Now that the Winter 2009 season is in it’s winding down stage, it’s the perfect time to actually start some blogging about it. Where better to start than Sound of the Skies, or Sora no Woto (or So Ra No Wo To, to be pedantic).
This is the first anime to be born from the new Strength of Anime timeslot on TV Tokyo, clearly trying to be a pretender to Fuji TV’s noitaminA block of programming that manages to churn out some of the best stuff each season. It’s got a lot to live up to, given the pure gems that noitaminA shows (Honey and Clover, Mononoke, Trapeze, etc.).
First impressions don’t bode well here. It’s clear that A-1 Pictures (the production studio) have borrowed heavily from the K-On! school of animation with this one. The characters are animated with as little frills as possible. And why not, you might say, when people will lap it up all the more? This is true, it even gives the designs a certain charm. But this isn’t even for lack of effort, when you look at the luscious backgrounds the team have made for the town of Seize, based on the walled town of Cuenca in Spain, and even researched on location.
Looking past the character designs, the opening treats us to a Klimt-fest the likes of which we haven’t seen since Elfen Lied (note that the two series share a director, Mamoru Kanbe).
The content of the first few episodes, honestly, doesn’t take the plot of the series places, which in some ways belies it’s description – when you think of a war-time setting, it’s logical that there would be warfare, right? Instead, this series bases itself in a post-warfare setting, focusing on a platoon based in a town bordering no man’s land, not seeing much active service. I dove in with some expectations and found it jarring at first, but then settled in to the pace. The beautiful setting of Seize and the airy soundtrack gives the series a great atmosphere, and events should take on a leisurely pace to match.
The cultural references also lend very well to the atmosphere, and in the typical anime vein of borrowing (and twisting) not-Japanese culture, here we have a series based on a town in Spain, set in the remains of Switzerland, featuring a South African bird, with writing in French. I could go on.
The feel of the show so far is almost reminiscent of Haibane Renmei, and for more than just the atmosphere. Even from the first episode, hints have been dropped that something larger is going on. Rio’s bell, the story of the ‘Maidens of Fire’, the blonde woman in so many flashbacks; there are so many treats left lying around to those who would bother to look in to things. And that’s good – anything interesting that an anime does, that is different from the established, should be heavily praised. We’re stuck in a cycle of copycats that needs to be broken free from.
We’re up to episode seven now, with eight coming out around now. It seems the slow pace is beginning to quicken in the second half, with Filicia’s flashback in stark comparison to the first half of the series, showing the horror of war in more frank terms than usual. I think that despite a slow start, this series is only going to get better from here on in.
Sound of the Skies is available streaming on Crunchyroll, a week behind airing for non-subscribers, and immediately (and in higher quality) for those who paid. Higher quality video is also available from the fansubbers.
First of all, happy new year to everyone reading this. Hope you’re having a nice year so far.
If you’re an anime fan, the United States is a great place to live. It’s one of the biggest markets outside of Japan, and also has quite a large population, meaning plenty of fans are willing to cough up for their favourites. The big companies are all based there, and all have established contacts with the industry in Japan. And from Japan’s point of view, America must be looking more and more appealing as a secondary source of income in these troubled times.
These factors mean that for any particular series, the bar for entry in America is much, much lower than it would be here in the UK.
The smaller market here means that profit margins are never going to be high on all but the most popular titles, the Evangelions and Halo Legends’ of this world. All of the English production being done in the US means that while much of the work here is removed, more is added in the complexities of licensing the different parts of a series, in both time and money – now you need to negotiate with two countries instead of one.
This isn’t even mentioning the relatively expensive certification costs from the BBFC, who need to be paid twice if your series includes both a subtitled Japanese version and a dubbed English version, which is a de facto standard between companies and fans these days.
After all this, it isn’t really surprising when you look at the number of releases in the US compared to here – not everything can make a successful transition across the pond.
This is the reality, but an anime fan can dream. And in keeping with the list-mania spreading around at this time of year, I’m making a list of anime released in the US that isn’t out over here, but deserves to be.
Special thanks to MVM for recently removing the need to put Rozen Maiden and Fate/Stay Night down here, as they’re being released hopefully some time this year.
When They Cry
This one may be forever in limbo with regards to licensing, given that Geneon USA gave up the ghost mid-way through releasing this in the States, but it really does deserve to be on the shelves over here.
Also known as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, this series focuses on a small rural village called Hinamizawa, where our protagonist Keiichi Maebara has just moved in to. He quickly finds solid friends at school, but begins to suspect they are hiding something from him when they seem to gloss over and change the subject on particular issues in the village. When Keiichi finds out about a murder and corpse dismemberment case, he begins to suspect his friends, and we see him slowly descend into madness as he tries to keep them away.
While Higurashi is a fun series, what with its bright and amusing characters, it can do horror with surprising effectiveness, as we see from the first story arc. Once the series gets started, the mystery element from the visual novel it adapted really kicks in as we begin to wonder just what the hell is going on.
So I thought I would quickly round up my thoughts on both the ending of TM8.0 and what I thought of the show in general.
Beware of spoilers in the coming paragraphs. You have been warned.
I think everyone who was watching this show knew that there were only a set number of outcomes to this story. If the initial premise is that the kids need to find their way back home, it’s likely that some of them probably won’t, just to drive the message home. And what’s the message? Earthquakes are really dangerous. So up until now, it was a question of who would survive, if anyone at all.
Would they kill the parents and finish with a “we will fight on in their honour” kind of thing? Would they kill Yuuki and/or Mirai in a sort of “your luck will eventually run out” kind of BAD END?
Well, one of the inevitable conclusions passed, but it passed in a way that I certainly wasn’t expecting for a show like this.
That special time of the year when I go back to work at university has came around again, which explains (but doesn’t forgive) the lack of postage on here. Reviews of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 will be eventually finished, when I get around to watching the last few eps.
Anyhow, this years October London MCM Expo happened last weekend, and I was there, along with record numbers of visitors. It’s always quite something to be at an event completely dominated by nerds. Every other person was in cosplay, some passing it off better than others, it must be said.
Read on after the break for a little breakdown of the event and some more photos.
I’m sure we all have a few guilty pleasures when it comes to anime. After all, weirdness comes with the territory. Well, here’s mine – it’s a show about finding out all about what you want to be, it’s positive and it’s got some really cool characters.
OK, OK, it’s a magical girl show aimed at girls over ten years younger than me. But that doesn’t matter. It’s awesome.
Shugo Chara! is all about Amu Hinamori, a school pupil who is known for being “cool and spicy” (best Engrish ever) and having a very cold outward appearance, but deep down she is just a girl who wants to be loved.
I’ve been avoiding /a/ more than usual these days, not only because it can sometimes be the cesspool of the internet, but because it likes to spoil anime. Especially this one. At the time of writing, raws for the last episode of TM8.0 are starting to make their way to a tracker/bot near you. Having seen episode 8, I can honestly say I have no clue what will happen, or who will survive.
I have a feeling it’s going to turn out badly for at least one of our protagonists though. Because life isn’t always smooth.
I thought this episode was really well done. If you think about the very premise of this show, it’s to show what a huge earthquake in Tokyo would look like, and what would result from it. It’s relatively easy to show chaos and destruction – that’s a given. But many are de-sensitised to that sort of thing. How do you really hit home that this is serious shit? Put your little brother, who you just started liking again, in a life-or-death situation. Then turn up the mindfuck and say he really is dead. With the body, complete with ghostly white face, there and all.
