Shinsekai yori Episode 5 Discussion

HosannaExcelsis said:

With the characters, it's mostly about extra lines being drawn on the faces. The normal character designs are fairly simple; see this example from episode 1:

And then compare it with this shot of Satoru from episode 5:

You can see the nose is drawn much longer than usual - this is consistent throughout the episode - plus there's an extra chin line below the lip.

HosannaExcelsis said:

Whatever flaws may be in here, that is solely the fault of the deliberate decisions made by the staff unique to this episode.

Nayrael said:
This tread makes me wonder if I am the only one here who watches the show for other reasons but animation...

Got quite a bit of respect for Satoru. Seems he is more competent than I thought.

Nayrael said:
This tread makes me wonder if I am the only one here who watches the show for other reasons but animation...

Got quite a bit of respect for Satoru. Seems he is more competent than I thought.

MasterMeNL said:
A great episode, but the feeling was quite a bit different because of the animation in this episode.
It wasn't bad in any way, it just was well... different.

fiziontko said:
I was just waiting for them to take some time to discuss their situation: how will they escape, about them not having Cantus, what happened to others or anything really. But this seemed like an entirely different show purely because of this. The first few episodes showed the characters willing to discuss and engage in intelligent conversations and reflections, in this episode nothing like this happened.

Dessiato said:

People just have weak priorities, the writing and characters stayed the same, that's what matters, it just looked like a thematic shift that tried too hard to be chaotic.

Nayrael said:
This tread makes me wonder if I am the only one here who watches the show for other reasons but animation...

Got quite a bit of respect for Satoru. Seems he is more competent than I thought.

HosannaExcelsis said:


I'm only going to repeat this once, but this is not A-1 Pictures "slacking off" or losing their budget or not having time or anything of that nature. This is the people working on this particular episode being given the liberty to apply their personal styles to the material and make the aesthetic choices they desire, even if it is not consistent with the overall visual style of the show. (Shadows...) Whatever flaws may be in here, that is solely the fault of the deliberate decisions made by the staff unique to this episode.

Since Yamauchi only tends to show up once per show as an episode director, I don't think there'll be another episode which looks like this.

It's like when Osamu Kobayashi does a solo episode; e.g., TTGL #4 or Dantalian #9. In those cases, the art and animation is styled very differently from the rest of the show and leads to fans protesting about a lack of budget or lazy animators or whatever in a similar manner to what's seen here, but the only reason those episodes look the way they do is because the series director let Kobayashi do exactly what he wanted to do.

AirStyles said:
This is like the work of 1 episode director, who got such an ego that he decide that he can make the show "his style", and his style is suppose to be great, much better than what we had and loved.

samforshort said:

Did anyone actually "love" it before? My number one complaint immediately as I began watching was the art style.

Mayadome said:
The animation didn't even look bad, yes it looked a bit different but I believe it was intentional due to the change of pace this episode offered.

LeftWingGuerilla said:
I have no qualms with the art direction that Yamauchi provided with this episode, this is nowhere as jarring as Osamu Kobayashi's TTGL ep4. I'm normally okay with directors adding their own personal touches to an episode. What I do have problems with is the director's fondness of frequently close up shots, I thought it didn't work when for the more action-oriented moments this episode, such as when they were running away from the rats. It's harder to follow what is going on in a scene, with all those closeups during frantic moments.

Anyway, such is the risk of giving various directors/animators more freedom when working on their segment.

Takami Akai, the producer of the series and a co-founder of Gainax, announced that he would resign his position effective episode five, which aired on April 29, 2007, over comments that he made regarding posts on the Japanese Internet forum 2channel. Akai and another Gainax employee, Keiko Mimori, made disparaging remarks about comments criticizing the animation style of the fourth episode of Gurren Lagann, which was completely directed by guest and friend Osamu Kobayashi. With regard to reading the fan criticisms, Akai stated that it was "like putting [his] face next to an anus and breathing deeply." Fans later became aware of his comments, and he announced his departure from the company he helped to found.

coyote256 said:
So looking at the poster we can say Satoru is main male lead?

Mayadome said:
Are you guys jumping on a hate bandwagon or something? The animation didn't even look bad, yes it looked a bit different but I believe it was intentional due to the change of pace this episode offered.

EternalStarlight said:


I agree. Why are you guys whining and complaining so much about animation?? I know the show is awesome and the sudden change in art can throw people off, but seriously it doesn't have to be such a big deal. =/

SetsukoHara said:


I still liked this episode, it was really intense, and a nice change of pace. But I would have preferred it with the usual art style.

AirStyles said:


Count 2!

EternalStarlight said:
Why are you guys whining and complaining so much about animation?? I know the show is awesome and the sudden change in art can throw people off, but seriously it doesn't have to be such a big deal. =/

samforshort said:

The question was not who prefers the old over the new, but rather who loved the old so much that the change had a considerable impact of their enjoyment.

symbv said:

I am not sure about overseas fans, but in Japan fans care about the sakuga and animation a lot, and they treasure consistency (in the west people seem to care about plot and story a lot more and animation less). In Japanese forums the feedback about the sakuga is overwhelmingly negative -- my worry is that it may impact sales of the BD as at the end it is the fans in Japan who decide how successful an anime will be. Take me for example, I have been tempted more and more towards acquiring the BDs 4 episodes into the series, and now this episode... I think I'd wait to see how the sakuga/animation turns out for the rest of the series before making a decision.

AirStyles said:

EXACTLY!!!

WHAT THE F*CK ARE THEY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?!

symbv said:

I do appreciate your passion and love for this series, although I think if you use less swearing people would listen to you more ;-)

Anyway...
for the question of what they want to accomplish... it is often hard to tell why a certain person is assigned to direct a certain episode unless they disclose the information in some interview. One thing that is true is that anime production is all too often done in tight schedule, and it is entirely possible that episode director is allowed much leeway in what they can do and then the episode director gets carried away by the freedom, and somehow the overall director fails to ensure consistency is kept (again perhaps because of tight schedule but it could be some other reason)....

millo said:
1. Did the monk died? how did saki got separated with the other kids??

Zeally said:
/facepalm of course the monk died...............
but i don't get it doesn't Saki like Shun
the fu k was that sex scene about lolol
wat a hoe

fdsfgs said:
Off topic but can someone explain what sakuga is?

Zeally said:
/facepalm of course the monk died...............
it was implied and probably not shown due to censorship of excessive gore

but i don't get it doesn't Saki like Shun
the fu k was that sex scene about lolol
wat a hoe
i know that when they get stressed they become horny lmao........ but still <_< is there something genuinely going on with Saki and Satoru. Someone throw me a bone or a hint here or maybe a spoiler tag! :D