| Arimura Yu, a freelance writer, wrote an article about So Ra No Wo To for an online magazine Men's Cyzo. He researched whether the first title of "Anime no Chikara" project was successful or not. Last summer, TV Tokyo and Aniplex launched a new timeslot "Anime no Chikara", which is dedicated to original anime. The purpose of the project was to promote the creativity of the anime industry and to encourage the production of original works. Sora no Woto was extensively publicized as the first title. However, the alteration of Kishida Meru's original character designs and the resemblance to K-ON! caused criticism before the airing. When the series began in January, the high quality of the art and the animation had received some praise, but the discrepancy between the dark memory of war and the calm descriptions of the slice of life perplexed the audience. Akai Toshifumi, the animation director of Sora no Woto, reacted to the criticism against the happy ending by saying "People won't be moved nor consented unless someone dies. Why aren't they impressed by the character's survival?", and his post inflamed the anime fans even more. According to unofficial data, the first week sales of Sora no Woto volume 1 were 3,057 copies of Blu-ray with a few hundreds of DVDs. The number can be regarded as a moderate success as an original anime and proved that there does exist a certain demand for original works. Source: Men's Cyzo |
KinetaNov 25, 2012 10:52 AM
| The main problem wasn't about the character's survival. I thought the 12-episode show felt rushed in the end while they spent too much on the slice of life part. Art was amazing and characters are lovely, but it felt like the dialogs were too cutesy for a show about dark memory of wars. It felt like "peaceful happy days" in the early episodes. I like the concept of Anime no Chikara. If they make more shows like this, I'd be interested to watch. |
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| The show was meh. I think the slice of life episodes were actually better than the ones related to the main "plot", but overall, it was really inconsistent. The character designs didn't add any points either, I still don't remember all characters names and call them by the names of K-On girls. :D Honestly the idea of Anime no Chikara project was good, but it seems to me they didn't think the whole thing up. And now Senkou no Night Raid started and it already looks like a pretty half-assed effort. |
| i think not |
| If only they stay with Kishida Mel Chara design.... shit will be really different now... ... just compare with this what a blunder... |
fertygoApr 20, 2010 7:15 AM
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| Sora no Woto failed... plot was rushed, not to talk that it was kinda lame. Some chars where a bit annoying. The whole animation and desing was so similar to K-ON, but in the matter of entertainment not close. |
| 20px!!!! |
| I wrote about that on my blog: "By the end, not only do I find some sense in the first episodes, but they also share a theme in anime that I love: how nice a normal, peaceful life shared with friends is. Seen in the light of the warmongering general’s appearance disrupting the relatively happy lives of the town, the girls, and bringing Noel, an innocent victim of those people, close to a breakdown, we can see those early episodes as showing what is important in life – they had their little adventures, their excursions, their friendship, the little things like Kanata waiting for the phone call. All of that destroyed because of war. After Rio’s cool appearance stopping the war, the soldiers actually celebrating it is a very clear message." The animation director called it "survival", but well, I think we are pointing to the same theme. From this point of view, I really can't understand the criticism that "the discrepancy between the dark memory of war and the calm descriptions of the slice of life perplexed the audience." There is no "discrepancy", it was the gist of the whole anime! I do agree it felt rushed, and some other criticisms could be leveled indeed, but not this one |
| Imo the theme itself screams out a possible successful and well executed 'war-story' anime but yeah it may be lacking things from becoming one. I agree about how rushed it is as well, but I guess the makers wanted to create something new and different which shows they're experimenting.. Still, Sora no Woto was a watchable anime, I mean the OST was great! =3 |
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fertygo said: If only they stay with Kishida Mel Chara design.... shit will be really different now... just compare with this what a blunder... Wow, how could they bomb on the character design part so badly? Makes me glad I never had time to continue past ep1. I have to look up more of Kishida Mel's works, they're gorgeous. |
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| The story was great ,but the character designs were K-ON-ish... I didn't like it when they rush the series into 12 episodes. |
SealkidApr 20, 2010 7:46 AM
| You know this series would've been better if they distributed more of the last few episode's moments into the wholee series. I mean the first 8-9 were more about military life, and the soldiers' struggles then they compress an 8 episode story into the remaining 4-3 episodes. But all in all, it was a pretty good series, with very good art and score. Please only people who haven't watched tthe whole series would think it as mere "K-on ripoffs" because as moe as K-on is, it won't top Sora no Woto's peaceful atmostphere amongst the war and destruction in it all. Those are just my opinions! :3 |
| depends on how you looked at the show and what you expected... |
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| Sora no Woto was a lot of wasted potential. I mean, you had a FANTASTIC WORLD SETTING. But you had to make it slice of life. For the most part. Disappointment. |
