^

so you didn't read the other comments below they said its alright not to like it. its just people are calling citrus not a real Yuri because its not just cute girls being cute and have no baggage, by being pure by being dense as a box of rocks about love. Pure as in hand holding and never going further like women have no desire like....you know dirty stuff.

I am completely at a loss of what you are even trying to remotely get at.

I think they're talking about the idealization of yuri or lesbian romance in general. Some people don't consider certain series, like Citrus, yuri because it has some problematic sexual content. So unless a yuri series is wholesome, "pure" lesbian romance with 0 questionable sexual content, it's not yuri to these people. (This is the whole theme of Yuri Kuma Arashi, btw. Great series). They're not upset about people's preference for purer romance, I don't think, just people's perception against sexual themes in yuri.

last edited at Apr 25, 2018 4:20AM

Now that Citrus and Bloom Into You are (will be) adapted, the logical progression has to be Kase-san, right?

If that summer OVA does well, maybe.

But is not CGI by Millepensee ... what's the point?

It might get a wonky low-budget adaptation with a het original ending, so there's still something to anticipate.

IT'S HAPPENING

The anime of Yagakimi has been announced.... in CGI https://i.imgur.com/vM1YZvU.jpg :( by Millepensee studio https://i.imgur.com/ibivQCI.png

You're wrong, the announcement said that Polygon Pictures is the one adapting it.

Glad to know I missed nothing from dropping Franxx 10 minutes in.

What happened to you Trigger? Kiznaiver was the last thing I saw from them and they needed 7 episodes to deliver something good despite having such a good plot line.

That show genuinely made me mad. I was so done with it by the time of that episode in the storm with all the love polygon shenanigans and everyone crying and shit. Luluco was the superior Trigger show in the same season.

I tried watching the new Souten no Ken because everyone was going on about the bad CGI, and they weren't kidding. I kept expecting QTE prompts to pop up.

Speaking of bad CGI, Golden Kamuy's was hilarious, too.

Will check out SAO & Comic Girls at some point. Thanks for the recommendations, guys.

Well, it's Mari Okada, so...
I didn't find the first episode bad, but I'm expecting her to fuck up somewhere.

Can't wait for the melodrama meltdown halfway through

The amount of exposition dump on the characters (Hisone's monologuing about herself and the dude talking about why the dragon chose her) is pretty jarring to put on the first episode, especially when the premise wasn't even well established and there hasn't been enough time to get to know the characters yet. Lots of telling, not a lot of showing. So yeah, right off the bat, the writing is pretty shaky. But the art and animation have a lot of charm, so I just hope that the story is serviceable enough to not completely ruin the experience.

I would also recommend Hinamatsuri in general. Not for yuri, but it's pretty fun.

Comedy is generally my thing, but I wasn't feeling this one. Maybe I was just in a really bad mood when watching it. Heard the manga is really good though, so I'll check that out at some point.

Was kinda looking forward to Hisone to Maso-tan because of cute dragon & potato designs, but the first ep didn't leave a very good impression. Feel like everything I watched so far all has some pacing issue. I'll give this one a couple more eps though.

SAO is pretty cool! without kirito!!!!!

Is it? I didn't hear much about it so I assumed it's better to just wait for Black Fox instead

Comic girls and Major too :)

Was thinking of checking the former out. How strong is the subtext or if there's any at all?
I'm not into sports anime so Major isn't on the radar. But I'm planning on checking out the new Captain Tsubasa because muh childhood.

Start with Girl's last tour, ignore all distractions

Seconded.

Finally got some time to watch anime & dropped most of what I watched from this season so far. New LOGH is decent. Megalo Box is ok. Will also keep up with Tachibanakan for LOLs & Uma Musume for potential yuri. Not many shows to watch this season, which is a good thing since I'm way behind on last season.

Yes, cuz Akiyuki Shinbo is Shaft lol

Do they only have the one director? I didn't know that.

