Forum - View topicREVIEW: Red Data Girl
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2210 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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I just thought the main character was annoying and Saori Hayami did a terrible job trying to get me to like her. Which forced me to drop it.
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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Though my personal rating of RDG is higher than Key's, I think this review is fair and I agree with most of the weak points that he identifies. I still rate it an A with a bullet. In other words, if they do a nice 3 or 4 episode OVA or a gorgeous PA Works big screen extravaganza to cover the end of the story from the novels, the franchise as a whole will nestle nicely into the top echelon of anime series I have seen, somewhere between #3 and #7, depending on how well done the hoped for ending is.
When you consider that my top two anime on my all time list, Ah! My Goddess and Spice and Wolf, are both incomplete stories with a whole lot more manga/light novel left to be adapted, you may understand why the incomplete feeling, which I acknowledge wholeheartedly, doesn't impact my rating that much. Would the story have benefited from more episodes, even to cover the information for the first five novels? Yes. However, I don't think that a full two cours would have been a good idea, unless there are large amounts of novel that were left out of which I am unaware, never having read them. For the story, as the anime staff presented it, two full cours would have been too much time, leading to dead space that would lead people to complain about the slow pace of the story even more than they already do. I emphasized that last part for a reason. That is, even as packed with information as each episode was, there were still many people that complained that the show was too slow. Frankly, I have made the same complaint against Arata Kanagatri this season. I do not feel it is a problem with RDG, because the storytelling style is entirely different. RDG is pastoral in nature. That will not be to everyone's liking, as is the case with all stories. However, I feel that, given the nature of the story, trying to tell even the complete 6 novel cycle over 24 episodes would lead to times when even a fan of the story and the style of storytelling would feel it was getting a bit long in the tooth. I have a higher opinion of the music than Key. I found both the OP and ED to be very catchy, though not quite to the extent of some other shows this season, like Majestic Prince. (I can never get the ED out of my head, and I actually like the OP better...) The use of sound inside each episode was well crafted as well. In particular, I absolutely loved the use of variations on the OP during key moments, usually conversations between Izumiko and Miyuki that lead to their relationship moving closer to where it needs to be for both of them to be truly happy. From this point on, this rambling post will become more spoilery. Since this is a post-air review, I don't feel a driving need to use spoiler blocks, but I will put them in if people complain. Consider this fair warning: If you haven't watched the series, please don't complain that I revealed some of the concepts it uses below. I also don't agree that the World Heritage Candidate competition was unnecessarily vague. Part of my point has to do with my high opinion of how the story was told in general, using Izumiko's perspective, for the most part, to drive the revelations as the story progresses and the fact that, as Key pointed out, each and every scene is important, with not a single cell of animation wasted in service to the overall story. But my main point is that they don't need to tell us what it means to be a World Heritage Candidate because we already know, or can find out if we are not already aware of what the UNESCO World Heritage program does and its reasons for doing it. Needless exposition about the World Heritage Candidate position is would hurt the flow of the story and we can figure out what it means because it is an analog to what the UNESCO does already. To be specific:
It is that simple. The competition is the identification part. The people close to Izumiko (her mother, Yukimasa, etc...) already consider her to be in the ranks of this mandate, but they are not the only people involved. People like Mayura and Manatsu's father, Hodaka-sempai, and whoever is the power backing Takayanagi are also involved. Yukimasa explained early on that the purpose of Houjou Academy was to identify and foster these type of people. Do we need to know more than that? Never having read the books I was able to figure that out back in the episode where Yukimasa came to the school as a teacher. The episodes over summer break filled in some of the gaps about how the concept has taken shape as a competition between the more powerful students at the school. It all fits together very well. I will now move to the more pressing criticism: that the show lacks resolution, in particular of the last arc's main theme. I have come to grips with the fact that the anime business is cruel to fans. It is dreadfully expensive to produce animation, particularly animation at the quality level that PA Works has made their reputation providing. In any adaptation, there will be portions of the story that have to be trimmed and decisions have to be made about how much of the story will be adapted given the number of episodes the powers that be have allotted to the creative staff for a particular adaptation. Given the portion of the story the team chose to cover, I feel that the story resolved nicely. Is it complete? No. Does it adequately resolve the current arc? Yes. The curse impacting the school has been nullified. Izumiko has "awakened" to her true nature. Miyuki has let Izumiko know that he will be by her side, if she wants him there and not as a servant, but in some other capacity, the shape of which they will have to pound out between themselves. Izumiko, on the other hand, has told him that she is not ready to fully respond to what basically boils down to a proposal. She will never forget the way he saved her from herself this time, but, as she said when he first told her that she needs to tell him that he is needed, "There's no going back." Izumiko has constantly shown concern that being with her will ruin Miyuki's life. If she accepts his offer, his life will not be normal because her life will never be normal. Though it is clear how Izumiko feels about him and vice-verse, she isn't sure if she can do that to him without destroying him in the process, which would, in turn, destroy her. It is a poignant moment, and precisely where the story should be at the point to which the creative team has left it. