Comments on: Shikabane Hime: Aka, Episode #1 – “Undead girl with big guns… like, actual guns”

By: Dando008

Dando008 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:37:09 +0000

Ah..well, now that it has been licensed there hasn’t been any new subs yet…raws are still out though.

By: Denizen

Denizen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:54:32 +0000

As long as you understand that Gainax is animating this and Studio Feel is doing everything else, good. People assume this is Gainax calling the shots – it’s not. Simply look at the gainax style as an added bonus, not it’s focus.

And in regards to this show – I liked both the atmosphere, characters and action alike. It’s nothing amazing but i’m liking it alot.

By: boatswain

boatswain — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:30:34 +0000

Frankly I liked it; I don’t think Makina is a tsundere and that in itself is refreshing. There was, agreed, a little bit of disjointedness in the beginning, with its switching from the dark opening scene to the sunny breakfast scene, but the characters look interesting, especially Keisei (the Buddhist priest) and Makina, the action is solid, if a little sparse, and the plot seems to be hinting at something underlying and deep. Overall the episode gives me Darker than Black undertones, promising good action, interesting characters, and deeper insight, so I won’t discount it just yet.

By: Maipeisu

Maipeisu — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:50:55 +0000

@Halcyon: Yes, I agree, Ouri was looking more and more like a fifth wheel as the episode wore on. I’m confident they could form a good action story around Manika and Keisei, without Ouri tagging along. He obviously serves an important purpose, but we’ll just have to wait and see what that is.

@tzhuge: Deformations are always welcome, but the grainy shading on the first shikabane watered down the scariness a little bit for me. They seem a bit out of place when they aren’t being used all the time, like in FLCL or TTGL. With those shows, it’s not even that every single second of screen time is filled with action, but the action scenes, even if they are just two minutes long, are packed to the brim with some kind of movement. If you were to yank a still out of the chaos, you would see that some of the individual frames are actually kind of… ugly? Anyway, Shikabane’s action scenes moved just a bit too slowly (literally) for me to enjoy the animation style.

@Panther: That is probably for the best. I am going to check out the ensuing episodes as well. The shikabane in the preview looked kind of cool.

@bakaneko: Couldn’t agree more. Plus, Manika’s personality is kind of hard to pin down. She’s not quite a turbo-tsundere like Revy, but doesn’t quite pull off the extreme fluctuations between vulnerability and cruelty that the characters from Elfen Lied do, leaving her… where?

@Vin-nii: With luck, there’s more to be told. The worst would be if they didn’t actually have any more good story to draw from (which I highly doubt.)

@coburn: Barring some inconsistencies, I was rather pleased with the art as well. I’m not sure if I like the character designs, though. The animation was best when it didn’t look like the studios spent all their time crafting the backgrounds and thumbing the characters onto them afterward. Don’t get me wrong – the backgrounds were delicious, but I was hoping to see some more attention on the actual character movement.

By the way, did I detect Naota’s seiyuu?

By: coburn

coburn — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:32:25 +0000

Although I think I enjoyed this more than most people here, your critique is spot on. In particular it’s that lack of “wallop” in the action. There didn’t feel like there was real weight behind the actions, so it was less that they were brief and more that they lacked pain and a sense of spontaneous bravado.

But on the other hand I found the art very appealing, and thought the whole ‘fear’ thing looked like it could get nifty. So I quite liked it, and remain optimistic.

By: Vin-nii

Vin-nii — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:43:36 +0000

Same here. Gainax kinda explained a lot of the lore, but left a fair amount of holes here and there, which annoyed the hell outta me. Not a big problem though

By: bakaneko

bakaneko — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:31:51 +0000

The first episode didn’t do much for me either. The main girl’s sole ability to regenerate quickly but nothing else other than shooting Lara Croft style just isn’t winning me much wow. There is definitely a plot in there, but if the format is episodic like this first episode, then I’m not sure I’ll stick with a series that delivers me 2 minutes of plot and 20 minutes on throw-away filler in each episode.

By: Panther

Panther — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:29:34 +0000

Animation-wise it certainly did not deliver, but the plot, though a bit weak at the start, is just one episode, and the first. I am reserving judgment till I see more episodes.

By: tzhuge

tzhuge — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:54:34 +0000

This episode felt like the first part of a multi-part intro to the series. I don’t think it’s really constructive to critique the episode on its own. If the series goes monster of the week from episode two, then I’ll be worried.

The animation was great, especially the action, but they did start creeping into FLCL territory with the deformations during the final action sequence. Don’t get me wrong; I love the deformations. However, it almost slipped into comedic effect in places. What I want to see is something more in line with Noein, where the deformations make the action more dynamic.

By: Halcyon

Halcyon — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:22:31 +0000

I didn’t know what to make of this episode.

It starts out kind of dark with the introduction of the dead Makina then it gets kind of light-hearted the next morning with the Classroom skit then goes dark again with the Shikibane. I don’t really see where the main character fits into this world. Or what that talking cat has to do with anything.

As for an introductory episode, it did a pretty poor job of character intros and setting up the premise for the story. Usually Gainax does a much better job of this. I’m pretty disappointed.

I was kind of left with a “Huh? That’s it?” kind of feeling after I watched it.
I don’t see this becoming a permanent addition to my fall watch list.