Noragami
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a god.
Okay, so I mistakenly got the director of this series wrong. Apologies, my bad. Still, this episode had its problems: it looked stylish, but ultimately it just got a bit too generic. Characters had basically two modes and nothing more: snarky and serious, and that got old a bit too quicky. The monster design is quite nice, but this series isn’t really impressing anyone in that department after Space Dandy. From this first episode it rather looked like a standard shounen supernatural series to me, with perhaps better animation than usual.
OP: Nod bad. The style works here.
ED: I’m not a fan of this song, it’s very generic.
Potential: 40%
Tonari no Seki-kun
Short Synopsis: Our lead character sits right next to someone with an overactive imagination.
Tonari no Seki-kun is a weird series. It’s only 5 minutes per episode, and it’s based on just one and only one gimmick: during class, the titular Seki-kun does the weirdest things as a means to alleviate his boredom and the teacher doesn’t notice a thing of it. Remember doodling like crazy during classes? This series takes that to an art-form. Here is the thing though: if it’s just got one gimmick, then why would I want to watch more than one episode? The next episodes are just going to be exactly the same, only with other hobbies that the main character ends up doing on his desk. The female lead also is a very stiffly acted for a straight man. That also breaks the flow of each episode a bit.
OP: Yay for spoiling what the future episodes will be about…
ED: Again, there’s no nead to make even more clear what the gimmick of this show is going to be.
Potential: 40%
Space Dandy
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is dandy and in space.
This was an incredibly silly episode. It didn’t take itself seriously at all. But oh my god, the creativity! At heart this is an adventure series in which we follow the characters to all sorts of fantastical worlds with all kinds of weird and crazy creatures. It makes no sense whatsoever in the process, and the obsession with boobs probably wasn’t the best way to start with, but this episode was a lot of fun to watch. The animation in the second half in particular deserves to be watched. Bones really put their top people on that sequences; the movements were amazing! I do have some complaints though: some jokes were really corny (and I mean 1980s corny), plus the animation is quite inconsistent: the animation in the first half of the episode strangely cut all sorts of corners. Given that usually, series splurge the most of their budget in the first episode, Bones does need to have the resources to make this consistently good.
OP: Dandy.
ED: A great ED. It flows really well from the ending of the episode rather than starting abruptly.
Potential: 85%
So it’s another Kill la Kill that’s gonna be praised as the salvation of all anime despite glaring issues and tasteless fanservice that will be overlooked by the majority of usually critical elitists because of retro appeal and “it’s unpretentious and doesn’t take itself seriously”?
No. Saikin Imouto Blahblahblah also doesn’t take itself seriously. And I’m not praising this as the salvation of all anime.
The thing is, I critique the sum of all parts. Yes, the fanservice is annoying, however this series has more than enough to make up for it. Same as Kill la Kill.
I indeed used to be like “omg this series shows boobs in a tasteless way! it’s terrible!”, however my opinion is a bit more nuanced now.
I wasn’t referring to you but to some other elitist reviewers who specifically pride themselves on bashing widely enjoyed series. They do this while making bemusing exceptions for other series, mostly on the basis that they have the same staff of another show that they like even if the series has the same elements as other shows they have reviewed negatively. Due, perhaps, to their own duplicitous nature or that they may be trying desperately to convince themselves that the show is a profound work of art and not a pile of drivel that they would have otherwise dropped.
I think they’re trying to repeat the success of Cowboy Bebop. But whereas Bebop had complex characters with a lot of depth, the details of the characters of Space Dandy can be written on the back of a stamp.
I know I only watched half of one episode, but that is exactly the conclusion I came to.
The fanservice in this show or Kill la Kill don’t bother me. It would be like if I was bothered by the fact that Al Bundy From Married with Children went to the nudie bar and saw hot chicks. What else would I find at a nudie bar? That isn’t tasteless imo. Tasteless would be Bakemonogatari, where they take every chance they get to flaunt off the characters ass and boobs. Or making the main character trip and land on some random girls rack. That’s also tasteless. That isn’t the dandy way. That isn’t the kind of show this is.
Anyway, I liked the first episode, but many of the jokes were seriously bad. Besides that, this show was exactly what I was expecting. I loved the music, animation, and the overall style of the show. And the dub was great! Too bad Toonami likes to cut the OP and ED. I just listened to both and while I liked both of them, neither stuck out to me. I really liked the music that played during the 2 minute PV, where the girls keep chanting “Space Dandy” and then it goes into the second half of the opening. Really liked that.
I thought Tonari no Seki-kun was great. And the seiyuu for the female lead wasn’t stiffly aced at all. In fact she was quite expressive.
Having read the Tonari manga, trust me when I say they use this premise to great effect.
Give it more of a chance. It might becoming one of your favorite shorts.
I agree with Joe that the premise is used to pretty much it’s full potential. As a manga it’s a damn enjoyable one. Still there’s still the issue whether this works in anime format. One thing that annoys me is how Youko says her thoughts instead of thinking them. Makes me wonder why no one noticed how she screamed when the dominoes started toppling.
But this isn’t psgels show. It just isn’t his thing.
Oh and that ending was glorious.
Yeah. I’m sure why they did that either. Especially when lips moving uses more budget.
>Potential: 40%
No, just no.
^
Regarding Tonari no Seki-kun, just think of it like Teekyu but five minutes longer. If those extra five minutes are too much for you, then yeah you probably won’t want to continue.
I’d say it’s more like Nichijou than Teekyuu so far, but I guess it depends on what they do beyond the obvious premise. With 8 minutes they can do a fair bit of fun stuff, while Teekyuu struggled to smash as much into 2 minutes as possible (with very mixed results even if you like Gag Manga Biyori style randomness). It’s just too early to tell with Tonari.
Well Tonari is more 6 and a half minutes with the opening and ending taken out of the equations. I just read some of the manga and this seems like the perfect length.
I’d say Tonari is no more worse for the wear than Poyopoyo was when it started, though 8 minutes for such simple episodes is probably pushing it. I’m surprised you didn’t like the ED though; I found it rather charming and atypical of anime EDs.
Wait, I don’t think Seiji Kishi directed Noragami
Ack, it is. It was waay too similar of his style so I made that mistake.
I think you mistook Noragami for Hamatora; the latter is directed by Kishi. Noragami i’m sticking with for the moment cause I like shounen written by female mangaka. Also, BONES.
Yeah, isn’t Noragami being directed by Kotaro Tamura?
Also Noragami is not about half dead kids fighting monsters! It’s basically a Seinen version of Kamisama Kiss. I’ve enjoyed what we have of the manga so far so am really looking forward to this show.
Space Dandy
Pretty good (as expected), even if there’s zero substance. Looking forward to more.
Tonari no Seki-kun
Just started the manga. I think I’ll stick to that version. Anime isn’t bad, but I don’t see the point.
Noragami
Already reading the manga. That Hiyori chick gets increasingly annoying later on. Dropped.
Man, Tonari no Seki-kun was amazing, even the ED was great.
I think you should edit your post. Seiji Kishi has absolutely nothing to do with Noragami.
errr psgels kishi is not directing noragami…
Question to everyone around: is it just an anime cliche that most students in Japan are jerks who bully others and seem to hate their classmates for no reason? I mean, the opening scene of Noragami has the WHOLE CLASS thinking horrible things (like “die already”) about this one girl for totally stupid reasons. I mean, isn’t it too much competitive behavior to think that you hat this girl because she’s apparently getting special treatment because she was bedridden for two months? This and several other things in many anime of today make me think that either Japanese youths have become complete bastards (I feel absolutely disgusted by these things) or the clichés are going way over the top.