A look at Fall 2009, Part One
Posted by Alice on October 14th, 2009
So now, dear readers, you get to experience my completely biased opinions on what few series I am bothering to keep up with this season! Hurray!
Sasameki Koto (Eps. 1-2)
I’ll get this one out of the road first, because as everyone on IRC should know by now, it’s the one I was–and am–gushing like a rabid fangirl about.
Sasameki Koto is yuri through and through, and it’s wonderful. The plot is simple: Sumika loves Ushio. Ushio loves cute girls. Sumika is not a cute girl. Sumika is, however, an awesome best friend, and consoles herself with by trying to make Ushio happy… even if it’s not together with her. Really, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. But the characterisation and Takashi Ikeda’s kinda quirky writing style really make it work for me.
It’s clear that everyone involved in this show knows the yuri tropes, but they work with them–and… well, at times they just walk right through them. They’ve picked a typical desaturated palette, with a frequent recurring sunset overlay. It’s nice to see the predominance of blacks and browns in the characters’ hair, too; this series doesn’t try to portray itself as anything amazing, just the type of drama you would expect in any average school, with any average people. That’s something I’ve found interesting about this series, really. Ushio comes right out and says she’s only interested in girls. Sumika never really questions that Ushio is female, or even her tastes in general. Sumika doesn’t even question why Akemiya-kun does what he does (you’ll see in episode 2.) All of it is just… accepted. There is, of course, drama from outside sources that find the lesbian tendencies disgusting, etc. But it’s all treated in a very… normal way. It’s nice to see that yuri drama that isn’t filled to the brim with OH NO ONEESAMA IS TALKING TO ANOTHER GIRL!!!
They know their cliches, and they nod to them as if in passing. We’ve already had references to smart-and-cool oneesama types, all-girls schools, cross-dressing and use of lillies as a motif, and later we’ll be seeing the typical Marimite-yuri fangirl as well as the openly lesbian couple who isn’t afraid to show it. But they’re all more than the stereotypes, and furthermore, all interesting character in their own right. And then the series leaves the cliches behind as we get into crazy karate club hijinks, foreigner lolis, and the way Ushio and Sumika always seem to be drawing closer and moving further away at the same time… oh wait, that’s normal for yuri, god damnit. Nevermind.
For a long-time fan of the manga, this adaption is amazing. Seriously, they’re basically following the manga frame by frame–even a number of the poses and angles have been identical. And yet they still find time to fit a few extra things in, such as Sumika being massively badass with Akemiya-kun, and the casual insertions of characters who will become more important as the series goes on (I even saw Zenigata and Watamura in a scene or two; talk about attention to detail!) The pace has got to speed up, though, because the manga drags on (it’s yuri, after all) and they’ll get nowhere if they continue at this rate.
The OP is slow and very typical, reminds me of Aoi Hana’s OP from last season. The ED is unremarkable but cute. Voice acting is nothing remarkable, suitable for the characters but nothing to rave about. That being said, I’m really not a fan of Ayahi Takagaki, and I feel like her voice is really awkward at times. Emiri Katou is excellent, though, and I’m looking forward to hearing Chiwa Saitou in the next episode. Oh, also, Crunchyroll’s subs fucking suck. Seriously guys, when I could translate the series better than you guys and I’m only a 2nd year student, you are failing pretty fucking hard. Then agian, CR failing is hardly something new.
Overall, I’m loving this so much. I’m biased, though, because I love the manga a helluvalot.
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (Eps. 1-2)
Fuck yes, Railgun. This is probably on everyone’s watching list. Index was nothing amazing, but it was really, really enjoyable to watch, and Railgun is following in its footsteps to a T. Railgun = Index + Yuri + Slice of Life + BIRIBIRI. It’s surprising how well it works. As far as I can tell, the plot is going to be about the schenanigans our beloved Biribiri gets up to. And seriously, who am I to deny that?
