Darker Than Black [1st season] generic discussion

[WanderingKnight]

Umm, the price Jan pays for his power is... lining up stones...?

変な奴

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by Destinyblade

The reason producers stick in JPop bands and singers and have them do the OP and the ED song is for advertisement for the anime and the song itself. By having T.M. Revolution's band (Abingdon boys school) do the OP, they can attract an audience that are fans of Takanori Nishikawa and his band. On the other hand, those who watch the anime will be tempted to buy the single of the song. The same applies to the ED.

So yeah, it's all about hyping up the series with the JPop artists, as well as for advertisement. Personally, I like the artist tie-ups; I tend to prefer songs by those artists than songs by someone else, such as a VA. However, if you look at the posts by wao, you'll see that the songs for this show actually DO go with the anime. Maybe you were expecting something more along the lines of the BGM by Yoko Kanno in regards to "fitting" with the anime, but the lyrics for the songs do fit with the theme of the show.

Well yes, I know it's all for the sake of advertising the show, which is a good marketing move. Still, I think a jazz-like piece might have fitted better. But I guess I'll have to wait and see the first episode (hoping they'll include the OP as well) to really be able to tell if T.M.Revolution's song works or not for me.

[Jazzrat]

Considering i nearly always skip the OP, it doesn't bother me that much
Only anime that i always watch the OP is FLAG and Hataraki man

[wao]

Originally Posted by lommm

that's the only reason i'm watching it!!! :P


actually, if wao's excited about it then the odds are in favor of the show being something special. this gives me two new shows to watch. yay.

Nah, I suggest you don't base it on that. You would end up watching a lot of crap anime too :P
I'm really excited this most for Yoko Kanno too, and then for the fangirl factor - not really in a "whoa this is going to be a really good anime" way... I'm excited for this in a shameless-fangirl, consumerist, ooh-fun-and-shiny sort of way. It's got a goddamn cat with a brain in a wireless LAN and generally cartoony designs and people flying up and glowing - how the hell could I enjoy this in too serious a manner? :P (Anyway I find I'd enjoy it a lot more if I did it, considering a recent case where I got sadly disappointed for misjudging the intended seriousness-level of an anime...)

Destinyblade is correct about the tie-ups. It's the same reason why they ended up getting Jinn for the 2nd Code Geass OP. I certainly think this is more successful than that
And while I think an OP ala Cowboy Bebop would have been perfect, I'm happy enough with this (so sue me, I have a tad of a soft spot for TMR). I think it'd still fit in better than L'arc en ciel did for Seirei no Moribito, at any rate.

Actually the OP video's apparently been uploaded somewhere on this Japanese video site called nicovideo.jp. However it's only open to the first 30,000 people who registered (I recently registered but I'm only like, #45355 or something like that.)
I would have liked to see it, but ah well - I'll wait till Friday or whatever. The comments I've heard about it from the folks who watched the advance preview were that it was a. cool and b. didn't move a lot. (I'm not surprised considering it was only done last Tuesday) The scant few screencaps of the OP I saw were nice enough anyway.


Anyway I get a feeling this show'll be more entertainment than anything despite the two-episode format that doesn't really lend itself to being so; however I nevertheless shall not get my hopes up high.
Almost wish I didn't spoil myself for the first two episodes, but there you have it.

[Shinndou]

Considering that this show is going to use Code Geass' timeslot, I don't expect this to be terribly serious either, but more like the usual fun yet well done shounen show, pretty much like Code Geass has been so far in my eyes.

[Adventury]

And here we have the opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnoWgY07PHU
Might add it is fairly nice, cool and not as unfit as I may have initially thought...

[Quajafrie]

Cool animation, crappy song.

[Adventury]

I don´t really think the music is that bad, at least it's, in my opinion, much more tolerable than the L'arc en ciel song that accompanies Seirei no Moribito's opening, which is considerably more unfit and, I would dare say, a lot more generic.

[Haohmaru]

Both the OP video and song suck IMO.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by wao

N(Anyway I find I'd enjoy it a lot more if I did it, considering a recent case where I got sadly disappointed for misjudging the intended seriousness-level of an anime...)

Code Geass? To be honest, it was obviously going to be cheese from the start. Good for entertainment and fun discussions, but that's about it.

As for the OP...well, I wouldn't go so far to say that it sucks, but it's dissapointing. The flow of it, the feel behind it, along with the accompanied song... I didn't really like it. The visuals and animation were solid, but that's about it. The feel behind it was lacking, and looked really generic, despite attempts to do the whole "Black of Two Worlds" + multiple backdrops thing.

I'm getting some Witch Hunter Robin vibes from the little things I've seen of DTB...which is both a good thing...and bad. I just hope the episodic-sense they're going for is well-written.

[MrProphet]

Oh, stop it.

Takanori is good. Not the best opening EVAH (though, obviously, some people expect no less), but it's suitably intense.

And if people are calling Shokotan's song for Gurren-Lagann great, then they have no right to criticize T.M. Revolution... 8)

[wao]

Spoiler for because I am negative:

Well, I wasn't expecting the best either - especially after hearing the problems they had producing the OP, but I was disappointed too. I think it was especially after having listened to the full version (a few too many times for my own good I must say), and imagining all sorts of really cool fighting sequences and stuff.

Nightengale pretty much took the words out of my mouth - I wouldn't say it sucked but it was disappointing, because the pacing and the choice of frames and all... Come on, for such an active song you don't use stills and play around with the camera so long! And it lingered on the title screen for way too long.

A real pity, I was hoping it could get a snazzy OP like BONES usually does (I watched through the Eureka 7 OPs every single time although I'd end up skipping through the episodes, hell I even watched the Juuousei one a number of times). But this time it felt like they were out of time so they slapped something together.

