Archetecture x Character Design: Sora no Woto, Qwaser
I wish I can show you pictures, because then I wouldn’t have to try to explain it with only words. Then again it might be easier to just be vague and simple. It’s the strongest!
It occurred to me when Ben over at Anipages mentioned SoraOto, and how the character animation and art “get in the way” of the background animation, that he might have meant it in a literal sense–like subtitles getting in the way of the OP or something. Further on he iterates the same complain you’ve probably heard several times by now about Sora no Woto.
While my position on the complain and the show is “wait and see, I think they’re setting us up,” that sort of first impression shared by Ben has run rampant. It’s gotten to a point where I think the anime is giving off those vibes as designed, and not because they are trying to force some moe down something or another. Why else could so many people agree on this? They are doing it on purpose; the show is setting up some kind of expectation.
It just doesn’t make any sense to think that a high profile Production A-1 production would get “how to do moe” wrong. Consider their prior works. I mean, if you want to do a moe show, you pick the source material that fits. You might also want to use a director who fits the job. Consider both the source material and the director. If we just look at the circumstantial evidence and also the story elements so far, it is almost obvious that Sora no Woto is going to pivot somewhere and “get serious.”
But it goes back to Ben’s point about something getting in the way. I feel that the generic-feeling characters and the character designs, while evoking probably the sort of feeling they were designed to do, makes difficult for people to enjoy the other aspects of the show. Part of it, perhaps, is out of the biases of those who would use the word moe or moeblob as a negative signifier. But at the same time it is a clashing aesthetics, against SoraOto’s beautiful, if lonely background art and setting.
This is where my experience with Seikon no Qwaser kind of make me take a second look. Qwaser is a visually modern and gothic affair. The opening may look generic shounen but the ending took a page out of Don’t Be Lazy with its senseless, music video inspired choreography (not to mention the seiyuu ensemble). The source material itself is dark, brooding, and (non)sensibly Japanese all the while. The character art is arguably moe-inspired, especially in Tomo’s case and the super-deformed segments. Ironically, the fact that it can afford that visual contrast between “normal” and “SD” suggests that there’s some kind of gap between serious and the not-quite-so.
I think the K-ON complaint goes to that point, perhaps unfairly: K-ON has SD mode and normal mode too, but it’s fairly hard to tell between the two. Sora no Woto, however, doesn’t go SD, yet it has all those SD signifier from Shuko the Owl to Kureha’s moments of tsun and dere. The end result, rather than something easy to understand viscerally, we get something that is off our expectation. In contrast, something like Qwaser is totally what we expect, and more.
This is really why I have a tough time faulting SoraOto, simply because as much of the baggage comes from us as it is from the show going against the grain on some of these expected visual cues. On top of the harsh contrast behind its luscious, highly-detailed background and the simple, if overly cute foreground character animation, the end result is probably too jarring for the casual Judge Judys out there.
And lastly, I used the word architecture although I didn’t really talk about it, but I think that is probably a better term than “background design.”
Not sure if this is what you’re saying, but I see it as, people end up bitching about this show because of expectations and their inability to pay attention. Which, go figure, is 90% of the reason we have ‘gems’. This is how SoraWoto will go - lots of people drop it based on the designs, the people who actually wanted a ‘moe show’ get disappointed and leave, a bunch of people who had strong expectations write negative reviews about how their expectations weren’t met, a minority of people really adores the show, but the cries of the disappointed overshadow them, and it’s only seasons later that the people who really did like the show talk about it enough to pull in the interest of people who had been ignoring it or dropped it early.
The cycle repeats.
Definitely think you laid it out nicely. I touched on this issue in my impression of Swoto, but after reading Ben’s piece and this, I think my opinion of what exactly A-1 is doing with the series is a bit clearer.
The studio could have used another design style, but they chose something “current,” and regardless of the gaijin consensus, the convention of cutesy characters has appeal domestically.
Also, I think there are a great deal of viewers focused purely on what’s blatant, and part of what A-1 might do, if successful, may wind up like a slap in the face to those inside the box.*
I’m trying not to expect anything, and kinda enjoying it. Detachment can be a positive thing.
*Separate box from when I say “convention.”
“Also, I think there are a great deal of viewers focused purely on what’s blatant, and part of what A-1 might do, if successful, may wind up like a slap in the face to those inside the box.*”
This. And I’ve said it before, but the general opinions that others have that you mention in the post are getting aggravating to see.
Well, maybe I’m wrong, maybe they’re wrong, and maybe we’re all wrong. We will see.