This is review number three hundred and ninety three. This anime is part of the Summer 2014 lineup, and it’s called Seireitsukai no Blade Dance or Blade Dance of the Elementalers. It’s a twelve episode anime about a guy, and he has a harem. Yeah, let’s just read on.
Story
The anime follows a guy named Kamito Kazehaya, who recently transferred into an academy that teaches students gifted with spirits. It’s an all-female academy, and Kamito is the first male student ever. He eventually becomes the center of attention from all the girls he interacts with, and all the bad guys that finds him interesting as well.
Taking the Pants
It’s a light novel anime, so that’s fun. LN anime often has some good exposition, but they’re bogged down by a lot of unnecessary stuff. Things like fan service and wish fulfillment often covers majority of a light novel anime. After all, a mary sue character is a wish fulfillment character if you think about it. Sadly, if you’ve seen one LN anime then you’ve seen them all. It’s like being on a treadmill at this point just being unable to escape the boobs and the collection of girls that happens to surround one solitary male character. I’m supposed to say that, as a reviewer, I should give this anime a chance instead of just blindly labeling it as a typical LN anime. Oh, five f*cking years of the same damn thing will really start to hurt. This anime basically checks all the cliché you’d expect from a light novel anime. It does have a harem, too many fan service, and a good story stuck between the sticky folds. For my own sanity, I decided to create this:
The bingo thing trended on twitter a while back, and I didn’t really understand what it’s about. It is a great way to check all the clichés from a light novel though, because LN anime is offensively clichéd. So, for the light novel anime I’ll review moving forward, I’d bust out this bingo card and see if the anime can go for broke. The clichés are spread apart for a reason, since certain anime doesn’t carry a particular trope. I would be very impressed to see if an anime can hit bingo though and, given light novel anime’s track record of blending and cross matching tropes, one is sure not that far ahead. Of course, this is just for my own amusement. After seeing so much anime, I know the clichés that’ll pop up in a particular LN anime. Just for fun, why not try it yourself? Go get yourself a modern light novel anime and see if the show can hit a bingo. So at the end of a light novel anime review, expect this bingo card with all the available clichés of that particular anime marked on it.
I’m supposed to be doing a review though, so let’s just plow ahead. The anime opens with a naked girl bathing, and a guy stumbling into her. Misunderstanding arise, some digs at her small breasts, and you instantly realized the intentions of this show. At that point, I slump over my bed and regretted my 1000 anime review goal. But, anyways, the anime follows a guy named Kamito. He is a recent enrollee in an academy that happens to cater to privileged noble students with the ability to summon spirits. In this world, only females can summon spirits and Kamito is the very first guy to grace the academy’s halls. Of course, a lot of girls object to having a guy in their school. Some of them are fawning over him though, because this is a light novel. In the first episode alone, the naked girl she met eventually becomes engrossed in him while being the true tsundere that she is. I’m already ticking so many boxes in my bingo card. The anime stumbled hard in its first episode though, because nothing is really explained. We saw the two characters just enter a place, get a sword and then the guy enrolls in the Academy. That’s all well and good, but majority of the first episode is dedicated to Kamito and tsundere girl just flirting. The main premise of the anime, which is the sole reason to be interested with the show, is eventually given up just so Kamito can flirt with a girl.
This isn’t really the first light novel that did this, but the show clearly has so many subplots to establish. The appearance of a male student in an all-girls school, the main gist of what a Blade Dance is, the backstory about tsundere girl’s big sister, and the backstory between Kamito and his previous spirit are all lightly established in the first episode. I’d say 20% of the first episode focused on the exposition while the rest of the anime featured Kamito just flirting with a girl. This is actually the M.O. of the anime. It’d give us long drawn out scenes of Kamito flirting with girls, and the exposition is just given a backseat treatment. The anime’s three chapters, which are equal to three separate stories, are generally just glossed over, because the show is more concerned with Kamito and his herd of cute girls. At the beginning of every chapter, Kamito will be paired with a female character, and the episode will mostly focus on some fan service scenes between them. For example, in the second chapter, a new character is introduced. Almost immediately, she grabs his arm and her big boobs are latching onto Kamito. We don’t know much about her or her backstory, but she does spend the rest of the episode fighting with the tsundere girl for Kamito’s affection. It’s really tough to watch this anime, because it focuses on the wrong aspect of a light novel. The individual stories are honestly pretty interesting but, for some reason, we’ll see too much of Kamito and a girl just exchanging dialogue. That’s really the gist of these wish fulfillment scenes. They’re just taxing dialogue that bogs down the show, because they don’t really contribute anything to the anime overall. Characters don’t develop over the course of their quarrels for Kamito’s affection, and they certainly don’t grow their relationship. So, these dialogues are just excessive clutter.
By far, the worst offender is the “Wait! It’s not what you think!” scenes. Throughout the anime, Kamito would always wake up next to girl in his bed. They’d be naked or just all over his business, and then another character would walk in. Being in an unexplainable situation, Kamito would just say “Wait! It’s not what you think!” but, of course, the girl is no longer listening since she’s all mad and all. Classic misunderstanding that makes for a hearty har har between the characters. Yeah, this scenario was done seven times in the anime. So, a twelve episode anime had seven episodes dedicated to a scene like that. It’s always the same progression as well. The girl will walk in, gets mad, and then they’d spout dialogue like “you’re a pervert”, “I can’t believe you’d do something like this” or “you’re such a beast with no manners”. That happens seven f*cking times in the anime. It’s a bit much, don’t you think?
