Forum - View topicREVIEW: Kemono Friends
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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@ relyat08 - I have explained myself twice now and you are still trying to make it seem like I think a reviewer should ignore commenting on the poor visuals. And yeah, I do think that people who prioritize production values are a problem. Thankfully, in the case of Kemono Friends, the fact that the fanbase DIDN'T mindlessly follow that prioritization allowed the show to get the attention it deserved. Thank god that fanbase didn't have the trite, boring attitude of, "oh my the visuals aren't super yummy so I guess I won't bother giving this show a chance."
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DmonHiro
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Actually yes.... yes it can save it. In fact, it does. |
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braket
Posts: 9 |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5316 |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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(Given that's supposed to be from American Prairie Dog, I always wondered whether that was meant to be the standard cross-Pacific gag at us gaijin's tendency to be odd and more emotionally demonstrative--Which turns up frequently in most comedies, albeit not as much as in Time Bokan 24... From there, thought Prairie Dog would be portrayed as a complete token American Looney for the rest of the episode, but no, that turned out to be just her one cute bit of oddness.) Last edited by EricJ2 on Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DanQ
 Posts: 114 |
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"Visual disaster" is pretty harsh. Cheap, simplistic, and limited, yes.
But for 3D CGI, it doesn't fall into common trap of "yay, free camera moooooving" like most 3D CGI anime do. Only very few scenes (hunting sequence in the intro of 1st ep.) using that "3D movement", most composition is very, very traditionaly 2D. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Just riffing off of EricJ2's post on the previous page, it strikes me that anime fans should be wary of getting too snooty about production values. I watched the first episode of Troll Hunters recently and on a technical and production value level it blows away virtually any anime. I enjoyed the story, too. Anime is made on a low budget and with super tight time constraints. That means technical merits aren't necessarily of the finest quality. It's not that Japanese studios don't have the talent to do it, they are simply working within the constraints of their industry.
I guess what bugs me about putting too great a weight on production values is that it can be directed at anime as a whole. I mentioned this story in a different thread earlier, but it relates to my point. A few years ago I was talking with a North American animation director and I mentioned that I was a big anime fan. His reply? He sniffs and goes, "but the frame rate is so low." In other words, because the animation quality wasn't up to what he was used to by North American standards, he was just dismissing the whole industry, as if it had nothing of value to offer. |
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chito895
 Posts: 512 Location: Lima, Peru |
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I kind of understand what you mean. The story is not new nor that compelling, but it's well composed and paced! The build up is great, it doesn't have any asspulls to save our heroes, nor any of the revelations go against the things that have been established before. And if you already like the characters, the emotional payoff is even greater. Now, "killing anime", though, that's a meme I can't understand at all. |
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DmonHiro
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You obviously have no idea what this show is about. You either didn't watch it or didn't pay attention. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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I don't think a show with as much heart as Kemono Friends could kill the medium. Labors of love are always welcome, even those as scrappy as this. I won't get into my disagreement with the referenced claims here though. While the visuals are far from the best (I say that as someone who is not off put by CG anime and think the technique takes too much flak generally if understandably), It was an enjoyable and charming show that I would like to see more of some day. I passed on it after the poor early reviews, particularly that it was a kid's show (an understandable if mistaken impression given that it aired at 1:35 am), which made it awkward to see so much fanart of the characters on pixiv. I gave it a try after hearing about the fuss it was generating in Japan, and my only regret was not giving it a go earlier. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Holy crap, an A for story? How? The review certainly gives no justification for such a high letter grade, so is it like, "A for a story since this is just a kid's show?" It's not like slice of life in a post-apocalyptic world is somehow new. Sora no Woto, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, or even Gakkou Gurashi have all succeeded on such a premise.
An A grade should not be given out like a participation award. And if you're going to award something such a high grade then there needs to be justification in review itself. And the review saying that the show has "decent writing" certainly clashes with the grade given. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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But that's absurd. People can prioritize whatever they want. But I wish more people cared about production values, personally. That way we would have increased interest in the creators of anime. And animation production education would flourish. I'm sorry if I'm misinterpreting this, but it seems like you are very plainly stating that you wish that anime fans cared less about one of the primary aspects of the medium. That you want a more dumbed down audience that doesn't care. It's like me saying I wish anime fans didn't care about the writing. That they should just enjoy anything that looked cool regardless of how bad the story is.(which I am not advocating at all!)
