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NEWS: Zaregoto OVA's 2nd Trailer Previews Sangatsu no Phantasia's Theme Song

It does bug me that SHAFT is making this series look like Monogatari rather than keeping Take's art style like white fox did with Katanagatari

This looks SOOO Monogatari, it's kind of annoying. I love Monogatari, and I love NisiOisin, and I love SHAFT, but man, I really wanted them to go for a slightly different look with this project. I don't need more Monogatari for a completely different series. Maybe it'll do a better job of differentiating itself than the PV conveys. I hope so.

relyat08 wrote:

This looks SOOO Monogatari, it's kind of annoying. I love Monogatari, and I love NisiOisin, and I love SHAFT, but man, I really wanted them to go for a slightly different look with this project. I don't need more Monogatari for a completely different series. Maybe it'll do a better job of differentiating itself than the PV conveys. I hope so.

Its not Monogatari style its Watanabe, Akio he does the animation and character designs. Its not just shaft either have you watch the world god only knows? The Fruit of Grisaia? In grisaia theres a character that looks 100% like Hitagi even has a box cutter as a weapon. He makes sexy character designs prolly because he was a hentai artist when he started out.

Also I'm sure nisio is happy with the change since he knows it will help up his sells of more novels of his like monogatari did

I thought the opening melody was the theme song and became very excited at the prospect that it wouldn't be standard idol music, but then I reached the second half of the video.

GaryNhk wrote:

relyat08 wrote: This looks SOOO Monogatari, it's kind of annoying. I love Monogatari, and I love NisiOisin, and I love SHAFT, but man, I really wanted them to go for a slightly different look with this project. I don't need more Monogatari for a completely different series. Maybe it'll do a better job of differentiating itself than the PV conveys. I hope so. Its not Monogatari style its Watanabe, Akio he does the animation and character designs. Its not just shaft either have you watch the world god only knows? The Fruit of Grisaia? In grisaia theres a character that looks 100% like Hitagi even has a box cutter as a weapon. He makes sexy character designs prolly because he was a hentai artist when he started out. Also I'm sure nisio is happy with the change since he knows it will help up his sells of more novels of his like monogatari did

I'm not referring to the character designs. I am familiar with Akio Watanabe's work, and his designs are fine(though I would have preferred a closer interpretation of Take's work). I'm talking about the cinematography(framing, editing, etc.) specifically. Everything in this PV, directorially, screams Monogatari at the top of its lungs. Which would be great, if it was Monogatari, but it's not. So I'd really like to see something a little different.
I honestly have never really been a huge fan of Yuki Yase's other work either. I was hoping he just needed a chance to prove himself. This is looking like it could go either way.

Both my friend and I agree with you, both watched it and thought 'oh'. It just looks a bit too similar to monogatari, as in their other series did a fair enoough job at being different themselves whilst keeping Shaft's style (Madoka, Nisekoi, Denpa Onna To) even Sasami-san was still it's own work for the most part. But this reminds me of Mekaku City Actors and of Owarimonogatari, that is to say the worst parts of Shaft's style. MCA was desperately trying to hide the lack of budget with flash and it just didn't work, it's a good example of how bad Bakemono could have been if it'd been handled differently. Owarimonogatari was completely carried by the plot and characters this time around imo, the actual animation was meh for the most part. Compare things like Araragi's confrontation with the samurai armour with his fight with Kanbaru or Blake Hanekawa in Bake. Again, it looked liked it was suffering from mis-direction and Kizu draining resources.

This feels like the director said "if I make it 'Shaft' enough it will be good" when I worry that it's mis-use of the style without necessarily completely understanding the right places to use it? I'm sure the director has some level of skill but even Shinbou manages to fudge up from time to time.

Kreion wrote:

Both my friend and I agree with you, both watched it and thought 'oh'. It just looks a bit too similar to monogatari, as in their other series did a fair enoough job at being different themselves whilst keeping Shaft's style (Madoka, Nisekoi, Denpa Onna To) even Sasami-san was still it's own work for the most part. But this reminds me of Mekaku City Actors and of Owarimonogatari, that is to say the worst parts of Shaft's style. MCA was desperately trying to hide the lack of budget with flash and it just didn't work, it's a good example of how bad Bakemono could have been if it'd been handled differently. Owarimonogatari was completely carried by the plot and characters this time around imo, the actual animation was meh for the most part. Compare things like Araragi's confrontation with the samurai armour with his fight with Kanbaru or Blake Hanekawa in Bake. Again, it looked liked it was suffering from mis-direction and Kizu draining resources. This feels like the director said "if I make it 'Shaft' enough it will be good" when I worry that it's mis-use of the style without necessarily completely understanding the right places to use it? I'm sure the director has some level of skill but even Shinbou manages to fudge up from time to time.

Yeah, exactly. SHAFT has certainly proven that they are more than capable of utilizing different styles across many different series, while still keeping their "signature" look. Koufuku Graffiti is another one that comes to mind, and then of course we have the upcoming 3gatsu which looks like it is going to have some really cool visual direction.
I also agree on Owari. I love Owari, but it is very weak visually, compared to some of the early Monogatari. Now that Kizu's production is likely basically done, hopefully they aren't going to be over-extending themselves too much going forward.

It gets on my nervs when someone saids shaft style is monogatari period. Their style has been done in their old works like soul taker and by other companies as well like silver link "Dusk Maiden of Amnesia" The main point everyone brings up why use the same character designer and animator as monogatari. Well maybe because he works for the company and his other titles solid alot in japan and its market towards those buyers thats just my opinion

GaryNhk wrote:

It gets on my nervs when someone saids shaft style is monogatari period. Their style has been done in their old works like soul taker and by other companies as well like silver link "Dusk Maiden of Amnesia" The main point everyone brings up why use the same character designer and animator as monogatari. Well maybe because he works for the company and his other titles solid alot in japan and its market towards those buyers thats just my opinion

I'm not sure if you're disagreeing or agreeing. But I agree that SHAFT is a very versatile company, and I don't have to look very hard to prove that. Koufuku Graffiti doesn't look anything like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, neither does The Monogatari Series look anything like Dance in the Vampire Bund, Even Kizumonogatari looks vastly different than anything they've done in the past, including other Monogatari stuff(some minor similarities to Bake, for obvious reasons, aside). Arakawa, Hidamari Sketch, Madoka, all of that stuff has a very distinct look. My only problem with this particular PV is that it isn't giving us anything that doesn't look like it would fit right into the middle of a Monogatari arc.
And I don't believe Akio Watanabe does actually "work" for SHAFT in any semi-permanent capacity. He has been doing work for many other studios over the years.