Posted by OP Sequence
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
OP: 「clockwork planet」 by fripSide
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「ギア・オブ・デスティニー / 運命の歯車」 (Gia • Obu • Desutinii / Unmei no Haguruma)
“Gear of Destiny”
Within three minutes of starting the show, I realized this wasn’t my type of show. After watching two more minutes I realized that this was going to turn into my guilty pleasure show.
General Impressions
I decided to go out of my typical comfort zone when it comes to new shows this season and I must say that Clockwork Planet is a show that I probably wouldn’t give much thought to unless I was looking for a show to binge once all the episodes were out. That said, once I got passed the shoddy animation style (which I have a pretty good idea about why it’s like that) and accepted the story that the show was trying to tell us, I actually started to enjoy the show.
Now mind you, I’m not the toughest person to please. So long as there’s something I can attach myself to, be it a loud mouth loli scientist who also kicks ass or her chauffer / bodyguard who reminds me of Snow from Final Fantasy XIII with the way he uses those bad ass fists of his, I can let anything grow on me. Starting with the bad though, in Clockwork Planet’s case, I think what I had the toughest time swallowing was the insane story they’re throwing at us. I mean, I guess a show like this doesn’t really need a grand overarching plot, but they had me so enthralled with the thought of humanity trying to keep itself a float by literally recreating the planet with gears. Not only was the animation of all those clockwork gears amazingly beautiful but I was really hoping that we would at least get to see some of the struggles that involve replacing earth’s entire core with a bunch of sprockets and gears. Instead, we’re quickly introduced to our main cast of characters in one of the shoddiest ways I’ve ever seen. Without going into too much detail since thinking about it makes my head hurt a little, I really would have preferred if things were split up between either Naoto and RyuZU or Marie and Vainney. But if there was something that bothered me more than the story, it had to be the god awful art and animation that would pop up more often than not. Now, I realize that all that beautiful gear animation probably ate up most of the art budget, but seeing how most of the time we’re watching the characters, it wouldn’t have hurt if the art could be a teeny tiny bit more consistent.
Gripes aside, by the end of the episode I actually kind of enjoyed what Clockwork Planet gave us. And once I took a second to adjust my expectations, I actually started to appreciate some of the choices the show runners made (at least the decisions I’m assuming they made off of this first episode). From the random sexual innuendos involving fingers to the crazy pacing of the story, it starts to be pretty fun when you stop taking it too seriously. However, I swear to god if the animation quality doesn’t stabilize sometime soon I’m going to go and attempt to redraw each frame myself.
So yeah, not too bad of a show especially if you go in with the proper expectations. Will I keep watching it? Of course — I need to know more about Marie since characters like that just make me smile. In terms of covering a second episode, I’ll think about it.
ED Sequence
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
ED: 「アンチクロックワイズ」 (Anchi Kurokuwaizu) by After the Rain
Preview
 |
 |
 |
As someone who read the first few volumes of the light novel, as far as the translation goes, i was pretty excited to see this getting animated. While the clockwork is really beautiful, i have to agree on the artstyle of the characters. From start until the halfway point i had some serious needless flashbacks. The bad kind. The REALLY bad kind. But as mentioned after the first half i could somewhat live with it. What grinded my gears a bit (intended) was how the story felt cut off in some way. You know, missing background and stuff. If i remember correctly during the first half of the first volume some very important exposition was given, i hope that comes later because some of that stuff was i believe rather important to the story as a whole.
Not an actual story spoiler, more like mild exposition.
Show Spoiler ▼
Although i could be completely wrong in all of the above. It has been quite some time since i read the novel.
Show Spoiler ▼
Yes, seriously what was up with the character animation. Every time there’s a new scene, Naoto has changed haha.
And I had great expectations going into this show after reading a bit of the manga to prepare for the anime adaptation. Sadly they lowered the bar and made Naoto into a even more pathetic character.
Show Spoiler ▼
Sigh don’t know if I’m gonna keep watching or not. Second ep hopefully will be slightly better…..
https://randomc.net/image/Clockwork%20Planet/Clockwork%20Planet%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
the way she talk just like rem but the content of her talk just like ram, i think this will interesting!
It is an nice idea to replace all natural pyhics with Clockworks, but can you replace the Atoms? i mean, can be reproduce H2O when the H and O are not there anymore? Yeah you could say, if this Clockwork Earth here will have the same destiny like Mars? where it lost most and above of their molecules into the space, because the magnitude field was not there to hold them
also, if we go and destroy trees and other plants that create breath able air for us just for profit, when will be reach the point of no return (when regeneration of air is to low)
yes, high level thoughts here
also, to create this many Gears, you need first the resource metals for them.. okay, i understand that they recycle now them, but first they need to be build
see, if you go there and try to input realism.. many problems occur
@Worldwidedepp: Short version answer to your questions = suspension of disbelief. Given how outlandish, pure fantasy the setting/premise is, just have to roll with it.
yeah i know. If you bring in reality into anime then you can not enjoy anime.
But, to continue my “rant”. We have Car Engines and other “fire” that use air to work and produce CO2. So, how much energy wee need to split this CO2 into C and O2 again? if we can do it, how we force this O2 into H2O again? (last part they are about to solve it. But CO2 they bury them into deep sea? We just run away to solve this mystery for our children…
@Worldwidedepp: It’s fine to think about such things within a story. I notice such things all the time. Within the context of the premise/world-setting (i.e “in-universe”) of a story, things should be realistic. Set your universes rules and stick to them.
My point was specific to this series rather than anime globally (or TV/movies/books/LN/manga/etc.). Here, the premise/world-setting of literally a machine world made of gears is so outlandish that one’s gonna need some suspension of disbelief. That being said, that doesn’t mean anything goes and gets a pass either.
