Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru
Short Synopsis: A boy and a girl who loves bones come across a skeleton on the beach.
One thing I think anime should take note of is that if you plan to have intrinsic photorealistic environments then you should try to blend the character art styles to match said environments. The anime characters of this episode present a disconnect similar to that of the cartoon characters of Who framed Roger Rabbit. While the characters are present, it doesn’t feel like they belong. More like they are standing in front of an overly decorative set. The soundtrack is very bombastic, presenting a score more suitable for a high fantasy adventure rather than a mundane mystery show. It’s far too intrusive, with high pitched violins while the detective is explaining her theory. The story of the episode itself is decent but suffers from over-presentation with heavy visuals to show the explanations of the main detective. My previous assumption about a Sherlock and watson relationship turned out correct and sadly the main character is as bland as his design suggests. Our main girl is mildly interesting but possess far too few likeable traits, and her gimmick of loving bones is already wearing thin. This is a mystery show when essentially solves itself without any viewer speculation which is disappointing. One particular annoying aspect is the show portraying the police as deeply incompetent in order for our main detective to seem more brilliant and I find her deductions to be far too based on assumption. I admit to being overly harsh on this show and there is still some potential as the cast branches out and more interesting mysteries appear, but the first episode is lacking a hook to catch me.
Potential: 40%
Dance with Devils
Short Synopsis: A girl gets targeted by a student council of boys and cloaked burglers
Well that’s one way to start an anime. I must admit I rather liked the chanting and the gothic atmosphere of those first two minutes. But then I realized….it’s a musical. A musical reverse harem with supernatural elements. A fascinating combination but I am certainly not the target audience of such a show. Musicals are something I find a little too cheesy for my tastes, I remember having a firm hatred of the songs in disney movies. The second half shows there might be more effort put into this than a regular reverse harem but it still suffers from many of the tropes that plague the genre. Our protagonist is still a blank slate who has a bunch of hunky boys going after her who fall into the usual lineup.This is bound to be better than Diabolik Lovers for those looking for this kind of show but well being the man I am, this doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest.
Potential: 10%
Osomatsu-san
Short Synopsis: Old Showa anime characters try to make themselves relevant again.
Our show starts with a black and white cartoon talking about how this show is a return of a anime made over a decade ago and even has one of the characters pointing out that it may be too old for the current generation to enjoy. Certainly hit the nail on the head with that one. So they…turn it into a generic boy band idol anime. So I sat there, clearly seeing that this was a joke and waited for the joke to end. And it didn’t. The joke went on and on to start referencing everything from attack on titan to shounen anime. I got the joke by the first minute and even then I didn’t find it all that funny. I have said many times that anime comedies are something I can’t really appreciate but I feel that there is just far too much “Shout till it’s funny” and “Look at the anime we are referencing” going on for my to consider this good comedy. Admittedly I find the idea of old showa anime characters trying to be relevant by copying popular threads to be somewhat amusing but from what I can tell this isn’t going to be the actual show. Instead the next episode looks to be the genuine first episode. I find the black and white segments of the show to be a prime example of just how far anime has come along and thank god for that because the old Osomatsu show looks to be pretty terrible. I think this is one you have to make up your own mind about, if this first episode gets you laughing then maybe the humor of the rest of the series might be your thing but for me what’s presented hasn’t sold me on this show.
Potential: 20%
“One particular annoying aspect is the show portraying the police as deeply incompetent in order for our main detective to seem more brilliant and I find her deductions to be far too based on assumption.”
So… Ranpo Kitan all over again?
…actually the two do share some similarities in storytelling come to think of it.
“So I sat there, clearly seeing that this was a joke and waited for the joke to end. And it didn’t.”
It did, though. Most of the first episode of the show has nothing to do with what the show will be. It was a “We have to get this out of the way: we’ve been gone a LONG time” introduction. I have no idea what Osomatsu-san was, and most people are in the same boat. (I do know that “Gachan” gag, because it’s recently been referenced on the Begiragons Youtube Channel)
I dug the ridiculous parody of current pop anime, and I think whoever’s doing this show has the comedic chops to entertain me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujio_Akatsuka
Fujio Akatsuka (赤塚 不二夫 Akatsuka Fujio?, September 14, 1935 – August 2, 2008) was a pioneer Japanese artist of comical manga known as the Gag Manga King. His name at birth is 赤塚 藤雄, whose Japanese pronunciation is the same as 赤塚 不二夫.
He was born in Rehe, Manchuria, the son of a Japanese military police officer. After World War II, he grew up in Niigata Prefecture and Nara Prefecture. When he was 19, he moved to Tokyo.
While working at a chemical factory, he drew many manga. After that, Tokiwa-so accepted him. He started his career as a shōjo artist, but in 1958, his Nama-chan (ナマちゃん) became a hit, so he became a specialist in comic manga. He won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1964 for Osomatsu-kun[1] and the Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1971 for Tensai Bakabon. He is said to have been influenced by Buster Keaton and MAD magazine.
In 1965, Akatsuka established his own company “Fujio Productions Ltd.”.[2]
In 2000, he drew manga in braille for the blind.
Many of his manga featured supporting characters who ended up becoming more popular and more associated with their series than the main character, such as Papa (Tensai Bakabon), Iyami, Chibita (Osomatsu-kun), and Nyarome (Mōretsu Atarō).
In April 2002 he was hospitalized for intra-axial hematoma and was said to frequently be in a persistent vegetative state from 2004 until his death.[3] In July 2006, his second wife Machiko, who had been nursing him, suddenly died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage.[4] On August 2, 2008, he died of pneumonia at a hospital in Bunkyō, Tokyo.[5]
If I wanted to learn about the show, I’d just…look it up on wikipedia on my own.
I’m highlighting the fact that the Japanese really, really love their gag manga.
Many of such gag manga never make it to western shores because the humor will not translate if you are not Japanese or spend a lot of time around Japanese people. Osomatsu-KUN is a great example of that.
Yeah, the line-up of jokes they did in the beginning of the episode are totally foreign to non-Japanese audiences. I only know the “Gachan” from MEGWIN.
Japanese comedy also loves its cat-phrases and gimmick comedians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osomatsu-kun
Osomatsu-kun (おそ松くん?) is a manga series by Fujio Akatsuka which ran in Shōnen Sunday from 1962 to 1969. It has been adapted into two different anime series of the same name, the first in 1966, produced by Studio Zero, and the second in 1988, produced by Pierrot and aired across Japan on Fuji Television, the anime satellite television network, Animax, and the South Korean kids channel, Cartoon Network Korea. A new anime series by Studio Pierrot, Osomatsu-san, began airing in October 2015 to celebrate Akatsuka’s 80th birthday.
This series helped establish Akatsuka’s reputation as a gag comic artist, long before his other popular manga, Tensai Bakabon. Osomatsu-kun has appeared in numerous special issues of Shōnen Sunday. Akatsuka has also included several manga adaptations of routines from Charlie Chaplin movies in the series.
In 1964, Akatsuka won the 10th Shogakukan Manga Award for Osomatsu-kun.[1]