(L+CR) Free!

[Guardian Enzo]

Don't count on it. There's more hatred coming from Western fans than Japanese ones on this, and the KuroBas threats have nothing whatsoever to do with its appealing to fujoshi. It's apparently a personal vendetta against the mangaka himself.

[GDiddy]

AHHH... I always wondered what was up with that show that it got threats all the time.

[Iron Maw]

I've never even heard of his thing, yet there are lots mad everywhere.

I had thought people had gotten used fujioshi shows being part of the market at this point, so what's with the rage? Is it seriously because KyoAni is doing it?

[backbone]

Oh well, this leaves Kyokai no Kanata as my only hope for next KyoAni project

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

I've never even heard of his thing, yet there are lots mad everywhere.

I had thought people had gotten used fujioshi shows being part of the market at this point, so what's with the rage? Is it seriously because KyoAni is doing it?

It's more complicated than that, but essentially yes. Ever since Kanon, KyoAni shows have tended to have casts dominated by female characters and people became used to that. Suddenly a CM appeared that showed off sex appeal with male characters and it caught the attention of people who generally don't follow the industry too heavily.

A good portion of those fans didn't realize that was just a commercial (like many other ones produced by the company) and started a petition to make it into a show once it finally sunk in. In order to get to that point, people had to repeat over and over again the history of the company (and some still wouldn't listen). Then when the silhouettes appeared on the countdown site, people started to speculate many things (I personally submitted a few items of consideration for Full Metal Panic), which rose hopes for various shows until it was shown to be FREE!.

Combined with the near zero chance of any previous adaptation getting more seasons made, the shift from a women-dominated cast to a men-dominated cast really caused a lot of people to get upset. KyoAni produces only one show per season (barring extremely special circumstances), so the low amount of output got people used to seeing that type of cast in one of their shows. The CM focusing on sex appeal didn't assist in that sudden tone shift either. Change scares a lot of people and this is just another example.

Edit: Since I've got the last post at the moment and it's really not worth double-posting over, FREE! will air on Wednesdays in the "Wednesday Anime" slot on ABC as confirmed on the official site.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

I've never even heard of his thing, yet there are lots mad everywhere.

I had thought people had gotten used fujioshi shows being part of the market at this point, so what's with the rage? Is it seriously because KyoAni is doing it?

Yes, it's because of Kyoto Animation's involvement. Most fujoshi fly under the radar, so a lot of people barely know that they exist. Moreover, a lot of the shows that are popular with fujoshi also ostensibly aimed at male viewers - Kuroko's Basketball ran in Shounen Jump, Tiger and Bunny, etc.

Kyoto Animation makes it automatically high-profile and it's primary audience is obviously fujoshi, so it also makes for a high-profile target.

[melina_putri]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Edit: Since I've got the last post at the moment and it's really not worth double-posting over, FREE! will air on Wednesdays in the "Wednesday Anime" slot on ABC as confirmed on the official site.

I guess FREE! will be replacing Karneval timeslot next season, unless Karneval turned out to be 2 cour (which I doubt) that means the earliest time FREE! is going to be started airing is 3rd July.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by melina_putri

I guess FREE! will be replacing Karneval timeslot next season, unless Karneval turned out to be 2 cour (which I doubt) that means it is going to start airing on 3rd July.

This will be interesting since ABC also will be showing Servant x Service and Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyou in July as well. The block has only had 2 shows thus far each Wednesday, so I'm curious where it'll be placed.

[melina_putri]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

This will be interesting since ABC also will be showing Servant x Service and Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyou in July as well. The block has only had 2 shows thus far each Wednesday, so I'm curious where it'll be placed.

Another reason that I'm guessing FREE! will be replacing Karneval is both of them is airing on similar TV channels, the only difference is Karneval is also airing on AT-X while FREE! isn't but it is going to be aired on NicoNico and Asahi Douga instead.

On the other hand, Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyou will be aired on same TV channels as Ore no Imouto so I guess it is going to replace Ore no Imouto timeslot.

I wonder where Servant x Service will be placed. Though after looking at the PVs for it and because it is based on a 4-koma manga, I guess it is going to be a short anime so it is going to be placed between Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyou and FREE!.

[LeoXiao]

I'm disappointed that FMP didn't get a new season. That being said, it's been 8 years, the LN is finished and I've read it, so I don't care that much either way.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

My problem with K-on was that the characters had a goal that they were supposedly working towards, but we got maybe one episode where they actually worked towards it, one episode where they achieved it, and a couple dozen episodes of them goofing off in between. If you're going to have a story about people pursuing a dream, you need to show them pursuing their dream.

Blame the comic. The anime had more music than the manga ever had. Which is normal; how are you suppose to portray music in a 4 square manga?

They added as much music as can be without throwing the original plot away. What do you think they are suppose to do? Just ignore the manga entirely?

[Skane]

To be more precise, based on a 4-koma series. They basically made gold from salt.

ADD] For a western equivalent, a cartoon series from a webcomic that makes as much money as the DCAU.

[Kirarakim]

Karneval is definitely only one cour.

It is interesting that people expect Free! to replace it. Could this be the start of a dedicated block to female viewers?

[GDiddy]

So, how long before this gets licensed?

I know Sports anime doesn't do well over in the west, but since they've licensed other stuff before from KyoAni, I"m guessing that Free will be Sentei's.

And since CR was so for it, I bet CR will stream this.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Blame the comic. The anime had more music than the manga ever had. Which is normal; how are you suppose to portray music in a 4 square manga?