It's him who helped create the Shaft we know today & he basically directs almost every one of their shows, sometimes with a co-director, from Hidamari Sketch to Saiyonara Zetsubou Sensei to Arakawa Under the Bridge to the Monogatari series to Madoka & all the recent shows, too.

I think these problems are easily fixable with good direction and Nakatani advising. She probably has a very clear idea of what she wants an anime of her work to look like.

I don't think original authors are given that much power over the adaptation like you're implying, generally speaking, especially when they don't have much experience in animation, though you can prove me otherwise. From my experience watching Shaft, I don't think I've ever seen a show by them that seems like they compromise their style with someone else's vision.

I guess our main difference is that I don't see YagaKimi's actual visual storytelling as being subtle. I think it's very overt and obvious. The subtlety is in the interpretation, not in the presentation; what the scenes actually mean in terms of characterisation is never dictated, but how the scenes are supposed to make you feel and how they reflect the characters' states, are all very prominent, almost by necessity. You can't rely on an unsubtle medium when your dialogue is ambiguous, because then everything would be ambiguous, and there'd be no fun in discussing it, since there'd be almost nothing to discuss. Nakatani strikes a very clever balance between having understated characterisation and overstated methods of immersing us in the characters and their feelings so we still feel a connection to them. I never feel like Nakatani lets a panel go to waste.

Yeah, I don't think we're exactly on the same page with the definition of subtlety & naturalism. It's a fine line, but being clear & intentional is different from being unsubtle. Subtlety =/= obscurity. The way Nakatani uses visual storytelling is deliberate & intentional, but it doesn't distract from the reading experience. Everything flows naturally and is carefully integrated into the contexts of the given scenes. Most people wouldn't read YagaKimi & be like "why do they need to pan through the character's face at such a low angle even though they are just having a normal conversation? That's such an odd decision", because the visual storytelling is very natural. (That was an actual criticism of Shaft's show, btw).

For example, when Yuu & Touko part the first time Touko visits Yuu's house, you see that Nakatani makes use of lighting to communicate the feelings of the characters. Touko is facing the sun's direction so her face is lit up, reflecting her happy mood. Yuu has her back against the sun so her whole face is in the dark, reflecting her confusion & uneasiness. This is intentional & deliberate, but it's subtle & natural because it makes use of the sunset setting the characters are already in & the direction they're facing/heading falls in place with the lighting use. Here, the visual storytelling is smartly drawn out of the setting and not an attempt to overimpose visuals where they don't belong. This is different from suddenly changing the entire scene into blue to reflect sadness even though the setting is in the middle of the day & the lighting should be natural. This naturalistic visual storytelling is seen throughout the series. An example of a less subtle visual storytelling in this series would be this one in chapter 1. There's a distortion of reality based on the character's perspective, which creates a more literal depiction of Yuu feeling distant from her friends. This type of visual storytelling isn't as prominent in YagaKimi as the former.

Shaft's directing style falls into the latter & it's very obvious. What they do with visual storytelling is more like what Ikuhara does with symbolism, basically. With YagaKimi, not everyone is gonna spot the amount of effort Nakatani puts into paneling & visual storytelling upon first read or if they just read it casually, only us nerds. However, as you said, she is very clear and intentional with what's she's doing & this allows readers to be able to pick up the information upon rereads. This is subtlety. Not just in the interpretation, but in the presentation as well. Again, subtlety =/= obscurity. Something subtle can still be picked up and clearly understood, just not immediately.

I haven't read any of the posts pass this one yet, so you might have brought up other points I'm not addressing. Working all day so I won't be able to keep up or respond quickly, but it's been a fun discussion.

In fairness, I highly dislike the source material, and I never watched the adaptation as a result. Maybe that's an exception.

I have mixed feelings about the Maid Dragon manga, but I ended up loving the anime a lot, though I can't say it'll be the same for you since I don't really dislike the manga or KyoAni.

Shaft is actually my favorite studio.

Mine is Sunrise! Mecha Sunrise, though.

I can't into Mecha. Sorry man.

