(CR) Arata Kangatari

[Irenesharda]

Uggghhhh....

Honestly, what can I really say about this. We knew this ending was going to be rushed. We knew this was going to be anime original, but oh well, it was good, but like this anime...just wasted potential, and almost doomed from the start.

First off, the positive: While the fight was just okay, I thought that Hinohara finally making up his mind and doing that last attack, as well as Yorunami's submission was good. In fact, I'll give this episode this, Yorunami's submission and the reason he did so was actually better than what really happened in the manga. However, after that, that's all the points I can give you.

Now to the negative: Wow, did I roll my eyes a lot in this episode. Beyond the cliche lines, the boring dialogue, Kadowaki whining every other minute, Arata whining every other minute, Kotoha being an annoying weak female, this episode was still pretty lackluster. It was better than most other episodes of the series, but that's not saying much. They leave a lot of threads open, even though we know this series will not be getting a sequel. However, they changed quite a few things from the manga (Tsukuyo's powers, Yorunami's submission, the entire fabricated fight, missing characters, etc.) that many who want to find the answers will be baffled by the changes this series decided to make.

Also, I was willing to give this episode a pass and say it was pretty good in terms of most of the episodes of this series. But then--it went and showed the credit clips.

They decide to show us a lot of future plot points with the other Shinsho, the ones whose stories would have been awesome to see, but noooo...this series was only one cour and therefore shot itself in the foot before it even started. You show all these hooks for a sequel series, when both you and I know they will never get one!

Now, anyone who wants to know what all those scenes were about will have to read the manga. I guess they might as well just point the audience to the much better source material, since obviously they really couldn't do it justice.

Okay, I'm going to wrap this up by saying that this show did what it could, but it was really dead on arrival through no fault of its own. I however am thankful for it introducing me to Arata Kangatari and I will continue to read the manga until it ends. I suggest any who were intrigued by this anime to do the same and read the original source material. It's 10x better and you will probably get the answer to a lot of the questions you're asking.

This episode was a 7.45/10 and I give the series overall a 5/10.

[kk2extreme]

It really doesn't feel like an ending at all. I am quite sure that they are waiting for a budget to do a sequel...

[Kakkou]

You'd think they'd muster up some budget to make the finale look sightly nicer at the very least but nope, everything still looked bad. That's just the production values too, the writing is plain goddamn awful. It also achieved the difficult task of having Nobuhiko Okamoto and Ryohei Kimura as leads along with a nice supporting cast and still make me unable to enjoy their performances.

So yeah, terrible, terrible show. It had signs of being able to at least be decent but that gradually vanished as the episodes progressed. The only actual good thing about it were the OP/EDs, especially the second ED, which is great. I love the song.

I rarely ever say this even towards shows I dislike but this one deserved to bomb like it did.

[black_star]

Originally Posted by Ushio the Omega

So volume 1 sales neither DVD or blurays ranked.

Blurays less than 211 copies and DVD less than 429 copies, ouch.

This is a late night anime right? cause if so it's dead.

Well, looking for the numbers, it won't make another Fractale, right? Damn, I'm itchin' to see the second season! If not, I'd just stick with reading the manga.

BTW, is the manga even popular in Japan? If not, the hope for the second season will be less than 50 percent.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by black_star

BTW, is the manga even popular in Japan?

It's apparently Shounen Sunday, and as a big fan of Conan and Hayate I'd never heard of it, so... guessing probably not.

[Kanon]

This was a very boring series, but I liked the setting. 5/10. I'm kind of interested in the manga, but I'm afraid it will just be a waste of time to pick that one up. Is it radically different from the anime?

Originally Posted by black_star

BTW, is the manga even popular in Japan? If not, the hope for the second season will be less than 50 percent.

Not popular at all. Sales are very low. I'm surprised this even got an adaptation. Maybe they hoped to boost the manga sales, but it apparently hasn't worked.

