firehawk12
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Winter-Spring 2014 Anime |OT3| People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time
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Student in the Mist - Episode 2
The art direction on the show is really good. I love the colors, the backgrounds, how the characters look, everything feels soft and comforting. Oh wait, I think I said most of that about the first episode too. I like the way the story is progressing. It's a pretty relaxing and charming show to watch, and the character interactions are appealing in subtle ways at times. Their mannerisms and behavior is pretty convincing.
I like how Latro-chan takes a proactive approach to her condition and both parties are trying to make things work without dwelling on how silly the condition itself is, because it's pretty silly. As a friendship character drama, I think this works pretty well. One thing I appreciate about the story is how undramatized aspects of their relationship is so far. The tone here is basically what I expected (and would have preferred) from Inari last season.
The art direction on the show is really good. I love the colors, the backgrounds, how the characters look, everything feels soft and comforting. Oh wait, I think I said most of that about the first episode too. I like the way the story is progressing. It's a pretty relaxing and charming show to watch, and the character interactions are appealing in subtle ways at times. Their mannerisms and behavior is pretty convincing.
I like how Latro-chan takes a proactive approach to her condition and both parties are trying to make things work without dwelling on how silly the condition itself is, because it's pretty silly. As a friendship character drama, I think this works pretty well. One thing I appreciate about the story is how undramatized aspects of their relationship is so far. The tone here is basically what I expected (and would have preferred) from Inari last season.
Basileus777
Member
And we're in a season with Ping Pong, Baby Steps, Ace of the Diamond, and Haikyuu. There's plenty of reason to be positive about the genre! And Hajime no Ippo just ended on a really strong note.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I really like David Bordwell's "Narration in the Fiction Film": http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/0471.htm
The one episode of GBF I watched didn't really interest me (beyond the music), but in the case of GuP, there's a combination of a non-conventional sport and decent family drama. It wasn't just 12 episodes of Maho wanting to get better for the sake of getting better.
Saki works the same way, where Mahjong is really an excuse to show the characters bonding in various ways.
Jex
Member
It's okay, without a new Thread how was anyone supposed to know what's going on!
"Recent".
Harmonie
Well, that hit uncomfortably close to home. It's funny how I keep ending up watching anime dealing with social dysfunction lately. Unlike Chuunibyou or Aura, Harmonie is much more low-key and hence, a bit more realistically relatable for a larger number of people. No one's walking around in ludicrous costumes and whispering made-up jargon, and no one's explicitly being bullied, per se; the effects of quiet peer pressure, and unspoken but universally understood de facto hierarchy, play a powerful role in enforcing "normalcy," to say nothing of a person's own imagined and perhaps unfounded fears. And the idea of how we interpret, and at times misinterpret, those unspoken cues is major theme of this story. I quite liked how it ended with
. The desire to be understood can be strong, and people can indulge us out of a desire not to hurt us, even if this miscommunication might lead to pain in the future. Like I said, it's a rather uncomfortable subject for some of us, or perhaps all of us to some degree, especially in our turbulent teenage years, and to the short's credit, it very adroitly illustrates the fears that influence even those on the top of the social strata.
As expected from Yoshiura, the art direction is great, with his usual focus on strong, evocative lighting. Bright shafts of light contrast with moody shadows to create a strong chiaroscuro effect, and dramatize the mundane setting. It's trademark Yoshiura, and as in Time of Eve, he uses it to great effect, elevating a common anime theme(whether it be robots or high school) with his serious, thoughtful, and earnest presentation. The storyboarding itself is also great, with dynamic and interesting uses of depth of field(and depth of frame), complex composition, and judicious closeups to create a strong and coherent narrative that shows rather than tells. In other words, it's great stuff and everyone should check it out. Based Yoshiura delivers.
P.S. Have some bonus slapkuga.
Well, that hit uncomfortably close to home. It's funny how I keep ending up watching anime dealing with social dysfunction lately. Unlike Chuunibyou or Aura, Harmonie is much more low-key and hence, a bit more realistically relatable for a larger number of people. No one's walking around in ludicrous costumes and whispering made-up jargon, and no one's explicitly being bullied, per se; the effects of quiet peer pressure, and unspoken but universally understood de facto hierarchy, play a powerful role in enforcing "normalcy," to say nothing of a person's own imagined and perhaps unfounded fears. And the idea of how we interpret, and at times misinterpret, those unspoken cues is major theme of this story. I quite liked how it ended with
Makina still misunderstanding Honjo, and Honjo thinking it might be better to keep it that way
As expected from Yoshiura, the art direction is great, with his usual focus on strong, evocative lighting. Bright shafts of light contrast with moody shadows to create a strong chiaroscuro effect, and dramatize the mundane setting. It's trademark Yoshiura, and as in Time of Eve, he uses it to great effect, elevating a common anime theme(whether it be robots or high school) with his serious, thoughtful, and earnest presentation. The storyboarding itself is also great, with dynamic and interesting uses of depth of field(and depth of frame), complex composition, and judicious closeups to create a strong and coherent narrative that shows rather than tells. In other words, it's great stuff and everyone should check it out. Based Yoshiura delivers.
