Wandering Samurai #01 — Oops, All Speedlines

July 6th, 2023

 

Certainly didn't take long for the budget to run out.

Impressions:

By the end of the episode, it was entirely speedlines with people randomly pratfalling in every direction while the peanut gallery explained over it how actually awesome and badass it was. Then it did the entire stupid goofy "nothing personal" silliness where he just disappeared, and reappeared in speedlines to flashbang the screen, and then the dude was on the ground, not having to actually animate anything for the big climactic not-fight.  

Sure, I'd rather take the unassuming badass archetype of the long ago over the current cheat power idiots that have become legion, but it's still corny Jump dumbness, even ignoring all the stuff about the author. The action is corny and all attempts at direction and choreography were non-existent by sixty seconds into the episode, and if you think an old Shonen Jump thing is going to carry itself on its story or pacing, you are not familiar with these things. I think most abuse investment theory more than anything. Why else would it have taken 100 chapters to move an inch if it wasn't the most dramatic, over-explained inch ever inched?

 

Posted in Wandering Samurai | 4 Comments »

4 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • NeclordX says:
    July 6, 2023 at 12:31 pm

    The thing that annoys me of these remakes is that in the end they cover less than the original. Like that Orphen remake.

  • residentgrigo says:
    July 6, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    2 courses are confirmed but that would lead to the middle of the 2nd of 3 arcs if done accurately and with no filler. Kenshin is one of the greatest manga of all time and deserves a full adaptation even if the movies already did just that. Watsuki deserves nothing more than a Liden Films hack job on the other hand. We´ll see in a few weeks.

    Their Bastard adaptations is immaculate outside of censorship but to think that that dead (and middling at best) IP was done so well and not Blade of the Immortal or The Heroic Legend of Arslan and of course Berserk. The gods are cruel. Liden even took over Goblin Slayer, urg. Them doing Tokyo Revengers right makes sense of course due to how well it sold. Kenshin and the ok at best sequel still sells in Japan but its international market shrunk severely due to the pedophile author but Crunchyroll jumped on the license.

    • residentgrigo says:
      July 6, 2023 at 7:30 pm

      Nobuhiro Watsuki is involved in the writing of the new anime, unlike in the 90s. The toned-down comedy here has his full approval.

      Him not being involved in movies 4&5 is how I could somewhat view them as their onw production separate from the author. They were also commissioned before his essentially unpunished crimes came out so stopping them would have hurt the crew. The 2023 anime on the other hand is as much a product as it is an author rehabilitation. The Premier is an objectively good adaptation so far and a bit better than the opening chapter or 90s pilot but Watsuki ruined it for me. Piracy or not.

    • NeclordX says:
      July 7, 2023 at 12:47 pm

      But 2 cours in a row or 2 cours separated by one cour?