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Just because the adaptation is not complete, it doesn't diminish the quality of the portion of the story that has been adapted. If PA Works, or some other studio, never pick up the ball and finish the adaptation, I will be disappointed. However, the end of the story in the novels is not an issue that impacts my enjoyment of the anime. I feel that the story was well told, with amazing visual quality, an impressive level of detail in the storytelling, and a pervasive atmosphere to the show as a whole that made it enjoyable on a visceral level and made me greatly anticipate each weeks new episode while the series progressed. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Saori Hayami can do great work when she wants to. She voiced the outspoken and Tsundere Haqua from The World God Only Knows, the coolly sharp-tongued and brilliant Yukino from My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, and the confident and friendly Sawa from Tari Tari. But with Izumiko she put in a bad performance, too weak and limp to have any impact. I guess that's what her director wanted - Izumiko is a quiet character - but that's no excuse. Hayami has shown that she can do quiet girls well, like the aforementioned Yukino. And of course she played Azuki from Bakuman, using pretty much the same quiet voice as she would use with Izumiko but adding an underlying strength to her performance as Azuki that wasn't there with Izumiko. It is most interesting that Rie Tanaka played the assertive Himegami instead of Hayami, even though the Himegami's words were coming out of Izumiko's body. Hayami should have voiced Himegami as well as Izumiko, since in the show both characters share the same voice box. Why didn't she? I don't know, but given that her performance as Izumiko was so lacking maybe her director didn't trust her to pull off Himegami even though Hayami has proven from her previous work that she could voice such a character.
---------- I hated the fact that the show got a webcast. It meant that since I was following the broadcast version I was always two episodes behind and therefore could not participate in the discussion threads here or on other forums. Really annoying. ---------- Anyway, Red Data Girl was very disappointing. Nothing made sense. It didn't explain anything, there were no context given to anything. No weight was given to any possible outcomes, meaning we had no idea why things were important and what would be the consequences if this happened or that happened. The show wasted a few precious episodes on the triplets who weren't actually important to the plot. There was a decent story to be told here, but the writing effed it up big time. Most of the season was mired in crap or inconsequentialities, the pacing was too slow, and nothing made sense because no effort was put in by the scriptwriter to do so. I'm left with no answers, only questions. Why is all of this happening? Why do the elections and rankings matter? What's the academy actually for? How exactly is Izumiko special? How does the U.N. fit into this? Why is the ruling magical system of power of the world situated in Japan? Where did the prophecy come from? Who made it? Maybe if the characters had been a bit stronger then the show might have overcome the plot deficiencies. As it was every character was mishandled. We got an annoying lead female so limp and ineffectual she was unable to carry her own show; a lead male who made scowling and chiding into art forms but who never realised his potential, though he was kind of cool at times; a set of triplets who were spoiler[creepily in love with one another, made even more bizarre by the fact one of them is dead]; a villain whose plan was nothing more than spoiler[simple world domination] with no further goal or motivation; and a whole host of useless supporting characters. Yet again, I find myself being really pissed off with P.A. Works. I don't know if the source material was this nonsensical or if the adaptation was just poor, but even if it was the former then the Anime writers could have improved things. They clearly didn't do that. And the show's bad pacing was all on them and cannot be blamed on the source material. After Tari Tari I thought maybe P.A. Works was improving but that show seemed to merely be a blip. Red Data Girl is, unfortunately, back to business as usual for the studio; pretty visuals, crap writing. |
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DmonHiro
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I was going to not bother with this, until about the end of the episode.
The boy storms off, saying how he's not going to play along with their goddess-servant bullshit. The head monk goes after him, to keep him safe. They both come back later, after the boy "fell off a cliff" and "injured himself". He then decides to stick around after all. |
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RedemptionRevenge
 Posts: 45 |
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Wow, Theron was actually very generous with his score. It was more of a "C" for me.
Way too confusing and had wholly unlikeable characters. Only saving grace was the the art/animation. |
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zensunni
Posts: 1294 |
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IKR! That was so flippin' annoying! I started watching the pre-air version before Funimation picked it up, but the quality was so bad that it totally defeated the purpose. Why watch a PA Works show with bad video quality? grrrrrrr! |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
Exactly. Since I buy shows that I watch more than three episodes of, I archive fansubs on my computer since hey, I'm going to pay for the official DVD or Blu-Ray, I have the moral right to hold a copy of the show on my computer. And therefore I want a copy that looks good. I certainly wasn't going to watch a shitty webcast that 1: I can't download, 2: that will cause me problems since my internet connection is spotty, and 3: that looks crap (especially with a P.A. Works show; the visuals are the best part). |
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Ortensia1980
 Posts: 803 Location: some town near Amsterdam |
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This review mirrors my thoughts about Red Data Girl pretty closely, but my overall rating is a bit higher. It's an anime that really took it's time and in the end let a lot of questions unanswered and I liked it. A lot. I blame the great characters that really grew on me and the overall (slightly creepy) atmosphere of the anime for that.