infinite_zero said: Sora no Woto was a lot of wasted potential. I mean, you had a FANTASTIC WORLD SETTING. But you had to make it slice of life. For the most part. Disappointment. eeeeerrrrrrr Aria anyone ? but i agree they should stay with plot-packed stories from the start, BUT once again if they keep Kishida Mel design, thats enough for me. |
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| Spoilers in post. I felt the show would have been more enjoyable if they had decided to either cut back on the slice of life episodes in the early to middle part of the series, or leave them and stretch everything else out similarly, bringing the episode count to 24-26. It felt like they tried to do both at once, and it suffered for it; the plot exploded in episode 10, and much more story could have been told before the conclusion. I personally have no problem with characters surviving; I actually like it. Killing characters just to create drama is ridiculous. I was in love with the atmosphere and music of the show, but I would have liked to learned even more about the characters. What were the specifics of what Rio was doing while she was away? What did the Roman emperor look like? etc. In any case, I look forward to more Anime no Chikara titles. I have problems with many manga to anime adaptations, so seeing anime with no original work to compare it to is refreshing. |
windyApr 20, 2010 12:14 PM
hazelinventado said: You know this series would've been better if they distributed more of the last few episode's moments into the whole series. I mean the first 8-9 were more about military life, and the soldiers' struggles then they compress an 8 episode story into the remaining 4-3 episodes. This. What made this anime nothing more than mediocre to me was the pace of it. It had an interesting background, good art and music as positive points. I didn't really mind the moe character designs, any of the characters aside from Rio or the slow slice of life parts. What did annoy me, though, was how the creators suddenly remembered this show actually had a plot, rushed that part and ended it on a deus ex rio because they didn't have enough time to give it a better ending. And that after plenty of unimportant feel building episodes that didn't really explain anything about the world to me. I do like the concept and plan to watch Senkou no Night Raid once the first three episodes are subbed, though. |
 And on the edge of sanity I stumble and fall. |
Kantarou said: fertygo said: If only they stay with Kishida Mel Chara design.... shit will be really different now... just compare with this what a blunder... Wow, how could they bomb on the character design part so badly? Makes me glad I never had time to continue past ep1. I have to look up more of Kishida Mel's works, they're gorgeous. The original character designs are indeed lovely. If they had kept them like that, I would have actually watched the show, slice of life or not. |
| I think the original characters look much better than final art, but I did really like the show. I hope to see more from A-1 and the "Anime no Chikara" movement! |
| Well, being a moe-lover as am I, being a slice-of-life-lover as am I, I would say this show could be MUCH BETTER. They tried to do a war anime: Failed They tried to do a moe anime: minor failed They tried to do a slice-of-live anime: failed. They tried to do too much things in such a short anime. I understand why they had only 12 chapters (well, it is an experimental timeslot), but if you have such a short time, spend it well!!! Any way, I think that if they would have more time, they probably would done it better XP |
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infinite_zero said: Sora no Woto was a lot of wasted potential. I mean, you had a FANTASTIC WORLD SETTING. But you had to make it slice of life. For the most part. Disappointment. This. They could have made this into an amazing series, but it failed. |
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| Huh, I didn't know there was a "Power of Anime" timeslot. Though was there anything else on that show other than Sora no Woto? Anyway, I think the first and most obvious reason for Sora no Woto proving lackluster was because of the character design. Instead of aiming more towards the original artist's character design, A-1 was aping the K-ON style and tried to make it seem moe (at least I'm assuming they did). I can understand though where they were going by doing that, if that was the point. Nowadays, moe and whatever else that appeals to the same 20,000 oktaku makes money. K-ON sold well, Bakemonogatari sold well, Strike Witches sold well. They could've taken a risk with being true to finding it's own audience, but doing that would also mean taking a financial risk and the anime industry in gerneal is probably afraid to take such risks more frequently. The other problem was how the story itself was arranged. Some say the story was rushed, some say it aimed for too many genrres at once. While I do kinda agree with those statements, I can't help but feel that it could also be lack of balancing between character development and plot development. There didn't seem to beenough of an attempt to advance the plot from the beginning. Thus by the time everyone wanted to know about the universe of Sora no Woto and where it was heading plot-wise, it was all packed into the last 2 episodes. There was much more of an attempt at character development for the first 10 episodes, but even then, very few could make heads or tails as to how any of characters developed to the point where they were very likeable. I think A-1 had the right ideas with telling the story. It's just that it could've been executed more steadily, whether it was by balancing development between plot and characters or spanning the anime for another 12 episodes. |
