Gargantua on the Vendurous Planet
Short Synopsis: Our lead character ends up on a strange planet with a cute girl.
The one thing I remember from the trailer of this series, is that it looked a bit dull. Now that the actual episode has aired through, I have to say that the inclusion of dialogue made up for a lot here. If you don’t pay attention it can easily sound like techno-babble, but it really was interesting. The voice acting also delivers these lines well, and I have to say that I quite like the male lead and his AI companion. They have a good chemistry together. This episode also contained quite a bit of a mood switch in its second half, and that too worked quite well. On one hand there are the technological advances of the main character, and on the other there are the “simple” technologies of the people on the planet he ends up on. It’s got a lot of potential here. My one question is: why the girl? Why is she important? Why does she have this cute mascot? Her character… she just feels so totally unlike what Urobuchi Gen would write…
ED: Generic anime song #324.
Potential: 85%
Shingeki no Kyojin
Short Synopsis: Our lead character needs to kill giants.
In one of the rare cases, I’ve actually read the manga here. Or at least the first 10 chapters. If there is any series that has the chance to become the epic of the year, it’s this one. It’s just that good, not to mention that it has some of the perfect staff behind it. Unlike with Guilty Crown, you can see Tetsuro Araki’s influence as the main director: this guy knows how to create an incredibly tight atmosphere with the means that he has. The big question for me for this first episode would be: did they get the giants right? Did they get these beings rights that are nearly impossible to animate? They actually did. They used quite a bit of CG, but the giants look just amazing. Beyond that, they put in quite a few small details here and there to brighten up the mood, the whole setting has gotten a lovely coloured rendition, making everything feel authentic and believable (this is something that I did not experience while reading the manga), and all of that had the result that this episode was a really tense ride. Next up is creating that feeling of addiction that the manga had. If it can get that right in the next few episodes, it’ll be entirely awesome.
OP: An actually epic song for such an epic series. Great art as well.
Potential: 100%
Zettai Bouei Leviathan
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is fantasy pest control.
Leviathan is one of the worst types of first episodes to write about… because it’s incredibly bland. It’s just a bunch of cute girls with a bit of fanservice here and there. The characters are all boring, the setting is boring, the whole premise is boring, the art is boring. There’s nothing really to write about. Oh wait. One of the girls has this this axe that is waaaay to big for her. But that’s just listing the symptoms, not the actual disease: Leviathan lacks creativity. I could have dug a series like that goes back to classic fantasy and all. But then spice things up! Do something interesting with it! Stand out! After such a boring first episode I don’t really feel like continuing to watch. And I know that there might be a great story at the end and all. But I can say that about many other series with bland first episodes. I saw no hints here whatsoever that that would be the case here. Also, Gonzo. The action in this episode was utter crap. What happened?
OP: Dull song, uninspired visuals
ED: A simple song. But again: dull. Uninspired.
Potential: 20%
Don’t forget.
http://myanimelist.net/people/7071/Kobayashi_Yasuko from Jojo.
The Shingeki no Kyoujin anime seems a bit hammy/overacted. Maybe I’m too jaded from watching too much violent anime, but the violence in Shingeki no Kyoujin failed to elicit the same horror in me as, say, Shinsekai Yori.
Also, the music felt unoriginal, excessive, and inappropriate. But that could be because I have strong distaste for Hollywood-like musical scores, due to the fact that I’m a massive weeb who actively dislikes anything from Hollywood.
Still, I think it will be an enjoyable watch, if only because of how interesting the setting, plot, and characters in the source material are. I don’t think the adaptation is bad enough to completely ruin it. Part of it is that the manga is enjoyable from the very start, unlike Pandora Hearts which becomes amazing after dozens of chapters of mediocrity, so we can at least get some enjoyment out of a trainwreck adaptation before it derails.
I’ll end my diatribe on a positive note: the CG here is not glaringly obvious (yet?), unlike those giant insects in Tegami Bachi, or everything in Kingdom. At least it won’t look terrible.
I don’t have any strong feelings regarding Hollywood, but the style of epic orchestral musical scores irks me too at times. You see it a lot in Western video games as well. Depends on the music, but maybe an appropriate description is 60% “meh”, 40% “bleh”.
The violence here and setting don’t particularly seem geared towards horror, so a comparison to Shinsekai Yori on that front may not really be fair. Or is the manga different?
Overall I mostly like what I see of the concept and world. Production values are pretty good, but so far I’d give it more points on technical rather than artistic achievement.
