Main reason why I hate Sunrise: Unneeded fanservice for the sake of mere fanservice.
I am actually thinking about blogging the first episode of Viper’s Creed since I believe that the sparks between me and my beloved mecha love will bring about the explosion of the world and remind me that I should stay in my realm of shoujo anime. However, I still have not been able to find any suitable time to get or watch it so I am stuck on a Sunrise original.
It can’t be that bad after all. Sunrise made the popular series known as Code Geass, which I never watched because it was too convoluted. Oh wait, we might just have a winner. Or will Sora wa Kakeru Shoujo be interesting and amazing with the interesting fusion of science fiction and girls?
Summary
Shishidou Akiha was told by her elder sister that she was getting married, and told her to pick a wedding dress now. However, she escaped to school, and her oldest sister sent Nami to give chase. Akiha told her servant, “Imo-chan”, a small critter that was controlling a robotic girl to drive her to school. Nami gave chase but lost Akiha when Akiha drove into a subway. On the other hand, debris from ancient human civilization was flying in space, and the “Supernatural department (ICP)” was concerned about it. Kannagi Itsuki, the main member of this division, was concerned about the amount of debris but was asked to withdraw by her superior. Back to Akiha, she reached a checkpoint and did not have her student ID. However, her friends came over and she was able to drive on to school. They talked about her sudden marriage.
Nami, who was giving chase, was starting to have a case of claustrophobia after being stopped at the same checkpoint. After class, Akiha and Imo-chan was on a pod to look at space. Imo-chan described her desire to travel to more places, while Akiha said she had no goals in life. Akiha then complained that Sakura (her sister) should be the one getting married, but Imo-chan said that her sister was merely worried for her. While they talked, they realized the great number of debris and they were sucked by the vacuum space created by the sudden appearance of an automated spacecraft. Due to the pressure, they were sucked into the spacecraft. The ICP also noticed the sudden appearance of the spacecraft, and it was reported to the military department for emergency reinforcements. Itsuki reported that it might be like O’Neil number 3 (a self-sufficient all-automated colony ship).
Akiha then explored the area and entered an automated railway train. As they reached the depot, they realized it was called Leopard station. Itsuki also asked for permission to investigate the spacecraft. Akiha moved on and found a strange-looking robot (Leopard) bragging about his ability to himself. He then used a laser to scan red tea. Akiha tried to drink it and suddenly spitted it out. The robot realized that Akiha was around, and started panicking. It then asked if it was considered indirect kissing. Itsuki found the tracks made by Akiha too. Itsuki appeared and told them that the situation was controlled by the ICP. However, Leopard just created a hole to drop Itsuki. The human fleet then appeared to warn Leopard, and he was hyped up to show them his ability. He then asked Akiha to hold a gun, and was ready to blast a laser cannon. However, the cannon misfired and Leopard burned.
Akiha told him not to worry about such a mistake, and he said that he wanted to die. He started rushing toward Earth to suicide. Akiha pointed out that innocent people would die in Earth and told Leopard that she did not want to die. Leopard seemingly did not realize it wanted to kill itself, but he was unable to stop the spacecraft because he did not have enough fuel. Leopard blamed Akiha and dropped Akiha into a QT-Arms. Leopard told Akiha to remove the high-tension lever to re-energize him. Itsuki said it was too late, but Akiha convinced her to help with the removal. Eventually, they managed to do it and disaster was averted. As Akiha came back to the control station, Kawai Honoka pointed that yellow gun at Akiha.
Thoughts
I did not like it. I am not sure if anyone has watched this show yet, but I was perplexed how ridiculous the whole storytelling went for this show. I mean, nothing absolutely made sense and I actually watched the episode a few times. I think the main issue with the show came because the directors seemed to think that cramping 1000 ideas in 20 minutes (ok, I jest, there are only 999 ideas) was a good idea. Moreover, viewers are so intelligent that they can have their own thought processes on how these ideas connect to each other. You know, I suddenly feel stupid because I don’t get it and this show just feels like it is trying too hard to impress me. Psgels seemed to feel the same way too with his quick impression post on the anime.
