Challenge of So Ra No Wo To: Did it make it or not?

12 episodes was not enough, in my opinion.

From the building up of the characters to the eventual conclusion, I think the story could have been fleshed out if more elements were included. I actually though of a season 2. But the ending tricked me. Sigh.

"People won't be moved nor consented unless someone dies. Why aren't they impressed by the character's survival?"

And this made me laugh. I think that Madoka did that better...a little. 0 w 0

I just ended watching So Ra No Wo To. To tell the truth... I LOVED IT. I was realy reluctant to watch it in the first place. What got me watching was the 12 episode (14 with OVAs) season and nothing else. I start with college again this week so I needed something that would end quickly. At first I was pretty confused with the whole setting. Girs with Japanese names in a Spanish looking village, with french as the official language of a country clearly named after Switzerland - Helvetia... But that, and the whole background story of the great war, got me watching episode after episode, day by day.

The show made me confused, made me laugh my ass off, made me pounch in the air at moments of awesome, made me 'awwww' at moments and especialy made me think about the contrast of war and peacefull times of life.

I can't stand people saying the didn't like the stark contrast between the background story and the slice of life momments. But the thing is this: I'm from Europe. A continent that was torn for centuries by constant wars the greatest being WWII. And how are we living now?? Did the war have a great effect on my life (I mean the way I'm living it, not the political, social and othe effects it caused)? Even though there was a great war that caused the death of 20 million people I can laugh at funny things, I can meet my friends and have a great time with them. The same goes for the people of Japan and any other country that has seen extensive war. Even now there are wars on our planet and pobably all of us here on MAL are living our normal lives. There is no dark gloom of destruction hanging over our heads all the time, is it?

I think that's one of the things the producers wanted to show us. So Ra No Wo To takes place after a great war - that's horrible, there are wars being fought - even more horrible, there is a war being cooked up right at the girls doorstep - no end to the horror... But still... the girls live their normal lives... why not??? Why must every anime show with a war theme (past or present war) be dark and depressing and why must every character (main, minor or even a statist character) be a philosophical pacifist or warmonger???

I loved the show because of it's rarely seen theme of peacefull times in a peacefull place in a wartorn world that is slowly dying... And who the F**k cares about the animation, and character design? People... DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER!!!

Regards,
Roky89

Wait a second, was not Valkyria Chronicles getting the same problem with character designs?

I like the first one a lot more. C:

just stumbled upon this series (havent seen K-on), and from reading the posts here, i agree, the series does feel rushed. there are so many holes and question mark left. thats why it needs a season 2!

You should know that they can´t animate the characters in that detail, your argument is totally missing the point, dispite the fact that the characters look exactly the same in the anime, except for their hairstyle. -.-

I haven't yet seen past episode 4 of this anime. But I am inclined to agree with this quote.

THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF IT WAS LIKE FULL METAL JACKET.

PRIVATE KANATA, YOU HAD BEST UNFUCK YOURSELF OR I WILL UNSCREW YOUR HEAD AND SHIT DOWN YOUR NECK.

I thought Sora No Woto was great. If they had used a different design style for the characters I bet more people would have been a bit more open to it and not say its shit by default due to it unfortunately having the same character designs as K-ON. I didn't like how it was so short, they definitely should have made it a 20+ episode show. We get our balance of slice-of-life and some serious shit.

My thoughts exactly, This could have been an very deep anime, Noel's story alone could have been a 4 episode arc. Yet they spent all their time on idiotic Slice of life stories. COME ON did we really need a complete episode about Kanata waiting for the phone?

But even with the wasted time one the slice of life this anime had the potential to be great. Only to throw it away by compressing what should have been a 8 episode ending into 3 episodes.
This anime is case and point for why the 12 episode rule is a bad idea.

I adored Sora no Woto (and i'm going to end up ranting because I really loved it and I feel like i'm the only one...) but it could have been much better.



