Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai (generic thread)

[Aurine]

What I still like, the site keep updating everyday, even the twitter

[omimon]

Move along, just a bunch of Yukiatsu cosplayers here. Nothing new.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/0...lay-nightmare/

[Aurine]

Originally Posted by omimon

Move along, just a bunch of Yukiatsu cosplayers here. Nothing new.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/0...lay-nightmare/

I find that's a hell, rather than nightmare..

[sunset]

Finally finished watching this series and I LOVED it.

Very emotional but very well played.

Only thing that kinda broke my suspension of disbelief...

I can´t see that bunch of 8-10 years old kids building a secret base as well and as robust as that one.


I had a childhood posse myself and we had out share of secret bases and we could only dream we could afford the materials they had.

Not to mention the muscles to carry those huge and heavy wooden planks up the hill.


Still, great series.

Anjo rules!

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by sunset

Finally finished watching this series and I LOVED it.

Very emotional but very well played.

Only thing that kinda broke my suspension of disbelief...

I can´t see that bunch of 8-10 years old kids building a secret base as well and as robust as that one.


I had a childhood posse myself and we had out share of secret bases and we could only dream we could afford the materials they had.

Not to mention the muscles to carry those huge and heavy wooden planks up the hill.


Still, great series.

Anjo rules!

Was it ever shown that they actually built the place and not just took occupation of an abandoned shed and did some interior redecorating?

[sunset]

I don´t think that´s ever mentioned.

I posted a more thorough review of my personal impressions elsewhere, so I figured it´d only be fair to post it here a swell.



I liked the fact that each of the 5+1 friends have distinct personalities and their own cycle of character growth.
Menma is WAY too moe for my nerves but Anjo and Yukiatsu´s..... interests kept me going for more.
Jin-tan struck me as standard issue lead male anime character#2345 but they handled him decently enough, I guess, and the voice talent helped carry him up very well.
Initially, I wanted to detonate a small tactical nuke in Tsuruko´s face, but as the story progressed, I´ve come to really like her.
She´s very controlled and passive-aggressive but once the cracks start to pile up and you manage to see through to the real her, she´s just awesome.

I loved the character designs and especially their transition from childhood to teenage, it´s funny seeing how they change while retaining some base characteristics.
They could probably be a bit more imaginative with Menma (a dead girl in a white dress? Really?), but all the others are great.

I enjoyed watching Jin-tan slowly but surely regain his life and try to steer it somewhere.

I liked the fact that the story takes place in the actual town of Chichibu, meaning that if I were to go search, many of the scenes would take place in actual locations that exist in real life. It´s... cute.

I liked the fact that they restrained themselves from fanservice. I WUV! me some Ikkitousen overboard boobage, but in a story like this, less is usually better.

I liked the fact that it´s only 11 episodes long. Short and sweet.
My brain wouldn´t have survived 26 episode of Menma.

I really like the way I discovered this series.
I first learned of Zone while looking for j-pop bands my nieces could enjoy.
I enjoyed Secret Base before I even know what it was all about.
And to learn that it is the ending theme of Ano Hana was the icing on the cake, caught me completely by surprise when the melody starts in Jin-ta´s end scenne of episode #1 and I go:"- WHOA! So THIS is where this music is from!".

Highly recommended if you wanna take a break from your usuall shows and look for something a bit more calm and heartwarming.
It´s essentially a lovely story with some teary-eyed moments about friendship.

[wandering-dreamer]

Think I'm glad these changes were made....

[Arabesque]

I knew it ...

I watched too many Okada-original to understand that she had a thing for making anime with sexual jokes(just look at her adaption work even) ... I said that the reason why she was producing more sup-par works was due to her Protection from Editors ...

Thanks the gods for executive middling.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

Think I'm glad these changes were made....

Well there you go,since she couldn't put it there because director Nagai was watching over she unloaded it all on Hanasaku Iroha and director Ando said "sure,go right ahead"!

[brocko]

Slapstick erotica? Sounds like she wanted to make it an ecchi from the start lol

[Arabesque]

Too bad it seems like that Ando inexperience with the genre made him trust her more

Anyway, I think that makes it more clear whos the main reason for why Hanasaku turned out to be so unfocused, since apparently Okada just wanted to do what's in her head without any actual plaining ... pity she wasted all the talent of the directors and the large budget of the show to do it :P

Meh, regardless, I think things turned out okay at the end ... both shows ended up being at least good in my eyes, but at least we can now put credit where it's due when it comes to the criticism towards the writing.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Arabesque

Too bad it seems like that Ando inexperience with the genre made him trust her more

He probably liked it himself too,they already worked on Canaan together and that one also had a bit of fanservice as well as random Okada moments,and canaan is much more in Ando's department.

