With the winter season firmly in everyones memories and my blog going unloved for the past few months i thought i'd share my thoughts on some of the shows i followed that recently finished. Lets start with Nanatsu no Taizai.
I'm not even gonna pretend for a second that i cared about this show before i was made aware my nigga Takashi Torii was one of the 2 main animators because that simply would be disingenuous of me. The show nevertheless ended up being as enjoyable as you could expect a modern shonen series to be and more so. The show has undeniable Fairy Tail vibes which is something that even the music will remind you of. The story of Meliodas and his fellow Seven Deadly Sins is a quirky one. Every one of them that we met over the span of these 24 episodes was charismatic in their own unique ways. The main female lead Elizabeth however was a somewhat cliche character. Her character type in particular is incredibly overused in shonen series. At first glance she may come across as a variation of Lucy from Fairy Tail but it soon becomes clear she isn't that strong as a character. Her passiveness comes across especially perplexing as this same show has a character as fun as Diane (though even she loses her edge towards the end). The supporting cast only has a few strong players (Gilthunder, Guila, Dreyfus) with the rest having fairly paint by numbers motivations. The villains are pretty decent and work well enough as foes to our heros though you won't find anything you haven't seen before in that department. The story overall was executed very well. Unlike Tensai Okamura's last attempt at a shonen adaptation (Still salty about Ao no Exorcist), this show doesn't have a terrible filler ending. I've heard from people that read the manga that some parts are skipped for time but it surprisingly feels complete all on its own. I have no doubt these sections may have added some further world building but in the end the story is character focused more so than plot focused. The characters are introduced in the first half, intrigue ensues and then builds till the final battle at the end. Its probably worth watching this if you've grown tired of Fairy Tails endless waffling.
Animation-wise this was an above average production from A-1. The character designs are rendered well most of the time and look really nice. Takashi Torii did a decent amount of work on the show though he never quite produced anything as memorable as his work on Katekyo Hitman Reborn. He was outshined by scumbag Takahiro Shikama who just came in dropped the mic and left leaving everyone else looking bad. Hirotaka Tokuda also worked as a main animator but in the end i was never able to figure out what work he did and the scenes i think he did in my MAD are mostly guesses based on whatever style was consistent in all the episodes he worked on. The backgrounds were never an issue and generally looked quite nice and earthy a lot of the time. The only big issue i had was with the storyboarding/fight staging the episodes from 10-19. Its incredibly jarring with too many cuts in sequences and lots of stills. It hampered my enjoyment of the show a fair amount till episode 20 where it went back to being more legible. The music in the show is pretty forgettable though besides the second opening which is fantastic. This is probably Hiroyuki Sawano's least memorable work and it feels fairly standard. I'd give the animation a 3/5 and the show overall the same score. The show didn't look bad and the designs were never done a disservice despite Torii's somewhat lackluster work. I expected to be more impressed with him on this project.
Shirobako is probably the best show i've seen in years. The amount of love i have for this show knows no bounds. The fact that its mainly a workplace drama also makes it refreshing in a time when we see more of High Schools still than workplaces. The show starts with our 5 main girls working at their high school animation club and making a short film together. Each of the girls has their own skills with there being an animator, writer, voice actor and so on. We see them finish it and promise to each other to make another film together someday. After we see them screen it to schoolmates we see them transition to adult life as they each go their won directions trying to fulfill their promise. While still dramatized, their struggles will feel all to familiar as the series progresses. The show showcases a dramatized version of anime production very successfully to the point that it manages to balance info dumps and character drama more successfully than a lot of serious shows about their respective industries manage. By the end of the penultimate episode (23) i was in tears not only because of the happenings at the end of the episode (OMG Zuka-chan you did it!! Go on bruv, get in dere!!), I was in tears because the only show i've watched that managed to fill me with such emotions was ending the next week. Over the course of the series i was sneering obnoxiously at 3D animators (nothing personal lol), having feels about the work of veteran background painters, wishing Andes Chucky was a real show and endlessly stating how obvious it was that Ema is best girl. Its one of those rare educational shows that balances the character drama flawlessly enough that one can enjoy the show regardless of whether they care about what the show is info dumping you on. The animation was also of such a consistent quality that episodes barely look any different but thats not meant as an insult. It manages to have spectacular animation when it really needs it. The character designs are also great, the characters look like they all belong in the same place with the ones based on real life figures looking enough like the original but being simple enough for TV animation. Art direction is good with a uniform style that makes everything look in a way that fits with the characters. It reminded me of the style of background i saw in Eden of the East in a way.
