Does Kitakubu really deserve such a low score?
| Currently, my #3 anime of Summer 2013 So, no, it doesn't deserve anywhere near that score. Am I going to complain about the score though? No. I'm just going to hope that Sentai pick it up like they picked up KMB another amazing show that did poorly in Japan. I really think it's because of the lack of ecchiservice. Unless the final episode is horrible, I'll be giving this a 10/10 easy once it finishes. |
| To me, this seems like one those shows you have to watch several times to fully enjoy. The first 3 episodes bored me, and only the fourth managed to make me really laugh. Other episodes were also hit-or-miss, though the last two episodes were quite good, IMO. vampko said: I really think it's because of the lack of ecchiservice. I think it's mostly the characters themselves that drag this show down. I don't really see much depth to any of them and as a result, I don't really care about them. The only one I like is Sakura, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. |
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| I loved Kitakubu from the very start. As soon as I saw the title, I loved it, even before I started to watch Episode 1. Once I saw Natsuki's hair I was mesmerized. On the other hand, it seems that at times they were intentionally trying to turn viewers off the show. Consider how Episode 1 started, showing us the hooded seal. No, in fact, I did not know that the lactation period is just four days. But it turns out that it is true. See here for confirmation: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30163701?uid=3739400&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=4&sid=21102722733357 After the seal scene, they showed us tree branches waving in the wind with a strong red filter. I had to wait a full 30 second before I got the my first view of Natsuki. For me, it was worth the wait. But I suspect a lot of other people had already decided to try some other new anime series. Given that the whole point of the show is to show cute girls doing cute things, what would make them think that they would hook viewers with seals and trees? There are lots of other related examples. In the end, a lot of people did not like Kitakubu, and the Blu-ray/DVD sales estimates are just 558. The number one anime last week is "Free!". It seems that it is easy to imagine just a little bit of re-editing of Kitakubu that would have made it a lot more accessible. I don't understand why that was not obvious to the production team. In this respect, the later episodes were much, much better. Start off by showing me Sakura's face for the first five seconds of an episode and I am happy. Showing me a hooded seal (Ep. 1) or a dinosaur (Ep. 3) doesn't have the same effect. The start of Episode 2 about the cuckoo singing had some good content, but it could also have benefited from being edited down just a bit. The start of Episode 5 with the Mao (Demon King) with the Germany opera sung by Sakura might have been a bit heavy for some viewers. They should have re-ordered the episode to start off with something more attractive. Kitakubu was great for me. But I would be much happier if they were able to get a second season. At this point, it seems unlikely to happen. As for the person who suggested that it needed more ecchi, perhaps they are correct. However, I felt that the off-camera implied hand-holding scene between Sakura and Botan as they walked home was one of the sexiest yuri scenes I can recall in anime. "Eve and Eve" was also quite good for the yuri fans. And don't forget the physical scene between Claire and Karin in "Guilty Judge". |
okanaganOct 5, 2013 7:46 AM
| That two times when their show is delayed made me realize how much I miss watching this show every weekend. This show is not something that you watch for the suspense or drama, like watching a show wondering what would happen to the MC in the next episode, or how the plot would played out later. This is a show where you grow on the characters and gave you the feeling that you wanted to see them again, like a good friend that you meet everyday in school or a colleague at works. Friends that you had spend times doing silly things together, throwing silly jokes or criticizing the obvious thing in life. The 4th wall breakdown works well for me, it really builds a bridge to their audience, especially how this show often lament on its own silliness and 'didn't give a damn' attitude towards their viewer. The combination of the irony IRL gives me the feel. (Especially after the 4th episode). |
| The most important things in life is the people that you care about |
vampko said: +1Unless the final episode is horrible, I'll be giving this a 10/10 easy once it finishes. -Tetsu1BD- said: I am lucky that I watched this anime. Too much negativity from this community. It is actually a good show. A diamond in disguise masterpiece. |
