|
View Poll Results: Sora Kake Girl Series Rating | |||
Perfect 10 | 2 | 5.71% | |
9 out of 10 : Excellent | 7 | 20.00% | |
8 out of 10 : Very Good | 7 | 20.00% | |
7 out of 10 : Good | 7 | 20.00% | |
6 out of 10 : Average | 7 | 20.00% | |
5 out of 10 : Below Average | 1 | 2.86% | |
4 out of 10 : Poor | 3 | 8.57% | |
3 out of 10 : Bad | 0 | 0% | |
2 out of 10 : Very Bad | 1 | 2.86% | |
1 out of 10 : Painful | 0 | 0% | |
Voters: 35. You may not vote on this poll |
|
Thread Tools |
2009-07-07, 12:11 | Link #1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
Sora Kake Girl - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating
This thread is to be used for discussing the entire series of Sora Kake Girl ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, speculation on the possible DVD only bonus episodes, etc., etc…
A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:
The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example: Animation Quality: 1-10 Voice Actors: 1-10 Script: 1-10 Editing: 1-10 Average = Total Series Rating Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.
__________________
|
2009-07-07, 14:45 | Link #2 |
そのおっぱいで13才
Join Date: Dec 2006
|
(´・ω・`)
Animation Quality: 10 Very good! To the end, the animation was very nice, moving a lot and not breaking like a few other anime this (rather, the previous?) season. To the point you'd almost feel sorry that such great animation had to be used on this script~ Script: 3 <--this looks like an emoticon... It started out with potential and was nice for a while... Kind of lost quality when the group fell into the jungle and Akiha spends several episode not reacting to Takane's betrayal... And by the time we got to the end, the very talented script writer made the scenario go \(^o^)/ ...The sudden/disappointing return of Takane and Kagura, the entire thing about Imo-chan's "death, the people brought out for no real reason other than to kill Imo-chan, etc. ,etc. And by the time it ends, a good amount of plot lines were thrown completely away. Hako-chan...? Those followers of Nerval...? What did that note from Kagura say anyways...? (,,゚Д゚)y─┛ Fell even worse than that MUNTO thing. Well, it had a even worse last episode than this, but it didn't exactly have any hope in the first place, unlike this. Characters were a big disappointment too... Akiha... "Heroine" <--*snort*. By the time it ended, I almost find myself a fool for investing any interest in her. Honoka and Itsuki are rather nice, but along with the story's fall, I lost interest in them... Then a good rest of the other characters just don't get enough time to develop a character. Especially the student council, who originally looked like important characters, but turned out to be more air than that female pair. Did they introduce so many characters that they couldn't keep up with them in the end? Who knows... The only character I really liked was Nami... Really entertaining watching this type of evil just going crazy. It was also really nice to see that she doesn't magically return to the side of good. Too bad she got the worst end of all of the characters... (ノдT) OPs were nice, the 2nd ED was great. Well, I guess I'll have to choose 4/10. I'd do 5/10 instead, but in my faint memories, I rated AYAKASHI 5/10, and for some reason, I don't want to put the two in the same level... ...Try better next time then, Sunrise.
__________________
|
2009-07-08, 00:01 | Link #3 |
Banned
|
Animation Quality: Pretty good overall. The character designs took some getting used to, but the whole show looks pretty great in general. Especially the shots of space.
