More Kure-nai Ramblings
Naturally, instead of being a good girl and working on my essays (which have thankfully been passed up now!) and studying dilligently like I should have the past few weeks, I succumbed to the usual Procrastination Syndrome and ended up catching up on some anime series. I even ended up watching quite a few episodes of a series that wasn't particularly high on my priority list, but more on that in a later entry.
My favourite two anime series of the Spring season so far, and likely to maintain those top positions, is Kure-nai and Toshokan Sensou. This entry will be about my impressions on Kure-nai only, since my ramblings once again stretched out so long that I think I'll spare those reading this from making it a Great Wall of Text. :p
Remember my very favourable impression of Kure-nai? Well, now it's COMPLETELY bowled me over with how amazing it is. Despite the fact that Kure-nai's premise held major potential for falling into loli + harem hijinks, has not only managed to sidestep all those, it's also managed to successfully establish itself as one of the best anime series I've ever watched, with endearing characters, an intriguing and highly absorbing plot, good (and unique) animation, and well-chereographed action scenes. You would think that with the bevy of shounen fighting and action anime series, there would be quite a lot of good action scenes to pick from, but somehow they often end up being really pathetic, perhaps due to budget issues. No such issues with Kure-nai here, since the action scenes, although perhaps rather simple, are all very well executed.
And I can't stress how un-loli the entire show is. Apparently the original novels do have slightly loli-tendencies, but the anime seems to have chosen to ignore those bits completely, a choice with which I heartily approve. There are actually a few scenes of Shinkurou and Murasaki going to a public bath together, and I was seriously impressed with how clean and innocent it all was. There were actually a few shots of frontal nudity with Murasaki, but it was not sexualised at all. Instead, what we got were very adorable older brother-younger sister-esque scenes. I'm so glad they chose not to cheapen Shinkurou and Murasaki's relationship just for the sake of a few laughs.
Re: the fast-paced conversation in the series, which I found very different for an anime but which I liked due to the realistic-ness of it all, it turns out that it IS an intentional move on the director's part - apparently instead of having the seiyuu voice out their roles whilst looking at a video of the animation, as is the norm, what Kure-nai does instead is to pre-record the seiyuus' conversations before putting the audio to the video. It's an unorthodox method that I'm liking very much and works very well for the series, because it leads to awesome scenes like the three-way cross conversation between Yuuno and Murasaki and Shinkurou in episode 3, which I thought was absolutely BRILLIANT.
In terms of characters, I have completely fallen prey to Murasaki's charms. She has GOT to be one one of the cutest kids in anime I have EVER seen. The sardine can pulling scene in episode 2 just about killed me dead with an overdose of cute. I really like the fact that although she's been brought up in an ivory tower and completely pampered, she's actually not so much a real brat as she is simply ignorant of the ways of the world. Unlike most kids her age, once she's been scolded and has her misbehaviour pointed out to her, she immediately acknowledges that she was wrong and has no qualms about apologising to those she's behaved badly towards (Need I add that her over-the-top politeness when apologising is also incredibly adorable?). I agree with the general consensus that her 16 year old seiyuu does an excellent job voicing a believable 7 year old, and even the animation is top-notch and animates all the little kiddy things like how she skips down steps instead of walking down them and in the way she dresses herself. And it's always fun to see an Oujou-sama so eager to learn and experience new things for herself, especially when they're as young and innocent as Murasaki is - the "Look! I'm able to wash my hair by myself! Look at me beam in pure and unrestrained crazed and delighted glee!" scene in episode 4 was another one of those that just about K'Oed me from the cuteness.
Shinkurou, the main lead, is also adorable. In fact, he's so cute that in episode 3, when he's thanking someone whom he's speaking to over the handphone, he actually bows at his handphone. Repeatedly. XD I also like the fact that although he's often portrayed as being too nice and polite to the point of being a pushover at times, it's contrasted by just how SCARY he can get when he's beating people up. I think Sawashiro Miyuki does an awesome job voicing him; his voice is so soothing that I feel like I could listen to it happily all day. :p
Another thing I really like about this series is how kickass some of the female characters are. And I mean it literally, because Yuuno can literally whoop Shinkurou's ass at martial arts; she's definitely miles ahead of him in terms of fighting. (Speaking of Yuuno, I'm starting to really like her; although I initially thought she would turn out to be the typical annoying clingy girl who's googoogaga over the male lead, she's so far shown that she can hold her own and isn't defined only by her connection to Shinkurou.) Also, I like that the Shinkurou-Benika relationship isn't one of a young boy infatuated with a mature older woman, but that Shinkurou in fact looks up to her not as a woman but simply as a strong person whom he's made his goal to catch up to and even surpass. To me, it's actually quite amazing that an anime doesn't stoop to over-sexualising a strong and sexy mature female character, and it's something I think we need more of, to be honest.
