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REVIEW: Scar on the Praeter




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CountZeroOR
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Joined: 01 Nov 2005
Posts: 73
Location: Oregon
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:45 am Reply with quote
I will disagree about one thing in this review - you can do good backgrounds in Unreal Engine 4 - that's the current version of the engine (5 isn't out yet), and it was also used for the backgrounds used in The Volume - the soundstage used for The Mandalorian (and probably also for Loki).
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:52 am Reply with quote
I still don't understand how Go Hands went from making the K series to Hand Shakers and W'z and the like
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 12:08 pm Reply with quote
zawa113 wrote:
I still don't understand how Go Hands went from making the K series to Hand Shakers and W'z and the like


I don't understand where they get the money to keep making them, do these sell well? Or maybe their show cost almost nothing to make and they can turn a profit of selling 20 DVD?

Still you gotta admire their persistence and they are trying to do something unique, I'll take a gohand show over another bog standard isekai.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4426
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:39 pm Reply with quote
zawa113 wrote:
I still don't understand how Go Hands went from making the K series to Hand Shakers and W'z and the like


When this was first announced, my question was which version of Go Hands would we get. K indulges a bit when it comes to animation, but it isn't excessive, and tends to look pretty good overall. It's almost like there was someone there whose job was to decide when to dial it back because their more, shall we say creative animation, tends to look awful.

Hand Shakers is still the only series where I debated not even finishing the first episode because it was so hard to look at.
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 2:46 pm Reply with quote
Fun fact: on top of Tokyo Babylon 2021, people have noticed plagiarism in the outfits of Praeter as well. Good job, GoHands.

I honestly only watched this because I was curious to see just how bad it would look and I was not disappointed, the show almost made me feel nauseous a lot of the time. The only thing keeping me watching was the plot (which I already can barely remember) and seeing how much worse it could get.
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 197
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
When this was first announced, my question was which version of Go Hands would we get. K indulges a bit when it comes to animation, but it isn't excessive, and tends to look pretty good overall. It's almost like there was someone there whose job was to decide when to dial it back because their more, shall we say creative animation, tends to look awful.


The thing that makes it especially confusing to me is that this isn't a case of GoHands making K and then going on to make Hand Shakers and W'z. They've been flipping back and forth with the K Seven Stories project and the directors overlap (GoHands only seems to have two major directors). So we know these people can make something better. The primary staff difference is that K is written by "GoRA", a writing collective of some sort. Maybe it's those writers keeping GoHands from going insane on those productions?
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Sarcataclysmal



Joined: 10 Sep 2020
Posts: 58
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:03 pm Reply with quote
I don't really know what to think of GoHands.
W'z, HandShakers, and Praetar are abominable, and K is like a super chill version of that that honestly looks pretty good. But then there's Seitokai Yakuindomo is pretty chill most of them time, and uses some of GoHands' crazy CG stuff in a few scenes here and there, but it's not overbearingly bad.

Even Coppelion I can say looked pretty good with its photorealistic (albeit over-gradient'd) backgrounds. And then there's, of course, the first anime to feature GoHands' more... interesting take on animation, and that being Mardock Scramble (which I honestly really liked).

They're such an absurd studio, and I can't say I don't love them for it; they make some awful looking stuff using some neat ideas and, occasionally, succeed, but this chaos is what makes me want to watch them.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1499
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:30 pm Reply with quote
Of all the GoHands properties out there, good and bad, I have only seen two - K and W'z - and I liked them both. K was one I enjoyed purely based on the style and music, so while it is admittedly forgettable as a casual watch, it's one that I don't regret. (Though I can't fathom why anyone would consider it the worst anime of fall 2012 like some of the writers on this one anime blog I used to frequent back when it premiered thought...)

