Before I start with this entry, there is one question that I just have to ask first: WHY, for the love of god, would you want to censor snakes!??
In any case, Uta Koi surprised me with its atmosphere that was completely different from what I expected. This is Josei, right? Then why was the narrator talking to us as if we were children? Why does the ED feel so ridiculously out of place? Why the need for such out of place comedy?
Despite all that though: TYO, THANK YOU for making this series. This is by far the most interesting series of the season, and that’s saying something in a season that has series about germs, the boundaries between virtual reality and real life and pitch-black food jokes. I only rezlize this right now, but I’m learning a ton of new things watching this series: out of the series that aired during the past years, I think only Hyouge Mono had a deeper historical context.
Last episode had two stories, but this one just focused on one, and this allowed the characters much more time to play out, including intertwining this with one of the stories from last week. This was a great portrayal to two victims of court politics, being forced to live together as husband and wife and both dealing with this in their own ways, and yet at the end of this episode the creators stressed that this is just an interpretation of what things must have been like for the two of them, based on the very little information we have. Heck,if this series is aimed at children, it really takes them seriously; this series really wants to teach something, rather than treating children like dumb sheep who will whine to their parents for toys.
But why the snakes?!
Rating: ** (Excellent)
No idea about the censoring but they did the same to YuruYuri with a bug. I think it signifies that it is something so disgusting that you have to hide it.
Then why was the narrator talking to us as if we were children?
It’s not aimed at children, but this way of narration helps the show very to subtly make a joke at its own expense, ie it doesn’t want to be stern educational series. I think so far the show puts a very good effort to not take itself seriously.
I’m still not sure wheather to pick this one up, what you said about the comedy, expressions and art along with the condescending narrative in you post about the first episode leaves me uncertain about this.
As for the snake, as far as that goes for yuru yuri,I’m taking it as a freudian, phallic joke.
for the record, I don’t think the narrator is condescending, I think he provides a lot of factual context. Just because the art is vector, does not mean it’s poor quality, it’s just not conventional anime. I consider doing vector art well a remarkable feat because the its simplistic nature.
Just because it’s a series about basically love poem doesnt really mean it’s josei. In fact, I’d categorize it closer to a comedic utility book. It’s like stand alone mangas like Ashimeshi by Kasai Riichi or recently animated 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku. Basically it’s educational, but that doesnt necessarily meant it’s aim at children in the same vein that Moyashimon is not aim at children(it’s a seinen manga)
It’s not that i disagree with you, but i really feel that I should point out that josei is not a genre it’s a demographic and it’s mainly related to the magazine each work is published in, same goes for shoujo, shounen etc. Just because something is josei it doesn’t exclude it from being a comedy or action or whatever. Josei just means “we market it in way that the main audience will be women, because we think women will enjoy it more.”
Sorry, but in the past couple week i keep reading these terms used incorrectly here, so I took your post as an opportunity to point it out.
As far as Utakoi goes, though, i’m not even sure it has a demographic as it wasn’t serialized in any magazine but was published directly in volumes and Media Factory doesn’t publish exclusively for women.
@Boo: THANK YOU.
It’s the same pet peeve I have XD, I’ve lost count of the times I had to correct people about the target vs genre label in Japanase anime/manga .
And I agree about Utakoi as well. Its demographic might be a mixed/general one going by the publisher.
right, I do kind of classify it as a genre because the demographic influence on works really shows in Manga, part of it is the editors are tailoring the works to the demographic. Your are correct, I did misuse the terms
I think the demographic is the general public, it’s a book for everyone.
actually, I didnt in this case, but I have done that before
It might be because the snakes had the frogs in their mouths, I suppose.
Still a strange decision.
They sometimes censor cockroaches for a joke. I think censoring makes them appear more horrific and creepy?
Was it in that context?
Yep it was exactly like that. I had a good laugh at the censoring of snakes, they need to carry it across to spiders too.