So yes, I would definitely recommend Kure-nai to those trying to decide which anime series to try out for the spring season.
hyourinmaru and sapphodil can attest to my attempts to pimp this series to them. :p
My favourite two anime series of the Spring season so far, and likely to maintain those top positions, is Kure-nai and Toshokan Sensou. This entry will be about my impressions on Kure-nai only, since my ramblings once again stretched out so long that I think I'll spare those reading this from making it a Great Wall of Text. :p
Remember my very favourable impression of Kure-nai? Well, now it's COMPLETELY bowled me over with how amazing it is. Despite the fact that Kure-nai's premise held major potential for falling into loli + harem hijinks, has not only managed to sidestep all those, it's also managed to successfully establish itself as one of the best anime series I've ever watched, with endearing characters, an intriguing and highly absorbing plot, good (and unique) animation, and well-chereographed action scenes. You would think that with the bevy of shounen fighting and action anime series, there would be quite a lot of good action scenes to pick from, but somehow they often end up being really pathetic, perhaps due to budget issues. No such issues with Kure-nai here, since the action scenes, although perhaps rather simple, are all very well executed.
And I can't stress how un-loli the entire show is. Apparently the original novels do have slightly loli-tendencies, but the anime seems to have chosen to ignore those bits completely, a choice with which I heartily approve. There are actually a few scenes of Shinkurou and Murasaki going to a public bath together, and I was seriously impressed with how clean and innocent it all was. There were actually a few shots of frontal nudity with Murasaki, but it was not sexualised at all. Instead, what we got were very adorable older brother-younger sister-esque scenes. I'm so glad they chose not to cheapen Shinkurou and Murasaki's relationship just for the sake of a few laughs.
Re: the fast-paced conversation in the series, which I found very different for an anime but which I liked due to the realistic-ness of it all, it turns out that it IS an intentional move on the director's part - apparently instead of having the seiyuu voice out their roles whilst looking at a video of the animation, as is the norm, what Kure-nai does instead is to pre-record the seiyuus' conversations before putting the audio to the video. It's an unorthodox method that I'm liking very much and works very well for the series, because it leads to awesome scenes like the three-way cross conversation between Yuuno and Murasaki and Shinkurou in episode 3, which I thought was absolutely BRILLIANT.
In terms of characters, I have completely fallen prey to Murasaki's charms. She has GOT to be one one of the cutest kids in anime I have EVER seen. The sardine can pulling scene in episode 2 just about killed me dead with an overdose of cute. I really like the fact that although she's been brought up in an ivory tower and completely pampered, she's actually not so much a real brat as she is simply ignorant of the ways of the world. Unlike most kids her age, once she's been scolded and has her misbehaviour pointed out to her, she immediately acknowledges that she was wrong and has no qualms about apologising to those she's behaved badly towards (Need I add that her over-the-top politeness when apologising is also incredibly adorable?). I agree with the general consensus that her 16 year old seiyuu does an excellent job voicing a believable 7 year old, and even the animation is top-notch and animates all the little kiddy things like how she skips down steps instead of walking down them and in the way she dresses herself. And it's always fun to see an Oujou-sama so eager to learn and experience new things for herself, especially when they're as young and innocent as Murasaki is - the "Look! I'm able to wash my hair by myself! Look at me beam in pure and unrestrained crazed and delighted glee!" scene in episode 4 was another one of those that just about K'Oed me from the cuteness.
Shinkurou, the main lead, is also adorable. In fact, he's so cute that in episode 3, when he's thanking someone whom he's speaking to over the handphone, he actually bows at his handphone. Repeatedly. XD I also like the fact that although he's often portrayed as being too nice and polite to the point of being a pushover at times, it's contrasted by just how SCARY he can get when he's beating people up. I think Sawashiro Miyuki does an awesome job voicing him; his voice is so soothing that I feel like I could listen to it happily all day. :p
Another thing I really like about this series is how kickass some of the female characters are. And I mean it literally, because Yuuno can literally whoop Shinkurou's ass at martial arts; she's definitely miles ahead of him in terms of fighting. (Speaking of Yuuno, I'm starting to really like her; although I initially thought she would turn out to be the typical annoying clingy girl who's googoogaga over the male lead, she's so far shown that she can hold her own and isn't defined only by her connection to Shinkurou.) Also, I like that the Shinkurou-Benika relationship isn't one of a young boy infatuated with a mature older woman, but that Shinkurou in fact looks up to her not as a woman but simply as a strong person whom he's made his goal to catch up to and even surpass. To me, it's actually quite amazing that an anime doesn't stoop to over-sexualising a strong and sexy mature female character, and it's something I think we need more of, to be honest.
So yes, I would definitely recommend Kure-nai to those trying to decide which anime series to try out for the spring season.
hyourinmaru and sapphodil can attest to my attempts to pimp this series to them. :p 