This is K-On! with Saki-style graphics A Channel.
A Channel (every Thursday, for those who are interested) is yet ANOTHER slice-of-life/school life anime with daily problems juggled by 2 average girls, a miss perfect, and a complete fucking idiot. They do completely random, ordinary things but have abnormal reactions to it, which aims to make you gently laugh or grin from time to time and to make you bond with the characters. Again, just like every other school life anime with multiple girls and no boy. That all aside, let's get into the details.
Graphics: I guess it's ok. I mean, it just follows the manga/comic panel. But the girls seem a bit too sharply drawn or something, like the artist was trying to make them cute but also compress them into a small space at the same time. The only girl I really appreciate, however, is Tooru~~~small, acts cute, has baseball bat. Great deal. One of the major/main reasons why I watch this series. If you want to see better though, read the 4-panel strip.
Above: Pretty much the only reason I watch this series.
Sound is whatever, I haven't found a really striking insert/OP/ED yet. If I do, I'll see if I can post it later.
Since the plot in a slice-of-life are the characters, I'm just gonna dive in.
The characters in A Channel are mildly well made. It doesn't have anything crazy (AKA risky for fear of being unrealistic and losing touch), so it has the girl who's supposed to be the pretty girl that is slightly scared of stuff but not really, the smart girl who's slightly-fat-but-not-so-much-as-to-make-her-not-look-cute and wiseass-funny-but-not-really, the blonde Hirasawa Yui clone, and the Nakano Azusa ripoff. The funnier interactions do stand out on their own, but even they are not truly memorable, crazy moments. As for the rest of the show, it's all gone from my memories due to sheer non-descriptiveness.
I feel that a slice-of-life that's NOT going for the whole "mature comic, enjoy the quiet passing of time" theme but instead going for the "lol silly things happen with 1 or 2 or 3 character developments over 36 episodes and 2 seasons" is based around 3 phases:
1. The Normal Phase: The phase that introduces/transitions/(sometimes) ends an episode/'idea' (e.g. a trip or a certain day). This is a bone to start off the plot or to 'ground' the series in the eyes of the viewers, telling them that they are indeed in a perfectly normal SOL genre anime, with perfectly normal girls. Sorta.
2. The Crazy Phase: Shit starts flying all over the room, they do weird things, snowball, wild party, jokes upon jokes, freeze-frame zooming out shots of girls laughing as they run along the beach, whatever. THIS phase contrasting with phase 1 and 3 is the thing that really gives meat/value to a series. I mean, the reason why a slice-of-life/school life is funny is because things happen in that school that normally wouldn't happen in your lame one. Else you'd just turn off the TV and go to your own school and stare at random groups of people in the hallway right? I didn't think so.
3. The Concluding Phase: The 'sappy'/feel-good part of the 'idea' - sometimes it reaches out to teach you the daily lesson to believe in your friends or to try your hardest or to try anyways even if you think you're boned, etc etc. Sometimes it just ends in a friendship hug. Who knows? This is again supposed to bring people down to Earth, cause a catharsis, and also (again) set a contrast with Phase 1 and 2. After all, since when have you cried/shared your innermost feelings with a therapist group of exactly 4 including a short, small-chested girl friends every week in the afternoon? This again, proves the value of the SOL insofar as it shows that the series can finish and finish up WELL, which also bodes well for the ending of the series.
Now, the main archetype of this that I have seen so far is the K-On! series. It seems like a perfectly normal set of people, but by God, are they high when stuff begins to roll. They also conclude each idea or episode very well, from moral lessons to just feel-good group hugs. I think K-On! is one of the few school life/humor anime mixes that don't just rely on things being quiet all the time or on vague anime/pop culture references to make you laugh. In that sense, K-On! is truly the classic SOL series.
What happens in the next frame? Hint: It begins with 'o' and ends with 'mfg wtf lols'
As for A Channel, it tries to go through something like what K-On! does by having the usual 'underclassman jealousy' theme for a short period as well as pulling as many girl-related subjects as possible out from their asses (I'm not surprised that dieting came up so soon). It tries to for the soft endings by having the girls go "aww this is cute" or group hugging or running through the rain like morons or whatever. Sometimes it sparks a little something, sometimes it doesn't. Other times it just cuts off to the ending credits and I'm just left by the side of the road thinking, "Why? Just....Why?"
As for the craziness, it just doesn't cut it. It has the normal "Yui-Azusa" interaction for those of who know what that is between Run (the blonde girl) and Tooru, but there's nothing really bad, funny, or surreal going on. It doesn't have Lucky Star's references, K-On!'s dynamic interactions, or Azumangah Daioh's Wakamoto Norio. It just...will never become one of those animes that we can think back upon and laugh about. Sorry, but it's not good enough.
Sadly, this was the best they could really do.
Now, just because I'm hating on it so much right now doesn't mean you guys shouldn't watch it. It's a decent series and I just look through it whenever I'm sleepy. Again, as I said before, it's a poor man's K-On!. Just enjoy it while you can. And by enjoy, I mean just look up whenever Tooru's on the screen.
No comments:
Post a Comment