Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Does Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer Overcome Its Animation Shortcomings?
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MFrontier
Posts: 11311 |
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This is definitely one series where the overall writing and character work is carrying it hard because the actual production values sure as heck aren't.
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TheSleepyMonkey
Posts: 898 |
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Honestly, even if the animation wasn't that awful, I would have probbaly still dropped this one early because I found both of the main leads' motivations to be pretty stupid.
"I am gonna prevent the world from being destroyed so that I can make it mine.... by destroying it." The fudge? And then the MC himself is just being edgy with letting that happen just because one person mistreated him. |
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myskaros
 Posts: 599 Location: J-Novel Club |
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That's too bad! This is one of those series where the wacky motivations are meant to be a hook so that you are interested in finding out what's really going on, and what's said out loud is not at all what they actually feel. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1503 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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On the one hand, I can understand wanting the adaptation of a manga you love to have the best production possible, or even one that looks good enough to get the job done. But on the other, part of me can't help but view the Biscuit Hammer anime as the ultimate litmus test for adaptational quality: do you really love the story itself, or do you only care about how the show looks when telling it? Judging from this article, I'd say it's a split decision. NAZ was not the studio that needed or deserved to adapt Biscuit Hammer to an anime format, but damn if the show's positives don't shine through in spite of that eyesore of a crutch.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2553 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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While I'm not watching Biscuit Hammer, I do agree with the concept being asked here, and it's why I, personally, am willing to forgive lackluster (maybe even "bad", to a degree) animation if the story, characters, music, & voice acting (i.e. "pretty much everything else") rise above the animation itself. While I certainly do understand why people usually put the animation itself as the most important aspect (a.k.a. "Duh, it's anime, the Japanese word for 'animation', so why shouldn't the animation be well done?"), I've come to appreciate anime more for its ability, penchant, & reliability to tell stories that wouldn't get in this medium from other countries, though that has admittedly changed to some extent over the past couple decades. Some of my favorite anime include the likes of Eat-Man (both shows, but in this circumstance I'm talking about the 1997 series), The Violinist of Hameln, Hareluya II BØY, & Ring ni Kakero 1, and all of those shows aren't exactly known for their amazing animation (the last two seasons of RnK1 do break that trend, to some extent, though), with both Eat-Man & Hameln even being literal slideshows at points; Hameln is even jokingly called "The Slideshow of Hameln" for its often lack of any actual animation. One can only hope that Lucifer & Biscuit Hammer's anime can wind up being a series that finds a fanbase based on its strengths, rather than become a laughingstock because of its animation. |
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Joker#941490
Posts: 264 |
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NAZ didn't work on any episodes so far and it's mostly jumondo so far which is a similar case with Seven deadly sins' third and fourth season (DEEN to Marvy Jack) since the schedule given to them was tight by the production commitee so it isn't the staff of Bisco, Angolmois or ID Invaded whose doing it anyways. also adaptation-wise it isn't that bad since it's adapting the source material decently so far and it have the author's involvement as supervising the script. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1395 |
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No offense, but that's a totally bunk dichotomy. Anime and manga are visual mediums, and they use those visuals to convey themselves just as much (often more) than their text. And it's entirely possible for a show (and this show in particular) to look bad enough that it actively effects how the viewer connects to it. There are several moments where the clunky art, nonexistent animation, or just plain awful editing undercut important emotional moments or fail to convey the characters' inner thoughts that should be evident through their expression. There are fights that are meant to be dramatic and tense that hold no weight because the movement is comically poor. How a show looks isn't a bonus or luxury that can be dismissed if it's not impressive enough - it's a key part of a visual medium's storytelling and can absolutely be flawed enough to negatively impact a person's enjoyment or understanding of the story. |
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SkerllyFC07
Posts: 108 |
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Not to rain on your parade, but I don´t think I want to read the manga that inspired this to begin with. Why?
1- Sure, these character designs look boring as heck in anime form, but it´s not like in the manga they look any better. Mizukami´s style looks so bland, it might as well be part of a How To Draw Anime book from the early 2000s. Or rather, it´s a style that feels just like a beginner trying too hard to imitate anime designs. Shonen character designs live and die by being complex, flashy, imaginative, outside the box. Yet these characters look like they belong into a generic slice-of-life series rather than a shonen one. 2- What´s the supposed ´´innovation´´ this series was supposed to bring to the shonen action genre? Because while it might be cool to make a series that compresses every possible story arc from something like Dragon Ball and Naruto into less than 70 chapters, it doesn´t look like the series has a way to keep things fresh. I´ve been told that almost every chapter, these characters have to fight the same rock golems for almost the entire series, with little variation of designs. Also, almost every character shares the same theme of ´´wanting to be an adult vs living with your childhood´´ but there seems to be little depth to exploring these concepts at all, at least based of this column. It´s fitting that this adaptation looks and is as bad as it does, because I wouldn´t like to see another Demon Slayer or SAO case of a series that looks awesome, but hides a very bland and by-the-numbers story that will be forgotten |
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Takkun4343
Posts: 1503 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Way to remind me of the parts of my quote you apparently ignored in favor of the question I subtly acknowledged was faulty in the text and outright admitted wasn't always a case where the answers composed a binary. 
