ugh... Morishima's original rounded fluffy cuteness's barely there, if any T_T but thank you for the pics, Stark700!
Nucksen said: I really like the designs. They feel very classical, a little like 70's Shoujo. Knowing Ikuhara, this may very well be of importance.
Yeah, there's something that cries Astro Boy in these designs, isn't it? Must be the round-shaped eyes. Or is it just me?
And judging by Ikuhara's today twitter posts, YKA might very well be a yuri deconstruction show, lol. It would deconstruct the genre and construct it anew as Yuri 2.0 xD Ikuhara would then become the father of Yuri xDDD
Nucksen said:
Red_Keys said: Never trust an anime that doesn't focus its advertisement campaign on showcasing what underwear its characters wear.
It's like you've never seen anything by Ikuhara before.
Well, I heard this would have fanservice, but not to this extent... I guess I'll try to stick along as long as the plot delivers. I am liking the style, though, and the outfits look pretty cute too.
I just hope they stop teasing us and release a damn preview already.
Very disappointing. I was so hyped for this. I hope the anime isn't shitty as it looks like with all this fanservice shit.
This looks like complete garbage.
Nucksen said: It's like you've never seen anything by Ikuhara before.
What other Ikuhara anime did that? Show panties of the characters on the advertisement for trivial reasons?
I doubt something like this will have a greater meaning or SYMBOLISM. This cannot be anything but low fanservice.
Nucksen said: It's like you've never seen anything by Ikuhara before.
What other Ikuhara anime did that? Show panties of the characters on the advertisement for trivial reasons?
I doubt something like this will have a greater meaning or SYMBOLISM. This cannot be anything but low fanservice.
Does this remind anyone of the Powerpuff girls in terms of character designs? The matching colors of their eyes with their clothing and apparently how action-seeming one of them is...lol
soulelle said: Yeah, there's something that cries Astro Boy in these designs, isn't it? Must be the round-shaped eyes. Or is it just me?
My first thought was Ribbon no Kishi, but yeah, it has much of the roundness, softness and finesse of Tezuka designs and early Shoujo in general. Also the colours do a lot. You normally won't realize it, but anime producers just used different colors, when they still coloured by hand. I've watched a lot of older stuff recently and the first thing I've noticed was the red of the jacket.
soulelle said:
And judging by Ikuhara's today twitter posts, YKA might very well be a yuri deconstruction show, lol. It would deconstruct the genre and construct it anew as Yuri 2.0 xD Ikuhara would then become the father of Yuri xDDD
I don't really think of a deconstruction of Yuri, but a reconstruction and redefinition of Shoujo in general through the means of yuri. I can imagine something like an adaption of classical shoujo tropes into a modern yuri story. The designs of the characters and clothes seem to be inspired by the old heroines of the 60s and 70s, so much that the more modern gestures and accessoires feel anachronistic. I think the contrast between the old days' interpretation and the modern interpretation of Shoujo, especially regarding elements like the characters' ideals, the form of their relationship and of their (yuri) romance will be of some importance...but I love to overanalyze and all of this can mean nothing. It's Ikuni after all, so everything is possible.
In 9/10 cases, the worst thing about an anime is its fandom.
Nucksen said: My first thought was Ribbon no Kishi, but yeah, it has much of the roundness, softness and finesse of Tezuka designs and early Shoujo in general. Also the colours do a lot. You normally won't realize it, but anime producers just used different colors, when they still coloured by hand. I've watched a lot of older stuff recently and the first thing I've noticed was the red of the jacket.
And the shadows! They were so much darker and more contrast! I love it about the old shows, even though I haven't watched too many of them. It seems Ribbon no Kishi is a must-watch, considering the authors.
Nucksen said: I don't really think of a deconstruction of Yuri, but a reconstruction and redefinition of Shoujo in general through the means of yuri. I can imagine something like an adaption of classical shoujo tropes into a modern yuri story. The designs of the characters and clothes seem to be inspired by the old heroines of the 60s and 70s, so much that the more modern gestures and accessoires feel anachronistic. I think the contrast between the old days' interpretation and the modern interpretation of Shoujo, especially regarding elements like the characters' ideals, the form of their relationship and of their (yuri) romance will be of some importance...but I love to overanalyze and all of this can mean nothing. It's Ikuni after all, so everything is possible.
Haha, very good points! I'm now really looking forward to discussing YKA episodes with you when they are out. I love to analyze too ^^ As for what exactly turns out to be redefined and reconstructed, yuri, shoujo, or anything else... here's a series of his twitter posts that I found remarkable:
This quite literally (and hopefully correctly) translates to:
Listening to the dramatic piece of YKA's BGM for work. The tension rises.
I came to conlusion that such music, full of nuances, has up till now never made it to animes. "Seriously?" I thought to myself. ⊂(・(ェ)・)⊃ベア♪
As a matter of fact, I think that this genre has not been expressed yet in so many ways. Touching upon this matter feels very exciting!( ・(ェ)・ )
If I had to say, I feel that directors/writers are rather limited by things like "in this genre things must work this way"( ・(ェ)・ )
Please consider that my Japanese is really bad, so there may be mistakes and misunderstandings in this. If you spot one, please fix ^^"
Anyway my point is, I don't think he'd say something like this about shoujo. I think it's been pretty well expressed over the last 50 years. Unlike yuri. Especially in the anime domain. But of course this is all speculation at this stage ^^"
Earwen said: Neither Penguin nor Utena had panty shots what are you guys going on about?
