- Last OnlineSep 24, 2021 3:27 PM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayAug 18, 1986
- LocationNorway
- JoinedJul 9, 2014
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
May 24, 2017
One of Kyoto Animation's weakest hours was dabbling in this franchise.
A studio will eventually slump, and that's to be expected. But when you slump, and accidentally find a new audience that is damaging to your core ideals, you're in trouble.
Chuunibyou is what you'd call a light-hearted slice of life rom/com with a twist of eccentricity. Unfortunately, it's not a sufficiently off-the-wall enough comedy to excuse its shallow and inauthentic characters, which, dare I say it, pander to a mainstream audience previously outside of Kyoto Animation's grasp, and are in direct conflict with Kyoto Animation's pre-established specialty.
When your first episode with real character development and as
...
much as a single authentic moment of detectable awareness for one of your main characters turns out to be the very last episode, you have missed the mark in your main genre, which believe it or not, is supposed to be slice of life.
If you like Chuunibyou, it will be off the back of its cringe-comedy and/or approachable mainstream art direction, and not at all on its slice-of-life leanings, at which it fails miserably.
As it turned out, Chuunibyou was the beginning of a longish decent into money-fueled grab-missions with its artistic aspirations put completely on hold for Kyoto Animation, and, as of writing this it has still not ended completely. Although Hibike! Euphonium had its redeeming qualities.
Chuunibyou is a serviceable cringe-comedy, if you're into that particular sub-genre of comedy, and not much else. Whether you love it or hate it, my best advice is to stay clear of the sequel.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Aug 8, 2014
I'll be the first to admit that the only reason I watched this anime is Buriki, the original character designer. Ever since watching Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai and the sequel, I've been a huge fan of his.
Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko unfortunately has quite a few ingredients that I hate. First, the protagonist is the 'hobby psychologist' type, who thinks his viewpoint on others is absolutely correct, and won't back down from his arrogance unless punted in the head with absolute proof. Granted, we are talking about a girl who thinks she's an alien here, but the whole 'I am going to fix you'
...
mentality of this guy is too cringeworthy to bear. Luckily, he gets past that stage fairly early and the rest of the season can be enjoyed in peace. Additionally, it does tie into the conclusion, so I am forced not to deduct any points for it.
As much of a fan I am of Buriki's character designs, I think this is his weakest hour. Apart from Erio Touwa herself, he didn't bring a magic touch to much of the rest of the cast, though his style does pop out in every character. I just feel they weren't characterized much, not only in art but also in writing.
All that aside, the anime does feel like a low budget job. From the opening theme, Erio Touwa's voice acting, to the fast-forwarding of minor events and the decapitated "adolescence points" sub-plot/ time-filler that has no relation to the anime at all - there are a lot of incongruities that makes this anime at times look like it was given away as an amateur prize in a chocolate bar; "create your dream anime storyboard".
The season does get a lot better in the final quarter - maybe someone on the staff floor realized that the potential of this anime was greater than the effort they had put in it up to that point. Whatever the reason, it is a bit sad that it got a bit neglected early on, and that it didn't get a second season.
Hopefully, Buriki will stay away from SHAFT from now on. His work on Haganai and Nagi no Asukara were way less of a waste of his mountainous talent.
Summary of my ratings:
Story : 6
Art: 9
Sound: 4
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 7
Overall: 7
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jul 28, 2014
Easy to like - hard to love.
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu has a lot of ingredients that could have made it a favourite of mine. A colourful cast in a borderline parodist concept, overloaded to the brim with gags and absurd situations.
Despite that, there are some unfortunate detracting elements to this anime. First of all, the world and background art is one of those sketched reality type jobs you may have seen in for example Nisekoi. There are overlapping patterns, crazy shading and obscurement of detail, making the characters look like paper cutouts in contrast. The character art itself is also very simple, though definitely
...
not without personality. In my opinion, while I'm sure many see this kind of art direction as a breath of fresh air or even "artistic license", I see it as nothing more than a shortcut. You can argue that because of the lightheartedness of the show, it is perfectly valid to make the art itself more basic and effective. While that wouldn't be wrong, in this case I don't feel that the art direction did anything to lift the focus onto other aspects of the anime. What it does do for me is distract. And more distractions is not what this anime needed.