Then again, the anime did open with a naked girl so what exactly do you expect? This is another aspect of the anime: naked girls. That’s another box ticked off my bingo card. For simply the fan service’s sake, some of the girls would end up naked in the show. It’s also not because they’re showering or something like that. Nope, the girls are often just naked by choice. This often happens to the tsundere girl and the kuudere girl, and it’s just blatant fan service. The animation is good enough to feature naked bodies though, but these scenes often take up too much space as well. Sometimes, the exposition would just vanish because someone needs to be naked next to Kamito. It can be really hard to watch. I do think the original source itself is setup like this. The light novel could be focused on the fan service more than the story as well, and that’s just really one of the annoying aspects of light novels. They’d give up a good story to feature under developed breasts, and this anime does have a pretty good story.
It’s certainly not the most original, since it has summoned monsters and magic in it, but the world building is pretty interesting. The show never really explains it in detail, but the visuals tell a really intriguing story about the world the characters live in. It has other worlds where you can battle each other, strong spirits are often given away by the government for dubious reasons, and the academy itself is within a giant city that has vulnerable citizens susceptible to various kinds of dangers. It’s pretty immersive for a very typical LN setting, and I do want to know more about it. I want to know why females are the only ones that summon spirits, and I want to find out what the male characters of this world think about it. Before you can do any digging into the plot though, the show would bombard you with other things like cursed seals, spirit crystals, heart crystals, and whatever the hell a Jormungand is in this world. There’s no time to really let anything sink in, unless you talk about the hilarious scenes of the girls fighting over Kamito’s affection. We get a lot of that, and episodes would often be dedicated to girls just cooking or being on a date with Kamito. The rich world the characters live in is not properly explored, but the anime compensates by giving us countless scenes of naked girls and misunderstandings.
The worst thing the anime did is that it forgot to tell us what a Blade Dance is. It’s a competition, but it didn’t really dive into details. When Kamito last fought, he was alone but the Blade Dance the characters will enter is now a group tournament. How exactly does it work? Do you just battle until the last man standing wins, or is there a time limit? The team that’ll enter the blade dance is also not properly explained. The school has a ranking system that’ll determine the best team, but the anime ends with three teams going to the tournament. The Blade Dance sounds like a cool concept from the light brush strokes the anime paints, but I really want to know more about it. One of the things I personally can’t understand is the prize for the winner. Apparently, you get one wish and it’ll come true. How does it happen? Do you use magic or is this a government thing? Can you bring back the dead? With such an amazing prize for the winner, how come the anime didn’t properly hype the damn thing? Are you telling me naked girls are more important that explaining your damn premise? I’ll do give points for mentioning the tournament through all the chapters, and it helps bind them into one single plot, but there’s so many things left unexplained.
Another annoying aspect of the show is that the character motivations, and subsequent arcs, are actually pretty interesting as well. A good example is the tsundere girl, who is blinded by her goal of proving her sister is innocent. Her big sis apparently did something horrible, so she wants to help by obtaining a powerful spirit that’ll somehow improve the situation. Through her blinded goal of pursuing power though, she’ll endanger the lives of so many innocent people including her own. I love this character arc, because she’s a desperate character with an obvious character flaw. It’s rich with exposition, and it helps make the character expand from being just a tsundere girl. Unfortunately, the constant fan service and wish fulfillment kept limiting her potential. You can’t expect much from a character that just pouts whenever Kamito is with another girl, and who’d just constantly yell “I hate you! You were supposed to be my contracted spirit, how dare you betray me” over and over again. She has an incredible backstory, but it’s clearly a wasted potential just so the anime can give you naked-ness.
You can honestly achieve the same thing if you shoved that to one episode, and focus the rest of the chapter on the exposition. But nope, naked girl trumps juicy exposition every time. I can excuse a bland anime like Seikoku Dragonar employ hentai level tentacle monsters, because it doesn’t really have anything else to offer. This anime clearly has an exposition to keep it alive, yet it doesn’t want to focus on it. So many rich backstories and character arcs are left underutilized in this anime. Another example is Kamito being the champion blade dancer from three years ago. He lost his spirit monster, but he is going to participate in the next Blade Dance to get her back. That’s pretty interesting. Kamito is reduced to your typical light novel main character though. He doesn’t realize a girl is coming onto him, he’d be conveniently not listening when they’re confessing something, and he’s also the magnet for all the fan service. The anime is smart by making him literally the only male character in the show though, so I’ll give some points for that. You’ll eventually get sick of him though, because he just acts like an idiot all the time. He’d be caught in a misunderstanding, he’d be caught in a fan service situation and he’d be doing that again and again for the course of the entire show. For moments that don’t involve naked girls though, he’d act like your bland light novel hero just charging in to look cool and saving the damsel in distress. His backstory tells so much more though. It tells of a guy with a dubious past trying to reclaim something he has lost. That character sounds awesome, so where the f*ck is he?
