Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Arrival of Tears」 by 彩音 (Ayane)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
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「赤い夜 Piros éjszaka」 (Akai Yoru)
“Red Night”
An adult visual novel turned anime yet again. How successful will this one be?
With the video game subtitled “The Girl of Sin, Punishment, and Atonement” 「-罪と罰と贖いの少女-」, I imagine this anime adaptation would raise at least a few eyebrows. I’ve been informed that some/most/all (?) of the cast from the adult visual novel has returned for this anime adaptation, which includes the likes of Ono Daisuke (lead), Gotou Mai, Asakawa Yuu, Takahashi Chiaki, and Mizuhashi Kaori among various lesser known ones. Since seiyuus use aliases for eroge/hentai work, this isn’t the most trivial thing to confirm outside of being into these type of games, which I’m not. In any case, the focus here is on the actual story and not the ecchi aspect, albeit they do seem to include the occasional panty shot fairly often. My immediate reaction while watching the first episode is that the series resembles Night Wizard The ANIMATION in both style and premise. The obvious indications are the character designs (to a degree) and the “Red Night” alternate reality. For comparison purposes, I’ve uploaded the opening sequence to Night Wizard.
Night Wizard OP 「KURENAI」 by Miyazaki Ui ▼
On the other hand, the overall dark ambiance in the series seems to mirror the relatively unpopular AYAKASHI. Having Ayane perform the opening theme here as well helps in that regard. (Ayane’s voice sounds freakishly similar to Mizuki Nana‘s at times, but her music’s always a good listen.) Omni added that the opening sequence reminds him of CHAOS;HEAD, which I can see due to the presence of girls with special abilities in a normal city life environment. With that in mind, I guess it should come as no surprise when I say these three series are based on visual novels too. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing though, as visual novels have surprisingly good plots at times.
Speaking of plot, the story follows our heterochromia male protagonist Satsuki Kakeru (Ono Daisuke), who’s lived a fairly uneventful lifestyle for the past seven years after his sister attacked him for unknown reasons and committed suicide sometime afterward. Having lost his only remaining family member under these bizarre circumstances, Kakeru has only managed to maintain a normal lifestyle up until now because of his supportive childhood friend Minase Yuka (Gotou Mai), who was adopted into the Minase family. On their way to an outlet mall, Kakeru and Yuka are dragged into what seems like an alternate reality where there’s nobody around but hordes of monsters instead. They somehow manage to return to their normal world before they’re about to get attacked, but are traumatized by the whole ordeal.
The following day, a new transfer student named Momono Shiori (Hagiwara Emiko) joins their class and exudes absolutely no interest in any other class members except Kakeru. After school, Kakeru and Yuka try to go to the outlet mall again and manage to make it there this time by avoiding the bridge from yesterday. After spending some time there, the two of them have a run in with a ghostly-looking student named Kukuri, who’s been tailing them the entire time and looks oddly similar to Kakeru’s deceased sister. Before the two of them know it, they’re back in the “Red Night” world and being attacked by monsters again.
If you feel like you’re grasping at straws trying to figure out what’s going on so far, I wouldn’t worry too much at this point — things are pretty hazy for me as well. However, I’m purposely avoiding reading up on the game so that the anime can deliver the story in whatever way it deems fit. Over the course of episode, the only character that has shown any real indication that she knows what’s going on is Kusakabe Misuzu (Asakawa Yuu). She’s going to show up next time judging from the preview, so I expect she’ll fill us in then. Keeping the viewer wrapped in so much mystery with the very first episode feels like a cheap way to get him/her to watch the second one, but it’s worked on me. There are so many unanswered questions right now, so I’ll be watching a few more episodes at the very least. While far from masterpieces, I actually enjoyed Night Wizard, AYAKASHI, and CHAOS;HEAD, so I see myself taking a liking to this series as well.
Production-wise, Dogakobo‘s animation quality for close-up shots are fine, but they seem to let it drop for distant shots whenever they can. I avoided taking screencaps of those cases, but you’ll likely notice it yourself if you watch the episode. It’s not a terrible, but it’s noticeable. That said, the broadcast on Sun TV doesn’t appear to be that great either.
* CrunchyRoll added 11eyes to their simulcasts today. What are they going to do next? Try and take over the world?
* Added AYAKASHI’s opening sequence for series and Ayane/Mizuki Nana comparison purposes. See below.
