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foxinthestarsMy most anticipated anime premiere of the season is now live, right over here on Crunchyroll, and, um...
I honestly found it pretty disappointing.
So, new Honzuki anime! Glad to see it happen, and the PVs were quite pretty, although some "efficiencies" were visible on close inspection. This season is changing up the visual style compared to the previous seasons, and it catches a bit more of the spirit of the original light novel illustrations. The OP is also quite pretty.
However, watching the actual meat of the episode, I felt like they'd turned it into a slideshow (like the manga with fewer humorous asides), and something fundamental seemed to be missing. The art was pretty but often didn't gel into a sense of life. The story was just hitting the superficial highlights without putting down roots; e.g. at one point during the baptism scene, Myne thinks "Oh, the saint plan" --- a novel/manga reader will recognize it, but in this episode it was like "remember that thing we didn't tell you about?" Some crucial moments also felt poorly "directed"; two times in this episode, our heroine collapses due to chronic health problems while someone is leading her by the hand, but the first time it barely looks like anything serious happened, and the second time the other (somewhat blockheaded) character drags her across the floor way past the point when even he should have noticed. Another key missing element is Myne's internal narration which is such an animating through-line in other versions, but here we don't get enough of it to fulfill that function. (And this is all without getting into nitpicks like "her oldest brother looks too young" and such.)
So my impression so far is that this is one of those adaptations where if you're a fan of the source material and you want to see your favorite scenes with full color and voice work, here you go, but if I was recommending Honzuki Part 3 to someone I'd suggest the novels or manga rather than this.
I am a fan of the source material, probably enough to stick around for the color and voice work, but OTOH I'm so much of a fan at the moment that maybe I was always going to be a tough audience for this.
In other anime news, I did quite enjoy the premiere of Always a Catch. I'm always up for a fun show in or adjacent to the "villainess" genre, and this one hit the spot so far. Our heroine is a ray of sunshine who wears brass knuckles as a hair accessory and I kind of love her already.
The premiere of Agents of the Four Seasons also had me the whole way through as an interesting magic-realist fable sort of thing with an air of mystery, but it came close to being emotionally over-wrought. If it doesn't dial things down, it might wear out its welcome pretty quickly.
"Observation Log of My Fiancee Who Calls Herself a Villainess" is in my to-watch queue, and I'm still waiting for the "Witch Hat Atelier" premiere.
I honestly found it pretty disappointing.
So, new Honzuki anime! Glad to see it happen, and the PVs were quite pretty, although some "efficiencies" were visible on close inspection. This season is changing up the visual style compared to the previous seasons, and it catches a bit more of the spirit of the original light novel illustrations. The OP is also quite pretty.
However, watching the actual meat of the episode, I felt like they'd turned it into a slideshow (like the manga with fewer humorous asides), and something fundamental seemed to be missing. The art was pretty but often didn't gel into a sense of life. The story was just hitting the superficial highlights without putting down roots; e.g. at one point during the baptism scene, Myne thinks "Oh, the saint plan" --- a novel/manga reader will recognize it, but in this episode it was like "remember that thing we didn't tell you about?" Some crucial moments also felt poorly "directed"; two times in this episode, our heroine collapses due to chronic health problems while someone is leading her by the hand, but the first time it barely looks like anything serious happened, and the second time the other (somewhat blockheaded) character drags her across the floor way past the point when even he should have noticed. Another key missing element is Myne's internal narration which is such an animating through-line in other versions, but here we don't get enough of it to fulfill that function. (And this is all without getting into nitpicks like "her oldest brother looks too young" and such.)
So my impression so far is that this is one of those adaptations where if you're a fan of the source material and you want to see your favorite scenes with full color and voice work, here you go, but if I was recommending Honzuki Part 3 to someone I'd suggest the novels or manga rather than this.
I am a fan of the source material, probably enough to stick around for the color and voice work, but OTOH I'm so much of a fan at the moment that maybe I was always going to be a tough audience for this.
In other anime news, I did quite enjoy the premiere of Always a Catch. I'm always up for a fun show in or adjacent to the "villainess" genre, and this one hit the spot so far. Our heroine is a ray of sunshine who wears brass knuckles as a hair accessory and I kind of love her already.
The premiere of Agents of the Four Seasons also had me the whole way through as an interesting magic-realist fable sort of thing with an air of mystery, but it came close to being emotionally over-wrought. If it doesn't dial things down, it might wear out its welcome pretty quickly.
"Observation Log of My Fiancee Who Calls Herself a Villainess" is in my to-watch queue, and I'm still waiting for the "Witch Hat Atelier" premiere.
