Overall Rating
Average
Story: 2
Dialogue: 2
Animation: 5
Entertainment: 3
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First things first; I have not read the manga, so my rating/review is based solely on this anime. Also, long review is long, and Captain Obviousās striking yet again.
āArata Kangatariā is Yuu Wataseās first shounen work, her earlier works having been all shoujo (the classic Fushigi Yuugi counts among her earlier works, as well as e.g. Ayashi no Ceres and Suna no Tiara).
I havenāt yet sat through any of Wataseās earlier works; so I wasnāt really sure what I was in for with āArata Kangatariā. Nevertheless, the reviews throughout the web were quite positive, and with Watase-senseiās earlier works, the expectations for this one seemed to be high.
Still, and with all due respect for Watase-sensei; having gotten through āArata Kangatariā at last, I can safely say that thereās better anime in my book.
That doesnāt mean āArata Kangatariā is bad per se. In fact, it has quite the potential. Sure enough the basic concept--people from different times, or in this case even worlds, switching places just like that--isn't all that new; but it had enough of a twist to make it interesting. Arata and Hinohara (first is fantasy-world Arata, the latter is the real-world one in case youāve only read the summary) have entirely different backgrounds and character traits; and both the fantasy and real-world settings are trouble-loaded enough after all. āArata Kangatariā had some fair potential at the time, and it started out quite good--setting a crazy pace that later on managed to kill all suspense, but at the start was good enough to keep up my attention.
The plot is definitely there, also provides a twist or two (though Iām not saying anything as to how predictable or unpredictable some of those were ^^"), and sticks to its set story quite well--aka doesnāt take a new filler-ish sidetrack every two or three episodes. To me, the two different worlds were also quite interesting; though not entirely new, itās funny figuring out how theyāre connected, and after all, both settings came with their troubles: Hinohara was being bulliedā¦ man up, kid (probably easier said than done)ā¦ and Arata didnāt only have to cross-dress, now he was even framed for murder and chased. So the fatās in the fire; and thatās also where the plot problems start.
I really would have liked to see more of both settings. Not like we donāt spend 80% of the time with Hinohara in the fantasy world, but this one simply isnāt fleshed out enough. The minimal background information for understanding whatās going on is there, but not much more. Social structure, politics and history, etc.ā¦ none of this actually seems to be there. And while I know it can be quite gruesome having to sit through monologues about the above, itās necessary to at least see a bit of it all to build a believable world. If you have barely any idea of what the world is like, itās not funny.
Thatās still excusable. Twelve episodes arenāt exactly long; and Hinohara is basically put into the shoes of an escapee--someone who, if they donāt already know, have little chance of firsthand learning about whatever world they may be in. We see even less of fantasy Arata in the real world, yes; but a real-world setting tends to be common knowledge. Also, those moments can be quite funny, and things might not be better if screen time between the two Aratas was actually divided 50:50; the troubles in the fantasy world are somewhat more urgent than those in the real world setting.
Not only the fantasy world seems rather unbelievable to me, though. The plot in itself comes with troubles as well, namely clichĆ©s. Some of the twists provided are outright unrealistic (how can someone not notice that two people having absolutely zero in common besides their name, gender, and possibly age just switched places? Not like anyone would expect it, but blaming it on amnesia or outright not noticing at all is just ridiculous). I didnāt really feel a sense of ānice surpriseā at anything that happened. And here the pace doesnāt help either, as it somehow manages to be so fast it kills the suspense. Gah.
āArata Kangatariā has enough potential. Things however get odd if barely any of that potential is unfolded. Even for twelve episodes--rarely enough time for a really good adaption of an action/adventure manga, and I do blame the limited time for many of the shortcomings--I still canāt say I find it to be even a mediocre adaption. The manga is probably more extensive at over 160 chapters by now, but alas, anime is anime.
The characters donāt help, at least not all of them. A couple are rather typical (Hinohara is the wimpy protagonist found in every third or fourth anime; Kotoha is the innocent clingy girl sidekick with healing abilities; and thatās only the most obvious and least spoiler-ish examples). Thereās characters with far more potential than them, but the timeās too tight to flesh any of them out, or even explain in grand how they ended up where they are. Hinoharaās wimpy attitude can actually be excused, but many of the fantasy worldās characters are kind of missing a backstory so far.
Where characters arenāt fleshed out well, itās hard to make them relatable or even believable. Quite a few charactersā reactions, up to sudden changes of heart, I couldnāt really see happening in real life--or at the very least not as fast. The entire conflict between Hinohara and his main antagonist e.g. is far too far-fetched and exaggerated IMHO, but Iād write up a spoiler if I continued this much further. I do like that there is character development, however, even if itās not muchā¦ letās not be too strict with those twelve episodes.
The dialogueās not really great either. It tends to involve some comedic moments where fantasy-world Arata is involved, but much of the rest of the time, itās more clichĆ©d than anything else, and quite predictable with that. Didnāt really help the plot or characters much. I canāt complain about the voice-acting, but thatās that.
The technical aspects are a whole other thing, though. The animation is up-to-date; sure there are a lot of effects, but they look quite cool and colourful, as well as not too out-of-place in a fantasy world; and most of the action isnāt as static as tends to be in fantasy anime. The soundās decent, the music good at least; the art is clear and colourful, and the character design, where typical at times, is quite appealing at others.
The only thing that really got weird for me in this sense was that Arata and Hinohara look so different nobody in their right mind could possibly mistake them for one another. Chalk it up to viewer-friendliness, but their personalities are already so different theyāre impossible to confuse. Itād already be odd if they had e.g. similar hairstyles and clothing and different dialogical quirks, but itād at least be more believable than this. Oh, and fantasy Arata having to play the cross-dresser gets dropped completely once the switchās done and over, too. Oh well, never mind.
To be frank, and as might be obvious from the rest of this review, Iām not really sure what to do with this anime. Heck, I wanted to like it; the start didnāt seem too bad; thereās one helluva lot of potential in terms of plot and character development; and the animation is up there and relatively free of bugs. As is, though, I canāt say I like it. The very beginning did pull me in, but soon the plot went along too fast for any more suspense to build; clichĆ©s and limited time didnāt help either characters or plot; and where there were quite a couple funny lines in the dialogue, quite a few were just as ridiculous. The mentioned bits of comedy are still entertaining; the art, especially the colouring, is definitely good if not better than that; and the action isnāt too bad either. However, if you ask me, the plot, characters, and dialogue donāt live up to that. Maybe Iām being too strict for twelve eps, but I found myself not caring about this anime at all, which is something that happens rarely to me. If you havenāt read a page of the manga and you can already see the manga outdistancing the anime, you know thereās something wrong; thatās exactly how I felt about āArata Kangatariā.
If youāre interested, Iād rather recommend taking changes with the manga. Now Iām talking big, not even knowing the manga myself; but itās at least far longer than the anime; it got good ratings on ANN; and after all, Watase-sensei doesnāt have her fame and fans for nothing. The āArata Kangatariā manga might actually be good; the anime simply doesnāt do it for me.
Cheers.
PS: Episode 9 is up here, but hidden because of some archive bug. Check the link in the ep 8 see 10 sub-directories.
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