(no subject)
Very srs thoughts on the 1st episode of the D.Gray-Man anime that I wrote at midnight so please forgive incoherency and spelling/grammar errors, woohoo. I am making it my goal to watch all of the anime and make notes like this, because I am the best at time management.
Episode 1
We’ll start at the start, the opening. I like the opening! I don’t have any massive standards with music so the song is cool with me. The video itself is slightly full of spoilers if you know what spoilers you’re looking for **cough14thcough**. I like the Exorcists and Noah taking turns to be awesome, Tyki is looking both terrifying and hot and there is a hilarious picture of Cross traumatising Allen. The animation looks pretty solid throughout, although there is one scene with Lenalee kicking an akuma. She looks awesome before it whilst activating her boots, and she looks awesome after it, but the kick itself just looks silly to me. THAT IS MY ONLY COMPLAINT. It ends with a cute picture of the OT4 chilling against a wall.
Character design! I don’t like Allen’s hair. They cut his bangs short in the anime and it doesn’t look as nice as his manga haircut(s). This is very nitpicky of me, I know, but I do think it’s a poor and trivial choice. He looks okay other than that, they made him nice and muscular which is A++, and he looks cute in his coat. He isn’t as pretty as he is in the manga, but nobody is as pretty as they are in the manga so we’ll forgive this. I am also not very keen on Allen’s voice, it sounds so young. There are times when it’s mature and chill, but most of the time it really does sound like a little boy. This would be fine if Allen didn’t have a running gag about being mistaken for an old man; he’s meant to be super mature and strong to the point where other characters forget he’s just a 15 year old kid. With a voice like that, it would be pretty damn hard to forget he’s so young. Mostly though, I am just upset they didn’t give him a British accent. I’ll go into the other characters as they arrive in the story.
The first episode if fairly accurate to the manga, down to the exact expressions. It follows the story almost exactly with a few minor changes.
I really have no big comments to make on this episode. It follows the manga almost exactly, which whilst being nice and accurate and pretty also means it’s… just the manga chapter again. The things that are weird about the plot are the same as in the manga (why is Allen riding a cloud of bats? Why is the Earl wandering the streets without people freaking out about the obvious creepy monster thing? Why is Allen standing around whilst a bunch of police officers get shot, he has plenty of time to jump in the way of them as he is prone to do etc. etc.) Moore’s voice actor is good! She portrays the right amount of emotion and despair and she sounds feminine and pretty whilst also remaining her mature seriousness. All the background character voice actors seem pretty cool, nobody is absolutely horrible. The change in background makes Moore seem pretty selfish and bratty though, Moore why are you in a huff with your sister on her wedding day that is bad form she will be nervous enough already >( And then when she gets crushed she shows concern for Mark instead of her sister who just died horribly.
The background music is fitting throughout, it’s creepy when it needs to be creepy and ominous when it needs to be ominous, the light hearted parts are cute, well done music team! The animation is good, very creepy looking when it needs to be, very Hoshino. The scene where Allen and Moore get shot across the street into the church is the only thing that really stood out as looking at all silly to me, because looking at people get shot that far and be just peachy afterwards is silly.
The ending theme song is okay. It’s kind of bland to me and unexciting, I don’t hate it but I’m not adding it to my playlist any time soon. The video itself is equally okay. There is one really pretty picture of Allen walking up the path to the Order which I particularly like, but no other moments stand out to me. I like cute ending movies, or dramatic ones. When it’s just a bunch of pictures, it bores me. Sure the pictures are pretty enough, and Allen and Cross dressed as the Earl standing with him is lulzy and foreshadowing (**coughcough14thagaincough**), but it’s not something I have much desire to watch again. And really, the Exorcists spend far too long posing dramatically, don’t they have monsters to be fighting or something? Lavi has his hammer out, presumably they are on a mission, yet there they are posturing. This is the problem I have with such ending themes, there could be people screaming and dying below, covered by the soundtrack, crying out for a hero to save them. Oh thank god, there are four right there! Surely they will jump in and do their jobs! Yep, any minute now they’re going to get down from that rooftop and… No? Really? Well that’s fine, there is dramatic full moon light and strong wind billowing your coats, we wouldn’t want to ruin the mood or anything by asking you to save our fucking lives. You just stand there with your weapons out doing NOTHING.(Even Tim’s wings are billowing. That is just overkill).
