Forum - View topicKyoani is one of my least favourite anime studios.
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AsleepBySunset
Posts: 243 |
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I'm still looking forward to 20th century electricity catalogue, even if this project seems to for all intents and purposes died, perhaps after the 'incident'. But outside of 20th century electricity catalogue, I have little to no interest in ever consuming a modern Kyoto Animation anime again. I loved Clannad as a teen, and I loved Kanon and Air too, but that isn't what Kyoani make anymore. At some point the studio hard pivoted towards muscly teen boy coming of age stories with sports elements (or in hibike's case, teen girl coming of age stories with musical elements)... And this just isn't something I have any desire to touch, I watched Tsurune and it was one of those things which seems okay at the time while you watch it, but when you look back at it, it doesn't resonate in anyway, there's no artistry (its a by the numbers sports coming of age), its kind of the anime equivalent to the turbo movie by dreamworks, you enjoy it while you watch it, but when you look back on it, there's nothing you really like about it and there's nothing there to call good.
I don't like Kyoto's animation style anymore, something about it is ugly to look at, while at the same time, it's way to high budget for the stories they like to adapt, and the colour palettes are just off-- they look professional but they don't capture the essence of the stories (Jujutsu Kaisen is another rare case of an anime which would have been WAY WAY better if it had lower budget animation with a more tonally appropriate colour palette which captures that teenaged, edgy angst of the story, instead of just sticking the BnHA colour pallettes in all background artworks). And I don't like Kyoani coming of age stories, they almost turn human experience at 'the most important time in your life' into a stock story template, whilst at the same time lacking the charm some cliche stories often have... it's like, no, I don't relate to this story about teenagers trying to make sure they have a good test score while they take a break from archery. There can't be drama in a kyoto coming of age, because japanese coming of ages, from my experience entirely focus on rule abiding characters in school, taking exams and eventually graduating, Whisper of the Heart mixed it up by having the main character rebel against her parents. And when you add the kyoto animation cardboard cutout characters on top of it (I can't remember a single character trait from tsurune except there was a perky boy who used foreign greetings and the central plot point about a presumably fictitious psychological condition), then there's no room to put the character drama. Violet Evergarden was probably one of the 'saddest' works they've produced, I haven't read the original to compare it, but I have a very strong feeling that when adapting it, they turnt a flawed but above average or perhaps flawed but brilliant story into a 'flawless' and totally unremarkable animation. All while using an episodic format so they can save the actual plot for tiein movies which are more profitable. Like Jujutsu Kaisen, I personally think Violet Evergarden would have actually looked better with lower budget animation which focused on capturing the feeling of the story. Of course, whatever feeling Violet Evergarden captured it was likely stripped away when they adapted it anyway. They're like the japanese equivelent of a really save-the-catty american CGI blockbuster company, all the charm the original stories/pitches might have had is slowly filed away as they "improve" the works in the production using a story template (eg save the cat), and pixar style 22 rules for storytelling lists, all with the best rendering done in renderfarms, and then eventually, Light Year, Ice Age or Turbo opens to theatre audiences, except instead of save the cat, you get stock japanese coming of age stories with little to no drama. To be honest, Kyoto Animation's works remind me a little bit of anime TV spots and tourism animations, I'd almost rather watch a full length version of that colour palette advert with character designs by the blue period author which got posted a while back. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24191 |
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KyoAni is one of my favourite anime studios, although I will admit that my appreciation is more for their older titles as opposed to newer ones. Of the newer shows, I'd say Violet Evergarden and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid are the ones I really like. I loved the look of VE and found it really poignant. The humour of Dragon Maid appealed to me.
