Where did you hear that from? From what I know people who watched death note was always saying positive things about it and that they were blown away.
It does get better you just have to stick with it for some longer time to get used to it I guess.
Its serioulsly one of the most epic animes I have ever seen and it made my heart bump so fast I couldnt even breath lol.
EDIT: there’s also a lot of mindfucks that will srsly blown your mind
Are we… discussing which ones of the nominated Anime we don’t like and why…?
Everyone I’ve asked about it, and a general consensus on 2011 Crunchyroll and /r/anime, plus the a-p reviews I’ve read of it.
If you want. I was just saying how hard it is for me to judge if Kokoro Connect is good or not, and was asking if Death Note would get better even though I didn’t like the first two eps.
Nowadays I pretty much drop an anime after 1 episode if it isn’t interesting, but I sat through 2 for Death Note because of the positive reception it had. Too lazy for all this anime stuff =w=
YES! It’s so damn hard to find people who feel the same way as I do about School Days!
After finishing the School Days anime, I couldn’t get it out of my head for about 5 days. During these 5 days, I have been contemplaiting on one specific question: “If a work of fiction elicits a negative emotion from its audience, is it a good work or a bad work?”
Fictional works that make you feel happy, sad or scared are obviously good. But when it came to hatred and fury, the answer wasn’t as obvious to me. In the end, though, I concluded that making the audience feel a certain emotion is always an amazing accomplishment, no matter if the emotion is positive or negative. Either way, our hearts are moved.
Incidentally, intentionally disgusting splatter movies that make you want to vomit don’t count. Nausea isn’t an emotion. It’s a reflex.
School Days made me feel incredible fury and hatred, all directed at a single character. As I mentioned in the “Currently Airing Anime” topic:
Incidentally, I sympathized a lot with Kotonoha, which may be the main reason for my rage.
PS: Nice Boat!
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I wouldn’t expect anything less from the almighty Nick! This pretty much sums up why I find it so brilliant. I asked myself that same question for so long that I just had to accept that with how much it made me think, I just had to give it the praise it deserved. It accomplished what it set out to do.
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Both, depending on how you look at it. I won’t say School Days is a good show, but it’s one of the anime I use to introduce people to anime (as you do with all “it’s not what it seems” anime.)
It’s memorable, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Positive or negative, as long as you are thinking about it, it succeeded.
On a less serious note, my experience of it was soo different to yours!
I moved onto another show straight after. I understood the ending of School Days, but at the time I was too young to understand everything else that happened. Young age doing the automatic censorship that it does =3= Psychology~
I didn’t know what it was about until about 4 years later, when a friend got a copy of HQ and was streaming it for all the hype surrounding it. Then I remembered and understood everything that happened~
But yeah, hate can be successful sometimes. Just not in DC, 11eyes, YnS, or Shuffle!.
Since you brought it up. I started out so very hype for Death Parade because of Death Billiards. It started out just as strong as the short, imo. And then, just as everyone else suspected, it got increasingly repetitive up to episode 6. To make matters worse, the very vague way they kept trying to show you glimpses of the overarching plot and how the world works we confusing and kinda annoying. After episode 6, I got kinda bored, and very busy, so I decided to just take a break from it until it was over.
I watched the last 6 episodes all at once they were so good. I suddenly started liking characters that had annoyed me the whole time. Episodes 8 and 9 were two of the best episodes of an anime I’ve seen in a while. It reminded me why I loved Death Billiards so much in the first place.
Honestly, the only thing that I ended up being dissatisfied with about this show was how vague and inconclusive it was. There was tons of mysteries about the world and the arbitrators that were left wide open. Despite knowing that I could even get repetitive again, I would love to see a second season to get some closure on these things.
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I liked Death Note. It felt very logically written and the presentation wasn’t bad. Some twists were overly obvious, but others weren’t quite. It’s the type of thing that you’d have to be into in order to like it though. As @IkaCZ said, it had a lot of really good mindfuck moments.
@Takafumi, I would recommend maybe sticking with it for around eight~ episodes total. I can’t guarantee you won’t find it to be a waste of time, but I don’t think the first two episodes are really fair for considering any anime. (Except for maybe Time of Eve, or FLCL which only had six episodes total, lol.)
