「真名」 (Mana)
“True Name”

After last week’s disappointing performance, this week’s episode did a rather good job at translating what makes the manga so good into the anime. Sort of.

True Name

While I’ve always questioned just how ridiculous the power of one’s true name has in this show, boy was I wrong when I thought it couldn’t feel any more awkward than it did in the manga. Somehow listening to the characters actually talk about this built-in weakness was almost too much to bare. Which kind of caught me by surprise since at its core, the idea itself is pretty cool if you look at the symbolism behind it. In the end though, it’s just a shame since I think it could become a really interesting plot point if everything weren’t move so damn fast.

Bake Neko or Baka Neko?

I mentioned this briefly last week but one of the biggest reasons why I’m able to put up with this wild adaptation is because of Tama. She’s hands down my favorite character and I think is managing to hold the show together. If Shinichirou is supposed to be our straightman and Sakuya is our tsundere princess, Tama is the one who isn’t bound by some silly character trait and can do whatever she feels like. From acting silly and cutesy with Shinichirou to directly calling out Sakuya and at times making fun of her, she’s the silly side-character that leaves you wanting for more. (If I haven’t made myself clear, she’s freaking awesome.)

General Impressions

As much as I don’t want to be biased, it’s hard not to notice the stark difference between the manga and the anime. The decisions to move certain things ahead of others without taking the time to develop them left a foul taste in my mouth — and I doubt it’ll improve. If I had to give a specific example, it’d have to be just how useless Sakuya’s been. I understand needing to create some dramatic tension between her and Shinichirou but gimping her to the point where she feels like a wimpy heroine that needs Shinichirou just doesn’t feel right. If I remember correctly, she’s supposed to be pretty awesome and in return her housework skills are supposed to be crappy.

Anyways, as much as I don’t like to drop series, this one might be one of the few that are too tough to stomach. While it still has one more episode to change my opinion in a drastic way, I’m not feeling too optimistic. Not unless there’s more Tama or something. See you next week, maybe.

25 Comments

  1. Can only hope Tama and Suseri can save things…

    As an anime-only viewer, this episode just kept making me wonder, “Why/How is Sakuya the main heroine again? Why isn’t it Tama or Nadeshiko, or Suseri next episode?”

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    1. I hope Tama can save things. I like Suseri but Tama is like my one and only <3

      For the anime-only viewers, I wish I could impart what I know on to you. Like, the original content does such a good job at giving us a steady introduction before ramping into the unbelievable.

  2. The funny thing is that there was so little plot development in the first episode that you could just start with this one and be perfectly fine. Nothing really happened in the first episode that wasn’t recapped in this one.

    Znail
  3. I’m going to be less charitable than Takaii. IMO, this is simply a terrible adaptation. One of the worst I’ve seen in a while, and that’s saying something. It’s to the point I feel sorry for Isuca’s mangaka. Again, while I would not say the source material is the best of its genre, the series does have some charm of its own – particularly in a “baka lovable” Tama as Takaii notes. Arms has neutered the comedy IMO, and this series needs that. This isn’t some “grim-dark”, serious type of series or whatever the hell ARMS is trying to make it.

    Rather than go into detail, I’ll keep this short. Isuca is NOT a hard series to adapt. Do a proper job, stick the the source material, and this could have been a decent ecchi fun/light watch. Instead, despite lowering my expectations, again, it’s still not enough. Do I have to go for Mahou Sensou levels here ARMS because I DROPPED that show. If that was the intent, congratulations. Mission accomplished. I’d rather go re-read the manga than watch this. :<

    ————————-

    @Takaii: “Anyways, as much as I don’t like to drop series, this one might be one of the few that are too tough to stomach.”

    Your decision of course. It is (theoretically) possible things will improve. Again I wish you luck here. If you do decide to drop coverage, I wouldn’t feel bad about it. Bad adaptation is bad adapatation.