I haven't actually seen 3gatsu, but I saw it was directed by the same person as Bakemonogatari

Yes, cuz Akiyuki Shinbo is Shaft lol

Nakatani uses quite a few comparative visual choices herself, including some of the things you complain about: the entire background fading out to plain white with the focus solely on Touko; Yuu flinching at how brightly Touko seems to be sparkling before she kisses her; an extremely ominous few panels zooming in on Touko's expression and her eyes as Yuu wonders what's in them; a cutaway to Maki observing two people interacting on the stage of a play to show his emotional distance. Having her as an advisory presence could bring in SHAFT's creativeness to channel the essence of those scenes, while also avoiding too much of the more abstract elements that I think you're complaining about.

Over-exaggeration is the problem I have with Shaft in regards to adapting YagaKimi. What you describe are normal visual storytelling techniques that you can find in other anime/manga as well. Zoom in, close ups, & all that. I admit that I didn't do that great of a job describing it, but with Shaft, it's a lot more overt. Like there would be shots zooming into things or transitions that don't add anything to the narrative, kinda like their infamous head tilts.

Having said that, though, I have to admit, I don't see anything wrong with their inventive use of colour. Perhaps it's a little overstated in 3gatsu, I couldn't say.

I'm not saying it's wrong. The point I'm trying to make with Shaft is that the way they use colors or direct anime is not subtle or naturalistic, but rather overt & highly exaggerated. I love them, but I just don't see them adapting YagaKimi and still make it the subtle series that it is.

Maybe that's just me! But KyoAni stuff always feels hollow, like it's chasing the nostalgia of a Ghibli film without any feeling behind it. All technical skill and no heart. That's absolutely not what I want for YagaKimi.

Welp, can't do anything about you not liking KyoAni. Although I'm slightly raising my eyebrow at the fact that you implied that Maid Dragon was an adaptation without heart, but I'll digress. Just saying that when it comes to the directing style best fit YagaKimi, KyoAni takes the cake for me and it's not because I'm their biggest fan or anything, since Shaft is actually my favorite studio.

last edited at Mar 28, 2018 6:31AM

I agree with your criticism of having flower patterns and sparkle effects being bad for the narrative, but I also don't connect that criticism with SHAFT. As I've said, I associate Bakemonogatari very positively with understated talking scenes with creative animated flair.

Can you elaborate on some examples, maybe?

By those, I just mean obvious or overt visual cues/effects. Not specifically saying that Shaft uses flower patterns or sparkle effects. It's been a while since I've seen Bakemonogatari, so I really can't comment on it. The most recent work by Shaft that I do remember is 3gatsu. I'm a fan of that anime, but the directing style is not subtle at all. Lots of zooming into faces/eyes turning as transitions. Sad scenes? Let's make everything blue or grey so everyone knows that it's sad. Happy scenes? Let's make everything super shiny with bubbles & bright warm colors to make everyone knows that it's happy. Characters are anxious? Let's distort their figures so everyone knows that they are not ok. It's very experimental and fun and I enjoy it well, but it's very in-your-face & that may make for an interesting adaptation that totally puts the story in a different light, but for now, I prefer something that really captures the essence of this series & also elevates it with audio/animation, rather than redefines it.

last edited at Mar 28, 2018 4:22AM

What makes you say that? I thought they did quite well on some of the first season of Bakemonogatari's talking scenes, although they kinda went a bit bonkers with the following season. I think if they involved Nakatani in an advisory capacity, their willingness to play with animation style might work quite well for adapting her tendency to use visuals as a method to enhance the narrative. Other studios tend to view animation as a pragmatic necessity to communicate visuals of a scene instead of viewing it as a method by which they can amplify characterisation or emotion.

The way Shaft uses visuals to communicate ideas is nothing like what this series does. One of YagaKimi's biggest selling points is that it is able to capture emotions and feelings through subtle visual storytelling. You don't see Nakatani puts flower patterns or sparkle effects over the characters' faces to amplify any emotions, its charm is in the slight changes in facial expression, body position, panel composition, character acting, etc. It's very naturalistic in its visual storytelling, not experimental. Giving the Shaft flare would make it a different series, if you ask me. This is why I wish for KyoAni because they are the best studio at more naturalistic subtlety.

