アニ・ノート

I clenched my teeth to complete the episode. Did I just say that animation in Tayutama was sketchy? Now I’m sorry about it. This is sketchy.

But a bigger issue is the stupidity of the protagonist. SDB mentioned recently somewhere (possibly in someone’s else comments and in a different context) how anime heroes ought to be better than ourselves. But the guy is no Cyrus Smith [1]. Certainly Shiraishi takes his time getting his act together in Mahoraba, but at least he’s not stupid.

[1] I cannot help thinking that a big Rogallo wing carrying a minimal survivalist payload and a skin-on-frame boat ought to be possible given the island’s technology level. There are some practical issues with e.g. water though. Another possibility is a super-dreadnaught of all rafts putting Tor Heyerdal’s Kon-Tiki to shame. It probably could overcome whirlpools by brute force. One way or ther other, Cyrus Smith surely would come up with something.

UPDATE: Steven was kind enough to send me the reference to his comment. I’m going to quote with its context, to show how I extend the context:

Sure, I know that what I’m seeing Saki do is impossible. But that doesn’t matter. Sports stories always involve a degree of super-human ability, mental or physical or spiritual; it’s part of the fantasy element of the story.

Why would I want to watch a show about someone who was stiflingly normal? I want my heros to be heroic. I expect them to be better than I could ever be. That’s not a flaw in Saki, it’s a virtue.

The problem with Nagasarete Airantou is that far from being more heroic than us, the hero is actually worse. I can do better. In fact I could do better when I was at his age. That’s just pathetic.

The show is not even a fanservice romp. Look at girls in Magikano and here. Earth and Heavens!

UPDATE: Steven decided to watch it anyway. Either I wasn’t forceful enough in my condemnation above or my authority was weak. He found the episode “appallingly stupid”.

It was surprisingly decent.

Animation is a bit sketchy, its line style reminding me of Sekirei. Not many shadows though.

One bothersome thing was how confusing the rules for seeing deities were. Yuuri can see the ones surrounding the bossy Absurdly Powerful Council President from Other School. However, the escaped tayutai are only seen by Mashiro. I suspect it’s by design, since whatever/whoever Yuuri sees is translucent, and tayutai surrounding Mashiro are animated solid. Perhaps as a viewer, I’m supposed to enjoy figuring out what’s going on, but somehow I don’t.

The post at The Null Set provides for a hilarious contradiction with my own impression:

I thought the animation quality was just abysmal compared to what Shaft is capable of doing, the animation style was very generic, and the characters were drawn really sloppily – there must have been at least a half dozen times when the characters looked cross-eyed. Compounding this, they threw us into the story well past the starting point of the series (as seen in episode 2) and it just didn’t work.

Any commentary would be superfluous.

Actually, here’s one: unlike Charles Solomon’s “languid gay instructor“, Steelbound’s opinion is entirely legitimate.