  4. Well, at last in this Show the Girls on Heat (you understand), are not getting touched by a “Guy” like in Testament. Thats my Line of Hentai crossing Ecci boarders (And lets not talk about the Clean up of the Succubus after their Curse in Episode 2. Disgusting)

    i dunno, this Show lacks on something important. the Story is not forceful enough to be a counterpart of these much Fan-service so far

    WorldwideDepp
    1. and please..
      https://randomc.net/image/ISUCA/ISUCA%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2007.jpg

      I have nothing against using real Life Photos combined with Anime Pictures (my eye see this Plastic Bag and the Clothes as Real Life Photos). But it also tell me that they are became Lazy to fill their World with Life. I know it is a good Trick to save Budget. But do you not feel a bit awkward looking these complete different “dimension” Picture? Well, i do

      WorldwideDepp
      1. A Hint. Look into the Texture of the surrounding, and the Skin Texture of the Peoples. You see the difference? Thats the point. As if 3D or 2.5D World if filled with 2D Peoples

        WorldwideDepp
  5. Interesting point about true names, Mr Blogger. You know it’s a major cultural reference to Japanese spirituality and whatnot? When you speak about symbolism, what exactly do you mean?

    Solaris
  6. I’m unable to satisfactorily express my utter disappointment with any sort of brevity.

    So I’m just going to pound my head on the desk for a few minutes, reread the manga, and give the anime one more week.

    s_w
  7. Oh boy this one is a doozy.

    (takes a deep breath)

    Episode 1

    Firstly even if the arrow had a spell on it so it couldn’t be removed why didn’t she just……rip off the part of her clothing that was attached to it? The arrow would still be in the tree sooooo I don’t know why she didn’t just do that. Plus the main character gets saved from a giant monster only to run EXACTLY in the same direction the monster did. Is he asking to die?

    Pretty dang coincidental that he found the cat girl JUST as she was about to be finished off even though arrow girl probably could have killed her before he showed up anyways. She had to be within range to even get her stuck in the first place.

    That Lighting Beast SUCKS at its job. How does it continue to miss it’s target even when they are just STANDING STILL???!!! And why does a wooden stick have ANY effect on it? Like I know he probably has some special power or something but couldn’t it have just fired off a few shots to keep him away? Or hit him with it’s paw? They don’t have to stand still to do the life force sucking thing sooooo yeah. That’s dumb.

    One thing i can commend the series for doing is avoiding the “tsundere is afraid of lighting” cliche. Don’t need to hit that road as well………..right?

    Episode 2

    Glad to see those girls aren’t traumatized by seeing their friend almost brutally murdered right before them. Didn’t even question that giant tiger figure they saw either. It’s gonna be one of those shows huh? The one where the common public don’t act like real people about these situations? At least have the decency to create some memory wiping bullshit! You’d think these people would have created something like that by now considering these monsters attack people in public and apparently nobody in this world knows about them. I noticed they did something like that for the girls attacked by the rats but what about the girls before? Hell what about Shinichirou? He was attacked and yet they never bothered messing with his memory. And it’s not like they knew about his power before the incident at the school either.
    Pretty sure there should have been some witnesses of this stuff happening as well. Is the anime daring me to hate it?

    Even the fanservice is lazy. For like the 3rd time now Sakuya has put herself in a position to have the MC see her undies. She literally walked up to him as he was on the ground as if she did it on purpose. What a dummy head!

    Baddass arrow using warrior is somehow not afraid of a giant centipede but rats? That’s her freaking kryptonite! So i guess the “tsundere is afraid of lighting cliche” was replaced by the “tsundere is afraid of tiny creatures/bugs” cliche. Either way of course it’ll be used to end up making the tsundere fall more in love with the MC because he helps her in a moment of weakness. Hell they even threw in the spoiler[“tsundere wakes up RIGHT when he MC is getting kissed] making her even more jealous” cliche. YAY romantic originality!

