Spring 2008 Impressions: Tails of pure, unadulterated fun
Posted by: Owen S in Anime, tags: First impressionsFun. There’s a lot to be said about the word, and the anime that defines it; fun so pure and simple that all you’re experiencing during the 24-odd minutes that make up the episode is one huge grin, with a couple of smirks and chuckles served up alongside several bite-sized laughs.
Watching these shows made me go “Now that was great” after it was all done, with strains of the ED still ringing in my ears. I think this is exactly what the Spring season needs, if only because we’ve got a bevy of thought-provoking, deep, riveting, intricate shows lined up, and we need something to skew the balance in favour of light-heartedness, fluff, and entertainment for entertainment’s sake.
Kanokon is one such puzzler; why are people ragging on it for having fanservice when it’s a… fanservice show? That’s like raging at a shoujo/yaoi anime for having bishounen, or a shounen anime for its fight scenes, or a VN adaptation for having bishoujos. It simply doesn’t make sense. Do these Neanderthals even know what they’re talking about? If detractors of this show are anything to go by, it can’t be all that much. Protip: This is not a serious anime, so stop treating it like it’s one.
the show’s so self-aware, even the screencaps serve as a foil to its detractors
I understand that the issue here is when fanservice is used in lieu of a story, but here’s the clincher — Kanokon doesn’t pretend to have a plot, it just keeps on throwing pandering after pandering at you by the truckful because it doesn’t have any. When it wasn’t being sneakily anachronistic in how it swapped around scenes with huge clues that it was doing so at the beginning, it had fanservice. And fanservice. And fanservice. Non-pretentious fanservice at that, a self-aware, self-conscious type of fanservice that didn’t try to pretend that it was taking itself seriously.
The worst thing a harem/comedy setup can do is pretend that it has a story of actual value before pulling the rug from under you with a thinly-disguised plot, weak characters, meandering storyline that doesn’t go anywhere, and a whole lot of nothing in general. Then look at the first episode of Kanokon: when the story wasn’t being told in medias res, it was busy throwing pantyshots, face-smothering hugs, boob gropes, and pseudo-sex scenes at you, while gladly displaying how that was all it had to deliver.
What previous shows in this vein have done wrong is the proverbial cockblock, the weak attempt at story and even weaker attempt at fanservice that ultimately ended up in it going nowhere, as indecisive and spineless as the male protagonists it championed. Kanokon avoids this by subverting clichés like the prolonged love confession, the denial of feelings (aka the haremette friend zone), the otherworldly revelation, the tiresome digression from the main plotline; all of them, tossed out the window in the first episode.
Considering the weighty material we’re dealing with this season, Kanokon doesn’t seem all that unappealing in terms of value when weighed against its peers. It’s going to be great to see more of that, uh, tail when I’m not fixing my jaw back into place after an episode of Kaiba, or dabbing at my eyes with a tissue after an episode of Kurenai — and I haven’t even gone through the other, equally-as-weighty titles yet.
Soul Eater was everything I expected it to be and a half.
no it’s not like I’m choosing these screencaps on purpose or anything
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, considering how my expectations are more often than not on the reasonable end of the spectrum. What I expected was Tim Burton shounen with snazzy fight scenes, detailed backgrounds, fluid animation, and a reasonably different visual style. What I got was all of that and more — Taku Iwasaki music, voices well-matched to their characters, a great partner dynamic, and an excellent balance between the sentimental and the visceral.
I’m looking forward to how they’re going to present the weapon/wielder partnership, for one; it’s great to see a series like this take a leaf from Touhou’s teams, even if it wasn’t intentional on the part of the author. What with three main pairs and only one introduced so far, I’m greatly anticipating the way in which they’re going to present it. Are we looking at the first shounen multiplot anime told from three different perspectives? Considering the weapon and wielder form a cohesive team as it is, there could be 51 episodes chopped up into three different plotlines for all we know, and I’d enjoy every minute of it.
Comparisons to The Nightmare Before Christmas in terms of aesthetic have been spot-on, although I’d prefer likening it to the Ragnarok Online’s Nifflheim for accuracy’s sake. The background art served as a foil to the overtly familiar character designs and otherwise generic setting; it gave the anime character and an individuality that shone, enabling me to fall for its about-face twist in the first episode hook, line, and sinker while getting me involved in what was happening on-screen.