Same here. I didn't get a lot of things that happened in RDG, but I can safely say that it was one my favourites of the season. And I'd have liked to have had more episodes (heck, even Mushibugyo is getting 26 episodes), but since some people were already complaining about the pacing, I can only imagine how bad it would have been if RDG had gotten more episodes. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
What? More episodes would have meant better pacing. Red Data Girl should have been a two-cour series. If it had the show would've been so much better. The fundamental plot was okay, it just needed context and explanations that the extra episodes could so easily bring. And the characters could have done with the extra development and backstory and stuff. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Another light novel adaptation with wonky pacing.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18454 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I disagree about two cours being more appropriate here. This has more the feel of needing 15-16 episodes, and given its construction, it would not have been conducive to tolerating the fillers necessary to stretch that out to 24 episodes.
Yes, I considered all of that, but the series is making a big leap in applying that to people instead of sites. And that requires some additional elaboration to justify. Even if we accept that it can be explicitly applied to a person as is, it seems counterintuitive to do so, as the whole point of World Heritage designations is to make people aware that this is something special that needs to be preserved and cherished and that certainly runs counter to being inconspicuous about the nature of Izumiko's powers.
I'm hardly an expert on seiyuu performances, but I can't agree with the criticisms here. Izumiko wasn't supposed to have an underlying strength; I rather thought that was the whole point. She has power at her core, not strength, and I thought that the storytelling not going in the typical direction on that was very interesting. And yeah, don't get me started on the webcasting thing. I just hope that isn't a trend. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
Izumiko's voice never changed; at the end she sounded just as weak and stupid and ignorant as during the first episode, even though she herself had partially grown. That's what I didn't like about Hayami's performance; the girl always sounded weak and helpless. And you're way off base about the series length. Fillers wouldn't be needed much if it had been two-cour. That's because what actually we got was so rushed that the twelve episodes could have been relaxed into sixteen episodes even without any filler material being added. The extra four episodes could have been used to properly explain things and give context, maybe a few flashbacks as well. Put in the remaining source material that wasn't animated, and maybe an episode or two of filler to develop the characters more, and that would have been twenty-two episodes, the accepted minimum for a two-cour show. |
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Ortensia1980
Posts: 803 Location: some town near Amsterdam |
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I would have liked more episodes (it would have resolved some story issues if it had gotten 15/16 episodes), but I don't think that RDG would have worked better as a two-cour series. If it had gotten that, there would have just been more filler episodes. I have no idea how well it did in Japan, but with a bit of luck we'll get an OVA. |
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zensunni
Posts: 1294 |
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My thoughts exactly. 15 to 16 at the most. I personally didn't have an issue with the number it had, but, from discussions with someone that read the books, they did skip some stuff, so it would have been nice to have more time to cover more material. Of course, having enough episodes to finish the story would be nice too! I just hope they plan on doing a movie...
But, in a way, does it really matter to the flow of the story that we know how the World Heritage thing applies to people. (Incidentally, I assumed that it was heavier on the "protect and preserve" part than the awareness part. That counter-intuitive aspect never even occurred to me.) To a certain extent, it reminds me of something from a manga I read recently. In it, the club that the main characters belonged to promised support after graduation if the members remained in the club for their entire high school career. The twist being that there were certain rules they had to follow or they were no longer allowed to be in the club. Successfully graduating as a member meant an easier path to the career of your choice. The mechanics of it doesn't really matter, nor would the high school kids be likely to know how the club's alumni are able to be so influential. The interesting aspect of the World Heritage Candidate competition, from my perspective, was the way that Izumiko was kept in the dark about things, and the reasons for it. (Though, I got the feeling that Miyuki generally didn't have much more information than she did.) Basically, Yukimasa's focus on the Hime-gami seemed to be the driving factor. Since he was generally the front man for the organization, his lack of concern for Izumiko as a person, with his "that is a problem for us, not you" attitude, lead to her being surprised by many events around her that most students would have expected her to know about. Miyuki, on the other hand, kept her in the dark for the opposite reason. He knew she wanted to live a more normal life, so he encouraged her to hide her true nature, even from friends, fearing that they would not be able to resist the urge to use her power and knowing that he was not up to the task of protecting her on his own. Two diametrically opposed reasons that result in father and son making the same mistake. I thought that was rich!
The first volume BD comes out at the end of June, so we don't really know how successful it will be. |
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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No, even if the pacing felt languid, they were rushing through material. It was obvious. Twenty-six episodes sounds about right to me. I'm a big fan of the author of the novels--though I haven't read these in particular, since I'm still waiting for my order of volume one to come in--and I have no idea why someone who is so good at sumptuous minutia keeps on getting these thirteen episode adaptations of her works. "Good Witch of the West" was even worse in that regard--at least RDG looks pretty. |
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