so-ra-no-wo-to 1
Categories: episodic review
Tagged: sora no woto
13 Comments »
“The new girl… sucks.”
I’ve seen about fifty variations of “IZ DIS SUM K-ON!?” concerning So-Ra-No-Wo-To in the past week. Let me put those concerns to rest. Yui plays a guitar. Kanata plays a trumpet. Very different.
(More importantly, if I told you that So-Ra-No-Wo-To doesn’t share a character designer with K-On!, would you believe me?)
The animation in this show… beautiful. Haven’t been this impressed since Eden of the East. Backgrounds are well-drawn and detailed, characters are vivid, and A-1 put a lot of effort into it. They’ve vastly improved since Birdy the Mighty and Fairy Tail.
(I liked the whole splashing water festival… shades of tomatina… but I like Rio as the Flame Maiden more. Come on, long haired musical beauty who is easily costume raped or tricked? I can’t think of another one!)
See, if A-1 were serious in reprising K-On! only in Kino’s Travel‘s setting, they should have just hired the same five seiyuu to reprise roles for the five trumpeters. Instead… well… when Rio opened her mouth for the first time, I was like, “ZOMG! MARIYA!!!” Yes, Kobayashi Yu using her Mariya voice.
Don’t say “Yui” just because Kanata looks similar, plays music, has the same dumb look, possibly dry humps her instrument, and is a ditz. Okay… maybe this is why I’m so excited about Dance in the Vampire Bund. Hiroyuki Yoshino is also the scriptwriter for So-Ra-No-Wo-To. If this show is derivative from K-On!, I can only hope what Vampire Bund is a derivative of. (Let’s just say I’m hoping for Zero to show up.)
(Has Kanata named her trumpet yet? She has to, right? And, please, no “one time at military band camp” jokes. We’re better than that. K?)
(Kanata has perfect pitch, yet can’t play well? Does remind me of Yui before Sawako-sensei powered her up.)
Worst. Uniforms. Ever.
So uncute, so unflattering, and they’re much uglier than the Valkyria uniforms. Sheesh, who wants to join a military that doesn’t have mini-skirts? You’d agree with me, right, Roy Mustang?
Kanata reminds me of Mayoi as well. Maybe it’s because of the huge X-Box-sized (classic 00’s meme!) backpack. Maybe it’s because she’s always lost. Maybe it’s because she’s missing her mom. I dunno. What I do know… how the hell did she swim out of the lake with such a huge backpack on? Wouldn’t the sensible thing to do be to unhook the backpack and then swim on? And you’re telling me that it’s believable than the trumpeter is strong enough to swim up with a backpack? Gah. Anime sometimes needs that Common Sense Czar who asks things like, “Wait, she’s going to swim up with a heavy backpack?” or “Wait, are we sure it’s a good idea animated Endless Eight eight different times?”
(Of course, it’ll be more fun if we can get someone like, oh, Gilbert Arenas as the Common Sense Czar. That would be wonderful. It’s not like he has anything else going on right now.)
… or maybe more in common with Valkryia Chronicles. Are there like actual soldiers, or this town defended by just five trumpeting girls? Are they going to fight their enemies like Ulala in Space Channel 5? Chu chu! Andohbytheway, more shit has happened in this episode of So-Ra-No-Wo-To than the entire series of Haibane Renmei.
(I think that’s the best case comparison for So-Ra-No-Wo-To. I can’t imagine this being a dramatic or comedic series. It’s going to be light hearted, low cal, but also low amplitude and most likely forgettable. It’s not going to have the same moe~ moe~ kyun! factor that permeates K-On! or the zomgwtfbbq it’s Nakameguro factor of Seitokai. Or the war factor of Valkyria. Or the morality play of Kino. But try watching this show after a Sora no Otoshimono marathon… you’d appreciate more, methinks.)
I liked the play… so this is what people did before the intertubes (classic 00’s meme!) came along.
Where the Wild Things Are!
Where are my delicious Mugi snacks? That should be a brand name: “Delicious Mugi Snacks” with a picture of Mugi winking in approval. I’d buy those snacks, if you know what I mean (classic 00’s meme!).
13 Responses to “so-ra-no-wo-to 1”
Leave a Reply
Isn’t Rio the one to do the costume raping, rather than the one getting shoved into new outfits?
Three first episode posts in the last 24 hours? Jason’s evidently decided that thin slicing is so last decade.
They packed more quality into the first 3 minutes of this show than the entire Fall 2009 TV season combined.
Arenas is a dumbass. The Wizards should tank this season and try to get John Wall.
Thank you. Now I can rest in peace knowing a show is now being compared with three shows.
I like this show. Never mind K-On in Valkyria Chronicles with a character from Bakamonogatari, and never mind I liked two out of the three shows mentioned. The first episode, at least, gave off a slight… Aria-feel; nothing overly exciting and interesting, but a nice calm smooth ride down the wherever the Italians ride their gondolas. I’m hoping the story will take on a Manabi Straight turn, because I think I fall into a comatose state when watching Aria. Not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but you know.
Hey, Rakka had alot of shit happen to her!
The mecha in the hangar caught my interest. I’ll give this a chance now.
“Oh, oh, and this one time, at military band camp…”
Make that 4 shows. I honestly an Allison to Lillia motif/gestalt/feel going on with this. Odd, yes? But true, I think. Don’t take this literally one time there now. ((Remember, y’all metaphor is NOT simile)).
Make that 5 shows. The underwater giant winged skeleton reminded me of Macross Zero.
Now if only we get a naked Rio playing her trumpet in a secluded lake scene…
Well, if you don’t want to wait for sora no woto to finish, and you don’t mind the trumpet being a bass guitar…
The setting reminded me of “Pumpkin Scissors”: a post-war world that fought until the countries at war crumbled and finally called a truce. The “platoon” is obviously a band of war orphans that the military put in uniform and assigned to a remote, low-threat post to put them somewhere safe and where they can be cared for. Their uniforms don’t fit because these are cast-offs, just like they are.
The series has a lot of potential. There’s the mystery of the giant, headless skeleton in the lake below the town and how a music school turned into a “time fortress” during the war. The characters are fresh and engaging. It should be quite a ride.
Good lord, the last picture looks like the product of Mugi-chan and Sawa-chan-sensei’s child… grown up, of course.