Speaking of which, the first episode whet my appetite for more, and I’ve got the perfect balance that it drew to blame. One of shounen’s inherent weaknesses lie in how it’s got to tread the tightrope of story while balancing character development with that of its bread-and-butter action — overdoing the emotion results in melodrama, while overdoing the fist-fights results in apathy and a failure to identify with the protagonists in the long run. Soul Eater makes no such mistake, and the furious yo-yo style in which it went from fight scene to gag to emotional moment and back was great, especially for a first episode.
Japan might have been up in arms over Maka’s seiyuu being terrible, but I felt that it was terrible in a right way; her wooden, almost deadpan delivery suited her character to a T, and while it grated on the ears at some parts, the style seemed to fit quite well, even if it was a type of fit commonly associated with new shoes and cramped toes. Now that Clannad and Shana’s gone from my Fridays, it’s nice to have another show of equal calibre fill in the void that they left behind.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki reminds me of the bastard child that would result from Guu and Haruhi having a one-night stand in the way it does its free-form insanity thing.
ditto this one
It’s refreshing in the sense that it melds a) high production values with b) non-sequitur laden, almost stream-of-consciousness dialogue, but those who appreciate structure and some sort of coherent plot to follow will be sorely disappointed. KKN isn’t really a show I expect anyone to thoroughly enjoy, even if a 20 year-old character who looks loli but is an alien and talks a mile a minute while exhibiting Haruhi traits in nekomimi sort of breaks all existing records of combined fetishes in a single character.
This is the show that had a different ED for every station that aired it, though, and it’s amazing, if somewhat unorthodox, to see that some of that crazy spirit spilling over in the real world. More importantly, it’s been ages since I last saw an anime of such “WTF” magnitude (no, Dragonauts doesn’t count), and reliving that experience all over again is nothing short of priceless. This has the makings of a future-classic.
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April 17th, 2008 at 4:33 am
I’ll refrain from remarking on Soul Eater, since I haven’t seen the first episode yet but I might step in on behalf of the Neanderthals - incidentally, Kanokon is evidently built to stimulate the more Neanderthal parts of the brain, but that’s by-the-by.
[Yes, I realise it's probably bait, but I can't resist. Like a moth to a flame.]
Attacking a show for being what it intends to be (’It’s a fanservice show’) can make sense. If the Neanderthals are operating on an over-arching system of ethical judgement in which ‘fanservice’ must equal ‘bad’, then it’s perfectly coherent for them to criticise the show for aiming to be a fanservice show. An analogous statement would be criticising a man who rapes someone for being a rapist (’Kanokon doesn’t pretend to have a plot, it just keeps on throwing pandering after pandering at you’ vs. ‘Mr Jones doesn’t pretend to be a gentleman, he just throws himself on women in alleyways’). Of course it is generally agreed that rape is bad, while it’s not generally agreed that fanservice is bad. So really I’d suggest you’ve an ethical disagreement with the Neanderthals - unless you don’t think ethics should be brought into discussion about anime quality, in which case it’s a methodological one.
Leaving off from chewing that delicious bait, Kanokon is refreshingly honest about its purpose and as you point out it dispenses with the traditional speed-limiting devices of fanservice romance in favour of lots and lots and lots of tail.
Also, you’ve persuaded me to give Soul Eater a chance.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Hook, line, and sinker!
A lot of the fanservice debate has to do with how it’s presented contextually, i.e. authorial intent, which means that a lot of these naysayers commit the intentional fallacy on a regular basis. The blatant hypocrisy on the part of fans to accept TTGL’s fanservice but not, say, Kanokon’s, is due to how TTGL serves the fanservice for dessert, while Kanokon uses it as the main course. No one ever objected to TTGL on grounds of Yoko’s cleavage, so why is the same for any other anime valid? Double standards. I don’t think anyone ever found fanservice to be disagreeable per se, so the ethical argument is out.
