Tag: Shaft

Zaregoto Series OVA – 01 [Day 3 (1) The Savant Gathering]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, OVAs and Movies:, Zaregoto Series

Another NisiOisiN’s light novel series adapted by Shaft?

Count me in as I admit that Monogatari series is one of my beloved shows. Well, certainly one of the shows that I spend the most time with. I always love the writing of NisiOisiN, and I understand that many of his trademarks are not for everyone: his long, rather meaningless chatter banter; his sexual overtones and his rather oblivious main boy protagonist could easily turn readers off; but the things I love the most about his writing is that he cares for his characters, they are flawed people but they’re always growing, and his arcs have a tendency to end strong, indicate that he understands his stories well (something quite frankly I have my doubts on the majority of anime out there). Zaregoto appears to be his first writing efforts back when he was… 21 years of age and we already encounter many of his usual quirks here. Shaft adapting this anime meaning that we have a lot of impressionist backgrounds, scenes that call attention to itself and the visual switches freely depending on the mood of the scenes and most noticeable of all heaps of frantic editing. To say all that I’m not here to compare this one with Monogatari series (even if they have the same overall feeling and that male protagonist is so far another version of Araragi-kun), so I will try my best to shut any of the comparison from now on and just talk about Zaregoto. Now, let’s begin:

Zaregoto presents the many settings in which an unnamed protagonist (I, or li-chan) has to encounter and the mysteries he eventually has to resolve. This OVA will focus on the first book of the LN series, titled The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer which take place in an isolated island, owned by the lady Akagami (who is cursed with a disease that cause people want to kill; as a result she was exiled to that island). If I have to comment on the characters of Zaregoto in this first episode, I’d say that they are completely over the top. After all, they are all geniuses to begin with. And of course, genius people all talk like their heads are in the clouds. The show followed our MC interact with each of them through a one-on-one fashion. Through his eyes, we have encountered 4 of them so far and each of them have their own voices. With this episode’s main focus is to introduce the cast members, they already add something to the overall picture. But like one of the character already addressed, what they appear so far isn’t their true self, or rather, what his current impressions about them are all wrong.

I’m rather curious on the notion of “genius” because firstly the cast members are exceptional in varying fields: one is an engineer, the others range from academic, chief, artist to fortune teller. They don’t really have anything in common except they’re extraordinary in what they do. In relation to others, they don’t really see eyes to eyes in most of things as the academic girl and the artist girl hated each other guts (and I love the irony in naming as of course the 7 chosen people among the chosen have to be named The Seven Fools, right?). Another interesting point around that notion of genius is in many instances, the blue hair girl Tomo is addressed as Blue savant. Now, in contrast to prodigy, savant is actually a developmental disability and most of people who have savant syndrome suffer brain damages. The most distinguished features between those two often are by their IQ. People who have savant syndrome has low IQ overall but they possess exceptional skills in other areas. Also, the first part of our MC talking with some strange woman is about that very theme of being genius: because they are a prodigy, they unintentionally trample others without knowing the consequences of those actions. The theme of genius is set up nicely so far so I’m eager to see how they make use of its theme in later episodes.

Shaft’s styles in this anime have been solid as expected. I actually like the wide ranges of worlds/ territories settings in Zaregoto and this setting of an isolated mansion is overall impressive. In some parts of this episode, Shaft uses panning shots to both keep the conversations as its main focus, but slowly shifts our attention to other characters. For symbolisms though, while I’m pleased to see each female characters have their own coloring (you can see for yourself in those screenshots), I’m not so sure the use of variations of chess in this episode. We know that the academic girl talks about shogi, but in the beginning scene the boy and that strange woman are sitting in a ordinary chessboard. Hmmm. Maybe our MC’s just meant to be a pawn in that chess? His clock was stopped at one time by someone and I think it could be an important detail for later episodes. Anyway, the big event (the murder) is yet to come so this episode mainly introduces the cast to us. In that vein, I’m quite satisfied with the execution of this episode. The only downside would be we have to wait for another month to catch up, but I have my fingers crossed that the wait is worth it.