As for W'z, while I don't blame those who suffered through Hand Shakers first- or second-hand for treating the series with the same amount of vitriol, the fact remains that I'm probably one of its staunchest supporters in spite of its flaws (and there are plenty). The fact that I watched it without actually seeing Hand Shakers first is to blame for that, and in truth, that decision worked wonders for my stance on the show. It's my theory that W'z was GoHands taking lessons from their prior mistakes (in a picky-choosy kind of way) and giving the Hand Shakers concept another go, with a more comprehensible plot, better-rounded characters, and a more restrained visual style than its predecessor, while at the same time keeping to their original vision instead of giving it a poorly-disguised palette-swap, and acknowledging the first's existence by making it a sequel, because honestly, denying something exists when the evidence is as plain as day is mentally unhealthy. Even if I didn't wind up liking W'z as much as I did, I still would've admired GoHands' questionable convictions to this specific concept, which makes it worthy enough of existence in my book. (The soundtrack ain't too bad either!)

Now, what does all of this have to do with Scar on the Praeter? Absolutely nothing beyond GoHands' involvement, but I doubt I was going to get any better opportunity to share this thought on W'z that I've had for some time, even if it's in the face of those who find it just as bad as Hand Shakers.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2514
PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:38 pm Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
Of all the GoHands properties out there, good and bad, I have only seen two - K and W'z - and I liked them both... while I don't blame those who suffered through Hand Shakers first- or second-hand...Now, what does all of this have to do with Scar on the Praeter? Absolutely nothing beyond GoHands' involvement, but I doubt I was going to get any better opportunity to share this thought on W'z that I've had for some time, even if it's in the face of those who find it just as bad as Hand Shakers.
As one who never saw K but did watch HandShakers, W'z and Praeter I find myself in the very small camp that liked HS, was a little upset with the character alterations in W'z and just couldn't sit through Praeter. I tend to make allowances for the visuals if the story is OK and HS wasn't bad. I never "suffer" but rather drop and I did that with W'z because I really wanted to see more of the original cast as originally characterized. Praeter was not my style of story and the "pseudo-edgy bishounen look" was not to my taste artistically. If you liked it and you aren't afraid or reluctant to say so, good for you! Anime needs more diversity in art and those who make their own judgements Wink
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thekingsdinner



Joined: 25 Sep 2010
Posts: 1069
Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2021 5:47 am Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
As one who never saw K but did watch HandShakers, W'z and Praeter I find myself in the very small camp that liked HS, was a little upset with the character alterations in W'z and just couldn't sit through Praeter. I tend to make allowances for the visuals if the story is OK and HS wasn't bad. I never "suffer" but rather drop and I did that with W'z because I really wanted to see more of the original cast as originally characterized. Praeter was not my style of story and the "pseudo-edgy bishounen look" was not to my taste artistically. If you liked it and you aren't afraid or reluctant to say so, good for you! Anime needs more diversity in art and those who make their own judgements Wink
I'm kind of between. I thought Hand Shakers was just okay, but by far not as bad as most people claim it to be. Same goes for W'z. Praeter though, with its pretty boys cast, is probably not my thing.

I have to admit, I kinda like Go-Hands' style. I can see why it's bad, absolutely, but it's also different. Whether that's a good thing is up to anyone to decide but I don't have a problem with it. I think most can agree though that K looks pretty damn solid.
What I do have a problem with though is the plagiarism the studio has been accused of. I have to wonder the outcome of the future of the studio now that whole mess has surfaced.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:49 am Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
I don't understand where they get the money to keep making them, do these sell well?

K, I suppose. That show sold like hot cakes, and as far as I'm aware it still has a fairly strong fan base. And every one of their other shows has a premise that screams THIS IS GOING TO MAKE SO MUCH MONEY via character merchandising if nothing else, so I suppose that helps with securing a budget.

For me GoHands is kind of like what Gonzo used to be (except Gonzo has made three shows I actually liked, that's more than the zero from GoHands so far). They're trying to be trailblazers for their own particular vision, and even though they keep failing they just get up and try and try again.
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Ashen Phoenix



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2909
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:51 pm Reply with quote
zawa113 wrote:
I still don't understand how Go Hands went from making the K series to Hand Shakers and W'z and the like

Same here. K was an entertaining, stylish show that only suffered a bit from style-over-substance. Overall I still enjoyed (and could follow) the story and cared about the characters.
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