Kanokon’s also an easy target to bash. DURR HURR, I SEE THE BOOBS AND THE PANTIES, <INSERT ANATOMY JOKE HERE>. It has to do with that “Stupid judgements of season previews” syndrome endemic to anime bloggers of the not-so-discerning variety, and I’ll be damned if I let this opportunity slip past me.
I would have written a more convincing paragraph about KKN, but I was so utterly mindfucked by its review-unfriendly nature so much that anything else I wrote would be a babbling mess of… stuff. You also had to be familiar with Guu in some capacity to get the opening sentence.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:15 am
well, can´t say much more than I already have said over at Sasa´s blog.
In the case of Kanokon I´m sitting there with a big smile all over my face since it´s fun and games to watch. Then when watching To Love Ru, well it started to feel like a whole different kind of fanservice, but when watching the second ep of To Love Ru it´s the same kind of fun and jokes as in the first Kanokon EP.
Now all I need is to block out Kouta I think his name was in Kanokon and the show is a must watch.
At the same time, focusing on fanservice and only providing fanservice is no fun to watch. Not when it comes down to the usual Melon pan VS DFC… some medium would be excellent to mix in. But that´s just me.
How it is displayed is for me very important. That´s why I´ve been bashing the first ep of To Love Ru and loving the second one. Might be delusional thoughts from my side. But oh well, atleast it gives everyone something to write about.
How did you like Maid Guy no Kamen by the way? If you haven´t watched it yet I do recomend that you do. The tail isn´t present but oh my god it´s hilarius.
Good points though.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:18 am
I think IKnight hit the nail on the head with the ‘honesty’ of a fan service show’s intentions - I was able to see past the fluffy ecchi side of Mahoromatic because it was so open in its declaration of “This series contains 101% of your RDA of gratuitous boob shots.” That openness somehow made it easier to see past that aspect and appreciate the substance of the story. Needless to say Kanokon doesn’t interest me in the slightest but I’m not exactly in a hurry to bash it either.
As for Soul Eater, it was on my tentative ‘to watch’ list to begin with but…Tawu Iwasaki? Why didn’t you say so sooner?! It’s right up to the top of that list now, beneath Macross F as and when someone releases ep #2 in .avi.
Fun is important though - as much as I’ve loved Ghost Hound from the get-go, not even an accompaniment of alcoholic beverages can make its highbrow and obtuse storytelling easier to digest. I recommend Chi’s Sweet Home in that case, because its ‘non-story’ makes it a welcome change of pace.
EDIT: I’ve read arond a bit in regards to Kurenai, and I’m intrigued. It certainly sounds different, and ‘different’ is good.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:25 am
I just look at KKN for the potential for mindless fun. As I’ve said in IRC, it’s also the only show so far this season that’s “clicked” with me. Though I’m still not sure about how that worked. :P
Could some people be looking at Kanokon and thinking, “This is what people could you use to say that anime is bad/”childish”/of little value”? Could others be wondering about what it means to them if they accept it? How much does society play a role about the decision to lambaste Kanokon in the first place. If you want to expound on it more, make more of a post on it. :P
And Soul Eater is quirky fun. :3
Cause I had to say it first in IRC. :P
April 17th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Soul Eater is my favourite second to Code Geass for this season and Kanokon … can’t say much about that. But Kyouran Kazoku Nikki did give me a laugh, although I didn’t understand where some of its humour was coming from >_>
April 17th, 2008 at 5:50 am
As far as I can tell in the manga, this does not come to fruition, but that is probably a good thing. Soul Eater uses the usual shounen elements, with a good dose of humor, and the stylish animation has complimented the manga source material nicely so far.
What I do like about Soul Eater is the partner aspect. while many “teams” in shounen shows actually display very little teamwork (usually it devolves into splitting up so that every hero can beat up a villain), the partners in Soul Eater actually do work together. In that way, it is very similar to Shaman King, but with way better production values.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Kanokon avoids this by subverting clichés like the prolonged love confession, the denial of feelings (aka the haremette friend zone), the otherworldly revelation, the tiresome digression from the main plotline…
I’d like to counter this by citing the tsundere-type class rep (the one with the glasses) as one who represents at least one of these cliches, harboring what might be feelings for Kouta. And it seems that like while Kanokon doesn’t hide a lot of information from the viewer, I’m tempted to say that it’s going to go for more of a dramatic irony spin to things, where the audience knows a lot but Kouta is sort of dense (considering the other secondary male who is probably a fox too, or going back to the class rep, etc.), but I’m falling into at least one trap by trying to make sense of Kanokon. I need to submit to the ‘kon kon, nyan nyan’ already.
