That was pretty awesome. I guess people have a point though about the visuals being kinda boring. Put that way, I guess I could sum up my feelings with 'I like the plot/characters/premise better than Bakemonogatari's'.
Maaaybe I was bored by the dialogue on one or two occassions but in general I found either the content or the wit engaging enough that it was enjoyable the whole way through. I didn't feel that the action scenes were too short at all.
I quite liked the voices, and the onee-san was way cute. The character designs are quite attractive as well; on the whole there was only one part of the animation which I really bothered me, which would be the silhouette of the main guy running in the OP. That somehow seemed
too fluid and stylized, going into 'cheap cartoon' territory rather than 'art'. I'm glad that for the most part however the rest of the action was suitably crisp.
Anyway, I think this first episode worked
great in tying up a great many connections in a single episode without leaving a bunch of vague 'mysteries' to be unveiled later on in order to keep up the suspense. It seemed like a very complete story to me, bringing together the dream from the beginning with the two mains' true identities, the sister's concerns about leaving the island and the visitors, the backstory of the main enemy with the characters' motivations, and all that sort of stuff. I'm actually pretty surprised to hear that there was controversy about how the first episode was handled, because aside from a bit more visual creativity to help spice up the dialogue, I can't imagine how it could be done better. This seems like a very solid work for now.
Anyway, just one last, perhaps tangential thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DragoonKain3
As my brother puts his criticism of Shinbou's work in Bakemonogatari, "What a pathetic attempt at post-modern artistry." His words, not mine, for the record...  |
:P Dude, no offense or anything, but your brother is obviously using vehemence to cover up a lack of any actual concrete reasoning with that statement. Summing a work up as 'pathetic' or just an 'attempt' is the equivalent of childish namecalling.