The only occasion where I kinda want to see more experimental directing style in this series would probably be with ch 10, specifically Touko's POV. KareKano got me imagining that chap directed by Anno, but that's like an impossible dream, more so than hoping for Shaft or KyoAni or Madhouse to adapt this.

Edit:

It just needs someone who's confident enough to allow lingering, contemplative shots which let the characters and dialogue settle into them, as well as someone who can be adventurous when it comes to using audio/animation/etc. as an additional narrative avenue.

Takaharu Ozaki only fully directed one thing so far (GLT). But this sounds like it could be him. I dunno what a YagaKimi by White Fox would be like though.

last edited at Mar 28, 2018 4:02AM

It's pretty funny that Sayaka was written to be a older girl chasing after a cute high schooler's skirt.

To be honest, I kinda want to see SHAFT animate it... They're often pretty unique with animation as a medium, and I think their willingness to focus on slow-paced dialogue without feeling the need to make it bombastic and ridiculous would serve this series well.

That's the last studio I want to see animate YagaKimi. I love them but they don't know the concept of subtlety.

last edited at Mar 28, 2018 3:12AM

See, you guys made me hurt my brain, and now bleach won’t wash that imagery away—I’m going to have to go with battery acid.

Maybe tide pods will help

Edit: Holy shiet, I just realized I misspelled Kanna's name. I guess I'll join Minutoh in the execution room.

last edited at Mar 27, 2018 12:36AM

Yagakimi by Kyoani. Last episode: "Everything was just adolescence guys"

Anime original ending with Touko ending up with Doujima & Yuu with Maki. 10 am news the next morning reports the total destruction of KyoAni studio.

Anyway, if KyoAni decides to adapt a Yuri work, I highly doubt they're gonna remove the kisses when they're an entire part of the story. It would be like making Yuzu and Mei a platonic couple. >.>

They could go the Class S route lol & I would hate them forever, of course.

And then in the last few episodes they awkwardly rearranged events and basically skipped an entire arc just so they could end the season at a certain point.

That's a problem with a lot of anime adaptations, especially nowadays when everything is restricted to a single cour, sadly.

Maid dragon was a unusual case. It was apparently picked up in the first place because one the higher ups was a fan of the series. So it didn't get the normal treatment other series by them get and got left mostly intact. On the other hand one their series had a whole relationship removed and one the main characters of it basically regulated to a side/back ground character. Another series was totally changed with new characters added and if I remember kissing between the MCs who are in a relationship removed. Another one also had the kissing and basically all physical contact between the MCs removed.

They don't do outside work adaptation nowadays, just in-house with their LNs, so if they do adapt YagaKimi, it might be the same case with Maid Dragon that one of the higher ups just happens to love it. To their credits, they did add the DekoTani ship in the Chuu2 anime & even had the 2 kiss on screen, so idk. It's unlikely that they'll adapt YagaKimi though.

I enjoyed the anime adaptation of Maid Dragon for the most part, but I think the more worrisome part were all the new Lucoa x ... little-boy-whose-name-I-forgot scenes... those were bad enough in the original manga, and then the anime just added more! Imagine if KyoAni adapts YagaKimi and adds additional scenes focusing on Maki, that dude with glasses, and Yuu's friend who was in love with that basketball dude... To be fair, they did add new scenes focusing on the... oh my God, I can't believe I forgot their names. Saikawa? and that dragon girl...? I suppose that'd be like adding new scenes with the adult couple, and I'd admit that'd be pretty nice.

Shouta, Saikawa, & Kana, respectively. I can't believe you forgot the name of the good girl Kana. This is a crime punishable by death.

last edited at Mar 26, 2018 10:01PM

People keep gushing over having KyoAni as the studio they want to adapt their series. Thing is while they have good detailed artwork they also significantly rewrite source material for their adaptations plus have a strong aversion to showing kissing in their anime what is a big part of this series. Do people really want to see Yagate completely rewritten and all the kissing scenes eliminated in a anime adaption of the series?

