Comments on: Some quick first Impressions: Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Aoi Hana and Needless

by: AKI

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:36:00 +0100

Needless is f*cking awesome!!!

by: Cak

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:26:48 +0100

It is too early to criticise the series, but for most part, I too thought the pace was too quick. Compared to the source material (which I could play thanks to http://witch-hunt.com/), it is honestly subpar. I wish they would take more time to flesh everything out; spread the Episodes across multiple seasons, perhaps. However, Higurashi actually suffered from the same thing - the anime (excluding the OVAs, which are superb) lacked half the things which made the original so good, and has gone as far as omitting critical details at some points — I can’t say exactly how much because I cannot read Japanese, and Higurashi’s translation is not yet complete.

However, I don’t think the anime is bad. It is fast paced and looks like an unskilled attempt at taping together something which in the first place was already a fruit salad, but, having previously read the visual novels, it was certainly enjoyable seeing everything animated. And as with many series, it might just be that they are rushing to get to the meat of it all. So until I see some more episodes to get a sense of where Umineko is going, I’m not gonna mark it as the stereotypical adaption just yet.

by: Patrick Monti

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:25:39 +0100

I just can’t keep watching umineko with all that uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu from the little girl.

by: vic

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:39:12 +0100

what you think about battler is a consecuence of deen adaptation battler really want someone to hit him when he try to touch a boob he did that like saying HI he never did that again in the whole history, just wait battler is going to be become the most gar character of all time.

by: spoofle

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:50:00 +0100

Oy, yeah, they really screwed that first episode up (although a lot of the cuts I’m very tolerant of, or even thankful for in the case of the adults’ discussion ^^;).

I agree, Battler and (imo) Jessica were really generalized when they’re really not bland characters at all. I think they took the approach of “let’s set up the plot and just develop the characters as it goes”, which I guess could eventually work pretty well. Episode 1-2 might also have the potential to be a little jerky (hopefully not), but past that I can’t see how they could screw it up.

by: miyako

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:30:17 +0100

With Umineko, I thought the VN players were just whining as usual at first

One forum has more than 12 pages running & 11 of them are full of bitching & whining from the same old people. The only thing more annoying than that is Maria’s UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Someone grab a shotgun already.

The anime looks average. It has potential for more, but things have to pick up in the next episode to get me interested. (More of Eva plz.)

by: Sapphire Pyro

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:31:35 +0100

I’m alright with the voice cast of umineko though . . .

aoi hana . . . seemed nice but I can’t stand fumi. manga made me so sick of her, definitely much more when I see her in anime -_-

I haven’t seen NEEDLESS but the variation of characters seem nice indeed. But . . .the ED . . *disturbed*

by: Denizen

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:05:27 +0100

Needless was a strange beast for me - in that I couldn’t decide whether what I was watching was Hopelessly Generic or A Twist Of The Usual Stuff, Cheesy Flamboyant Designs or Awesome Art Direction, Annoying Characters or A Quirky Cast.

I think i’ll enjoy Needless, but it can go either way. At the very least, it was not disappointing.

by: Julian

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:58:15 +0100

even though I don’t like Yuri, or Shonen-ai for that matter…the characters are just PLAIN AWESOME!! THE BATHE in awesomeness…I mean you can really relate with those chars. (that was the case for me)

by: Schmetterling

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:43:13 +0100

Umineko… It felt so rush >_

by: DmonHiro

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:27:02 +0100

Needless reminds me of Guilty Gear…a lot.

by: Veldril

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:56:52 +0100

Battler is anything but bland.

I think the voice acting is fine. It feels a bit rush but it acceptable. Originally it take me almost 3 hours reading to get to this point and they have to adapt it into single episode. That’s not an easy job.

Well, the nightmare will start kicking off soon. Kihihihihi

by: Nomus

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:24:30 +0100

At first I wasn’t impressed with first Umineko episode either. But now I think: now way creators are going to show us true faces of characters right from the start. 90% sure it would get better later.

by: FlameStrike

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:22:13 +0100

O.o Battler is… bland??? lol

by: chounokoe

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:12:31 +0100

I think the biggest problem with Umineko’s acting is that the original script is already pretty…well let’s say staged.

Umineko doesn’t read as ‘Oh people would say that’, but more like a huge opera that is presented to you in a golden theater on a cloud of laughing little butterflies.

So yeah I think the ‘better’, or let’s say less artificial, acting will kick in as soon as the characters deepen a bit more and become more of ‘themselves’.

by: senerikfred

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:37:28 +0100

With Umineko, I thought the VN players were just whining as usual at first, but they’re really rushing through the plot and leaving out all but the most essential character development. And of all things, they left in boob humor, but shortened it to ‘pervert and violent girl’ jokes. The music is nicely dramatic(except for the laughable ED), and Horie Yui as Maria and KugiRie(bet you couldn’t tell) as Shannon were both surprisingly good. Other than them, though, partly because of the character development getting shafted but mostly because of sheer half-assery, the voice acting is unusually bland and mediocre. Maybe they’ll start putting actual effort into the characters later on, but for now, I’d rather read the manga than go through with this adaptation.

Aoi Hana is a blessing after that. The manga readers are even happy with it as an adaptation. The only downside is that the source material apparently is dramatic and sad rather than happy and romantic, but that just promises realistic characters.

by: Serpit

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:26:57 +0100

Just a few minor details about Battler and his family from the Visual Nobel of Umineko (no spoilers):

In the beginning, Battler introduces himself and his family and mentions how ridiculous all their names are. His grandfather has a Western obsession and therefore gave all his children WEstern names (although spelled in Kanji); and they did the same to their childs.

Battler himself is supposed to be pretty immature at first, but during his “breast assault” on Shannon we get a bit more insight. He’s doing stuff like this playfully, and in his mind, desperately begs for someone to smack him so he doesn’t really touch her boobs >_>