As for the song itself, I was quite disappointed by the way they cut it - what a weirdass place to start the song from! It hardly does justice to the whole song if you ask me, but oh well. I shall say no more or I'll be branded as *gasp* someone who does not mind abs/TMR! The blasphemy. Guess it's a guilty pleasure.

Nightengale: Oh no, not Code Geass. That was so obviously teh cheese from teh start and succeded most brilliantly in being so. I haven't watched it since episode 10 or so but it's so deliciously cheesy I follow the summaries just to amusedly watch people explode when $character dies or $character goes mad.

[Nightengale]

Hey, I liked most of Takanori's songs. It's just that I didn't really like this one.

I wouldn't say it doesn't fit the mood of the series. I didn't like the flow of the song accompanying the visuals. The timings and animation were half-decent...It's just...not so there.

Then again, I like Jinn songs, both of them even if they should never ever sing for an anime OP again so whatever.

Edit : The full song for the DtB's OP is released? When? Where?

[wao]

I see. Well, if I were basing my judgement of the song from the video alone I'd say I dislike it too. It may be that we are judging the mood of the show wrongly, but I just felt it didn't flow well with the images at all. Sadly. But I like the song since I heard the full version first. So it might be unfair since I was expecting too much (though once again I'll say it really helps to read the production blog, let me "mentally prepare" for it. Perhaps they posted that specifically for that reason? I don't know. I shall not beat a dead horse...

As for the full version - a radio rip was released sometime ago, look in the library. Not a bad quality one if I may say so myself (cough hack guess who found a rip of the whole radio program on 2ch and extracted it excitedly.)

[Shinndou]

Just watched the OP. I have to reconsider a few things. First the song alone, sounds good. The "problem" (if it can be addressed as a problem, it's just a discussion about a freakin OP anyway, heh) is that, just like in that teaser I couldn't really feel a strong connection between the animation and the song, rhytm-wise and style-wise. Maybe I'm demanding too much, maybe (or most surely) I am expressing a clear opinion too early on it, or maybe I should just don't give a damn about it and just wait for the show to air and skip the OP, but that's the impression I had regarding that song and how it seems to be matching this anime after having watched both teaser and OP. :/

[Jazzrat]

Must be the season for crappy OPs. Havent seen any OP for the new series that i can think as good so far.

[Deacon Blues]

Well, I watched the opening and from a video perspective, it wasn't all that bad. I don't have any sound because I'm in the library atm, but... if the full version of this OP is out can someone PM me where it's at? Thanks =D

Edit: NVM, found it =D

[7Th]

It's... decent. Won't comment on the song as I have a disliking of general mainstream Japanese music but the storyboard wasn't really that bad even if it full of fairly static somewhat uninspired illustrations and it certainly don't manages to create much excitement in the show. There's just no feeling in it, nothing to look forward other than a broodingly emotional Hei in a... although the Speed Grapher reminiscent edition of the Anemone's silhouette in the background was somewhat interesting, probably the only part of the video I am able to use this adjective in.

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

Must be the season for crappy OPs. Havent seen any OP for the new series that i can think as good so far.

Gurren Lagann is actually quite well animated and story-boarded even if the song is extremely, and I really mean it, generic, gives a real feel of a big and epic old-school-styled adventure to come. Besides, the mecha scenes in the middle are pure LOVE and the gattai-secuence for Gurren and Lagann is probably the best animated scene in the whole year.

[Destinyblade]

Well, I just watched the OP. Here are my thoughts:

- I like the song; it's not the best song I've ever heard, but it's a good one. At least to my ears.
- One HUGE problem with this OP: the scenes do not fit with the song. This song by abingdon boys school has a fast pace, so I was expecting a fast paced video OP as well. Instead, we get some slow scenes. What's a little surprising was that there were little to no action scenes in them, which is what I expected when I first heard the OP song.
- Like someone else said, the title of the series was in the OP for too long. Strangely enough, though, that was the part of the OP that seemed to "fit."
- I'm also surprised that not a whole lot was shown in the opening. I was somewhat expecting Hei with his mask on and maybe some antagonists in there. Then again, if this is an episodic series, I guess I could understand the antagonists part.
- The scenes were a tad disappointing, as it didn't feature a whole lot.
- And to top it all off, it seems that Seiji Takeda is in the credits as well. More Anti-Americanism, anyone? lol j/k
- All in all, it was a disappointing OP.


After hearing Rie Fu's song, I think I may actually enjoy the ED more than the OP for this show, which is unusual for me (I usually like OPs more than EDs). I said earlier that I wasn't a big fan of Rie Fu, but I did like the sample portion that I heard of "Tsukiakari."

EDIT: Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding: When I said "After hearing Rie Fu's song," I meant the 30-second portion. I haven't actually heard the full ending or the TV sized version.

[Katapan]

I'll try not to repeat what everyone's said so far, but it did feel disappointing. I knew I'd love the music the instant wao pointed out that you could hear a part of it on ABS's website, and I thought the screenshots from the first 2 episodes' preview looked very stylish - but they were the only interesting shots. The scrolling title felt way too long.
Edit: I feel like I should add that I don't think it's bad, it's just that I expected it to be awesome. It's still good, and I thought it had some interesting parts.

About the way the OP was cut - I don't think the music will end up being that way. It sounds exactly like the radio rip, so I suppose the beginning might get fixed. Same think for the ending, you can hear that it's supposed to continue. Maybe the video was recorded without any sound and the part of the radio rip that seemed as most fitting was added accordingly.

Meh, it's only one kind of disappointing aspect so far - my love for the show still is growing thanks to the various screenshots that are now available. God, Hei...