Here comes a girl who is a typical student that went through a sudden marriage without any fricking explanation, enters a new strange unknown automated spacecraft with zero fear, happily explores it and is almost lack of thinking ability when she held the gun that might kill the whole fleet and then became a talented mecha pilot that is so darn confident about her skills. If the previous sentence is long and disjointed, it is meant to be because it is how CONFUSING AND RIDICULOUS the first episode is. I mean, WTF, this is so convoluted and introduces more than 12 characters in the first episode just for the sake of appearances. Seriously.
Obviously, because of the story, I have no clue how this is going to go. There is no direction and focus in the show because there are so many unrelated parallels that probably requires an explanation in the next few episodes. However, something has to be done with the character development and inconsistencies. Honestly, Akiha is either oblivious, lacks any ability to process fear or just plain stupid. I am not sure if I can stand her because I have a pet peeve when it comes to being totally oblivious to danger.
Which girl, in their right mind, will drink red tea right behind a robot that she has no clue about and happily announced her existence to this possible hostile Leopard? The sudden marriage right at the start without any warning should have told me that this is classic Sunrise territory. If it helps, I did not know that it was Sunrise until I complained in IRC that the story plot makes no sense. After that, someone just told me, “it’s Sunrise.” and everything makes sense now. The story is trying too hard, and it shows. That said, it might still be good because there are many major plots that will be interesting. I am not sure if I will be able to contain the number of “WTFs” before I quit on this.
In terms of the other characters, Leopard helped to make this show more tolerable with its insane nonsensical speech. The interaction between Leopard and Akiha is surreal though and I actually like Imo-chan because she is so strangely eccentric. I mean, a small critter appearing from a human-looking robotic maid is just downright awesome. It sounds great and it looks great too. If you take your time to read Panther’s impressions of the show, the seiyuu cast are among the A-listers of anime seiyuus and will be a plus factor too. Names like Aya Endo, Yui Makino, Yukana and Yukari Tamura should be familiar names to those who are acquainted with seiyuu knowledge.
Animation is top-notch and perhaps the best animated series for all the series I have watched for the current winter season. I have to say that there is a lot of unwanted fanservice. Perhaps Code Geass could have been an influence for the show because they are probably trying to make a Kallen from Itsuki. Honestly, what is up with the fricking suit? She’s like almost completely naked. I do not need silly fanservice to detract from my plot and viewing pleasure. Whenever a show deliberately puts in unneeded fanservice to please viewers, I feel completely insulted and it is a total turn off for me. That said, the animation for even the giant Leopard spacecraft is done in a fluid manner and I do not think that there should be any issue with animation for this show at least.
So, despite my rather negative impression of the show, it might work still. Sunrise’s animation is fluid and beautiful. If it is able to tone down the grandeur attempt to explore a million plots at one go, Sora wa Kakeru Shoujo might just work. I do not know how to recommend this to anyone for now though. It is way too disjointed, confusing and strikingly weird for a first episode, and requires additional episodes to verify its worthiness for viewing.
37 Comments
It’s Sunrise trolling. Really. If you had watched Code Geass, you would’ve caught on. A prism robot talking like Lelouch? A mysterious blue haired C.C.? Tons of random bullshit that makes no sense? This is pretty much Code Geass Season 3 :p If you try to actually take it seriously it’ll just give you a headache.
Arr, ok. So in other words (I did not watch Code Geass), it is meant to be that? So, I am supposed to suspend my inability to think, rationalize and make logic? No thanks, I am jetting out of this show and let Calawain take over. Still, I am going to take some time to watch 3-4 more episodes to see if I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. If it turns out that the tunnel is a dead end filled with shit, I will run away faster than a mole seeing a club above my head.
You didn’t watch Geass? D= How could you?! By far the most entertainment eveeeeerrrrrrrrrrr total package wise.
I mean, it gets beat on EVERY SINGLE LEVEL by some other anime, but it’s pretty much the biggest juggernaut imo on a grand scale. Like a super jack of trades.
As far as the show goes, you are pretty much right in that this is retarded. I mean, even for a troll series, it’s nowhere near funny. You can grab crap off blogs pile those ideas together about a series and it’ll be a better troll than this.
Oh man, this is so going to be entertaining. I mean, the flying Charles in the Ragnarok episode was fucking ingenious, let’s see what Sunrise concocted this time around.
LEOPARD MAE
code geass should be the pre req to watching anything sunrise now…
Kallen’s suit is actually a little on the conservative side compared to Itsuki’s, for instance.
