Wakaranai

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight 1

By Washi

——-
Rating: B
——-

File:[Azai]_Gakuen_Utopia_Manabi_Straight_01_[H264]_[4DC877C0]

Manabi Straight is one of the few shows amongst the pre-season hype that really stood out and motivated me to watch it. It had more than just moe promotional artwork and cute lolis going for it, but one of its biggest draw points was that it was too be animated by Ufotable - a studio of which I have been a fan ever since their awesome production of 2×2=Shinobuden, and their following work (ignoring the steaming pile of fail that was Coyote Ragtime). I hoped for a show injected with the studio’s usual zest for entertainment, enacted by cute lolis, and when I heard rumours of potential yuri I was sold. But then the first episode aired, and received somewhat of a warm welcome, and I was considerably less enthusiastic. This lack of zealous anticipation was not helped by the fact that fansubbers avoided it like the plague for yet unknown reasons. Of course, I decided to check it out anyway, so here are some of my thoughts.

The thing I was most looking for from episode one, was for the show to really establish the kind of genre and style it was aiming for. Until I watched it, I wasn’t really sure whether to expect a comedy, ecchi series, drama or slice of life. Despite the PVs pretty blatantly pointing out that the show has more serious tones to it, which will presumably come into fruition in later episodes, I now have a pretty good impression of what it’s all about. The series is, for now, no more than a moe series with a side of humour and fanservice. Unfortunately the latter of these two factors is slightly lacking, which is disappointing considering that they are the things I like Ufotable the most for. When you take away the laughs and the ecchi aesthetics, you’re left with an innocent show that spends most of its time and effort illustrating how cute its characters are. I think it would be fair to compare it to Ichigo Mashimaro in that sense, but Ichigo Mashimaro had more of a comedic tone to it. To the show’s credit, it is at least surprisingly original in both plot setting and art style, and while some of the characters currently strike me as being fairly typical, I get the feeling the show is primed to make something of each of the girls and their relationship, and that it will eventually produce some deep characters. But despite these aspects, I cannot shake the unequivocal fact that I found myself quite bored while watching the show. The originality I mentioned seems to lurk in the background, while the forefront of the show is taken up by the girls doing as many moe mannerisms and idioms as the show can cram into its run time. While I have nothing against moe, this show proves to me that it in itself is not enough to sustain an entire series. Overall the show was a perturbing mix of vibrant fun and inescapable boredom. I’m intrigued enough to watch more, but I will want some actual content soon enough.

Art/Animation

I have mixed feelings on the art for this show, almost to the point where it is hard to describe. On the one hand, the designs are clearly very cute, particularly Mika with her ‘3’-shaped mouth, and I can’t overlook the ingenuity of the use of colour gradients in the designs and general artwork, which is used very well to make the show more attractive. But the fact is, the overall artwork is very simple, and that, combined with the ‘cute’ pudginess of the character designs creates an overall visual experience that is too basic and cutesy for me to really enjoy. I am used to anime featuring a higher level of detail, with harsher and less rounded lines; this show just feels too much like a children’s’ cartoon. They went a step overboard when trying to create these moe character designs, and they ended up looking slightly fat, and slightly inhuman (humans have chins, for example). The girls might look cute in pictures, but after a few minutes of seeing them animated they lost their charm, and it becomes hard to take them seriously. I haven’t heard anyone else complain about this, so it might be my problem more than the show’s. From a technical standpoint the animation certainly wasn’t bad; Ufotable do come with an assurance of a certain level of quality and that was true even here. The fluidity was excellent (although not really exceptional, given the simplicity of the art and the fact that it’s a first episode), and there were no consistency errors.

Characters

The core group of characters and their relationships appear to be the focal point of the show, in the absence of any inkling of a plot that extends beyond their lives. While they were only given a brief introduction for this episode, the PVs have given some fairly strong indication that we can expect them to be given substantial development soon enough. That’s not to say they were bad; I already enjoy the dynamic of the friendship between Mei and Mutsuki, and Mika is undeniably adorable as the lovable klutz. Mei herself is quite an interesting character, with her impatient and unsociable attitude masking a more emotional persona, and I can’t neglect to mention that she’s subbed by Aya Hirano, who has to be in every new anime (I think it’s a law now). Manabi, despite being the main character, is quite possibly the most generic of the bunch (for now). The amount of times I’ve seen the ‘outgoing, lively character thrown into a group of cold, serious people and ultimately teaches them to have fun’ scenario unfold is daunting. Yet I do expect there to be more to her than we have so far seen, and these hearty, fun-loving characters are always good to provide entertainment.

Panty-shots (or lack thereof)

I am almost ashamed to say this, but one thing that often bugged me while I was watching this show was the lack of panty shots, that not only would have made the show that bit more interesting but which would have allowed the girls’ skirts to actually obey the laws of physics. Do they have new skirt technology in the future that intelligently protects the girls underwear from exposure? I mean, I understand that some of the tv stations they air on say no to panty shots (which is extremely lame), but the lengths the producers go to keep them from occurring is simultaneously impressive and depressing, at times defying gravity and all logic. Okay, so it’s no huge detriment, but it is mildly perturbing.

Notes:

The music was the show didn’t warrant me going in to detail, but I’ll say that it wasn’t bad. The fact that they repeated a track already, only one episode in, is slightly worrying.

The ED was, as universally predicted a claymation piece. While it does not even approach the win that was 2×2=Shinobuden’s ED, it is pretty good claymation by anyone’s standards, and it’s a quircky Ufotable tradition that I enjoy. The song itself was rather forgettable.

The OP wasn’t featured in this episode, so I’ll look forward to that next week.

Did anyone else think that the presentation of the next episode preview was somehow really cool?

Scans for Manabi Straight on moe.imouto.org