To be fair the composer (Sawano) tweeted saying “maybe it was a bit over the top” so it’s not just you.
Personally I thought it was fine. SnK is a pretty grand setting, and the scenes the music dominated were all complimented expertly by the events and the production quality.
There are many good things that are bad in the wrong context, this isn’t an example of that.
Hm, it wasn’t way over the top here or anything, and I’ll agree that it fit the scenes depicted.
If you’ll let my climb back onto the soapbox… To me it’s not about the presence or domination. In fact, most of the whole ending sequence for the episode was not very melodic. (maybe if it were more melodic, depending, I might like it more, and that would might make it more intrusive) Dem nonstop epic chords.
Though to be honest, part of it could be the broadcast-quality audio, dynamic compression to get levels reasonable with respect to sound effects and voice tracks. Personally, I don’t really think dynamic range compression works that well for orchestral-like instrumentation / synth.
Dunno. I wouldn’t blame or be surprised at a lot of people thinking it’s fine or liking it.
It looks like an action blockbuster. The premise is nothing new but I hope it gets more interesting developing the mystery behind the background of this world. I found kind of lifeless the art of the manga which the anime added with vibrant colors.
I think that if you had gone through the next 33 chapters of Shingeki no Kyojin you might be less enthusiastic about the potential of the anime. And the manga shows no sign of ending – it just keeps on repeating the same thing over and over, with one obvious pseudo-twist.
But it is totally humourless, so that ought to be a point in its favour for you…
>totally humourless
It may be unintentionally funny for those of us with a dark sense of humour.. due to all the ham.
This I agree with absolutely, though there are points of Titan that stand out as original and imaginative and hold up the story. I’m still interested in reading, but I was pretty frustrated along the way.
Woah, I couldnt disagree more! I mean there is not a single time when anything is repeating itself. Unless you talk about “fighting giants”. Well, this concept is so general that of course, this one must repeat itself. But then you could also say “there are people”. Plotwise I fail to see anything in that respect.
I get what you mean, plot wise.
This manga was meant to be animated though, I mean the fight scenes alone would be worth it.
The OP for Titan is the best I’ve seen in a while.
The episode itself was pretty great as well: I’ve also read the manga (all of it). The addiction feeling you speak of had me read all 43 chapters in two days, 13 hours or so. GG
The problems with the plot, however, WILL come later.
What problems did you have with the plot? I read all 43 chapters today and didn’t have any problem with it other than perhaps a slight worry that it’ll take a long time to finish and that the anime might catch up to it.
Ah sorry, I’d explain but it’s way too spoiler. [Spoilerish] Basically I think the author takes convenient outs to explain some plot points down the road, and it gets to point where the only real people in this world are the main characters and their buddies.
Do you mean the events of chapters 42 and 43? It is a bit strange, but it’s pretty natural. It makes sense for important unknown characters to turn out to be characters that are known. It saves time on character development. It’s pretty common. Besides, it makes sense. The events five years ago gave the perfect opportunity, which is why all those characters were in the same place at the same time. This was mentioned at one point, remember?
If you follow to the manga, that`s events follow perfectly the hints done from the autor, is a shame that to little people put attetion to that`s hints.
joe u have the bestest profile pic ever
The author gave hints everywhere for the events in ch42 and ch43, but no one suspected something of that sort would happen, so everyone missed these hints, except for one guy, who predicted the events ONE YEAR before it actually happened, you can confirm by visiting MangaFox forum for SnK.
@Qate: Yeah, I’ve seen that. It’s pretty insane that he managed to figure that out. I didn’t suspect it at all, though it explained things in retrospect.
I remember someone on mangafox managed to predict what happens in ch42-43 a whole year ago based on what the mangaka hinted at in early chapters. It was so on point that I’m now of the opinion that every minute detail is planned out by the mangaka.
Agreed.
I like the art style that they are using in Shingeki no Kyojin. They seem to have alot thicker character outlines and it makes the characters stand out more against the background. Also, those village shots are simply amazing.
Really looking forward to seeing how this goes. I’ve read into the manga about as far as psgels and it’s very interesting. Great that they are getting 2 cours for this.
At the pace the anime is having, this should get 4 cours. There is enough material for that much.
Probably a original anime ending will be good for Shingeki no Kyojin. The manga keeps running at circles, its is awesome but it lacks direction.
It is 22 episodes series as annouced by its director, they have a lot of time to develop this action flick.