I do like seeing Kamito hurt though. Heroes bleed, and Boku no Hero Academia proves that. The best heroes learn how to bleed, but light novel main characters don’t really get the memo about that. They’d be untouchable and overpowered, and it’s part of the wish fulfillment. Don’t you wish you can be perfect like the characters you’re reading? Kamito is different though. During battles, he’d get stabbed and blown away like any other supporting hero. The anime cleverly balances the large cast, and everyone gets a time to shine. Kamito does give the finishing blow, but the girls would often get their licks in. I like that aspect of Kamito, because it separates him from the Tetsuya of the light novel world. He isn’t perfect, and that really means something. It’s rare to see a main character hurt in a light novel, and it’s rarer to see them depend on others to get the victory. This show had so many good potentials, and it’s really disappointing how a lot of them are dumped to feature fan service. It is really good fan service though, but I’d give that up in a heartbeat for a well-told story any day.
If you’re going to watch this anime, then expect a lot of fan service just shoved in the first few episodes of the individual stories. I think each story takes up four episodes, so there’d be two for just the fan service alone. It’ll just be girls fighting over Kamito, being alone with him or getting caught in a misunderstanding with him. The third episode is where the conflict happens and the fourth episode picks up the pace for a big finale. Every chapter starts out rough, but it does have a satisfying ending every time. I’d be honest though, the anime’s so formulaic that I zoned out in the final chapter. I knew what it’s about but I didn’t need to listen to everything being discussed. The character motivations are all superb, but the characters themselves would always be limited to a particular role. It has its good and bad moments, but certainly a ton more flirt moments that the previous two combined.
This anime is done by Studio TNK. Damn it, it explains the overuse of fan service. If you’re not familiar, this is the studio behind High School DxD. This isn’t their typical style though, because they go beyond the call of duty to feature smut. Their anime is so over the top that you’d enjoy how insane the show can be. It felt like they’re forcing it with this one, because they never bog down their show with so much dialogue. One naked scene of Rias is enough to make you tune in, but they still feature a respectable story above that. It looks like the magic of High School DxD is no longer keeping this studio alive, and it’s the only trick up their sleeves. It’s interesting that they have no releases for 2016 after 2015’s sequel to DxD. That’s troubling, because I love this studio. Kenzen Robo Daimidaler is one of my fave shows to ever review, and I always thought they’d nail the magic of featuring fan service the Studio TNK way. I do hope they get out of this slump. This anime was directed by Tetsuya Yanasigawa, who also directed High School DxD. It looks like they really did try to do another DxD anime, but this one clearly backfired. I think the light novel itself is not really the kind that’ll work with a DxD approach, but I think TNK really forced it on this one. It didn’t work, and it highlighted all the bad things that make light novel anime unbearable to watch.
Sight and Sound
Character design is done by Hanpen Sakura. Like any typical light novel, the design is pretty standard. It has bright colors, cute girls and tremendous details on the outfits. There is immense care given to the design of the hair, and the uniform is pretty cute as well. It doesn’t really stand out, and I’m a guy that’s been subjected to so many similar light novel designs that I don’t really appreciate them as much. There is care given to portray the stereotypes just right though, since tsundere girl looks exactly like a tsundere and kuudere looks like a typical kuudere. I’m guessing Hanpen worked off the details of the author, and he created the characters from scratch. I am not impressed by the design, but it is really great. I especially love how TNK captured the vibrant appeal of the LN characters. If you look at any visuals of the characters, then you’ll see TNK went the extra mile to capture the design. Even the color palette that Hanpen prefers is nicely translated in the anime, and they really wanted to capture the vision of the original source. The character design looks clean, and it is standard good. Yeah, it’s typical but it shares the same good potential that most typical design possesses. In fact, TNK is so proud of the design that you’ll often get pan ups with the characters. Even minor ones had some great pan ups, and I actually had a great time just taking screenshots of these pan ups. The anime is proud of Hanpen’s design, and they met the challenge of capturing the vision he had for these characters.
Animation is pretty great. A good example of this is the fan service. Despite having so much of it, every single feature of naked girls and perverted situations were nicely animated. The characters had so much energy in these scenes that the animation is able to give it justice. These scenes had the glorious pan ups, various facial reactions to the scenes and different characters reacting to the scene. It’s packed, but it’s animated nicely. The fight scenes lack storytelling though, since characters really just swing swords with no detail in them. If the story was actually cared for leading to the fight scenes, then I think it’d do wonders. Sadly, the exposition is greatly lacking in the anime and it would’ve created great harmony with the high quality animation. Really, even the dialogue heavy scenes of characters just fighting over Kamito are nicely animated. I might wander off because the dialogue is gawd damn boring, but the animation reels me back in for the good bits. I also love how they animated the impact in the fight scenes. Explosions and various interactions with the background are utilized in the fight scenes. It doesn’t improve them, but it’s a great technical achievement to create a fight that involves the setting the characters fight in.