I don’t see that many honest similarities to Geass here, the presence of Lelouch’s VA aside…but whatever, if someone repeats something on a blog enough times, it will magically become true even if it’s blatantly false in the eyes of an external observer.
Whatever. Have fun with your hivemind.
That first pic made me do a double take. As prettily as Sunrise animates, they’re got their proportions all wrong. Just look at how far down the bottom of those boobs are from her shoulders! No matter how big, saggy breasts are not sexy.
Fanservice is becoming cliche, and these artists try way too hard.
I’m planning on checking this one out, though I have no real hopes of it being a good anime.
Most of the staff doing Sorekake Girl did MaiHiME and its spinoffs. That ALONE should give you an idea of the tone of the series, and SoreKake is pretty much a spiritual successor of HiME.
@Op Pic
What’s the point of a hologram badge if the if the hologram device is bigger than the palm of your hand?
Correction – Holograph on both counts – Silly me.
I say that Sunrise stick to Troll series since they have proven time and time again that they can’t write drama to save their lives after BONES left. Just look at Gundam 00 – craptastic excuse of a story, characters and writing. They might as well stick to troll series since they can’t do much else.
Whether that was their intent or not, I have no fucking clue. But if you actually try to take it seriously, the first episode is just a bunch of crazy bullshit that makes no sense whatsoever.
Does anyone foresee the animation quality, as in – character movement animations, dropping off after the first two or three episodes? i noticed that in Gundam 00, the characters’ bodies barely move anymore save for their heads. Oh, and the amount of detail in scenes as well as consistency has dropped as well. I noticed that after rewatching the first episode of Gundam 00.
@D=: Not their target audience. You will not usually see me blog on such series except for first impressions since I am the only blogger in THAT currently watching non-English subs. So, I tend to blog everything to inform others whether it will be nice or not. Sadly, I am not the most neutral blogger out there, but I try my best to keep my hatred of some genres intact.
What is a troll series by the way?
@Fnord: LOL. Flying what? …Never mind, forget me asking about this.
@Semeoneor: Which means I can never watch anything from Sunrise then. Sigh.
@XXX: Oh, I apologize for making such a bad reference then. I do not really watch CG,and mostly assumed through the screencaps of Crusader and Calawain. I guess it is probably unsimilar. The only relationship i see of CG is the fanservice factor. I do not really pull any similarities in terms of plot. That said, I do not watch CG too much other than reading Crusader’s summaries, so people with the actual viewing will know better.
@Olivia: Nuff said.
@Sacchi: But it will always be lolz?
@Myssa: a spiritual successor with a more retarded main girl? oh…no.
@Nazi: HAHAHAHAHAHA
@Impz: Troll series I guess is more like…Lucky Star? Or something that’s just too stupid to be taken seriously. As far as THAT people go, I can classify this as a troll series purely because the seriousness is at the level of adult swim cartoons.
I mean, you CAN take DBZ or Rugrats seriously, but WILL YOU? At your age? At your jaded level? At your anime experience level? Probably not. I can see kids taking the series seriously, but not anyone with expectations like you
Woah, incoming tangeant. TL;DR
@lubczyk: When you base a series on mecha but has only 20-30% action, quality drops. You’ll notice that S2 has dropped even farther when quality is concerned, because S1 at least had a few minor points they’d keep for awhile. Gundam series keep you watching not because of quality fighting, if you ever thought that was the case you aren’t hardcore enough ;P
-The early episodes allowed suits like Exia to move in a strange but appealing way when combined with the sound. Like how he swings his sword. Sure, it’s kind of retarded given how slow it’s shown, but at that time it’s acceptable because of how slow the grunt suits were. It was more … streamlined I guess? I’m not sure what word I can use for this. The rest of the gundams only can shoot, so nothing to really animate.
-Graham and Ali were the only ones with cool animations. Given their stats and abilities, it’s justified, as if you gave Soma or Sergei or Patrick the same enhanced graphics it would kill off the appeal of the two superstar pilots. While I can’t say all of Grahams fights were amazing animation wise, at least choreographed wise, both pilots were given the meaty parts of the series. Not even the meisters were given such beautiful fight scenes than those two unless they were fighting them in the first place.