AYAKASHI OP 「cloudier sky」 by Ayane ▼
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Sequentia」 by Asriel
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
Wow…this looks a lot like night wizard indeed. I wonder if it has any romance aspects?
first XD
the beginning of the op reminds me of atelier iris @.@
Nah, I think this is different enough from Night Wizard. If you want, you can keep going and say Rental Magica is like the two of them, as well.
You’re not going to mention that this series is being simulcasted on Crunchyroll? =b
Phosphatide:
I don’t find it that similar to Rental Magica actually. There, the main character is already aware of magic users and such and leads his Astral magicians-for-hire organization.
Nebs:
Christ, that’s news to me. It looks like they only added it today too.
Crunchyroll?
Does that mean no fansubber will be subbing this?
:((
I think that OP was kickass.
O:
Reminds me so much of Persona 3 for some reason…
Ayane is a good singer, you should hear the OP of the visual novel of 11eyes and it’s fairly better than the ones on the anime OP. I’ve been waiting for the anime version, since there has not been an english translation for the VN, just downloaded it recently. I’ll be looking forward for this.
Crunchyroll subs suck and that’s a fact. I’ve seen them and one of the most noobies mistake was translating “yahoo, oniisan” as “Hello, cute boy”.. D:~
Plus the censoring was way over the top~! If they were going with a steam censoring effect, than it was an epic fail..
@Doodle
that certain occasion is not a mistake.
Using the direct meaning of that honorific would not fit the contest, thus it HAD to be replaced by english equivalent of intended meaning. 🙂
> As often the case with adult-visual-novel-to-anime adaptations, they’ve ousted the adult cast in favour of anime seiyuus
I would suggest you do some research before saying something like this – the cast of the game and of the anime are, in fact, one and the same, they’re just using aliases.
i suggest playing the game first to appreciate this wonderful creation ;D
Exactly. Every seiyuu has a porn alias for doing porno voice overs. They do so because they don’t want to ruin their rep.
I love this series and have been waiting for a while for this to come out. The opening and ending are amazing.
CR is welcoming a new era of shitty subs. They’re so terrible I just had to fix them for my own right. Hopefully CR isn’t a tell of things to come.
Definitely get Night Wizard vibes. I might watch only for Crystal Girl (Kusakabe Misuzu).
CR IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH———————-
Look its the main person from persona 3 lol
Ayane & Asriel…
Ahhhh ! So good ! I need to watch 11eyes !
I like : Another “tears” on the name of the opening. 😀
Personally, I love the visual novel plot more then the anime,
But I might change my mind after watch next episode.
Maybe I could know about Saiko past
what happen to Takahisa? XP
The ED was amazing Asriel >.< Ayane go a good job in OP too.
generic character design FTL
First impression: ROFLMAO, the title is in hungarian! Now I will definetely watch it, because I’m hungarian, and I’ve never seen anything like that in an anime before.
Hungary is a small country in Europe, so you’re propably don’t know anything about it, and that’s why it’s so strange that they used this language.
@Unknown Voice
It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fit the context, why couldn’t they left it as oniisan is then? Everyone would understand in this respect, the “brother” is an affectionate use. If the original script had wanted to use “cute-boy” they would have (I dont know, kawaii-chan or something). IMO I’d much rather get a translation closer to the Japanese meaning as possible, if it can’t, leave it as is. There are many words used in Japanese that if strictly translated, wouldn’t make sense in everyday English usage, and fans understand that. It’s really annoying to see whenever the original Japanese dialogue uses “oniisan,” “oniisama,” etc. they fill it in with the real names of the people referring to. Sure in English we never call our older brothers, “Older-Brother,” but it takes away the honorific and a lot of the meaning and undertones when “-sama” “-san” “-chan” are all ignored.
OFF:
Why is the name of this series written there in hungarian? (Piros éjszaka)
ON:
The pictures of the first episode seems inetersting, I’m looking forward for this series.
Overander: It’s the official title on the episode, it appears like this in the episode too.
looks nice ! I think I’m gonna watch episode 1 🙂
FF, Anon:
While I’m well aware of that fact, I admit I’m not knowledgeable in the area of “seiyuu aliases for eroge/hentai”. I have little to no interest in playing those type of games, so it’s not something I could’ve validated first hand.