My argument and one I’ve seen against fanservice shows is that it’s not so much that Breasts (Among Others) Are Bad but more of that the resources that went into animating this show might have been better used elsewhere. Assuming that a limited amount of anime can be used each season, a fanservice show feels like a waste of a slot (although, as you said, not as much as a watered-down confused ecchi comedy) compared to other possibilities. Naturally, this has a few holes (said assumption that resources are limited, and assuming that more mind-intensive shows are superior) but it’s my belief.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Can I say that I’ve blissfully ignored Kanokon entirely without being called a Neanderthal? There were things that were just that much higher on my priority list.
That said, Soul Eater and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki are probably two of my favorite shows this season. Soul Eater is the first shounen series to get me excited since Busou Renkin, and Kyouran is as you described it, the unholy union of Haruhi and Guu. It’s been too long since we had a good shounen show and a good pure crack comedy.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Exactly! The entire place had that Nifflheim feel to it, even the bloody moon reminded me of the moon lolis. Soul Eater was actually very different from what I had expected it, but nevertheless, it looks like one of the most promising series to me this season.
And is it just me or does Soul look a lot like Phoenix Wright in Ace Attorney 4? The hat and posture especially.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
CCY:
Objection! I see her as more of a necessity than anything, considering without her there wouldn’t be a character by which to drive conflict. Assuming we removed her from the first two episodes, this might as well be harem/slice-of-life rather than comedy/harem, and it would attract the wrong audience for all the wrong reasons. But I get where you’re coming from with that.
Neither do I buy that “limited resources” thing, although I’d have to attribute that to my seemingly limitless capacity of picking up shows to watch every season, and nothing else; that and how if I didn’t have anything to unwind with every season I’d go crazy.
manga:
Haven’t watched that, don’t really plan to. Maybe it’s the maid guy, and the “lol homo lol” jokes that kind of tire me, which is why I’m not watching Zettai Karen Children either.
Martin: Yeah, I had no idea either till N told me about it on IRC. Is there any reason why you’re holding out for episode 2 or something? You’ll have to wait till Friday, then, if you’re up for the Uncut version (which really just has more fanservice in it). If you’re grabbing Rumbel’s .avi, don’t forget to get the v2 — the first version had desynced audio, apparently.
N: You said it reminded you of The Blue monday e”r”ectrical parade, but I felt it matched どうだ! 俺のトランペットは凄いだろ!! a lot more in terms of that whining sound effect thing. You’re right about developing that tangent into another post, but we’ll see how that goes. :P
April 18th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Oh come now. Maid Guy is a fanservice show, and the maid aspect is mostly excercises in absurdity. It’s also actually funny at times, and there’s no “lol homo lol” jokes at all. As for Zettai Karen Children… Muscle Okama was in ONE EPISODE, was a parody of the japanese TV personality Hard Gay (who if you can’t laugh at his antics I don’t think you can really deserve to claim to have a sense of humor), and jokes of that kind aren’t the focus of the series, which is more a pastiche of magical girl shows with its own heart.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:03 am
@Owen: it’s the second ep of Macross F I’m holding out for - my laptop’s getting on a bit so the .mkvs sometimes have a slight (but infuriating) delay between the video and audio tracks; .avi never presents me with this problem, but unfortunately means that half the torrent files are unplayable on my machine.
My interest in Soul Eater is snowballing though, especially the Tim Burton thing. I love his style despite emo teens drooling over Johnny Depp and the gothic-lite aesthetics in recent years.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:44 am
[...] S made this point as part of the comments of his Spring 2008 Impression posts: A lot of the fanservice debate has to [...]
April 18th, 2008 at 4:41 am
I feel bound to say that that’s not the intentional fallacy as I understand it. The intentional fallacy is a matter for literary analysis only, not actual qualitative evaluation. It’s fine to talk about the author’s intentions when you’re discussing how good something is, or how moral. It’s a bad idea when it comes to what the something actually means.
Anyway, A. D. Nuttall has suggested the existence of an ‘intentional fallacy fallacy’, which throws everything up in the air again in any case.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:48 am
I think this fanservice “debacle” also lies in the unconscious tolerance limit that viewers have. To some people, it’s still brainless, mindless fun and should be enjoyed as it is. For others, Kanokon has crossed that thin and blurry line, urging the viewers to mentally puke and move on, but not w/o pulling the “lol fanservice shit sux lol” card and go back to more “sophisticated” series.
I was able to watch Ikkitousen, I kinda tolerated Goshuusho-sama Ninomiya-kun and enjoyed Umisho. I watch them, being well aware that they are not Umberto Eco’s level in term of plot.
Right now, I enjoy a good deal of To Love Ru and Maid Guy.
I am not too sure what have not worked in Kanokon with me. Maybe it’s Chizuru’s antics (I should not be bothered by her, I like big-breasted girls and those who are a bit more “agressive”), maybe it’s Kouta (Mamiko should stop voicing boys :/ ), the way the whole package is presented, or a combination of factors that failed to push the right buttons in me.
I just can’t put my finger on where Kanokon failed me, whereas To Love Ru and Maid Guy succeded.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
So in other words: Japan likes to create garbage that can be readily thrown away.
I mean; here I am, believing that Japan (with its overpopulation and its machine ala “The Matrix” which makes sure that every “maggot” is squared away and turned into “ministers of death, praise the lord;” despite the failures it ends up creating, mind you) was the most environmentally conscious country on the planet. Recycling and “garbage-separating” would’ve been on the top of the charts for these people, last I checked.
And here you are; stating that we shouldn’t make a big deal about the garbage Japan’s anime industry creates.
FYI: #1. Region 1 licensing is between 20% - 60% of Japan’s anime. So when I buy an otherwise good title, the money finds its way back to said anime company, they use that money to create garbage; that garbage title gets licensed and sold to Region 1, it flops. Ask Haruhi. Ask her after you come from out of that coma after she slammed the back of your head onto her desk. Be sure that she’s still consious after you finished beating the crap out of her for what she did to your head.
#2: They waste the money and time on creating garbage anime like Kanokon. They should utilize that time and money in creating adult anime, letting R1 companies buying it uncensored, and policing those who want to reverse-import or download said title (or basically giving said adult anime title crappier art than the censored version, ala Shin Bible Black 3).
Ask me why I make such a big deal about it. I LOST MONEY BEING AN ANIME FAN. I saw Hideaki Anno’s white sticky stuff in his hand, via the Evangelion movies back in 1999-2000, and threw most of the anime I collected right into the garbage can. We’re not suppose to be the slaves to these garbage creators; THEY WORK FOR US.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:22 am
…..what?
April 20th, 2008 at 12:56 am
DeathToZippermouth: Meh, we’ll see. Maid Guy doesn’t appeal to me for a lot of reasons, and I guess I can be picky when it comes to fanservice, but yeah. I’ll check it out eventually or something.
Martin: It could be that your laptop’s got problems with processing h264 stuff — I’ll send you a PM on the forums.
IKnight: Noted, will elaborate later.
Tyrenol: Okay, so… Japan’s anime industry has this huge pool of money in which all the anime studios, porn or not porn, all scoop from when it’s time to make a new one, right? You’re saying that regardless of which anime is licensed for R1, the proceeds eventually find their way to an unrelated studio that has nothing to do with it and never produced it, right? Or that fanservice anime don’t sell well in Japan, right?
You can’t be saying that, can you? Of course you can’t. It doesn’t follow.
April 20th, 2008 at 4:27 am
That’s just Tyrenol turning on the hate machine and letting it go without control. He’s like Anonymous. With a name.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Owen S: No. I’m saying that Japan had spoke for their collective self when it comes to anime, especially fanservicy animu. They complained about shows like Kodomo no Jigan, Higurashi, and School Days when pedophilic rape and murder occured respectively. But they were unable to stop the shows from continuing on.
