Sukitte Ii na Yo
Short Synopsis: Our lead character falls in love with a bishie.
This was really good! I mean really: this is a very good season for shoujo here. Perhaps Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun was a mysoginistic cliche-fest, but both Kamisama Hajimemashita and Sukitte Ii na Yo finally responded to some of the issues I have been having with the genre for years. This series finally has a main couple that is different. It takes its characters seriously, and the characters are not the same characters you see everywhere. The lead female here is socially awkward like Sunako, but the whole theme behind this is for once not purity. Instead, it’s distrust, and living in a state being constantly afraid of harassment. Heck, for once the creators actually found a use for the “annoying perverted best friend”-cliche. The lead female also dares to show some of her weak sides, rather than just being bland and not do anything. Sure, she gets protected in the end, but she reaches out for the guy out of her own accord, rather than being swept away by some random bad boy. That male lead also very clearly sets himself away from that: he neither falls in the cliches you see of bishies that the lead girl has to choose from. Instead he is this outgoing guy with a strange taste in girls.
ED: I dislike J-Rock. But for this ballad I make an exception due to the vocalist who is pretty good there. Although he clearly has trouble hitting the high notes.
Potential: 80%
Little Busters
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a high school boy.
Hmm, I’d say that in terms of Key opening episodes, this one ranks above Kanon and Clannad, and below Air and Angel Beats. I mean, all those shows had their problems (Air probably the least), but what impressed me about this episode was the characterization of the five lead characters: their chemistry was quite enjoyable to watch, making this my top pick this season for school-based series this season. Their chemistry was both fun and engaging: their characters worked quite well together. This episode did have its problems though. There were a couple of very badly portrayed females. That laughing girl for example is the carbon copy of a stereotype that I have never seen done right. At the end of the episode another girl also appeared who was trying way too hard to be naturally charming, and of course this show has school idols. This show needs to work a bit on making more believable characters, but that was a problem with Air, Kanon and Clannad as well: the females looked incredibly superficial at first sight, only with their development that came much later in the series did they stand out.
OP: Some very overused OP cliches saved by a good vocalist.
ED: Same good vocalist, but this song just doesn’t work with me.
Potential: 80%
Kintama
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has straight golden hair and is loved by everyone.
Something I did not expect happened here. I mean, my relationship with Gintama is a bit of a shaky one: I absolutely loved the first 100 episodes. After it changed director, it stopped being as funny to me, and I ended up dropping it because it was too long, and I’d rather remember the best parts than to keep going with it while comparing it to the first. The same happened with the second season: it had some nice episodes, but I just didn’t find it as funny anymore. I expected the same thing to happen here. Instead, this was my favorite episode since the change of directors. Tomokaze Sugita, the voice actor for Gintoki, really was on fire in this episode, and his rants throughout the episode really reminded me why I fell in love with this series. Not due to the excessive violance or toilet humour, but rather because of its incredible sense of dialogue. That returned here. I remember how early on in the first series, Gintoki noted that everyone should be glad that he wasn’t named Kintoki, because they wouldn’t be able to air the show like that. A lot of stuff changed in the meantime, up to the point where the creators pretty much managed to get away with naming their show Testicles. This really was hilarious.
OP: Very nice, one of the few OPs that are actually funny.
ED: Eccentric but interesting vocalist.
Potential: 80%
My first time watching this series. I had opportunities to jump in earlier but I missed like hundreds of episodes from the starting so I wouldn’t know what was going on so I wasn’t too interested. Then there was that cameo episode from Sket Dance and now a new season so…..
I love this guy. Really reminds me of GTO.
with Gintama you can settle for just different arc. There’s serious arc like Benizakura arc or the Yoshiwara arc and there are not so serious arcs like the Owee arc(I’ve never laughed so hard) or the Harem arc. only problem is that episode titles has nothing to do with the plot itself, so it’s not easy to find but it’s nothing you cant find with som googling
LOL … from silver balls to golden balls.
I liked Gintama (the manga) in the beginning, but kind of lost track of it all after a spell away from it. Might be a good time to catch up.
I don’t know if you will get the joke or not, but do note Nakamura Yuuichi is voicing Kintoki!
oh that’s kind of a CV joke, don’t know how many people here gets it. They’re best buddies
Can’t wait to watch this, I loved Gintama since the beginning, though a did find the star wars arc pretty boring and a few eps here and there meh. But all and all I love this series.
Angel Beats… Key? Is that right?
Yes. It was a Key original.
About Little Busters!, you quite hit the nail on its positive and negative points. The characters chemistry is one of the things I like the most in the original visual novel, but Sasasegawa is quite annoying. Also, the girls at first are quite stereotypical, but they gain new dimensions when their stories are developed.
“There were a couple of very badly portrayed females.”
