(L) Medaka Box [1st & 2nd anime seasons]

[zeando]

Originally Posted by Midonin

I keep hearing a lot about how it gets better later on, but I like it plenty in these initial stages.

you're one of the few
most of the manga readers, at the current time, tend to bash the initial stages to glorify the latter, while some time back it was the opposite where the mid was bashed to glorify the initial parts
i've seen few (of the commenting ones) being able to enjoy the story(manga) as a whole, not focusing only on some parts, wonder if with the anime the fandom fluctuations will repeat as for the manga =P

one plus of this story is watching the cliched reactions of the viewers
keeping low expectations is a good way to enjoy any show, not just this one

[Dextro]

Finally watched the episode so here come my first thoughts.

First thing I want to point out is the soundtrack: was it just me or did it sound way out of place? Especially at the beginning, right after the OP, they just picked a song and left it playing in the background all the way till something happened that was supposed to convey tension, then they abruptly switched. Maybe I'm just being spoiled by great soundtrack placement lately but that sounded completely lazy.

Also: is it just me or did the first episode feel a bit rushed? Maybe I'm not remembering that part of the manga right but I don't remember the start being that fast moving. I'm not complaining though: if this means that they'll keep the pace fast to skip the arguably less than stellar start of the story then so be it. EDIT: after watching the manga it seems like they did a single chapter. It just goes to show you: don't trust your memory so much

As for the art I didn't find it anything out of the ordinary. There were some clearly Gainax moments in there with the troublemakers at the dojo reminding me quite a bit of the cast of Gurren Laggan for a bit and plenty of "gainaxing" with Medaka ( ) but overall nothing spectacular and mostly by the book. I will however take my hat off to them for making every troublemaker in that group a clearly different character. I went back to the manga and I have to admit that they already were moderately different there but the anime seems to go the extra mile. I'm also digging that effect with the circle pattern they're using, it makes the show at least moderately distinct visually (since the rest seems pretty bland sadly).

And just to finish there's the voices. Shiranui and Zenkishi were just spot on but I'm finding hard to take in Medaka's voice. I think this one is my fault though, I never expected Medaka to sound so feminine. I mean it's not like she sounds overly feminine, quite the opposite she sounds strong yet feminine, but I for some reason expected her to sound more like Senjogahara (Bakemonogatari) instead. I'll probably get used to it in a couple of weeks anyway.

[Sol Falling]

Haha, damn, the anime is making me remember the parts I found difficult about the start of the manga. Complicated feelings.

To comment first on the voice acting and direction. Well, for the moment I actually can't say any of the voices/acting are as ideal as I'd like them to be. Shiranui and Medaka came off as a bit too sugary. The reactions/characterization of the background chars (Hyuuga in particular) also felt too over the top and exaggerated. Perhaps its because the supposedly fearsome/awe-inspiring/etc. aspects of Medaka thus far aren't really convincing, but in general the various students' reactions to her feel overacted.

Moving onto the main issue though,

Originally Posted by Haak

It's not the nonsensical logic that I dislike. It's the weird way in which they present it as meaningful that I can't get my head round. I can't tell if it's actually trying to be deep or not.

This completely nails it. It also reflects my earliest scepticism towards the manga itself. Zenkichi throws around the word "love" a whole bunch ("I love Medaka", "Hyuuga also fell in love with Medaka") this episode, so the whole thing comes off as if the premise of this story is "Look at how amazing this fictional female character is, and now sympathize with this hapless male chap who has a special relationship with her". Which of course is completely trite and overdone. But, in the beginning at least, both the manga and the anime play it straight.

Are we really able to immediately accept Zenkichi's perfect/idealized image of Medaka? Are we really able to understand Medaka's feelings, and Zenkichi's in return, when Medaka throws herself at him saying stuff like "I need you, just stay beside me" and Zenkichi acts all embarrassed and happy? It's like, before we've even really got a feeling for these characters, we're thrown into their thoughts/emotions. And it's difficult to figure out how to react to that--do we take those words/feelings as characterization, or do we assimilate it as the general point of the narrative and adopt those thoughts internally? etc.