Story & Characters: It's a pretty simple story, but then again the story was never what this show was really about, it was about the mecha parody and throwback nature of the whole affair. I mean it when I say this show really reminded me of the spirit of the brave saga. That said the theme was pretty much what I always thought it was, and it really comes through in the end. It's a stock one, but "choose your own path" probably holds a lot more water with Japanese audiences do to the group mentality in Japan and placing oneself after the family, the business, the party etc. It can be stifling, and the nature of both Akiha and Nami's story's are thus reasonably relatable. Akiha has the burden of being the girl who leapt through space onto her, which she herself thinks she is not cut out for. Despite that she plays the hero when it is needed in the end, but refuses to have the title forced onto her in the end and instead just chooses to gaze upon the universe with Imo Chan and the mass of possibilites for her out there. Nami on the other hand was taken in by the power offered to her and didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter to begin with, what with Kagura all but luring her in to the fold. Granted it was part her own choice, but Kagura had some fault in it, and if you look upon their final controntation, it's not that Kagura isn't taking any responsibility, she's just not taking all of it, and thus robbing Nami of her choice. Kagura merely takes the power away from Nami that she all but forced onto her in the first place, thus reverting her back to her normal state. At that point Kagura leaves her to herself, because she recognizes that the first step towards Nami being who she wants to be must belong to her at this very point. The last scene with her paints an uncertain future, but it's Nami's choice to make, and in a sense she has grown from the experience and the theme of choosing one's own path HAS been conveyed. Both grew out from under the shadow of the Shishidou family to become their own unique selves, albeit in different ways as defined by their experiences and personalities which were allowed to come forth in their rawest form. The whole choosing one's own path can also bee seen in the fight against Nerval. The whole time it was a matter of taking the hard, but true to oneself path, versus taking the easy, but lacking in free will path. Nerval may have had noble intentions and truly felt that he was helping protect humanity from the harshness of reality and making life easier for them with his box system, but in his case the ends did not justify the means. Nor did Prince of Darkness trying to blow everything up. Reading the message of this show kind of feels like reading the U.S Constitution, it's all about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, just not on a super serious level. As for the other characters, I can't complain really. Sure I would have liked for more time spent with Takane and BuuMin, but I realize that the scriptwriters aren't here to cater to pleasing me with my pet characters. If that's all I cared about I can think of a thousand series that are solely dedicated to pleasing character fans, but it's not, it's about just kicking back, having fun and enjoying the ride they present. I really can't find any reason to trash on the scriptwriters for anything they've done. I do have a few minor quibbles with Kagura's note being forgotten, but I figure it will probably be taken care of in a picture drama anyway. If not I can guarantee I know just about what it says. "Went off to choose my own path, that's what life is all about, always be true to your own desires", or something like that. As for things like Hako-Chan, that was an active subplot? I always just interpreted it as a way to formally introduce the box concept and Nerval's goals. Same with Uray People's Republic, that was more of a mini-arc and they were pretty much dealt with by Nerval anyway. I really can't complain too much as I just never for a second took this show seriously enough to want to scrutinize every detail of the simplistic plot. That said I can say for certain that I found it better than Munto (is their even room for comparison here) seeing as how the theme and nature of this series characters came through crystal clear, whereas I still have no idea what Munto was supposed to be about yet it had such a pretentious air about it. Music: Awesome stuff overall. Like Shiro I'm definitely going to be listening to this one for a long time. I loves me my stoner techno music. Overall: Good, show but not great. Definitely not bad though. Admittedly I came in with low expectations, but warmed up to the show and it's characters fairly quickly. There was just something about it that made me actually able to laugh and just go along with the constant zany happenings. It wasn't that it was overly clever or unique, just unusual. And I like unusual, especially lately where it seems like there's too many shows with the same modern day Japanese setting. Give me the future, give me a post apocalyptic wasteland, give me a fantasy setting, give me anything that gets my imagination whirring, and usually you'll have my attention pretty quickly. I love escapism, and Sora Kake Girl was it for me for much of 2009. I didn't think I would at first, but I will miss this show now. |
2009-07-08, 03:05 | Link #4 | |
Banned
|
Quote:
Anyway Nami has hardly gone through living hell in the end. Whatever happened with her she pretty much was largely the harbinger of it herself, even if the temptation of her newfound power was what provoked her into it (which Kagura was to blame for and which she remedied), it was almost certainly always an aspect of her personality to be that vicious in her quest to make the people she felt ignored her suffer. She was a ticking time bomb. And the show still isn't about her anyway and I still don't understand why some people are trying to make her a pivotal aspect that makes or breaks the entire 26 episodes of the show. I mean I thought she was interesting and I liked her character and role, but not at the expense of ignoring the remaining cast of characters. Last edited by Kaioshin Sama; 2009-07-08 at 03:51. |
|
2009-07-08, 03:25 | Link #6 | |
Banned
|
Quote:
As for the baseball episode, in some bizarre way I actually enjoyed it. There's a surprising bit of foreshadowing hidden between all the layers of surrealism. As for the ending, it's another one of those the final battle is the ending type affairs. I prefer series to have an epilogue, but in this shows case I'm lead to wonder whether it really needed one. In any case, maybe they saved it for the picture drama if there is one. |
|
2009-07-08, 11:50 | Link #7 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Not Antarctica?
