all fixed up with the shoujo high (Honey & Clover, Paradise Kiss ep. 1)
The timing could definitely be worse--Honey and Clover ended last week, much more suddenly than I was expecting [see also: 24 ep. series and BLAH], but today Paradise Kiss showed up for download.
My final verdict on the Honey and Clover anime is that I really enjoyed it (and would like to see the manga--surprise, surprise!), but IMO it did wind up having pacing problems. Years went by during the first large swath of episodes, and just when I was getting used to how much time was whipping by, it suddenly shifted focus from being mostly-ensemble-with-a-viewpoint-character to having several episodes that were focused on Takemoto's internal world rather than his external one. And I realize that was the set-up, that the show is bookended by his desire to understand himself and see what he can be, that the rest of the cast often serve as an exploration of his interaction with the world. But to have it go so fast, and then be meandering along, and then be *over* . . . it really didn't work for me on that level.
So: ParaKiss! AnimeNewsNetwork lists it as scheduled for a 12-episode run, which sounds like a reasonable number. I know I mentioned at least once that the designs looked kind of erratic in previews, and the animation style fluctuates a lot in the actual anime. There's a lot of surreal stuff happening around the fringes of the action--mostly at the beginning, but I saw some strange things go by out of the corner of my eye as the episode went on. Most of the detail work went into the main cast, which is reasonable enough; people around them seemed to get about as much attention as the scenery (or less, really). I think Yukari and Miwako came off the best, and George and Isabella look pretty good. Arashi . . . *twitches* Not so happy with his design. Maybe it's just that they made no effort to make him pretty, when he's got really good facial structure in the manga. (Maybe the name "Arashi" is jinxed when it comes to animation.)
What I particularly disliked is that the series switches to simpler, silly designs for the frazzled/silly emotional moments. I know that's common, and it's not enough to really put me off, but the change is very pronounced in ParaKiss, and I don't think I've *ever* liked this particular stylistic convention. Changing the facial designs I can deal with, but changing the *whole* design gets on my nerves. Blah. (Is there a technical word for this? Nothing's coming to mind.)
The voicework was pretty good, I think. Isabella's voice is *very* high--I expected a feminine range, but a lower one. It kept startling me. Come to that, Yukari and George both sounded older than I'd expected--not so surprising in his case, but Yukari . . . maybe they were aiming to balance Miwako? Anyway, it all sounded fine. ^_^
It's nice to have a regularly-scheduled dose of shoujo again, although I really should balance it out more (watching Monster with the husband helps, but I should put more of a dent in Speed Grapher too). And now I need to go off and do mundane things. Alas.
My final verdict on the Honey and Clover anime is that I really enjoyed it (and would like to see the manga--surprise, surprise!), but IMO it did wind up having pacing problems. Years went by during the first large swath of episodes, and just when I was getting used to how much time was whipping by, it suddenly shifted focus from being mostly-ensemble-with-a-viewpoint-character to having several episodes that were focused on Takemoto's internal world rather than his external one. And I realize that was the set-up, that the show is bookended by his desire to understand himself and see what he can be, that the rest of the cast often serve as an exploration of his interaction with the world. But to have it go so fast, and then be meandering along, and then be *over* . . . it really didn't work for me on that level.
So: ParaKiss! AnimeNewsNetwork lists it as scheduled for a 12-episode run, which sounds like a reasonable number. I know I mentioned at least once that the designs looked kind of erratic in previews, and the animation style fluctuates a lot in the actual anime. There's a lot of surreal stuff happening around the fringes of the action--mostly at the beginning, but I saw some strange things go by out of the corner of my eye as the episode went on. Most of the detail work went into the main cast, which is reasonable enough; people around them seemed to get about as much attention as the scenery (or less, really). I think Yukari and Miwako came off the best, and George and Isabella look pretty good. Arashi . . . *twitches* Not so happy with his design. Maybe it's just that they made no effort to make him pretty, when he's got really good facial structure in the manga. (Maybe the name "Arashi" is jinxed when it comes to animation.)
What I particularly disliked is that the series switches to simpler, silly designs for the frazzled/silly emotional moments. I know that's common, and it's not enough to really put me off, but the change is very pronounced in ParaKiss, and I don't think I've *ever* liked this particular stylistic convention. Changing the facial designs I can deal with, but changing the *whole* design gets on my nerves. Blah. (Is there a technical word for this? Nothing's coming to mind.)
The voicework was pretty good, I think. Isabella's voice is *very* high--I expected a feminine range, but a lower one. It kept startling me. Come to that, Yukari and George both sounded older than I'd expected--not so surprising in his case, but Yukari . . . maybe they were aiming to balance Miwako? Anyway, it all sounded fine. ^_^
It's nice to have a regularly-scheduled dose of shoujo again, although I really should balance it out more (watching Monster with the husband helps, but I should put more of a dent in Speed Grapher too). And now I need to go off and do mundane things. Alas.