Honestly, I'm the kind of anime watcher who, while appreciating good animation and getting pumped at it, no longer views it as the be-all end-all of quality. If one thing, no matter how important, is horrendous, I find merits elsewhere within the overall product. And sometimes, with time, the horrendous aspect becomes something easily ignorable within the show, almost charming in a strange way that makes you feel just a little dirty. That's how I approached Biscuit Hammer when the quality of its animation was first unveiled. It's not the first time I've applied this method, and I doubt it'll be the last. |
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yeehaw
 Posts: 423 |
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How hard is it to look up pictures of horses? I know they’re hard to draw but just making the mouth the right size and the legs bend correctly is not that hard
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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When somebody says "on the one hand, X, but on the other hand, Y," and the content of Y is significantly longer and full of bolding and italics, the meaning is interpreted as "well, I know some people think X, but I think Y is clearly correct." Even disregarding that, it's likely to bother people when Y heavily implies that people on the side of X are not true fans, or not very cultured generally. Which, whether you intended it or not, it definitely does in this case. My impression of this show, only from the first episode, wasn't so much that it looked cheaply animated, but that it seemed very dated overall--like it was actually produced 20+ years ago, and they just forgot to broadcast it until now. Since the manga is nearly that old, I guess it sort of makes sense. I'll check back in when/if they do Spirit Circle, as long as it's made by some other studio... |
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 513 Location: Poland |
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EDIT: Funny fact, seems like Yuuji was aged up for anime from like 18 to 20, probably to make sure his alcohol drinking scene didn't broke some Japan laws. Which makes his age gap with Sumidare wider, but underage drinking is more morally dubious in Japan.
Wouldn't the fanbase just read the manga and treat the anime at best as "well, that happened, I guess?" Manga already was somewhat popular, and even if someone new to it will grab it after watching anime adaptation, they'll probably notice that it's much better in the source format. If I have to watch bad powerpoint presentation, I'd rather look at manga where I can have diverse and interesting stories, and also clever paneling and other manga tricks I wouldn't have in anime-but-without-animation. Some scenes, especially in the first few episodes, were just painful to watch. I started to reread the manga after them, and not only was it better looking, it was also better paced. Frankly, I disagree with decision to remove the pervert moments in many cases, especially since they were partially half-left in - like with the walk-in on the Sumidare's sister in her home which, after removing choosing wrong door on purpose, left her just looking unreasonable for being pissed - but because without that mean humor streak Yuuhi started as just bland and boring nihilist. Speed-running his grandma's episode, already not the best material in the manga, didn't help either. Speaking of which, why did they remove scene where Sumidare is shown destroying the grandpa's town while assuring Yuuhi? It was the same amount of time for her speech, just without cool imagery.
It's obvious - bad adaptation is like reading bad scanlation of manga, with some sentences clearly MTL-ed and poor scan quality making it hard to see graphic details like face expressions. If I love the story, why should I suffer through badly animated art if I have the same story, or often better because it doesn't have to fit into 12 or 13 twenty-minute episodes, in original form? And, like lossthief mentioned, bad animation can destroy emotional impact of a scene. |
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Takkun4343
Posts: 1503 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Yeah, it did come off that way, didn't it? My intention was to present it in more of a "I believe Y but understand where those who believe X are coming from and respect their opinions" sort of way, but because I had more to say about Y, being what I naturally believe since I'm the one who holds that opinion, that took center stage. I never meant to belittle those who believe X or imply that Y is the right opinion to have, but I sincerely apologize to anyone who thinks I did come off that way. Also, my use of italics is meant to emphasize certain words, and I bold the title of any show I talk about 99% of the time, so I'd have still employed those even if I was part of the "Biscuit Hammer's animation sucks, therefore the adaptation sucks" party. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23795 |
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I'm enjoying the show thoroughly. I also must be some kind of visual Philistine because these apparently glaring animation lapses that are the talk of the town basically blow right by me. By the way, if I was a Beast Knight, I'd want my animal to be a Komodo Dragon because I've always thought them things wuz cool.
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2460 |
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^ Yeah I've come to terms with me just not caring about animation as much as any other person too. Though this case in particular I have to admit my perspective comes from knowing this material beforehand, and I'm the type who likes recap movies (just watched one recently) that just kind of go through the best/memorable moments of the series. In a way, I guess that's kind of what I get out of a flawed adaptation of something I've read before, like Index 3 even. I feel like the DiCaprio meme, but it is what it is
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