[Bern-san]

I noticed that there were a lot of Koreans in the staff. I know some studios rely from koreans to help with animation but I hadn't seen so many as the main ones in an anime.

Originally Posted by Kanon

This was a very boring series, but I liked the setting. 5/10. I'm kind of interested in the manga, but I'm afraid it will just be a waste of time to pick that one up. Is it radically different from the anime?

Yes, the anime made a lot of changes. I'm not saying the source material is the best thing ever, because it's full of cliches but it's entertaining to read.
The first 6 volumes, which are the ones the anime covered, are considered the weakest ones but after Yorunami the next enemies are a bit more interesting although the anime skipped a lot of stuff. Also:

Spoiler for space:

- Hinohara is more likable and has a lot of sense of humor in the manga (even serious arc had their share of humor so I didn't enjoy the whole angst-y atmosphere of the anime)
- Kadowaki is still annoying and obsessed with Hinohara but not at the insane levels of the anime. In the manga, his meeting with Akachi led him to mature a bit although that happened in the prelude of Akachi arc and not before Yorunami arc.
- Fanservice (for both demographics, like naked Kotoha in her debut in ch.1 and there's 2 more females who join Hinohara) and Watase's art
- A character who appears in Gatoya and makes constant appearances to help Hinohara wasn't in the anime.
- Arata subplot was crammed into 2 scenes during the anime with the absence of an important female character I'm totally biased towards her
- The circumstances which led Kadowaki to go to Amawakuni were different too since we didn't see much of his interactions with Arata, the female character or Suguru
- Tsukuyo's power is used differently or at least the anime made some weird things with Tsukuyo
- Important facts about the Shinshou and Hime-ou weren't said
- Hiruko's character is totally different from the manga and the last episode was mostly anime-original

[Kismet-chan]

I can't explain what got me into this series. It's very, very generic. However, if you're looking for something with action that you can kind of turn your brain off to... It's not the worst thing ever. It's just... It's actually kind of entertaining despite its heavy stereotypes. Or maybe it's entertaining because of its stereotypes? I don't even know... Some of the designs are interesting to watch while animated, too.

However, I think I mainly stuck with it until the end because Kotoha is cute and the OP is my absolute most favorite song of the season. XD

Here's to hoping they adapt the rest of the manga. (And up the production value a little, too. I mean, really now...)

[Kirarakim]

I can't say I disliked this series as some people here, in fact I enjoyed it more than I expected. I wasn't expecting much of anything so while this is not going to go on my best series list I wasn't disappointed. Things were rushed and I don't think the series did justice to its material, I did like the themes presented in the story and the growth of the main character. I also grew to like Kannagi a lot.

The two characters I was most disappointed in were Kadowaki who came off more as a caricature at times. And Kotoha. There is nothing wrong with Kotoha but her only purpose seems to be support the main character and I find this a bit disappointing. She lacks depth for being what came off as the secondary main character.

Oh well I'd give this series a solid 7. Not the best but I don't regret my time.

Don't think I enjoyed it enough to start a long running manga series though.

[zztop]

Re. events in the manga and the 6 evil Shinsho:

Spoiler for The 6 Shinsho in the manga:

I don't really understand why these Shinshou are so determined to conquer Amawakuni initially and put it through a reign of terror.

Sure (most) of them have some kind of tragic/suffering backstory on Earth, but I don't understand why they had to take it out on Amawakuni's people. I mean, if they were able to rise through the ranks to become Shinsho, gain new supernatural powers and become the supreme lords of their own feudal domains commanding the awe of their people, why not just settle down peacefully and try rebuild? It's not like anyone from Earth's going to come after them and expose them in front of everybody.

Unless the Princess(or previous Princesses) were tyrants/zealots/incompetents, I see no reason why they couldn't just leave behind their old lives on Earth and start anew, like Ledo did in Gargantia's finale.

Besides, you'd think a peaceful, somewhat stable life there would've negated the need to hold onto a grudge for several hundred years. It would've seen so insignificant by then.