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When it aired, I loved it. It became my top 1, out of the ~450 I had seen at the time. There are only two problems I can think of that I wouldn’t argue against - First, the plot holes left unfilled by the anime. Shounens generally have trash plot anyway, so that’s nothing new. Second, apparently some people were hyped about it, which is stupid. I never saw any hype before it started airing though, so I can’t say if that is true or not.
The world was good. Animation was good. Music was good. The main cast was well-placed (especially Shu and Inori.) The arcs were all great up until the final one, and the VN brings it all to an amazing conclusion.
Plus, I loved Shu. He was cute.
I hate mecha anime though, so I might just like it because it managed to get past that hatred. I still like it though.
Well, opinions are opinions, but if you ask me I’d say Guilty Crown was a terribly flawed show, though very ambitious. It’s story was full of holes no matter where you looked, many plot points just came out of nowehere like, say, the revived blond dude whose name I forget</span class=“spoiler”> and the overall plot just felt extremely unorganized or rushed, with many characters serving little to no purpose, big revelations that didn’t feel impactful at all and just no sense of touch as to how develop a climax…or the build-up for it.
To be fair, it had one specif arc which was good the locked school one</span class=“spoiler”>, and some of the character development was indeed smart, just not well done for the most part. For example, Shu’s character development makes sense and is all-around well constructed enough, but I couldn’t care less by the time it was all said and done.
In the end, GC was very ambitious and it had some very good ideas, but just couldn’t execute or balance them out properly. I mean, the most frustrating thing about the show was the fact that I could clearly see the potential in it…which never lived up.
Though that’s not the point of this thread, I guess.
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Bit late on this one, but I fell behind a bit and I’ve still got a lot of the shows on-hold. Still, there are a bunch that I did finish to talk about.
My first impressions of the season can be found here.
I have nothing to add to my Akatsuki no Yona points, mainly because… I haven’t watched it since. There’ll probably be a full review of the series once I finish it.
When I last spoke about Parasyte, I said it was in the middle of a change, and I was uncertain of if I liked this change. Now that the show has finished, I definitely think the second half of the show was much weaker. The story managed to focus on what it was aiming to tell, and there were some interesting ideas about humanity thrown in. The big problem with the show is that it was centered around two things: Shinichi’s transformation, the Parasyte threat. Shinichi’s growth was shown multiple ways, mainly through Migi and Murano. Migi was great, he did his job well. Murano was… she should have been great… but she became nothing more than a plot device.
Shinichi did have a good evolution throughout the series, but as the show used Murano to portray Shinichi’s humanity, they stripped away everything that made her a person.
I think the Parasyte threat was interesting, and it did leave a lot to think about, but in the end, it was all a bit anticlimactic.
The fights are great, the tension is gripping, and time flies while watching the show.
The show wasn’t bad by any means, and I’d recommend it… but… It could have been so much better, and it should have.
But you know, Parasyte was a show that brought up good moral ideas, and got you to think about it. That’s important enough.
7/10
Your lie in April is another anime that could have been so much better. Unlike Parasyte however, it brings up bad moral ideas, and forces them onto the viewer.
It follows the typical children’s shounen formula, and does it very well at times. Relax>Conflict>Action>Conclusion>Repeat. Then have an overlying storyline.
The Nagi arc and the Tsubaki arc are great for the most part. They were executed well, despite it leading to the characters being shafted screen-time-wise.
However, there are a lot of problems with the show.
First, due to the plot pattern is follows, the show puts a lot of time into the “action” part. The action in this show is classical music, generally piano playing. Now if you play Piano or some other instrument, and you can sympathize with everything going on, then great. To me though, I’m being left with 10 minutes of boring, monotone, lifeless classical music.
Of course, they add other content in with it. They add character development… well, they try to.
Again, this is following a children’s shounen formula. This means that during the action scenes they have to hammer in a moral to the kids watching at home.