I am a bit bothered by some of the fan service though. It’s not much, but the show loves to zoom in on various erotic parts of the characters. You’ll see it in the various commercial visuals, where the anime would focus on a belly button or on the legs. It’s weird, because it’s like someone has a fetish and he’s honing in on his target. There’d be some long shots of the girls’ absolute territories, skirt flips and even the collar bone. I’m not really into any of this stuff, so it just comes off as creepy to me. I can’t judge that roughly though, since I like yaoi and yuri with the same engaging motivation. These are parts of a girl’s body you would try to avoid not being caught staring at though, so I think I do understand the appeal from a creepy perspective. I have students as young as the characters though, so it just doesn’t sit well with me. Still great animation though. Consistency is a great plus for this show.
The anime’s OP is “Kyoumei no True Force” by Hitomi Harada. It’s a decent song, but I really hate the forced English lines. You can hear the singer just eating her “R”s and the difficult words she can’t clearly pronounce. Why even put English lyrics in there? The lyrics themselves are random too. It’s about not fearing death, but also being with the one you love or something. It’s a mess. It is stylish though, so I don’t really care. I suck at reviewing music, but this just sounds run-of-the-mill to me. The OP sequence is pretty great though. It gives a vague summary of the anime in a stylish animation montage. It features all the highlights of the show without spoiling any of the good bits. There’s a weird lack of fan service though, and a huge focus on the plot. It’s a complete reversal of the actual show.
The anime’s ED is “Blade Dance” by Ni-Sokkususu [Claire Rouge (Ibuki Kido), Rinslet Laurenfrost (Kana Yuuki), Ellis Fahrengart (Shizuka Ishigami), Fianna Ray Ordesia (Saori Oonishi), Terminus Est (Ai Kakuma)].I like the novelty of the characters singing this song, but I’m instantly put off by the first lines of it. Knee High Fight. Seriously, what the hell? It does have a cute chorus, and the distinct voices of the characters makes for a fun experience. The ED sequence features the pan ups of the characters, and it ends with a scene of the girls apparently heading to the Blade Dance. I would’ve cared more if I actually knew what the hell I was looking at there. I only realized what it was during the last episode when the girls were preparing for the blade dance (and a second season that never came to fruition).
Overall Score
6/10 “It’s nothing new, but it’s packed with so much fan service that the show suffers from it.”
As you can see from the bingo card, the anime isn’t really breaking any ground. It does have a good plot, but it’s overlooked for the fan service. I’m fine with naked girls and harems in my light novel anime, but the show seems to deliberately sabotage itself just to feature naked girls and the harem. These things should just be an accompaniment to the story, and not the other way around. There’s so much potential here eventually ruined, because the show lacks the vision to tell a proper anime. In the end, everything just comes off as standard and unexciting. The characters are standard, the story is glossed over and the entire experience is both infuriating and numb. If you like excessive fan service in your anime, then you can try this. The anime picks up after the first chapter, but it’d be a chore to even finish the first one. It takes a little bit of patience for very little satisfying payoff. It’s best to just avoid it.
The Pantless Anime Blogger 
Fun Fact: Later on in LN volumes, girls get stronger. How? By kissing with Kamito (if I recall correctly). There goes the days when characters underwent rigorous trainings to improve themselves. Oh, and the principal also digs Kamito. This is just one of those guilty pleasure shows……#TeamEst
I guess I just wanted the anime to be better, because the story is there. It’s a trashy LN, but I kinda respect it and I just can’t properly defend it because it prefers to just not take itself seriously. The author is honestly selling themselves short.
omg, the principal too?! Yeah, I’m done. XD
The bingo card! loooool this is gonna be my new favorite feature ❤
Haa, this. Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance left a quite bad impression on me. But that’s just because it was one of the first Anime I watched seasonally (I think I started watching airing shows two or three season before Summer 2014 perhaps?) that quite disappointed me. As in, it was far more generic and average than what I had watched until that time. Now, after being exposed to the endless LN adaptation style Anime, I don’t think I would be so harsh with it.
Though, to be honest, apart from naked girls I remember very little.
Heh, that seven-times repeated naked on bed scenario was indeed bothering, but never like the “No, senpai. It’s our fight” from Strike the Blood. For some reasons “Endless Eight” was more frustrating (and somehow amusing) than annoying.
Also,
> Tetsuya of the light novel world
are you perhaps talking about that Onii-sama from Mahouka? Yeah, Tatsuya has become pretty much an image of OPness in the LN world, though in my opinion he isn’t really the most OP. I think lately the “Most OP” title has been shifted to Satou from Death March… (though he isn’t near the level of Othinus from Toaru or other Gods) but that’s just my opinion, don’t really know how others see it.
so as an avid LN reader, seeing all the naked girls and the fan service doesn’t bother you much. It’s fascinating how LN readers aren’t that hun g up on adaptations, but it’s a different mtter for VNs, wherein any MAL review starts out harsh. Haha.
I’ve seen Strike Blood and I don’t remember the its our fight line. it was a rushed and overstuffed adaptation though, so it had a lot of probs.
and how dare you, endless eight made the world darker by 2%!!!
