Additional Staff and Cast Members Announced for 'Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregototsukai'

Wow, that trailer was very underwhelming. I love that shot where Boku looks like a goddamn Araragi recolor. Otherwise, barely any takeaways. Non LN readers would have no idea what this show is supposed to about. Yuki Kajiura's soundtrack doesn't fit in at all. Or at least this track didn't work for the trailer.


I'm quite dissatisfied with the style Shaft chose, for several reasons. First, Take's art is, in my opinion, pretty darn amazing. It's a good part of why I love Katanagatari so much and also why it is so memorable to so many of its viewers. Take's art suits Zaregoto to a T. Without it, Zaregoto feels so wrong to me.

Secondly, while some characters look good, and some not too shabby, there are a few that just didn't hit the mark. Take Yayoi. She's supposed to be 30, according to the novels. Here, she looks like she's a middle school student dressed up as a chef. Jun's doesn't really show her personality accurately IMO. She looks like what other characters in the novel view her, but not who she actually is. Then again, Jun is one of the those characters that looks great in Take's style, and not so good in anyone else's.

Maki and Akane are alright, and Kanami is probably the best out of all of them.

Finally, why would they not use Take's style? Why use a style so different from the original? I would understand if the source material's art doesn't translate well animated, but Katanagatari proved its art could, in fact, be animated well.


In terms of Monogatari's designs, I feel like part of it is because Shaft put an honest effort to make that style work, which payed off in the end. Here, it looks like they're only using the same style because they think the OVAs will sell better with it. Factor in Yuki Kajiura's OST (think Madoka Magica), Kalafina (again, Madoka Magica) and Shimbo's involvement (who directed all of Shaft's other successful shows), and you can see this project is taking very few risks in favor of profit. That's the only good reason I can think of as to why they ditched Take's designs.

I'll try to watch the first episode, but as an LN reader, I'm dissappointed. This adaptation lacks soul. It feels like a means to make a profit off of NisiOisin's popularity, given the Monogatari well is starting to dry up.

Yay for Kalafina!

All the deets surrounding this show got me hype, but that was an awfully bad trailer by shaft standards. they are usually very good and get me excited but this one was quite boring. Hope it isn't indicative of the quality of the ova but trailers usually aren't.

Yes most of us wished for a shaft zaregoto series with Take's CD's but that isn't what we got so lets wait and see how it turns out in the show.

And Yuki Yase is the director for this series, not Sinbo who hasn't been the director of any series in years now. Chief directors aren't all that uncommon in anime and are basically consultants to the series director, and in shaft's case it is probably just Sinbo giving advice and clearance on decisions regarding his now-(in)famous signature style, which is shaft's now-iconic house style.

good for shaft fans
i skip

I like the music a lot but the visuals look boring tbh.

The quick shot with the crows really gave me -gatari vibes.

Would still have loved the art to be closer to Katanagatari(its a bit too monogatari here tbh), but still looks great.

Talking about prod staff,


Shinbou is good but he most likely is just a name there. Still hoping he is somehow involved with Fate/Extra adaptation.
Yuki Yase did direct some great episodes of both madoka and gatari, if to ignore the mekaku nonsense.
Ken Naitou is responsible for Hanamonogatari's art direction which was fucking best.

Let's see which animators they are going to use for this tho.

If you're counting the re-release for Bakemonogatari than yeah Katanagatari did sell over 10k.

Ok, thank you for explaining.

Would take a bit to explain (can read here if you want for a full explantion: http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php/the-anime-production-line) but basically the director is charge of the series as a whole and is higher in hierachy than an episode director. Also best to list what he directed as don't say which episodes he did in the forum post (although could check by clicking his name).

Chief Director: Akiyuki Shinbou (Bakemonogatari)
Director: Yuki Yase (Mekaku City Actors)
Series Composition: Fuyashi Tou (Koyomimonogatari)
Script: Yukito Kizawa (Tsukimonogatari)
Art Director: Ken Naitou (Hanamonogatari)
Sound Director: Yota Tsuruoka (Owarimonogatari)
Director of Photography: Rei Egami (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei)
Color Design: Yasuko Watanabe (Nisekoi), Jin Hibino (Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru)

Shaf is fucking go all out with this anime i think.
looking foward to it.

Katanagatari came a year after Bake. It was by your logic supposed to sell cuz hey its Nisio right? It sold less than 10k compared to bake selling 100k.

Shaft isnt a sure hit, no studio is.

This looks pretty interesting for me, the selection staff wise looks pretty good imo.

I love Zaregoto a lot but I know shaft doing a mystery show with Shinbo directing it will be the most confusing shit ever.

Art style was adapted alright. No real complaints except for the colour palette being really bright.

Don't mind the VAs. Yuki Kajiura hype!

Why is it in OVA format over a year period? For fuck sake, they know this'll sell cus shaft and same author as the already popular Monogatari so I don't see the point in a year release. Sellouts.

You love twisting my words right? Akio's design is similar to Take's new designs for Zaregoto. My man have you picked up the novel or are you trying to be a cute troll.

If you are so frustrated dont watch it no one putting a gun to your head. Shinbo is the chief director while the actually director is Yase.

In anime the director isnt the end all be all anyways there are people who do storyboard, episode direction, art directors and ect.

Im not trying to force you to like this but for me I think this is a great representation of zaregoto in visual form.

Weren't you the person who kept saying how the designs are faithful to the original? Yet here you are admitting that they're nothing more than Akio Watanabe characters. Nice.
And yeah, apparently I don't know how the industry works, because if someone's name is said to be a director then I expect them to be directing. And even if it isn't Shinbo it's one hell of a copycat. The director could have gone and used his own style but all he did was just rip off someone else's.
Of course I don't want a rushed adaptation, but to wait almost an entire year for 8 episodes, of which none probably will be Katanagatari's length and instead be a normal TV anime's length, is frustrating.

Thanks for the link. It looks really good and I'm excited for this.

What does " Episode Director" mean, then? Didn't he do some kind of director?

Anyways, I will fix that anyways.

Here's a link : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4qiylh_zaregoto-series-ova-vol-1-pv_fun

They dont look like monogatari characters they look like Akio characters. Which we already expected after the key visual and after seeing the character designs a couple hours ago.

Shinbo hasnt directed anything in years so please get educated on the industry because that claim is utterly dumb.

How is 8 monthly OVAs a bad thing? You rather have a rushed LN adaption go to the news thread and pick a new seasonal anime to watch.

There are quite a few head tilts in the novel too, so I wouldn't really say they're forced just by looking at a single shot from the PV. Unless they really go overboard with it in the episodes, that'd be a different matter.