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| Takuan_Soho said: This show comes off as some smart person's masturbation; its too clever by half. I agree. The blame does not lie with the manga author. He/she is known only as Kuroha (くろは), and apart from Kitakubu he/she has not done anything else apart from illustrations. I had a look at the manga, and it has none of the flaws of the anime. Sadly, only the first two chapters of the manga have been translated into English, which does not even cover all of Episode 1. If the fault does not lie with the manga author, then I feel I have to blame the director. He is Hikaru Satou (佐藤光). Kitakubu is the very first anime series that he has directed. Immediately prior to now, he was doing storyboards and acting as an "episode director". Here are additional details: As far as I can see, all of the weird, random, non-entertaining stuff was added by him. He even removed some great stuff. For example, you may recall the club recruiting day scene where Sakura was wearing the giant purple hooded seal costume. It is different in the manga. She wears a chupacabra costume. That turns out to be a hilarious joke, since a chupacabra is an "unidentified mysterious animal" or UMA. Also, "uma" is the romanization of the Japanese word for "horse". And recall that the horse riding club's recruiting table was right next to Kitakubu's table. I will give Satou credit that, apparently, he learned from his mistakes as the series progressed. I feel that the later episodes have been much better. I am guessing that the need to "re-tool" the series was the reason for the three occasions where they skipped a week. In the end, it turned out well. Sadly, it was too late to bring back the viewers who dropped it at the very beginning. |
| i think that viewers are just get fed up with all girls anime.i for one is sick of it.im fed up of girls eating cake calling things cute and lazing around.for once they should change it up like for example it should be a bunch of boys eating cake and lazing around.on free forum someone said that the show would be better if the cast was all girls, why so that they could eat cake, call everything cute and dont swim .at least free had swimming and it did fine with the cast mostly boys look at the sales.so as i said its not that the show is bad, viewers are just fed up with all girls anime |
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| Hi Hack5, You aren't the only one who feels this way. See this comment by Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network: "Comedies about idling schoolgirls are the cockroaches of anime—brilliantly simple pests superbly adapted to thrive and reproduce in their chosen environment ..." www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-fall-anime/carl I believe that there have been some excellent anime series of the "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" (CGDCT) genre, going back to Kokoro Toshokan in 2001. But now it is getting stale. Viewership for CGDCT is getting smaller and smaller. There are just a few people, like me, who enjoy CGDCT. But frankly, I am happy to go back and enjoy the old episodes. Right now, most people want to watch "Free!" which is pushing in a different direction. |
hack5 said: i think that viewers are just get fed up with all girls anime.i for one is sick of it.im fed up of girls eating cake calling things cute and lazing around.for once they should change it up like for example it should be a bunch of boys eating cake and lazing around.on free forum someone said that the show would be better if the cast was all girls, why so that they could eat cake, call everything cute and dont swim .at least free had swimming and it did fine with the cast mostly boys look at the sales.so as i said its not that the show is bad, viewers are just fed up with all girls anime Kiniro mosaic sold 7k with its first volume. Viewers are not fed up with the genre at all. Your opinion is irrelevant to this. okanagan said: Hi Hack5, You aren't the only one who feels this way. See this comment by Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network: "Comedies about idling schoolgirls are the cockroaches of anime—brilliantly simple pests superbly adapted to thrive and reproduce in their chosen environment ..." http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-fall-anime/carl I believe that there have been some excellent anime series of the "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" (CGDCT) genre, going back to Kokoro Toshokan in 2001. But now it is getting stale. Viewership for CGDCT is getting smaller and smaller. There are just a few people, like me, who enjoy CGDCT. But frankly, I am happy to go back and enjoy the old episodes. Right now, most people want to watch "Free!" which is pushing in a different direction. You shouldn't base your assumptions of the direction of the genre on the western fanbase, we both know its mostly irrelevant as to what kind of anime gets produced. Espcailly anime journalism, its just 1 big joke. I pity the people who take the ANN anime reviews/previews seriously. |