-The true ADDITION of 00 to the gundam mecha is sadly gone in S2 and was barely used in S1. While it’s really retarded why they made that spinny stick a conventional shield for the Flag/Hellion/Enact/etc, it was by FAR the coolest parry/block mechanism in 00. Graham blocking point blank all of Neil’s shots in 12 was pretty much as good as Sunrise is going to get trying to copying Daigo’s full parry moment in Evo 2004. Course, the nerd cheers won’t be as high, but you have to admit it was an epic moment 00 wise. Even Ali showcased it in his 2nd match with Setsuna, though it was not zoomed in and highlighted. I really thought the spin shield was the way to go and could differentiate the scrubs from the pros, as it was way more “cool” than anything so far, including LOL LACUS DUST MK II 00-Raiser.
=] But yar, animation sucks. It’s mostly just people watching for development. And I’m guessing for violence hungry people like me, it’s more about watching things unfold and guessing what’s going to happen in the ladder shifts of the pilots. Kind of like those people who watch pro-wrestling. You know it’s fake, you know it sucks, but you can’t help but want to see the matches and see what those idiots pull off, see who wins and loses, even if their “moves” are basically crap. Once in awhile, you get shown something spectacular, even if completely useless in real life.
Or well, that’s how I see it <.<
While I tend to support the condemnation of this show as not really worth watching it still amazes me nonetheless how the people here (XXX aside in this case who raised a good point that I plan to follow up on now) will often go on and on about sub-topics and irrelevant issues that they obviously have no real understanding of. You’re all making this harder then it needs to be.
The only question that really needs to be asked when doing a first impression is “Would I recommend this series to somebody and do I consider this worth watching any more of?” followed by “Why?”. If the answer is no then that should be good enough without having to raise something entirely irrelevant like Code Geass, especially if you haven’t seen any of it to be in a position to use it as a valid comparison. And as for the way the discussion is going, isn’t it better to leave issues of animation quality taking a nosedive for when it actually occurs. Finally, as for the whole troll series thing mentiones in the comments section, wouldn’t it have been easier to just say self-parody, which is what I assume everybody means when they say that now. It would have been a hell of a lot more accurate considering how Sora Kake Girl comes across. Still since it’s a case of too little too late for that I might as join the fray as some people have said some things I’m itching to address.
@Nazarielle: Actually I’m pretty sure that if any character is in this show to cash in on latent C.C popularity then it’s the green haired loli (not Impz) with yellow eyes. A similar character design was also curiously used by BONES in Darker Than Black around the time the popularity of R1 peaked. Speaking of which,
@Lubcyzk: I’ve already stated this elsewhere, but none of the founding BONES members had anything to do with writing so none of what you say about them leaving has any correlation to any perceived drop in writing quality for Sunrise series. Just another instance of what I talked about with people over-complicating things by bringing up irrelevant issues they have no real understanding of. It only hurts the already justified (IMO) condemnation of this show by diminishing ones credibility.
@D=: That’s just one of those universal laws wherein no matter how good you are at something there’s always someone or something that is better. As for the show really not being funny….well I can’t say I find it any more or less funny then your average anime. Going to be honest, I just don’t find the style of comedy that’s popular in Japan to be all that funny to begin with.
@fnord: Something tells me this is the kind of show that is made to attract the various meme factories around the internet, from 2chan to 4chan. While I can’t say it does the show itself any favours as one to be taken seriously (and really who would take this show at all seriously), perhaps it will do some good and keep the lulz seekers distracted for the next little while.
@semeoneor: How do you figure?
@Blue: Agreed, something seems more than a little off with this art style aside from it being just to colourful and moe driven. Not really a fan of overly bright colour pallettes myself.
@Olivia: Becoming? Welcome to 10 years ago….
@Myssa Rei: Thank you for always being the one to mention the important things. Yes, this is a production of the Hime team that is infamous for using the same girl on girl formula in all of their works and for being among the (IMO) least creative and incoherent writers among any anime team for any anime company. I still think it’s important to note that they don’t represent Sunrise’s style as a whole even though people seem to think they do. Rather they are like the black sheep amongst a white herd that doesn’t know it’s place and keep charging to the front of the flock.
So Impz, the explanation you’re looking for isn’t that it’s Sunrise, but that it’s Hime team.
