Three Animé Series, One Confused Blogger

Wonderduck had a comment on a prior post about liking Crescent Love, which I’ve been bagging on pretty harshly lately. It got me to thinking about why, because he sees the exact same things I do: one overused cliché after another. But it’s not just Crescent Love; there are three series that are really leaving me confused this season. Crescent Love, Busou Renkin, and Kanon. If you look at the first two, they’re both cliché filled tripe. But Crescent Love is right on the bubble between “barely good enough to watch” and “just bad enough to demand ridicule” — which is why I’ve done both. (Aside: I can do that, right? I sure hope so. As badly as I ragged Zero, I have rewatched several episodes. It’s just that I hated Louise and Saito not growing up.) Anyway, Busou Renkin is just as clichéd, and I made mild fun of it in my review, but I really like the show. What bugs me is that I can’t quantify why I do. What is it about Crescent Love that I consider it a loss, and Busou Renkin a winner? And what makes me look forward to Kanon more than either of them when it doesn’t even have a plot?

So, I decided to work up a comparison of all three, and just for fun, I threw in Otome as well. Needless to say, this chart is highly subjective. Your miliage may vary, and don’t bother writing letters to tell me what a maroon I am for not scoring them the same as you. Also note that I don’t have “Musical Score” as a catagory, because that’s not enough of a reason to watch a series. If I did score it, the ratings would be: Low, High, Medium, Low. (Just for comparison, Melancholy would have rated somewhere beyond infrared.)

I suppose I need to explain a few of the ratings. Black is “it totally isn’t there” while the various shades of gray are really low scores (darker being worse). Then it ranges upwards from light cyan (shading darker for better) to yellow, which shades through orange to red for the highest scores. I’m giving Crescent Love a low action score despite episode 4, because that appears to be just a one-off for the parody. I had to give Otome wa Boku a light yellow for its humor, but that’s because it’s based on the situations the main character finds himself in. Normally, I hate situational humor because it’s almost always based on the main character making a fool of themselves. I don’t find it funny, and have a hard time even watching such scenes; they make me acutely uncomfortable, and always have since I was a young child. In Otome’s case, the situation is always at the contrivance of Mariya (plus Shion later), and it’s not designed to make a fool out of Mizuho, but to make him acutely uncomfortable and somewhat embarassed. KyoAni gets a slight ding on the animation because I hate the “no-nose look” and they’re using it extensively. (It’s just freakish.)

Ok, so back to the head-to-head comparisons. I know why I like Otome wa Boku. That’s obvious, eh? But what about the other three? Well, I think the chart really explains it (and to me also).

• Crescent Love has only one top score, and all the rest are mediocre or pitifully low. In short, this says if I were to watch it, I’d watch it solely to see the guy get the girl. And you know, that is exactly how I have felt about it since the first episode.
• Busou Renkin has no top scores, but it gets two high scores and four mediums in support. Again, this matches my feel for the show: it’s not a great show, but what it aims to do, it does competently.
• Kanon. Ah, Kanon. The show in which absolutely nothing ever happens. The show for which I had to invent the “Huh?” rating. And yet, it also gets three top scores! Part of the reason I chose black for those ratings is that those items are not meant to be there. This show was designed to have no action and no plot. Not “bare-bones plot” around which a harem anime can be hung, but: Simply. No. Plot. There are subplots galore; one for each of the girls. The series itself is about nothing more and nothing less than us watching Yuuichi Kyon wander around and talk with pretty girls.

I feel like this article probably should go on a bit, but I can’t really think of what about, and I need to call it quits anyway, so I’ll wrap up with a few notes. As I said earlier, this chart actually helped me figure out why I like or dislike each of these shows. I may refine it a bit (especially the confusing color scheme) and make it a part of future series reviews as well. Hey, everyone needs a gimmick. And once again, sorry about slow posting, but this has not been a good year for my health. This last week, I’ve been trying to set a new low. (Considering I had pneumonia earlier this year, that’s not a good thing.) At any rate, I still have a few posts pending, to talk about Pumpkin Scissors, Code Geass, and The Third. I’ll get to them, and since they are more about the series than individual episodes, they won’t exactly get stale.

Ciao for now.