If you have a reliable source where I can confirm that Ono Daisuke’s is Nakamoto Shisuke, Gotou Mai’s is Agumi Oto, Asakawa Yuu’s is Haruka, Hagiwara Emiko’s is Imuraya Honoka, along with the rest of the support cast, please do share. For now though, I’ll hedge my statement in light of your individual accounts. I’m not doubting you guys, but at this point in time I can’t exactly say the entire cast is the same either.
who is the silverhaird kid https://randomc.net/image/11eyes/11eyes%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
That would be Tajima Takahisa, who’s played by Morikubo Shoutarou (Shikamaru in Naruto). Not sure what else I can tell you at this point aside from the fact that he’s one of the main characters (which you can probably tell from the OP/ED).
The visual novel was good im just worried the anime wont be able to explain the complex plot well enough and we will get another chaos head. I highly doubt they will be able to get character development on everyone but im still looking forward to how they adapt it
It’s definitely intriguing. But damn it crunchyrolll! First they take tegami bachi and then this, and now fairy tail?
Well, Gouto Mai being Agumi Oto is easy. Just do a google search on “Tale of Melodies” where she voiced Hayami Mizuki. As for the rest, I have no idea.
I didn’t expect the male protagonist having a seiyuu in the game.
Yeah, Gotou Mai is a somewhat obvious one because of ef, but I wasn’t sure what her alias was there. Asakawa Yuu has done eroge/hentai work under her real name, so I guess I should’ve suspected her as well. Ono D is a surprise to me though, even though I know male seiyuus usually don’t have as much of a problem doing H work.
I don’t know how good the anime is going to be, But the Opening and Ending are AMAZING!
Would be nice if crunchyroll did something wild and unpredictable like actually having the episode on their site instead of a useless page for “discussion and informational purposes”.
They only added it yesterday (after sorting out the licensing etc. I imagine), so I’d give it a bit longer before the actual videos show up.
sheeesh ….reminds me of something, alot of shows actually…..but which ones?? *brain lock*
@Divine
Your comment on Ayane sounding like Mizuki Nana was dead-on. Finally some one agrees that like me. I am a big Nana fan, so when i heard the OP and the game’s OPs, i was shocked as well.
Hope you can continue blogging this series as well.
lol… CR adding up animes on their streaming site? that’s one huge evidence of desperation… they lost more than half of their “members” after they go legal… basically they (and the producers) get lesser income than the expected… to counter the losing battle against illegal FREE streamers, they take every seemingly hit animes (in this fall line up) and then, they try to open it worldwide (asia to be exact, since most of their members are asians) to pick more profits… sigh… what i really hate the most are desperate peoples. CR is among of them…
Hitsugaya_10:
I think it’s pretty undeniable that they sound similar. Ayane was at Animelo Summer Live 2009 and helped perform the new theme song, “RE:BRIDGE ~Return to oneself~”, so it was even more obvious with her performing alongside Nana (and everyone else).
The PV for that song is available here if you haven’t seen it:
* Ayane @ 0:38 (love the glasses look) and Nana @ 1:39 with Hirano Aya.
* Takarano Arika of ALI PROJECT singing normally at 2:15! She sounds good too. Too bad their music is never like this…
I’ve also added a copy of the AYAKASHI OP to the post. That’s when I originally thought Ayane was Nana. Nana was starring in the series, so I just figured she was performing the opening theme too. Anyway, “cloudier sky” is still a cool song after all this time!
Thanks for the link. Really appreciated it. No doubts that they sound similar now.
episode 1 reveals too little things, so we cant really tell how good it is.
But judging from the short episode span, it will go into a really rushed plot. Notice this is from the same company who produced Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka… Reminds me of bad memmories.
The opening is amasing, and I think it looks really good, mainly because I love when adapt visual novels into anime, especially the ones like this that put romance in the plot. Also, the protagonist here really loooks the same as Minato from Persona 3.
Who is that female in the ED?
I don’t mind spoilers.
this anime is okay…but its too damn predictable
Night wizard and Ayakashi Op’s are better than this one.
I really liked the opening and the episode was interesting
Did anyone else notice how good the sound is? It really drew me in.
A cute but unoriginal series that seems to combine Renatal Magica and Persona 3. Unsure so far, may give it 4 eps to see if it becomes a good series.