If you’re enjoying trying to rationalize some of this in depth – that’s cool. 😀
I wouldn’t say the character designs are bad but they definitely look very dated, as if they came from 10 years ago.
I was also really really disappointed with this :\
I was hoping for a cool steampunk anime but instead it opens with the shodiest fight scene that basically wasn’t animated. Again I agree with the extremely dated character designs, flounder mouth, and the lip sync was really just 3 different mouth shapes each time.
Was looking forward to RC coverage of Ep 01 because I’m curious as to what others thought. I have mixed feelings on this show. The premise definitely takes some suspension of disbelief, but at the same time I found the gearpunk (if that’s not a word, I’m creating it. :P) setting interesting. Certainly a different backdrop.
100% anime-only here, and this wasn’t quite what I expected starting with the tone. Wasn’t expecting super serious and/or grim-dark, but this was lighter than I expected. Same goes for the amount of (very) YMMV “comedy” thrown. Comedy is subjective, but it did not work for me. After an in medias res opening (not a huge fan of that), things did slow down, but I never felt it got too exposition heavy for an intro episode. Pacing was pretty good overall – certainly the plot moved along since we are already in crisis mode.
Characters: It’s not that I dislike the cast, but I do wish I had more affinity towards them. Yeah, I know, only Ep. 01, but still…
– RyuZU: Between an automaton, silver hair and a “sharp tongue”, definitely reminded me of Horizon (Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon). So far, not as good as Horizon. Eh, she’s OK.
– Naoto: MEH! Not sure why, but I wasn’t expecting a prototypical shounen male lead and he checks off a number of boxes from age, to “OMG will you f**king stop blushing furiously because there’s a female (and a female doll at that) within 20m of you!!” (sorry, but I’m sick of that trope), to being a special snowflake with the super power of… hearing, I guess. I’ll just go ahead and assume he has a tragic background as well. Don’t hate the kid, but MEH I say!
– Marie: OK as an “ojou-sama” type. At least she’s competent (hyper-competent which may or may not be good) rather than simply “oh hohohoho” haughty. Second favorite so far.
– Vainney: Probably my favorite as the laid back, competent, kind of cool guy. Seems to have good relationship with Marie.
Visual quality is what it is. Choppy for sure, and I do wish it was better/more consistent. Stil, while I understand it might irritate some viewers, it wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I’ll give points for the intro’s battle being somewhat dynamic with quite a bit of motion vs. standing around talking. Perhaps an indication of potential for future battles.
Overall, not good/great, but still enough here for me to check out a couple more episodes. With suspension of disbelief mode on, I do like the gearpunk setting and the plot seems OK. The intro does suggest some future action/battles, and the characters may grow on me more. As for the “comedy”… that might be a lingering issue.
With RyuZU, I think what I like is that, where other female MCs / characters of that type of character usually only talk that way on purpose as a way to get under peoples’ skins, RyuZU seems to do it simply because it’s how she actually is, being an automata and all; like it doesn’t feel like she’s trying to purposely piss off Naoto.
But with Naoto, yeah…it wouldn’t be a problem if he were only 8-10 years old or something, but mid-teens? No.
HalfDemonInuyasha: That’s a fair point. Still, RyuZU has a lot of personality for a “robot”, so while maybe not with malicious intent, it did feel like she was at least teasing him on purpose in a friendly way. Again, reminded me of Horizon. Horizon gives Toori a lot of grief, but you know she cares for him. However, there’s a long standing past with Horizon & Toori. Here’s just insta-relationship.
As for Naoto, it was just soooo overdone IMO. Not the first series have an ML like that. :/
i think this Y Person has the know length to rebuild all from scratch. Seems like they lost the wisdom of creating this complex clockworks, and only knowing to maintain and repair it with helps of a “design plan”. But new stuff (i think like the female automaton doll) are impossible for this current time
So this Y person, could be an “creator”
If the first episode already looks like this animation wise, then I fear for the rest.
Interesting concept in general, and for once, the CGI is way better than the 2D animation. Let’s hope that aside the tropes, Xebec will put more money into this
Minus points for this OP. It show us her “death” (well at last this big Knife in the Back). Seems like she has some backup “heart” inside her body, like Terminator T-800
Also…
this men and his Role here
https://randomc.net/image/Clockwork%20Planet/Clockwork%20Planet%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
remember me of this
https://randomc.net/image/Shakugan%20no%20Shana/Shakugan%20no%20Shana%20III%20Final%20-%2024%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
Shame about what happened with the character designs, both the light novels and manga did pretty good in that regard IMO. I’m guessing this anime didn’t get much of a budget to work with, considering the OP was almost entirely actual scenes and thus hilariously spoiler-y.
Xebec!
What a terrible execution of such a promising premise. It’s like they gathered up every single tired, overused cliche and dumped ’em in a blender. The best thing I can say about it is that Clockwork Planet feels like a really uninspired, generic JRPG from the PS1/PS2 era.
Which I mean, yeah, is leagues better than what passes for a generic JRPG these days… but that’s about as backhanded of a compliment as I can imagine.
Very generic, but also very solid. I like the chemistry between Naruto and RyuZU. She doesn’t behave like a robot at all, she is very concern about how Naruto feels about her.
Honestly, I think the animation and art could use a lot more polishing. The different in quality is astonishing when compared to its promo materials.
I actually think that the gear theme could be must improved. The animation and art on the gears are rather bland at some parts, and probably should utilize the gear concept in more detail like explaining how it make the world or automaton works
But so far the plot still manages to keep me going… so will watch on.