3-gatsu no Lion – 05 [Agreement – Over the Cuckoo’s Nest]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

In a typically 3-gatsu no Lion fashion, the first chapter “Agreement” starts in the show’s most comfort zone: flashbacks inside Rei’s head. When you really think about the overall structure of this chapter, you can see that it’s the busiest chapter so far of the show. They begin with Rei’s memory on the father’s best friend (soon to be his adoptive father), continue with the current day detailing Rei picking up Momo, then dig deep into his thoughts again reflecting the day that his adoptive father decided to bring him home. Those three parts are masterful reflected his very journey to eventually end up in the household of Kouda family; with little happiness and a lot of sadness. And that theme is exactly what made this chapter one of the most complex chapter this show ever put on.

The first part of this first chapter is a memory of Rei towards his adoptive father, Kouda, as his father’s best friend and long-time shogi rivalry. Kouda, along with his own father, were in the Association together when they were young. The Japan Shogi Association has a society where all the players under 24 years old trained to become professionals and basically the only way to become to a shogi pro. Those who can’t achieve 4-dan by the time of that age will be automatically discarded. He’s the only one outside of his real family who would treat him with respect, so he was always looking to play shogi with him. There’s a brief but happy moments for Rei, as he enjoys himself playing shogi, something that later in his life becoming more like a “contract”, more like a thorn among the roses.

Later, when he picks up Momo from school and tends the wounds for her, her little helpless arm reminds him a lot of his deceased little sister. That must be one of the sadness, darkness period for Rei when suddenly, all the people that were once important for him were gone forever, and he was too young to fully understand that they will never come back, nor did him know about the situations surrounding him. Then his father’s rival came, asked him if he really loved shogi, and he lied. With Rei, he was never passionate about shogi, he just did it to please his father(s) and moreover he just happened to be very good at this. His accepting to live with Kouda family really reflect the complexity of Rei’s character. He knew that it was a chance for him to not end up in the orphanage, so he took that chance and as far as he is now, he achieved what his adoptive father expected of him. Could anyone blame him for that?

Unfortunately, there were still someone who blamed Rei for what he did, as we witness later on the next chapter, Over the Cuckoo’s nest. Those were the children of Kouda’s family, Kyouko the sister and Ayumu, about his age. In a family with a strong and proud tradition of shogi, the children know that they had to be good a shogi in order to catch their father’s attention. You might think of that as an exaggeration but believe me when I say that in a sports or art’s family, this happen more often than you would think. The family spends their entire time to work on the sports/ arts they loved and they eventually have their standards that they want their children to follow, and sometimes to the child those standards set by their parents become their institutions. Things started to fall apart within the Kouda family when Rei was better at shogi than the two. Kyouko begin to lash out her temper at Rei, while the little brother holed himself up in his room playing video games. Now we know the person that harassed Rei in his memory from last week was Kyouko (but they seem to be older in that flashback). Having a very strict personality himself, the fallout of his own kids doesn’t mean that he had anything against Rei, as he continued to support Rei (the strongest shall survive), but that very attitude made Rei feel guilty towards the two so he decided to move out. When your own success results at an expense of others, how could he be happy with that? The symbols of cuckoo’s life appropriately reflect his situations, and towards his feeling to his adoptive father, he’s still very much respect the man and in his own way care about him.

As I said before, the show is at its strongest when it digs deeper to Rei’s sad past and further reflects his inner emotions as he is now and eventually learn to express and live a happy life through the help of the sisters and his friends. While his past is indeed heavy, this episode never cheapens his emotions by showcase how miserable his life was, but by detailing how he was able to continue to climb up and progress despite things might turn out ugly at times. 3-gatsu no Lion remains a very solid show.