“Todoke. Todoke.” This is essentially the whole of the dialogue during these scenes. They say the same things over and over. Repeat the same moral ideas, and project the same images, and get stuck in the same conflicts. The show clearly wants to set up a repeating pattern, and use this to highlight the small differences that appear as time passes, but it does a terrible job of it. Repetition can be nice, it’s memorable. Unfortunately for KimiUso, you have to be smart about it, otherwise it just becomes boring. You are actively making your show feel empty…
Even worse, it brings up a big disconnect between the characters and what they are saying. These are 14 year old kids, and they are speaking poetically about the passing of the seasons, and the effects of love, and… This is the stuff I expect from the Koi Kaze protagonist, not some kids almost 20 years younger than him.
There is only so much you can say “I hope my thoughts reach blahblahblah” or “the world was colorful” before it loses it’s effectiveness. Too much imagery is bad, and because of that, this anime is bad.
Now, there was some nice visual direction behind all of the overly-saturated animation, but that’s the only good directing you will see in this show. Poetic imagery is abused, the background ost is mistimed and changed inappropriately, comedic timing is all off, conflicts are dragged out for too long or completely forgotten, and speaking of forgotten, you have a whole cast of amazing characters to throw into the trash.
Normally I’d just say “yeah, it’s okay” but this show is somehow being given aots by some people. I don’t understand why. The exact same thing happened with Attack on Titan - God awful direction that manipulates it’s viewers, yet it’s still popular. If this was my style of show, I’d be annoyed at how butchered it was. Luckily I didn’t expect any better from it, but there is still something that annoys me about the show… It wasn’t just the side characters that were forgotten - Kousei was too.
This was Kaori - The Animation. None of it fit together well.
It just seems like whoever was in charge didn’t understand what they were doing. Maybe this is a problem with the Manga too though. It’d be interesting to see what Manga readers thought of it.
5/10
Aldnoah Zero was surprisingly good. I didn’t really like the first season, so I didn’t expect anything from the second, but boy did Slaine carry this show. The Terran stuff? Boring, let that pass. The Vers stuff though, pretty good. Slaine is a good character. He is contrasted nicely with the pink princess and the loyal underling. I don’t think there was anything really deep about this show, it’s all been done before and done better, but Aldnoah was still enjoyable. Oh oh, and the soundtrack was good too. I’m gonna have to listen to that one day.
6/10
Saekano wasn’t long enough. We need more! This is what happens when you get a talented writer to make a show as meta as possible. Normally I hate the “meta” idea since people adore it blindly, but Saekano did it well. The animation was… seriously, there has to be someone from Shaft on the animation staff. It was bugging me since episode 0.
I think this show was directed very well. It wasn’t too smart or innovative, but little touches like messing with background characters and selectively showing things on screen were nice additions.
If you like romance VNs and dating sims, or you have been watching tropey anime for a while, pick up this show.
8/10
Tokyo Ghoul √A is the continuation of a series I loved, and I’m really glad that th- pfft, haha, no. I can’t seriously praise this show’s existence. First off, if you liked Tokyo Ghoul, don’t watch this. It has no respect for what the first season built up.
I still really like the characters, so I watched it all the way to the end, but I have nothing good to say about the show. The animation was absolutely awful. Whoever timed the sound effects with the animation should be fired. In fact, everyone who directed audio should be ashamed. It’s not often you get a show that is so badly co-ordinated that it feels creepily empty. It’s not as bad as DRAMAtical was, but it’s not good.
The story was a mess. It never went anywhere, and it dropped every story arc without progressing it.
There were only two pairs of characters that got any development, and it was sub-par.
There is no merit to watching this.
Oh, but it still gets the OP of the season title I prematurely gave it, because ugh I’ve been listening to that song almost every day since the anime started.
4/10
I can’t praise Shirobako enough. It wasn’t really a show I got excited for every week, and it wasn’t anything amazing, but I enjoyed every second of every single episode, and hopefully there’ll be more to enjoy. Here’s to season 2!
Everyone should watch this show. Seriously.
9/10
Finally, there were a bunch of harem shows that I tried to watch. I didn’t get too far.
Absolute Duo was the best of them. It’s not great, but you can have a laugh with it probably.
Seiken Tsukai no World Break is okay. It has a good idea, and it follows through with it, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Juuou Mujin no Fafnir had a bunch of opportunities to be something special, and abandoned all of them. Don’t watch it.
