Kyoto Animation and atrophy

NecRaul · Jun 5, 2024 · f30b767 · f30b767
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+    <div class="header">
+      <h1>NecRaul's website</h1>
+      <h2>KyoAni has fallen. Billions must rewatch Haruhi.</h2>
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+      <a class="navitem" href="/kuroneko.html">Kuroneko</a>
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+    <div class="postheader">
+      <h2>Kyoto Animation and atrophy</h2>
+      <em id="date">June 5, 2024</em>
+    </div>
+
+    <br />
+
+    <img class="postimage" src="/images/posts/KyoAni faces.png" />
+
+    <h3>Shit animu</h3>
+    <p>
+      Recently I got very depressed after watching something I had hopes for
+      turn out to be a massive pile of shit. That thing was
+      <strong><em>Phantom: Requiem for Phantom</em></strong
+      >. I am still toying with the idea of writing something regarding that
+      matter as well, mainly focusing on <em>Urobuchi</em>, rather than just
+      Phantom as a VN/Anime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that dark moment, I decided to return to watching something from the
+      animation studio that puts out consistent good anime that I tend to enjoy
+      a lot - <strong>Shaft</strong>. I watched
+      <strong><em>Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru</em></strong> and both seasons of
+      <strong><em>Maria†Holic</em></strong
+      >. I found Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru to be hilarious and the last
+      episode also hit me like a truck. I also enjoyed both seasons of
+      Maria†Holic, first season more than the second but I digress. This is not
+      a blog post about either of those shows.
+    </p>
+
+    <img class="postimage" src="/images/posts/SHAFT.jpg" />
+
+    <h3>Shaft and being different</h3>
+    <p>
+      If you've been on the bearable side of the internet for any amount of time
+      and have interest in anime outside of FOTM shlock put out by most studios,
+      watched and either immediately forgotten by the masses or regarded as the
+      2nd coming of Jesus despite being middling at best (<em
+        >Sousou no Frieren</em
+      >), you may have seen Shaft being regarded as the oddball among animation
+      studios. I believe that's for a good reason. Personally, I'm a big fan of
+      <strong>Akiyuki Shinbo's</strong> work. I enjoyed
+      <strong><em>Le Portrait de Petit Cossette</em></strong> which I believe is
+      his directorial debut and among the many works he directed, 2 of them made
+      my (current) 3x3. So, going back to my original point, Shaft is just
+      "different". Not in a good or a bad way per say, but you can most likely
+      pick out a Shaft anime from a list if you've seen couple of Shaft anime.
+      And it isn't just about that weird thing characters in Shaft adaptations
+      do either.
+    </p>
+
+    <img class="postimage" src="/images/posts/SHAFT Doggo.gif" />
+
+    <p>I believe there are two types of people that like Shaft anime.</p>
+    <ol>
+      <li>
+        People who get tired of the repetition of most anime as the medium
+        itself is built upon tropes that have been formed a long time ago. Some
+        anime tends to fall in line with the tropes whilst others tend to
+        subvert them.
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        People who don't really like anime, only watch a handful of really
+        popular shows which are generally marketed toward them and in order to
+        stand out from rest of their normalfag friends, masquerade as someone
+        with a "good taste" by watching "weird" anime.
+      </li>
+    </ol>
+    <p>
+      While I agree that Shaft anime is "weird" that's not the full picture. I
+      believe they have something that other studios don't. At `least not to the
+      same degree.
+    </p>
+
+    <img class="postimage" src="/images/posts/SHAFT weird.jpg" />
+
+    <p>
+      Slight tangent before I continue: I somewhat believe people who like
+      <em>JoJo's Bizarre Adventures</em> also fall in the second type of people
+      who want to be different but that's not the point of this blog post. As a
+      matter of fact, neither is discussing why I or anyone else might like or
+      dislike Shaft. This blog post is about normalcy, the good kind.
+    </p>
+
+    <h3>Normalcy in anime studios</h3>
+    <p>
+      If you don't belong in either of the aforementioned types of people,
+      chances are you may like <strong>Trigger</strong>... and
+      <strong>Kyoto Animation</strong>. That doesn't mean everything they do is
+      right, just that, everyone else fucks up more frequently or majorly than
+      they do. I can say I like both of them to a certain degree, for different
+      reasons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trigger didn't quite save anime as people would like you to believe but
+      they have made a good anime or two. Unfortunately that's it, two good
+      anime. I think <em>Kill la Kill </em> is decent, I am open to anime
+      originals any day of the week, provided they deliver on the concept of the
+      story and don't bastardize its concept or plagiarize any previous anime -
+      looking at you DitF. I really like the <em>Gridman</em> series. I'm glad
+      someone other than Imaishi was in charge of that because Imaishi is a
+      one-trick pony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, unlike Trigger, but like Shaft, Kyoto Animation has
+      also made my 3x3, with Haruhi. This is the part where I explain why I
+      dedicated an entire section to fellating Shaft:
+    </p>
+    <ol>
+      <li>
+        In their prime, not only did a lot of people compare these studios, but
+        they were also something akin to a rival in my eyes.
