(CR) Sakura Quest

[Key Board]

It kinda reminds me of Shirobako

crushing young adult realities...

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by nicky.

Would you mind listing one or two? I'd love to reduce my ignorance.
Also, wouldn't having deep design details require high budget? You have redraw those characters for so many frames. Considering the current anime industry, that may be a reason why.

This season alone, My Hero Academia and Little Witch... well, Academia (ok, it's a funny coincidence I guess) both demonstrate that, and without much expense of detail. I also watched Princess Jellyfish some time ago and that definitely counts. They just play around a lot with the appearance of eyes, face shapes, and so on. But that's what I mean by them looking "cartoony". Thing is, this is the other extreme of that, where the design is so by-the-books it basically looks like the exact same of their previous MC (this is not improved by the fact that usually main characters, being the most common ones on screen, are kept relatively simpler in design).

[Darthtabby]

Originally Posted by Gan_HOPE326

So between Shirobako, Girlish Number and this I assume "disenchanted thirty-somethings dealing with the trappings of real jobs" is now an anime genre. Well, okay, I can use a glimpse of this in fiction to escape from the reality of my daily life... which is basically the same exact thing .

I would have guessed the protagonists of all three works were twenty-somethings, not thirty-somethings.

I generally liked this first episode, particularly the little end twist, but I wasn't blown away by it.

[bakato]

The reveal at the ending was nice. It gives the whole plot and Koharu's arrival a sense of fate. A girl who was crowned the 100000th visitor at the height of the town's popularity returning a decade later at its hour of need.

[Dawnstorm]

Originally Posted by Gan_HOPE326

...it simply happens that for this kind of genre there's an assumption that if you attempt anything but this sort of bland, generic design, for female characters especially, people will judge them either "ugly" or "cartoony".

I'm not really sure about "ugly" or "cartoony", with respect to PA Works. I think they just have some sort of visual short hand for certain ideals. For example, in Shirobako I tended to think of Aoi's friends as the pallette-swap girls, mostly because the rest of the cast had highly individuated designs that ranged from natural to slightly goofy parody, so the fact that they all looking more alike to each other than to the rest of cast stood out. There was also some overlap between earlier shows, though the ideal-type connections were less pronounced (think Iroha --> Tari Tari).

Maybe they just need their mascots to get into the mood? At worst, it's a missed opportunity. It works well enough for me. It's like a best-of album. If anyone ever asks you what PA Works is like, show them this episode.

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

I'm not really sure about "ugly" or "cartoony", with respect to PA Works. I think they just have some sort of visual short hand for certain ideals. For example, in Shirobako I tended to think of Aoi's friends as the pallette-swap girls, mostly because the rest of the cast had highly individuated designs that ranged from natural to slightly goofy parody, so the fact that they all looking more alike to each other than to the rest of cast stood out. There was also some overlap between earlier shows, though the ideal-type connections were less pronounced (think Iroha --> Tari Tari).

Maybe they just need their mascots to get into the mood? At worst, it's a missed opportunity. It works well enough for me. It's like a best-of album. If anyone ever asks you what PA Works is like, show them this episode.

No, I meant that this anime (and PA Works in general, I think) does the opposite of that. Ugly/cartoony would be for example Trigger's style, where everyone is super-recognisable but they often look wonky and deformed. My point was exactly that for a lot of people this style seen here is "more anime", but it seems to me that making an effort to make the characters distinguishable even without seeing their hair would be a key element of any good character design.

[Psyco Diver]

I found this to be pretty fun first episode, seems worth watching this season

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by nicky.

Are you saying that they should have made her hairstyle more different from the shirobako one? Anime can only go so far when it comes to facial shape and details.

Yeah, I'm sure that's the excuse "stamp artists" make when people say that all of the characters look similar.
And yes, they should have made her look different. And no, there are enough choices where you can avoid having a protagonist of one anime look different from a protagonist of another anime.

[nicky.]

I must not be familiar with such techniques then. A lot of anime characters just look the same to me. The main factor in differences is the hair.
Again, to avoid confusion: I'm not stating this as pure fact, only my perception.

[Kismet-chan]

Despite the slow, sort of bumbling-ish start? I liked it! I found the episode fairly charming. Koharu is a cute yet relatable character for me, and the few side characters we've met seem interesting. Going to stick with this.

[Ulin]

SoL, shirobako style, a funny MC, and the posibility of watching the life in the country... Sold for me!

Does anyone knows how many episodes is this going to be? I guess hoping for a full cour is too much

[Alf]

This is going very solid. I'm a bit glad they put up a history of individual kingdom boom to show failure of such boom, so that means they will need to make their solution sustainable rather than just create a boom of tourism.

While some may have been expecting Shirobako like things, this is quite different. While in Shirobako we are dealing with the reality of strange people and industry practices, here we are dealing with a rural area of nothingness. Common sense is not the answer to their problem, so there is no place for a Miyamori like protagonist show common sense. Rather, Koharu being a normal girl without competance who consider herself special, is a reflection to the village where it's just a normal village without anything of note. Expect Koharu to grow together with the village, and find herself actually normal yet growing special.

[Peanutbutter]

All I can see is Miyamori wearing a pink wig. Even her mannerisms and voice delivery reminds me of her. She might as well be voiced by Kimura Juli and I won't miss anything.

Quite a slow start, but I really liked the last minute or so where she slowly went through the old photographs, and seeing herself in there. Now that's what I call tying a loose end.

Looking forward to a good series. Massive fan of Hanasaku Iroha and Shirobako, so yeah, I'm in, good or bad irregardless.

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by nicky.

I must not be familiar with such techniques then. A lot of anime characters just look the same to me. The main factor in differences is the hair.
Again, to avoid confusion: I'm not stating this as pure fact, only my perception.

Nah, I get it, it heavily depends on which anime you watch IMHO. This look is definitely one of the most typically "anime" out there, it's pretty much what people think of today when they imagine the stereotypical Japanese cartoon.

[nicky.]

Originally Posted by Gan_HOPE326

Nah, I get it, it heavily depends on which anime you watch IMHO. This look is definitely one of the most typically "anime" out there, it's pretty much what people think of today when they imagine the stereotypical Japanese cartoon.

Agreed. This is close to the "anime"-looking anime that people think of.
But believe me when I tell you that I can notice when a different art style is used. I think everybody can. It's just, my earlier point above was that when the majority are all drawn in the "anime" art style then they may as well be the same characters to me. lol

[Gan_HOPE326]

Originally Posted by nicky.

But believe me when I tell you that I can notice when a different art style is used. I think everybody can. It's just, my earlier point above was that when the majority are all drawn in the "anime" art style then they may as well be the same characters to me. lol

Yeah, I wasn't implying that you can't, more that depending on which genres of anime you like you may get to see much more 'anime' art style than me. Slice of life, cute girls doing cute things, romance and nowadays also a lot of LN-derived action shows are perhaps the worst offenders. Action and slapstick comedy often tend to lean far more on an art style that's either exaggerated or grotesque and get more creative with their designs.

[Top Sergeant]

I think that this series will be my kick back and chill out anime for this season

[BBOvenGuy]

They had me when she whacked the guy in the chupacabra suit with her bag.

Is anyone going to point out that chupacabras come from Mexico?

[Marcus H.]

The idea of a chupacabra roaming the town is actually a pun on the main source of income of the town itself: chupaKABURA, Japanese turnips.

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

The idea of a chupacabra roaming the town is actually a pun on the main source of income of the town itself: chupaKABURA, Japanese turnips.

So instead of being a goat sucker (which is what chupacabura means), it's a turnip sucker?