THIS.
What on earth is wrong with the characters looking like something out of K-ON? I agree that the original designs are better, but there's nothing wrong with the way the character's look. The problems people have with K-ON have nothing to do with the character designs anyway, so it makes no sense. And the show ended up being nothing like K-ON, but people acted as if they were exactly alike just because of the goddamn character designs.

My opinion will probably be considered invalid because I actually love K-ON too, but whatever. :|

And I LIKED that it was slice-of-life with a military setting. I think that's a really good idea, the sort of cosy catastrophe thing, y'know. I wish they'd had a whoel first series of slice of life and then had a second series build on the war thing and all the stuff they had going on in the second half of the series. :/
Everyone else loved when it suddenly got deep and action-packed but I fucking hated it even though it was good because I LIKE slice of life moe god fucking damn it! D:

/rant XD;;;

yeah same pacing thing windy said. tricked me into thinking it was a lame show. now after seeing all of it i just don't know. it has issues. basically every first try has issues. better luck next time.

Well, that's sorta painful truth, pal. Especially when there's only a slight resemblance in visual appearance of Tsumugi & Felicia and Mio & Rio, and nothing more.

It would've been succesful, I guess. If the people weren't so uptight and didn't put their critic shields up at the first sight of K-ON.

Aria was about girls rowing boats on mars. That alone is indication of a slice-of-life. Sora no Woto, on another hand, had a military setting, with a whole post-apocalyptic world to explore. The two impressions I got from reading the synopsis was COMPLETELY different. Aria sets the scene by Akari going "I'm going to this planet to learn to be a tourist guide" while SnW set the scene (episode 1) with a plethora of hints, especially with the whole legend thing.

Basically, I was fascinated by the possible the depth SnW could have shown. However, episode 2 completely killed my fascination by slice of life. It doesn't belong as it did in Aria.

Huh, I didn't know there was a "Power of Anime" timeslot. Though was there anything else on that show other than Sora no Woto?

Anyway, I think the first and most obvious reason for Sora no Woto proving lackluster was because of the character design. Instead of aiming more towards the original artist's character design, A-1 was aping the K-ON style and tried to make it seem moe (at least I'm assuming they did). I can understand though where they were going by doing that, if that was the point. Nowadays, moe and whatever else that appeals to the same 20,000 oktaku makes money. K-ON sold well, Bakemonogatari sold well, Strike Witches sold well. They could've taken a risk with being true to finding it's own audience, but doing that would also mean taking a financial risk and the anime industry in gerneal is probably afraid to take such risks more frequently.

The other problem was how the story itself was arranged. Some say the story was rushed, some say it aimed for too many genrres at once. While I do kinda agree with those statements, I can't help but feel that it could also be lack of balancing between character development and plot development. There didn't seem to beenough of an attempt to advance the plot from the beginning. Thus by the time everyone wanted to know about the universe of Sora no Woto and where it was heading plot-wise, it was all packed into the last 2 episodes.

There was much more of an attempt at character development for the first 10 episodes, but even then, very few could make heads or tails as to how any of characters developed to the point where they were very likeable. I think A-1 had the right ideas with telling the story. It's just that it could've been executed more steadily, whether it was by balancing development between plot and characters or spanning the anime for another 12 episodes.

This. They could have made this into an amazing series, but it failed.

Well, being a moe-lover as am I, being a slice-of-life-lover as am I, I would say this show could be MUCH BETTER.

They tried to do a war anime: Failed
They tried to do a moe anime: minor failed
They tried to do a slice-of-live anime: failed.

They tried to do too much things in such a short anime. I understand why they had only 12 chapters (well, it is an experimental timeslot), but if you have such a short time, spend it well!!! Any way, I think that if they would have more time, they probably would done it better XP

I think the original characters look much better than final art, but I did really like the show. I hope to see more from A-1 and the "Anime no Chikara" movement!

The original character designs are indeed lovely. If they had kept them like that, I would have actually watched the show, slice of life or not.