Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Arifureta - From Commonplace to World's Strongest
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AntiKuro
Posts: 199 |
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The Husband and I tried watching the first episode together and I couldn't get through it. I wanted to. That first episode was way to dark in terms of lighting and it felt like stuff was just missing so it was jumbled mess of confusion.
Husband picked up the manga after the first episode though and said it was good, and filled in a lot of missing gaps of the first episode so I'm debating on giving that a try (Though he also said the second episode filled in the missing gaps of the manga so...) I think I'll wait until the anime is finished and see if it gets better then that first episode. |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 967 |
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Okay so I'm not entirely sure why the original key visual, the one that was lambasted and scrapped, was chosen to accompany the review and not the newer one, but hey.
But yeah, the anime adaptation severely screwed up the tone. Arifureta is undeniably at least somewhat of a chuuni fantasy story, but the anime's attempts to WOW the audience with all that DARKNESS and BADDASSERY ends up sending the wrong message about what the series is about. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 30 AMVs on Youtube right now filled with nothing but Linkin Park and Three Days Grace. In the LN we spend at least a good 100 pages with Hajime as just a normal guy, establishing the relationship he has with his classmates. We see that while most of them don't have a whole lot of respect for him because of his seemingly mediocre abilities, it's really only a select few that go out of their way to torment him. And what it neglects to mention is *why* his classmates aren't all that fond of him, and no it's not because of his seemingly lackluster abilities or that he's an otaku, although that does give his bullies more ammunition. We also get a decently lengthy battle against the Behemoth (skipped of course) where Hajime manages to prove himself capable with just his transmutation abilities before being thrown into the depths of labyrinth. There's actual build-up to his transformation, and his apparent death is also shown to genuinely upset a lot of his classmates. Your thoughts on who the traitor was is actually kind of amusing because the 1st volume's narration flat-out tells you who it is, and the culprit is even mumbling to themselves about it later. It's not actually meant to be much of a mystery or a twist but the anime apparently wants to frame it as such? lol I don't really think this is meant to appeal to anyone other than the edgiest of edgelords or fans of the LN. Problem is, the former won't like it because the tone doesn't stay this dark for long, and the latter won't like it because it's an incredibly incompetent adaptation! Just maybe scrapping the entire production and rushing out a new one wasn't the greatest of ideas. Can't wait for the scene where Hajime's new attitude is directly confronted and criticized to just be totally gone |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 1922 |
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Why's the old key visual there? That's just kicking the anime while it's down.
At any rate, the second episode was better than the first, thank God. Seeing Hajime's unironic chuuniness made me smile. |
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zztop
Posts: 614 |
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The scrapping and redoing the character designs, I think, also negatively affected the animation quality. As ANN's correspondent Kim Morrisy noted on their Twitter account, replacing the character designer and chief animation director in redoing the designs not only meant in redoing the preproduction work from scratch, but with a greatly reduced budget that would've degraded the amended anime's quality. https://twitter.com/frog_kun/status/1148770257147854849 Plus from what I've heard, Overlap (Arifureta's publisher) is considered a smaller player in the publishing scene (esp. compared to giants like Kadokawa). The smaller status likely translated to them having a lack of budget to secure a greater episode count that'd allow more LN details to be adapted properly (or even a special 1-hour premiere for the initial setup). |
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 426 |
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you know, there are crappy adaptations of light novels, and then there are adaptations of crappy light novels. In my mind Arifureta belongs to the later without a doubt. I would even dare say that the liberties they took in revamping the narration for the first couple episodes actually made it look as a somewhat more decent story than what I read in the book. they made Hajime's dilema for the first arc actually feel a little less like the lazy written wish fulfillment generic fest I remember, so props to the anime director I guess.
I won't criticize it for being edgy and darks™ because I have actually seen edginess done right before (and because at the end of the day there is nothing wrong with something being edgy really), adding to the tone and aesthetics of a series, here it is just an excuse for uninspired one liners and for pandering to a demographic with a certain conception of what constitutes rule of cool. my condolences to Christopher for having to sit through this for a full season, I might stick around the reviews for the commentary but I will definitively not force myself to continue watching this series to see if it improves as I did for the first volume of the novels to no avail |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 967 |
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I genuinely don't see how you could possibly say that. The fact that people are misinterpreting Arifureta as some kind of revenge fantasy story ala Shield Hero when the story is obviously and absolutely not that makes it obvious that the anime failed at conveying Hajime's character. If anything, the anime made it utterly one dimensional and lazily-written. In the books there's actual structure besides "Look at our protagonist suffer at the hands of those mean old bullies  but aw yeah now he's a crazy badass!" There's set-up! Worldbuilding! Motivation! The basic building blocks of basic storytelling. Not here.
I'm not gonna argue the books are masterpieces or anything but they deserved far better than this. No source material deserves this. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Sorry about that, the banner has been replaced with (I think?) the updated art for the series. If that's also wrong, let me know and I'll try to find an image from whatever the reworked version is supposed to look like. (It's so off-model that who can even say...)
