Spotlight Anime: Genji Monogatari Sennenki MAL Anime Information Page: Genji Monogatari Sennenki MAL Score – 7.13 (by 1079 users) Ranked - #2371 Popularity - #1852 For the next week I would like to have a discussion about the anime that focuses on the key elements that we here on MAL use to critically rate an anime: Animation, Sound, Characters, Story, and Enjoyment. I would like everyone to approach this thread as if you were going to write a review and structure your initial post like this: Animation - insert rating Sound - insert rating Characters - insert rating Story - insert rating Enjoyment - insert rating Animation - discuss any pros and cons of the animation styling used in the series, try to include some specifics. Sound - describe any of the things you liked or didn't care for in regards to the music and sound effects used in the series etc... If you are having trouble writing up a review or coming up with specific pros and cons, please don't worry. Just do the best you can with it and if you can only write two or three sentences about any of the 5 elements then that's OK. Not everyone here is currently at a level which will allow them to articulate their thoughts and opinions. After your initial post is made you can feel free to civilly discuss issues of contention. I am sure there will be many opinions expressed here that some of us will disagree upon and criticise and it is for that reason that this entire club exists. So I hope everyone has fun and I am really looking forward to watching this discussion unfold. RESULTS OF THE YOU DECIDE POLL Genji Monogatari Sennenki was NOT inducted into the club Aniime list: 3 Yes - 25.0% 9 No - 75.0% 70 Don't know this anime - 84.3% of the total number polled 1 Abstained - 1.2% of the total number polled |
santetjanJul 6, 2012 9:19 AM
| You do not beg the sun for mercy. |
| Translated from my blog: http://naomeapeteceestudar.blogspot.pt/2011/10/genji-monogatari-sennenki.html Fan as I am of the original book, I was really waiting for watching the anime. I hate to compare animations with their precedent works, but this time it's completely impossible. Because I expected to watch a visual translation of the book and, unfortunately, such did not happen. First of all, this story is narrated by Murasaki, which in a certain way impossibilized her characterization. And it focus especially on the relationship of Genji with Fujitsu bo, which is just a small part of this great work. So, great things like the curse of the Rokujou Princess, ended to stay back, not developed and not explored. The art is pretty and stylized. There are beautiful backgrounds, but even like that they can't compare to the vivacity of the descriptions of the book. From what I'm told there is a great historical exactitude in the design, which means that I only had wrong ideas about the history. Who'd say that such rich people would never change clothes? The voices pleased me, almost all. I was especially afraid of what they could do to Genji, but it was a superb choice, it really matches him. The same can't be said about Sixth Avenue princess, that I always imagined more... Evil. And more red (here her colour was the green). However the music is basic and the OP has nothing to do with anything. The story is the one of the book and, therefore, brilliant. Unfortunately, as I've been saying, there was not a correct and ideal following. There was no time. If they made a 50 episode series and everything would be alright. Even though the progression is very slow, the serene environment of the book was not well recorded. And adding action scenes that were completely unneeded, they broke the ideal that I had of Genji Monogatari. It can be a very good anime for itself, but I can't leave the comparisons. |
 Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
| I dropped this after the first episode, I remember thinking it was really bad. Who's been nominating it? Tell us why. |
yamakasi said: The topic creator was the person nomming it. I imagine tjan's reasons are to do with how faithful it is to the source material. I'm sure he will correct if I am wrong for that, but I do know that he found it boring.I dropped this after the first episode, I remember thinking it was really bad. Who's been nominating it? Tell us why. Anyway, I have only watched 2 episodes so far and haven't read the source material, so I can't really comment on it and will leave that to those more familiar with the work (ladyxzeus and santetjan, and they happen to disagree on the quality and faithfulness of this adaptation). I might make a comment if I complete it before the you decides close, but that isn't looking very likely. |
Current FAL Ranking + Previous best::  [ |
| Well, I really love the book. And I think Tjan hates it, but when he comes here he'll explain. For me the book is an explosion of colour and beauty, filled with a rare sensibility and masterful story telling. It was not boring for a single moment and it's like a very complex poem that conveys an extremelly simple message at the same time. The adaptation lacks all these elements that made this book one of my favourites of all time. Even though I read a translation to Portuguese (a translation that, according to editorial notes, took years of careful work to make) I cannot say anything different about its quality. |
Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
| ive read the tale of genji in english and [modern] japanese, so i might make a comment if i have time to watch a few episodes. |