You better check the directors of Sailor Moon.
And you see, directors like Ikuhara, who can turn their characters in cars and cows, they rarely do something so flashy without good reasons. So I think he may be doing skirt flips for at least two purposes.
One is targeting a broader audience to the show and to the manga, exactly as it happened with BSSM. Why is he doing that? This can of course be done merely for higher profits, but my experience with his shows tells me there's more to that. For example, this might have as well to do with the genre redefinition as discussed above. I'm pretty sure Ikuhara has a message for the audience he's inviting. And we'll see it in a couple of months. As somebody on CR wrote, "He'll probably deconstruct the fanservice to hell!"
Two is character design, as plain and obvious as it sounds. I'm perfectly conscious that the following thoughts are overanalyzing, but I will not be surprised at all to hear similar comments from Ikuni himself later on. For example, he could see how different female personalities go for different types of underwear, i.e. clothes that nobody else sees in normal conditions. In this case, their underwear becomes a key part of their character designs. Still waters run deep. You know, for Kureha
who's trying to be transparent and invisible to the society as much as possible to wear the panties with laces or frills is quite illustrative, if not daring.
Come to think about it, I'm now recalling him writing recently about "gloss". One of the words in Japanese to refer to a beautiful person literally translates to "romantic; spicy; coquettish", but the character used in the word has the following meanings: "captivating; charm; colorful; glaze; glossy; luster; polish". So he was like "Need more gloss! Lips, hair, but what other spots? We aren't kids here!" Seems like we can now see the answer, hahaha xD
I know he directed Sailor Moon. What about it? There were maybe like 10 frames of "fanservice" per season. Reading the comments here you'd think he was known for directing hentai or something.
Earwen said: I know he directed Sailor Moon. What about it? There were maybe like 10 frames of "fanservice" per season.
Right now we only have 3 frames per season. What about it?
Earwen said: Reading the comments here you'd think he was known for directing hentai or something.
To be fair, Adolescence of Utena had A LOT of erotic subtext in it. That's ages away from hentai and has little to do with fanservice. But Ikuhara's obsession with eroticism certainly shouldn't surprise you, whichever form it takes.
And reading comments here is nothing but reading comments here. You have your own head to dig whether the fanservice is intentional and if it is, for which purpose it's been added to the show.
Earwen said: I know he directed Sailor Moon. What about it? There were maybe like 10 frames of "fanservice" per season.
Right now we only have 3 frames per season. What about it?
What you just said has nothing to do with my question.
Earwen said: Reading the comments here you'd think he was known for directing hentai or something.
To be fair, Adolescence of Utena had A LOT of erotic subtext in it. That's ages away from hentai and has little to do with fanservice. But Ikuhara's obsession with eroticism certainly shouldn't surprise you, whichever form it takes.
And reading comments here is nothing but reading comments here. You have your own head to dig whether the fanservice is intentional and if it is, for which purpose it's been added to the show.
Really? There is miles between the erotic subtext in Utena and panties being shown in the character design. And I never asked why it was so. We'll find that out soon enough. My question is why people acted like it was the most natural thing for Ikuhara.
Like this:
Nucksen said:
It's like you've never seen anything by Ikuhara before.
If I hadn't watched any Ikuhara anime before I would assume he is usually working on bad harem adaptations.
Earwen said: My question is why people acted like it was the most natural thing for Ikuhara. Like this:
Nucksen said:
It's like you've never seen anything by Ikuhara before.
If I hadn't watched any Ikuhara anime before I would assume he is usually working on bad harem adaptations.
Ok, I probably see your point clearer now. So, even though this is just my personal feeling and I may be wrong too about the crowd, but I think there is at least one reason why people react this way.
Since you did watch Ikuhara anime before, you should be able to realize that the "crazy" directing decisions he takes, whether consciously or not, are usually not meaningless or random. Instead, they exist in his shows for good reasons. This is what defines his directing style. He has a very specific metaphoric or symbolic palette or language that he uses to deliver the message to the viewers, while blowing their minds at the same time. This makes his works noticeably stand out from other shows. Many have experienced that. So as I quoted somebody from above, "Ikuhara using fanservice? Ah, don't worry, he'll deconstruct it to hell." In a sense, Ikuhara is perceived as a freak in the industry, so the experienced viewers are like "Fanservice? No way! There must be a meaning behind it". And Ikuhara's flashy personality, like clothes he choose to wear or his famous Sailor Mars cosplay etc, only adds to these expectations. Take a look at his tvtropes page. It says enough about his image in people's mind. So it's not that everyone's expecting a stupid fanservice harem, it's that the expectations are too wide - "you can expect anything from that guy and it will still be awesome" or "it has a reason to be used - it's the crazy Ikuhara after all".
I'm so excited for this!
I was reading a chapter to a friend over the phone one day and couldn't help but find the art style to be adorable enough to stop and coo a bit. Like Sheepy said, I do wish they kept that style a little more, but it should be fine. ouo