Tensui no Sakuna Hime – 01
To be trustworthy, I am making an attempt to recollect the final PA Works collection that I actually favored. Skip & Idler, Sure Boy Kongming, Seem Ranman – all fairly first rate, however nothing I might name actually memorable. We have come a good distance for the reason that days once I would depend them amongst my favourite studios. Their penchant for doing issues otherwise (till Kongming they’d by no means executed a manga adaptation earlier than) all the time labored of their favor. However their authentic materials has change into increasingly more generic over time and I simply do not feel the inventive spark or visible ambition that I as soon as felt.
The final PAW collection I used to be actually enthusiastic about was in all probability the second season of Uchouten Kazokua brand new adaptation that’s fairly totally different from something PAW has executed earlier than or since. And it was directed by Yoshihara Masayuki, who helmed Tensui no Sakuna Hime. That is why I actually needed to verify this one out – particularly as a result of, as I all the time say, a very powerful workers on an authentic collection is the author. And the author right here is Hanada Jukki, one of the vital skilled and revered within the business. That is largely with diversifications, however he is executed some good authentic work too (like Mahoromatic).
My first impressions weren’t good – a flood of CGI, which is completely misplaced in a PA Works present. That has fortunately gone, however I’ve to say I did fairly nicely. Catastrophe Him doesn’t have the luxurious visuals you’d hope for in a PA Works collection in regards to the gods of their heaven. The primary Kami on the heart right here is the titular hero, a spoiled little harvest goddess who has been residing off the largesse of her lacking dad and mom’ rice harvest and refuses to do any work herself. She has a confidante named Tama who seems like a fats little flying canine, and a greatest buddy named Kokorawa who’s more durable working and smarter, however decrease in rank.
Sakuna’s straightforward life actually goes up in smoke when a gaggle of individuals cross the Bridge of Heaven (which seems and disappears seemingly at random) looking for aid from the grim circumstances within the Decrease Realm. That is all very clearly primarily based on feudal Japan, however barely altered for some purpose (the nation is named “Yanato” and the names of the Kami are barely modified from precise Shinto names). After her carelessness causes the rice warehouse to burn down, Sakuna is banished to Demon Island – with the invading people – by boss Kami Kamuhitsuki to be taught the worth of exhausting work.
Whereas I discover this premiere to be a little bit of an detached one total, I do sense some risk right here. This premise, within the palms of this studio-director-writer triumvirate, must be one thing outstanding—on paper, at the very least. However which will simply be the nostalgia issue speaking. I used to be by no means actually gripped by the story, and not one of the characters made a lot of an impression. However there have been just a few particular person moments that sparked a bit, and I really feel like I owe it to myself to at the very least see if the household tree shines by means of.
Kami no Tou: Tower of God Ouji no Kikan – 01
Ah, Tower of God. What a wierd relationship I’ve with this collection. It’s indisputably my favourite manhwa, although that’s not precisely a excessive bar. However I dropped it so way back that I can barely keep in mind any of the main points today. And even the anime ended about three years in the past. In consequence, a lot of this premiere was a blur to me—bits and items got here flooding again, however my reminiscence of names and faces is patchwork at greatest. ToG is such an extremely weighty and bloated story with so many characters that I threw within the towel (and it is nonetheless going – I shudder to assume the place it’s now).
Nonetheless, regardless of all the things, there have been components of the collection that I actually cherished. And the half that this season ought to cowl is earlier than it actually jumped the shark – there are nonetheless nice issues to come back and nice characters to be launched. The primary season from Telecom Animation Movie was fairly mediocre as an adaptation. This time round we’ve got a brand new studio (The Reply Studio Co Ltd. – means too many durations in that title) and director (Takeuchi Kazuyishi). However I truthfully nonetheless do not count on a lot from the manufacturing – I am fairly stunned a second season was even greenlit, to be trustworthy.
As we return to the story, Bam has survived being pushed off the sting of the tower by that pussbag Rachel (I do not forget that clearly), and Yuri has made his means house to Daddy Jahad with Blue April in tow. A timeskip follows and we be a part of a blond-haired pretender named Ja Wangan on the twentieth ground, getting ready to take the E-Rank examination, not for the primary time. He’s being visited by debt collectors (the examination charges, in the event you recall, are fairly exorbitant), and it’s made clear that that is his final probability to move, or it’s time for organ harvesting for Ja.
We become involved in some modest fumbling within the first part of the examination, centered round guess who. Our little protagonist has grown taller and his hair longer, and he’s clearly modified by his expertise. A bunch of different new faces (certainly one of whom Bam acknowledges as belonging to the dreaded crime group FUG) are additionally launched, whose names you’ll be able to lookup in the event you’re curious. That is nonetheless the nice a part of the manhwa, however I’m nonetheless getting exhausted fascinated with all the event and meandering twists and turns but to come back.
I will have to think twice about whether or not I need to cowl it Kami no Tou this time round. I’ve lots of fond recollections of the subsequent few arcs, however I simply don’t have the endurance—or time to weblog—that I used to. It’s such a relentlessly busy story that even the nice components are exhausting to write down about. I feel I’ll wait and see how I really feel after one other episode or two, as soon as the push of premieres has died down and the season has gotten going.
