Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「爱You Ready 爱我 Ready」 (Ai You Ready Ai Wo Ready) by YANN
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「妖狐スース」 (Youko Suusu)
“Fox and Susu”
Ahh summer is here, and with it a new season of anime. Amidst the gnashing of teeth as we all await the arrival of big hitter Fate/Apocrypha (*cough* Netflix), little Enmusubi is the first batter up for our viewing pleasure. As highlighted in the RC preview—which you did read right?—Enmusubi is the latest Chinese manhua seeing an anime adaptation, combining four ONA seasons into a two cour run. It’s your typical romcom adventure, using spirits, magic, and love to forge a story that while not entirely unique, manages avoiding some of the more conspicuous genre tropes. The original Enmusubi is not flawless in any sense of the word, but I enjoyed what I did see, and it should say something noting this series is now on its fifth ONA season and has only seen increasing popularity. So has the Japanese dub improved anything upon the original foundation? Tentatively, yes.
While impossible to properly judge a show right out the gate—the Three Episode Rule exists for a reason—Enmusubi has taken steps to rectify some of the ONA’s troubles. The noticeable rushing remains a nuisance, but it’s nothing compared to the ONA’s first chaotic season. For example we immediately know off the bat the cute and dumb Susu (Asumi Kana) is arranged to marry the ravenous and oh-so-slightly shameless Gessho (Hatano Wataru), four eyed Fuuki (Kirii Daisuke) has it out for Gessho in some plot-relevant “preventing marriage” capacity, and that the Unification League is a big thing with (obviously) future story involvement. For comparison this information took the ONA over a season to reveal in any meaningful capacity. The comedic info dumping will continue for a bit yet—the slower, better paced overarching plot should not really begin until episode six if the two ONAs per full length episode format continues—but it’s good knowing the Japanese version is willing to tweak the narrative as necessary.
The other side of the coin of course is voice acting, and for me so far it’s largely hit or miss. Susu is right on the money—Asumi Kana as the airhead dunce never disappoints—but Gessho lacks the “oomph” the ONAs had. Our resident monk has a certain degree of comedic uncaringness Hatano Watari hasn’t really captured—see the food whoring—although this did improve towards the episode’s end. Probably a case of wait and see, as while the ONAs also started off awkward in terms of voice acting, they did improve over time. At least everyone else stays true to prior forms, particularly the desert fox and his ridiculous entourage. Might just be me, but there’s something about Japanese screaming that encourages the giggles in ways Mandarin never can.
As mostly a taste of things to come, Enmusubi’s opener has hit the right notes and squashed some of my more prominent concerns. Obviously not enough to get a blogging commitment out of me just yet—I demand copious wining and dining first—but I’m definitely eager to see if these structural tweaks are more than temporary alterations. There’s a good story underneath Enmusubi’s helter-skelter fluff, it simply remains to be seen if the show can make the journey to it interesting. As is always the case, just have to wait and see what next week brings. Hint, it only gets crazier.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「ずっと」 (Zutto) by ベリーグッドマン (Berry Goodman)
Preview
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seen Chinese version nothing new here…
Don’t think there was any indication otherwise. Every bit of info always specified this would be a Japanese dubbing of the original, barring a few tweaks for the new audience.
I’ve actually been looking forward to this. I have not watched the Chinese version because the English subs available for that are atrocious and unlike a Japanese anime, I can’t tell why they are wrong. But the English is mangled and I can’t stand that.
The subs for the one I watched were tolerable. Nothing great of course, by they worked. I personally had a harder time getting my head around the Chinese voices, you listen to Japanese enough and anything else just sounds weird in anime lol.
Not familiar with this series…was looking forward to it from the description summary. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of a let down. Knowing what I know about Chinese wuxia LN and comics…even the average, passable ones are often considered worse than the worse Japanese WN/LN in terms of story telling. Which is rather unfortunate for this particular series, because the concept (from RC’s description) made me think this was going to be similar to Hell Girl or the Monogatari series with a pinch of Hozuki no Reitetsu. It didn’t help that that opening also gave me a similar vibe to what I thought it was going to be – I believed for a moment that this series was going to be the hidden gem of the season!