rederoinOct 10, 2013 7:26 AM
| rederoin said: You shouldn't base your assumptions of the direction of the genre on the western fanbase I should frankly admit that my statements are poorly supported. I have not checked my facts. The only measure of popularity that I ever see are the Blu-ray/DVD sales figures. I wish I knew a source of data that would allow me to pull together some kind of spreadsheet to see how the Blu-ray/DVD sales of CGDCT have varied over the years. What I do recall is that the most recent CGDCT series have had first-week Blu-ray/DVD sales of approximately 500, which is right at the bottom. Regarding the Western fanbase, I don't actually follow any measure of popularity. That is just laziness on my part. I realize that MAL systematically collects viewer ratings for each series once they finish. In any case, from the point of view of Western anime fans, MAL ratings mean very little. The only important thing is whether or not the series gets produced. That depends only on the willingness of people in Japan to buy the Blu-ray/DVDs. I assume the overseas Blu-ray/DVD sales are negligible So... I am throwing out the conjecture that CGDCT is basically dead. But this is just my conjecture and not something that I have properly documented. The best method to determine the death of CGDCT is to wait for two years and see if they stop making CGDCT series. As a point of comparison, there was a huge boom in yuri-genre anime series starting in 2004, but it stopped completely at the end of 2009 after Aoi Hana and Sasameki Koto both bombed. No primarily-yuri anime series has been produced since then. However, they are testing the waters in early 2014 with Sakura Trick. Especially anime journalism, it's just 1 big joke. I pity the people who take the ANN anime reviews/previews seriously. As for anime journalism being a joke, I believe it is no joke to the business people behind it. The prize is to attract the most users and push other websites out of business. Whatever Anime News Network is doing, I feel certain that they are being very careful to maximum their market share of viewers. Furthermore, the viewers that they care about are parents who actually spend money on advertised products. Nobody cares about attracting the lower-income anime fans. As a result, I think it is easy to see that Anime News Network has a bias in its reviews that is pleasing to parents in the English-speaking world. They immediately ring the alarm bells for any series with a hint of moe or yuri. |
okanaganOct 10, 2013 8:09 AM
rederoin said: hack5 said: i think that viewers are just get fed up with all girls anime.i for one is sick of it.im fed up of girls eating cake calling things cute and lazing around.for once they should change it up like for example it should be a bunch of boys eating cake and lazing around.on free forum someone said that the show would be better if the cast was all girls, why so that they could eat cake, call everything cute and dont swim .at least free had swimming and it did fine with the cast mostly boys look at the sales.so as i said its not that the show is bad, viewers are just fed up with all girls anime Kiniro mosaic sold 7k with its first volume. Viewers are not fed up with the genre at all. Your opinion is irrelevant to this. okanagan said: Hi Hack5, You aren't the only one who feels this way. See this comment by Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network: "Comedies about idling schoolgirls are the cockroaches of anime—brilliantly simple pests superbly adapted to thrive and reproduce in their chosen environment ..." http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-fall-anime/carl I believe that there have been some excellent anime series of the "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" (CGDCT) genre, going back to Kokoro Toshokan in 2001. But now it is getting stale. Viewership for CGDCT is getting smaller and smaller. There are just a few people, like me, who enjoy CGDCT. But frankly, I am happy to go back and enjoy the old episodes. Right now, most people want to watch "Free!" which is pushing in a different direction. You shouldn't base your assumptions of the direction of the genre on the western fanbase, we both know its mostly irrelevant as to what kind of anime gets produced. Espcailly anime journalism, its just 1 big joke. I pity the people who take the ANN anime reviews/previews seriously. hey i was not talking about sales of girl anime.let me say it again im sick of it the cake the cute. k-on sold alot and i actually like that show but ones like this is so bad that is not funny anymore is this how they think girls are at least let it have a good story look at love lab i think it was so much better than this it did not do to well in sales but the story was good im just tired of a one sided cast. minami ke had both boys and girls and it was good they did nothing but talk shit and they ate cake but still it was good thanks okanagan for the info i usually dont read anime news network articles but its good to know that im not alone |