It also completely validates this statement by Yakaman (worked with her on fractale)

Spoiler for space:

MC: Please tell us about the Dias character.

Yamakan: Regarding Dias, it was Ms. Mari Okada (Series Composition and Scripts), not I, who wanted to add that type of character. She began to say that without this character, she would be unsatisfied and get bored with the series.(laughs). So we decided to make up that type of character. .

MC: Iguchi-san, how come do you think Enri says “ecchi” so many times? Any particular reason? Is Enri obsessed with it?

(...)
Iguchi: Maybe Enri is “ecchi”, too.

MC: Let's ask Yamakan about it.

Yamakan: Again, that was Mari Okada's decision! She came up with the idea that Enri would be a character who keeps yelling “ecchi”. She is crazy... she is an "ecchi" herself."

[wandering-dreamer]

It's an odd day when it seems like Yamakan is right, now I'm trying to remember if there were any random ecchi moments in Gosick.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, now I'm convinced that Okada works better if they keep her umm... fetishes under control.

Can we have this? Only one crossdressing scene this episode? Fine! But they have to bring it up later!

[totoum]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

It's an odd day when it seems like Yamakan is right, now I'm trying to remember if there were any random ecchi moments in Gosick.

And to think the show that made me love Okada was Sketchbook,you can't get less echi than that.

So it seems if she keeps herself under check if she's doing an adaptation (of course she has adapted plenty of echi stuff) but lets herself lose on anime original stuff.


Then again,even in sketchbook she did cut out 2 male character and created a female anime original character.

[4Tran]

Director Tatsuyuki Nagai and character designer and chief animation director Masayoshi Tanaka contributed to the story's evolution during planning, according to Okada. The AnoHana writer said her emotions were shaken after learning much of the story had to be changed in order for the anime's proposal to be accepted. During that phase, the two staffers suggested to Okada that the current story might have been too cliche and that focusing on friendship would be a better alternative.

I think that this explains a lot about how Anohana turned out. It certainly appeared as if the creators rewrote the story from scratch, with all the plot threads that went nowhere in episodes 2-10. There are also bits from the original story concept left in the finished product as well. Whether this decision improved the show is hard to say, but it certainly paid off financially.

[Guardian Enzo]

Whether the decision improved the show certainly isn't hard for me to say.

It isn't unheard of for talented people to succeed much better when working with strong source material. Shinbo is much more tolerable, for me, when he's working with either a very strong writer (Madoka Magica) or a mangaka with a very distinctive style (Natsu no Arashi) then when his questionable impulses are allowed to run wild.

As for Okada, I think the secret of her success is that she writes great dialogue, and that's a hugely important skill. But unchecked, her sensibilities are clearly problematic. She's a misandrist of the first order, for one. But she also seems to fall in love with slapstick ecchi situation comedy, which she frankly doesn't write well. As we saw with Hourou Musuko, she can be very good with the right adaptation. But as for original material, you'd better pray for a production committee with some balls - both literally and figuratively.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

But as for original material, you'd better pray for a production committee with some balls - both literally and figuratively.

... Aka not the Hanairo one. Now that show is an example of her going out of control with those ecchi elements and plot threads that go nowhere.

So I'm not doubtful that these changes improved the show. Without it, Ano Hana would have probably ended up in the trash can by episode 4.

[0utf0xZer0]

It's fairly clear from Okada's description of what she intended to write that she had more in mind than a mere "slapstick erotic comedy", but I guess ANN couldn't come up with a headline that didn't puff that angle. Appears to have coloured a lot of ANN posters' impressions of waht she intended too.

I strongly suspect that the AnoHana that could have been would be closer in tone to the AnoHana that we actually got than to your typical dime a dozen ecchi comedy. And while I love AnoHana (first "Key style childhood friends and supernatural events story" where I've liked the writing and not just the concept since EF, Sola, etc. aren't really "Key style" IMO), I can't help but be intrigued by what could have been. And unlike some of you, I think the result could have been pretty good stuff.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

I can't help but be intrigued by what could have been. And unlike some of you, I think the result could have been pretty good stuff.

I find the concept interesting,I just don't trust Okada enough to think she'd manage to mix the slapstick comedy well with the drama.