Kaijo said: I can get that people have style issues; I tend to dislike clamp's art style for instance. But when you watch a medium like anime where body proportions are already out of whack... well, it makes it hard to take this line of thought seriously. It's like watching "I Love Lucy" and complaining it was hard to take a black and white show seriously. There are certain things inherent in the medium that you just have to accept, that are done for artistic purposes.
Most of what I wanted to say has already been said. It's a major discrepancy with this show, the main character's height and size.
Look at Haruhi chan, and look at the main Haruhi series. Most of the Haruhi-chan characters chubby caricatures. That works because the style is comedic, the show is based in comedy, where as Haruhi-canon is drawn with obvious care and detail.
I don't see the artistic purpose of making the main character look like a caricature compared to everybody else. I had the same problem with Air Gear, because there was, coincidentally, another fat character who didn't even look human. He had big, circular lips and looked like a "potato", where every other character looked at least passably human. I prefer consistency in character design.
In I Love Lucy, all of the characters are black and white. What if, in one episode, they somehow made a character look green? "Oh, but that's so unique and it makes this show stand out from all the other shows!" It also makes it pretty off-setting.
If there was an artistic purpose for designing him as a short, plump teenage boy, like, maybe he grows over the course of the show into a more recognizable human figure, not just a bishounen, muscled, alpha male - maybe as his self-confidence grows, he's drawn with a more natural, human appearance - then I'd understand, then I'd be like, "Okay, the writer knew what he/she was doing". But this seems to be a whimsical design choice.
But I really, really dislike this main character, and his love interest, for more than just his appearance. I really, really - freaking - dislike this character. Shinji Ikari was, at least, sympathetic. This main character is not. He's a tool. I've never had the desire to call someone that, but he's a tool, pure and simple. The only saving grace is that he might develop into something more than a tool as the show progresses.
On a scale of wimpy anime protagonists, Shinji Ikari is the poster boy for pathetic. But you know, I kind of like him. Then I met Yuki Amano, from Future Diary, and he threw Shinji out on his rear. And now, Haru Yuki, takes the throne. |