Anime/Hidan no Aria (Aria the Scarlet Ammo)

That is not what bothered me the most. It's the censor steam. I mean, what are they trying to do? play video games? Aria was not even naked so what was the point? It's not like it was the first time she was shown in her underwear... right? It was really hard to take the episode seriously. I laughed my ass off at the first sight of those things... and then the villain removed her clothes to be used as a parachute... WTF?

At least it was enjoyable... gave me a good laugh.

I don't watch this show, but gg was hilarious◊.

Somebody should Did Not Do The Research this up. Also, this is officially the shittiest subjob ever. Even I, who don't know as much Japanese, know that grammar doesn't work that way!

edited 13th May '11 6:28:54 AM by Cassie

Awesome. Hidan no Aria is one of those shows that'd be hilarious with gag subs.

It's less Did Not Do The Research and more Willfully Ignored The Research - They got enough right to show that they looked into it, but then apparently decided that it wasn't worth the effort to go the rest of the way.

@Cassie:

Agreed. Shittiest sub job ever. They really just did not care. And why the fuck are they keeping all these words in? I can understand keeping Baka in, adds flavor. I can understand keeping nakama in, (Despite the hilarity of the long ass translator note, they ARE right), It IS a complex word to translate correctly. but keeping yatsu in? just translate it as "fellow" or "rascal" or something.

Baka can just be translated as "idiot", so leaving that in is also pointless.

So am I right to say UTW is the best choice to choose from? Since GG's is obviously unwatchable.

GG is never the best choice. Ever.

Anyway, this show is unbelievably stupid, but quite entertaining.

Though honestly, I do think that I find it easier to take Tantei Opera Milky Holmes seriously than this show.

The bit with landing the plane...actually everything after Riko jumped out of the plane was just dumb though.

...you just described the majority of watchable anime out there...

edited 15th May '11 8:42:07 PM by Signed

I'm going to have to disagree with that.

This needs more of Kinji's monologuing from the novels. And the Censor Steam in episode five is really jarring, considering they also showed Riko and her "parachute".

There's been some ludicrously inconsistent censorship of late. See last season's Onii Koto for plenty of mindboggling examples.

Could this be because of that bill from last December? The one everyone was talking about that will ruin the anime industry?

We definitely don't need anymore monologues, thanks.

Some of us would hate to read/watch/experience another ranting male of obviously emotional misco-ordination issues, just like Haruhi series. Emotional Torque can be done without words, thanks a bunch

I guess it's my preference of the novel format. Yeah, I agree that Emotional Torque can be achieved without being too wordy. It's just that the anime so far lacks Kinji's... or for that matter, the other characters' insight into the events.

Then I made a mistake. I was talking about scripting problems, not lack of inherent narration. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

This show is indeed f*cking awesome. Waiting for each new episode is insanely hard to do.

GG is retarded. I cannot watch ANY subs from them. Their Japanese knowledge is fail....even when they're NOT trolling!

edited 16th May '11 5:22:47 PM by Chiibi

I'm reading the Taiwanese Chinese release, which is an official translation. Still doesn't necessarily mean it's completely accurate, though. (Also, it's possible that I make a few mistakes here and there: my Chinese isn't as fluent as my English.) But I'm pretty sure that the stuff I mentioned in my previous post is fairly correct.

I have to say, the books are much better. There's more warmth in them; the anime seems intent on just showing the silly-but-entertaining moments. The books show more of an actual relationship between Kinji and Aria.

I have to agree with this, up to a point at least. Kinji's wryness and observational humour often keeps things above the level of a mere love-letter to Akihabara zeitgeist.

EDIT: I just watched Ep.5. and it kind of flubs the ending to the first novel. There are a few additional bits that give it a bit of emotional heft. First of all, the adaptation rushes through Kinji's change of heart. I'm not going to translate the entire thing, but a couple of bits of his narration are quite nice:

"Seeing Aria's courage in endless battles...I'm often reminded by how much she resembles a lioness. But she's not a lioness, not really. She's just a little lost kitten. A little lost kitten, unable to find her way home, with no-one willing to be her companion. A little lost kitten, in a lone struggle against the ravens and the wild dogs, her only refuge a trash can floating up and down in a gutter. Aria is that kitten...."

(It's kind of a Callback to their first mission together.)

They also omitted the bookend,where Kinji says "Would you think that girls fall from the sky?" after she jumps from the helicopter.

I can understand why they left those bit out, because it's a lot of narration to include in an action scene, but the following bit of dialogue occurs after she jumps down, and they're looking for a way off the platform.

"Aria! You are named for a solo performance, after all. But at least I can be the accompaniment to your song!"

For what it's worth, I thought they could have replaced his simple "I want to be your partner!" with this, and delivered something of an impact. It's slightly limp-wristed as it stands...

edited 18th May '11 7:23:09 AM by zeroplusalpha

Wait, they're going to the Durandal arc (I think?) Was anything major skipped in the books then? (Is there anything between the end of the Lupin arc and the beginning of the durandal arc?)

Well, the end of Ep 5 is basically the epilogue to Book 1, so I'm assuming they're going to cover the Jeanne D'Arc, uh, arc.

Nothing's been left out so far, merely compressed.

I guess they plan to find out whether the first season will sell, then animate the rest of the novels for another season if it does.

They're probably also trying to avoid prematurely running out of source material. The books are still going after all.

Having said that, I can't help but feel that the adaptation would have benefited from both a 26 episode count and a bigger budget. A 24 episode season would see it through to the end of Vol. 4 at a less restrictive pace of 6 episodes per book, which essentially concludes the first mega-arc.

At this rate, they're probably going to end the first season at Vol. 3.

Best comment on the episode came from my sister:

edited 20th May '11 4:30:16 AM by TheChubbyDestroyer

Those names actually mean something in the context of the show. To be honest, they're probably the least ridiculous part of the whole thing.

武偵 means Combat Detective, 超偵 means Supernatural Detective.

Can someone tell me the name of the piece used when Kinji opens up the White and Black panties drawer? It was so funny!

x2 Oooooooh.

x3 ? I didn't get the joke...

x9 Darn, I liked some of those lines. Ok, maybe the kitten one was too long, but the accompaniment line should've been included somehow. It would indeed have had a greater impact.

Anyway, about the new episode. Apparently there's Choutei? And after we have a Butei Killer we have a Choutei kidnapper. Aside from that, this episode was basically some fanservice and Shirayuki being yandere.

EDIT: Ninja'ed.

edited 20th May '11 5:59:38 AM by fillerdude