I always reference tetsuya and mahouka when talking about mary sue characters. the anime was just so blatant and in you face about his perfectness. almost smug in how it thinks it can get away with it. for gawdsakes, he invented flying after the show established no one can do it.
it just rubbed me the wrong way, and i’m usually open for a lot of things, but very little about Mahouka made the mary sue smugness palatable.
Death March. I haven’t seen it, but I’m sure I’llhate it if its a mary sue show.
Rather than not bothering me much, I can only accept it. I’m far more flexible than three years ago. If I see naked girls I would just be dissatisfied wouldn’t make a big fuss over it, but simply accept it as a part of the industry. Well, I think eveyone is different, but perhaps the fact that LN adaptations are often rushed helped with it becoming almost “common sense”. While VN haven’t been adapted as much and, imo are even err… deeper than LN (as the immersion is the tale is greater I think?), so the adaptation is far from the original feeling.
Woah, seriously? You don’t remember how in Strike the Blood MC would always say “now, it’s a personal matter/my fight” and then the girl “no, senpai. It’s OUR fight”. Well, i suppose the show itself wasn’t memorable (I pretty much remember only this).
Heh, I wonder how it was like suffering every week. It must have been horrible, as the closest comparison I can make was my experience with Re:Zero and darned Tennis. I remember being weirdly warmed up at the thought that the whole subreddit was suffering with me…
Yeah, I can see why. Tatsuya’s pretty much the meme for OPness. I think he’s going to resolve also the second “impossible poblem for modern magic” which was termonuclear magic sustained fusion or something. I like the series more for the worldbuilding than the characters anyways. I love how detailed magic works there.
Oh, don’t worry about Death March (an Anime is in production by the way). It’s not really serious, heck although it starts like any normal Isekai, after some time it becomes a slice of life. Many of the WN readers jokes about it being the tale of Satou finding the perfect cuisine, as he’s so OP to not even bother with enemies anymore.
Vns have been turned into anime since the early 2000s, and it’s always fascinating how players would immediately hate the adaptation as if not realizing how complicated the game is. Then again, I guess LN readers does it too, but they do more defending of the LN than being mad at the bad adaptation.
lol, I don’t remember those lines. seriously, why didn’t I pick up on those? but I guess I wasn’t as exposed to LN back when I saw Strike Blood. Not like now, where everything is just gawd awful. XD
Lol, ReZero is that bad?
what’s wrong with it that redditors suffer in unison?
do you read the LN? the fancy science words is also a big reason why I hate that anime. it’s like being beaten with a bag of bricks, because I don’t really think it improved much on anything. LN readers love the sciency bits though.
oh gawd, fromyour description, I already hate it. XD
Hm, yeah. Now that you say it, VN have been adapted since before LN were. Or at least before the latter’s adaptation become popular (mainly with Haruhi if I remember right?). VN are harder to adapt in my opinion, as the route mechanic can’t mesh up well with linear storytelling. Some options are episodes arcs like Higurashi or Amagami did, another one is to try to put as much of every route in a linear story (like KyoAni and Madhouse successfully did with Clannad and Steins;Gate). Then you can go and mix all the routes because why not like Deen’s 2006 Fate. I understand, or rather, can somehow understand how difficult is to adapt a VN, but I think the actual format of 12 episodes is simply not fit for them, as they are usually extremely long and have lots of deep thinking from MC (you are pretty much in his head when playing), while Anime is better to visually convey things, rather than wall of text (which is pretty much 99% of VN). Weird how I think VN have greater amount of information that can’t be well adapted than LN. But I think that’s just my view as I’ve read several more LN than VN, and as the latter ones are usually even more effort-needed to complete (that’s the feeling I get at least) than Manga or LNs, I think twice before starting one, so I usually only go with the good-story assured ones.
Oh, well. I think it’s better to not remember them.
Hahaha! Nono, you misunderstood. It’s not because of Re:Zero itself that we suffered (no, well. We did indeed suffer together with and because of the MC), but because of a Tennis tournament which delayed the airing of the most juicy episodes in the beginning (heck, it was exactly during the 4th and 5th episodes I think? When it starts to get seriously good imo). So you could find me staying up all night ranting about Tennis sometimes together with r/Anime. By no means I found Re:Zero bad, the opposite. I freaking loved it, even though it’s a rushed adaptation from what I heard (9 volumes in two cours I think? But it was to finish arc 3, which lasted for lots of volumes, and the studio did a great job anyways as I didn’t feel any rushed pacing, so I don’t mind it). After so many of generic Isekais, Re:Zero felt revolutionary for me, though after thinking it a bit, it might because it felt incredibly novel watching…. such Isekai tale. I would compare it with Madoka Magica and the Mahou Shoujo genre, but I might exaggerate. Well, it seems it got quite the haters though, so I don’t know. I personally loved it, with episode 15 and 18 (heck, this one was adapted 1:1 from the LN! What an amazing job) being the peak for me (and many others).