I mean 22 ep and a good original ending are enough for me.
I don’t think it lacks direction. The author probably has a good explanation for everything. It’s just that the action scenes take so many pages to convey that it takes a while for things to happen. Things might not have been resolved yet, but that’s just because not much has happened yet despite 43 chapters since the action scenes and details of each event are thoroughly described.
Oh hell no, Just look at Guilty Crown to see what Araki is capable of on his own without a competent script.
If he is allowed to do an original ending this show will fall off a cliff faster than a drunk billy goat.
Anime original endings don’t even sound legal.
But, imo the plot really isn’t going anywhere. Plenty has happened, but it’s often just the reiteration of ‘humanity is more fucked now than ever before’
What i like in the manga is that the author gives many hints (not obvious ones) about the plot.
I loved it. ^^ Though I do find the MC’s voice very grating when he speaks. He’s like…shouting most of the ep…=.= But I like the plot so far.
It’s still too early to know what Gargantia is even gonna be about. Anyway, the “foreigner” pilot arrives to a totally different world which he knows nothing about. Then there’s this energetic girl, kinda the opposite of him, who can show him a new way of life (maybe end up as his love interest); it’s kinda obvious actually. But at the end of the day this is written by Gen, so it’s hard to know what direction will things go.
This is the series I’m most interested about. Shingeki no Kyojin and Hataraku Maou also look great but I’m already familiar with the original works. This is the only series I’m gonna watch having no idea about what’s gonna happen next.
Perhaps Urobochi is attempting to branch and be different, perhaps this girl will through this personality of hers get more development/fleshing out than the usual Gen character.
Yeah, and then at some point the war or some other remnants of the conflict (either side or both) shows up on Earth too and Mr. Foreigner needs to make use of his super-soldier mecha piloting skillz. Or something. To be honest, there are a lot of generic places this can go, seemingly.
Actually I think Urobuchi was quoted talking about this series, saying it would be different than his other works, supposedly with some kind of message to young people entering society. I don’t remember where or what exactly.
Anyway, the first episode was kind of fun. Maybe more enjoyable than really that good or substantive yet, though some of the visuals were pretty slick. Maybe this is just supposed to be short(er) and more dessert-like, nothing that heavy. (Though normal Urobuchi is not particularly all that dark or dense at all.)
There were some clever details here and there like the lead prodding his hostage for some more voice samples.
I would like to believe in Gen words but the last time he said something like that Mami lost her head. I’m more inclined to believe in what you and other people here have said. Mostly normal development at the beginning of the series, and then! suffering for everyone.
Forgot to mention over on the shout box that this was some mighty fine CG on kyojin there.
As for Gargantia, technobabble..that word/old nemesis raising its head…
Shingeki no Kyojin started off dry but by the end it had my interest. Those giant pricks are douchebags. And skinless what the hell man. Where is your skin. Why do you not have skin. Did you drop it? Aren’t you in pain? Why?
no, if anything this feels exactly like what gen would write.
cute innocent female lead to be mindbroken (akane/amy/madoka/saber)
corrupt system with some dart twist (white hair league’s living quarters are supposedly perfect, and can only allow the select few, holy grail kills people, sybil system are made valued individuals who may be murders, being magical girl a suffering)
fancy guns (akemi arsenal/physcopass guns/kerry’s arsenal/ar’s held by people or lazer pistols)
dark mysterious male lead (ledo/kerry/kogami/homura)
i’m calling 50 bucks that there will be suffering, 100 bucks that ledo’s going to be betrayed by the corrupt origanization that he was working for, and 25 bucks that one of the cute girls is going to die in the first 7 episodes.
other than that, look at those delicious designs… as expected of a god tier h-artist.
What if Urobochi tries to make some sort of societal comment about foreigners in distant lands in general as a subplot?
yes and? every time in history when foreigners arrive in distant lands, imperialism ensues and suffering commences.
Just pointing out that Saber was Nasu’s creation. Not Gens.
but who was the one who has saber destroy the holy grail against her will?
she just feels so totally unlike what Urobuchi Gen would write… , is agree.
But she will be trolled. You know Urobuchi, look at madoka
Nunu, you mean we’ll see the death of her by episode 3 or 4.
As much as I’m inclined to agree that she will be killed off in typical Gurobuchi part of me thinks that, after all the horrible things that happened to poor Akane in Psycho Pass this cute earthling girl with her squirrel mascot will get off easy.
