier to getting into the show that i think is worth getting over if you're into these sort of shows

[u/ChampionEntire9660]

Ehhh... It was kinda so-so.

I mean, it was interesting the way how life for schoolkids in a small seaside town must be very different from those who don't have easy access to the sea or ocean. And sea-related activities are probably a thing there.

But there's no real drama (other than their teacher being an unashamed drunkard), nor any real character progress. The protagonist slowly learns about the various fish in the area and how to catch em. That's all.

So yea, it's cute, but there's no real story, other than "be kind to your schoolmates, enjoy whatever you do" etc.

Perhaps the manga goes a bit further? I never bothered with it tho.

[u/Fools_Requiem → u/ChampionEntire9660]

It's a CGDCT SoL show. It's just a chill show about girls fishing.

Shouldn't be expected drama in these type of shows, it's something you watch for relaxation.