Hm, I do indeed read the LN. To be honest, I don’t really find it amazing or anything. I think I stopped reading it to begin the 1600-ish chapters long Chinese novel. Although it does get quite interesting sometimes, I think the infodumps are a little too much. Anime toned down it as I enjoyed that a little more I think, or perhaps simply having the visual helped. Apart from seriously weird feeling of excitement I get when reading about how some complicated stuff works (and I don’t even understand it!), it’s not that interesting, at least until the volume I’ve read. Though thing improved in terms of my enjoyment, after I got to the parts past what the Anime adapted already. Not sure about others, but I do indeed love sciency bits. It’s one of the reason I love Toaru’s ESPers.
Heheh, yeah. It’s not for everyone. Although I’m going to still watch it, I can understand that outside the slice of life appeal, it’s not really interesting. As you can sum it up with “What about common-sense?” “Satou broke it”. It’s good for memes. And he’s so OP without even knowing how to chant magic, after he does, even if Gods descend I’m 150% sure that Satou can somehow solve the matter in time for breakfast.
I understand how complex VN can be, but why is the consensus among anime fans is to immediately hate the adaptation for not being like the game, when it’s not possible in the first place? yknow, some people can’t quite accept that the adaptation is subpar, and it’s really weird to me.
oh, the anime was pre empted for a tennis tournament? is that right? lol, that’s interesting. and oh gawd, it’s an LN? a good LN?! I’ll have to check it out to believe it. :p
that’s always the arguement for Mahouka. “it got better in later stories, and it got better after the anime”. well, Ican’t really agree with that, huh? HUH?! hahaha. I just really hate the damn thing. But yeah, I do agree the author has a knack for making you tune in with its world building and science babble. From the long comments in my review about the show, it seems Tetsuya was somehow humanized in later stories, and his mary sue-ness is somehow addressed or something.
yeah, I’l ldo my best to avoid that one…or maybe not, since I actually want to see someone beat Tetsuya in being OP, or maybe just be as silly as him.
Hm, personally I understand that an adaptation won’t ever be like the original source. Now, the fact that this is usually on the negative side (as in, the adaptation is worse) is regretful, but I think it can’t really helped if fans rage when something they love gets butchered. I’m no expert, nor are the other fans probably, but I believe a longer format would improve things. Though if I remember right, the lenght of an Anime isn’t up to the studio but to the producer. I wholly accept that Anime can’t be compared to VN, I don’t regard the latter as the best medium to be involved in a story (again though, I played only the main stream and the best ones, mainly, so mine is a clouded judgement here).
Yeah, that darned tennis tournament… if I remember right it was broadcasted instead of Re:Zero because of a France vs Japan match? Screw it. I never had a real opinion of tennis, but after that I don’t have a great opinion of that. Though, lots of wonderful gifs were born. Actually, after checking the threads in seach of my favourite one (this one by the way, it’s spoiler-ish though, I suggest watching it after you actually discover MC’s power), I think the episodes were around the 7th or so.
> a good LN?!
Hoho, wait wait. Let me fix that for you.
> a good Isekai LN?!
Now, jokes aside, I haven’t read the LN yet, even though I’ve already bought the first 4 volumes (still in a box to unpack), but from the Anime, I seriously loved it. But again, I think it’s the novel feeling I got, as it’s a very different approach for Isekai genre. Just like KonoSuba made a parody of everything, Re:Zero seems to simply reverse our usual concept of Isekai. I also loved the suffering, but that’s my taste, so it might or not be good for you.
Well, for me that was actually the case. I don’t know if it’s simply because I’m reading things I didn’t know though. Is that so? I don’t really see him as more “human” now, but again, I haven’t read the latest volumes yet.
Heh, that’s pretty much a love or hate thing. As it doesn’t really change much over the WN (at least, the LN changed some minor things I believe). Oh, and I said he’s more OP than Tatsuya in my opinion, but that’s only after he learn to chant later, many chapters later on. Heck, he just create absurd magic, among which there is also one similar to Tatsuya’s disintegration or whatever was called again. He also travel parallel dimensions, create world, becomes pretty much a God even though his menu still addresses him as a “human” and many other things. By the way, he depleted 99% (I think, perhaps it was 90%) of a Demon Lord’s HP by throwing him a pebble.
When is an adaptation not butchered? lol. I guess I’m part of the minority though, since I can only speak of the anime and not the rich outstanding experience the original source gave others, which actually makes my view in the matter a bit unfair. I guess I just watched too many bad VN anime that I’m numb over the entire process.
and yes, most studios don’t have a say in what they’re adapting. that’s why A-1 Pictures gave us their very worst when they adapted a BL VN. XD
also Mahou Senseou. have you read it? they butchered the adaptation, and I don’t even know the original source.
is it like a month long tennis thing? that must’ve hurt, and that GIF is funny btw.
and my mom watches tennis. I don’t get what all the fuss is about too. but then again, even I don’t get hyped for any sports event.
a good isekai, lol. I actually don’t mind Isekai stories. Maybe I haven’t seen the newer anime about it though, but I don’t realyl hate it as much as an OP main character.
and yeah, I’ll keep a look out for Re:Zero, lol.
people atleast argued that he isn’t perfect, like all his awesomness has some backlash on him or something. like resurrecting the dead, I believe it takes a toll on him, and this somehow makes him human. but f*ck Mahouka, I hate it. XD
dear gawd, how powerful is this bastard?! oh gawd, I don’t want to watch that. Thank gawd I’m stuck reviewing 2014 shows. I can only imagine how annoying it is to see someone that perfect.
