It’s an Asura Cryin’ Shame When Good Girls Go Bad
There’s something weird about Asura Cryin’ that I can’t quite put my finger on. The show itself has a very compelling set of characteristics. The characterizations are hit and miss but they are all come across interestingly conceptually. The plot is overall solid even if unfolded in a way that can be a turn-off for those who can’t do nonlinear storytelling. The core conflict is a bit cliche, like a second-rate console RPG from Japan, even in the way in how it aspires to be something more than the sum of its parts.
[Is this how it feels to watch Nanoha StrikerS? ]
The way people fight among each other to keep their Asura Crying/Daughter/Demon nonsense in check was just child’s play to the equally nonsensical “saving the world” main plot arc. It really helped the show when it begin that story arc because it put everything into context of everything else that has happened/explained in the show. It is as if every episode gives the viewer a random piece of the jigsaw puzzle but you don’t know what the final picture is until the last story arc begins.
What was most compelling about the show was its set of “good girls.” Because almost every girl in the show is a “good girl.” Even the bad ones. What is a “good girl” (henceforth GG) and why do I put quotes around it? I think this is a concept I first picked up from people talking about some of the characters from Simoun, who stepped up to the plate and did what dirty business they had to do to preserve their ideals. Like Mamiina, right? But the concept applies to all sorts of valiant, angst-tormented girls that are somewhat commonly found in anime, who, despite what prior acts they may have committed, finally align their morally understandable and commendable motives with “the right thing to do” at the time, and exits the stage on that high note.
I’ll try to keep this spoiler free in the interest of brevity (and laziness–it takes a while to dig into all the GGs in the show), but wow, Nia. She might actually beat Misao on the GG chart for this show if it were to end right at episode 24.
However, what bothers me is that the canon pairing for Asura Cryin’s modern-magic-harem protagonist is arguably the flattest of them all! It’s as if they are trying to say something about the whole GG concept especially once you plot out all the other GGs in the show. There is almost one of every type. And I guess there’s the type that is kind of like Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi. And uh, I guess shippers can go OTP all they like, just as planned.
The funny thing is, I don’t mind her–I sort of like her even. It’s just that her acting was weak and there was really no space to develop her character. In the end she seems like a less-colorful Haruka Nogizaka. Thankfully at least she doesn’t get cockblocked! And it just goes to show that, damn, Misao is one fine specimen.
In some ways I think that is what a good ensemble cast should be; that might be the secret power to Simoun’s attractiveness. Or maybe unlike Asura Cryin’, the animation itself isn’t getting in the way of the content.
No, it’s not how it feels to watch StrikerS. StrikerS was like you’ve been really anticipating going out to your favorite 5-star restaurant for lunch all week, and you finally get there and find it’s been torn down and McDonalds has appeared in its place. And then when you go inside you find that they only sell chicken nuggets. It’s probably the best McDonalds ever for some small group of people, but those people aren’t you and they weren’t the usual patronage of the place that was there originally either.
I think that Asura Cryin’s main problem isn’t the characters, it’s the ridiculous stuff around them. A lot of it feels like they had bundled up a bunch of bad JRPG and anime cliches, put them on a dartboard, and then put together whatever elements they could hit with a set of darts during a friday night drinking binge.
I think what made Simoun’s cast interesting was that they were all fleshed out and they had a lot of interesting interactions with each other, and it wasn’t at the sacrifice of the plot. They work well as a group in the same way that the cast of, say, Aria or Maria-sama ga Miteru does. Also it had very pretty art, which Asura Cryin’ certainly doesn’t have.
That said, I dropped the show about six or seven eps into the first season. Would you say it’s worth picking up again?
Yeah, what NegativeZero said.
I don’t think it’s worth your time, but I dropped Simoun at around the 4 episode mark before picking it back up again. I don’t think your criticism on Asura Cryin’ is on target though. The ridiculous stuff around them actually makes sense once you understand “the big picture.” Which you don’t until at least ep 20 and onward. Rather I think characterization is where it sort of flails, because they spend too much time resolving random nonsense (and that doesn’t do anyone any good until later at best) and it’s at the cost of the other stuff.
When I watched the first season the biggest turnoff for me was the character designs. Instinctually I feel that is a stupid reason to dislike a show but I know that if the character designs are off…I won’t give a crap what happens to the characters. (See: Kurogane no Linebarrels) Each of those lovely pieces of fanart you posted are like 9001 times better than the ones used in the show. The other thing that bothered me was not being able to tell what was important to the plot and what was just being thrown in for humor or filler or backstory. The show feels like it bills itself as making sense…and for the most part of the first season…it didn’t make a lick of sense.
Asura Cryin’ has a longstanding plot that takes way too long to develop and come together. There’s nothing to hold you to the series other than to finally know wtf is going on. The pacing is totally off, sometimes its slow, then fast, then super slow. Animation has Seven Arcs QUALITY written all over it, though some fight scenes are nicely animated. Music is alright, I love the OP/EDs, Angela does a great job. The characters I’d like a bit more if they actually grew as characters. The only one to have done so would probably be Ania, she probably experienced the most amount of tragedy out of all them. That said, is the plot worth watching? It depends if you like time paradox stories, like before, everything leads up to a larger story, but takes too long to get there.