@Kaioshin: >.> Well, since I don’t watch most animes, I’ll take your word for it. Probably means they all suck then. And yeah, the humor is probably something more cultural or ’scene’ related? I don’t know. Creativity is an endangered species as far as I’m concerned
at most you get Innovation sometimes, but Polish and Refinement are the keys here. And even then most of the time it’s a failure.
@D=: Let’s just say that in the past couple years I’ve bumped anime down on my tier of media to take seriously and where I go looking for genuine depth of plot and character. Like you say, eventually some of us grow up and are introduced to new experiences and ways of viewing the world and suddenly what we once saw as deep and meaningful is now suddenly rendered trite and meaningless.
Sure every now and then you get the odd anime series that really takes an honest stab at introducing the viewer to a topic of social relevance (I think Welcome To NHK was the last real example of this even if it had it’s goofy aspects), but for the most part I see anime in it’s current state as something to kick back to when you only want to use half your brain and you just want something entertaining to watch.
That’s why now when I see somebody asking the question “Should I take this seriously” about a show like Sora Kake Girl I tend to ask that same question about the person who asked the initial question. (Hooray for convoluted sentences!) The answer should be pretty obvious and I think it’s one of those rare times where it’s something that need not even be debated. Not to sound insulting, but one should really know by the end of the first episode whether they are among the core audience that this show is targetting. I sure as hell did…..
Let’s not forget though that while from our perspective Sora Kake Girl might come across as pandering and needless self-parody, to somebody on 2ch (who are probably the shows target audience to begin with) or to a younger demographic, or perhaps just to somebody that isn’t really too concerned with issues of storytelling and character development it’s probably the greatest shit in the world.
@kaioshin Sama
So what have you turned d to in trying to find media with more substance? I personally have picked up reading novels like the Narnia and Lord of the Rings books or Neil Gaiman books for deeper and richer stories/characters/experiences.
Me, personally, I’m looking for the next Twelve Kingdoms or Death Note. Those really wowed me back then and I’m always on the lookout for anime like them.
I read Narnia and Lord of The Rings about 4 and 7 years ago respectively and have borrowed some of the Disc World books off of a friend. I have still yet to read a Game of Thrones though, which he leant me about a year ago. Other then that I’ve taken to reading a lot of politically and socially oriented books as well as general interest digest books such as the Bathroom Reader series. Basically whatever gets me thinking, learning, or simply manages to pull me into the experience, that’s something I prefer to devote my time too.
You might want to try looking at Osamu Tezuka’s works if your looking for manga with substance. I’d personally recommend Buddha, Phoenix, Adolf, Ode To Kirohito and to a somewhat lesser extent Black Jack. He wrote a lot of good one shot graphic novels back in the day too and pretty much all of them managed to tackle some issue of social relevance while marrying it with engrossing character development and artwork. Tezuka was the kind of artist who could convey a world of emotion and depth in a single frame, my personal favourite example being this:
http://www.basugasubakuhatsu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/Buddah.jpg
Main reason why I hate Sunrise: Unneeded fanservice for the sake of mere fanservice.
OMG TITS, THIS SHOW SUCKS AS WELL AS THE ENTIRE STUDIO!@#!@EQ@!DQ
@Calawain
Tell me about it. people go watch movies like Basic and Swordfish three times just to see Sheryl’s Stone’s vagina and Halle Berry’s breasts, but when it comes to anime with fanservice, it’s just too much in a short time.
It’s funny when there’s fanservice in Western media, everyone flocks to it, but it’s somehow uncalled-for in anime.
Uh, just a note, Sunrise has done some amazing original things in the past. See Infinite Ryvius – it’s Sunrise; it’s even from the same director as Code Geass, and yet, it’s undeniably brilliant.
As so, I’ll refrain from making judgments based solely on the first episode. Who knows, they might explain things in the next episodes.
@Kaioshin: =] Manga is good too. Many times where anime fails, manga wins, but also vice versa.
@Deevian: Lol, I’m not sure about specific staff, but you must be kidding yourself if you think Code Geass was anything less than successful.
Hey, I’m not denying that it was successful. However, being successful doesn’t mean it’s good (see: Naruto or Bleach).
That said, Code Geass is not good. While I actually enjoyed the first season, the second one was just deplorable. Then again, maybe it’s because I don’t like being trolled.