They added as much music as can be without throwing the original plot away. What do you think they are suppose to do? Just ignore the manga entirely?

Ridiculous argument. They chose to adapt the damn comic in the first place, they chose to not make enough alterations.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by GDiddy

So, how long before this gets licensed?

I know Sports anime doesn't do well over in the west, but since they've licensed other stuff before from KyoAni, I"m guessing that Free will be Sentei's.

And since CR was so for it, I bet CR will stream this.

It depends on who has the international rights to the show. Sentai is very buddy-buddy with TBS, who held rights to K-On!, Chuunibyou, and Tamako Market and they have a good working relationship with Kadokawa (bodes well for Nichijou and Hyouka IMO). As of now (and not for lack of trying), we don't know who has the international rights to the show, so trying to guess the speed of licensing is moot until then.

[GDiddy]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

It depends on who has the international rights to the show. Sentai is very buddy-buddy with TBS, who held rights to K-On!, Chuunibyou, and Tamako Market and they have a good working relationship with Kadokawa (bodes well for Nichijou and Hyouka IMO). As of now (and not for lack of trying), we don't know who has the international rights to the show, so trying to guess the speed of licensing is moot until then.

I"m just trying to make conservation that's all. It's getting boring about how the ones who hate it are bashing fuijoshi while the fandom for this is getting a little TOO hyper...I mean, it's not even aired yet and there's already fanart and stories?

Personally, I'll probaly watch this on where it gets streamed at. I'll at least check out one or two episodes to see if it's worth the hype.

[Folenfant]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

I've never even heard of his thing, yet there are lots mad everywhere.

I had thought people had gotten used fujioshi shows being part of the market at this point, so what's with the rage? Is it seriously because KyoAni is doing it?

It's times like this that I count myself among the blessed that don't have particularly strong feelings about Kyoto Animation either way. I can sort of look at this mess from the outside in and wonder with bemusement. I mean I can understand and empathize with the why the fuss happens (or at least as much as I'm willing too), but of course personally see little need for it and question if it's really worth it.

With that in mind I guess I'll add this, I am a pretty big advocate of swimming so their is some interest here. Early apprehensions though include Kyoto Animation shows past tendency to set up a club focus and then have very little emphasis on that club activity and representing it accurately or even really at all, though this is more of a problem with light novels in general I've found. Manga about sports tend to put a lot of focus and research on those sports and I'm sure it's appreciated by fans, but light novels I've found over time tend to have their own culture that takes the forefront and if/when that happens is when I usually tend to lose interest in an adaptation fast. This is based on a light novel and this is being animated by Kyoto Animation so it's hard to be sure what to expect swimming appreciation wise beyond crisp fluid animation.

I'm personally not that interested in attractive muscular male characters, but I really am not going to be horribly offended by it either the same way I'm not offended by the fact that Michael Phelps body shape is improbably triangular. It comes with the territory. Rather I think this show will gain or lose my interest based on how well it manages to tap into my swimming hobby and how accurately it represents swimming as a competitive sport. If it treats swimming like Prince of Tennis treats Tennis or Ro-Ko-Byu treats basketball as spectacles with little to no reflection of the realities of learning to and growing to play them than I probably won't get very far with it, but if it treats it like Chihayafuru treats Karuta or Hajime no Ippo treats boxing with characters growing together as friends and rivals in mind, body and spirit as their knowledge and appreciation of the sport continues to grow and is conveyed to the audience than it'll be a keeper.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

Ridiculous argument. They chose to adapt the damn comic in the first place, they chose to not make enough alterations.

Alterations to suit you? Rather than following the theme of the source material?

You demanded music. K-On as a manga was never about music. KyoAni made an adaptation that follows the manga.

Not telling you to like it or anything, but K-On was successful at what it does. The people who were suppose to like it, liked it. And the same will go for Free!.

[teja208]

I'm not sure how will Kyoani handle this series, but I can come up with few possibilites.

1. Focusing on sport activities where characters training hard to giving their best effort in overcoming challenges to win the competition. Looks like Folenfant has already covered this point with few examples. I have to say however, that I'm not really into swimming competition (sorry for those who enjoys watching swimming competitions). As such, I don't really have much idea as to how engaging the race could be, but not the kind of sport I particularly enjoy. I would prefer if they pick something like golf or billiards or doing something requires creativity like art or cooking competition, but that just me anyway, and I'm guessing some of the female audiences would like to have the guys showing off their abs which I see nothing wrong with that.

2. Going for the daily slice of life routine and less on the sport activities with bits of comedy moments here and there with bonding and frendship between the casts. On Kyoani standard, I'm pretty sure they have done this before in K-on! except this time, the entire cast are guys. I think we have seen schoolguys comedy where we have pretty guys doing lighthearted things (Kimi to Boku) and silly guys doing silly things (Danshi Kokousei no Nichijou) this time I hope Kyoani will take a different approach such as cool guys doing manly-over-the-top things (that doesn't involve them fighting in real combat and bishie sparks). Kyoani seems to specialise in animating snarky but rather cool and likable male lead which I hope they would apply these knowledges in their original works.

3. Taking a more serious and heavy tone with character centric route rather than daily life routine and sport activities. Something more along the line of Tari Tari and Kokoro Connect. The main casts of Kokoro Connect form a club but the club itself is rarely the focus, but rather on characters backstory and personal dilemma.

I'm not sure if there is any other approaches they could take but above all else, I hope main characters are likable and are the kind of guy we can route for or related to on some aspects.