Oh btw, Crunyroll is everything that is wrong with the anime community as a whole. I remember a few years back when it was a good site, then it signed a deal with the devil (Gonzo) and has sucked balls since. 🙁
August:
Do you feel that way simply because they started offering legally licensed anime with official subtitles, but are charging users for it? Or are you just saying that you preferred it when they were a free streaming site full of illegal fansubs?
Objectively speaking, at $5 a month, it’s less than you’d expect to pay for a specialty cable TV channel (which it basically is), plus it gives money back to the anime industry in Japan. This of course doesn’t even take into account the time/money spent to get proper subtitles out in a timely manner (often within 24 hours of airing in Japan).
While I’m sure everyone appreciates the efforts of the fansub community, it’s hard to say that donating to them (often in tens to hundreds of dollars at a time) is getting your money to those who actually deserve it. Keep in mind that this is in light of a struggling anime industry in Japan. If it goes under, that means no more anime for anyone.
That said, I’m not trying to be “pro-Crunchyroll” here or anything. I’m just trying to find out why people hate the service they’re providing so much, especially when it’s free if you’re willing to wait a week. I don’t think the argument, “but I can get a bootleg copy for free” holds a lot of weight. The video game industry is no different. You can just as easily download copied games for free for various systems/handhelds, but then do you hate on the stores that sell the real games and take a cut of the profits?
At anime conventions, some fansubbers claimed that they do what they do because there are no good alternatives for fans — paid or otherwise. Technically, now there is one but some people aren’t willing to pay for it, even though it’s like $0.17/day. However, you’ll probably notice that a lot of fansub groups won’t bother with shows that are simulcasted because it’s redundant, meaning that they acknowledge there’s an alternative out there for you.
Just some food for thought.
Anyone else notice that the transfer student carries a copy of the ‘Index Librorvm Prohibiyrvm’ around?
Well divine I agree with your statement about Crunchyroll and I deem it to be a great site and a great direction for the anime community in general however I have one but about it all. Since Crunchyroll gets the license only for the US (I believe) the users living elsewhere aren’t able to stream the shows on their site; at least the new ones anyway. Then you said that the fansub groups opt to not sub the shows CR is doing anyway which really puts us fans who live in other countries SOL because we can’t stream from CR and no legitimate fansub group is doing the show. In this case it seems to be a huge oversight.
Good thing you brought this up. I thought about this after I wrote my blurp above actually.
If I’m not mistaken, CR gets licenses directly from the Japanese companies. Also, some of their shows are already available outside of North America. When a show isn’t available in your country, they display a message saying they’re trying to acquire worldwide rights to stream it everywhere. From the sound of that, I gather that it’s not them purposely limiting where they broadcast shows, but the agreement they have with the Japanese companies.
To be fair, CR seems to be concerned about getting rights to the major English speaking countries first. This sort of makes sense since they’re an American-based company and the subtitles are only available in English (for now anyway). While I’m sure there are lots of fans worldwide that rely on English subs, it’s not unreasonable for them to focus their efforts on English speaking countries first.
Of course, like you’ve mentioned, this leaves anime fans who aren’t from English speaking countries (or one of the dominant ones) out of luck if they rely on English subs. In short, it sucks.
While you may feel that CR is screwing you guys over by doing this (even though they don’t want to be limited to certain countries), I honestly don’t think English fansub groups are too different. They probably aren’t concerned about releasing English fansubs for non-English speaking countries, just like an Italian fansub group probably wouldn’t be too concerned if people outside of Italy didn’t have an alternative when people in Italy do.
I think it’s a bit harsh to knock CR for their efforts when they’ve provided a good service for a lot of people, but aren’t able to provide it for everyone simply because it’s out of their control. In those cases, I guess it’s up to fansub groups in your native language to step up until CR or another company obtains broadcast rights for anime in your country. In the meantime though, you can try to convince the English fansubs groups to do redundant work for non-English speaking countries (unlikely) or just be glad you have people who do stuff out of spite (e.g. HorribleSubs).
Given CR’s regional restrictions, I can see a purpose to a group such as HorribleSubs. However, I don’t see why all the hate is directed towards CR for this, when fansub groups could’ve continued doing what they were doing if they wanted to. Technically speaking, fansubbing isn’t any more illegal now than it was before CR obtained these rights. Of course, one could argue that these fansub groups only stopped because of CR, but are they really mad about having work taken off their hands? Wasn’t their goal while fansubbing to get a good alternative established that will take their place?
Viral: watch Trinity Blood. Some of the episodes take place in Budapest…