I remember how much that Sakamoto anime tortured me, lol. it’s best to avoid painful ones like that.
Heh, true enough. Well, I’m sure studios also would have their part to say, so it’s not exactly correct to judge without hearing their side first.
Mahou Sensou? I think I heard of it, but never watched or read it.
Can’t remember, I think it was an extraordinary broadcast until Japan lost or something. As only 3 episodes were delayed, I think.
Just wait until you get that part in the Anime, if you still don’t like at that, then you will probably don’t like it as a whole (I would still suggest to watch episode 18 though). Can’t understand what’s so good to watch 3D sport either. Oh, well to each its own I suppose.
Well, Isekai is mostly oversaturated in LN market, Anime is starting to adapt them lately more frequently, so the “Isekai” negative view is getting everywhere.
Ohh, you meant that part. Yeah, if I remember correctly he has to actually experience himself whatever he’s restoring in a very short time, so the pain is multiplied. I still don’t get how his facial expression didn’t change in the least with all that pain though. Haha.
Heh, his OPness is something so set in stone already, to have become common sense among WN readers. That’s why it’s more like a slice of life Anime than an action/adventure one (though the first parts are indeed action themed). He isn’t perfect as a character though, he has his shortcoming, like loving older girls, and quoting him “Specifically about 100 million year old“. He’s also not good with gore.
I remembered finding Sakamoto’s german singing glorious. The punchline wasn’t that good though.
they do it for the money. XD
but some studios are part of a bigger company, and some studios are baby companies of other studios. it’s a big business. Studio AIC has a lot of animation studios, and Wit is Production IG’s baby, right?
and i do wish they have a say in the matter, otherwise it’d be depressing if a great company like 8bit did something awful like Super Sonico solely for the money.
sorry about this studio rant.
mahou sensou is awful. the author disowns the adaptation XD
3 eps is still too much. it reminds me of the uproar when endless eight was airing.
I’ll watch this one eventually, but not for a long while since I’m still reviewing 2014 shows.
and I don’t hate much. I actually even like rewrite, despite how objectively bad it was.
Shokamoka did a post about ln companies not accepting anymore isekai stories, lol. i’m glad i only stick w/ anime, where only mary sue characters are oversaturated. kill me.
that’s the problem w/ tetsuya. he doesn’t feel human. the story clearly has a reason for that, but there’s also a reason why Dejku is so exciting to watch while Mahouka just comes off as smug. so annoyingly smug.
not good w/ gore, bit powerful than a god. yeah, doesn’t balance things. haha.
when did he sing german? i only remember his creepy friend and his mother, lol.
Heh, true enough. And yet, from the actual state of Anime industry, they should understand that that approach isn’t good. Oh, yeah. I think I’ve read/heard of that somewhere before. Can’t remember where or when, but I have that info in my head, so who cares. I believe that some studios have also bought shares of other ones that went bankrupt recently or something? Again, I may be wrong as my source is my unreliable memory. Yeah, I hope that too. Studio and the author. After watching Shirobako, I now feel for the authors…
Nah, don’t worry. Ranting about studios is better than general and normal rants. Not to mention, this is a subject I’m interested in. I wonder when the change will happen, as I’m positive the industry as of now can’t continue for too long, as from what I know it’s pretty much sustained by the few that buy BD. Though I think a good part also come from merchandise, I believe it’s mainly in the pocket of producers and not the studio staff. With also the Chinese rising competition (though as of now the good series are few, if not two), I hope things will get better.
Whew, I’m now glad to have ignored it when I saw it somewhere in the past. Wait, did he really disown it?
Yeah, although our suffering can’t compare to the Endless Eight, it was rather painful. I think some started hating Tennis after that.
Oh, I actually don’t really hate that much either. I might sound quite harsh with adaptation when talking, but heck, I gave Higurashi “10”. I’m really not strict with scores, as I go with “enjoyment” as a unit of measurement. Funnily, even bad shows are rated with a 6 by me. The only ones that go 5 or below are either the ones I couldn’t stand because of too much childish sillyness or because it was really boring, like I actually fell asleep or something. Though I’m trying to become more objective as of lately (still difficult, as I’m heavily influenced by the school system too of having the rating from 0 to 5 as “insufficient”. When rating, to me a 4 equal to 1 pretty much though).
Yeah, contests banned the Isekai setting and set adult as target if I remember right. It was actually a good move to have some variety, but it might kill off some very good stories in my opinion. The Isekai setting by itself isn’t bad, it’s just too simple to exploit, as you just need to give it RPG elements, harem and OP MC to sell. But some pearls such as KonoSuba or Re:Zero are Isekai. So, i would have rather put some limitations on the elements used, rather than totally killing off the genre. Then again, I’m totally fine with wish fulfillment tales, so I’m biased. More Isekai is welcomed by me, though only at the beginning as after some chapters I get bored really fast. Heh, MAL should have a tag with “OP MC”. LN database have them actually… VN ones are even more detailed I think.
