Aria The Scarlet Ammo #01 — Macindows

April 14th, 2011

 

The official JC Staff OS.

Impressions:

Well, this is quite JC Staff. Just as KyoAni A-Channel can’t seem to stop putting the camera between girls’ thighs, since this is a show with Rie playing a combative tiny girl protagonist, they are unable to not pan up her thighs every other minute. And have Rie shriek every single line. Tone it down a few levels, damn it. At least the male lead is okay, even if he just basically just the detective version of Amaenaideyo. If the action were better, that could have gone a long way to helping show him as a competent badass. Instead, him flipping a comb into his pocket and striking a couple poses while bullets magically miss him is about all we get. No, disarming Rie doesn’t count. A braindead chimp could have done that. Also, I get the ‘blood boiling’ or ‘juices flowing’ imagery just fine, but could they have gone with a liquid that doesn’t look like porridge?

The other main thing that sets this apart from the other half-dozen JC Staff shows like this is the overuse of CG. CG segways, CG bullets, CG guns, etc. And like I said, the action isn’t even that interesting or well-directed, so I’m not sure why they’re so desperately budget conserving right off the bat. Aside from that, this is about as by the books as it comes from them. Decent production all around, but nothing impressive. The art is already getting pretty janky though, and even moreso in the preview for next episode, so I can only imagine even more CG segway villains incoming. Or more likely in the usual JC Staff tradition… nothing at all.

So… meh. I’ll probably give it another episode at least, but if you’re sick of JC Staff spitting out these shows year after year, there’s nothing new enough here to make this notable yet. The male lead has his moments, but if he’s going to be stuck in a show of fighting CG segways and endlessly screaming Ries, there are plenty of other things to occupy my time on Thursdays instead.

Preview:

Nice chin.

Posted in Aria TSA | 17 Comments »

17 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Wilfriback says:

    In fact Aroduc-dono, this show is foccused more in its characters rathern than the plot itself (I tried the first volumes so you will have plenty of coughRiecough Aria’s screentime, I stopped reading didn’t get me interested at all having more books to read).

  • Wilfriback says:

    Btw, Denppa Onna has already finished its stream, so will you give a try?

  • MisaoFan says:

    Aroduc, you can continue to watch this 13-episodes show because you like J.C Staff and its 4 tsundere animes (Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Hayate Second Season (Aroduc has not watched after the first episode), Toradora) full of Kugyu’s appetites.

    • Aroduc says:

      Uh, thanks for your permission?

      • TOP2NE1 says:

        I never got finished Shana or Hayate… but you liked ZnT? I may not pay animation and its facets as much attention as I should, but I’d have imagined you hating it for being jaw-droppingly stupid.

        • Aroduc says:

          Uh, looking back, my ‘recommendation’ of the most recent season is that it was a more interestingly bad show than Nabari on the Sundays it aired and that it’s not worth watching unless dreadfully bored.

          A ringing endorsement!

  • Anise_Punter says:

    Twintail loli tsundere Kugyu make Anise Punter something something claw face off with barbed wire something dammit JC Staff something probably going to make aria-tan too uruchai uruchai uruchai something fhwqhgads jafajdfsalksjfdha…

    • Aex says:

      Take a breath. There us always “dere” at the end of the dark tunnel. In the mean time I just hope they don’t screw up Shirayuki’s yandere quality.

  • Nanaya says:

    Oddly enough, despite how cliche and predictable this series gets at times, I like it a lot (so far at least, based on me keeping up with the light novel translations).

    Although you won’t find yourself thinking any deep thoughts about it, it’s pretty enjoyable as a series and Kinji is alternately amusing/badass/competent enough to keep me entertained. I wonder if they’ll keep the recurring gag with his bulletproof cabinet.

  • Harvestasya says:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Z3DIbrtR0

    So… Berserker Miko…

  • Speedyshadow says:

    Man i’ve always hated that voice for tsundere characters, especially since Kugimiya Rie’s voice doesnt match with Aria’s.

    • Nanaya says:

      ARGHBASLDJFHaslfjdl her pitch needed to go down about 3-4 levels. I think the glass around my computer started cracking.

  • Skrillsex says:

    I don’t think it’s JCs fault rather than the original source itself

    • Sheba says:

      I think JCStaff is partially at fault, if not just for having the reputation of being the studio to animate light novels with tsundere that can possibly be voiced by Kugimiya. It makes you wonder how did she miss the casting for Mikoto in Index.

      • Aroduc says:

        I wish studios were always held responsible for adaptations. Nobody tries to apologize for Hollywood productions by saying that the original novel movies were based on were poor. Or original movies given all the remakes of awful old things in the past decade. It’s an awful excuse that feels like it’s almost unique to anime fandom sometimes.

        • Sheba says:

          I never said they are fully responsible, I said they do have a part of responsibility in it. In how to adapt this shit, and perhaps make it suck less. I don’t even know how the fck JC Staff choose its light novels but I can’t help but notice a pattern.

        • Aroduc says:

          And I am saying that I wish they were always held totally responsible; the more extreme view if you will. This kind of apologism is barely seen in any media besides anime. An adaptation’s role should be to accentuate the good, remove the bad/irrelevant, and (where most fail) actually adapt a show for a different medium instead of just speaking what’s written out loud or coloring in pages and adding wind effects/speedlines.