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| In the end, Kitakubu went up to 6.32 before jumping to 6.76 after it completed airing. Though it might drop a little as it stabilizes over the next few weeks and it isn't really a high score, it definitely deserved better than its low of 6.28 so I can't really complain. |
| "Our everyday lives may, in fact, be a series of miracles." - Nichijou |
| Rederoin, thank you for your constructive criticism. Indeed, I had overlooked Kiniro Mosaic. As you pointed out, the Blu-ray/DVD has been selling like hotcakes. Blu-ray & CD rankings for Sep 30th - Oct 6th Rank / This week / Cumulative sales / Titles #9 -- 1,318 -- 6,963 -- Kiniro Mosaic vol.1 I have been trying to put together a comprehensive list of "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" anime series. 2001 Kokoro Library / ココロ図書館 / Kokoro Toshokan 2002 Azumanga Daioh 2004 Lucky Star 2004 Maria Sama Ga Miteru 2005 Strawberry Marshmallow / 苺ましまろ / Ichigo Mashimaro 2005 Best Student Council / 極上生徒会 / Gokujō Seitokai 2005 Aria the Animation 2006 High School Girls / Girl's High / 女子高生 2007 Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! / がくえんゆーとぴあ まなびストレート! 2007 Hidamari Sketch / ひだまりスケッチ 2009 K-On! / けいおん! 2009 Kanamemo 2009 Sasameki Koto / ささめきこと / Whispered words 2011 A-Channel 2011 Nichijou / 日常 / Nichijō 2011 Yuru Yuri / ゆるゆり 2012 Joshiraku 2013 Yuyushiki 2013 Kiniro Mosaic / きんいろモザイク 2013 Kitakubu 2013 Tesabu / てさぐれ!部活もの 2013 Non Non Biyori / のんのんびより Additional details are here: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=673057 |
| With the series on a second watch, I find most of the gags a bit funnier now than before. Seems this is one of those shows that need to grow on you. Still, I can see why so many people rate it so low. If first impressions are everything, this show failed to deliver. |
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dacak said: i personally don't think shows should be rated until they see the entire thing, but thats just my opinion. But I had internal bleeding and had to stop for medical reasons. |
| Not is not that bad. Or at least people that think this is "that bad" they should try watching Mars of Destruction. |
 » Escapism. |
AO968 said: With the series on a second watch, I find most of the gags a bit funnier now than before. Seems this is one of those shows that need to grow on you. Still, I can see why so many people rate it so low. If first impressions are everything, this show failed to deliver. pretty much. the seiyuus were essentially all rookies, too; i think natsuki's was the only one with a couple roles, albeit supporting, prior to this. The show grows on you, and the seiyuus get better as they get more into their characters. By the time episode 4 or 5 rolled around I finally realized I was actually enjoying Kitakubu quite a bit. When I gave it a second watching, I was laughing right from the beginning :D |
| "Let's make a miracle happen using the power of friendship." "If that was all it took, there'd be no need for training arcs!" "Normal rabbits don't carry guns!" |
| i just recently started to watch this anime, and i don't see anything bad about it. well, it's VERY VERY stupid LOL! but i don't mind it. if it's a problem, maybe the VA. the VA isn't really fit to the character.... tbh, this anime is underrated imo. at least 7.10 or 7.20 is good enough for this anime. natsuki is my fav btw. i know she is sometimes get annoying with her comebacks but i'm getting to like it :D |
YizelTroMar 4, 2016 1:48 AM
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| It's funny and light but NOT bad. |
| Heyo, just finished this anime. Came here to say that I actually liked it! For the first half of the show (Episodes 1-6) it was a bit slow and although I didn't rate it yet, I hovered around a "6" score. And then things started really ramping up from Episode 7. Kind of like what others said here: the show grows on you. It's a slow starter for sure but I like it way more now than when I started it. For non-completionists, it'd be easy for them to drop the show early on and leave a low score. But I don't mind! I liked it. I somehow miss their antics, too. Might or might not have (missed) picked up Natsuki's retorts and hand gestures. In any case, it definitely deserves a chance to be watched from start to finish. But for the genre of slice-of-life and comedy, it perfectly fits the bill and delivers. (and wow, first reply here after 4 years...) |
| I've been watching this show at a leisurely pace, an episode every so often for the last week or two. Currently at ep10 and I think this show isn't bad at all. In fact it's pretty good! A solid 7/10 at least. |
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