But the thing is, that guy just has different taste. And many would argue he is considerably biased. A "lower frame rate" which is actually a factually inaccurate statement from the get-go(the majority of animation from the US and Japan is 24fps), is not inherently of lower quality. Guys like Mitsuo Iso, Toshiyuki Inoue, and Hiroyuki Okiura animate using variable timing and create scenes that are arguably more satisfying than most western animation that tries to stick to animating on the 1s. The entire industry is full of work like that. And the Japanese way of creating animation has spread around the world partially because it has an artistic appeal technically. My problem with your comments stems from the fact that it seemed like you are directly advocating against more education on Animation Production. And asserting that your way of looking at anime(with the narrative being the most important aspect, while the visuals don't matter as much.) is superior. Maybe that isn't what you're trying to say, but that's how it is coming across. People who like high quality visuals are not being snooty, we just like high quality visuals. And things that look different, experimental, and artistically interesting, for that matter. And like I linked before, that doesn't mean that those people, myself included, can't enjoy something with poor visuals. But I would like to be notified as to whether the visuals are good or bad if I'm reading a review. In fact, one of the most frustrating things for me is when I read a long form review and it barely touches on the visual direction or animation at all. Or waters it down to a couple of generic adjectives. Ultimately, it seems like the type of fan that you are complaining about is not the fan that cares about high quality visuals, but the type of fan that has a very close-minded and insular idea of what "high quality visuals" actually are. The people who will only watch things from Ufotable because they are flashy and effects driven. That's not actually someone who cares about high quality production values, it's someone who has a warped idea of what that is. Those are the same people that think Mob Psycho, likely the most well animated show of 2016, looks "bad". |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Insert Johnny Carson "I did not know that...  "
From the educational content, I thought it WAS an entertainingly informative kids-afternoon series, that just got a little too caught up in its own "apocalypse" premise trying to fit a plotless app game into a plot and tie the season-arc together. Yes, the moe-ness (and PPP idol-attention) is a bit off the charts, but with everyone comparing the "dark" ending to Madoka, I'd thought if it really was a late-nite series for horny otaku, it, like Madoka, would be a lot less subtle about its ambitions. (I'm not a fan of Madoka's dismissive attempt to snub and stroke its "secret" late-night audience at the same time, as you may know.) The fact that KF tread the taste tightrope ably enough to fool me says good things about its writing. Which leads us to...
...Well, guess you don't have to worry about it being a "kids' show", then, do you? 
And even that never stopped me from giving good grades to kids'-cable shows that actually are kids' shows, when they show up on streaming. In viewer Netflix reviews, I've given glowing 4-star praise of Disney Jr.'s "Sophia the First" and "Goldie & Bear", despite their having only just slightly better quality CGI than most of preschool cable, and you wanna talk embarrassing unintentionally-obsessed fandom on a KF level?--Just go ahead and ask me sometime why I gave a 5-star review to Netflix's "Beat Bugs", despite my being outside the ideal age-viewership bracket. (Seriously, better CGI aside, I can't even listen to a Beatles song now without trying to imagine a kid-friendly context, to the point that about eight complete spec-scripts have fan-fictioning around my head ever since Season 2 ended....Yep, us Kemono friends know, the volunteer fan attempts to fill in the withdrawal symptoms are always how it starts.  )
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Vapors
 Posts: 139 Location: Bay Area |
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Here are excerpts from the review that talks about the story. "Kemono Friends' overt tone is upbeat, innocently funny, and endlessly curious" "The overall effect mixes the warm contentment of a slice of life show with the inherent wonder of a trip to the zoo" "If you're a fan of slice of life shows and can get over Kemono Friends' questionable art, the show is already its own reward. Kemono Friends' humor and characters are charming, its episodic adventures well-paced, and its overall conceit solid" "But beyond its immediate appeal, Kemono Friends' ace in the hole is its intriguing, understated worldbuilding." "The fact that Kemono Friends hews so close to a slice of life tone actually assists its larger storytelling aspirations, and it never feels like the show is leaning on twists to maintain interest at the expense of its immediate pleasures." "From a slice of life safari with a scifi edge, Kemono Friends eventually evolves into a great overarching narrative." The reviewer says no bad thing about any of the plot, story or writing. In fact, he's positively gaga over this series. Seems like an easy justification for an A. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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The visuals wouldn't have come as much of a surprise to those who watch a lot of short anime. It's made by the same studio as Tesagure! Bukatsumono & if you follow the trail of who's worked with who, it encompasses many "quirky" CG/Flash anime going back to GDGD Fairies. There's a whole, I guess, movement of short anime creators using off the shelf digital software to make series that wouldn't have a hope of getting through the traditional studio/production committee system. Hopefully Kemono Friends success leads to more ambitious projects, even if it upsets the aesthetic expectations of many purists.
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