What is there to say about Railgun? I don’t follow the manga, but I can see it going down a similar route to Index. We’ll get a series of small arcs where a few things happen, they’re solved, and we go to the next one. It’s enjoyable. It works. So I would expect the show to go down the same route. The difference here, I suppose, is that Mikoto and Kuroko are people who can actually kick some ass. I wonder how much focus Touma will get? The pair of supporting characters seem to have filled in the “useless low-level psion” niche, but… hmm.
With the relative lack of much at all that happened in episode 2, I’m just curious to see where they’re headed with this show at all. Well, I mean, I have no problem with nothing at all happening, provided they give me more delicious Mikoto, but… Actually, on that note, I really like the level 0 girl, Ruiko. She seems interesting, and it’s obvious they’re setting her up for a lot more. Kuroko is likewise as enjoyable as ever (‘PC Parts’ indeed!) Well, I trust J.C.Staff to at least make something worth watching.
It all looks and sounds like your typical J.C.Staff production. Bright and beautiful colours, a lot of flashy action scenes, a techno-y OP and a slow-paced ED, and a smattering of talented new-ish seiyuu mixed in with some more loved experienced ones. Rina Satou is great, great, great. I love her Mikoto and the range of emotion she can put in just with that character alone. Her angry voice… gotta love it. Kanae Itou’s performance was pretty good too. Sounds a lot like Amu, as you might expect, but it’s interesting–kind of boyish yet still feminine, sorta. I like it, and I’d like to hear it in more things outside of Cool and Spicy.
Yep, this is definitely a keeper, though I sincerely doubt it’ll ever amount to anything amazing.
Kimi ni Todoke (Ep. 1)
Aww, this is heart-warming sugar-sweet shoujo-y goodness. And that first line will probably turn 75% of people immediately away from the show. Again we’ve got a simple premise, and it absolutely reeks of shoujo manga tropes. Sawako is a scary looking girl who nonetheless tries her hardest to make friends and do her best. Luckily, the local nice guy, Kazehaya-kun, sees past her creepy exterior. From there, Sawako tries to connect with her classmates, and of course get closer to the “refreshing” Kazehaya.
Maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for shoujo romance, but I couldn’t help but be completely drawn to this show. It was just… so… damned… CUTE. Every single moment of the show made me want to hug Sawako and tell her that everything would be okay. ;_; Mamiko Noto helped a lot with this. She gets called Sadako by her classmates… but she doesn’t mind. She just wants to be refreshing like the 爽 (sawa) in her name. ;_; ;_; ;_;
In the first episode she managed to make friends with two yankee-type girls, as well as Kazehaya-kun. She obviously admires the boy (and he back), but I’m not entirely sure if it is (yet) anything romantic. I think she’s just really happy that he remembers her name. But, well, it’s shoujo. It won’t stay that way for long. I can only hope they don’t drag it out TOO much, seeing as they are already both interested in each other… oh wait, this is shoujo. NEVERMIND. Then again, it apparently won the Best Shoujo Manga in 2008, so with luck, it’ll show us something good.
Production I.G. bring a lot to the table here. The animation itself is fantastic. The character design… looks so typical shoujo manga style, but I guess for fans of the manga, this will be great. But the backdrops are always really well done, almost mottled in colour, and beautiful. Shoujo lacks a lot of movement, so it’s very important that the backgrounds be really well done. The scene in the forest sticks out for me here. The OP is really groovy, rockish, but the ED … is awful. The voice reminds me of Macy Gray, and grated on my nerves a lot. Voice acting was, well, nothing outstanding. Wanted to hug Mamiko Noto continually, but… it was her standard voice in a pretty typical role for her. We’ll see.
Yeah, I liked this a lot. More than it probably deserves. But it was so damned cute, I can’t help it. I guess it deserves it more than Kampfer does… hrhrhr.
Anyway, I’m rambling too much. More on others next time!