Accel World - Anime General Discussion

[Moridin]

Like it so far, have only seen episode one.

But, I have too say that this is extremely unrealistic.. im slightly fat and i could not run as far as that pig did, and he is four times as fat as me! Maybe fleeing, in shame and humiliation, is the best workout motivation there is?

[Anh_Minh]

Maybe it's about self-image more than anything and he's only slightly overweight, but perceives himself as spherical?

[TJR]

Originally Posted by Suzuku

I find it odd that J.C.STAFF isn't the one animating this. I just realised that the anime is being produced by Warner adn those OVAs are being animated by J.C. I've never seen this collaboration before...

It's possible that J.C. received an offer first but turned it down (after all, they had six shows for Winter 2012 and were tapped for an Index movie and Little Busters! Two winter shows were already GENCO productions). In this case, the main links would be ASCII Media Works and GENCO, which are both regular clients for the company.

At any rate, they are working on this show, just not as the main production studio. J.C.STAFF is responsible for photography and visual effects, which are key post-animation roles.

[Triple_R]

I like how the male lead (Haru) is short and pudgy. That alone makes him refreshingly different from your standard Yuji Everylead. It helps that I myself have had issues with my weight in life, so it makes me a bit more sympathetic (if not empathetic) towards Haru.

Haru in pig format also brought back neat memories of Ranma ½ for me.

The Accelerated World scenes look cool, and Butterfly Queen is a cool character. She makes me think of a kinder/gentler Akemi Homura or Hitagi Senjogahara, but she still has some edge to her even with the added kindness.


Angsty Wimp-to-Bold Hero in 12-to-24 episodes is admittedly getting a bit tiresome to me as well, but I'm willing to roll with it as long as Butterfly Queen and Accelerated World scenes continue to be entertaining.


P.S. I haven't watched the pre-air, so all of the above is based on just first episode impressions.

[DorkingtonPugsly]

I tried the manga and I put it down because I couldn't get into much, but this was fantastic. I've been really surprised by how good a lot of this seasons shows are, and this is no exception. I knew this was a popular series, but I throughly enjoyed pretty much every aspect of it. The animation was good, the music was great (especially that piano piece) and the action was good too. I didn't feel anything negative while watching the two episodes so I'll continue to watch this. I laughed when Ash Roller was yelling "No! My pal!"

[Dazarath]

At some point, do they reveal Kuroyukihime's real name or is that how she's referred to the entire series?

[Klashikari]

Truth to be told, my expectations for the show were a bit shacky due to the premise regarding Haru and... well his design.
That being said, that first episode was really a pleasant surprise. Indeed, Haru's predicament is nothing original and it is starting to be quite tiring to see this trope more often than we need to. That being said, the concept of the virtual reality is quite interesting (nothing close to your usual VR crisis such like .Hack series).

Kuroyukihime was also a nice treat, leaving a good dose of cryptic stuff about her possible real agenda and whatnot.

Also, production wise, it was quite good: clean and sharp sceneries and characters design, with some lively colors without being obnoxiously bright or flashy. High tech UI and all were neat, and the AW stuff worked well in my books.

Definitely checking the few next episode.

[Krytonis]

Haha, I love it! Very funny. Still, I was expecting a cool outfit for Silver Crow.

[mochichan]

Originally Posted by Dazarath

At some point, do they reveal Kuroyukihime's real name or is that how she's referred to the entire series?

They had that scene in the manga...around the end of volume 2 but it was a cliff hanger :P
She said "My real name is -" and the speech ended so I think it's like C.C from Code Geass situation where we won't know the girl name.

[DragoZERO]

Only complaint is the character design of the hero. I know what the thought was when he was designed but... he looks too out of place. And why is he a pig? If you can make your own avatar, then why would you make yourself a pig?

Other than that, it was a fun episode. The heroine is awesome and I can monomyth analyze this.

[Morisato]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Maybe it's about self-image more than anything and he's only slightly overweight, but perceives himself as spherical?

He's not slightly overweight. He's a freaking round ball.

It doesn't help that he's only like 4 feet tall too.

The design of the MC makes it hard to watch this series.

Some good "fat" MC is like Tomoki from Otoshimono (well he's normal looking but in chibi form 90% of the time) or the MC from A-kun Sensou.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Morisato

Some good "fat" MC is like Tomoki from Otoshimono (well he's normal looking but in chibi form 90% of the time).

