As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– I still remain that I can’t blog Gintama. Even though I find it really hilarious again, I don’t think I can write about it every single week.
– Btooom had the bad luck to air this season, right next to Psycho Pass and Jojo’s Bizarre adventure it just feels inferior. I however like it and will keep watching, especially with how well they handled the female lead in the second episode.
– Sukitte Ii Na Yo: finally a show that’s about an actual relationship again, plus bonus points of having side characters who are also in a relationship. Still, it’s pretty much smut and not going to be interesting to write about every week.
As for Magi… I try to hide this sometimes, but really: I’m just a sucker for a good adventure hsow. This show can be quite silly at times, but it’s great to see an adventure show based on the tales from 1001 nights. It’s a great setting and we hardly ever see any series with Arabia as a background.
And yeah, that pretty much means that I’ll be blogging four shows of A-1 Pictures at the same time. They just completely dominate this season, and even though their best shows are From the New World and Space Brothers, there still is a lot to like in Magi. This episode had some neat graphics and a lot of interesting animation. Again, they’re not as god as with From the New World and they lack the freedom of that show, but this show instead has consistency behind it. Being the series on the Prime Time slot for anime, this is to be expected to remain consistent.
It’s also great to see that the silliness was a lot more enjoyable to watch in this episode. The bad boob jokes are gone and it actually contributed to making this a fun and whimsical series, with the highlight being Ali Baba fooling everyone about the ancient inscriptions he read out loud. The stereotypically evil slave drivers can be a bit better characterized though. I especially wonder how that big guy can still walk around after being repeatedly stabbed in the chest so much.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)
I can see why you wouldn’t want to blog Suki-tte, but wouldn’t you consider doing it anyway? A lot of shoujo are underexposed and more blogging could help give it a better reputation.
http://randomc.net/2012/10/14/sukitte-ii-na-yo-02/
This doesn’t sound all that boring to me.
I must admit that I’m a bit taken aback by your calling Sukitte Ii Na Yo “pretty much smut.” While I myself didn’t like the quick development between the two leads and the way Yamato forced kisses on Mei in the second episode, I wouldn’t go so far as to call the anime (or the manga) “smut.” A term like that cheapens what the story is trying to accomplish beyond the romantic entanglements (i.e. shining a focus on bullied characters, the nature and mentality of teenagers, and the bittersweetness of first love).
Still, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to blog about the anime every week since, like other shoujo anime, this one is probably best judged as a whole (in a series review) rather than in episode-to-episode segments.
Manga is definitely smut, though. I read maybe a dozen or so chapters.
Oddly, it doesn’t involve the main couple. Just everyone around them.
I guess I haven’t read enough of the manga (though, really, I wasn’t as interested in it too much from what I did read). Ah, well. I can’t see the anime having too much smut, but I’m probably going to be wrong.
I dont know about definitely Smut, just because people have sex in it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s smut. It’s not particularly explicit or in any way arousing, pretty sure smut has to do at least one. After the first 2 volumes it kind of quickly died out
@Sabella its tagged (Comedy Mature Romance School Life Shoujo Slice of Life Smut) on mangaupdates and having read it myself it is SMUT , don’t know what is your definition of smut though xD
Smut-3. obscene language or matter. Webster dictionary.
Mangaupdate classified Watashi ni xx Shinasai! smut, too, which is weird for me since it won the Kodansha Manga award, children department(though that surprised me too).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodansha_Manga_Award
At least for me smut is something that’s more prominent in display, like Choukyoushi or Black bird. Even something like Hapi Mari is more smutty than Sukitte Ii Na Yo. Maybe my taste is a little on the heavy side.
Shame… Would’ve loved to see Sukitte Ii Na Yo blogged here.
But with so many great shows this season, it’s understandable
Actually where did you get the notion that it’s smut, psgels?
it is smut wicked , or do u not know what smut is?
I don’t exactly know what gets categorized as smut either, to be frank.
In novels, it’s easy I suppose; as long as the girl’s fantasizing about Fabio, it’s smut.
In manga, I think it kind of varies with target demographic and the publications that cater to these demographics. For example, I’ve read a few Josei types that would probably be tagged smut if they were shoujo. But they aren’t most of they time. It’s mostly just tagged Josei/Romance. The more explicit types are Josei/Romance/Mature.
Thing is, I once encountered a Shoujo/Smut title that was far more explicit that any Josei/Mature manga. It was so vulgar, I felt I was going to get a STD just reading the next chapter. Can’t recall the title, though. From that, I guess there are probably many sub-categories of Smut as well, probably only known to girls. There might be ‘light’ smut like Sukitte where it’s more talking about sex than actually showing it, and there might be ‘heavy’ smut that’s basically hentai for chicks; it’s just called smut instead of hentai so that women who buy it don’t have to feel embarrassed about walking into the hentai section.
Just my observation from reading a few titles. Don’t take me to court on this.
Kind of funny that almost not a single comment here actually mentioned anything at all about Magi, lol.
Anyway, about the boob jokes, there will be more of those (since Aladdin is pretty much a boob maniac) but the story itself make up more than enough for that.
Not sure if this is spoiler or not, but I was also led to believe that this is going to be a fun and light adventure story with dungeon-explorations as its main focus when I first read the manga. But it’s not. While the clever jokes will still be here and there, the storyline is surprisingly pretty dark (For a shounen manga that is. Don’t compare it to something like shin sekai yori, lol).
Also as a manga reader I have to say they cut a lot of things from the manga and went straight for the good parts. I really like their decision, it might be boring for some people to sit through the intro.
I might add that it did well in maintaining the atmosphere it gives off. To me, the anime gives off this calm, adventurous, but mysteriously dark feeling, even with the silly parts. The music was also done pretty well (despite the kind of disappointing OP theme).
“smut – creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire” – from thefreedictionary.com
I agree that the whole kissing scene was a bit too much a bit too soon, but is it enough to call it a smutty series? Not all series involving kissing and sex are smut I guess – I’m thinking of Kare Kano, NANA or Paradise Kiss, for instance.
I understand that the typical shoujo isn’t too interesting to review on a weekly basis, because it unfortunately doesn’t vary much. I’ll keep watching until it disappoints, hoping that it won’t.
Yayyy….glad that you finally going to blog Magi!! If the studio can handle it well, then it’s totally worth it. It’s been said that they’re going to animate this season until the Balbad arc, which I think it’s going to be a good stop point for the anime and if based on the prediction that this turn out successful like AoE or Kuroko(since before the anime air, Magi has apparently already has quite a big fangirl/fujoshi fanbase from the manga itself), then we’re going to get another season for sure since there’s already plenty of materials in the manga.
And I totally agree with what Trass said above, well some people even say that there’s many parallel resemblance w/ FMA not in term of plot mind you, but in the many factions/side behind the main charas that clash w/ each other w/ their hidden motives&agendas, the political situations, characters from many different ethnics&counties, etc..etc. Hopefully the anime will continue to be just as fun, enjoyable and charming as the manga.
TBH blogging SAO and not BTOOOM seems like a weird decision, come on, drop the blogging of SAO, it is a decent show but BTOOOM has the potential to become something special. I suppose the same could be said about SAO but it seems it will turn out OK, but not exceptional. 🙂
I don’t think you gave Sukitte enough of a chance, either. If it follows the manga (admittedly, I haven’t seen any of the anime), after the first few chapters, all the sex and nudity is gone and it delves into the emotional aspects of the characters and their relationships. And it goes for the realism there without any unnecessary shoujo-esque melodrama.