Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro
How long until the abridging of Umineko starts....?
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Isn't DEEN already doing that? *drum roll, cymbal clash*
No, but in all seriousness regarding the whole 'all VN players will hate the Anime no matter what' issue. If I hadn't read the VN or known anything about it, I imagine I'd still be enjoying the Anime the same way I did for
Higurashi. From what I've heard of
Higurashi VN players, that was handled much worse (especially since 6 answer arcs were crammed into 26 episodes; at least in Umineko it's only 4). But fans who'd never heard of the series before the Anime really enjoyed it, so DEEN must have done something right. I think the same thing can be said for
Umineko here - most Anime-only fans are still loving it, though sometimes confused by certain not-very-well-explained issues.
However as I said in a previous post even if I hadn't read the VN, and even if I still kept up with
Umineko because I enjoyed the story, I'd feel something different than
Higurashi and that's the lack of emotion and character development. It all feels extremely scripted except for possibly the recent performance of Battler, and Beatrice and Kanon across the board. No one else seems to react in a realistic way, or be involved enough in the story to make me care about them. If I didn't know anything about the VN - even having threads where VN players complain about this stuff to have in mind - I'm sure I'd notice this on my own.
Higurashi's charm was its characters, so even if it was a shitty adaptation I think that's the reason it succeeded as a standalone Anime.
Umineko lacks that, and
THAT is the reason I'm usually disappointed by it, much more than 'oh they cut this' or 'they changed that scene!!'. Do the cuts and edits hurt the series? Of course, as an adaptation. But the only thing that I feel hurts it as a standalone on par with
Higurashi is the characterization.
The first arc especially. I know that the most important part of EP1 is to get you into the series, but...well,
it's meant to get you into the series. If it were me as an Anime-only viewer who had just sat through the first five episodes of a series I expected to be as compelling as
Higurashi then I would have dropped it in disappointment for not being remotely as good. I admit DEEN has still been making some glaring and often stupid mistakes, but compared to the first 5 episodes, they've improved greatly. Only episode 11 I think was as disappointing as those first episodes, and as a standalone I admit I've enjoyed seeing some of my favorite scenes animated and acted out by such talented voice actors. As a VN reader obviously seeing some of the more awesome scenes play out in a much more visual way is a treat (though I'd still nitpick about the music, it's still nitpicking, and people can always make YouTube videos of said scenes with the proper music to satisfy the angry fanboy in me).
EP1, however, did not make me feel that way. It was completely and utterly shameful and it's not exactly good to pull an audience in with a shitty first arc and then say 'oh but it's okay, it gets better after this'. Statistics say that no how good a 2-hour movie might be, if you don't hook the audience in the first...what is it, 15 seconds (that seems way too low but I swear that's what I've heard...)? That it's worthless. The beginning absolutely has to work, or the rest falls apart. Some of you Anime-only people might argue with me and say 'well I'm still watching it and loving it, the first arc didn't deter me!!', but we can't confirm how many people
did feel that way and drop the series in the first arc because, obviously, they're not here to bother lurking
Umineko threads. My guess is a lot of people who check out the new summer Anime scene checked it out but just weren't as into it as some of the other new titles. Honestly, I think that's because EP1 was absolutely abhorrent, not even as an adaptation, but as a standalone series. The characters did not emote properly, everything felt scripted, they skipped too much information and what was included was paced horrifically.
Okay, so DEEN got better with EP2. Despite its flaws, I enjoyed EP2 a lot (except episode 11...). I'm definitely enjoying EP3 so far though I'm worrying how they're going to fit everything else in and make EP3 as awesome as it needs to be
and not ruin EP4, which is at least twice as long as the other EPs. Still I'm enjoying the ride. I did not enjoy EP1. I think a lot of VN players feel the same way, and probably had their expectations lowered so much by those first 5 episodes that they kinda can't help but unconsciously find fault with everything since, despite it being much much better. So I guess the point of this rambling is Anime fans, don't judge all VN players as nitpicky otaku with unrealistic expectations just because the Anime isn't as perfect as our beloved VN. I don't think it's as easily summed up as that for at least half of us. Just like the VN players shouldn't always feel 'oh poor Anime-only viewers, they're getting such a crappy show, we should pity them' like we're gods looking down on mere mortals. If we can all understand where the other side is coming from, these arguments might become few and far between. Will VN players stop complaining or will Anime viewers stop praising? Hell no. But I think it'll clear some of the animosity between the two groups at least, so it's worth striving for.
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