So I guess what I wanted to say was: just because an designated staff has failed in the past, it doesn’t mean that they’ll fail now (and vice-versa).
Let us wait and see what comes out of this ^^.
@Deevian: Meh, I have no real issues with being jerked around by a story with lots of twists and turns since I’m more than capable of keeping track of all the things that most people apparently had a lot of trouble following in this show. I mean judging by all the cries of “Bwaaaaaaaaaaah it doesn’t make any sense anymore, somebody explain the plot, at this rate the only reason I’m watching it anymore is because I like Pizza with mayonnaise on it!!!”, or something along those lines.
Really I would have been more offended had it turned out to be utterly predictable at every single climax, which is the reason I hated the hell out of episodes 5 and 12 for being cliche harem series knockoffs in terms of what went on in them. Overall though Code Geass R2 failed me not. This show on the other hand….we’ll see.
So I guess that makes us opposites then.
@Kaoshin Sama: Oh oh, you’ve misunderstood me. You see, the reason why Code Geass R2 was such a hideous trainwreck, for me and many others, wasn’t the amount of plottwists they shoved into it. Nor was it because of our inability to keep track of the plot (albeit having to watch some episodes more than once due to my simpler mind). The problem, my friend, was the sheer ridiculousness of it all. It’s not that I couldn’t follow the story; it’s just that most of the times, I found myself not wanting to.
While I have nothing against plot twists (after all, they’re the ones who keep things interesting), they should be used in moderation – a concept that the staff team couldn’t quite seem to grasp. I mean, by the time it was ending they could’ve turned the whole thing into a rumba dancing competition between Lelouch and Schneizel, and it still wouldn’t be the most absurd twist that the story would’ve taken.
@Deevian: What’s your favorite series then buddy? Enlighten me on this revelating disposition of yours. Which is YOUR great show that you think can appeal to the targeted audience and not just YOUR own bias.
@Deevian: …Okay….well I didn’t know you could personify a “plottwist” so I guess I can take that piece of sage knowledge away from your response. Though I will say that when you find yourself not wanting to follow a story you really have to ask yourself who’s problem that is.
Anyway you can talk to D= now since I kind of want to see if you have an answer for him that is equally as bizarre.
(English is not my primary language, so yeah, you’ll probably see some mistakes on my posts)
@D=: My own bias? You must be crazy if you think I’m the only one who considers that the plot went downhill with R2. Sure, it had the entertainment factor, but for me and many others, it stopped making sense within it’s own world.
However, I find it quite funny that you’re talking about bias, since we’re all just giving our personal opinion about the series. When I say Code Geass R2 was bad, it represents my opinion, just like when you say it was good, it’s your opinion. We can go on and on trying to justify our positions, but at the end of the day, everyone thinks what they want. There’s no reason to get all rilled up over something like this.
Oh, and I guess I don’t really have a favorite series. Can’t really decide between Denno Coil and Infinite Ryvius.
@Deevian: I understand about the language thing so that’s cool but more importantly I have to say it’s refreshing to see someone who can hold a strong opinion and yet still understand exactly what an opinion means. I know I don’t speak for D=, but I think you’ve given a great answer.
@Kaioshin Sama: Heh, I gotta admit I’m surprised – most people would rant on what I posted just for the sake of ranting. It’s nice to see that there is still hope for the internet after all! Cheers mate!
And back on topic, has anyone seen the op (youtube.com/watch?v=cIU6T_QH2qg)? Christ, ALI PROJECT, get it away. I swear I got ear cancer from that.
@Deevian
Maybe it sounds better if you understand Japanese or something, but from what I can tell, the song doesn’t match up to what’s being shown on-screen. I enjoyed her songs in Rozen Maiden Ops and the Code Geass R2 ending for they had this whole goth thing going for them, but this doesn’t match the OP at all. It kind of grates on the ears.
@Deevian: Hehehe, well I’m anything but your typical internet denizen.
Opening is tolerable for the first minute or so, but then hooooooooooly shi…,ahem, what the hell was that noise? I had a hard time believing I would ever find a more annoying sound then the opening “Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiii!”, in Triangler, but here we are. I’m tempted to make a loop of that part of the song and see how long people can last while listening to it as one of my feats of strength tests I do every now and then.