3-gatsu no Lion – 04 [Hina – Buiesu]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Seems like overalls it’s not a good week for my anime blogging, as all the shows that I’m covering haven’t fared very well this week. Not that they are disasters but all the shows veer off from their greatest strength to a more mediocre approach. For Sound Eupho they went for big climatic drama instead of their focus on dense little moments. For Flip Flappers they abandoned their wild Pure Illusion world for a more mundane and aimless plot, and for 3-gatsu no Lion they passed on their intimate look on real characters for… well… cartoonish characters. 3-gatsu no Lion is at its strongest when the show concentrates on Rei’s inner emotions and how the characters around him in a way change his very perception to be more open and honest to himself. Sadly this episode has little of those moments and instead relies on exaggerated silly moments which simply isn’t as engaging.

As soon as I knew the next chapter was going to focus on Hina, I was actually looking for this since Hina is my favorite character out of the three sisters. But boy, they decide to fall on the usual pitfall of portraying preteen middle school girl: through romance and first crush. Takahashi is the tall boy, baseball-ace from her school and she makes up her mind to cook a bento for him. Takahashi is almost an object of affection from the outside looking in, literally; as Rei stands from outside the field looking into the boy. Hina wants to make the most perfect bento out there, and the whole plan goes as everyone would expect: failed miserably. It’s fun to see her struggling with making foods, each time goes more and more horribly wrong and completely running out of time. But when it’s time for her to give the bento, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

While so far this chapter stumbles a bit because it ticks all the cliché teen romance plot, at least the chapter ends in a solid note. The ending works because the show still understands its character very well. It explores the insecurity of Hina, something fairly normal for someone her age: about her shyness got the better of her, about feeling vulnerable compared to the “near-perfect” sister. There is a huge age difference between the three sisters, but that makes sense in this context because the three sisters represent different stages of women’s life (I know, I know I might be obsessed with women’s issues but please bear with me this time). This theme becomes apparent here as Hina’s efforts remind Akari of her own, years ago and I believe although they’re different in term of personality, this is a phase that they all had to go through. Furthermore, this chapter ends with the most brilliant execution in this episode, as the voice-over switched gently from Rei to Akari. Up until now, we always follow Rei’s train of thoughts so it’s a nice change to hear other characters say what they’re thinking, and Akari sincere voice really gives of a warm and sweet feeling (unlike the first love) that the chapter wanted to achieve.

On the second half, things got real noisy for Rei as Harunobu came to his house unannounced to practice shogi with him. I certainly like him as a character, since last week the show gives more light to his character, but he also turns me off whenever he’s in that loud and hyperactive mode. Sadly the first half of this chapter was full of this and only when the duo meet the three sisters, things get more interesting. It turns out that he’s getting along well with kids, which actually is unsurprising because he himself still acts like a kid. I like the way the show makes references that obviously inspired by real-life counterparts. Well, others might say Bodoro is a blatant rip-off to Totoro, for me I say that this Bodoro has his own charms. Then it’s Akari who has a weird fetish: she likes everything soft and fluffy and has a affection for Harunobu considering his… ahem… body. Now, that actually becomes an issue. Like I mentioned last week I think the best strength 3-gatsu no Lion has is those characters feel like real people. This episode making their quirks so cartoonish (no, I’ll rephrase: so anime-ish) that they don’t feel like actual people anymore. I know maybe this problem comes from me so if the show still goes with these cartoonish traits then I’ll have to re-evaluate my own judgement.

Overall, besides being the show’s most unremarkable episode yet, I find some of the jokes actually landed well, like all the parts involving “some other people’s kids” or the last scene with Harunobu’s butler Hanaoka and I still think Shaft adapting the show quite effectively so far. There is a lack of Rei’s inner voice this week which actually hurts the show a bit, but we got one brief scene when he’s mentioning ‘love’ and it seems like he was in some kind of abuse with a girl before. This week is just a slightly misstep so I’m not worry too much. 3-gatsu no Lion is still a strong show and I can’t wait to spend more time with them next week.

