Sengoku Basara - Adept at using 2 minutes of awesome to make us forget the 10 episodes of talking and posturing.

Steven called this week the lull week and that so fits; the old season has just about totally ebbed away and the new season is still rushing towards shore. I never look forward to this week in the season but I can’t deny that it presents a good opportunity for a little change of pace. So with this abundance of time I have, I wanted to share what anime-related things I’ve been doing this week instead of trying to watch 17 different anime.

I finally had the time to marathon an anime series and I had a couple in mind. The first was the first season of K-On!.  I’ve mentioned in the past about how I fell into the very small group of people who neither rabidly loved or rabidly hated the first season of K-On!. I wanted to see if I still felt like that or did my feelings change after watching the second season and falling completely head-over-heels for it. If I was a betting man, I’d’ve guessed that I would like it more; much like how the start of Lucky Star was so much more enjoyable the second time around because I could draw from the empathy and love of the characters that developed later in the series.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I still liked the first season of K-On! about the same as I did the first time. I originally found it very difficult to really get into the show because it felt like it couldn’t decide which type of show it was. The pacing was too fast for K-On! to be a relaxing, slice-of-healing anime but a lack of focus on really trying to make it as a rock band made it near impossible to take it seriously. This inability to decide what type of show it was still intruded on the enjoyment of the series during the rewatch, even with all the love the second season added to the franchise. The pacing also muted the best part of the series – the characters and their friendship. For example, I remember not really liking Mugi in the first season and being shocked how much I got to like her in the second season. Rewatching the first season I realized the sole purpose of having first-season-Mugi in the show was to have a walking ATM machine that could advance the story along rapidly with the use of her magic money and connections. It was only in the second season that Mugi becomes  real,  she’s a sheltered girl looking for friendship and to stuff as much fun into her high school life as possible. She quickly becomes one of the best characters of the show int the second season.

If I was scoring the first season, which I’m about to do, I’d give K-On! season 1 a Final Series Score of 8/12 B+ with Rewatchablity: 1/5 – Low, Ending: 2.5/5 – Average, Animation: 4/5 – Excellent.

With that mildly disappointing experience under my belt, I went to the next show on my rewatch list – Sora no Otoshimono. I wanted to see how well it would hold up the second time and to make sure I remembered the important parts for the second season that is about ready to start. Last time, I gave Sora no Otoshimono an 11.5/12 (Near Perfect) for expertly cultivating an absurdist, over-the-top feel that repeatedly surprised, delighted and entertained. For the rewatch, it no longer had the element of surprise so it was going to have to work harder to earn the same level of success and I anticipated that it just couldn’t meet the much higher expectations. So, no surprise, when Sora no Otoshimono didn’t live up to being a 11.5/12. I still really enjoyed it though; the comedy was killer, I liked the characters even more, I could still appreciate how intelligently put together it was, I still got sucked into the plot and Icarus’s crowning moment of awesome was still just as awesome. Upon finishing, I still felt like the show really needed a sequel and this time I only need to wait about a week to see it.

Since I’m in the scoring mood, Sora no Otoshimono Season 1’s amended Final Series Score is 11/12 A+ with Rewatchablity: 4/5 – Medium to High, Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime, Animation: 4/5 – Excellent.

The final anime that I marathoned was completely by accident. I wanted to check one little thing out in Asobi ni Iku Yo! but I found myself popping the next episode in as soon as the previous one finished. This one was definitely better the second time through much like Lucky Star was. If I had to summarize the difference in viewing experiences I’d say Asobi ni Iku Yo! was just easier to enjoy the second time. I liked the characters from the moment they were first introduced and the early plot twists made much more sense this time around. I was also able to better catch and enjoy the references to science fiction that infused the series this time as well as see how the fluffy exterior hid a rather well thought-out story of first contact between two cultures. I’ll forgo the grading Asobi ni Iku Yo! here since I plan on rating it in my seasonal anime top pick award posts that I’m already starting to work on. I hope AIC Plus+ decides on doing a sequel since I think there’s plenty of interesting ways the story for this can go but it’s, probably, really up to DVD/Blu-Ray sales as to if we see Asobi ni Iku Yo! Season 2 or not.

The other thing I did this week was spend time excited over the new anime announced.

I know there’s always been anime movies but doesn’t it feel like lately they’ve become even more popular? Don’t get me wrong, word of a Sengoku Basara movie and a K-On! movie leaves me feeling very excited, especially if the K-On! one will feature all new material like the Sengoku Basara one will have. The two seasons of Sengoku Basara have been fun but they could have been really fun if they had been paced better and more fighting was involved. Which is why I think a movie might just be the perfect form for Sengoku Basara – they won’t have the time to draw the talking and angsting out.

I’m really curious about the K-On! movie. The second series ended absolutely perfectly but since this is a slice-of-life series there’s no reason the story needs to end with them graduating high school. I’d like to see what happens to Yui, Mugi, Mio, and Ritsu when they go to college and I want to see what happens to Azu-nyan, Ui and the light music club. Can one fashion a good, super laid-back, slice-of-life movie or will the movie be more plot focused – maybe on the college version of Afternoon Tea Time making it big or Azu-nyan’s efforts to save the light music club. I hope more details are forthcoming soon!