+      </li>
+      <li>
+        I watched two Shaft shows for the first time, enjoyed them and recommend
+        them to you.
+      </li>
+    </ol>
+    <p>
+      With that being said, I believe Shaft and Kyoto Animation are massively
+      different in both style and substance. Explaining the style portion is
+      easy, Kyoto Animation shows look nice but don't share an inherent style
+      with one another while Shaft shows look nice but also resemble each other
+      in ways that's not easy to explain. Substance is a bit weird. As mentioned
+      previously, I really like Haruhi. I own all the available books, I've read
+      all translated side-stories, official art and guide books etc., but I have
+      reservations about recommending the novels to people. Kyoto Animation did
+      a fantastic job bringing those characters to life and I've been asking for
+      a season 3 for many years. A comparison would be Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
+      I also really like SZS. I don't own the manga as not all of the volumes
+      got published in English but I've shilled it like I'm being paid for it to
+      my friends. Unfortunately the anime doesn't end the story and it never
+      will due to the unfortunate loss of Miyu Matsuki. All in all, I can't say
+      which is the definitive way to experience SZS while I can do the same with
+      Haruhi. If I were to simplify what I'm trying to express, it would be
+      KyoAni made Haruhi better, while Shaft made SZS different.
+    </p>
+
+    <h3>Why I don't like KyoAni anymore</h3>
+    <p>
+      For whatever reason, Kyoto Animation got worse at making anime that
+      <em>Haruhi/Lucky☆Star/KEY</em> crowd enjoyed and eventually stopped making
+      that type of anime altogether. I think last great KyoAni production was
+      <strong><em>The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya</em></strong> while last
+      good KyoAni production was <strong><em>Amagi Brilliant Park</em></strong
+      >. Nowadays, instead of adapting decent but not amazing light novels and
+      manga, KyoAni has an in-house writing team that writes LN for them to
+      adapt. I believe this majorly restricts creativity from both the author's
+      and director's side. Some LNs thought to be impossible to adapt - like
+      <em>Monogatari</em> have only been made possible due to creativity from
+      the anime production side. When you write a story that you know is going
+      to be adapted, you may leave out some of your ideas on the cutting floor
+      on the grounds that, it may not be possible to show on TV. I can probably
+      go on and on about this but my point still stands - KyoAni is at their
+      best when adapting a relatively unknown work by someone else, not their
+      in-house guys. And no, I'm not gonna act like the fire is to be
+      responsible for their recent lack of quality. The second season of Dragon
+      Maid happened after the fire and it was better than some of their pre-fire
+      shows. And if we're talking about pre-fire KyoAni, as much as I didn't
+      care for Hyouka it did something different which is commendable I guess.
+    </p>
+
+    <img class="postimage" src="/images/posts/Hyouka collage.jpg" />
+
+    <p>
+      <em>Hibike! Euphonium</em> is the worst example of this. I haven't seen a
+      single good thing from that entire franchise and no,
+      <em>Liz and the Blue Bird</em> was NOT good. Maybe I'm just tired of anime
+      that takes place in high school - highly doubtful - but after the
+      commercial success of <em>Violet Evergarden</em> - another anime I
+      disliked, KyoAni's sensibilities have changed too much for me to consider
+      them the same studio as the one that made Haruhi. I am extremely tired of
+      seeing perfectly good studios become middling or straight-up bad because
+      of some asinine reason. There's a reason why <em>Doga Kobo</em> is winning
+      despite doing nothing special. There is a reason why some of their series
+      have animators throwing themselves at it, just for the opportunity to work
+      on it. Passion, the absolute necessity for any creative work is there.
+      That's why even someone like me, who generally dislikes "isekai" went and
+      watched <strong><em>Mushoku Tensei</em></strong> and bought all the books,
+      because there was passion. Passion from the posters on /a/ who made daily
+      threads for entire duration of first season. Passion from the people in
+      the anime's production which I will fail to describe no matter how hard I
+      may try. Passion from the author who listened to the readers who were
+      equally as passionate. Kyoto Animation lacks that passion because they
+      have forgotten to work on something for the very fun it will provide.
+    </p>
+
+    <h3>Closing notes</h3>
+    <p>
+      All of this may sound like the ramblings of an old man who misses the
+      "good old days", but I'm neither an old man, nor do I have rose-tinted
+      glasses about the good old days. I am simply tired of seeing something
+      that is supposed to come from within - art being degraded to the state it
+      is in now. Unfortunately future looks grim even with all the hope I have.
+      <em>Monogatari: Off & Monster Season</em> will have an opening from an
+      industry plant musician. A lot of the talent from Shaft left quite a while
+      back due to poor working conditions and joined <em>David Production</em>,
+      only to make a shitty <em>Stone Ocean</em> adaptation with heavy CGI use.
+      <em>Fire Force</em> was good I guess, it made me read the manga but season
+      3 is nowhere in sight despite being revealed quite a long time ago. I just
+      feel like there's an implosion happening in many industries, all at the
+      same time and I'm not too happy about it and as this is my blog, I felt
+      the need to vent out my frustrations that has been building up. I'll talk
+      about something boring like my Master's dissertation next time maybe.
+    </p>
+
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