Badly portrayed females? In a Key adaptation? Nooooo…
(Just to confirm it, that above line was indeed sarcasm)
Key females have always be portrayed as girls with the mental age of a kindergartner. I also disagree with them being fleshed out later in the series. Just because you give a character a tragic back-story does not mean that character was fleshed out. Key females begin as ignorant little puppies at the beginning and remain so until their tragic misery to manipulate the viewer.
Mmm…
I somewhat agree and disagree with you. While there are Key girls that have socially awkward tendencies, there’s usually an explanation in an X -> Y kind of way. But not all of them are like that. Just the ones that stick out.
“I also disagree with them being fleshed out later in the series. Just because you give a character a tragic back-story does not mean that character was fleshed out.”
This statements seems kind of off. I think you mean ‘character development’ here as back story is a method of fleshing things out…
While I don’t dispute your write up of Sukitte here all that much, like with Tonari, maybe its a gender thing,I don’t know but you seem to throw the bishounen card in a bit quick here. I don’t really consider Sukitte’s lead a bishie.
I also disagree with cliche fest for tonari as I found the two leads refreshing for a shoujo romance show. I also didn’t think it was all that offense enough to be called misogynistic but opinions will differ.
For key yes I will agree that the depictions of the female characters are as they are but I do find them well developed characters. For the manipulation element I consider that a skill of keys stuff, they do melodrama and its supposed to be directed as such to be minipulative, I know it is yet it still makes me feel its real, make me cry even though I know exactly what it really is.
He’s tall, lanky, with long hair and pretty eyes, just need the sparkles
I was talking to someone yesterday over here in Japan about why she liked reading visual novels of these flat-like characters (not just Key works), even though she is a girl. She told me there was a charm to their personality that kept them innocent and at a higher standard than you would put a normal person, basically. We’re so stuck on keeping characters realistic, but from what it seems like, a lot of this “flatness” is something intentional to interest the audience even more. She likes Key works’ characters, too, because they’re funny where real life in their situations would be boring.
Of course, I’m not sure whether or not I agree. We’re taught on this side of the pacific to write extremely realistic people because we value “believability” in our characters. And I know that it’s possible to hook Japanese people with believability as well, since that’s what a lot of the general public praised Madoka for. But there’s also value in being “more interesting” than a normal person in fiction, and since they tend to value innocence and cuteness in Japan, these “dumb, innocent” characters are… possibly looked up to by the audience? At least, that’s a theory. I guess I might as well compare it to most girls in Japan wanting to grow up to be idols, even though idols are unrealistically innocent and cute.
Again, it’s not something about whether we agree or not. It’s just another set of values that we find harder to sympathize with due to our own culture. It could explain how Japanese rankings tend to put Key works near the top every time when only a few of them make it to the top in the West on occasion.
It might be like you said, but realism be damned, there is something that called suspension of belief. We đon’t need anime to be realistic, it would never be, but we want it to be logical, to be acceptable, to be relatable. About that notion of cute and stupid is acceptable in Japan, you might look at Paranoid Agent for a brutal deconstruct of this genre.
The reason I really hate some of Key’s female characters is that they’re innocent to the point of being too stupid for their age. Is there any high school student behaving in the same way of them, I mean. like a kindergarden pupil who might get lost if you take your eyes off them for just a few seconds?
“Perhaps Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun was a mysoginistic cliche-fest”
>> what?
There is a lot of blogs and forums talking about it, such as this: http://altairandvega.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/words-usually-mean-things-this-is-less-debatable-than-you-think/
Which are the reason why I’m avoiding this particular anime.
I do think its a bit of an exaggeration to call Haru’s rape line out on being misogynistic, it really was just meant to show how impulsive and how bad his communication/social skills are. I’m not trying to belittle anyones opinion here mind. I for one actually felt pretty irritated by some of the comments on tenka seiha made in response to the first episode of tonari which bothered me alot more than the line that was utter in the episode.
The line itself was kind of a whoa, out of the blue, suprise kind of a thing and perhaps a bit rude but it isn’t enough for me to drop the show.
I think Shizuku is a strong well rounded girl too which lessens the whole misogyny arguement.
Here are quotes from one guy commenting on the episode:
Gorilla13 says:
October 2nd, 2012 at 12:08 am
Yea, this show would be much more interesting if the girl gets gangbanged or tentacle raped.
Gorilla13 says:
October 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
So, there’s no other girl besides this dull one? No rape either?
Even if this guy is trolling or joking I think/find that offensive, Haru’s one may have been too now that you mention it but I’d be more worked up about a non-cartoon character saying it.
I think the scene where shizuku gets knocked across the room was probably more objectionable.
Mountain out of a molehill. It’s clear that Haru did not understand the full consequences of what he said. He was most likely using a word he picked up without releasing what it meant. Much in the same way he was testing out things he learnt from a manga in real life.
And like Kaiser said, this gets blown out of preprotion but Shizuku getting knocked across the room?