The Testament of Sister New Devil. It’s trash. Forget about it.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, I never got past episode one of Death Parade. Called it!
I’ll be putting up first impressions of Spring 2015 soon. I’m not too sure what I’ll be watching, but I’ll find something. Arslan Senki is on my radar, and I’m watching Fate, but there’s not really anything else going on yet.
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Wow, you sure watch a lot of anime. When do you plan to finish Non Non Biyori?
Why didn’t you like the 1st season? It was a lot better than the 2nd imo (the 2nd felt like they were trying to extend the show without any good ideas). And also, Asseylum didn’t appear too much, I liked her…
Did you, by any chance, like the ending?
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I’ve cut back a lot 
I used to watch almost every show a season, only ignoring the pure slice-of-lifes and the mechas.
I’ve been saving it for marathoning. Probably in a week or two.
It just wasn’t my style of show. It felt a lot like Gargantia in a way. It had it’s moments, but as the episodes progressed I stopped caring about the anime and just watched it for Inko screentime.
Season 2 broke it up with the Slaine moments, and it made it feel like it was more than an episodic mech battle show.
I wasn’t too bothered about Asseylum. None of the characters were great imo. It just managed to pull ahead with Slaine’s antics.
I don’t remember it very clearly… but I don’t think it was bad.
Asseylum got her peace, Inko didn’t die, Inaho became a pirate (yarr) and Slaine was forced to continue living hell because of his love for Asseylum.
It was very generic, but I don’t think it did enough wrong for me to say it was bad.
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We’re still doing the walls of impressions here?
Ok, don’t mind if I barge in with my strictly biased winter season impressions…
Absolute Duo was the only generic shounen harem that I managed to finish watching. Nothing special, but kind of an ok thing to watch if you have no expectations.
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu is above average, I guess. I’m reading the manga and I’m quite liking it. I wonder how many seasons they’ll adapt, but I digress. The comedy is good, the characters are ok (there’s a lot of them, so most don’t get too much screen time individually), the concept is somewhat unique.
I’ll have to admit that the series is quite manipulative sometimes. The protagonist’s class are decent-looking, good-natured and talented people while the antagonists (rest of the school) are butt-ugly, malevolent, arrogant loser types - except for the ‘bosses’. Though I’m not sure if it can still be called manipulatioin if it’s this blatant.
Oh, and I like the VA cast ^^
My fears concerning Death Parade actually came true. It was episodic, with most episodes following the same structure while the main plot progressed slowly in the background and fully surfaced at the end. It had some decent feels, though, and especially the last episodes were well-executed. Overall a good watch.
Durarara!!x2 Shou was pretty much my favorite show the season. Great comedy, exceptionally interesting (and absolutely excentric) characters as usual. Unfortunately, they spent quite a lot of episodes on introducing and re-introducing the huge character cast, so there wasn’t much time left for the actual plot. Though I’m kind of getting the feeling that this was a mere preparation for the next part. If you’re not watching Durarara, you’re missing out!
Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata is a show that’s carried by a single character - the main heroine Kato. Being the only normal person in a group of excentrics, she stands out. Or should I say she stands out by not standing out? Anyway, her value as a character became more and more apparent as the show progressed. I think her most outstanding trait was the ability to calmly manage the group of weirdos that is the main cast from behind the scenes. The other characters, however, were more of a disappointment. I have noticed a certain thing after watching the first two episodes and it remained true for the rest of the series: The three side-heroines - Utaha, Eriri and Michiru - were redundant. Two of them could be chosen at random and removed from the show entirely and nothing would be different. They are pretty much three alternative versioins of one and the same character and none of them offers anything to the character cast that the other two don’t have. All three were in the protagonist’s harem before the show even started, all three have an exceptional talent in their respective fields, all three had to be persuaded to join the project, all three are intrusive and lewd (while the blonde tsundere was pictured as pure-hearted, her field of expertise were ero-doujins…), and lastly, for every one of the three, the protagonist is the worst possible match.
If any of them ended up with the protagonist, her life would turn into something like a violence-less version of domestic abuse. After all, the protagonist had them all at his beck and call and he knew exactly which buttons to push to make them do his bidding. And let’s face it: this dude is really really selfish. He didn’t seem all that interesting as a character, either. Passionate, selfish, and hyperactive should suffice as a character description.