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1796 Location: South America |
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It's true Kyoto Animation has not replicated the perfect sequence of hits they had from 2006 to 2010, with Clannad, Lucky Star, K-On! and Haruhi. Since 2010 my favorite title of theirs is Kobayashi's Dragon Maid which is an impressive artistic achievement in slice of life comedy.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15578 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am pretty certain that I am a weirdo, because I kind of fell out of love with Violet Evergarden. I have never been able to figure out what it is that turned me off, but everyone else seems to absolutely adore it, similar to how people love Studio Ghibli stuff, but really doesn't appeal to me.
I loved Clannad, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-ON, Dragon Maid (season one), Chuunibyou and Beyond the Boundary. But something ticks me off with Evergarden, Hyouka, Tamako Market and Tsurune. On a perhaps tangible element, I do think some part of trust there broke when in Hibike Euphonium we were told something like there was no queerness intended, something like we were silly to read anything into it. Kind of left me with this idea that KyoAni just baits with these things that it has no intention of ever delivering, outside of uber feels parts. |
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8moe
Posts: 2 |
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I haven't seen much kyoani stuff, I've seen a silent voice and tried to watch violet evergarden but I CANNOT STAND THE LENS FLARE OH MY GOT IT IS HORRIBLE. I feel a visceral disgust every time I see chromatic aberrations and I get a headache.
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Swissman
Posts: 797 Location: Switzerland |
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I saw the KyoAni hits from 2004-2008 back in the day when I was in my late 20s/early 30s and wasn't impressed by them. Sure, I like some of them well enough and I adored some of their openings (especially Clannad After story's op), but all in all I wasn't totally in love with those adaptions like so many people did. Lucky Star was kinda meh for me, Air, Canon and especially Clannad were sometimes waaaay to melodramatic for my taste and Haruhi .... I loved some of the animation and gags in there, but Haruhi as a character, I just couldn't stand her, Nagato I found just boring to watch and Kyon's snarky inner monologue started to grate on me after a few episodes.
On the other hand, I prefer KyoAni's output since 2009. Both K-ON seasons were great and Tamako Market had very likeable characters and was very upbeat (Yamada's movies were great, too). Same goes for both Chuunibyo-Seasons and the super fun Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Hyouka and Hibike Euphonium are two series which I still have to catch up, but what I have seen so far was very well animated and had a clever script. Naoko Yamada's thatrical movies are a high point of KyoAni's artistry; I loved A silent voice and Liz to aoi tori. I haven't seen any of the pretty boys doing sporty things series yet, but I'm also not the audience for it so I see no reason to complain here. I'm also not sure if I should give Amagi brilliant park and Beyond the boundary a chance. I've already decided that Myriad Colors Phantom World isn't for me after two episodes. I still prefer KyoAni's total output since 2009 though. TLDR: I much prefer KyoAni's newer series and movies to the studio's cult series and movies from 2004-2009. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I'm with Swissman.
I wasn't a big fan of their "Key" period. I thought Air was boring, and Clannad did little for me as well. I liked Haruhi and, less so, Lucky*Star. After that I recall few shows from the studio until Hibike! Euphonium. Those who think KyoAni's contemporary work isn't equal to the early period should watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-gulRfv428. Sadly the veteran director of this beautiful sequence was among those murdered by the arsonist. After Eupho, Kobayashi-san is the next KyoAni show which caught my attention despite it looking nothing like the studio's earlier works I had seen. I think Violet Evergarden is lovely to look at with a mediocre story. From their website (https://www.kyotoanimation.co.jp/en/), it's clear they are still recovering from the arson, but they have some projects scheduled to appear next year. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5944 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Yeah, I like Dragon Maid for their newer stuff and liked some of their older titles. But that is about it.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4815 |
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The vast majority of KyoAni's output has been in genres that don't interest me all that much (particularly those early "cute girls crying in the snow" VN adaptations), but I will never for a moment deny their incredible artistic talent, and the fact that they've created a business model where their animators receive a full salary and benefits is something that every anime fan worth their salt should applaud.
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1261 |
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Hmm. I think they make beautiful images, but the only show I've seen of theirs that I can genuinely say I love is Hyouka.
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