Yeah, i can understand that. I did indeed like the part in which Tatsuya was portrayed as a human in a later part where Miyuki (sister) was almost dead. Though I believe his expression didn’t really change much. (by the way, it was a flashback arc, where Tatsuya wasn’t as OP as now).
Yeah, it’s pretty much a comedy/slice of life series as of now. His goal for now is to officially become a God so he can marry with that 100 hundred millions or so old “girl”.
During Karaoke, some dudes made him drink a cola, and he started singing something in german and used the burp to sound like a native speaker. Girls were haunting the room’s door too.
a lot of new studios are popping up though. Yojou Senki is produced by a first time studio, so I don’t think the industry is ever in trouble. If Production IG starts cutting corner then that’s the signal the industry is collapsing.
and yeah, speaking of IG, their main stock holding company owns Xebec, so technically Keijo is owned by Production IG. XD
oh, actually, Osamu Tezuka’s original studio went bankrupt and was bought out by a different company. It’s a shame too, since he was revolutionizing anime at the time (50-60s). Sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be.
and is Shirobako really good? I hear good things, but the title sounds…..like an original anime and I don’t trust original anime. XD
from the interviews I read, which are second translations so who knows, he sounds like a defeated man with a bitter experience when his work got an anime. The show was absolute trash, but some people claim his LN was bad to begin with.
rating with ejoyment can be risky, since your own personal taste changes. but, it is your own experience though, so it doesn’t really matter. I also don’t rate anything below a 5 in MAL. If I can finish it, then the anime passable.
objectivity? lol. you can try, but it’s hard to tame your own bias unless you turn out like me: cynical and numb. objectivity is like killing your own self, and rating on a scale of 1-5 how the murder was done.
what the hell am i talking about????
yeah, i actually want to avoid that show. XD if it gets an anime, i’ll be sure to just slowly back away from it. I’m glad you’re enjoying it though. Is the thick slice of mary sue to your liking? XD
ah, i remember now. He stole all the girls in that group date, but I don’t remember his song. I just remember that I hate him.
Hm, that is indeed true. I think it happened for Drifters and the most recent Berserk too. Although new studios are popping up, I believe they don’t get much revenue with the actual system. The price of BD is insane. I never really did a research though, so the situation may be better than what I believe. Well, the staff that produce Anime, especially for artists, isn’t exclusively one studio’s personnel. I think there is high work mobility there. Even with that, studios have their own style though. So there are several differences in production. Then again, I have no actual idea where this stuff I’m saying comes from, probably accumulated bits of information that I got over the time.
If I were to be asked whether it was good or bad, I would say Shirobako is definitely good. But to be honest, I like it more because it actually tells us something about the Anime industry’s backstage, rather then the story itself being good. Though I laughed quite hard at the scenes in which a poor LN author got his work adapted and suffered so much to actually forget he got an adaptation from how bad it was.
He sounds like the aforementioned LN author in Shirobako. I’m sad for that.
Yeah, I know. I remember giving lots of 10 when I first began. Now if I see my scores of back then, I have hard time as I would like to lower them, but then I think it would be disrespectful towards my past self. Let’s underline the “try”, as most of the time, heck, always I rate with enjoyment as main measurement. Even if I acknoledge the weak points and its downside, you’re still probably going to see me give it a high score. Higurashi and Fate 2006 are great example, even while knowing they are a rushed mess (especially Fate), I still gave them high ratings, because deep inside me, I do know that I enjoyed them a lot. I suppose that over the time everyone starts to become numb though, new stimuli are hard to get.
Heh, don’t worry. Unless they adapt it with like, two cours or more, it won’t differ much from your usual Isekai, so the Anime won’t probably gain much popularity if not among the ones who loves OP characters. Well, it’s enjoyable, but definitely not the thing I look forward the most when seeing my LN list.
Yeah, he also attracted some random women with his singing.
same, lol. I don’t really have any reference about the state of industry, but it judst looks healthy from my view. Although stories of underpaid animators are real. The same goes for a lot of manga artists and such. I guess the system functions where the studios themselves profit, but the money doesn’t trickle down the line properly. kinda the same for the western cartoons, since powerpuff girls is being pushed hard right now but the original creator has no say in the matter.
yeah, i heard it’s about the anime industry. I can’t wait to try it then, since all the stuff about the industry comes from piecing together info about certain anime I review and whatever news I come across with when I do my research.
The Fate 2006 anime is good, but only if you have on idea of the VN. Same for Higurashi, but I think the anime did a respectable adaptation. and enjoyment is a common and useful way to rank aniem since it does help you understand your own personal taste, especially if you branch out and try other genres.
I am really just a tired cynic at this point. Sometimes I would salute an anime despite being bad, but I still need to reign it in because the enjoyment does wane overtime. I’m just a very depressing reviewer, I guess. haha.
ok then. I’m glad I can avoid that LN for now as it’s not yet adapted into an anime. haha. I don’t know what I’ll do though if it does come out, since I will review it eventually. XD
the anime is really weird, and it just annoys me that he is perfect. i love the mother though, especially when Sakamoto was hiding from her.