The Japanese anime industry had spoken for the otaku. They need to do something for everyone else. (And they need to make it official, not have to speak through these R1 companies.)
Sheba: I could say the opposite about people like you, allowing the anime industry outside of Japan to license what they think you want.
THESE PEOPLE WORK FOR US. Did you not learn anything from from economics about “voting with your wallet?” Were you simply not there for the class? Or are you happier just to download all this wonderful “animu” whilst you help worsen their works and turn them into the mindless (viral marketing) garbage that they are now?
A hate machine, huh? I’m more of a love machine. I love good works that are done well. I don’t really see that anymore.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:02 am
I see the thing differently. They work to get food on the table and pay their monthly rents. If they get money because otaku like their fanservice shows, more power to them.
Your poor attempt at an attack would have worked if I took economy classes or cared for it. As a person who cared more for literature, like the works of Guy de Maupassant or H.P Lovecraft or old epics like Gilgamesh, learning about the inner working of Wall Street or a business was NOT in my list of interests.
Look. I have a brain, something you seem to assume I don’t have. If something in an anime tell me I am not going to like or enjoy it, I stop and move on to something that is more to my liking.
You are a hate machine. You rant, rant and rant more.
Stuck in the 1990s, aren’t you? Where were you when anime like Chevalier D’Eon, Minami-ke or Gurenn Lagann were released and subbed?
April 24th, 2008 at 1:29 am
If I did more than rant, I would’ve ended up in jail on charges of assault and battery. But it’s a known fact that violence is never the answer. So pardon me.
There was a lot less evil and a lot more obligation in the 1990s. More people were using their imagination and having a bit more fun, last I checked. That all ended when Beavis & Butthead blew Kurt Cobain’s brains out.
Also, no. THEY DO WORK FOR US.
If you paid attention to the news here and there, there are people within the anime industry… Animators, voice actors, et al… Who are complaining that they’re not making as much money as they should. Not even enough money to cover their own expensives. Living in a country where “high cost of living” can be translated to “高い生活費.”
Not that I have anything against “doing whatever you can to make money,” that won’t work in the US. Anime being a niche market here. The US being in a recession. Thank you very much.
Finally, “Glass Fleet” is WAY better than “Chevalier D’Eon.” “Minami-ke?” Please separate your garbage and place all recyclables in designated areas. And “Gurren Lagann?” Oh how long are you and whoever else going to suck on Gainax’s dirty member? Oh How Long?
May 14th, 2008 at 1:32 am
*sigh* Again one of those “Back in the *insert decade here*, it was much better because of this and that. ” tirade. Can people stop moaning over it?
Your opinion. Opinion =/= fact.
And why Minami-ke is garbage? Last time I checked, there were more positive reviews of this than negative ones, even from Anonymous. You are trolling bad. Very badly!
I’ve brought it because I cant think of one comedy anime in the two previous decade making me laugh as hard as Minami-ke did. Ranma 1/2? Viewed it ten years later, its magic has worn out for me. High School Kimengumi? Got kinda old, the humor that is. Excel Saga? Well it started in 1999, so I can give it credit for not getting old to me and still giving me hard laughs.
I am actually one of those who HATED Gainax to the core since Evangelion. But this hate did not stop me from seeing Gurrenn Lagann’s qualities in narrative and technical fields. It may be not the second coming, it may not be as “sophisticated” as Geass (as some fans has put it), it did not stop it from being both good, enjoyable and yet offering food for thought to those who bother going below the tip of the iceberg.
PS: I am fcking done arguing with you, because it’s pretty clear from many of your replies in various blogs that you are an ignorant troll, on par with the worst of /a/. You cannot even get your point across without going your way attacking people and spitting more vitriol. You are worse than the resident Sunrise Warrior (no need to name him), at least, you can hope to have a civil conversation with him even if you dont agree with him.
PPS: I can name more anime from the 2000s that can hold a comparison with most of the 1980s-1990s classics, two of them being Baccano and Monster. As for shonen or/and comedy, Yakitate Japan is up here. Science Fiction? Noein. Shoujo/comedy? Ouran Highschool Host Club. You seem to be making anime of 2000s worse than those of the previous twenty years, but it is not true.