(CR) Kimi to Boku. (seasons 1-2)

[Tempester]

PV:

[Guardian Enzo]

New PV:

I really hope JC Staff doesn't screw this up - I'd love this to succeed.

[Leo_Otaku]

As long as this doesn't turn out to be some BL anime I'm in XD

[zanahoria]

Originally Posted by Leo_Otaku

As long as this doesn't turn out to be some BL anime I'm in XD

What can I say... personally, I'm in for the BL subtext (hope there's a lot of it ).

But this sounds so interesting that I'll watch it anyway.

[Westlo]

I'm hype for Bro-ON!

[LKK]

Crunchyroll announced that they're going to simulcast this starting today at 10:00 am PDT. [Source]

[Shiroth]

Great news.

[Shiroth]

Spoiler for Episode 1:

Nice first episode. There's a lot of charm here. Could easily watch these characters interact all day long, so i'm set for 12 more episodes. I hear there's some added drama along the way, so it will be interesting to see how the show handles that.

Will be rather hilarious to see how many people will end up thinking this is a yaoi title.

[LKK]

I know next to nothing about this series, but I enjoyed the first episode a lot. Looking forward to seeing more from these guys.

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Will be rather hilarious to see how many people will end up thinking this is a yaoi title.

In the sense of, "Eww! Eww! Eww! If I watch this I'll catch teh gay cooties," or "Kaname x Shun 4evah!"?

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

In the sense of, "Eww! Eww! Eww! If I watch this I'll catch teh gay cooties," or "Kaname x Shun 4evah!"?

Along those lines, yeah.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by LKK

Crunchyroll announced that they're going to simulcast this starting today at 10:00 am PDT. [Source]

Yay *goes to watch* and that will make up for me missing Natsume on Monday (well that is if I like this enough to keep up with it).


edit: So I just watched the 1st episode....I really wanted to like this, but I don't know. That first episode did nothing for me. The characters really lacked personality. I think I am going to wait and see what other people say about this show if it worth continuing to watch.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Sign me up. I'm not sure anything actually happened, but I enjoyed watching it not happen. Very well presented. A lovely feeling throughout, with good BGM and pacing. And some of the best cats I've seen in anime: the turning together and the bathed cat were the best.

I expected it to be good, considering the main staff: directed by Kanbe Mamoru, director of Elfen Lied and the unknown but excellent Denpateki na Kanojo. Written by Yoshida Reiko (Marimite, K-On, etc., etc.).

Yaoi subtext? Well, yeah, for sure. Vague but nice. If you want it, it's there. If you don't, you don't have to interpret things that way.

[Guardian Enzo]

Hear me out on this. It was pleasant enough - the cast is fine, the art is fine, the cats are cute. But was there a single scene in that episode that wouldn't have worked just as well if the four boys had been four girls?

I mean, when was the last time a guy brushed another guy's hair on the roof of the school? I was really hoping - still am - that this was going to be the genre-buster, a twist on the "four cute girls" template that's been run into the ground, and be a school life series where the guys aren't the supporting cast, or a harem lead, but actually the man characters and actually acting and thinking like guys. They were all nice enough, but those were basically four girls who happened to be guys for novelty's sake, or so it seemed to me.

I'm not trying to be flippant about this in any way - I didn't dislike it, and I don't dislike the characters. But if they act pretty much exactly like girls act in series like this, what's the point? Doesn't that make this just another "series like this"? It's so incredibly rare to find a series with male leads where they aren't mecha pilots or shounen protagonists or idiotic harem focii... That's probably why I liked S1 of Baka Test so much - even though it was fantastical and surreal and slapstick and certainly not a classic "school life" series, at least you had high school guys who (well, with one exception) didn't act like girls.

Kimi to Boku was a kind of acid test for me, to see if the anime industry in 2011 could make a realistic school life series where guys were the main cast that really captured the experience from a male perspective. After one episode, I have grave doubts - I sure would love to be wrong. I'm rooting as hard for this show as any for a long time.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Hear me out on this. It was pleasant enough - the cast is fine, the art is fine, the cats are cute. But was there a single scene in that episode that wouldn't have worked just as well if the four boys had been four girls?....

Excellent point. I'll be thinking about that as we go on. But the protagonists still felt like high-school boys to me. Not stereotypical pseudo-macho high school boys, but real high school boys...of a certain type. Maybe like the guy in the movie Juno? As long as we forget about the hair-brushing scene, lol.

I found Baka to Test quite boring, almost from the start. The characters didn't speak to me, much as I enjoyed some of them at some points. That was a very disappointing show for me, since I expected so much from Oonuma Shin, after the ef shows, which I loved. C-cubed is looking interesting, so far.

[Guardian Enzo]

I find S2 of Baka Test to be largely a disappointment, Kouru, largely because it became a mediocre romcom of a type we've seen a thousand times. But I really thought the first season, in its absurdist way, captured high school machismo is a pretty authentic fashion. And like all Oonuma Shin shows (including C-cubed), it looked fantastic.

As for KtB, they felt like high-school boys of the type that appear in shoujo manga to me. My standards for this show might be different from what they should realistically be, but I was really hoping it would be a counterpoint to the vastly oversaturated four girls trope, not another example of it. We'll see how it plays out.

[Forsaken_Infinity]

'twas alright but I don't see what it has over stuff like, say, A-channel ._.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

But was there a single scene in that episode that wouldn't have worked just as well if the four boys had been four girls?

I thought something along the same lines. Instead of a slice of life with an all-girl cast, we've got an all-guy cast acting like girls. This is an over-simplification, yes, but it's essentially what the first episode was.

For me, this wasn't a problem, though. I had few expectations either way, and went in blank. The show's slow dialogue and calming art style worked for me. Classic J.C. Staff. The characters are fairly average, but with lots of potential to grow. Shun is pretty cute too. (And there went my heterosexuality.)

Overall, it was a solid first episode. I'm eager to see where they take this, and moderately optimistic that it'll be at least a decent show. But it's too early to really know for sure.

[creb]

Meh. Have to agree with Enzo. And, frankly, if I'm going to watch four girls in a slice of life show, I'd rather they look like girls.

Though, I assume men/boys are not the target audience in the first place, so I can see the appeal of drawing the four girls as boys if they are marketing the show to girls.

Also, I have no interest watching boys comb each other's hair.

A slice of life centering around boys who have some testosterone really would be a refreshing change of pace.

[Reckoner]

I kind of feel like it's mostly one character dragging this first episode down (Guy with long hair since I couldn't care to remember it at this juncture).

The atmosphere and art and everything was really soothing and calming. I like that for sure, but I really have to agree with Guardian Enzo here that they didn't fully act like a group of guys. However, I feel this mostly again, because of one character. Without him the cast wouldn't feel so effeminate, and there'd be no hair brushing scene.

Still, it was an enjoyable episode. I hope more form this series, but I don't expect it to do much. We'll see.