Overall I consider the series a waste of potential - as expected from the author of WA2. Too bad, since the concept was quite interesting and I kinda liked the comedy as well.
I am positive that Tokyo Ghoul √A was made by people who thoroughly hate all Tokyo Ghoul fans. Not only is the animation a joke, the entire ‘plot’ of this season is just a spoiler for the rest of the manga. I could tell because I finished the manga before root A aired. They’re just making the same things happen for a different (way more illogical) reason. I ended up dropping the show after three episodes and only sneaking a few peeks here and there.
Lastly, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. I heard a lot of good things about the series, so I waited patiently and timed my watching sessions in a way that would allow me to watch the show in less than a week and finish it on the day the last episode aired. I noticed countless flaws. I noticed countless elements that are typically used in sports anime - the elements that are the reason for my hatred of sports anime. Theoretically, I shouldn’t have been able to enjoy this series properly. But oddly enough, the positive things in this anime have always prevailed over the negative ones. I had a great time watching the show and I enjoyed every single episode. I loved the drama, the characters and the comedy (but most of all the drama). Also, the screenplay was quite commendable when it came to giving out subtle hints on what was going on behind the scenes, as well as foreshadowing.
To my mind, Kaori was a perfect main heroine. She did really well in both happy and sad moments and always remained and interesting character. The protagonist, rarely did live up to his role in my eyes. I liked the rest of the main cast, though, as well as most characters in general.
Lastly, the ending - and the revelation of the title’s meaning - hit me really hard.
Could anyone explain the hype on Shirobako for me? I’m hearing a lot of praise for it, but it seemed quite boring to me. I decided to watch it in order to learn more about the anime industry, but I kinda got stuck at the beginning and didn’t make much progress. Of course, I will finish it eventually, but it probably won’t be before the spring season ends, due to how many good series are currently airing.
I normally do it in the currently airing anime thread, but I took a break from anime for a few weeks.
Was it good episodic, or “this again” episodic?
The perfect match for Kato~
Oh god. You should see the reddit comments in /r/anime. The manga readers complaining was the worst thing about the show honestly. They were all stuck unable to understand that to an anime-only viewer, the story wasn’t confusing at all, and is totally coherent, but bad.
Children’s Shounen Formula! I’ve got my Vanguard, and that’s more tasteful.
As I said: Kaori - The Animation.
Kousei’s past, his ideals, his view on life, everything that you rarely saw portrayed, was thrown aside for chibi comedy and the incredibly saturated visuals that symbolize Kaori. It would have been fine, if they actually used the techniques properly and had it dark when Kousei is sad, then bright when Kaori is around. Instead it was bright almost all the time, even in the sad scenes. Kousei as a person was thrown aside, used as a metaphor for using the past to get stronger, but in a way that made Kousei look bad. Well, they either make Kousei the one who is wrong, or they cover it up with one-liners or abusive comedy.
I do think it’d be better handled in the manga though, as it seems like a problem that largely stems from the colors used, and the pacing of the show.
It’s not really… exciting. Don’t expect that for it.
It’s essentially a look into the working lives of people at hectic office jobs, and of those struggling to find jobs. Treat it like a day-in-the-life documentary or something.
Uh… what? What series are those??
Wow I have the complete opposite opinion in every respect to you about Your Lie in April. I’d have you explain the bad moral ideas, since to me this show didn’t really have any moral questions in it. I mean, unless you think a mother’s child abuse was portrayed as good somehow. It was pretty straightforward on the ethics. But on to your first point, the action scenes. The classical pieces were far and away the best part of the series. Not just in their execution, but in their meaningful selection. For example, when Kousei plays Sleeping Beauty with Nagi and has Kaori listen. They played it as a piano duet, but it’s most typically played as a duet with a piano and a violin, so this was a perfect ploy to get Kaori to want to play violin again. Then there was the Ballad at the end, which is Chopin’s favorite piece and definitely a piano solo, which the writers of the show actually wrote in a violin part for. Essentially, Kousei channels Kaori’s “weird violinist” nature and has his own blasphemous version of Chopin’s most prized work, in a glorious “fuck you” to convention. And the violin part was well done to boot. I guess if you don’t like classical music, that’s that. But I’m into it, despite not playing an instrument, as are many others. And the performances were really top tier. To call it boring and lifeless is pretty harsh, considering classical provides some of the most moving music ever composed.
