Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring – Episode 1

What’s it about? Long ago, the gods of the seasons gifted their powers to humans, bestowing them the title Agents of the Four Seasons and entrusting them with the sacred duty of maintaining the yearly cycle. But no one has seen the Agent of Spring for ten years, leaving the world locked in eternal winter. At least, until now…

In a poetic alignment of scheduling, our first show of the Spring anime season is a story about spring arriving! Or rather, returning: pulling the story’s setting out of a long, icy winter and drawing the viewer into an intriguing urban fantasy of godly vessels, lady knights, and human drama amidst conflicts of mythical proportions.

While the end of the episode pulls the curtain back to hint at a bigger cast and bigger stakes, this premiere mostly stays zeroed in and focused on three female characters: Hinagiku, the waifish and frail Agent of Spring herself; Sakura, her fiercely loyal bodyguard; and Nazuna, a little girl the two of them find en route to perform the rite to bring back springtime. Even with just this trio, there’s a fun range of characterization and relationships on display. Hinagiku and Sakura are sharp contrasts to each other and quickly fall into a lady-and-knight dynamic that I found very compelling. Sakura is competent and confident, and her devotion to Hinagiku comes through in both tender, supportive moments and feral, protective ones. There’s a tangled, chivalric intimacy between them that speaks to a long relationship and a deep understanding of each other.

As someone with a soft spot for this kind of dynamic—and with a female “knight” in the mix as a bonus!—I’m very excited to see more of these two. I only hope that their intimacy doesn’t get usurped by Hinagiku’s romance plotline. Because yes, despite all the hand-holding and blushing and “I’ll kill for you and die for you one thousand times” energy between them, I’m pretty sure Sakura is not Hinagiku’s love interest. Oh well—I’ll reserve judgement until we actually meet the guy, and I’ll enjoy that the girls got a whole episode to themselves.

I’m not sure if Nazuna is going to be a recurring character, but I was impressed by her, too. By virtue of being a literal child unfamiliar with the Agents (and too young to properly remember the concept of springtime!), she’s a perfect naïve sounding board for Hinagiku and Sakura to explain the worldbuilding to. But the kid’s also got enough going on that she doesn’t feel like she’s only there to be an audience self-insert, to ask questions so the viewer can learn the answers. In fact, Nazuna gets a compelling little arc about stubbornly clinging to hope through grief that gives the episode a down-to-earth emotional core amidst all its more lofty and magical elements. I was prepared for her to be an Annoying Anime Child who derailed the fantasy plot by forcing the main girls to babysit her, so I was pleasantly surprised when she got that extra depth—all conveyed very efficiently in such a short amount of time!—and turned out to be the heart of the episode.  

Honestly, color me pleasantly surprised and impressed with this series opener overall. For a story that seems to have such an epic backdrop, the small scale of this introduction is a great writing choice to get the viewer invested. Some fantasy series go all-out from the jump, throwing worldbuilding and grand stakes right at you. Agents of the Four Seasons is more delicate, mostly delivering its exposition in dialogue so it comes across more organically, and giving you enough information so that you’re intrigued rather than confused. What, exactly, did Sakura fail to protect Hinagiku from when they were younger? Why was Hinagiku in hiding, following the mysterious advice to bide her time and endure? Who are all those people we montage through as the credits roll, all having different reactions to the news of spring returning?

At this point, I’m more than happy to keep watching and find out. After such a strong, focused intro, it will be interesting to see how the story unfolds into something bigger and grander, and to both learn more about Hinagiku and Sakura and see how their devoted relationship is tested. Compelling female characters with a tight-knit relationship, effective fantasy writing, and lovely visuals—spring is here, and we’re off to a good start!