Hige vs. Otaku

First episodes are a tricky beast. You’re torn between the barrage of first impressions/intuitions and the knowledge that most anime takes two or three episodes to really hit its stride. This week I’ll be wrestling the duality with Kurenai and xxxHOLiC: Kei.

Kurenai

The OP looked like it was animated with Flash – but in the best way possible. More anime should put this kind of creative effort into their OP rather than the usual montage tedium. Kurenai’s aesthetic in general is gorgeous, actually, with crisp high quality animation and beautiful character design. It reminds me of a lot Red Garden without the controversial snozzes, which probably isn’t a coincidence had I the time to check Wiki. Storywise it was structured well with a lot of plot and just the right amount of ambiguity. The characters similarly are intriguing and likeable. I’m sure Murasaki will appeal to the loli fanboys out there, but then does she count as loli when she is actually seven-years-old? I’ll be interested to see how the ‘sphere behave with regards to her. Hopefully not in the relentlessly upsetting way I’m imagining.

Likelihood of watching episode two: Definitely. This was solidly entertaining and completely beautiful to look at.

xxxHOLiC: Kei

For the love of god, Production I.G., please maintain Kei’s standard to the level set in this first episode. This exactly how a xxxHOLiC anime should be handled. Solid production values, a firm grasp of the characters and, most importantly, brilliant atmosphere. I’m probably a little too harsh on the first series but I wholeheartedly blame the thoroughly enjoyable film Production I.G. released before it. It massaged my expectations and demonstrated they had a keen understanding of what makes the manga great, thus making the mediocre anime effort seem all the more disappointing. Kei, however, is spot on. At least at this point. Its animation quality is still a little murky but I’m sure a widescreen transfer would resolve any minor visual qualms, and everything else feels right. xxxHOLiC definitely was one of those shows that had to tackle my deep-seated love for the manga before any reasonable assessment could occur, and I was probably ready to pounce on it from the opening credits, but these days I’m much calmer and receptive. Hopefully this won’t be a repeat of what happened two years ago.

Likelihood of watching episode two: High. I may actually turn into a monster if it disappoints me in the same way the first series did, however.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Firsties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.