Despite the fact that you get 4-5 episodes worth of stuff crammed into one episode, it all flowed pretty well. It didn't feel rushed and I think it would have felt like it was dragging too much otherwise, a problem I thought was way too prevalent in the anime and manga. On the opposite side of things, it kind of felt like those introspective moments that Takemoto had were skipped over a lot.
I loved the cast, especially Toma and Hiroki. I don't see why a lot of people didn't really like Hiroki as Morita, granted it's only episode one, but I thought he did a fine job. Even though we're only one episode in, I think I already like Riko more than Aoi Yuu as Hagu, her mannerisms seem to be more inline with the character than Yuu's. Natsuki was great as Yamada, annoying when she was supposed to be, making us feel sympathetic when she was supposed to be. She played the role great and a lot better than most who would try a character that can drop in and out of personalities so easily. I think Mukai Osamu is the only cast member I didn't feel was quite into his character. Hopefully it will get better over time, but right now it just feels like he's reading lines and not really trying to be the character. Finally, Toma! Obviously Toma was pretty much the only reason I was watching this show to begin with, he was easily my favorite cast member. It was nice to see him in a more serious role and he did a really good job with the narration of the episode, especially at the end. His natural likability really blends in well with the character of Takemoto. The rest of the cast was pretty good, no one really stuck out as bad to me, even though some of the characters felt like different takes on their manga counterparts.
The episode itself was fun to watch, I love the setting of the school and all the scenes with Hagu and Takemoto by the pond and sakura trees made a really nice transition to live action. The dorm's had a pretty nice feel to them, more homely than the ones in other school shows. Even though I'm not Osamu's biggest fan, I think when the three boys were alone all their scenes worked out pretty well, more so when they were just having fun like in the kidnapping of Takemoto scenes.
It wasn't a perfect episode, but it's up there with some of my favorite premiers. I'd give it a 4/5 rating on the whole, it's going to be a great season and I cannot wait for the second episode. I hope this does a lot of good things for Toma's career, even though the ratings weren't that incredibly high for the first episode, they were pretty decent.
And now I'm moving onto a massive Honey and Clover iconing spree.