Futakoi Alternative and Zettai Shounen
Jun. 26th, 2005 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeFutakoi Alternative started out with a bang of mind-blitzing, spastic humor and action, and then sort of slipped into a gorgeously directed emotional drama; I would have felt cheated by the gravity if I wasn't already hooked on the characters. However, at some point I realized that the blitz never really went away, it just stopped being in the foreground, and became one of the devices by which the story is told. Futakoi Alternative basically trips the light cracktastic through a weird but exquisite love story. I hesitate to call it romance. But oh yes, it's a love story.
Seki Tomokazu is turning in one of his stronger performances as Rentarou. He was pretty boring in Mai-HiME, but Rentarou is a more interesting character than Tate.
In the first episode alone, Zettai Shounen reminded me of AIR (similar directing, and the mysterious little girl characters), Haibane Renmei (the general aura of mystery, not to mention that I think the music is by Heart of Air, or whatever they're going by these days), Niea_7, which I've never actually seen (aliens?), This Ugly and Beautiful World (aliens! Plus, the small town vibe, and the supernatural mystery), and Midori no Hibi (for no reason discernible reason whatsoever).
It doesn't strike me as being excessively derivative (see: RahXephon. If Zettai Shounen is derivative, it's in the manner of Fafner, which took a cliched concept in a genre which has already seen its pinnacle, and did a satisfactorily original spin on it, without attempting to replicate its predecessors character for character, episode for episode), but I wonder if this sense of hearing echos is what's keeping me from getting totally into it. Or perhaps it's that none of the characters have grabbed me yet. Ayumu has a kind of hostile, withdrawn, Shinji-like reserve which might be justified by his situation, but keeps him from being all that likable, and none of the others have opened up into anything interesting.
When I look at what I've just typed, I realize it sounds like I don't like it, which isn't quite true. The story is intriguing and the execution is strong (the voice acting, art, animation, music and directing are all good); I just don't feel the emotional connection I immediately made with, say, Honey and Clover, or Futakoi Alternative. Of course, those are both character-driven, not plot-driven, so that's not a fair comparison.
Anyway, one thing Zettai Shounen has that none of the previous shows had--except for This Ugly and Beautiful World, which disappointed me at the end to the point of hating it--is an extraordinary sense of creepiness. Somewhere around the third episode, I developed the shudders.
I'm a big fan of mystery in any genre or format, so I'll probably watch this just to find out what the hell is going on. The characters may yet grow on me, anyway.
Oh, and props on the opening and ending credits. I don't actually like the opening credits--the bold outlines remind me of the sorts of American cartoons I hate, but it's a strong sequence, nevertheless--and the ending credits, with the HoA song, are among the more attractive and memorable I've seen lately. It's like a a cross between a giant roulette wheel, a complicated atomic model, and Congress.
Seki Tomokazu is turning in one of his stronger performances as Rentarou. He was pretty boring in Mai-HiME, but Rentarou is a more interesting character than Tate.
In the first episode alone, Zettai Shounen reminded me of AIR (similar directing, and the mysterious little girl characters), Haibane Renmei (the general aura of mystery, not to mention that I think the music is by Heart of Air, or whatever they're going by these days), Niea_7, which I've never actually seen (aliens?), This Ugly and Beautiful World (aliens! Plus, the small town vibe, and the supernatural mystery), and Midori no Hibi (for no reason discernible reason whatsoever).
It doesn't strike me as being excessively derivative (see: RahXephon. If Zettai Shounen is derivative, it's in the manner of Fafner, which took a cliched concept in a genre which has already seen its pinnacle, and did a satisfactorily original spin on it, without attempting to replicate its predecessors character for character, episode for episode), but I wonder if this sense of hearing echos is what's keeping me from getting totally into it. Or perhaps it's that none of the characters have grabbed me yet. Ayumu has a kind of hostile, withdrawn, Shinji-like reserve which might be justified by his situation, but keeps him from being all that likable, and none of the others have opened up into anything interesting.
When I look at what I've just typed, I realize it sounds like I don't like it, which isn't quite true. The story is intriguing and the execution is strong (the voice acting, art, animation, music and directing are all good); I just don't feel the emotional connection I immediately made with, say, Honey and Clover, or Futakoi Alternative. Of course, those are both character-driven, not plot-driven, so that's not a fair comparison.
Anyway, one thing Zettai Shounen has that none of the previous shows had--except for This Ugly and Beautiful World, which disappointed me at the end to the point of hating it--is an extraordinary sense of creepiness. Somewhere around the third episode, I developed the shudders.
I'm a big fan of mystery in any genre or format, so I'll probably watch this just to find out what the hell is going on. The characters may yet grow on me, anyway.
Oh, and props on the opening and ending credits. I don't actually like the opening credits--the bold outlines remind me of the sorts of American cartoons I hate, but it's a strong sequence, nevertheless--and the ending credits, with the HoA song, are among the more attractive and memorable I've seen lately. It's like a a cross between a giant roulette wheel, a complicated atomic model, and Congress.