Specifically, Zenkichi comes off like a "viewpoint character" in this episode with all his "I know Medaka best" and "I've known her since I was two" and stuff, then goes on to say things like "Medaka is always right" and "I also love her". If we wish to understand Medaka, we seem to be invited to partake in Zenkichi's perspective, but at the same time Zenkichi throws out all of this adulatory and thus far not really justified/convincing praise. So, at the end of all this ambiguity, what we're left with is the question "well now, am I supposed to have fallen in love with Medaka too?".

Accordingly, I suppose that my advice is: you don't need to actually take the forced "meaningful moments" you found/find in this episode seriously. It's more or less a cover, lol. The parts where something just seems too cliche, or a character says something that you can't really accept yourself--rest assured that those aren't the actual things you're supposed to enjoy or take away from the story.

In the end, I want to mention that of course I actually do love Medaka as a character. But that is for reasons almost completely separate from the image you're exposed to through episode 1. So if you're not feeling the series just yet, don't worry. It just takes a while.

[bumbayker]

I'm a little disappointed that none of the more known fansub group are working on this series. WhyNot's translations are decent, at the very least better than Subdesu, but I prefer those groups that have more experience IMHO. Subdesu's release had better image quality though. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

I enjoyed the first episode despite the bashers/naysayers/trolls ranting how bad the plot was. I started reading the manga the other day out of curiosity and I'm halfway through the chapters. I admit the initial chapters weren't it's strong points though I enjoyed a bit of the slice of life. I wasn't overwhelmed by the first episode (unlike TTGL) but I really like Gainax's touch to the series. I can tell that Gainax is setting it up as shounen battle story unlike the manga that had to quickly change the style and story due to low ratings. Anyway, I'm confident they'll do a great job with their adaptation. I just hope they manage to cover most if not all of the manga.

[ars89]

Medaka is just great

[Arya]

Well, this is not exactly my cup of tea, but I still gave it a try. Luckily I cant remember anything about THAT series, so I can't make any comparisons. Sure at first I spent the first part of the episode waiting Medaka beating asses around. I did get surprised since she didn't. And her behavior is a nice change so I'll keep watching it for now.

There's a thing that looked odd, but I think it is plot-related. At the end Zenkichi said something like he didn't understand why Medaka was so attached to him, he is just an old friend, a stranger. It doesn't fit with all the I know you better that anyone and stuffs.

[Azure King]

i just finish the first epi

i just don't know what to take his anime... frist impressions
the epi felt rushed and it doesn't give you a clear idea what the series is all about (i'm not a manga reader)
personally it seem like this is a half-ass fan service, school-drama-comedy show on a budget

i will give epi02 a go.. hopefully it gets better

[jeroz]

think the start of ep3 should show signs that this is going to be crazy.
heck, even with the 2nd story in the 2nd ep should give you a glimpse of what Medaka is really like.

[justsomeguy]

45 episodes?! Ugh, that will be another full-year series on my list.

Doesn't seem that special yet; the only thing that stood out to me was that all three major characters are type AB.

[chaos_animagic]

Medaka Box is awesome.

It started out as one of the most hated Manga (it was being bashed on a certain Manga Site & it was on bottom 3 ranking for like 7 times straight for the first 7 chapters) - how it was not dropped was a mystery, since most mangas get bottom 3 up to 5 times gets dropped immediately.

But yet... now it's turn out as one of the greatest Manga series there is, LOL.


And since they're following the Manga almost exactly... I can already see ppls thinking this show is boring and such (which is what happened when the Manga first started)


And as said before, later on it'll become greater and greater.

All the while I too will be watching the anime watchers' cliched reactions, which will be 80% similar to how the manga was in the beginning, LOL....

[Midonin]

I'm really not seeing what's so bad about it at this stage. It reminds me of a really quirky visual novel (both from the storyline thus far and the aesthetics of the school. That place looks like a theme park I would love to go to), and, yes, I mean that as a compliment.