Then you say you have a problem with conventional shounen themes. I thought the repetition of the theme was pretty effective, and while you can simplify it to “just another shounen” push-on-through anime, that’s not what this is. This is a very real portrayal of what life is like for young musicians who get put through a tremendous amount of pressure from a young age. Sometimes to the extent that it’s abusive and horrific for them. In the show, a boy overcomes that by transmuting his pain into something very beautiful by letting it out through his performances. The further message is that he doesn’t have to take only suffering from the bad things that happened to him. His mother blessed him with a talent, and while she was horrible, he can still treasure something from her. Youu shouldn’t simplify that to mere “Todoke, todoke.”
And sure, the kids are dramatic. This is a drama. You can expect dramatic dialogue as seen traditionally in anything by Makoto Shinkai. More over this is a show about young, immature artists. The guiltiest party when it comes to imagery. But ultimately if you’re gonna have a show about a kid who has been forced to mature rapidly, he’s gonna say things that 14-year-olds don’t say. You don’t see his “normal” friends saying things like that.
In my opinion the poetic imagery, beautiful scenery and color-palette choice, use of music to deliver emotions, excellent supporting cast who were all made useful as forces of change in the male lead and in some ways Kaori, and the ability to seamlessly swap in humor to lighten a moment all make this show an A-List drama. I loved it. Whoever was in charge really got the idea behind what the mangaka was thinking, and has a deep appreciation for the music and themes it wanted to bring to life. I read the manga afterwards, and thought the anime improved upon every aspect. That last performance blue me away visually, thematically and musically. Such accomplished directing. A very high 9/10 for me.
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The show trivializes it’s own dramas to progress the show and simplify the moral intentions of what is being shown. KimiUso is about moving on, but remembering. It’s about remembering the past, and using it to progress. That’s a great idea, and as I already said, the Manga may have executed it better.
The show however twists it to make it look like Kousei is a bad person for not progressing. The show is completely Kaori-centric. Her world view is the one that is right. Everything should keep going forward, keep being lit up. Kousei is wrong, and with the power of peer-pressure and insistence, he can be corrected.
That’s dangerously unrealistic. It’s insensitive to a topic that I wouldn’t even touch, and insensitive humor is my big thing.
It might just be an England thing, the last two generations weren’t exactly great, so I’ve met a lot of people who have had a similar childhood to Kousei, even those who didn’t get forced to learn Piano. I can’t imagine how big a slap someone would get for acting like Kousei’s friends around real people.
I think the show has good intentions. It just wasn’t handled by someone who understood what they were directing.
I’m not calling classical music boring and lifeless, I dip into classical as much as any other big genre. I’m calling the music in KimiUso boring and lifeless. It’s strange that a show about breaking convention and channeling your self into the music can have such ugly presentation. They were played accurately, but they weren’t played well in my opinion.
The song choices were smart, yes, but that is all on the Manga author.
I didn’t say that at all. I’m watching Vanguard and Kurukuru. Both of them are shounen shows aimed at very young audiences. It can be fun an effective, if you do it correctly. Nagi and Tsubaki’s arcs were examples of this in KimiUso.
It’s not “just another shounen” as you quoted seemingly from out of nowhere, it is a shounen that fails to use it’s time effectively or center interest around it’s action scenes.
The build up and the sol was usually good, especially in the second half. It had my hyped for some episodes. Then… 10 minutes of boredom and the same dialogue from two episodes ago. It doesn’t evolve beyond it’s premise. It has less development than most shounen shows I have watched in the past few years. Heck, if I wanted to be brazen, I’d go so far as to say Scan2Go handled it better.
Tell that to the show, before it immaturely bullies those young musicians… Oh wait, too late.
The fact that it is supposed to be a real portrayal, and not just a fun romcom anime, is one of the things that makes it so bad compared to the norm in the anime world.
