Summer Anime 2009

[firehawk12]

On paper, I kind of liked Rosia de Campo... mainly because it inverted the whole trope. Of course, it just ended up being another Harem series.

Thankfully, we have Bakemonogatari... although I guess she's not a Vampire after the first arc.

 

[zakkrusz]

Rosario + Vampire was more interesting for all the crazy amount of fanservice than the fact it had vampires.

Also yeah, Bakemonogatari is a great show, looking forward to Shaft releasing the final 3 episodes.

 

[clint g]

Yeah Bakemono was great. In many ways the art style reminded me of another shaft production, Ef and its sequel, another great show

 

[zakkrusz]

Bakemonogatari's 13th episode is now released, just in case somebody hasn't found it yet.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Thread Resurrection!

Anyhoo, I finally got around to watching Clannad After Story over the weekend...

 

[zakkrusz]

Yeah, I had a similar reaction, though less extreme. The movie did a much better job of telling the story as

Spoiler: the movie

Nagisa stayed dead and it was just about Tomoya coming to terms with his grief and accepting his child.

I have to say though little Ushio is just adorable.

 

[firehawk12]

I take it that's supposed to be really wacky?

 

[zakkrusz]

Clannad is a moe themed comedy/drama, it's what Kyoto Animation did before K-On. It's second season, After Story's ending is somewhat "love-it-or-hate-it".

 

[CorporalClegg]

Yeah, I had a similar reaction, though less extreme. The movie did a much better job of telling the story as

Spoiler: the movie

Nagisa stayed dead and it was just about Tomoya coming to terms with his grief and accepting his child.

I'll probably check that out someday. It sounds like a better way to go.

I have to say though little Ushio is just adorable.

Oh my God, yes!

After Story's ending is somewhat "love-it-or-hate-it".

Spoiler: Ending

While I get it was the whole point of the story, a reset button is still a reset button. And I hate those.
Though I admit I didn't see it coming. I expected Okazaki to "move on" with Kyou.

The point is, not only did it detract from the story, it was kind of unnecessary. If you get right down to it, the whole Clannad arc isn't really about Okazaki and Nagisa but rather Okazaki and Shio, or rather, the parent/guardian, child dyad.

Also, at least recently, it seems as if studios feel obligated to put in some sort of sci-fi element when one isn't needed or even warranted. I think this is one such case.

 

[zakkrusz]

Yeah, I agree, it just seems like they finished the story at that certain point and went "wait a minute we still have X number of episodes left, lets make somethin' up." Unfortunately, that was adapted from the game instead so I don't know how to explain it other than bad writing.

The only dowside to watching the movie is that it's animated by TOEI and well it's an obvious decline in quality from Kyoto Animation.