This is because the pacing of this anime can not be described as anything but exasperating. In 20 minutes worth of airtime, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu crams in more gags, jump shots, banal twists and ridiculousness than any other comedy anime I've seen. It seems the creators are desperate to rush through as many jokes and plot elements as is possible at all times. For a non-japanese speaker relying on subs, it's a very hard watch, and also a lot of jokes fall completely flat due to a lack of timing. Timing is one of the most important aspects of humor, and this is probably the main failure of Baka to Test.
All that aside, I still felt I had a blast with the anime. Despite leaning heavily on artistic shortcuts and unrelenting pacing, I did end up caring about the meager plot and loving the cast of characters, especially towards the end of the season.
Baka to Test is a hard anime to love, simply because there is so much to love but not enough time to fall in love with it. With proper pacing, all the jokes and gags would be funny instead of just half of them. With less artistic shortcuts, such as the tactical map trick used in every battle sequence, there would be more chances to see different sides of the characters. And despite the basic nature of the plot and setting, it could have done well for itself given more background and explanation.
How I rated:
Story - 5
Art - 6
Sound - 6
Character - 7
Enjoyment - 6
Overall - 6
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jul 19, 2014
A failed gateway drug.
Slice of life and romantic comedy genres have always been behind shounen and fantasy/ sci-fi in popularity. It stands to reason that eventually a producer would try to encroach on that territory with a special formula pure-bred to draw in a new audience and teach them appreciation of your genre.
Hataraku Maou-sama! is that special formula, sadly it is not a very good one.
At first glance, the concept lends itself very well to what they are trying to do. Satan gets exiled to Japan along with his most loyal henchman, and has to learn the ways of a new life while trying to
...
find a way back. It should be a comedy goldmine, but the amount of missed opportunities for comedy far surpass the actual comedy in this anime.
Hataraku Maou-sama! is a schizophrenic show split down the middle between comedy and action. The action parts contain no comedy, and the comedy parts contain no action. Heck, even the comedy parts sometimes don't contain comedy.
The brunt of the comedic weight in Hataraku Maou-sama! is carried by Maou's henchman Ashiya. His fish-out-of-water coping mechanisms are a joy to behold in the early series, and his reactions to seeing the changes in his master are a treat. Unfortunately, Maou himself skips right past the fish-out-of-water stage, jumping straight into overzealous fast food worker mode, and a huge goldmine of comedy is seemingly boarded up by the producers. As far as the plot development goes, Maou again comes short as a character because his true motivations are questionable. The writer expects you to take Maou's motivation to 'become a good guy' at face value.
Enter carbon-copy arche-tsundere Emi Yusa. Maou's mortal enemy. She has followed Maou from Ente Isla, and begins her existence on earth stalking Maou and conspiring to finally dispose of him, but seeing the changes in his personality, starts to have second thoughts. At first, Emi seems to be an interesting character with promise for a lot of depth, unfortunately that promise has so far been a false dawn.
The character development of Emi and Maou are exceedingly symmetrical and predictable. It feels overall like a waste of time that the producers would devote such an exorbitant amount of screentime to this dynamic. The two need more real conflict eventually or become entirely dried up as a plot anchor.
About halfway in, the show started boring me and I became conscious to that fact. Luckily, the arrival of Kamazuki Suzuno, a new character, saved this anime from becoming the first anime I'd ever dropped. Kamazuki is all the things that the rest of the cast aren't. Funny and deep while advancing the plot, and despite seeming to be unimportant to the main plot, she pretty much steals the title of 'main plot' with her backstory and character development for me personally. Her arrival livens up the rest of the cast as well, especially the one-dimensional dere-dere Sasaki Chiho, who takes her to be her new rival in love with Maou.
Which brings up another point, why is this even tagged with 'romance'? Chiho surely displays intentions of romance in the show, but Maou himself seems utterly asexual. It takes two to romance.
At the end of the day, I have high hopes for this show to get a second season, because Kamazukis arrival in the anime has given me hope of the potential of this anime. She could very well become the glue that finally sticks some sense on to the rest of the group.
And hopefully, if it does get another season, Emi and Maou's characters stop being so utterly boring.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