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Fluwm
 Posts: 705 |
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I'm honestly astonished at how bad the first episode is. Maybe the animation was good, maybe it was terrible, I couldn't tell: the storytelling was just so bad. It was basically, "I tripped and fell down so now I hate everyone because they betrayed me, and oh shit it's a monster, I guess I'll try eating it, and oh hey, I'm OP now." Interspersed with random screaming.
A hot mess, in other words. But... it did make me want to read the LN, simply to see how badly they butchered the source material. So I did just that, and breezed through the first six books in about a week. And... okay, yeah. This is disappointing. The LN series is pretty solid--it's effectively KonoSuba, only with more competent heroes. Same (identical) party dynamics and humor, same affection for crazy chuunibyou antics. With the addition of a cringey, 90s edgelord aesthetic--depicted with good humor, but also with affection, rather than derision. With the right direction, this could have been one of the better Isekai adaptations. |
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Cryten
 Posts: 690 |
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He does seem to be genuinely disturbed based on his anime portrayal. Instead of any shock, consolation or fear, he turned a possible betrayal into a self obsessed revenge hunt for his entire motivation. Also he doesnt seem to understand how he can turn his digging transmutation into a set of stairs. Wasnt he an otaku? hasn't he ever played a builder game?
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5643 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Yes, the first episode was a hot mess. Though the second episode did redeem themselves
a lot. The visuals of Hajime finding Yue were great, I'll have to reread the first volume of the LN. What really got my hopes up in the second episode is that they didn't try to censor or sanitize the depictions of Yue. So hopefully the first episode debacle is just a one off.[/img] |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 10679 |
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Well this is just a hodgepodge of other series' tropes, isn't it. We've got a little Fullmetal Alchemist, some reverse Strike the Blood (since the silver haired MC here is the suckee and not the sucker), a splash of classic loli vamp who looks and acts 10 but is really 300 - no really, a pinch of Shield Hero, and some more that briefly sprang to mind while watching this, all mixed up in an isekai dungeon crawler pot and left to stew. Too many cooks and all, but same goes for too many ingredients.
After watching episode 3, I think it's obvious who the betrayer is. But we'll see, if I last that long. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5643 Location: Virginia, United States |
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I think the 2nd episode made it quite clear who the betrayer is. I think anime viewers got to find out faster than the light novel readers as the LN doesn't get back to the school party members until much later.
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Nico_Astray
Posts: 27 |
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This shit is on the level of Isekai Smartphone. Making the main chara out to be weak in order to power him up in the same episode. At the same time his character made a complete 180 and suddenly he's overconfident and just a worse character than before. I don't know why there's been abuzz about the light novels, but it can't have been about this. The worst thing is the show seems to take itself seriously, as if someone could care for stereotypes gone edgelord.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 17679 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Can't agree there. It is still watchable after three episodes, and I had plenty enough of Isekai Smartphone after two. I'm actually finding how "edgelord" it's going to be rather amusing. It's almost like it's unintentionally parodying itself. Last edited by Key on Wed Jul 24, 2019 10:54 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Demonik_Sin
Posts: 2 |
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This is a great example on why Anime is dying to me. This was my most anticipated Anime as of late, and I feel betrayed. After Tensei Shitara Slime... I was heartbroken at how they just toss most of the story.
I dont understand why they're doing this to great Manga's. I haven't read Arifureta's Light novel but i am up to date on the Manga so much i reread it all to be refreshed for the Anime and I'm so Disappointed. The story structure is just gone, the character respectful build up is tossed and the demons look is horrendous or should i say not horrendous enough, they look like aliens and not demons or monsters. I wish i could even say it was descent but i feel like a piece of something i loved has been literally beaten down into the sewage of the Animation team. The build up, and reason for his whole drastic change was thrown out the window. Why did he go crazy... why is he going on a revenge plot... this is not even the same story. This gives off so much information that confuses you becuase there is no structure or build up. "Hey guys I've been here for about 5 minutes im hungry so lets eat a monster." Where is the build up, he was in there for days and weeks. He had to know real hunger to make that decision and actually go through with it. Also the whole changing process, white hair, muscle build up, huge changing... Ahhhhhh. Says nothing about him being torn apart and destroyed as he continues healing himself. You made it seem like anyone that does this will be him and it shows he doesnt really go through much so why is he so mad. I know the story and love it and you just took a steamy maggot filled crap all over it. I just dont understand why the best potential anime are getting hurt by these animators and direction crews. Honestly i dont fully understand how all this works but it just sucks that they ruin something that was meant to be great. This story isn't for everyone but why stray so far away, their was so much resource material and you just wipe your butts with it. If anyone hates this and want to give it the chance then the Manga... the Manga is so so much better. Its just when you finish it, it takes time before they put the next chapter. |
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