End of Year Round Up? Length is Everything. at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

End of Year Round Up? Length is Everything.

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Popularity: 6% [?] Published by tj_han December 25th, 2006 in Anime

So Otoboku, Happiness, Kujibiki Unbalance and a few other shows have ended, I’ll just briefly talk about them.

Most people claim that 12 parters are on average better than 26-episode shows but this just isn’t true. While the former does avoid needless filler and gets straight into the main plot, there sometimes isn’t enough time to properly tell a story, especially when the series’ plot is episodic in nature. The worst part is, there’s just not enough time to set up a grandstand finale and a crappy ending happens that lacks any impact. Let us look at recent series that have ended which validate this point.

Otoboku’s finale was so low-key and flat that even I, My, Me Strawberry Eggs seemed like Lord of the Rings next to it. Seriously, doesn’t anyone care that their beloved Onee-sama has a large penis? Oh yeah, that’s supposed to be a bonus, not a bane, such is the trap culture these days. 12 episodes wasn’t enough to delve into why Grandpa planted Mizuho into a girls’ school and tie up the budding relationships between the girls (and guy).

Kujibiki Unbalance was worse. The beauty of the original was in mixing deep emo with hilarious dynamic comedy, which this adaptation totally fails at. The emo part is almost up to par, but there’s like zero comedy in the final few episodes. The ending made everything sort of just feel like a process - like how teachers seem students enrol, graduate and repeat the cycle year after year. Point of note: Kisaragi Kasumi is one fantastically evil bitch but totally cool. Oh yeah, the absolute final scene was the funniest in the whole show, the sheer abruptness made it so.

Happiness started promisingly, and its fluffy everyday life episodes were actually quite good. But when that bastard child Ibuki showed up, the series bombed. Suffering the Magikano syndrome, where the successful formula integral to a show is forcefully changed to pave the way to a conclusion, Happiness did itself in with a bullshit final arc. It was a happy ending though, yet one which left utterly no impression.

Black Blood Brothers is yet another series that had a good premise but no time to exploit it. So for 12 episodes or so, Onii-chan vampire and bro run around being emo and brooding while Mimiko makes sexy noises. Will there be a season 2? Feels like one. The ending doesn’t even feel like an ending.

I watch a lot more shows than the above but most are still running. My favourite shows for the Autumn season are Irohanihoheto, Ayakashi Ayashi, Kenichi, Code Geass, Black Lagoon and Death Note, all of which are 24 or more episodes in length. Borderline enjoyable stuff like Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Kanon, Soukou no Strain, Kiba, Busou Renkin, Kekkaishi, Shounen Onmyouji etc are also long series.

I dropped most of the rest, in particular, Asatte no Houkou (stomach-churningly emo), Bartender (never had the mood), Tokimemo (Riku is such a fucker he must die), Megadere (stupid blushing) and a couple of others.

Also watching Haibane Renmei at the moment.

Popularity: 6% [?]

14 Responses to “End of Year Round Up? Length is Everything.”

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1 psgels 23 comments Dec 25th, 2006 at 5:59 pm

I agree with you. I find myself often watching a lot of 26-episode-series, and then two or three 13-episode series. Unless the story is very focused and no time is spent on fillers at all, it’s very hard to really develop these anime.

Oh, and Soukou no Strain actually only has 13 episodes.
2 Stripey 45 comments Dec 25th, 2006 at 6:11 pm

Otoboku’s all about character growth and the coming of age of the shoujo heart. I thought it ended beautifully. There’s still ep 13 in the DVD to look forward to.
3 tj_han 1442 comments Dec 25th, 2006 at 8:17 pm

Ah, I suppose if Stripey looks at it from that angle, it’ll be pretty good. But I think I was waiting for Mizuho to show his penis. I didn’t know there was episode 13, now that’ll be good to look forward to.

SnS has 13 eps only? Ok I sense its doom. With that few episodes, they still have a filler…
4 Waterfall 122 comments Dec 25th, 2006 at 8:20 pm

To tj_han,

The reason for 12 ep series is DVD only episode 13. That’s to make sure the fans buy the DVDs. =P
Yes, I’m so cynical

From
Waterfall

PS. Merry Christmas.
5 Lupus 67 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 12:04 am

Black Blood Brother is very clearly incomplete. I don’t know why the made it a 12 episode series when the setting of the story demands at least 26 if not 52 episodes in order to flesh out the characters.

I haven’t finished or didn’t watch the other 12 episode series you mentioned, so I’m not going to say anything about them. You’re right in saying that there’s too much emo and not enough funnies in Kujian though.
6 Crest 99 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 12:30 am

Surprisingly, my ears was more onto the instrumental part… and it is not that bad. Perhaps my definition is bad is really low but it can always go worse.. much more worse.
7 Seth 78 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 3:14 am

Haibane Renmei, since you mention it, is only 13. Yet I thought it built to a strong conclusion without rushing. Of course I also think it’s like omega best anime of the year of all time.com (well, not exactly, but I liked it).
8 AsouKai 85 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 3:17 am

Busou Renkin is good. It has one of the best, if not the best, anime pairings for this season of anime.

But of course if you find the idea of “I WILL PROTECT YOU EVEN IF I DIE!” idea-based animes (can we call them classics now?) stale then yeah… it’s actually not very entertaining.

Oh heck it, just watch for the Valkyrie Skirt and the Dere Dere moments of Tokiko. =3
9 Charles 15 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 5:29 am

Haibane renmei eh…. now THAT is a good anime, thoughy it’s old for now.
10 Salsashark 8 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 5:41 am

The only series i dropped this year were PPG and Night Head Genesis.
11 rdrake 69 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 2:37 pm

26 episodes or so gives more time to develop that 13 eps will rush…sadly…

NOO! NHK is over!
12 Bridge Bunny 53 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 3:06 pm

One thing I have to give to Busou Renkin: the stupid moments are awfully funny.

And not to mention, Aya Hirano’s fangirl squeal was awesome
13 elohir 28 comments Dec 26th, 2006 at 4:12 pm

“Megadere(stupid blushing)”

and here i recal someone making a post about how blushing makes everything seem much better…
14 Kabitzin 94 comments Dec 30th, 2006 at 12:48 am

Why so eager to see Mizuho’s man rod?

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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