|
Quote:
anyways. i feel this show is rather enjoyable for most of the area. but i wish they didn't made the beginning rather random(which probably made a lot of people dropping this show). the good part for this show is that, we can see neither side is really the good side or the evil side. so it's rather cool that we can root for either side fairly. the ending was a bit too packed, and some answers are still not answered, so let's hope there will be some ova or season 2 to wrap up everything. so i feel this show should deserve at least a 7/10
__________________
|
|
2009-07-08, 14:39 | Link #8 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
I'm still catching up on the show, but I'm a bit disappointed at what I'm seeing so far. In the beginning, the characters started out as quirky and brimming with potential, and the setting itself was both interesting and well-thought. By midway into the show, almost nothing has been done with either the character potential or with the setting itself. Instead, the creators are shoring up the entertainment value by introducing new characters, quirks and circumstances rather than working with what they had already established.
By itself, this wouldn't be such a drawback as there is some room for playing with the story in most circumstances, but it fits with Sunrise's preference for doing things like this in the last few original shows they've made (from about My~Hime onwards). I think that they did fairly well with this technique in My~Hime, but they've been far less successful in the subsequent shows. As it is, I think that Sora Kake Girl is starting to devolve into an ugly mess of convolution and characterization if it hasn't done so already. I wonder if I'm going to have to mentally compartmentalize Sunrise the way I do for SHAFT. Oh well, at least Sunrise's anime adaptations have a pretty good track record... Quote:
I rather liked the baseball episode, but I'm afraid that sticking what would normally be an omake into the regular broadcast is a symptom of Sora Kake Girl's weakness.
__________________
|
|
2009-07-08, 14:45 | Link #9 | |
Banned
|
Quote:
And yeah maybe you should mentally compartmentalize Sunrise's shows if it's going to make them unenjoyable to you. I don't think it's really necessary to go through yet another nitpicking session on this show of the kind that happens to pretty much all of their shows nowadays. That's even harder to understand, what is it specifically what drives some people to bash Sunrise shows to such an absurd extent and comment on their supposed practices when they really just don't seem to know anything about the company or it's history beyond Gundam, Mai-Hime and now Code Geass. Maybe it's because I consistently enjoy their shows that I really can't even begin to comprehend what people find so entirely awful about them, but somehow I think there's more too it then that. I'll just say that I find they have an incredibly good track record with their original shows and that they've given me little reason to complain over the years. That includes recently. I thought Sora Kake was going to be their first show to really let me down in a long time, but once I figured out what angle it was working it's schtick from that feeling quickly dissipated. Anyway just don't take Sora Kake so seriously. I honestly cannot stress that enough because it IS pretty random and convoluted, that's the point. The wacky mecha parody comes first, plot and characters second with this one. Finally isn't midway into the show when they end up on earth. I consider that pretty new by Sora Kake standards. They introduce a lot of concepts and details about Nerval as well for the first time. It's not a weakness. It's symbolic of it doing things it's own way? Like the characters in the show itself, Sora Kake Girl rarely concerned itself with what was expected of a mecha series and it's conventions. It did it's own thing, however random, however silly, because it was truly it's own beast. I think Imo-Chan's, "fuck society" line was one of the first hints as to what this show was going to be like and be about if anything. Last edited by Kaioshin Sama; 2009-07-08 at 15:19. |
|
2009-07-08, 15:53 | Link #10 | ||||
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Nope. The weakness symptomized by the baseball episode is over-indulgence and a lack of self-control. I brought up SHAFT in my earlier post because they fall in the same sort of trap.
__________________
|
||||
2009-07-08, 16:11 | Link #11 | |||||
Banned
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Edit: Then again maybe it's all simpler and layed out in C.A's post below me. I'm a huge sci-fi junkie and Sunrise is primarily a sci-fi studio, so their shows almost certainly speak more to me then they do to non sci-fi mecha fans. I also know what I'm getting into when I pick up one of their shows, but it seems like a lot of other people don't, even if they honest to god think they do. It like when people watched Code Geass for the shipping and then trounced it when there was no conclusive pairing. I knew that conclusive pairing in a Sunrise series is a rarity and was watching it for more than just that, but other people didn't and thus felt they had been personally slighted by the show somehow. Like it was supposed to have been a given or something that Lelouch made some sort of choice between C.C and Kallen when it was never really about that with their relationships. Who was it that really missed the boat in that situation I wonder? It all comes back to what I said earlier, that people think they are experts on the studio, but really what they usually talk about is barely scratching the surface on either the specific series level or entire works level. It can have a hugely negative impact if ones expectations and prior experiences are not in line with what is being presented. Last edited by Kaioshin Sama; 2009-07-08 at 16:36. |
|||||
2009-07-08, 16:21 | Link #12 |
Absolute Haruhist!