    (sigh)

    Now that the nipicks are out of the way let’s talk about the good things……………………………………………………………
    ………………………………………………………………….
    ………………………………………………………………..nope I’ve got nothing.

    I don’t know why but “So i can’t play h?” did this concept (characters receiving power through sexual actions) so much better. The over the top craziness made it hard for me to really hate it and even with it’s abundance of cliches/fanservice at least the characters were aware of them (at times). Isuca on the other hand just feels like a typical boring magic harem show. You can’t get anymore “standard” than this. I do hope they do something with this “Nobody is truly evil” concept. About the only semi interesting thing the series has going for it.

    It also has Tama who is tots adorable but I refuse to be swayed by petty attacks on my fetishes!

    leatherhead333
  8. getting off topic a little, open-mindedness now a days is a double edged sword I think when it comes to anime. On one hand it’s good to be more open to things it helps with new experiences on the flipside though it deludes into excepting the weird as normal. Look at prism iilya, black bullet, and the upcoming nanoha vivid for example the fact that everyone is totally ok with elementary school girls having same-sex tendencies toward each other despite the fact that they are at that age wear they shouldn’t be thinking about such things is completely normal now but if there had been boys in each series I mentioned and they(the boys) developed crushes on the girls and vice versa. people( male otaku) would rage at the mere thought of such a thing because they are so use to the weird that changing anything about that would destroy their world.

      1. oh, and a notice for the Animator

        The Animated Car was cheap.. and on the bridge.. Whats that? The Human/Driver is bigger then the entire Car. You took example from a Entertainment Park?

        WorldwideDepp
      2. and one extra thing (i just do this to get the Anime better)

        Show Spoiler ▼

        This Episode is a step back, in all quality

        WorldwideDepp
  9. This might go down as the worst manga adaptation of 2015. This might end up winning that kind of horrible award.

    Just butchering the source material to the point where I wonder why they even wanted to make an anime based on it.

    Yeah, the kissing and getting true names business is silly. But it’s far less stupid than the whole “getting killed by these things results in sexual pleasure”….what!? Literally people being eaten alive is suddenly a wonderfully pleasant experience. It’s like they decided they couldn’t get anyone watching this thing unless they had female characters moaning at every other moment.

    Just a trainwreck. The source material isn’t gold by any stretch. But it’s fine. This though is just terrible.

  10. This anime adaptation has regressed into an incoherent screaming pile of crap. It’s definitely the worst adaptation of the year. I don’t think anything comes close, or WILL come close to it.

    It’s like the guy who was in charge of adapting the manga REALLY hated it, and decided to **** it up so badly to take it out on the author and any readers who happened to watch it or accidentally tune into it. (Or walk by a TV with it on.)

    And even if you didn’t read the manga, you’d probably be offended by how bad it is regardless of comparisons to the source material. The art in the anime isn’t even good. It’s horrible. The random black clouds and steaks aren’t even hiding anything worth looking at, because the art is BAD. (Although how one random black cloud hovers over Sakuya’s chest is funny as hell. It’s SO out-of-whack and messed up, it’s oddly humorous.)

    At any rate, NOBODY deserves to have their material treated THIS badly.

    I had to get that off my chest. (Because Sakuya can’t get the cloud off of hers.)

    s_w
  11. Isuca 07:

    Well i do not want to spoil to much, but let me talk about the last seconds, where she shoot the Arrow

    Well, she shoot it, it penetrates and she fell over and the target scream like…. you call this a scream? there is nothing behind the voice. And she fell over just without anything happen…

    Iscua.. do you really think that is enough? Your Fan service Budget runs low?

    Come on, improve in the Voice emotions part please. your not on kindergarten level…

    WorldwideDepp
    1. and for the Smoke, not only Air Ventilation can help. What can wash the Smoke out of the Sky? Rain/Water!!!… Water Sprinklers for fire fighting.. come on, you sure has some of this even in your Studio, over your heads in case of a Fire…

      WorldwideDepp

Leave a Reply to s_w Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *