2008-07-06, 12:56 | Link #81 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Vietnam
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I’m a big fan of Someday’s Dreamers in particular and of Slice-of-Life anime in general. When the title of this anime catched my eyes, I nearly jumped as it reminded me about the time when I spent my student time with SD. I hardly wait to watch this anime in order to know whether it can bring me such a great joy as SD did.
And I can say that I’m being disappointed a little bit. I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of Beck’s style, but somehow for Beck theme I think that the style did fit very well. However, this style together with rich ‘technology’ background, as to my personal point of view, did blew away the theme of this story. I was totally in love with 2D, water-colour background of J.C.Staff in SD, which brought a story of magic blending with lesson and sadness in a very 'art' way of drawing. I watched SD like I could feel the characters’ feeling, like I breathed with them. In ‘Natsu no Sora’, I can’t. The film is too ‘rich’ and modern for country side atmosphere that I can’t enjoy the peacefulness in there. My first impression towards the film that it is overdone by using too much colour and technique, while it can be much better like a sketch. I hope when the story begins in Tokyo, this feeling is gone. Music is good. I especially like the ED song. The background music in scene of Sora’s friend and the boy moved me, like a folk melody. I really like Michiru’s saying of Akiko wheat comparing with her feeling. It’s so lovely. That scene is the only one I can enjoy, sad to say so. Anyway, I continue to watch. I want to know how the story goes and what kind of magic (spell) they will use.
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2008-07-06, 13:28 | Link #82 |
I don't give a damn, dude
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In Despair
Age: 37
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Watched the first episode.
It was SUCH a relaxing experience watching this. Despite what others might say, I'm following this for sure. The first thing I noticed were the GORGEOUS backgrounds used. Are these really real-life scenes? Because they still had a slight "animated" look to them, so I'm not entirely sure they are ripped straight from real-life instead of being superb animation. Of course, this does contrast A LOT with the 90s animation used for the characters, and I can see why there are some who can't get used to that. I could get used to it though, and once I did that, I found that Suzuki Sora for her own part is such a wonderful character. She gives off the vibe of a very cute, very real young girl with believable flaws, and already I'm liking her better than I did Kikuchi Yume from the first series. And considering I didn't exactly dislike Yume watching the first series, that's saying a lot. Who's doing the voice work for Sora by the way? I'll start blogging on this, and I'll have an article up hopefully tomorrow. |
2008-07-06, 15:11 | Link #83 |
Yuuki Aoi
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Hanazawa Kana (Sora in Sketchbook, Shiika in Mushiuta, Ryouko in Zegapain, etc.)
Kafka says "I’m also not too sold on Sora’s VA; what is it with the Japanese and their love for squeaky, childish, grating voices? It's neither cute, nor attractive, nor believable; what it is is annoying. This is why rarely do I like Japanese dubs nowadays." I guess I can understand that reaction, but this show is made for Japanese ears, like all anime. They do listen to their own language being spoken a lot more than outsiders do, so perhaps they have a better idea of what sounds good in it. I think Sora sounds terrific, and is far from the realm of "grating" that some voices enter even for me (e.g., Kaneda Tomoko and Arai Satomi, sometimes). For me, Hanazawa Kana has one of the most moe voices in anime, when she is trying to be moe. But she is controlling that aspect here, I think, to create a normal Japanese girl. I can also understand kenshinvn's resistance to the new look. I loved the look of Someday's Dreamers. But a new studio is better to do something different, rather than trying to compete with J.C. Staff on their own ground. It's working for me. But then again, I have liked everything this director has done, including Paradise Kiss.
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2008-07-06, 16:51 | Link #84 |
Destroyer of the Good
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: U.K
Age: 36
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Great opening song but I just couldn't get into it and found it a bit boring. The crappy animation didn't help although the backgrounds had a nice feel due to them being photographs that had being slightly edited which i have no problem with. However the characters sucked and you could tell what which were the drawn parts. The movement was not fluid enough and the contrast between the sharp feeling of the backgrounds and the poor drawings was too great to work. Unsure whether to give it another episode in hope the story comes good and put aside the awkward animation.
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2008-07-06, 21:03 | Link #86 |
Gregory House
IT Support
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Well, they deal with different stories... so technically you don't. However, keep in mind that the style of the JC adaptation is very, very different to Hal's (at least looking at the first episode of this season).
I'd still recommend it to everyone, though.
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2008-07-06, 21:10 | Link #87 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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That said, I didn't find the juxtaposition of drawings and photorealistic backgrounds particulary annoying. If anything, I'm a bit more concerned about the pacing. It's been quite a while since I watched Somedays' Dreamers, but the pace in that show seemed a bit less laconic than in Mahou Tsukai. That said, I thought the snow scene was quite lovely, both visually and emotionally. If we get more scenes like that, I'll continue to watch. I'll be skipping over the Engrish OP in the future; the ED was okay though nothing special. I can't say I recall anything about the background score so far, but I was paying more attention to the plot and characterization. I'll listen more closely to the score as we progress.
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2008-07-06, 21:26 | Link #88 | |
Gregory House
IT Support
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2008-07-06, 21:59 | Link #89 |
Osana-Najimi Shipper
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Mt. Ordeals
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In all honesty, most asian women I come in contact with are 'squeakier' than Sora, so I don't see that particular strike against her VA. If anything, her VA sounds too normal, so much so that I don't think I'll remember this performance in a year or so. And that's saying something considering I've been the biggest fan of Hanazawa ever since Kaminagi Ryouko, who IMO is still the most moe girl of this decade at least.