If this line bothered people and they are bothered by Haru as a character I think it may actually be for the best they don’t watch any more and I guess thats fair enough. He goes on to shout at random he’ll kill someone later on in the manga and he directly threatens a guy who gets close to Shizuku by mentioning by saying that he wishes he could break her limbs so she couldn’t get away from him, going onto say he could never do that to her really but easily could do it to the guy he was addressing.
If this offends you, you should get out of the Internet.
Or just… I don’t even know man…
Oh you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. Please.
I should say I never said those scenes weren’t offensive. Whether they are or not though they aren’t enough to detract from watching, my point was that I guess yeah it could be considered offensive to women I can see that but why waste time on that when peoples concerns should be focused on that happening in real life.
In the case a guy did that on me even as a joke in real life I’d probably smack him for it.
i actually think tonari and sukitte ii na yo are the opposites of what you said, especially when you get deeper into the plot.
sukitte ii na yo really does turn into a cliche-fest (but, admittedly, it’s not as bad as other smut mangas), while tonari no kaibutsu-kun develops not only the main characters, but all those side characters as well, really very well.
but to be honest, i didn’t think that the voice acter for haru suited his character that much…he comes off as much more adorable in the manga, and not quite as…violent/yakuza like.
i agree haru was not adorable up to par. he is more like a morita-char type from honey and clover actually…
I’m sold on Sukitte Ii na Yo for the following reasons:
1) I’ve love the voice actor Takahiro Sakurai for so long. Finally, he gets the male lead role in something I like. He usually gets the hot side character role.
2) The female lead’s name is Mei…that’s my name but spell differently. (Oh…I couldn’t ask for more. Yes, he does love me…haha.
3) The romance is not your typical cliche nor are the main characters. Finally, you actually have characters that are more realistic.
4) This have potential to outshine Kimi no Todoke which took FOREVER for anything to happen…I wanted to pull my hair with the slow progress of the relationship between the male and female leads. Really, it took like 3 episodes to conclude one event. The side couple was more interesting to watch than the lead couple.
5) Hope this develops like Aoi Hana which I LOVE, LOVE in 2011.
The first 10 minutes of little busters is really hard to watch. All the chracters are so over the top & ridculous.
Looking forward to more developments from Little Busters but the first episode, for me at least, feels mediocre.
Uh…you just defined Sukitte as a pretty cliche shoujo.
From the title alone, I assume Little Busters woulc be some sort of Pokemon or Yugi-Oh type show. Doesn’t really look like my cuppa tea, but I’m junemployed till November, so might as well give everything a shot.
I did read a bit of the Suki-te manga, and well, shoujo smut is generally not my thing (not surprising, since I’m a dude and all). It’s basically the bed-hopping type, sorta like Sex in the City, but on a highschool campus. Only difference the mains are abstinent (at least until the part I read to) while everyone around them is copulating like a rabbit…. or something like that. I suppose it’s typical of most shoujo smut stories, with a few differences. Ironically, I’m okay with Josei/Mature but can’t seem to enjoy Shoujo/Smut stuff. Maybe it’s an age thing.
Sorry bout the typos. God I hate smartphone keyboards!!
no no no, think of it a lifetime programming, it’s made to target a specific audience, which probably doesnt include you. Though it’s actually not that smutty, the smut are all early on
I fear for Little Busters, J.C. Staff is not the best studio out there and It will be kind of complicated to put on a series certain quirks of the Visual Novel genre that LB exploits pretty well.
Just watched Sukitte and I think psgels is overrating it
Everything about it was cliche, busty airheard clingy girl who only goes for the good looking guy, pervert guy who only thinks about boobs and pretty girls.
classic moe scenes like girl giving guy a bandage
and PRETENDING TO BE A BOYFRIEND LEADING TO KISS TO FEND OFF A BAD GUY
all the characters were rather boring/stereotypical.
What do we know about the main guy, except that he’s goodlooking outgoing nice guy, who’s taken a liking to this strange girl?
Haha. I get what you mean. I feel sorry for Nanami already. Well, I’m getting a good vibe from it somehow. I’m pretty sure the main guy is supposed to look ordinary and is regularly beaten down or taken advantage of by everybody else. And he has a very special relationship with cats. (I’m sorry. I really loved that scene with the cats watching him fix the dorm sign. And that white cat getting jealous of the new girl.) Just saying.
And it was kind of interesting seeing the airhead and the playboy switch to serious mode over animation editing. Hints that they’re not the usual one-dimensional trope?
And there are some incredible lines dropped. Kinda reminds me of some better moments of Seitokai Yakuindomo. Educational.
The setting also brings some fond memories of another anime I love from a long time ago. So far the story isn’t as awesome as that one but there’s enough parallels to make me wonder if it’s some kind of tribute.
And I just realised you’re talking about Sukitte and I’m talking about Sakurasou. I need to go kill myself now. Please ignore my post. KTHXBYE.