fertygo said: infinite_zero said: Sora no Woto was a lot of wasted potential. I mean, you had a FANTASTIC WORLD SETTING. But you had to make it slice of life. For the most part. Disappointment. eeeeerrrrrrr Aria anyone ? but i agree they should stay with plot-packed stories from the start, BUT once again if they keep Kishida Mel design, thats enough for me. Aria was about girls rowing boats on mars. That alone is indication of a slice-of-life. Sora no Woto, on another hand, had a military setting, with a whole post-apocalyptic world to explore. The two impressions I got from reading the synopsis was COMPLETELY different. Aria sets the scene by Akari going "I'm going to this planet to learn to be a tourist guide" while SnW set the scene (episode 1) with a plethora of hints, especially with the whole legend thing. Basically, I was fascinated by the possible the depth SnW could have shown. However, episode 2 completely killed my fascination by slice of life. It doesn't belong as it did in Aria. |
| It would've been succesful, I guess. If the people weren't so uptight and didn't put their critic shields up at the first sight of K-ON. |
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| yeah same pacing thing windy said. tricked me into thinking it was a lame show. now after seeing all of it i just don't know. it has issues. basically every first try has issues. better luck next time. |
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| I adored Sora no Woto (and i'm going to end up ranting because I really loved it and I feel like i'm the only one...) but it could have been much better. Maryberry said: It would've been succesful, I guess. If the people weren't so uptight and didn't put their critic shields up at the first sight of K-ON. THIS. What on earth is wrong with the characters looking like something out of K-ON? I agree that the original designs are better, but there's nothing wrong with the way the character's look. The problems people have with K-ON have nothing to do with the character designs anyway, so it makes no sense. And the show ended up being nothing like K-ON, but people acted as if they were exactly alike just because of the goddamn character designs. My opinion will probably be considered invalid because I actually love K-ON too, but whatever. :| And I LIKED that it was slice-of-life with a military setting. I think that's a really good idea, the sort of cosy catastrophe thing, y'know. I wish they'd had a whoel first series of slice of life and then had a second series build on the war thing and all the stuff they had going on in the second half of the series. :/ Everyone else loved when it suddenly got deep and action-packed but I fucking hated it even though it was good because I LIKE slice of life moe god fucking damn it! D: /rant XD;;; |
Pw3age said: infinite_zero said: Sora no Woto was a lot of wasted potential. I mean, you had a FANTASTIC WORLD SETTING. But you had to make it slice of life. For the most part. Disappointment. This. They could have made this into an amazing series, but it failed. My thoughts exactly, This could have been an very deep anime, Noel's story alone could have been a 4 episode arc. Yet they spent all their time on idiotic Slice of life stories. COME ON did we really need a complete episode about Kanata waiting for the phone? But even with the wasted time one the slice of life this anime had the potential to be great. Only to throw it away by compressing what should have been a 8 episode ending into 3 episodes. This anime is case and point for why the 12 episode rule is a bad idea. |
| Error 547: No keyboard detected, press F12 for options. |
| THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF IT WAS LIKE FULL METAL JACKET. PRIVATE KANATA, YOU HAD BEST UNFUCK YOURSELF OR I WILL UNSCREW YOUR HEAD AND SHIT DOWN YOUR NECK. I thought Sora No Woto was great. If they had used a different design style for the characters I bet more people would have been a bit more open to it and not say its shit by default due to it unfortunately having the same character designs as K-ON. I didn't like how it was so short, they definitely should have made it a 20+ episode show. We get our balance of slice-of-life and some serious shit. |
Hybrid00May 30, 2010 2:31 AM
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Akai Toshifumi said: People won't be moved nor consented unless someone dies. Why aren't they impressed by the character's survival? I haven't yet seen past episode 4 of this anime. But I am inclined to agree with this quote. |
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fertygo said: If only they stay with Kishida Mel Chara design.... shit will be really different now... ... just compare with this what a blunder... You should know that they can´t animate the characters in that detail, your argument is totally missing the point, dispite the fact that the characters look exactly the same in the anime, except for their hairstyle. -.- |
chibuki said: The main problem wasn't about the character's survival. I thought the 12-episode show felt rushed in the end while they spent too much on the slice of life part. Art was amazing and characters are lovely, but it felt like the dialogs were too cutesy for a show about dark memory of wars. It felt like "peaceful happy days" in the early episodes. I like the concept of Anime no Chikara. If they make more shows like this, I'd be interested to watch. |
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fertygo said: If only they stay with Kishida Mel Chara design.... shit will be really different now... ... just compare with this what a blunder... I like the first one a lot more. C: |
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taki-desu said: Wait a second, was not Valkyria Chronicles getting the same problem with character designs?fertygo said: If only they stay with Kishida Mel Chara design.... shit will be really different now... ... just compare with this what a blunder... I like the first one a lot more. C: |
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