| I haven't read the book, but it sounds really interesting from Ladyxzeus description. Maybe that would be a better route if I could find it, because as of episode three the version I found is killing my eyes with contrast and blurring, it also doesn't help that it's a t.v. feed. I'm curious if the encode is just that bad, or if the art and animation is actually at fault. If so that's at least a two point deduction. I also went back and watched the older movie version of the story, which was interesting but disjointed and nonsensical without the background knowledge of the book. So far the series does seem to be doing a better job of slowing down and focusing a little more on Genji's sexual escapades. The version I'm watching is mixed. The episodes I'm watching right now are live-evil, who usually does a pretty good job. After episode four I have Aoi's version, so I'm curious if the animation/art will stop impaling my eyes. As for the character designs, I think I actually preferred the movies interpretation of the book more, but I haven't seen the book yet to compare. They both use very bishounen effeminate designs for Genji. The movie was more graphic with nudity and sexuality, which leads me to wonder if the book was also more graphic and this series had to tone down the sexual aspect of this story, which seems to me probably better disseminated as a hentai or ero title. So far this title hasn't displayed any of the characteristics that I look for in regarding a title as noteworthy. I found the manga version so I'm gonna check that out next before I continue watching any more episodes. |
Orion1Jun 28, 2012 12:03 PM
| The book is not graphic at all. In fact, it was not until the anime perspective that I came to knew that they actually had wild sex all the time. In my head they just exchanged poems. Guess I'm too innocent. |
Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
| The book is an interesting mix of veiled-smut and court fantasy written by well-to-do ladies [it's contested who penned specific parts]. The anime has chosen to take a path of representing The Tale of Genji thus as an extreme shoujo. I'm quite sure this is wrong. They are pandering not to the original target audience which were ladies and the occasional man, but to girls who aspire to be ladies. The demographic may have changed in reality, but as the material has not, I do not think it appropriate to adulterate the content and style as they have. And, while the book certainly referred to sex, and such whoppers as "Genji pulled the boy down beside him. The boy was delighted, such were Genji's youthful charms. Genji, for his part, or so one is informed, found the boy more attractive than his chilly sister." not to mention some more racy excerpts, is written in a formal yet serious way. As for this anime depicting lots of actual sex... that's just wrong. It never went beyond implication, as Genji is essentially a court affairs fantasy. If this series can spur people into reading the book, I guess that's a good thing, as it's not that bad, and it is the "first modern novel". But regarding this anime, it was a failure. Technically also, it was appalling- horrible animation and art for its time, an uninteresting soundtrack, horrible voice acting performances, a mutilated screenplay, absolutely nothing that pleased in terms of production. The deviations of tone from the book were distracting, and the material is not even wholly cohesive when I viewed it. Oh and what's with that opening? That felt soooo inappropriate. So yeah, a resounding no. If the point of this spotlight was to highlight adaptations from Japanese literature... I think we are looking at the wrong works. Rather I'd suggest Seishun Anime Zenshub when it is finished being subtitled, Inaka Isha, The Restaurant of many orders, and Shijin no Shougai, to name but a few. |
| My final reaction to this series is actually a lot more possitive than I had anticipated. I found that as the series continued it reached a level of Heta-Uma for me. Best comparison that comes to mind is School Days. Players have to play or lovers have to love, and there are aways consequences to those actions, particularly when they shine so brightly. The politics played out perfect and the story telling as of episode four got a lot better. I respected Genji more in later episodes, mainly when he acknowledged his mistakes with Aoi. The music was also really well done, excluding the opining which is probably one of the worst I've seen for cohesiveness reasons. Every time it played it completely threw me out of the story. It was completely out of place in this period drama. The Jpop selection, ( Hiyori Hime by PUFFY)was just ill-suited and unseemly. My enjoyment was probably a 7/10, but it's Overall technical mishaps at this point are too great to ignore to induct. I'm very curious what a remastered BD would look like. That might change my opinion on the animation. I'm not sure if that's enough to get me to abstain though. On another note, I think this show is probably the winner of the animated cherry blossom war. I don't ever remember seeing another series use them to the extent that this show has. However, in this case I'd say it was appropriate and even effectively romantic for much of the series. The movie actually used the cherry blossoms in a foreboding way, while this series changed that to a more naturalistic interpretation, where fate is already decided, like cherry blossoms falling. |
Orion1Jun 30, 2012 10:41 PM
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