Forum - View topic

The Summer 2012 Anime Preview Guide

Oh yes. That is a potential problem. American comics also wound up in a kind of ghetto once because of this tendency to reject a normal distribution of genres and go in only one narrow fanboy oriented direction.

Only looking at sales of anime to see trends is moronic.Look at Chihayafuru it did horribly on sales,but it is getting another season and it created cultural impact in Japan.

I kind of agree with Zac, Tari Tari looks nice but I'm not taken in by the characters or the setting. Ohana II and Minchi II aren't as thrilling to watch on screen here, Hanasaku Iroha did an excellent job of introducing you to Ohana alone for the first couple episodes, keeping the other characters off to the side, cold to the show's protagonist and the viewer alike. We get to know that cast as Ohana does through her initial interactions and subsequent trials of getting them accept her position at the inn. Tari Tari's approach is more conventional: dump the entire premise and all of players on you at once, and this premise isn't too gripping. I'll keep watching for the similar lovely designs, but my expectations will be kept low. Needs more Chiaki Omigawa *honk*.

Man, I totally forgot to complain about the Arcana Famiglia subtitles' use of accent marks in the names. Accent marks that don't match up with where you kind of hear a stress when people actually say the names.

Like "Felicitá" but there's no stress on the "á," only kind of on the "ci."

I watch this stuff because I have to, because it's part of my job, and also because I like anime and I'm curious to see what's new. I don't hate moe, I just don't like it when it's used as a crutch and the show has nothing else going for it

I try and give everything a fair shake and most of the cute-girl-moe stuff lets me down in the story department, but I keep at it anyway. There's no agenda, I'm not trying to say you're a bad person for enjoying it, I'm not trying to convince Japan to stop making your cute girl shows. I just have an opinion on them.

I'll flat out say it compared to last year this summer is bleak, dry and overall going to be sad drought of series. Personally when I'm watching second seasons of shows or just straight up oad's then I know my intrest have changed alot.

Cecilthedarkknight_234 wrote:

I'll flat out say it compared to last year this summer is bleak, dry and overall going to be sad drought of series. Personally when I'm watching second seasons of shows or just straight up oad's then I know my intrest have changed alot.

Do we not count second seasons? I'll agree without those the season looks paltry, but they're present and airing, and there's a ton of them. Horizon, Moyashimon, and Lagrange alone make this a decent showing for me.

Every new season is the worst anime season EVAAAAAAA!!

We don't usually do reviews for the first eps of second seasons, since you can generally write them in two sentences: "If you liked last season, you'll probably like this season. Also: yes/no, you can/can't get this show if you haven't seen the first season."

There are exceptions though.

Although we don't know the direction of Tari Tari as it's only been 1 ep, it could either be really good, or take a detour to the dumpster like Hanasaku Iroha did in episode 3. Luckily Hanasaku Iroha recovered and had some very strong episodes, particularly during the end of the first half and the end of the second half with episodes in the middle varying in quality.

There is a difference between typical "slice of life" and "drama". Hanasaku Iroha for example was more drama than slice of life. It actually had a theme, being "coming of age". It actually had a goal, which was for Ohana and co to keep the inn afloat and to solve her long distance relationships with Ko. It actually had her break down and then rise back up emotionally.

It had one of the best endings I've seen in the last few years for the genre, as it was not your typical "happily ever after", but rather "bittersweet". That's not cute girls doing cute things my friends. That's a relatively polished, well done drama series.

When I think slice of life (moe), I think of "actual" cute girls doing cute things type of shows. I'm talking about K-on, Working, Lucky Star, Minami-ke, Yuru Yuri, Azumanga Daoih etc. You know, the type of shows where actually nothing get's done and there is a big absence of conflict of whatsoever and relies on gags or "moe comedy" as tie ins.

Saying that though, when it does come to "slice of life" (or drama) there's a reason why noitamina is held in high regard (and also seems to be only type of shows of the genre that Zac and co seem to watch, and with pretty good reason). When it's not goofing about doing Guilty Crown, Fractal and Black Rock Shooter, it's doing series like Usagi Drop or Sakamichi no Appollon, which a breather of fresh air because they don't involve "cute girls" or "moe" at all. Unless you want to go parental love moe I guess... but that's no my point.

However, I do worry for you Zac that if you don't try and adapt to the current environment of the ever saturated "slice of life" or "drama" with happen to have moe genres, you are going to have an extremely hard time enjoying modern anime. When it comes to "drama with moe", PA Works is up there at the top (True Tears, Hanasaku Iroha being their best two). Unlike other typical "moe" shows as people call it, theirs have "polish". Kind of like how say Bioware RPGs or Blizzard RTS games have "polish". Although whether or not you enjoy is a subjective matter, it's going to be extremely difficult to find something than to find something that is better (if it is even possible in the first place) than the "polished" products. I know you're frustrated with the lack of creativity in the anime industry atm (I am too), but really some series which happen to have moe in it are on a different level to actual moe series that try and give you diabetes.

I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for this, but it's also on a different level to those MELOdrama series that try too hard to make you cry. I'm talking about Key series in general (Air, Kanon, Clannad, Angel Beats) or the recently aired Anohana. Not a fan of these "bawwfest" type of animes either... I actually end up unintentionally laughing at them due to melodrama being so overwrought and forced.

Though I don't know what approach Tari Tari will take, but it's first episode was oozing with potential and polish. I know it's being compared to K-on but remember, K-on mostly consisted of chipmunk faced girls eating cake and drinking tea. Tari Tari from the first episode had two musical scenes and established conflict between the main character vs the blond haired girl and the blond hair girl with the asshole music teacher. It already showed more substance than the entirety of the first season of K-on already. And it's not only K-on that's to blame because it's by far not the worst.

You know the "actual lame moe junk" that studios like JC, DEEN or AIC produces? Yeh... that's the real "cute girls doing cute things" that's saturating the industry. Studios like those couldn't even dream of doing what PA does (or noitamina on a good season, but that's a different scale alltogether) in regards to the genre.

TL;DR: Zac, if you think Tari Tari is really bad, then I actually feel sorry for you because that pretty much means you're going to hate every drama series that happen to have moe in it period, since Tari Tari is actually of the higher end. Unless you're perfectly ok with that, then you are going to have a hard time enjoying modern anime in general.

Let me make this clear now: if you despise K-on, it means you’ve never had best friends before since you can’t relate to the characters and their strong bonding.