Ranked #3019

Winter Sonata Episode 0

If Winter Sonata Episode 0 precedes or summarises what is to be expected in the full length TV series, then I'd sooner recommend you turn on your TV and watch some infomercials instead, because what we have here is singly one of the most unspectacular romantic drama anime ever conceived.

In an exceedingly frustrating manner, Winter Sonata slowly doles out the story of two lovers who are separated for what one can only assume is their own idiotic and emotionally immature logic. "Separated from one another" makes it sound more romantic than it actually is, so let us use another phrase to describe what actually happens; the guy picks up and leaves, and the girl just stays there and cries on-and-off again. This anime is a magnificent failure of a romance, too self-absorbed with its story and plotting that it neglects the most important thing in a love story: the love.

The grand mistake Winter Sonata makes from the get-go is trying to make us sympathise with a story of this man and woman and their broken relationship when we can hardly care about their relationship in the first place because its depth is never established. How should we, as viewers, even begin to feel any emotions over this man and this woman's separation when we are not even allowed to see what they mean to one another? The flashbacks hardly aid in painting a picture. All they accomplish is letting us know that, "Okay, they are childhood friends." But that's about it. Them being apart means very little to the audience, because there is no weight behind the relationship. There is no passion, there is no aching love--the loss that they feel has no effect whatsoever.

Other than emotionally bland, this anime is also rather annoying. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING reminds the characters of each other. They cannot even walk five feet forward without stopping to go wide-eyed and gasp from the assault of a "precious memory" that is suddenly triggered in their minds.

Despite its painfully plain story, the anime at least looks very good. Winter Sonata is rather lovely as still art. However, the characters stick out like sore thumbs and their cruder designs cause the overall effect of the gorgeous background art to be diminished. There really are some truly beautiful scenes in this anime, of the countryside and of cityscapes, but again, it only works when the camera slowly pans across these settings. The character art pulls it down in the end.

Winter Sonata is afflicted with an equally schizophrenic soundtrack. There are some moments when the score is absolutely stunning, laden with thoughtfully dramatic, inwardly thrilling and poignant piano pieces. Yet in other parts, it just sounds like it sampled BGM from corny soap operas from the 90s. There is primarily Korean dialogue with a few actual American voice actors. The Korean voice actors are acceptable, but the amateurism of the American actors might make you wish the English was Engrish instead.

What makes a good romance? Is it the romance itself or the ones who facilitate the romance, that is, the characters? Since Winter Sonata does not have a stunning love story to tell in the first place, the job immediately falls on the characters to drive the tale. And drive it they do, much in the way that you inch your grocery cart along the line by the check-out counter with the new girl who does not know how to use the register.

The protagonist is a seemingly normal guy whose most outstanding feature is that terrible dye job he has on his head. He loves, LOVES taking long walks and waxing poetic over every little thing. It gets to the point where you just want to punch his eyes in so he can never see another sunset again and then spend the next ten minutes gaping at it and getting ready to pen some Byronic poetry in his head. The girl is a non-entity. Really, she does absolutely nothing and has no personality at all. The characters in their flashbacks are not any better than their future selves, but they certainly are a little more interesting.

Winter Sonata is just an overly sentimental, bordering downright sappy failure of a romance anime. This being the Episode 0, the series possibly leaves room for development, but the crux of the matter is: do we care enough to find out? I certainly do not. If this is meant to be a taste, it truly is a poor offering to anyone hungry for a decent romance. This anime is just uneventful and pretentiously pensive. It goes nowhere slow.

This anime is a fine example of perfectly good sunsets being ruined by the people who are watching them. read more