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2008-07-06, 22:13 | Link #90 | |
Yuuki Aoi
Join Date: Jul 2004
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This reminds me of what happened to Saitou Chiwa at a certain point. I believe she tried to make her wonderful voice less unique -- in order to play more roles, I guess. And now I don't find her as interesting to listen to as I did in either Tsukuyomi or PaniPoni. Not being Japanese, perhaps I'm missing something, but this is how I feel.
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2008-07-06, 22:28 | Link #91 |
ISML Technical Staff
Graphic Designer
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Thanks for the response guys, I was just making sure that I didn't enter a second season or something. So far, the responses seem to be either good or bad, not really neutral, and I tend to like those kinds of series. I'll give it a try.
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2008-07-07, 02:47 | Link #92 | |||
Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Also, I'm probably the biggest slice of life fan I know, but the truly great slice of life shows tends to revolve around comedy, drama, romance and etc. This show was pretty straight run of the mill so far. And from the conflicting opinions regarding the first series, I don't know if I have too much faith in the storytelling department. Quote:
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2008-07-07, 04:23 | Link #93 | ||
eyewitness
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Well, whatever buttons in photoshop were clicked in whatever order, maybe we can agree that the backgrounds were too overwhelming. I watched the episode thinking stuff like "Oh what a beautiful tree. Wait, what did that pale little blob just say about her father?" I'm hesitant to classify this as animation at all though I can understand that people find the visuals relaxing.
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2008-07-07, 04:53 | Link #94 | ||
Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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2008-07-07, 05:33 | Link #95 |
Somehow I found out
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 40
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Trying to precisely define slice-of-life is really tough though. I mean, you could put ARIA to that definition, and well say that it stopped being slice-of-life about half way through its final series, arguably even before that.
Ep 1 It feels like a lifetime ago since I watched Someday's Dreamer, (and in a lot of ways, it was). I remember that, when I finished it, I was rather indifferent to it for some reason. Part of it, I think, was that it'd been hyped up by the time I got around to see it, and I just don't think I got quite what I expected. I'll probably see it in a much different light if I ever watched it again. I'm a lot different a person now than I was back then. But this was great. As far as Osamu Kobayashi is concerned, I loved BECK, but thought Paradise Kiss was a big disappointment, and it really fizzled in the end. I think he's a capable director on his day, but I have a suspicion that he's more suited to a certain type of story, and that's whatever Paradise Kiss wasn't. Maybe it's coming-of-age stories, which is what BECK was, and what I largely suspect this will be (almost always good territory for this brand of anime). But, never mind Kobayashi, this being a HAL Film Maker anime is awesome... almost everything they've touched recently has turned to gold. Especially their slice-of-life pieces (whether this is one is still open to debate). I thought they did an outstanding job with the laid-back country atmosphere and the artistic photographed backgrounds. Yes, arguably it jars with the 2D character art (which is rather lacking in detail, unfortunately), but the shots have been so well chosen and can be appreciated on their own. There's almost a Shinkai-esque rhythm to the way some of the scenes have been paced as well. It resembles some of the earlier parts of his films where the characters really take time to dwell on the little, meaningless conversations, which do a great job of painting and exhibiting the states of relationships between characters. They're interesting characters as well, particularly Sora, but certainly, we don't know much about them at this stage. Also, just to clarify something: Spoiler:
I'm looking forward to this one. Hidamari Sketch fills my quota for a more manic type of slice-of-life (they way only Hidamari Sketch could), but this is something much more relaxing. This has potential, especially in the hands of HAL Film Maker.
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2008-07-07, 05:47 | Link #96 |
Mmmm....
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Well, having seen episode one I thought it looked wonderful. Whether they'd just run pictures through a photoshop filter or done more hand tweaking than that I don't really care, I was really taken with the look of it.
(if Kyoani had done something like this, the Japanese countryside would be full of otaku stomping around with cameras trying to find the exact same spots!) |
2008-07-07, 06:32 | Link #97 | ||
Anime Hobbyist
Join Date: Dec 2004
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The thing with slice of life is that it tends to be tagged alongside the other genre aspect as well. Again, I think Anime News Network has it right if they're saying Azumanga was a Comedy + Slice of Life. That was EXACTLY what it was. Quote:
Also, BECAUSE HAL made this show, I'm sort of dejected. The original wasn't that interesting to pique my interest and so far, it's just touch and go with this one. I always had reservations about HAL picking it up because I didn't think they'd be able to raise the dead and make it sparkle and at least from episode 1, that fear hasn't gone away. Actually it reinforced it. This could be HAL's first semi-flop in a while. Or maybe not 'flop' but something that won't be as universally appealing as Sketchbook or Aria has been. |
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2008-07-07, 07:22 | Link #99 | ||
Somehow I found out
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 40
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I hate the fact that you can't avoid a spoiler if you quote it.
Anyway, I thought that from the fact that her mother couldn't face the right direction to wave goodbye. It did seem a strange action if she was blind since she'd at least be able to hear which direction they were headed in. I guess she's just eccentric (or emotional). Quote:
I was about to object to determining genre by characteristics rather than by definition, but then I realized that we all do this, at least on a subconscious level, so I'm going to stop now. The line between "slice-of-life" and "character-driven drama" is so fine anyway, that half the time it's not really all that worth considering. Quote:
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