Really even in chibi form he isn't fat (nsfw)

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by .:Jason:.

They outright said that his own avatar was stolen by the bullies and they gave him a pig instead. He never wanted that avatar.

Hmph... I must have missed that part. He should have filed a complaint or made a new one or something... the pig is just so different from the other characters. I feel like the protag's weaknesses are being thrown in my face too much.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Hmph... I must have missed that part.

That has to be novel info that was left out of the anime (so far)

[.:Jason:.]

Originally Posted by totoum

That has to be novel info that was left out of the anime (so far)

Could have sworn it was mentioned earlier in this thread/in the anime itself. Either way that post has been deleted. Sorry.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by TJR

It's possible that J.C. received an offer first but turned it down (after all, they had six shows for Winter 2012 and were tapped for an Index movie and Little Busters! Two winter shows were already GENCO productions). In this case, the main links would be ASCII Media Works and GENCO, which are both regular clients for the company.

At any rate, they are working on this show, just not as the main production studio. J.C.STAFF is responsible for photography and visual effects, which are key post-animation roles.

Hm, you are saying that publishers go look for an anime studio to animate their works? I thought it should be the other way round where studios make proposals to the publishers and initiate the project, no? Just asking, since I'm no expert.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Morisato

He's not slightly overweight. He's a freaking round ball.

It doesn't help that he's only like 4 feet tall too.

The design of the MC makes it hard to watch this series.

Haru's design was the one thing that didn't mesh too well with me indeed, but then I don't really think that's how he "actually" looks, just that we are seeing a chibified version of him 100% of the time. Yeah, he's both on the short and fat side, but what we see is a caricaturist representation of that ... perhaps the author deemed that a realistically (in-universe) portrayed fat guy for a MC would be too much of a turnoff ? (Which means, the biggest mystery of Accel World would be Haru's actual looks!)

The goofiness of having a 100% chibi main character aside, the first episode was surprisingly entertaining. The futuristic sci-fi-ish portrayal of internet was neat (I wouldn't be surprised if that's where we are heading eventually ) and there is enough mystery surrounding Hime and the whole accelerated world (Can't be as simple as EX-grade virtual gaming place) to keep the intrigue up.

I rather liked the design of Haru's VR suit as well, should be interesting to see how that animation and design handles in battle. Something we are apparently going to see starting episode 2, courtesy of Haru not following Hime's warning to keep himself disconnected from net.

All in all, a quite enjoyable first episode. Chibi-fied male lead aside, which is something I'll get used to eventually (...probably), this has the potential to be entertaining. Yeah, it's a yet another premise with a wimpy male lead who will be forced to grow up due to outside circumstances, but what can you do. Even if that particular setup element is overused to death, in the end it still comes down to execution. Here's hoping they do the execution part well in the following episodes.

[Excorsism]

Does Haru look up to Taku or something? I hope that Taku dude gets more appearances.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

High-school bullying is a tired meme that should be put on the shelf for a few years.

Unlike most anime though, the one being bullied here actually looks like a bully victim. In most anime, the bullied tends to be a nice pretty (or at least cute) boy who makes you wonder just why people would bully him at all.

Here, we have a short fat kid. A stereotype bully victim, yet strangely refreshing for an anime considering how rare they are.

Which is also why I disagree with the "this must be a representation of his minority complex and he doesn't really look like that" theory that goes around. I know he looks different from what we're used to in anime heroes, but we should be giving him a chance for being original, not running away in denial claiming "he doesn't really look like that."

Slight slipup in this episode is not explaining why his avatar is a pig though. Kind of important information to help understand the character.

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Which is also why I disagree with the "this must be a representation of his minority complex and he doesn't really look like that" theory that goes around. I know he looks different from what we're used to in anime heroes, but we should be giving him a chance for being original, not running away in denial claiming "he doesn't really look like that."

My issue with this is that he is drawn in a different style compared to any other character within this very show. Nothing at all to do with how protagonists look in other shows, and everything to do with his design being inconsistent with the rest of Accel World.

With that in mind, I have every reason to believe that what we are seeing is a chibified version of him, for whatever reason. I wouldn't mind either way, but I can't consider this as his genuine look, simply because the art style doesn't add up in-universe. Hence chibi.