The third newly announced anime project that got me excited is Berserk. I’m not a fan of Berserk, per say, but I’m curious about the franchise after learning my one sister (the D&D playing one) loves the manga and the original series. When I first heard of a new “animation project” for Berserk, I started thinking about who I’d want to work on the project from my limited understanding of the source material. The name I kept going back to was Madhouse. They have the animation quality and the experience with darker series like Mouryou no Hako, Rainbow, Death Note, Paranoia Agent, Blue Literature, Kurozuka and they have many of the best anime production people in the business working for them. It appears, after a couple of days, that Studio 4˚C will be doing the animation and my guess was completely wrong  . This is a very interesting choice; on one hand I’ve been very impressed with all the works of Studio 4˚C  that I’ve seen but on the other hand they don’t seem very prolific and I wonder if they have the expertise to plan out and execute a long running series (which I’m hoping the announcement is for). I guess we’ll just have to wait a few more days for more information.

That’s how I spent this lull week, what did you do?

I can still remember watching the trailer for Spirited Away and being completely blown away. It was my first time I heard of Studio Ghibli and the director Hayao Miyazaki and I desperately wanted to see Spirited Away in the theater. I got my chance a couple months later in a small theater that had seen much better days; I and my one sister had the theater to ourselves as Miyazaki dazzled us.

That little decrepit theater held on long enough that when Howl’s Moving Castle came out I was able to go see it there. This time I brought my whole family along since they’d all fallen for Miyazaki’s movies as well. It didn’t quite wow me as much as Spirited Away but it was still a very good movie. I can still remember how thrilled I was when I realized that my most favorite voice actor, Crispin Freeman, had a little role amidst all those well-known Hollywood actors.

I missed watching Ponyo in the theaters for a variety of reasons but I still wanted to see it when it came out on DVD. I finally got the chance a month ago and here’s my review.

Final Grade: 5/12 – C+
Rewatchablity: 1/5 – Low; The only reason to ever rewatch this is to look at the pretty animation
Ending: 1.5/5 – Disappointing; Come on Studio Ghibli try a little
Animation: 5/5 – Epic; Studio Ghibli continues to show their godlike mastery of animation
Pros: Studio Ghibli continues to show that CG isn’t needed to make a visually stunning animated film; Ponyo is a fabulous character and the screen comes alive when she’s onscreen; great dub
Cons: A very weak story that felt like it was thrown together from different parts of previous Studio Ghibli movies; outside of Ponyo, the characters where poorly fleshed out; world felt too flat and unrealistic which prevented even a small amount immersion of the viewer into the movie; the ending is so poorly done it deserves another mention for it’s horribleness

Story

The young Ponyo chafes under the overprotected eye of her father and decides to flee to the surface world after she meets a young boy and discovers the power of ham. The father doesn’t like this one bit and tries to keep them apart and is about as successful as you’d probably imagine he’d be considering the movie is called Ponyo.

Thoughts and impressions

I know there’s at least one person out there, at this point, wanting to know why I’m being overcritical on Ponyo. Believe me, I can sympathize with you; this is, after all, a Miyazaki movie and even if it’s not the next Spirited Away (what is) and it still is a pretty movie that has a cute, lovable character (Ponyo) and the movie is really aimed for children and not adult guys. The problem, I realized, is that Miyazaki is completely capable of creating a movie that has an interesting story, that’s told well, set in a realistic feeling world, with memorable characters, that feels original, and is as entertaining for adults is it for child. And by not being truthful about movies like Ponyo I lessen my praise for his works like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, or My Neighbor Totoro because by coddling Ponyo, I’m saying that I don’t expect the same level of greatness from his films as other films.

If I had to use a single word to describe what’s wrong with the movie, I’d have to say “lazy”. Lazy doesn’t cover everything but it does catch most of the problems. There’s the apparent recycling of material from previous Studio Ghibli movies – the final test of the main character and the surreal flooded landscape coming from Spirited Away to name two examples. Ponyo’s dad is an example of the lazy characterization. Is he a mad scientist that’s gone crazy and someone who we should hate or is he a crusading eco-warrior that we should like or is just an overprotective father;  I don’t know and I don’t think Miyazaki knew either. And if he’s so worried about the environment why’d he have a bazillion kids, doesn’t he know they’ll consume precious resources?

Even more grievous is the lazy storytelling. Very little effort was expended in explaining and justifying why the events in the show happened and for what reason. For example, if the reason for the horrible flooding was because of some sort of imbalance when Ponyo decided to spend time on land then why wasn’t Ponyo’s father existence under the sea cause a similar imbalance the other way? The best example of lazy storytelling, however, was how the movie ended. Miyazaki introduced the idea of a test to see if Ponyo could stay on the land without causing an imbalance in nature but when we get to the actual test we find out that all the boy needs to pass the test is a declaration that he intends to watch over Ponyo. Seriously?!? A test is supposed to actually test something. If schools followed this principal then, for example, to get an A on a math test all the student would have to say is they intend to get an A and they’d receive an A. Who cares if the student actually knows the material or not.

And it’s truly a shame that Ponyo wasn’t a better movie because it completely wastes another gorgeous animation effort from Studio Ghibli. I love well done CG animation as much as the next person but there’s something almost magical about traditional, hand-drawn animation. The other thing really wasted was Ponyo herself. Even with my less-then-positive view of the movie, I can find no fault in her. With her sunny personality, laudable determination, and instant love of ham, she definitely does her absolute best to make the movie work. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years time that she has become one of the most well-liked characters of the Studio Ghibli movies.

Turning this movie over in my head, the one thought that keeps coming back to me is that I wonder if Studio Ghibli passed on fixing the problems of this movie because it was a Miyazaki movie and they didn’t want to correct him. I’d hate to think this was what happened but I can’t think of a better explanation  that explains the obvious deficiencies. In the end, even with all it’s problems, it’s still a cute movie and worth a single watch from fans of Studio Ghibli and fans of high quality animation. Hopefully, this was a single hiccup and Miyazaki will return with a good movie.