Artist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Age: 36
|
The show gets 9/10 for me, not sure why it doesn't get 10, but I know why it gets 9.
I'm feeling lazy so I'll just copy some from my earlier posts: Its really sad to see that many people who watch this show is not a mecha fan. By mecha fan, its not limited to Gundams or such, I really mean people who watch more mecha than anything else. To many people watching this show, is just like watching Lucky Star as their first anime, without ever having any anime experience before. This show is wonderful because it is a Lucky Star for mecha fans, every episode is packed with tons of mecha and science fiction references. The lack of people noticing this stuff makes it a complete waste of its potential. Alot of people find the entertainment and jokes missing because they don't get the parodies and homages. Every single random name or term that they shout out there is a reference, homage and parody, so are seemingly random events. The lack of subs killed the fanbase for this show, people who don't know Japanese will never get anything good out of its raws. It has too many references that works by the ear, word puns and jokes. The few subs that eventually made it to the last episode though we should be grateful, did no justice to the dialogue, or they cannot even translate to English in the first place, Sakura or example. Sakura's speech has even been called by Japanese as 'Sakurago/ Sakura language', because her speech is hard to understand even by Japanese themselves, but extremely amusing. The dialogue itself simply has too many Japanese word puns that will never work in English, western audience will never be able to grasp the full essence of the show if they don't understand Japanese. One of the simplest examples is Leopard calling Akiha 'dead leaf', you won't know why unless you know Akiha's name in kanji. Her name means 'Autumn Leaf', which Leopard gets 'deaf leaf' from. Some people who watched the raws had such bad first impressions from understanding nothing, it affected their rewatch in subs, or worst, didn't even watch subs after that. There's this guy who thought Nami got kidnapped in episode 10, he had no idea why colonies would warp in at various times, didn't know why characters are appearing at various places, didn't know why characters are doing various things, its like he's watching a different show when he described what he watched. Anyway back at the show itself: The show has wonderful design, it looks great. But it doesn't just look colourful, the characters themselves, including the colonies are wonderful characters. They are all based on cliches, but done very unconventionally. All of them are cliched characters and stereotypes, but it is to make puns and references. Akiha doing the Inazuma Kick in the last episode, I expected that since episode 9. I knew she had a hidden Top spirit in her, afterall she's the only other pink haired female mecha main protagonist which the story centers on. All other characters have subtle references or simply just wacky personalities. The style in the show is outstanding whether its serious or spoofing. The ancient or retro futuristic design provides a very nostalgic atmosphere that contrasts with the high technology, this is a major attraction to sci-fi fans. The show is not meant to be serious. And if you don't know what's 'I CAAAN FRRYY', 'Overfreeze', 'ZA POWER', 'Inazuma Kick' and especially the whole deal with colonies, you probably aren't the intended audience for this show.
__________________
|
2009-07-09, 07:39 | Link #13 |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
|
Well I finally had some time to myself to watch episode 26 after so many weeks. Too busy.
I think the mecha is nice, though we don't get much of character development other than the 3 main girls and Nami. And I would say the script is pretty lousy, though the parodies in there are hilarious. Hatsune Miku's appearance in the last episode is unexpected though.
__________________
|
2009-07-10, 05:05 | Link #14 |
✘˵╹◡╹˶✘
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
|
Finished this series at last. Give it a 9/10
This series must be the kind of "too ridiculous that it's good" that people often mentioned. The level of realism is just so much that...... well, it's good xD Everyone did so many non-sense/unnecessary things.. So many characters were built up but don't have a specific roles. Others just appeared out of thin air (with little previous development) suddenly becomes so important. Then there is no one completely good, or completely evil (except those who support the world destruction) Haha, everyone spent so many years opposing to Nerval when he's no where near the big bad guy. He's nearly the hero of the anime when think about it. I likes how Kagura disappeared for like 50 years and come back (She is a cool character so i approve it). Seeing Honoka all clingy to her is also so adorable xD
__________________
|
2009-07-10, 19:16 | Link #15 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: In line to confess his sins.