3-gatsu no Lion – 03 [Harunobu – Beyond the Night Sky]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Another week, another touching little stories from Rei and his friends. Still follow the same structure as previous 2 weeks, we have the first half of Rei competing against Harunobu, his lifelong rivalry (or so that guy thought), and the remaining half of Rei visiting the three sisters on the last day of Obon festival. Unlike last week where we had the first segment to illustrate Rei’s ordinary professional shogi life, this week’s first section actually has a bit of context behind it. Actually, we have A LOT of context here. We have a whole flashback on the very first time they played together as a kid, narrated by the older Rei now that feel wholeheartedly personal. While the last episode framed Harunobu as a noisy and a bit annoying kid, this week shed a lot of new lights into his characters. He was, and still is, never a match for Rei’s shogi skills, but his determination to fight till the very end is something that feels resonant to Rei. I like how the show keeps cutting back to the flying balloons, and Shaft keeps focus on liquid-dropping motifs (be it big tears that like in manga, sweating, or bubbles on cold drink). The show successfully parallels that kid’s match with the current match in order to show us that the determination, the pure joy of facing off each other would never change, and will continue to be for the rest of their careers. It then turns out that Harunobu has been ill and in the hospital since he was a kid, that adds depth to this characters now that we realize his enthusiasm is not something that easily gained, considering his sickness.

When Rei meets up with the sisters that night, it’s a last day of the Obon festival. On that day, they bid farewell to the deceased ancestors and hope they will be safe in the afterlife. From the look of it I guess the sister’s grandma and mother had been passed away for 2,3 years. Long enough to not overly depressed by it and can carry on the ritual like usual, but soon enough to still feel sad and melancholy. For Rei, he lost his parents from way too long that he eventually shut his emotion off and forget about them in order to carry on. Now I see the connection between him and the sisters and why the sisters treat him like their family. Losing parental figures sure is tough and they eventually share the same pains of losing someone closed to them. But it becomes a habit that when we’re together, we smile and keep looking ahead, and hold that grief feeling to ourselves. That’s why Hinata walks off to the bridge and then outbursts hold so much emotions. She’s always an emotional honest character and carry the weight that burdened on her shoulder is too much for her. At least she can cry her heart out and that is something Rei needs to learn too.

After each viewing, I eventually check out the manga up to where the show had covered to see how closely the adaptation is, and for that Shaft has been followed quite faithfully to the source material. There are many important scenes that they actually adapted literally frame-by-frame from the manga. I previously said that I enjoy the Shaft’s editing for this series, and this episode again show their strengths towards editing: not that smooth editing but quick, sharp cuts to the motifs of the shows: last few weeks we have water bubbling and this week we have quick cuts to the flying balloons or the sun. In addition, there are some Shaft-ness moments that basically remind us this is Shaft’s products. Yes, we have some head tilts and I love to see some Nozomu-sensei imitations here but ultimately, they do it just about enough, without distracting the story. The sound design also deserves a special mention that feel lively, and that soaring scores really bring out the sadness and sorrow without again never really stand out. Great stuffs. Overall, Shaft have been given this show an excellent treatment.

But if I have to compare the manga and the show right now, I feel the manga fare better for me, which is strange because I consider Shaft adapting the manga quite effectively. So why is that? For me, the manga achieves something really simple but direct and honest, and that’s freaking hard to do. Take a scene where Akari explains about the cucumber and eggplant as the “horses” to bring the ancestors to their former homes and backs; while in the anime it feels like she’s giving information for us to process, in the manga I actually feel the sadness behind the talk. Chica Umino is ultimately a character’s writer, as opposed to say Gen Urobochi who famously known for his theme-ridden story and his world-building, or Mari Okada for her heightened drama (I don’t know why I bring up those two honestly, they aren’t even mangaka. Must be Freudian slip). Well, when a mangaka includes the character’s name into the chapters it means that those characters are her privilege and she really cares about her characters. Those characters were given more depth with such honesty that it never feels forced or calculated. I have gotten to the stage where I don’t pretty much care about great plots, shows with deep meaning or profound theme, all I care is characters that feel like real people that I feel invested to, and to witness how they grow overtime. I can safely say that 3-gatsu no Lion achieves that, and that alone is good enough for me to keep recommending this show.