Episode 1
We’ll start at the start, the opening. I like the opening! I don’t have any massive standards with music so the song is cool with me. The video itself is slightly full of spoilers if you know what spoilers you’re looking for **cough14thcough**. I like the Exorcists and Noah taking turns to be awesome, Tyki is looking both terrifying and hot and there is a hilarious picture of Cross traumatising Allen. The animation looks pretty solid throughout, although there is one scene with Lenalee kicking an akuma. She looks awesome before it whilst activating her boots, and she looks awesome after it, but the kick itself just looks silly to me. THAT IS MY ONLY COMPLAINT. It ends with a cute picture of the OT4 chilling against a wall.
Character design! I don’t like Allen’s hair. They cut his bangs short in the anime and it doesn’t look as nice as his manga haircut(s). This is very nitpicky of me, I know, but I do think it’s a poor and trivial choice. He looks okay other than that, they made him nice and muscular which is A++, and he looks cute in his coat. He isn’t as pretty as he is in the manga, but nobody is as pretty as they are in the manga so we’ll forgive this. I am also not very keen on Allen’s voice, it sounds so young. There are times when it’s mature and chill, but most of the time it really does sound like a little boy. This would be fine if Allen didn’t have a running gag about being mistaken for an old man; he’s meant to be super mature and strong to the point where other characters forget he’s just a 15 year old kid. With a voice like that, it would be pretty damn hard to forget he’s so young. Mostly though, I am just upset they didn’t give him a British accent. I’ll go into the other characters as they arrive in the story.
The first episode if fairly accurate to the manga, down to the exact expressions. It follows the story almost exactly with a few minor changes.
- They switch around the opening of manga chapter 2 to here because for some reason the anime switched one of Allen’s ‘travelling to the Order’ adventures to… After he joined the Order. Logical! But I’ll get to that in episode two.
- In the manga, Mark and Claire were a married priest and a nun. NO HOSHINO, NO. Obviously neither of these people are allowed to marry, in the anime they don’t really make any mention of them being clergymen. They are just a very religious couple. For extra heartbreak points, Claire dies on their wedding day
- The anime loses Hamfisted Irony points for having a chandelier instead of a giant cross kill Claire whilst they were talking about God never betraying those who believed in him :’)
- Claire gets +50 cool points from her manga counterpart for seeing the chandelier and pushing Mark out of the way instead of getting herself to safety first.
- Moore is blonde in the manga but a brunette in the anime. Sure why not.
- They keep calling her 'Crea' o japan
I really have no big comments to make on this episode. It follows the manga almost exactly, which whilst being nice and accurate and pretty also means it’s… just the manga chapter again. The things that are weird about the plot are the same as in the manga (why is Allen riding a cloud of bats? Why is the Earl wandering the streets without people freaking out about the obvious creepy monster thing? Why is Allen standing around whilst a bunch of police officers get shot, he has plenty of time to jump in the way of them as he is prone to do etc. etc.) Moore’s voice actor is good! She portrays the right amount of emotion and despair and she sounds feminine and pretty whilst also remaining her mature seriousness. All the background character voice actors seem pretty cool, nobody is absolutely horrible. The change in background makes Moore seem pretty selfish and bratty though, Moore why are you in a huff with your sister on her wedding day that is bad form she will be nervous enough already >( And then when she gets crushed she shows concern for Mark instead of her sister who just died horribly.
The background music is fitting throughout, it’s creepy when it needs to be creepy and ominous when it needs to be ominous, the light hearted parts are cute, well done music team! The animation is good, very creepy looking when it needs to be, very Hoshino. The scene where Allen and Moore get shot across the street into the church is the only thing that really stood out as looking at all silly to me, because looking at people get shot that far and be just peachy afterwards is silly.
The ending theme song is okay. It’s kind of bland to me and unexciting, I don’t hate it but I’m not adding it to my playlist any time soon. The video itself is equally okay. There is one really pretty picture of Allen walking up the path to the Order which I particularly like, but no other moments stand out to me. I like cute ending movies, or dramatic ones. When it’s just a bunch of pictures, it bores me. Sure the pictures are pretty enough, and Allen and Cross dressed as the Earl standing with him is lulzy and foreshadowing (**coughcough14thagaincough**), but it’s not something I have much desire to watch again. And really, the Exorcists spend far too long posing dramatically, don’t they have monsters to be fighting or something? Lavi has his hammer out, presumably they are on a mission, yet there they are posturing. This is the problem I have with such ending themes, there could be people screaming and dying below, covered by the soundtrack, crying out for a hero to save them. Oh thank god, there are four right there! Surely they will jump in and do their jobs! Yep, any minute now they’re going to get down from that rooftop and… No? Really? Well that’s fine, there is dramatic full moon light and strong wind billowing your coats, we wouldn’t want to ruin the mood or anything by asking you to save our fucking lives. You just stand there with your weapons out doing NOTHING.(Even Tim’s wings are billowing. That is just overkill).