[Master_Yoma]

Well they pulled it together at the end but it wasnt enough to safe this Its right after they got out of the prison when this went to hell


5/10 this should of been at less 100+eps to make this great

[black_star]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Not popular at all. Sales are very low. I'm surprised this even got an adaptation. Maybe they hoped to boost the manga sales, but it apparently hasn't worked.

Really? I've just checked ANN and the latest manga volume had got a decent amount of buys.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...ng-march-17-23
Untfortunately though, after the anime broadcast, the older manga volumes doesn't make it through the oricon chart (unlike attack on titan, which has got quite lot of buys while the anime airs)

[Kanon]

26,268 is what I call low for manga (not terrible... but still low). It didn't rank the week after meaning it sold even less. I doubt the total sales reached 50k. Magi, from the same magazine, sells ten times that amount.

[Irenesharda]

Originally Posted by zztop

Re. events in the manga and the 6 evil Shinsho:

Spoiler for The 6 Shinsho in the manga:

I don't really understand why these Shinshou are so determined to conquer Amawakuni initially and put it through a reign of terror.

Sure (most) of them have some kind of tragic/suffering backstory on Earth, but I don't understand why they had to take it out on Amawakuni's people. I mean, if they were able to rise through the ranks to become Shinsho, gain new supernatural powers and become the supreme lords of their own feudal domains commanding the awe of their people, why not just settle down peacefully and try rebuild? It's not like anyone from Earth's going to come after them and expose them in front of everybody.

Unless the Princess(or previous Princesses) were tyrants/zealots/incompetents, I see no reason why they couldn't just leave behind their old lives on Earth and start anew, like Ledo did in Gargantia's finale.

Besides, you'd think a peaceful, somewhat stable life there would've negated the need to hold onto a grudge for several hundred years. It would've seen so insignificant by then.

Well...

Spoiler for Manga and 6 Sho material:

From what I can understand, when you become a shinsho, it's sort of an automatic appointment, no "rising through the ranks" or "commanding the awe of your people" necessary. If one of the 12 strongest hayagami (sans Tsukuyo or Orochi) picks you as its Sho, then you are automatically a Shinsho, with all the responsibilities and perks that come with it. If you've gotten this far in the manga, then you know that Amawakani is not always a nice place. It's got a pretty dark side, including it's law and punishment procedures and the absolute power the Shinsho have over their people. I can see why this world that is so different and yet similar to Earth, would do next to nothing to help heal the 6 Shos' hearts.

All of them have suffered tremendously on Earth and this suffering has shaped who they are, living in Amawakani and being practically immortal hasn't changed that. And the more power you have, if already corrupt and hardened, will just make you worse. If you have lived through suffering, it can make you despair and then hate. For some that hatred will become a desire to teach the world a "lesson", to suffer as you have suffered. For others it will become the want for no one else to go through what you went though, and for either of these reasons you want to take over rulership of the world.

You ask why they just didn't settle down? Well, it's hard to settle down in a place that you always feel you don't belong with not a person you can relate to, EXCEPT others who have the same hurt and pain and hatred as you and all of you happen to come from the same world if different times. So you all hang together, and have been hanging together for many years, but no healing has been able to happen, and instead the hatred just grew and the 6 began to make plans.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Kanon

26,268 is what I call low for manga (not terrible... but still low). It didn't rank the week after meaning it sold even less. I doubt the total sales reached 50k. Magi, from the same magazine, sells ten times that amount.

Hayate, also from the same magazine, also sells about 10x that amount. And Detective Conan, the best selling from that magazine, sells about 650k-800k copies per volume.

[black_star]

Originally Posted by GDB

Hayate, also from the same magazine, also sells about 10x that amount. And Detective Conan, the best selling from that magazine, sells about 650k-800k copies per volume.

Yeah. Well, it's still a surprise that Arata became an anime, considering the sales. 'Cause after watching quite a lot of Bakuman., the series that became an anime is the one that is getting quite a hype and good ratings at the magazine, right?