Ugh.
Why did I even bother with this show? The source material itself wasn’t that hot, and while the adaptation did have some good points (good voice acting, good soundtrack, several of the fights looked really awesome animated), it was never going to be exactly captivating. The story was unoriginal, the two leads bland – how can one really make a property work when the pieces are so uninspiring?
Oh, yeah, that’s right – the Ga-Rei-Zero approach. But we all know that that’ll happen maybe one times out of five hundred, if that.
The pacing was also pretty bad. I thought the ending itself wasn’t too bad, particularly considering that the manga is still in serialization, but the build-up to it felt rushed and abrupt. The first half of the show took forever to cover a few chapters worth of manga, yet then the show sped up and passed the source material. It then seemed to find itself baffled by what to do next, giving us carbon copy battle after carbon copy battle, broken up by a wee bit of backstory for some characters.
So, yeah – ending? Not too bad. The road there? Fairly excruciating. It took all my will to force myself to watch through the final three episodes, and even so I skipped a lot of inane dialogue in episode twenty-two and twenty-three.
Honestly, the biggest problem with the show can be found in our leads, Yuki and Luka. Yuki is obnoxious. Luka is boring. I don’t care about them, I don’t care about their pasts, I don’t care what motivates them or makes them cry or keeps them up long nights. They are completely overshadowed by several of their far more intriguing castmates. What is also overshadowed is their ‘relationship’. I use the quote marks since there really is nothing to it, besides snatches we see in their pasts and things we are told directly by other characters. Oh, and the fact that Luka gets tunnel vision and has to go fight for Yuki, but even that’s pretty bland as well.
This actually runs up against another issue I have with the show. The BL wasn’t really hyper apparent in the manga, but they did still tone it down a bit for the anime. Why? The only people who are going to watch this, really, are BL fangirls. Most others are turned off by the fact that the original work itself is labeled ‘BL’, so they’re not going to bother at all with this. Of those not aware of the origins, many turned away merely because of how willowy the guys looked. So, really, why tone it down at all? Why not, if anything, make it even more readily apparent? The only people watching this are BL fans! And guess what? Most of them were annoyed at how mellow that aspect of it was.
But there is some legitimate argument to be had for increasing the BL factor beyond simply audience share. Yuki and Luka could’ve benefited greatly, as Yuki’s memories of his past are dim, particularly as pertains to the nature of his relationship with Luka. Why not make this a plot point, have Yuki remember just enough to feel somewhat confused about it, or have an enemy reveal it and attempt to use his comrades silence on the matter as a wedge? Or even just display a greater interest in and mystery around the matter of why Yuki came back as a guy, whereas everyone else reincarnated as the same gender? This truly could’ve been interesting. But, no, let’s just have Luka tell Touko that he intends to do nothing about his relationship with Yuki! And have no one really care that Yuki’s the only one who swapped genders! That’ll make for some interesting television!
Ugh. What a waste of time. Buy the OST instead. Maybe someday some good BL might actually get adapted.
…
Hahahahahaha. Yeah right.
When I fast forward through half of episode 13 of Yuki’s brother fighting Yuki’s orphanage friend thing (can not remember these unmemorable names) and Yuki crying over who knows what since he cries about whatever every episode, I gave up.
My problem is the show tries to be a little of everything without doing any of it right. And I completely agree with your BL comment! It shocked me how much I unknowingly thought the exact same thing. It kills me how Luka was probably the most badass (considering the comparatively low competition of badass candidates anyway) yet at the same time the gayest. The outfits he had were just… ridiculous. And his “I’ll be with your forever. Yuki.” lines just made me facepalm at the lameness. Sigh. Disappointment.
But if the ending is decent enough as you say, I might as well finish it if I’m already halfway through. And I liked the eye coloring and designs. They were pretty cool.
I’m not really sure that I can recommend finishing it up, honestly. There are quite a few painful episodes between the half-way mark and the end, and while the final episode was actually pretty decent, I don’t think it at all redeems the show.
Yeah, the eye coloring technique was cool. They used it in Nabari no Ou, too, although not to the same extent (they basically used it with characters who weren’t exactly human).
But, seriously, the whole Yuki-Luka thing could’ve been made waaaay better if they’d tossed in some actual complications, e.g. Yuki realizing what the nature of their relationship had been and feeling confused over the fact that he reincarnated as a guy, and Luka also displaying some more consternation/confusion over Yuki’s swapped gender. This could’ve been great! But, no thanks, let’s pass on that BL…
I had very similar thoughts on this show.
It was just so … boring! The fights were cool, but incomprehensible and totally random. The pacing was terrible! It was a serious chore for me to watch anything that didn’t involve Hotsuma & Shusei (the REAL couple of the show). And I supposedly watched it for Kanata! (aka, I watched it for Akira Ishida)
I also agree with you about the BL factor. They could’ve taken the time to explore the reasons behind Yuki’s gender swap and what it meant for the dynamic of the group and his relationship with Luka … but they just didn’t. Actually exploring an interesting aspect of the show would be waaaay too much, apparently. And why? The whole thing was totally tame, anyway! It would’ve given Yuki’s character some actual development, and we can’t have that! Or any reason for Luka’s undying devotion, no, no …
Bleh. Hopefully Togainu no Chi delivers on some actual BL for once!
everyone here is forgetting something..
it wasnt really intending to be BL… really just light shounen-ai.
Even on wiki, its classified as shoujo and NOT yaoi, not even shounen-ai
I really liked the art and soundtrack though, but the anime WAS bland.
Most of the time, they all just talked about the same things over and over.
They also could have done so much more with the storyline, and I actually hated
the end – it made the entire anime pointless.. waste of time personally and to top
it off, i wasnt looking for the BL.
Just my 2 cents