They adapted Maid Dragon & there weren't that much rewriting. Mostly added details to make even more memorable moments, like when Kobayashi gave Tooru the scarf. The kissing part is a bit worrisome though, I agree. But the reason I want KyoAni is because I don't see any other studio who is as good with subtle visual storytelling as them. YagaKimi fits their style perfectly if they are to faithfully adapt it.

Eeh, JC left a bad taste in my mouth with their sloppy adaptation of Children of the Whale. =x Though I'm not too familiar with their usual fare.

Children of the Whale looks beautiful, at least. The writing is bad. Not sure if that's the source's or the anime's fault. But that show didn't leave as bad of an impression on me as much as Kino 2017 got me wary of Lerche (despite the fact that their shows tend to look pretty neat for the most part) lol

And no, Citrus didn't look that awful, come on. Low budget yes, but for a new studio with supposedly limited ressources, the quality is fine. Not great, but fine. The NTR anime is what I call godawful, as it's clear absolutely no effort was put into it.

It looks ok for a low-budget studio, but it's still really bad for normal standard. Only a couple of notch better than NTR. I don't want the bar to be set so low for this series or any decent yuri that might get an adaptation in the future.

last edited at Mar 26, 2018 3:05PM

Passione did a pretty good job on Citrus honestly (save for a couple of scenes in the early episodes).

Tbh, Passione's adaptation of Citrus was pretty bad. Not even talking about the writing, just the visuals alone. The background designs were horrendous and characters and objects didn't even look like they belonged on there, just really bad compositing. Characters were off model quite often, too. It was good for laughs, but I wouldn't want YagaKimi to get the same production quality.

But since Wit studio has been polishing their romance chops this season with Magus' Bride and After the Rain, they might be a good option. Or KyoAni, as someone else mentionned here.

KyoAni's a safe bet and I really hope for them, but it's so unlikely that I wouldn't count on it happening too much. A seasoned and decent studio with a good director who can capture the visual storytelling in the manga would probably make for a decent adaptation. Wit & J.C.Staff are cool.

(by the way, I'm a bit amused that 2 or the 3 top spots are taken by a yaoi and a yuri series. XD)

Well, the yaoi title being no.1 over Fate was a bit surprising at first, but if you consider fujo power, it's not that surprising lol YagaKimi being no.3 over titles like Promised Neverland, however, is really surprising. But who am I to question if it means that Kadokawa might hasten the announcement and put that domain into good use sooner or later.

I ship the hell out of them, but if I'm being honest... it feels wrong to wish romance on them.

I'm guilty of this, of course. I think they'd be cute as hell together. But their relationship is so much stronger and so much more special than any sort of romance. Sure, it's possible for them to be romantic on top of what they are to each other now. But I really don't see the point. I love the fan art, and this made me super happy considering the author herself approves. But idk... I can't be the only one who thinks this, right?

I'm with you. I kinda see them as my daughters so while I enjoy fanarts & joke about them being gay for one another, I don't actively try to ship them since, like, it feels wrong shipping your daughters together.

Wait, Psyren? Isn't that like 10 years old by now?

Yup. I remember following it back in middle school. Japan seems to love that series so maybe it'll get a Parasyte treatment.

Seems like Diomedea is adapting it based on the staffs (I could be wrong). They're an ok studio in terms of visuals, much better than Passione or Creators in Pack at least, so HSL will probably look decent throughout its run. But I'm not watching it so who cares.

last edited at Mar 23, 2018 11:54PM

Oh hell, that looks pretty damn awesome

The results for the Anime Japan 2018 poll where you could vote which manga you want to see animated have been revealed. Bloom Into You place 9th on the poll!
Sauce: https://www.anime-japan.jp/main/ajranking/

Official ranking is out. It's 3rd place: https://twitter.com/yagakimi/status/977359209137242112
Holy crap, I wasn't even expecting it to be this high.