3D Kanojo: Real Girl – 01
I ended up enjoying 3D Kanojo a fair bit more than I expected to. There’s enough here to make me think it’s more than a boilerplate shoujo romance or self-insertion story, though there are a few awkward moments in the execution. It also looks like it’s obviously made on the cheap, but at the same time (perhaps not coincidentally) kind of has the look of an old-school 80’s or 90’s anime (something of a signature for Hoods Entertainment).
I’m always interested to see shoujo with male leads (especially romance), or shounen with female leads for that matter – it tends to create a less generic perspective to the narrative. The male in this case is Tsutui Hikari, an otaku who’s taken to wearing his own unpopularity as a badge of honor. His only friend is Itou Yuuto, equally outcast but more upbeat about it. One day Tsutui-kun is late (for the first time) and ends up having the clean the pool in the company of Igarashi Iroha as punishment. Tsutui is sure he has Iroha’s number – a tramp, tactless and sharp-tongued. He expects the worst out of the encounter, but it ends up going in a direction considerably different than he expects.
Make no mistake, all of this plays out pretty broadly – we’re not talking Cross Game quality storytelling here or anything. But there’s a nice air to Real Girl, a sense of differentness. Of course the idea that Iroha ends up being someone totally different than Tsutui expects is an interesting turn, though things do move rather too quickly in the premiere. The truth that she’s actually just as much of an outcast as he is what makes this premise tick, and there are strong hints that she’s harboring some other surprises as well. I’m certainly interested enough in this to want to see where the story goes from here, and that makes the premiere a success in my book.
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These – Kaikou – 01
I suppose a natural question with this reboot of Legend of the Galactic Heroes is the obvious one: why? As in, why was it necessary to remake a series that had already received what was, in the opinion of almost all of the original novels’ fans, a superb adaptation? And a reboot powered mostly by CGI (certainly more than any Production I.G. show I can remember) at that?
I certainly don’t know the answer to that, apart from the fact that it’s been 30 years since the original OVAs debuted and maybe it was just time (I’m the guy pining for a Touch reboot, after all). And I’m not a big enough die-hard fan of the series to judge whether this version lives up to the standards it should – judging it on its own merits and hazy memories of the OVA series, this one is pretty good. Not great, but solid. Of course, if the source material is as great as so many consider it to be, maybe “solid” isn’t anything to be bragging about.
What we’re going to get here is apparently two split cours, with the second being released on OVA first. I know the OVAs (110! OVAs!!!) had a fair bit of original material, but two cours seems like a might tight squeeze for the entirety of Tanaka’s novels. If it sounds like I’m not that excited about this, I guess that’s true – I feel like I should be more so, but maybe I’m just not a big enough fanboy for the franchise to be excited to see it redone. Unless, of course, that redo is exceptional – which certainly could be the case, though I wouldn’t guess so based on the first episode.
Jindujun93
April 5, 2018 at 6:44 amI guess that for LotGH, what takes the most getting used to isn’t even the CGI but rather the new character designs. I only watched the original OVA last year so everything is still pretty fresh in my memory, but even I had trouble recognizing who some of those characters were supposed to be, and that’s despite some of them being recurring ones later on. Compared to the OVA, they seem to have trimmed the first episode here just a little, but then again, maybe it was like that in the novels and the old anime just expanded on it. I’ll wait and see where this goes before judging too much, but I don’t expect it to live up to the legacy of the OVA.
Kinai
April 5, 2018 at 7:11 amThe original LOGH OVAs had original material? I didn’t know. What part?
Skidda
April 5, 2018 at 3:37 pmHaven’t read all the LN but the adaptation took quite a few liberties with the original material and yes there are some scenes in the OVA which aren’t in the books, some characters have a more proeminent role, things like that. This new adaptation will try to stick closer to the book apparently? Thing is, I actually really like how LOGH was handled by Ishiguro Noboru and his team.
About the episode, I guess I liked it. The music was my biggest disappointment by far and even if I had some faith in Miyano for Reinhard, I can’t say I’m convinced by his performance yet. Nothing major. It was mostly a battle episode anyway and it has never been LOGH’s forte, especially at the beginning when its goal is to portray incompetent leaders, so I’m mostly waiting for a more political centric episode, which usually have more snappy dialogues and powerful scenes. So I’ll probably have a better idea after episode 3.
Miyu Fan
April 5, 2018 at 9:09 amI love Real Girl simply because it’s not afraid making the female MC ‘impure’ from an otaku’s point of view – it’s obvious she has at least kissed other boys than the MC. It’s such a refreshing take for me and why I’m a fan of the manga.
I didn’t realise it has been 30 years since the original LoGH OVA aired – goodness that 110 OVA took about 10 years to complete. Well I guess this remake is in vein of Gegege no Kitaro and Captain Tsubasa, ensuring there are new fans for the popular series so that it always remain relevant in the consciousness of the masses. To me anime remakes/revival should be like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or Osomatsu-san. If you just want to remake the same material with updated animation and no originality, then don’t bother to do it.
Rita
April 6, 2018 at 9:21 amWhile I have no problem with reboots in so new fans can get some introduction to the old greats, the phrases “seasonal anime” and “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” go together about as well as hot oil and water and makes a part of me want to curl up in the corner.
So this goes under the ‘hopeful but filled with apprehension’ list for the season
MK
May 7, 2018 at 6:27 amJust to clear things up, the new LotGH is planned to have a similar length to the OVA series if possible, per what the director said in an interview. The first 12 episodes = first novel and the sequel series of movies next year = second novel. Later series depend upon sales, but it’s definitely not planned to squeeze things down into 2 cours. The first 5 episodes have each corresponded to an episode of the OVA, except for ep 4 which was a flashback episode mostly not included in the main OVA.