P.S. Have some bonus slapkuga.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Yeah, it's something that I had my eye on. Reading manga is just hard now. lol
I'm hoping Crimson Hero becomes an anime at some point, simply because a pure shoujo sports show hasn't really happened since I started watching anime (although there's been a few sports shoujo jdramas, I suppose).
There's also Nononono, which is probably crap, but the idea of a girl pretending to be a guy in order to break into the "sexist" sport of Ski Jumping (at least pre-Sochi) is interesting as well.
"Real" stakes is a very arbitrary distinction. If it matters to the characters, it's real enough. The show's job is to get us on their side. If caring about sports is too much of a mental block for you to overcome, that's an entirely different story.
There are so many shows outside of sports with characters worried about things with low/no stakes that work because they're well-made, and because those conflicts reveal something meaningful about the people engaged in them. Are we going to start pretending that high school relationship drama is more important than high school sports drama once we get outside of these characters' heads?
curlyfriski
Banned
This is starting to sound an awful lot like an argument about Hyouka
Girls und Panzer is my favorite sports anime. I think one key thing it gets right is that every victory is earned through skill and tactical thinking.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
My favourite anime/television show is Aria, which people have told me is literally a show about nothing, so I'm okay with shows that aren't driven by some kind of natural conflict.
I don't care about Idols, but the very basic premise of "we need to dance in order to save our school" or "let's dance because our sempai are graduating and this is their last chance to be idols" makes Love Live a more interesting show than Haikyuu, where the characters are interested in Volleyball for the sake of being interested in Volleyball.
I mean, I'm not asking for Invictus, where the fate of an entire nation hangs on the balance of a rugby game. Or even Glee season 1, where a football team bullies the gay kid who tries to join the team. But most of these shows ask the audience to care about these characters because they assume the sport itself is interesting enough to make the character archetypes interesting. To me, that's very rarely the case. I loved OoFuri because of how obsessed it was with baseball and how it showed every single pitch of a single game. But that's a once in a lifetime thing for me and not enough for me to be interested now.
I'm in the middle of writing long review but I can't stand with these accusation for sport anime like they're in bad spot or something.
Just few week after some sport show like Hajime no Ippo, Kuroko and GBF delivering great finale
And this season we have Haikyuu, Ping Pong, and Ace of Diamonds that continuing
Yeah aside Ping Pong, all of them have basic structure, like match -> off day > repeat and basic trope as their cover
But there's nothing wrong with that structure like accused here. Sport title in animanga always make you familiar with the character better than in any other show than in other genre in general, because the structure ensuring you the author writing more in-depth about them because you not gonna seeing them in match only, you know them act in out-field, and interact with various character.
And the good one gonna make you root the character and making the show more personal.
There's not much room for innovation for the title that stand in said foundation, but these sport show are the king in making simple stories that delivering high note and more intimate for the follower.
Just few week after some sport show like Hajime no Ippo, Kuroko and GBF delivering great finale
And this season we have Haikyuu, Ping Pong, and Ace of Diamonds that continuing
Yeah aside Ping Pong, all of them have basic structure, like match -> off day > repeat and basic trope as their cover
But there's nothing wrong with that structure like accused here. Sport title in animanga always make you familiar with the character better than in any other show than in other genre in general, because the structure ensuring you the author writing more in-depth about them because you not gonna seeing them in match only, you know them act in out-field, and interact with various character.
And the good one gonna make you root the character and making the show more personal.
There's not much room for innovation for the title that stand in said foundation, but these sport show are the king in making simple stories that delivering high note and more intimate for the follower.
one week friends - 02
Well, I tried. Hoped that the second episode would help me hash through my discomfort with the lazy convenience of the premise, but it didn't, at least not fully. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but . . .
Someone brought up Ano Hana as an example of a contrivance that the viewers just accept, but I'm okay with the presence of a ghost in the story in much the same way that I can deal with amnesia as a plot element, too. But it's when there's an additional layer of contrivance that the credibility of the premise--not in relation to real-life possibilities, but in the context of its own setting--breaks apart for me, and this is what gets me about the very selective, very silly memory loss in this show.
Latro's amnesia is acceptable in the same way that a Ghost Menma is (prior acceptance of similar plots, the way it's handled in universe, etc), and the one-week emotion-based amnesia of One Week Friends bothers me in the same way that I was bothered by a character being stalked by his own ghost in Golden Time. It's just too much.
There's only so much that you can roll with, and when the contrivances pile up, it cheapens the drama presented. It takes away from the show itself--it's handled well, but there's always going to be a layer of incredulity that prevents me from engaging with the text on a more emotional level.
---
There's a good deal to like in the show otherwise, though. Character interactions are surprisingly nuanced; there's an appealing straightforwardness to the way the condition is dealt with by Hase; the production has a nice, gentle quality to it, all the way down to how it's colored and how it's directed.
dawwwww
Well, I tried. Hoped that the second episode would help me hash through my discomfort with the lazy convenience of the premise, but it didn't, at least not fully. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but . . .