3-gatsu no Lion – 02 [Akari – Beyond the Bridge]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

I’ve read some wonderful articles about Akiyuki Shinbo’s role at Shaft and let me lay this out for you. Anime fans seem to love/hate him for all the wrong reasons. Because his name always pop up in almost Shaft’s shows, together with Shaft’s very distinctive styles (to put it very mildly), anime viewers have often mistaken him as being a sole lead director of Shaft. Well, far from it. If you really take notice, more often than not in Shaft shows there are two directors: Shinbo and someone else. Usually that someone else is the main director, and Shinbo, well, if I can put his role more accurately, he’s more like an artistic supervisor than an actual director. Since he took his role in Shaft back in 2004, his main roles have been tutoring the young staffs to bring their own visual styles, and ensuring that every Shaft’s shows are consistently weird. After all, being distinctively and consistently weird means that they have a brand. Shaft’s brand. All that lead to two things. First, Shinbo has always been a director, but in that sense, he has directed Shaft the studio than really directed any Shaft’s show. Second, he didn’t solely direct any shows because he couldn’t; considering all his commitments. Prior to the airing of 3-gatsu no Lion, I originally thought the show’s going to be his first sole effort in director chair, but then I checked again and apparently Kenjirou Okada is a co-director. So, that means they repeat the circle again. Well, c’est la vie.

Now on to the actual episode itself, it seems like 3-gatsu no Lion formula is one half of Rei and his shogi life, and the other half about him having great time with the sisters. Contrast to last week’s lack-of-dialogue first half when we followed Rei gets on the train to compete with his adoptive father, this first half is loud and sometimes silly with many eccentric shogi players. Those characters might lighten up the screen a bit, but they are far from the show’s best moments. Actually, I think it is intentional to introduce those high-energy shogi players. They are here to contrast with Rei’s loneliness, almost emptied living space and as a result they kind of spark a little life into the guy. Judging from that I think those parts work as a whole but there are still some tonal imbalances between this first half and the rest. We were witnessed to the real shogi match and while I have no idea about shogi, the show did a great job of NOT creating any tension towards this match, but instead show the match as Rei’s professional everyday life. The reason why this guy Issa wanted to win so badly is conveyed very well and that shed a new light into his character. That’s what I love about this show’s writing. Through little moments or little details that we gather, we can understand more about their personalities. Many of those characters already feel like human.

The shogi senpais drag Kei to Misaki bar where Akari works and this is where the two parts connected. From last week we already know that Akari helps her grandpa to set up shop in the morning, now we get to learn her day job. Akari looks just gorgeous here but her natural gestures towards Kei and her friendly attitudes towards the senpais make her really feel like a different person. Through her story we get to know that the first time Akari met Kei, he was drunk and was dumped by the other upperclassmen. Rei’s now living alone all by himself so that makes him an easy target for those guys to play around with him. At least things could’ve been worse I suppose. If there is one thing that I really like about Shaft’s adaptation to this manga, it is their editing. They are not smooth per se but each cut they make, they highlight very well the theme of the show. The motif of water bubbling, ice bubbling, and papers flying up all represent his isolations and the feeling he hide inside that keep boiling over the surface.

In the second part, Rei joins the three sisters preparing for the Obon festival. It is a Japanese 3-days custom to remember the ancestors of one’s family because it is believed that on those 3 days the spirits of them will revisit their former households. This custom of course fit very well with the show. We learned that Rei’s parents passed away, so did the three sisters’ mother ad grandma (I’m not sure about the father though). The Obon festival, without saying, is the one event that they want to forget. Rei did forget about the time right after his parents deceased, and I totally understand that. At those time he felt like he’s floating (which again match up with the motif), saw the world around him in black and white (kudos to Shaft’s visual art style again), and felt lost. Those three sisters are something reminiscent of the family he would’ve have.

For now, just two episodes, the show already establishes a solid fundamental emotional core. 3-gatsu no Lion maintains its very confident pacing. Shaft’s aesthetic visual styles actually strengthen the show right now, reinforce the emotions without become too distracting. The show follows slowly to the manga (2 episodes for 4 chapters? This will be a long ride indeed). I know so far the show’s not perfect, but there’s no denying that just in 2 episodes, 3-gatsu no Lion is already a poignant little beast.