Shirobako is the best show of all time!! I give it a 5/5!! No more i need to say go watch it now. Where's season 2 already!!
Parasyte was a very strong show on all fronts for its first 3rd. From then on it just never quite went back to the level of quality it exhibited at its start. Don't get me wrong, the show overall is still pretty good but the way it drags in the 2nd half just made me loose so much enthusiasm for it that by the time it got good again i was already pretty much over it. I still watched it all though. The story starts off very strong with a lot happening with regards to the parasites. We see Migi fail to take over our hero Shinichi's head so he takes over his hand instead. After much smirking in regards to Shinichi's loss of complete control of his right hand (much smirking and childishness indeed) and learning about whats actually happening through Shinichi and Migi's endlessly entertaining conversations, one would have been a fool to be hatin. That honeymoon period was thoroughly over when we had episode after episode of Shinichi moaning incoherently "waaaaah, am i still human waaaa?". Matters weren't helped by the fact that for some reason his would be companion Satomi Murano was constantly pondering that fact as well. There was no reason for her to since the most logical thing to think about someone when they act weird and flakey is "boy, hes acting a tad suspicious" rather than "man, is he even human?" By the end though all this was over with a suitably satisfying ending. It was good if not for the middle dragging which i'm sure may not be as much of a bother if one marathoned the whole show.
Animation-wise this was about what one would expect from modern Madhouse. Fantastic first couple of episodes then it settles into decent looking episodes with some standout sequences with otherwise average animation. The first half didn't impress too much with only the first couple of episodes having some very impressive animation of the morphing and what not. In the second half of the show the only really nice animation we were getting was from Yoshihiro Kanno who did some good work though not as memorable as his Hunter X Hunter work. I quite liked Tadashi Hiramatsu's character designs on the whole. They updated the manga's style fairly successfully with some modern anime flourishes. The fact that they made Shinichi more nebbish at the onset than he was in the manga served to make his gradual evolution more noticeable to the audience and the characters in-show as well. It was a good design choice. In terms of art direction, the show wasn't too ambitious. A large part of the show is set in a standard school that had a more modern detailed style than one usually observes in anime. The way the show was story boarded (since they focused on that location a lot) made it easy to get a feel for the geography of the school given Shinichi's abilities. They made good use of the location which is always nice to see since we don't generally get a good sense of the architecture when shows don't show traversal from space to space. The music was a slight letdown with episodes using many of the same tracks to exhaustion. I'd give the show a 3/5 for the visuals and everything else.
I'll post thoughts on Aldnoah Zero 2 and the spring shows i'm following in due time but thats it for now. Bye.
Nanatsu no Taizai
Animation-wise this was an above average production from A-1. The character designs are rendered well most of the time and look really nice. Takashi Torii did a decent amount of work on the show though he never quite produced anything as memorable as his work on Katekyo Hitman Reborn. He was outshined by scumbag Takahiro Shikama who just came in dropped the mic and left leaving everyone else looking bad. Hirotaka Tokuda also worked as a main animator but in the end i was never able to figure out what work he did and the scenes i think he did in my MAD are mostly guesses based on whatever style was consistent in all the episodes he worked on. The backgrounds were never an issue and generally looked quite nice and earthy a lot of the time. The only big issue i had was with the storyboarding/fight staging the episodes from 10-19. Its incredibly jarring with too many cuts in sequences and lots of stills. It hampered my enjoyment of the show a fair amount till episode 20 where it went back to being more legible. The music in the show is pretty forgettable though besides the second opening which is fantastic. This is probably Hiroyuki Sawano's least memorable work and it feels fairly standard. I'd give the animation a 3/5 and the show overall the same score. The show didn't look bad and the designs were never done a disservice despite Torii's somewhat lackluster work. I expected to be more impressed with him on this project.
