Ao no Hako Episode 1 Discussion

I am a huge fan of the Manga. It's probably the best romance I've read, the art is absolutely gorgeous, Chinatsu is cute af while being genuinely hard to figure out, Taiki is charming but not a simpleton, Haryuu is a sympathetic dick, Hina is great too... It feels very real, without being "gritty" or having anyone be annoying or stupid for no reason. Taiki despite being the most generic character in the series still manages to be way more interesting than half the manga protags I've seen.

I'm super glad people are loving it, and I hope it does super well. It deserves it.

That being said, I'm not 100% feeling this adaptation. Imma just say 7.5/10... And I'm gonna be a downer now, so if you don't want to hear criticism, skip this. Enjoy what you enjoy, don't let me sour it for you... But Imma write this to see if I'm the only one that feels this way.

The animation clearly has a LOT of budget, but it seems like juuuust not enough talent to back it up. Don't get me wrong, it looks gorgeous at times... But there are a lot of moments when it misses the mark by a smidge. It feels like the work of very good, but amateur animators and artists, and mainly an amateur director. When contrasted with the absolutely masterful art of every single panel of the manga, it just falls short for me (btw I don't know how the author does it. Please don't overwork yourself, fellow person!). Coming from watching Dan DaDan's first ep, the direction just doesn't feel quite as perfect. I'm an artist myself, so maybe that's why I'm being so petty and nitpicky here (I certainly couldn't have done a better job, that's not what I'm saying)... But I'm also a HUGE fan of the manga and WANTED to recommend this anime to all my non-manga reading friends, but it just doesn't seem as finely-tuned as the manga is. I suspect the budget will run out sooner or later, and we will be left with a bit of a run-of-the-mill romance adaptation.

Now, the animation side not being perfect is fine. It's something I notice in Taiki's running animation being weird from above, in both of their chibi forms feeling slightly off for some reason, and so on, but it still looks good... And it really doesn't matter THAT much. Sure, it doesn't live up to the manga imho (which is a tall order), but Tsuki ga Kirei had mostly mid animation, and it still is my favorite romance anime ever... Because the moments were sooo well paced and directed and acted.

And that's what I have felt as a slight let down right here.

Taiki's VA is either misdirected, or can't act with the subtlety I'd like. Then again, a manga does give you freedom to interpret the tone or subtlety of someone's speech, so maybe he being a more generic, permanently energetic shonen protagonist is intended... But I always felt he had moments where he was a bit more toned down and calm, and wasn't THAT bouncy. Moments linger for a bit too long, speech is a bit too slow here and there, and the emotions don't always feel right. And it's those little bits that slowly wear on me.

All in all, it's just not QUITE the adaptation I think this deserved. It's close, but it's not quite there. It's good... it's just that the manga is better, lol.

But maybe I'm just being unfair and holding this to way too extreme standards. I probably am. I hope it's succesful anyways.

I'm probably still gonna watch it to see how it goes... But I really don't think that I'll be recommending this to anyone over the manga... Which is unfortunate, because getting someone to read a manga is always way harder than to get them to watch an anime, lol.

I noticed that too but it seems to be just a result of stretching ch 1 to a full episode, ep 2 didn't have that problem