C78 Trailers

Posted On August 26, 2010

Comiket 78 was a few weeks ago, and sadly I was unable to attend like I did last year. As per usual, a number of trailers for upcoming anime were screened across monitors in every corner of the event’s industry hall, and as per usual some industrious individual taped them all. Luckily, the trailers I’m looking at have all since been uploaded to their respective official sites, as well as posted on youtube, so there’s no cam rips here! There aren’t many trailers that I feel are worth really saying too much about anyway, so this won’t be long.

Ore no Imouto wa Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

I honestly don’t think she’s that cute, to be quite honest. The raven haired goth loli seems far more inspiring. Anyway, it’s not surprising that this show is being handled with a pretty safe and traditional visual aesthetic, as the production team is undoubtedly shooting for wide appeal. The designs are solid and well animated, and the colors and shades are executed well. But like I said, it’s all very safe, and not that interesting beyond the fact that it’s just solidly put together. This isn’t a bad thing, but I’d probably have less contempt for this if I cared more about the source material, which just seems to be pedestrian at best.  Regardless, I’ll give it an episode or so at the very least.

It’ll probably be very popular.

Koe de Oshigoto

I’ve fallen behind on the original Koe de Oshigoto manga due to thoroughly unreadable fan translations, but if this trailer is any indication, its anime adaptation will capture the spirit of the original perfectly. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it’ll be able to top its source material by virtue of being an animated and voiced anime as opposed to a manga.

Studio Gokumi (GONZO refuges behind masterpieces such as Strike Witches and Saki) have opted to give the show a simplistic, flat, and illustrative look. Characters and objects are given noticeably thicker outlines around them, while lines inside of them are thinner. Not dissimilar to Clerks: The Cartoon, but a little more subdued. The backgrounds take on the same sort of simplistic style–they’re not as minimalist and clean as Bakemonogatari’s backgrounds, but not as detailed as typical anime backgrounds. This really controlled and simplistic visual style complements Konno-sensei’s artwork well, given it’s also rather simplistic. Furthermore, his amateurish-but-charming designs have been given professional polish, and look great. It’s kind of like when Madhouse adapts Fukumoto’s designs.

But what sells this trailer 200% is how well they nail Kanna’s embarrassment. All of her awkward fidgeting, blushing, and hilariously uneasy delivery of her lines are rendered with lots of care. The erotic scenes seem to be animated well, too, which is another thing you simply have to get right when doing a Koe de Oshigoto anime. The absolute best part of the trailer is Kanna delivering some erotic lines to the backdrop of fireworks. Thank god this is an OVA, huh!?

This anime’s gonna be pretty good.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

I know nothing about the original manga on which this show is based upon, but I have on good word from a man who will remain namless that the original is quite entertaining. This is also an adaptation by SHAFT and Shinbo, so naturally I have some invested in interest in it. However, after the fairly uneven Arakawa Under The Bridge, and the could-stand-to-be-better Dance in the Vampire Bund, I was losing some faith in SHAFT, after them putting on good show since 2004.

But this show’s trailer inspires some degree of hope. Of course, while I would like SHAFT to tackle slightly more serious subject matter to stretch their artistic muscles in a new direction, the Sore Machi trailer seems like a return to the classic Shinbo-isms I like. While slightly subdued, there are some pretty interesting angles and shots. They even have the camera-inside-the-floor-looking-under-the-character’s-feet shot from Shinbo’s episode of Yu Yu Hakusho! The backgrounds seems to be pretty orthodox, but they make use of ornate patterns here and there, which seems to be something of a SHAFT trademark these days. The color and lighting scheme are easy on the eyes, and have a degree of warmth and realism about them. There’s a ton of animation in the trailer, which is unusual for a SHAFT show, and leads me to believe that all of the clips are from the first episode. But who knows, maybe they somehow got a lot of people on board for this? I somehow doubt it, but a man can dream.

While not the SHAFTY-est looking SHAFT show, this trailer almost makes me think that Sore Machi will be something of a return to Shinbo’s more classic style. I’m still more excited about Kizumonogatari, though.