[chaos_animagic]

What Medaka Box did was... Random Scene Selection (since this was written by the same author that did "Bakemonogatari and the other monogatari series"... which was based up on randomness and lots of "flashing here, flashing there scenes", but with a plot)

Thus the beginning of Medaka Box was extremely confusing to ppls, especially on the part about "Medaka" herself.

I won't go into details on the manga... just keep on watching the anime and you'll find out soon enough, LOL

[larethian]

Originally Posted by bumbayker

I'm a little disappointed that none of the more known fansub group are working on this series. WhyNot's translations are decent, at the very least better than Subdesu, but I prefer those groups that have more experience IMHO. Subdesu's release had better image quality though. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

I enjoyed the first episode despite the bashers/naysayers/trolls ranting how bad the plot was. I started reading the manga the other day out of curiosity and I'm halfway through the chapters. I admit the initial chapters weren't it's strong points though I enjoyed a bit of the slice of life. I wasn't overwhelmed by the first episode (unlike TTGL) but I really like Gainax's touch to the series. I can tell that Gainax is setting it up as shounen battle story unlike the manga that had to quickly change the style and story due to low ratings. Anyway, I'm confident they'll do a great job with their adaptation. I just hope they manage to cover most if not all of the manga.

Hm, just watched it. Subdesu's version. There were several glaring mistranslations.

And I think the first episode was not too bad.

[Soliloquy]

I was baffled to find that I like this anime. Before I was watching this, I was ready to hate it as pure fanservice and sharing some similarity with Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Even though there are some overused tropes and major focus on main character's boobs, I'm liking this. I'm really surprised that I didn't find any of the characters annoying except maybe Hyuga.

Another thing I'm surprised about this anime was how tame it felt knowing that Gainax is behind it. So very little action despite there were a few buildups before.

[bumbayker]

Originally Posted by larethian

Hm, just watched it. Subdesu's version. There were several glaring mistranslations.

Yeah I know. If it weren't for those mistranslations their release would have been great. WhyNot though more accurate felt a bit rigid in their choice of words for their translation. They also omit honorifics which I felt was a bit awkward especially with Medaka Box's high school setting. Despite that I went with the more accurate translations though.

Originally Posted by larethian

And I think the first episode was not too bad.

True. But I didn't feel that it was that great either. Though I enjoyed it, there seemed to be something lacking. I suppose that was to be expected since Medaka Box wasn't originally meant to be a battle manga. For now the anime is setting up the story's foundation by introducing the central characters pivotal to the entire plot. Things will push to high gear once they all get together.

[Iby]

Soundtrack sounded somewhat Horizontish, I think.
Also I really like that they showed us Hakoniwa Academy as a whole - now I can really see that Clockwork Tower is feakin' high

[Tempest35]

I rather liked the anime version. Watching Claymore a few years ago taught me the very harsh truth of having to separate the manga from the anime as the two are done by different people with different goals and such in their scope and storytelling. It's pretty much another version of the story.

As for why Zenkichi was seemingly contradicting himself with his "we're just strangers" vs "No one understands Medaka better than me," I thought it was pretty obvious - He's tsundere for Medaka. He wants to be close to Medaka, and Medaka totes him as being the person that she feels the most comfortable with. He does say things in a rather harsh way but it seems that Medaka doesn't care about what he says since she already knows that he'll always be there for her, no matter what.

[Azuma Denton]

Hmm, Medaka voice by Aki Toyosaki comes quite a lil bit different in my imagination...
Overall, (regardless of story), Gainax execute this adaptation quite well on first episode...


Now that i've heard the voice of Medaka, i wish Nisio Isin will make a cross over script featuring a conversation between Medaka n Hitagi...


And another thing...
Shiranui voice is very very very similar to Mayoi (yesh, they both have same seiyuu) but Emiri Katou is speaking using Mayoi tone. I wonder if that is intentional??

[sa547]

Medaka in her Minmay moment. Wonderful shoutout.

[-Sho-]

I was bored watching it , i'll give 2-3 more episodes.