This is something I could only dream of: two Akitaro Daichi series airing at the same time. For those of you who don’t know: he’s pretty much my favorite comedy director. For the past years he has only worked on short series with 5-minute episodes (or 2 minutes, in Poyopoyo’s case), but finally it’s time again for him to handle a full fledged show.
And yeah, this season has a lot of comedy and a lot of romance. And in those areas, it just stands out as the best. It’s a simple show, but what it does it does really well. Akitaro Daichi’s style also is more than obvious: the way he uses his cameras to simulate movement when people are running, and the way he creates energy by having characters talk really fast and get right to the point are just awesome, and here it’s no different. The voice acting is also excellent and the voice actors manage to deliver in quite a few different ranges.
By far the best part of this show is the chemistry between the different characters. This is utterly hilarious in the way they just keep teasing each other. But also, this series knows when it goes too far. What I really liked about this episode for example was that when Tomoe went too far with his pranks, they talked with each other to sort things out.
Now, this episode was not as good as the first episode, which really did go all out. What I did like is how it subverted the “bad boy” cliche: you know, the bishie who is abusive and yet somehow the lead female starts falling for him. In this case, she didn’t and very clearly dumped him because of that behavior. And of course, this guy also meant to poke fun at a lot of other stereotypes, which worked quite well. It’s really good to finally see a show that makes idols look completely ridiculous.
And well, first there were Lupin and Zetman, now Kamisama Hajimemashita. TMS are really busy reinventing themselves in this year. I mean, they were behind some of the series with the most unique direction this year, which is especially impressive considering they clearly don’t have a big budget, or cleanly polished animators. Kamisama Hajimemashita is helped with Akitaro Daichi’s direction, but even taking that into account the poses of the different characters are full of creativity, rather than having the characters move the same over and over again. It may not be the best looking series of the series by a loooong shot, but on the other hand, this show tends to ignore a lot of conventions when it comes to animation, which is nevertheless quite refreshing.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
If you ever do that manga experiment again I’d recommend reading the original authors one shots and also Karakuri odette.
Your spot on about the animation in this show by the way.
Its good to see you praising shoujo again and of all things, laughing at romcoms.
Question have you tried lovely complex? Myself and armpit swear by it, its another shoujo comedy done by TMS who really belong sticking to their roots.
I just love Akitaro Daichi’s comedic timing. It always is spot on in his series. The only other director that comes somewhat close is Tsutomu Mizushima (I have Hare + Guu in mind, that series really understood comedic timing as well).
The shoujo elements are very pleasant at this point. Hopefully this series can keep it up.
RE:
Huh? Doesn’t that happen in most shoujo? Dude has a pretty face but is generally a douche, but the girl still wants his baby-batter in her.
Oops. the above post somehow deleted the line I was referencing, which was this;
“What I did like is how it subverted the “bad boy” cliche: you know, the bishie who is abusive and yet somehow the lead female starts falling for him.”
Not that I’m dissing this show or anything. The first episode was pretty decent. I’ll probably watch this second ep later in the day.
Love it, agree totally
I have to say – meh. I don’t really like this too much. The first episode was ok, but the second not so much. The school stuff was borderline un-watchable though. I know they are subverting cliches and all of that (making fun of the “dark fallen angel” character from skipbeat for instance), but in the end, I just don’t find it funny or refreshing.
I agree with Kaiser that some of his other work like Lovely Complex is excellent, but I laughed more in 5 minutes of LC than the 50 minutes I have no watched of this.
Oh well, enjoy everyone else, I’ll be sitting this one out.
I feel the same. :/ I think Tonari no Kaibutsu may have the edge this season.
Lovely Complex was pretty funny, but it took its love rivals to a stupid level (pretty much a new one, or a returnee, every 3-4 episodes) so in the end I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have.
I’m enjoying this anime because it’s fun in a silly and ridiculous way. It’s not “laughing out loud” (though I did laugh a lot in the ridiculous ostrich chase) kind of funny, but still pretty entertaining because it doesn’t take itself seriously in any way (so far). Not a contender for best anime of the season, but still a nice watch.
I’m really enjoying this one. I think the comic timing is pretty good, I remember several scenes from first and second where I enjoyed it
1. was when momozono was giving her sob story and then there’s that moment’s pause before the fox kicks her butt and goes ‘like I care’
2. The entrance music for the crow was OTT and ridiculous, and it was hilarious when they used it when he turned into an ostrich and made his entrance.
I thought his being turned into an ostrich accompanied by the Tomoe little speech about the low cal and nutritious value of ostrich meat was funny.
I also liked how quickly Momozono realised he was a jerk and stopped liking him immediately.
Overall, fun and not meant to be taken seriously.
I came to the new season in search of something like this, so yay (last season it was kuroko no basuke)
Hi blogger, i found this post on 17 spot in google’s search
results. I’m sure that your low rankings are
caused by high bounce rate. This is very important ranking
factor. One of the biggest reason for high bounce rate
is due to visitors hitting the back button. The
higher your bounce rate the further down the search results your
posts and pages will end up, so having reasonably low bounce rate is important
for increasing your rankings naturally. There is very useful wordpress plugin which can help you.
Just search in google for:
Seyiny’s Bounce Plugin