Overflow of Manabi fanboyism
My much-publicized move to raws met an insurmountable obstacle in ep.7, when the evil principal of Aikoh delivered her shpiel. And it’s not like her sentences were too long or anything… There was too much content. Fortunately, fansubs caught up a couple a days ago, so I was able to know what she was yapping about in detail. I had a rough idea before from the spoilers and a few words I was able to catch, but now I suddenly understood that during the speech, her computer was displaying Mikan’s blog, which is how she was informed about the personal relationship.
Honestly, the idea of transparent laptop screens is so retarded, I just can’t understand why anime creators even bother with it. Even if it were possible, privacy issues alone are enough to bury it!
The ep.7 was unusually dense with “things”, even by Manabi’s standards. It shows (roughly in that order):
- Bronzed Momo,
- The three-way fight (The push-kick and the uppercut. Kagura and Osaka are no match for these fine students.),
- Mei and the cicada. I thought they took the usual, beaten, tired cliche and the icon of the summer Tokyo, and suddenly have blown the new life into it when I saw the first snap. And then they did it again. It’s the high comedy of MKM and 2×2 Shinobuden seamlessly embedded into the best seinen since Azumanga. Ufotable is teh awesomest.
- Girls strewn on the grass from the front image at of Seioh Gakuen (the significance of this is that the image from ep.7 existed when the website was launched, and so it gives us the idea of lead times for a show),
- Mikan’s dream,
- Mikan giving Kaorin a tremendous kick in the pants (this goes with the notion of tuning character strength way up when compared with Azumanga — I’ll have to blog about it when the show is over.),
- The Manabi’s vision (see below),
- The speech I mentioned and the whole dark and sinister world of adults, with Taka-chan serving as a lightning rod between the worlds.
- Dance with fireworks (captured by Momo),
- Wet girls (Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not a wet T-shirt contest. However, the animation detail had to be ramped up 3 to 5 times by the count of line and shade changes. It’s amazing.).
The vision scene follows on the Ufotable’s habit of taking something that qualifies as a trope and executing it with perfection and a new twist. How many times have we seen the hair in the wind? I saw Akane Tendo doing it, I saw Aoi Sakuraba doing it. The twist here is how Takako Kakuzawa undergoes the awakening from the vision at the time. The wind gust washes away the dream.
Again, it’s something that was done before, but now it’s done right. Perhaps even perfectly. And the separate strand was a very nice touch.
A few folks gave Manabi its due at blogs (not AoMM though).
BigN: “Is “nothing happening” okay?” [],
“Manabi the last great visionary” []. BigN’s place is where I commented:
I think what really captured me in Manabi is how forcefuly the characters are painted in it. I thought that I liked how Azumanga treaded light on it, and thought that fine-tuning the exposure would be good. But this is out of all proportions, and it it’s the best. And another thing, I like girls not being psychotic and neurotic wrecks. Mei took her transformation so well, coming out of her dark room. Even the frail Mikan’s mind keeps it together. So out of the ordinary teen-angst pampering anime of yesteryear. Go Manabi!
And I wrote it even before I saw Mikan making compliments. Dibs on Azumanga comparisons!
If someone wants to make comparisons, compare Manabi to Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr. I think Mohammad might be close.
Mohammad: “Politics has never been so good” []. There’s no content, but an awesome poster-like shot. Scowling Mikan is either cute or fearsome, I can’t decide.
Moe-Moe Lab: Ep.06 [], ep.07 []. Spoils a bit too much for my taste, but a good guide to the imagery.