Oh no, todoke is beyond that. Almost every character who expresses themselves has a “todoke” moment, even Tsubaki.
The conflicts beyond those first few episodes, beyond the parenting reveal, never went anywhere new. It was recreating drama we’ve already sat through, re-establishing character development we are already aware of.
You’re talking to the guy who has drama as one of his top 3 anime genres. I spend a lot of time with my K-dramas, and the average age of protagonists is probably ~25 (if we ignore that one with the alien time travel guy.) None of them were as forcefully poetic and repetitive as KimiUso.
Not a big fan of him, but his stuff is so much better than KimiUso. It can be somber, or dramatic, or emotional, or calming… without resorting to the garbage that the KimiUso director threw out. From what I’ve seen of Shinkai, he is poetic through a mix of simplicity, imagery, and timing. KimiUso only had a specific section of the imagery part. It compared it’s self to earlier episodes, and that was great. Buuut, it had bad camera positioning, bad lighting, and an overuse of saturation and flowers.
Are you saying Kousei doesn’t have any normal friends?
Edit: I just looked up the studio, and it’s A-1 Pictures. They’ve done what… 2 serious anime? I think it should have gone to a studio that’s more suited to working with mature works.
Pretty much my feelings exactly. Stared watching because it sounded really interesting. Wasn’t bad. It was actually really good. I just suddenly got really bored with it one week and decided to drop it. Will have to pick it back up at some point.
[quote=“Takafumi, post:173, topic:27”]
Was it good episodic, or “this again” episodic?
[/quote]The first half of the show (at least as I remember it) became increasingly more “this again” episodic up to episode 6. Really, it just kinda slowly decreased in enjoyment for me, starting with the original Death Billiards at the top, and get more predicable and almost boring as it went on. There were only a few moments that actually peaked my interest being about more than just the standard pattern. It was at this point that I just took a break from it.
After it all finished, I came back to episode 7 to be majorly surprised by actually being interested again, the show actually breaking away from the pattern. Episodes 8 and 9 were just as interesting and amazing as the the original short, if not better. And in episodes 10-12 I actually found myself liking and caring about characters that I had either disliked or been indifferent to since the beginning of the show.
That said, then ending really only closed up a very small part of the story and the world, tricking you into being satisfied while really just raising more questions than ever before.
If they would focus on these questions and the world itself, maybe even other characters, I would be very interested in a second season. But if it were to simply fall back on its standard pattern again, it would most likely be pretty darn boring.
Yerian explained it quite well. Basically, how much you’ll enjoy an arc depends on how much you can get invested in the characters and their backstories. So in the best case, you’ll be able to experience things like the beauty of love and the darkness of the human heart. There is plenty of variety in the theme, but the overall structure remains the same for most episodes.
Yes. Kato is able to controll the main cast to a certain degree, which includes the protagonist. Therefore, the protagonist couldn’t exploit Kato the same way he did the other girls. Kato, on the other hand, could always make the protagonist tone down his weirdness to a more acceptable degree.
tl;dr: Kato can handle him.
hold my beer while I prepare the next wall of text…
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So I finished watching the Little Busters Refrain anime yesterday so here’s my overall thoughts on the Little Busters dub
The dub for Little Busters is okay. Not a bad one by Sentai standards but not great either. There are some good performances though with my favorite being Tia Ballard as Komari who in my opinion, does a better job voicing Komari than her seiyuu Natsumi Yanase. Other notable good performances go to Brittney Karbowski as Rin, Carli Moser as Kurugaya, Tiffany Grant as Kud, and Genevieve Simmons as Kanata. The rest of the cast are hit or miss depending on your preference though I will say that Blake Shepard (Kyousuke) and Shannon Emerick (Riki) get a little better as you watch the series. Also, a good Sunohara you are Greg Ayres but not so much a good Masato. Additionally, there is some honorific usage in the dub which didn’t bother me but could bother you if you can’t stand hearing them in a dub. I didn’t notice any mispronunciation of character names as I did with Clannad’s dub but then again, I’m very tolerant towards mispronunciations as long as they are close enough to actual pronunciation. Overall though, the Little Busters dub is decent but if you don’t like dubs in general I would stay stick to the Japanese version.
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