BNA
Short Synopsis: Trigger re-writes Beastars in traditional Trigger style.
Helghast: Due to how Netflix releases things either too late or too early, the entire first half of BNA is out for your viewing pleasure. I’ve watched the first three episodes to balance it out and Studio Trigger hasn’t failed to entertain me yet. This time it’s Zootopia meets Kill la Kill and if you were expecting another Beastars, think more along the lines of the brustling fire-conscious city of Promare rather than the intricate layers of society. With the director of Little Witch Academia and the guy who scored Megalo Box being behind this production, it has been a fast-paced and wild ride through Anima City. The animation is an absolute riot in portraying the comedic violence and the characters of Michiru and Shirou drive the story with their different senses of discovery and justice. Being a Studio Trigger show, I expect this to be a smash hit or at least implode unto itself in a spectacular fashion.
Potential: 80%
Lenlo: Well one thing is for sure, you can tell this is a Studio Trigger production right from the get go. It’s flashy, bright and has a sense of style. Whether BNA ends up as anything more though we will have to wait and see. Because initially, its story isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, especially from Trigger, who seem hooked on this same core narrative. Some kind of class system in place, down-trodden, etc and the heroine comes in to fix it. That said there is some promise, a hint of a mystery, in just the first episode. Which gives me hope that there is more to BNA than just Triggers stylistic flair. Even if I am wrong though, if nothing else, BNA will be a party to watch. That’s for sure. With any luck, we may even go to space by the end.
Potential: 80%
Tamayomi
Short Synopsis: Two childhood friends reunite in high school and become a softball battery.
Lenlo: I feel betrayed. I feel lied to. In a word, I feel upset. Because the PV’s and Key Illustrations leading into this promised me strong women with strong thighs. And Tamayomi gave me neither. Just look at these thighs, all bland, detail-less and samey. It’s almost as if their character designs have little actual differences! Meanwhile, the animation on these thighs is also lacking, as they move like slow blobs of jello. I can’t even appreciate flashback thighs, which is criminal considering how many there were! Flashbacks I mean, not thighs. Long story short, as far as a “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” sports show goes, neither the girls nor the thing they are doing, are cute. And so I can only say it fails.
Potential: No Thighs/10
Wooper: This premiere was, in a word, boring. It took 22 excruciating minutes for the main character to meet several of her classmates and throw a few practice pitches to her childhood friend, with a couple middle school flashbacks to break up the monotony. Every bit of the episode felt padded, from the slow upward pans whenever a new person was introduced, to the internal overreactions whenever a character did something mildly surprising. The comedy revolved around identically-designed anime girls being kind of ditzy, which is nobody’s cup of tea when it’s done this predictably. Speaking of their designs, they’re so simple that it’s a wonder that animation isn’t better. Everybody looks like Kirito with a more feminine haircut, yet the episode’s few moments of full motion struggled to keep things consistent. The main girl has a magical curveball that initially heads right for the batter’s head, then darts into the catcher’s glove at the last second, and… You know what, I’m not going to waste another word here.
Potential: 0%
Tower of God
Short Synopsis: Young boy enters a Tower themed Death Game in search of the only girl to ever talk to him.
Amun: I read the first couple chapters of this webtoon and I was decently hyped….first episode has pretty well killed that. Unlike Lenlo, I do not like the rough line – I think it disrupts what should otherwise be a spectacle of scenery. Instead, we have shallow depth, low effort backdrops with characters parading around in PowerPoint animations. The story is a mess too – had I not read the source material I would be completely lost. As it is, I’m only halfway lost. What I’m seeing is the very definition of amateur hour – which makes me sad since I’m rooting for the Crunchyroll sponsored projects to succeed. Oh well, better luck next time, I guess.
Potential: 1%
Lenlo: Tower of God is a weird one. Visually, I like it. The rough line work stands out and the animation is good enough with that line work to keep me interested. It looks like nothing else airing this season, really. However having read the original WebToon, I can say with utmost certainty that if you had no idea what was going on this episode, you won’t moving forward either. Narratively it’s a bit of a mess, as the author figures out what kind of story they want to tell. So all I can really say at this point is that I am looking forward to some good animation, some good fights, and if it can adapt some of the best scenes of this first volume, it will at least be a good time. Nothing phenomenal, but hey. Sometimes I just want some popcorn you know?
Potential: 50%, popcorn flick
shoot. you guys are killing my Tower of God hype, which is largely there because the soundtrack is done by Kevin Penkin. The show seems like Made in Abyss in reverse so far. Lets see how well that comparison holds considering that MiA is guaranteed to be an all time great.
For what it’s worth: most of those familiar with the webcomic seem to be happy with the adaptation, so Amun is an outlier with his low rating. I’m personally quite happy too: yes, the beginning of the story can be rather confusing if you’re not already familiar with the source material (throwing you right into the story without building up its world and characters), but that ‘s true in the webcomic too, and I think it manages to translate the style and atmosphere of the webcomic into animation quite well (helped by Kevin Penkin’s strong OST). I’ll take this rough line art over CGI anytime.
As for the comparison to MiA, Tower of God is much more of a shounen: it isn’t nearly as dark, and it pursues more typically shounen aims, with near constant battle arcs. Its greatest strength is its world building, in that it has a very extensive world with a ton of lore and mysteries. But in other respects it’s honestly rather mediocre: the MC is a boring Gary Stu, the battles start off quite well (with a lot of strategizing) but become more and more dull as the story goes on, and the themes are standard shounen fare (the importance of friendship is rather prominent, as are fate and destiny). It’s a fun story, especially in its first arc, but it doesn’t have anything like the emotional depth or maturity of Made in Abyss.
What Animosh said. I don’t dislike ToG, its exactly what I said, a popcorn flick that is a fun time. But I would lying if I said I ever looked at it as anything more than that. It’s the Korean equivalent to a popular light novel getting adapted. And while there are some good small arcs and character bits, as an overarching story, its p meh.
I guess my disappointment comes from the fact this should be right in my strike zone…and I just don’t really like anything about it visually. Feels bad.
you know while I would have preferred it if ToG had some of the uniqueness of MiA, I am always down for a shounen battle show although the trop of the MC being a boring Gary Stu is just overdone. Nonetheless I’ll watch it withe more reasonable expectations haha
I havent read ToG, so Im interested in this. I have read some webtoons and also Noblesse so I think I have an idea of what this show is building upon.
What do you people think on Noblesse vs Tower of God? Noblesse looks really good, but you cant get around the repetitiveness of each arc – among other problems (well Frankie always makes up for it so its ok).
I remember this short Noblesse animation and a little OVA – do you people think Noblesse anime would ever happen?
A Noblesse anime has actually been announced alongside Tower of God: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-02-25/crunchyroll-unveils-7-crunchyroll-originals-works-including-tower-of-god-noblesse-god-of-high-school/.156748
Personally, I far prefer ToG to Noblesse. ToG has its issues, but the author is always trying something new. The scale increases by leaps the bounds, there are attempts at character growth even if they don’t always land, and they manage to expand their world drastically with every arc. Its grown a lot from the opening segments and there is some real passion behind it, if not necessarily skill.
Noblesse… never caught my interest the same way. I read it for awhile but it just felt to safe. Like it was just repeating the same thing over and over.
Also, as Animosh said, its been approved for an anime!
I don’t know the release schedule for brand new animal, are we waiting weeks now for episode seven or are they dumping the second half in a few weeks in one go?