I really loved Shingeki no Kyojin. I was looking forward to this since I first saw the PV because of the amazing animation and it looked fairly interesting. I did not read the manga, nor will I do so. I think this series lives from unforeseen Moments, that’s why I’m not going to read it beforehand.
Also the OP was amazing. Musically and Visually. It was not your 0815 Anime Opening with some flying birds, people running around or faceshots, but actually was intruguing and creative. The song is exactly my piece of cake, so I loved it. (Though the german in the song was a bit irritating)
The episode itself felt really interesting. I liked that it was really quiet in the beginning except the Recon Troops coming back home, showing the hoplessness of the battle. This part made the world and the characters who live in it feel alive.
And then when all hell breaks lose, I really felt the despair of the characters and I was quite taken aback, even though I expected that twist. Afterwards it all really felt disturbing. The only thing that I found a bit…forced was that exactly after they talked about the possibility of the destruction of the walls, they are actually destroyed.
If the anime remains at this quality, it may become my 2013 highlight.
About Gargantia: I liked that too, though not as much as Kyojin. I liked that break in tone at the half in the series and I liked the introduction of the main character though a space battle. The aliens or whatever they were fighting looked like a real threat. And I found myself liking the main character. I’m really interested how this will turn out.
I’m looking forward to and dreading watching the anime of Shingeki no Kyojin. That first episode filled me with horror and dread and I just had to find out what was next so I wasted the better part of yesterday skimming through almost every chapter of the manga. >__<
It'll be exciting to see what they do with the anime though, this series just begs to have the best looking action scenes possible.
Only thing I find questionable is that this series reminds me sooo much of Eva, minus the psychosis. Like it's new and exciting, yet not all that new.
Other than that it looks pretty solid, just the whole titans eating humans thing freaks me out.
Yeah. Gargantia is a must watch for me. Hopeully we get a great adventure out of this one. Please be good, please be good!
Attack on Titan? Very epic (trainwreck) indeed!
Look @ first sentence of the OP:
“Seines Herzen an wie sind die Jäger!”
(lemme translate for you, word by word:)
“Of his heart, to how are the hunters!”
BRILLIANT! EPIC GERMAN NONSENSE! 🙂
Actually, it’s not German nonsense. Your ears just don’t seem to be screwed on right. “Sie sind das Essen, wir sind die Jäger” is what they say. (I know it’s hard to hear, but I’m pretty sure this is what they say.) It’s completely fine and grammatical.
“They are the food, we are the hunters”
I actually heard that at first, too, but I looked it up in the wiki. I just quoted it. But they apparently changed it into what you said – today, so I can’t prove it 🙁 it used to be here… http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Guren_no_Yumiya
and well… “They are the food” – Who? The other humans? (pretty damn arrogant, huh?) Or the GIANTS? Both interpretations would be pretty crazy.
Originally, the wiki translated it (their german nonsense) as
“he has the heart of a hunter” – which would be beautiful.
Anyway, the german is very disturbing here.
In the original manga, Eren Yaeger says “今度は人類が巨人を食い尽くしてやる！” in the monologue. (This Japanese sentence means “We humans eat up the Giants this time!” / I don’t know how the sentence is translated in the English version.)
So, “They are the food, and we are the hunters!”
I’m calling it: Urobuchi will “homage” Gall Force and Prometheus and come up with a Battlestar Galactica-esque finale.
dunno, after seeing ep 2. It looks like this show is going to be darker than Madoka…
Gargantias 2nd episode was just incredible. I cant wait to see where they are taking this, but its certainly a clash of cultures.
Incredibly well delivered in the 2nd episode
and Shingeki no kyojin has indeed the best op I have seen for quite some time. I also think that they really hit the right spot with their art style
I agree! Gargantias just gives me an adventurous feeling I haven’t gotten from anime in a long, long time. I’m sad that the second episode is over and that I have to wait for the next one 🙁 I’m also sad that it’s only 13 episodes. How are they going to pull that one off?
It really does. 😀
What!? Gargantia is only 13 episodes long? :S Well, at least that way it hopefully will keeps it’s quality and tell a good story…even if it’s shorter. Maybe they will announce a second season for it.
Totally agree.
Shingeki no Kyojin’s OP was bugging me for the last couple days, in that I knew I recognized the style but couldn’t quite place it. Then I just rewatched it and realized there were credits to Revo. Oh yeah.
I don’t really know about him (first heard anything just a few months ago) and I’m not really much of a fan, but I’d take that over the rest of the score. I think it’d fit just fine.