Shirobako
Shirobako is probably the best show i've seen in years. The amount of love i have for this show knows no bounds. The fact that its mainly a workplace drama also makes it refreshing in a time when we see more of High Schools still than workplaces. The show starts with our 5 main girls working at their high school animation club and making a short film together. Each of the girls has their own skills with there being an animator, writer, voice actor and so on. We see them finish it and promise to each other to make another film together someday. After we see them screen it to schoolmates we see them transition to adult life as they each go their won directions trying to fulfill their promise. While still dramatized, their struggles will feel all to familiar as the series progresses. The show showcases a dramatized version of anime production very successfully to the point that it manages to balance info dumps and character drama more successfully than a lot of serious shows about their respective industries manage. By the end of the penultimate episode (23) i was in tears not only because of the happenings at the end of the episode (OMG Zuka-chan you did it!! Go on bruv, get in dere!!), I was in tears because the only show i've watched that managed to fill me with such emotions was ending the next week. Over the course of the series i was sneering obnoxiously at 3D animators (nothing personal lol), having feels about the work of veteran background painters, wishing Andes Chucky was a real show and endlessly stating how obvious it was that Ema is best girl. Its one of those rare educational shows that balances the character drama flawlessly enough that one can enjoy the show regardless of whether they care about what the show is info dumping you on. The animation was also of such a consistent quality that episodes barely look any different but thats not meant as an insult. It manages to have spectacular animation when it really needs it. The character designs are also great, the characters look like they all belong in the same place with the ones based on real life figures looking enough like the original but being simple enough for TV animation. Art direction is good with a uniform style that makes everything look in a way that fits with the characters. It reminded me of the style of background i saw in Eden of the East in a way.
Shirobako is the best show of all time!! I give it a 5/5!! No more i need to say go watch it now. Where's season 2 already!!
Parasyte
Parasyte was a very strong show on all fronts for its first 3rd. From then on it just never quite went back to the level of quality it exhibited at its start. Don't get me wrong, the show overall is still pretty good but the way it drags in the 2nd half just made me loose so much enthusiasm for it that by the time it got good again i was already pretty much over it. I still watched it all though. The story starts off very strong with a lot happening with regards to the parasites. We see Migi fail to take over our hero Shinichi's head so he takes over his hand instead. After much smirking in regards to Shinichi's loss of complete control of his right hand (much smirking and childishness indeed) and learning about whats actually happening through Shinichi and Migi's endlessly entertaining conversations, one would have been a fool to be hatin. That honeymoon period was thoroughly over when we had episode after episode of Shinichi moaning incoherently "waaaaah, am i still human waaaa?". Matters weren't helped by the fact that for some reason his would be companion Satomi Murano was constantly pondering that fact as well. There was no reason for her to since the most logical thing to think about someone when they act weird and flakey is "boy, hes acting a tad suspicious" rather than "man, is he even human?" By the end though all this was over with a suitably satisfying ending. It was good if not for the middle dragging which i'm sure may not be as much of a bother if one marathoned the whole show.
Animation-wise this was about what one would expect from modern Madhouse. Fantastic first couple of episodes then it settles into decent looking episodes with some standout sequences with otherwise average animation. The first half didn't impress too much with only the first couple of episodes having some very impressive animation of the morphing and what not. In the second half of the show the only really nice animation we were getting was from Yoshihiro Kanno who did some good work though not as memorable as his Hunter X Hunter work. I quite liked Tadashi Hiramatsu's character designs on the whole. They updated the manga's style fairly successfully with some modern anime flourishes. The fact that they made Shinichi more nebbish at the onset than he was in the manga served to make his gradual evolution more noticeable to the audience and the characters in-show as well. It was a good design choice. In terms of art direction, the show wasn't too ambitious. A large part of the show is set in a standard school that had a more modern detailed style than one usually observes in anime. The way the show was story boarded (since they focused on that location a lot) made it easy to get a feel for the geography of the school given Shinichi's abilities. They made good use of the location which is always nice to see since we don't generally get a good sense of the architecture when shows don't show traversal from space to space. The music was a slight letdown with episodes using many of the same tracks to exhaustion. I'd give the show a 3/5 for the visuals and everything else.
I'll post thoughts on Aldnoah Zero 2 and the spring shows i'm following in due time but thats it for now. Bye.
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