april anime
8 Apr 2008 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiIt's so nice to be, once in a while, able to put up one's feet and watch anime XD Surprisingly, all three anime I managed to catch have gotten off to a strong start. I'm actually most surprised by Vampire Knight, which has exceeded (admittedly, low) expectations.
Nabari no Ou
I've always wanted to read this manga after seeing posters of it around, but I've never been able to find it. Basically it's about the ninja world clamouring over a boy who has the ultimate hidden technique sealed inside him, a power he hasn't learned to use yet but willobviously ultimately propel him to become the King of the Hidden (Nabari no Ou).
It's really hard to decide what genre this anime falls into. It has the palette of shoujo anime, but the action sequences are fluid and dynamic like shounen. There's a lot of anime about the main character having a hidden power just waiting to be awakened, and the main character often turns out to be a bit of a bumhead when that comes about. It's hard to pin down on Miharu, who walks through the show with a bored, imperturbable air mixed with sarcastic cheer.
Normally I'm quite fond of Kugimiya Rie, especially since Gintama, but she does Miharu with all the conviction of whoever did Souma Yuki from Fruits Basket, which is.........really girly!!!
This anime has potential, but it's treading a really precarious path of being trite.
xxxHolic Kei
It's been so long since the first season that I don't know if it picked up where it stopped, but the storyline so far is familiar, in that it's appeared in the manga somewhere.
It has started at a good place, a length of plot that retains the humour of the first season - particularly with the way Watanuki screeches at everyone - but also a bit more meatier on the emotional side, stepping into the spiralling tragedy where CLAMP is most comfortable. Of course, the manga by this time has gotten a lot more depressing as well, with Watanuki's eye problems, then Himawari's secret, and now Kohane-chan's dilemma. Again, there has been no crossover from Tsubasa, and it's hard to say whether it will remain the case for the rest of the season. It will certainly be a pity, because the two manga plots are becoming very intertwined, particularly as the finale is approaching.
And Yuuko-san is still as cool as ever ♥
Vampire Knight
I was a bit iffy about this because the manga depended a lot more on its beautiful art rather than riveting story to sell, and there's a tendency in these gothic ventures to overdo on the wangst.
Surprisingly, from the looks of the first episode, they've hired a great scriptwriter for the show. It's tighter structured than the original manga, introducing a lot of the later elements earlier on and probably providing a better sense of continuity than the original did. It does also add in a bit more dialogue than the original, but this is done unintrusively and doesn't detract from the original feel or flow of the manga. The characters continue to develop in the same way, the humour is still there, and the angst is still subtly brewing under the surface.
Obviously the art can never match up to the original, because Hoshino's style is very distinctly manga and doesn't translate at all well across the medium, but it does well enough on its own, and the chibis are really cute ^^ The colours are interesting as there seems to be two distinct palettes, the bright vibrant shoujo colours, and the dark bluish hues of its gothic undertones, and it switches between one and the other, sometimes to quite jarring effect. As for the voice acting...I can't complain about Miyano Mamoru as Zero, of course!
Nabari no Ou
I've always wanted to read this manga after seeing posters of it around, but I've never been able to find it. Basically it's about the ninja world clamouring over a boy who has the ultimate hidden technique sealed inside him, a power he hasn't learned to use yet but will
It's really hard to decide what genre this anime falls into. It has the palette of shoujo anime, but the action sequences are fluid and dynamic like shounen. There's a lot of anime about the main character having a hidden power just waiting to be awakened, and the main character often turns out to be a bit of a bumhead when that comes about. It's hard to pin down on Miharu, who walks through the show with a bored, imperturbable air mixed with sarcastic cheer.
Normally I'm quite fond of Kugimiya Rie, especially since Gintama, but she does Miharu with all the conviction of whoever did Souma Yuki from Fruits Basket, which is.........really girly!!!
This anime has potential, but it's treading a really precarious path of being trite.
xxxHolic Kei
It's been so long since the first season that I don't know if it picked up where it stopped, but the storyline so far is familiar, in that it's appeared in the manga somewhere.
It has started at a good place, a length of plot that retains the humour of the first season - particularly with the way Watanuki screeches at everyone - but also a bit more meatier on the emotional side, stepping into the spiralling tragedy where CLAMP is most comfortable. Of course, the manga by this time has gotten a lot more depressing as well, with Watanuki's eye problems, then Himawari's secret, and now Kohane-chan's dilemma. Again, there has been no crossover from Tsubasa, and it's hard to say whether it will remain the case for the rest of the season. It will certainly be a pity, because the two manga plots are becoming very intertwined, particularly as the finale is approaching.
And Yuuko-san is still as cool as ever ♥
Vampire Knight
I was a bit iffy about this because the manga depended a lot more on its beautiful art rather than riveting story to sell, and there's a tendency in these gothic ventures to overdo on the wangst.
Surprisingly, from the looks of the first episode, they've hired a great scriptwriter for the show. It's tighter structured than the original manga, introducing a lot of the later elements earlier on and probably providing a better sense of continuity than the original did. It does also add in a bit more dialogue than the original, but this is done unintrusively and doesn't detract from the original feel or flow of the manga. The characters continue to develop in the same way, the humour is still there, and the angst is still subtly brewing under the surface.
Obviously the art can never match up to the original, because Hoshino's style is very distinctly manga and doesn't translate at all well across the medium, but it does well enough on its own, and the chibis are really cute ^^ The colours are interesting as there seems to be two distinct palettes, the bright vibrant shoujo colours, and the dark bluish hues of its gothic undertones, and it switches between one and the other, sometimes to quite jarring effect. As for the voice acting...I can't complain about Miyano Mamoru as Zero, of course!
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