Natsu no Arashi 02: Dropping a good anime?
Posted: April 14, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized 9 Comments »
But I didn't.
I just watched episode two of SHAFT’s new anime, and I’m dropping it.
This was one of my most anticipated anime for this season (along with Shangri-La and Hatsukoi Limited), and I was really hoping for some epicness. I’ve seen Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei, REC, and ef, and I’ve loved all of them. I truly thought that SHAFT was the company… until last week, when I saw Natsu no Arashi episode 1.
SHAFT is famous for the artistic genius in each of the anime it produces, and Natsu no Arashi ain’t no exception. As REC made use of light and shading, as ef made use of abstract, colorful art, and as Zetsubou Sensei made use of backgrounds filled with color (or lack thereof), Natsu no Arashi makes use of angular shadows.
Sure, there’s a bunch of shading, abstract art, and color, but there’s rarely a scene in Natsu no Arashi without the familiar hexagonal shadow in the background (or sometimes, foreground).
…
The humor here doesn’t strike me as funny. I didn’t laugh at all when the tough-looking guy got arrested for speeding, though I didn’t expect it…
…
You know what, screw it. I’m just going to let this post degenerate into one random post filled with crap. I’m not good with things involving seriousness.
But before I do: I gave Natsu no Arashi a 6/10 on MAL. Dropped. Will pick up again if I hear numerous reports of awesome.
=
+
RIGHT?
When this scene came up, I was just like “lolwut.”
Con Artist girl looks kind of like Haruka, and Buff Dude reminded me of Nose Hair Man (the latter, I’ve no idea why. They’re both male?).
IS THAT YOU, CHIHIRO?!?
NOZOMU ITOSHIKI!?!
….what?
Oh, I didn’t get the “catchphrase” thing. I’m pretty sure it’s an allusion, but…
Oh God, not more Munto…
He’s kinda like Johnny Bravo.
And to end this ultimately not-very-useful post:
^ That definitely qualifies for the epic facial expressions gallery.
Harima Kenji and Tsukamoto Tenma (School Rumble) make an appearance in the left screen in 16:19.
I also was somewhat disappointed in Natsu no Arashi. Hidamari Sketch x 365 was the last SHAFT show I liked…
@ Joe Stan: Here? I’ve never watched School Rumble, but I’ve seen lots of art featuring Kenji, so I guess I should’ve spotted that…! Nice catch, though! 😀
@ Kitsune: Oh wow, Hidamari Sketch x365 looks 100% SHAFT. I don’t really like the character designs, though. Still, I might want to check it out. :]
I’ve very glad someone else is posting about this and is as disappointed as I am. Not only is this SHAFt who is by far my favorite studio, but it is Akiyuki chinbo who is by FARRR my favorite director. And yet somehow, this shit sucks ass. Now, I think it probably has a lot to do with the tons of bitching SHAFT has gotten lately to make something more true to the original, so they probably wanted to do that. But the origianl obviously sucks fucking ass, so this shit is a clunker. I’ll be hibernating till the next SZS or Pani Poni Dash or Hidamari Sketch OVA.
“Azure feline automaton”…”blue robot cat”…Doraemon. Who does have a catch-phrase, I think, but I don’t know it.
I haven’t decided what to do about this series, yet, but I wasn’t really taken by the first episode.
ill repeat once again my anger for this show….
i came looking because of promises of summer romance and got crap.
Natsu no Arashi sees to be causing the most drama for a lot of SHAFT/shinbo fanboys and it’s certainly causing drama for me. I want so much to like this show. It’s got so many good things going for it:
1. Akiyuki Shinbo – goes without saying a good thing
2. School Rumble Mangaka – despite cop-out end, probably one of the funniest shows I’ve ever watched with some of my favorite characters of all time.
3. Sanpei Yuuko doing her Renton Thurston young kid voice
4. The other seiyuu: (Shiraishi Ryoko, Horie Yui, Ai Nonaka, Hitomi Nabatame to name a few.
It’s damn hard though, when they started throwing in more references I started liking it more, but not enough. I’m not dropping it but it’s probably the biggest disappointment for me this season just ahead of Asura Cryin’.
@ 21stcenturydigitalboy: Definitely. Still, with SHAFT being a company known to do things differently, why stick so closely to the original? (and holy shit, at least make the character design better!)
@ dm00: Oh wow, Doraemon didn’t even register in my head! Yeah, episode 1 was one failure of a “hook” to the series… but I decided to give it another chance (in retrospect, I could’ve used that 25 minutes for something better).
@ jerseyse410: Yeah, I was expecting a weird romance… but sci-fi slice-of-life (and some romance) is pretty unique, and I thought SHAFT could pull it off… D:
@ Taka: Akiyuki Shinbo is a god. As for the others… I think Saki and Queen’s Blade were bigger disappointments – all-star casts of seiyuu, and neither of them struck me as “good” or even “average.”
Disappointment vs. expectation. I didn’t expect much out of Saki or Queen’s Blade.