Age: 36
|
This show was surprisingly enjoyable. The first episode really left me with an impression that this was going to be something I'd be dropping like a hot potato, but I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. The animation was great, and the general art-style really appeals to me. While there was a lot of fanservice, which might be seen as unnecessary, I didn't feel that it detracted from the show at all. It wasn't used as a replacement for content or character depth.
The characters were endearing, though some I felt didn't really rise above their given stereotype. The series had a large cast, which was a mixed bag. I was left feeling that many of the characters weren't given their chance to shine, but with such a large cast, that's probably asking too much to begin with. I'm just glad Itsuki was given a lot of screentime. I found the voicework to be great for the most part, Fukuyama Jun as Leopard was a pure joy to listen to. I don't have much to say about the plot. It kept me watching, but never really grabbed me, though comedy and the characters themselves kept me wanting more. I think that if you approach the show with the right attitude, you'll get a lot of entertainment out of it. I'd rate it somewhere around the 6 mark, i.e. roughly "good" on my personal scale.
__________________
|
2009-07-12, 01:07 | Link #16 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
I've finished watching Sora Kake Girl, and I have to admit that I was more generous in my original assessment than I should have been. The low point in the show has to be Imo's death and the way the creators milked it for a couple of episodes. I find that kind of manipulation to be utterly atmosphere-killing if not downright insulting.
The story is a mess; and I never got the feeling that the creators ever had a good handle on what they were doing. It really does feel as if they learned precisely the wrong lessons from their work on My~Hime. I'm rewatching that show right now, and the contrast is rather remarkable. As for the characters, I really wanted to like Itsuki, but the only characters I cared much for were Xanthippe, Tsutsuji and Nami. I rather liked Xanthippe and Tsutsuji's antics around the middle of the show, but they weren't so interesting by the 20-odd episode mark. By the end, the only character I liked was Nami and her sheer insanity. I'm not aware of trying to convince you of anything. I'm merely pointing out that people can legitimately weigh different show elements differently and can come to completely different conclusions than you do. While it'd be nice if you can learn to emphasize with that, I hardly expect that to happen. However, I'm going to ask that you take the concept of different tastes into account before you whine about somebody "nitpicking" over particular story points. If you want to reply to this, please take it to PMs. Quote:
While there is certainly entertainment value derive from parody, it's not to the show's credit that it relies on it so much.
__________________
|
|
2009-07-12, 01:09 | Link #17 | |
Banned
|
Quote:
I mean if I approached this show in the same manner you did I would have almost certainly arrived at the same conclusion, but luckily I know what they were actually going for, and it wasn't a deep and involving work with memorable characters or whatever it is you wanted it to be. Anyway maybe there are more lessons to be learned in this experience then one might think. Maybe these shows just aren't for you. |
|
2009-07-12, 20:46 | Link #18 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
|
Quote:
__________________
|
|
2009-07-14, 09:00 | Link #19 |
At the end of this world
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Hungary, Europe
Age: 39
|
Well, I'm sorry Kaioshin-Sama, despite that I didn't take the show seriously at all, I was also disappointed in it (I might add that I'm not very fond of the mechashows, but there wasn't so much of that here anyway)
The whole series could have been much much more better, and not just story-wise. Fair enough as C.A. said, I would have probably enjoyed it more, if I were to know the obscure references and such. However I couldn't really "immerse" myself into most of the characters (thus I ended up not really caring about them and even disliking some), + some of the plottwists really made me facepalm, and I really felt the episodes were a bit disproportioned especially in the later parts. If those parts would have been better balanced, and the conclusion of the story don't leave so many loose ends (I really despise loose ends), then I could consider the show as "good". However as it is now, I voted it as 6/10 and I really contemplated to vote it as a 5. No offense intended, and I don't really want to argue, it's just my opinion .
__________________
|
2009-07-14, 12:36 | Link #20 | |
Banned
|
Quote:
I just thought that NERVAL was totally EVIL until I saw Honoka had a grudge against it. I mean it gets me on my nerves until the last episode. oh great, he's just mentioned Xenoglossia now(the one that I had been anxiously paranoid about since Mai otome during 2007). I'm not gonna watch this show from now on to avoid getting the same thing like those shows that I was mentioned about. But still, I liked those shoujo characters though like Akiha, Itsuki, Honoka and others. That's all I have to say. Last edited by Jeffry2009; 2009-07-14 at 12:47. |
|
|
|