Then I got about 10 minutes into the show…and I couldn’t stop cringing every few minutes!
My bad, I probably should have put a caveat in the preview that Enmusubi wasn’t going to be grade A quality material. The main problem with the show is easily the first six episodes, it’s simply rapid fire info dumps, character introductions, and comedy.
As mentioned Enmusubi doesn’t get going until the main story starts, which is far enough in to test a lot of people’s patience. The show worked for me (at least what I saw), but I can understand why others would think it’s terrible.
Certainly the 3 episode rule exists for a reason. But, can’t say this one made a good first impression for me.
There was just nothing to keep me wanting to keep watching. The characters were either not likable or not very interesting. I can somewhat sympathize with what the leads are struggling with in their lives, but I just don’t care. The general concept of the show has some potential. But with these two as the gateway characters to it…
I’m glad it worked for some. But, for me this was easily the least enjoyable first episode of the season so far. Will just treat it as partly a subjective thing. Sometimes things just don’t work for you and that was the case for me here.
@Certainly the 3 episode rule exists for a reason.
Does anyone really care about that? Outside of a few English anime communities I can’t imagine many people being aware of it or caring. I certainly don’t. I very rarely see it even mentioned.
Yeah the introduction is the main issue with the show. The dub has so far ameliorated some of the original’s cringe, but you can only do so much without rewriting the entire thing. I will say it improves once the actual story comes into play, but it’s a awfully tough slog getting there.
@Lyfe
Depends, if explicitly then we probably are the only ones who care, but if you ask a viewer in general most on the fence after one episode will know within three whether they want to keep watching a series. Anime communities are probably the ones who simply put a “rule” to what most people already do.
FK, I do think you should try hanging on for a couple more episodes to see what you think. In this series it is recognized even by fans of the original, like myself, that the beginning of the series is pretty rough. But it does get better, and once the main plot kicks in this honestly becomes a series that I really really like. Even before that happens, though, the series will improve and become more interesting.
Like everyone else I can only speak from personal opinion, so I can’t say for sure that you will like it, but I do, and I would like to request that you give it a shot, if you could.
Chinese-sponsored animes are in general painful to watch. They are backed by the Chinese government with a political “mission” to exert “soft power” overseas. I would just skip them.
I wouldn’t say so here, if anything the Japanese dub feels like an afterthought after some marking guru saw an opportunity for a quick buck. Hire a few VAs, commission an ED, merge a few ONA seasons, viola, new anime—no animation required. There’s a lot of Chinese-made anime of late, we just don’t hear about it because the majority never leaves China. If the Chinese state wanted to push cultural dominance this way, they’re doing a piss poor job of it.
I agree. And the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘soft power’ agenda actually is widely considered piss-poor in general, lol.
Even ignoring that I thought this anime was junk. It looked like a parody of anime, like what people who don’t watch anime imagine anime to be like. Hyperactively paced, random characters bodging in and out, goofy slapstick everywhere, suddenly superpowers. Personally I thought the jokes were weak, especially the tsukkomi retorts and the main character’s random obsession with candy. I only laughed at some of the slapstick, which is always a guilty pleasure for me. Of course, to be fair I have to wonder how much comedy was lost in translation (TWICE translated!).
There were continuity errors too, like that fox spirit lady with the glasses having her black tights disappear and reappear between shots.
Overall I thought this was goofy and shoddy. It’s not entirely without charm and maybe it’ll build some up, but I don’t have high expectations.
The sudden rush of government announcing “nope shut it down” and the reaction of everyone being all “oooh important people say that okays” turned me right off. No heavy handed government here, guys~
So far China has done ok with Quan Zhi Gao Shou but this… This… If what any of you are saying is correct then even the Chinese people in my country are gonna cringe in shame… Sheesh…
Damn siao lah I tell you, lose face only //Facepalms
its from china…. that alone made me go into this series with extremely low expectations.
This show isnt the worst China has to offer in the anime scene (that title belongs to Tales of Demons and Gods adaptation), it still does live up to the low quality stuff that the country is known for.
‘Made in China’ and all its negative connotation even applies to anime.
This story is a mess…