Wakaranai

Another new upcoming anime TV series to be cautiously excited about has just launched its website and thrown itself out to the otaku public. The title of the series is, “So Ra No Wo To” (Sounds of the Skies), to be animated by well-liked studio A-1 Pictures and produced under the banner of TV Tokyo and Aniplex’s animation project “Anime no Chikara” (The power of anime), which seeks to develop works from “spirited” creators. There are a few reasons this piques my interesting, the first major one being that it’s an original series; it’s not an adaptation from a popular manga or light novel, it’s a creative item in its own right. That’s something that the anime medium has really had a drought of lately - it’s starting to become simply a factory for retelling manga/novel stories rather than a genuine artistic medium. And it’s good to see that a fresh new series is coming from someone other than the last bastions of original anime, Production I.G, Manglobe and sometimes BONES. By the grace of “Anime no Chikara” A-1 Pictures is behind this, and it’s going to be really interesting to see what they can make of the freedom to tell their own stories.

But, speaking of freedom, I have some issues with this “Anime no Chikara” concept. It’s a great idea, to help spur on new ideas and creative agendas, but at the same time TV Tokyo is involved. TV Tokyo frustrates me because of their apparent puritan content standards. I can’t confirm this, but I have heard as much, and it does appear to be the case: despite the fact that the anime airs late at night (or early in the morning), TV Tokyo have put their foot down on fanservice (regardless of context) to the point of impracticality. All those series that feature girls flipping around in the air wearing short skirts without a merest glimpse of a panty-shot - TV Tokyo. Or, even worse, the BUY THE DVD censorship slapped inappropriately all over the screen. Now, I’m not trying to say I won’t watch anything without pantsu or something crazy like that, but TV Tokyo is censoring its anime, and that’s not a good attribute for a company behind a project like “Anime no Chikara”. Basically, I can’t see the point of promoting the creative potential of anime if it’s limited to ‘anime without mature content’, be it violence or nudity, more adult aspects of reality can’t be expected from the series if they’re to air on TV Tokyo.

That worry aside, it sounds like a pretty interesting series. According to ANN:

“The story is set in the future on a land that, after being marred by long-lasting wars, has settled into quiet decline. Model and actress Juri Aikawa will play Kanata Kumika, a 15-year-old girl who fulfills her dream of enlisting in the army and joins a unit of five girls who protect a fortress. The girls also play music that reverberate across the skies over towns without people and seas without fish.”

I think it’s a really interesting setting - a post-war society in ‘quiet decline’. That really grabs me, because it’s not the usual post-apocalyptic type. There’s potential there for a really strong atmosphere of desolation and hopelessness as the future of a people fades. I suppose that’s where the energy and passion of these young girls and their songs will come into it - vitalising a pallid nation. There’s a strong sense of story coming out of this premise. But I’ll be the first to point out there’s also a fair amount of cliché compressed into that paragraph: a team of young girls in the military, and core musical/idol theme. The series sounds like a cross between Macross Frontier, Strike Witches and K-ON. In fact, as the PV shows, it LOOKS a lot like K-ON as well.

The designs are really similar aren’t they? But apparently, at least as far as the announced cast go, the character designer for K-ON isn’t involved. The designs, from the few shots we got of them look cute enough, although this particular style isn’t exactly my favourite, and the designs don’t really stand out much at this stage (although that’s better than if they all had stupid colours like green and red). A lot of people have commented on how good the music sounds. The PV musical score was indeed pretty grabbing, but I don’t expect the music to be a HUGE attraction of the series; Oshima Michiru has done some competent scores such as FMA and Le Chevalier D’eon, but nothing especially memorable. This is his chance to shine! The announced staff list:

Director: Kanbe Mamoru
Series Composition: Yoshino Hiroyuki
Character Draft: Kishida Mel
Character Design: Akai Toshifumi
Prop Design: Kitada Katsuhiko
Mechanic Design: Ishigaki Junya
Animation Production: A-1 Pictures
Music Composer: Oshima Michiru

The director, Kanbe Mamoru has worked on many successful series, such as Elfen Lied, Cardcaptor Sakura (FUCK YES!!), Ichigo Mashimaro and Baccano. Most tellingly, he recently directed the intense and unique OVA, Denpa Teki na Kanajo. His repoiroire shows that he’ll be able to handle moe characters well and also has the ability to direct more dramatic content. The man with the crucial position of ‘series composition’ explains the similarity to Macross F - Yoshino Hiroyuki had the same responsibility for that series, and has been a driving force behind a number of other popular series such as Mai HiME, Mai Otome and the massively successful Code Geass. He seems to be in high demand at the moment, also being signed on for SHAFT’s upcoming adaptation, Dance In The Vampire Bund.

Rather than excited, I’ll say I’m curious about how this series will turn out. The staff list is an interesting mix, and although the premise and the PV indicate that it likely won’t be revolutionary or highly sophisticated, it could well be highly sophisticated. The involvement of TV Tokyo annoys me but certainly doesn’t imply that the series will turn out any worse for it. This is something to keep an eye on! It’s not coming out to early next year though, so there’s plenty of time to learn more before then.

Updates

● 16 Nov .. The cast list has been released, and shows a good selection of voice talent for the five main girls of the series. With the exception of Aikawa Juri, who is entering into her first main role with this show, all of them are experienced and prolific.

Casts:

Kanata: Aikawa Juri. This is her first role as a seiyuu.
Kureha: Kitamura Eri
Noel: Yuuki Aoi.
Felecia: Endou Aya.
Rio: Kobayashi Yuu.

Prior to this, Aikawa Juri voiced only a minor character in the fairly recent Sora no Manimani, which I never saw. I’ll be curious to hear her in this and see what her voice is like! I always love seeing the start of a seiyuu’s career. In fact, this is exactly what I got to see in the case of now-popular Kitamura Eri. I saw her first big role as Saya from Production I.G’s Blood+, and was actually pretty unimpressed. But fortunately it was still a good breakthrough into a seiyuu career that has awarded her a slew of much better roles, including Ami from Toradora, and Rin from Kodomo no Jikan (I’ll never get over my surprise at her being cast for this character!). This will certainly be one of her best roles though, and I hope her performances matches that. Aya Endou is probably more well known, being popularised by her role as the charismatic Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier), and Miyuki from the highly successful Lucky Star. She has demonstrated her versatility in her previous roles, so you can’t really just see her name and make any assumptions about the character! And Kobayashi Yu is also well known, notorious for playing somewhat masculine roles (such as Setsuna from Negima, the cross-dressing Maria from Maria+Holic). Her boyish voice blurs the line between male and female (she plays a number of male roles). So I expect Rio will be either an authoritarian figure or a tomboyish one.

I’m a bit more intrigued by these characters now!