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

Was really looking forward to this, so much so that I had decided to wait for it to finish airing to binge watch it all at once; it's just far more enjoyable watching anime that way rather than weekly, especially when the episodes may tend to end on cliffhangers. But yeah we're currently 10 episodes into the season, and I decided it may not be worth the wait, and to just watch it now. It's that review ratio man, it's like 1 to 1 on recommended vs not recommended. Usually won't give too much of af about reviews, but when it's 50/50 like that? It's gotta mean something.

And yeah right away from the first episode, you can pretty much see all the signs that this is going to be nothing more than your typical shallow romance anime. Obviously it's got a great exterior, it looks great- especially the opening, hot damn is it beautiful. But animation is there to elevate what is at the core, which is the highschool romance- and you can kind of tell it's just another instance where there'll be a cute moment here and there, but probably go absolutely nowhere. Not exactly a good feeling when it's the first episode, you know, the one that's usually supposed to hook and reel you in to the story and its characters.

Speaking of story and characters, my first impressions are: not bad, not good, for lack of a better term, mid. Let's give the story a pass for now. Ik it's just the first episode so we can't exactly properly gauge the story from here, but story is not quite the most important thing in most highschool romance anime. It's mostly the characters and the interactions between them that you sign up for. Besides, judging from this first episode again, it looks like it's story probably won't really go anywhere, or at least take it's sweet, sweet time in getting where it's going. Idk, could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong.

As for characters, how's our main character? Absolute beta simp cuck LOSER. Jk. He's not that bad, but definitely could be better. Bro's already getting on my nerves a bit, ngl. Nothing we haven't seen before and probably have gotten used to seeing already. Moving on to female main character and main love interest... uh yeah she's just kinda alright as well. Was expecting more of a character from her tbh. Hate to say it, but she is kind of how one reviewer puts it: a wet sock. She is definitely going to spend the rest of the season being 99% oblivious to the feelings that Taiki here has for her. Taiki can literally say "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH HAVE MY BABIES" to her face and I feel like she'd be the type of character to say "oh ok that's nice!" Not that Taiki is ever going to confess to Chinatsu in this season. There's 25 episodes, and I get the vibe that nothing of real significance will happen. Again, if I'm wrong, GREAT. Like actually GREAT. But I'm probably right. And if I am right, this is just one of those romance where it just goes on and on with some cute moments here and there, getting stretched out as much as possible. Please blue box, don't be that way.

edit: Forgot to mention our two other characters that were introduced this episode as well. We have Hina, the childhood friend that teases Taiki and most likely has feelings for him (for some reason) and forms the third part of what probably is going to be a love triangle. Wow, who knew. I kind of hate how the opening can portray a character as like so elegant, but they end up being just goofy. But for real though, she is my favourite character so far. There looks to be quite a few more characters to be introduced along the way, and I wouldn't weigh out the probability of a love SQUARE happening eventually as well. Oh yeah and we have Taiki's friend it looks like, a character named Kyou. He is going to be there this season to be dry, cold, sensible, and just kind of there. I'm sure he'll have at least a few actually funny moments from time to time though. As for the rest of the characters who we have yet to meet, we'll see.

If this is your first or one of your first romance anime, it's probably going to be amazing for you. I know that if this was one of my first I'd already be almost madly in love with it. But for those of us who've already seen them all... yeah we can see the tropes and that it's not really doing anything creative with them. It's all about perspective and whether or not if you've seen this formula many times before. Just saying that the ratio of positive to negative reviews is understandable, from my perspective. Anyway sorry for the wall of text; it's just partly a coping mechanism for when a show that I really wanted and expected to like turns out it may not be so great. ;( If you're enjoying this like it looks like a lot of people are, disregard all of this, and I hope that I too will enjoy it with you. For now though, I'm just gonna do it and be a pessimist and say this is going to end up being a 5/10 anime. I am quite eager to watch the next episode, but unfortunately it's in the rent-a-girlfriend-sort of way.