English Dub Review: The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague “Cherry Blossom Meeting and a Coming Blizzard”
Overview (Spoilers Below):
On the way to her first job, the stoic Fuyutsuki-san (Kristen McGuire) has a strange encounter with Himuro-kun (Lee George), a descendant of a snow woman.
Our Take:
Many people wind up feeling frozen in place for different reasons, including talking to someone they really like. However, none of them are like Himuro, who can literally freeze himself. If you thought Elsa from Frozen has issues with ice magic, then you haven’t met this cool character in the latest workplace romance series of the new year.
The first episode introduces us to an alternate Japan, where most of its residents have spirits as their ancestors. One of them is Himuro, whose descendent is a Snow Woman with ice magic. The problem with that, however, is that his powers activate when he gets emotional. Any hint of emotion can trigger them, whether it’s through happiness or stress. Additionally, anything Himuro touches turns to frost, including flowers and cats. However, he can touch everything else without a problem, like his paperwork and work computer. So I’m willing to call that a plot hole unless it gets explained later. Other than that, I enjoyed Himuro as someone who struggles to control his magic, especially when he has a crush on his cool colleague.
Then, there’s Fuyutsuki, a calm and unenthusiastic woman who works in the same company as Himuro. Despite lacking any big emotion like Himuro, Fuyutsuki is a generous person whose acts of kindness are overlooked due to her blank expression. She’s sweet enough to help Himuro with his issues, including giving him straw packaging for the flowers and her cat’s whiskers. Based on the first episode alone, I think Kristen McGuire was a solid choice in displaying Fuyutsuki’s personality in the English dub. It’s subtle enough to make her cute but also likable.
Overall, “Cherry Blossom Meeting and a Coming Blizzard” sets up the show’s delicate and humorous tone suitably without freezing immediately at the starting gate. After watching plenty of romance anime shows involving goofy comedy, like Uzaki-chan and Aharen-san wa Hakarenai (which also featured McGuire), it was nice to see a series that focuses more on the tranquility and sweetness in the romance than the humor involving innuendos or crazy scenarios. However, that doesn’t mean there is a lack of funny moments in the episode, mainly Himuro’s mini snowmen that are adorable but also surprisingly painful. There were a couple of plot holes involving Himuro’s powers that bothered me a bit. Otherwise, it’s a pleasant start to this cool new show that has the potential to be another decent addition to the romance anime collection.