Someone brought up Ano Hana as an example of a contrivance that the viewers just accept, but I'm okay with the presence of a ghost in the story in much the same way that I can deal with amnesia as a plot element, too. But it's when there's an additional layer of contrivance that the credibility of the premise--not in relation to real-life possibilities, but in the context of its own setting--breaks apart for me, and this is what gets me about the very selective, very silly memory loss in this show.
Latro's amnesia is acceptable in the same way that a Ghost Menma is (prior acceptance of similar plots, the way it's handled in universe, etc), and the one-week emotion-based amnesia of One Week Friends bothers me in the same way that I was bothered by a character being stalked by his own ghost in Golden Time. It's just too much.
There's only so much that you can roll with, and when the contrivances pile up, it cheapens the drama presented. It takes away from the show itself--it's handled well, but there's always going to be a layer of incredulity that prevents me from engaging with the text on a more emotional level.
---
There's a good deal to like in the show otherwise, though. Character interactions are surprisingly nuanced; there's an appealing straightforwardness to the way the condition is dealt with by Hase; the production has a nice, gentle quality to it, all the way down to how it's colored and how it's directed.
dawwwww
Jex
Member
You sound like a dissident agitator.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Basically as I said in my own thoughts, you just have to do as the famous Disney song says and
Basileus777
Member
I'm okay with one week friends and it's premise as long as it remains a light-hearted show. The show's execution of that front is satisfying. As soon as it uses it's premise for heavy drama, I'm liable to check out. Though I won't dispute that selective amnesia is among the laziest plot devices that one can employ.
It really isn't a good time to criticize sports anime on such a fundamental level considering the shows we've had recently.
It really isn't a good time to criticize sports anime on such a fundamental level considering the shows we've had recently.
Jex
Member
Sounds like you wouldn't enjoy Ghost Dad.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
What about Cop Dog?
I don't watch volleyball as a sport, and I generally don't care about shows where the protagonist wants to be "the best". I've enjoyed two episodes of Haikyu because I think the characters are presented as convincing characters who love the sport they play. The two lead characters are both clearly naturally talented, but haven't had the best environments to develop their skills. By joining the same high school, they have the opportunity to complement each other, if they can get over their rivalry.
To me, while volleyball is the chosen activity in the story, it isn't really all that different from say a good X-men origin story where Cyclops and Wolverine are forced to learn to work together, and they introduce the rest of the team, and everyone figures out how the team can operate, and then they go kick Magneto's ass. The fact that the volleyball play in Haikyu is actually exciting to watch is a plus, but it's not the main reason I got hooked. I like watching character dynamics grow and develop, and there looks like there's a lot of room for that here. The characters being likeable also go a long way.
To me, while volleyball is the chosen activity in the story, it isn't really all that different from say a good X-men origin story where Cyclops and Wolverine are forced to learn to work together, and they introduce the rest of the team, and everyone figures out how the team can operate, and then they go kick Magneto's ass. The fact that the volleyball play in Haikyu is actually exciting to watch is a plus, but it's not the main reason I got hooked. I like watching character dynamics grow and develop, and there looks like there's a lot of room for that here. The characters being likeable also go a long way.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
If I've already seen these characters, but playing a different sport, then I am going to need something else to keep me stimulated.
This season, it's as simple as introducing a Chinese player who can't speak Japanese but can speak through the language of sport.
My personal method is to print the images off then I use scissors and glue stick to cut out and paste the parts of one image on to another like a collage. Then when I'm happy with the result I scan it in and save it as a digital image to share.
I don't really think it's jealousy so much as insecurity because he knows that his own special powers are so limited in terms of scope. Most of the X-men have powers which have a range in utility. Cyclops? Not so much. And he's usually the "leader".
He also has to wear that silly visor all the time, LOL.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
There's also that NTR thing I guess.
Turin Turambar
Member
firehawk12
Subete no aware
MikeHattsu
Member
Today I visited the Ghibli Museum:
The short movie they were showing now was The Whale Hunt.
I also went to Nakano Broadway, and stopped by that art gallery AlabastreAizo talked about in the previous thread. No The Eccentric Family now, but Super Sonico instead:
The short movie they were showing now was The Whale Hunt.
I also went to Nakano Broadway, and stopped by that art gallery AlabastreAizo talked about in the previous thread. No The Eccentric Family now, but Super Sonico instead:
NOW IM JEALOUS
So... just 80% of them?
So...keen for a Golden Girls anime then?
MikeHattsu
Member
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Yet another idol thing.
MikeHattsu
Member
If we're talking presence, there's no beating Hello Kitty...
A mascot for some Japanese (I think music) company. Turned into an anime about three girls in a band.
Its Visual novel complany mascot (Nitro+] I think.
Isn't it more like electric/digital idol like Miku or something?
I might be very wrong about this though.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
It's all I remember about the anime. lol
Useless meat
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