Your Anime Looks Bad - "Overlord"

Overlord really looks like shit. I've been watching a fantasy anime from the early 2000s animated by Studio Bones and the outstanding presentation of that compared to a show made a decade later shows the weakness of Overlord's aesthetic. Overlords biggest issue has always been how it looks. The bland, static, sterile backgrounds, the sharp, grotesque character designs, and the over-saturated color scheme that somehow is unable to come across as vibrant really bogs the show down. In the 2000s fantasy anime Scrapped Princess the backgrounds have a great sense of depth and scale and their softness and painted look creates these inviting landscapes. The characters- while very simple from a design standpoint - are very distinguishable and befitting of the world they inhabit. They aren't jarring and goofy looking. While you can argue that Overlords character look that way because they reflect the mindsets of their otaku creators (Momonga's past companions) and their over the top sensibilities that still doesn't doesn't excuse how poorly they are drawn or the characters outside of the Nazarick tomb.

Wonderfully drawn and composed still from Scrapped Princess

Now Overlord is above and beyond Scrapped Princess in the "fun" department and the fantasy world that Overlord does take place in exists for the sole reason of getting the piss taken out of it. However that doesn't mean that the world needs to be so low effort and ugly. Overlord just looks really cheap and honestly that detracts from the appeal and accessibility of the series. Scrapped Princess constantly shows you evocative images of its fantasy world; the wicker like designs of its rice fields, the college art student-esque monolithic figures in its plains, the varied clothing of its inhabitants from the military, church monks and the main cast themselves. Scrapped Princess understands that in order to gain a viewer's investment in a fantasy world they need to provide them with an interesting unique setting worth exploring.

A pretty poor screenshot from Overlord, showing its cheap presentation

As an anime loving idiot I do wish that people cared more about how it looked. This is a largely visual medium and those visuals are a huge part of the appeal. Even in Overlord if it weren't for the hyper-exaggerated expressions its demented characters make the viewer wouldn't get to anywhere close to the effect the show was going for when portraying their outlandish personalities and that why visuals matter: they help with conveyance. This conveyance is absolutely paramount to driving home a show's message, setting, characters, a lot of things okay.

Look at the scale in this frame, the vastness it conveys, and the mood the color palate is bestowing. Scrapped Princess is full of these moments.

"Small Girl Saves Show" "Romance a Shit"

How do I properly access a show that bases its central plot around a romance with no meaning? The show's romantic elements were never its selling point and the characters are never going to progress in any meaningful way and you can kinda get that just from how its framed. Is it okay for me to get angry at the lack of any romantic progress? Should I allow myself to get angry at the lacking progression? I always find myself watching these romantic comedy anime that I know won't deliver on the goods but goddamn it I can't help but want to see some actual romance happen.

Engaged to the Unidentified is another "It's fine" romcom anime that uses the aforementioned pointless romantic set-up to justify the characters being together and while I'm used to this I'm not okay with it. There's a certain kind of anger arises within me when I see a pair of characters experience romantic tension just for the show to almost immediately return to its comedic tone to tease the viewer. Its not that I even find the romance engaging or that I care if it ever progresses in any manner, Its the fact that the narrative thinks it can have it cake and eat it too that makes me livid.

Engaged to the Unidentified has this hilarious conflict of interest within the confines of it narrative where obviously the plot is set up to be this romance between the Female and Male interest but ends up never focusing on them because they are the story's most uninteresting characters and to focus on them is to make the story a boring slog with no energy.

The only thing that keeps Engaged to the Unidentified from being a pain to watch is its actual main character: the character Mashiro and studios Doga Kobo immaculate ability to produce a consistently pleasant atmosphere with their presentation. If not for these factors this show would of went from a 6/10 to a 3/10.

Shiki - Narratives and Catharsis

Shiki seems like an anime hellbent on the idea of never providing the viewer with a traditional sense of structure and release. A show never with a clear central character, rarely clear on providing answers or motives, a show where its apparent that most characters are heavily meditating on the situation they are in but where you are rarely shown that meditation. A narrative that plays out in an unbelievably drawn out fashion, only to be punctuated with a break neck paced ending once everything unfolds that doesn't include many conclusions or ends tied.

The show very much challenges the viewer on why they continue to watch the narrative unfold. The narrative holds no heroics, very little empathetic characters, the villains motives are never very clear or engaging, and no meaningful relationships are on the line, so why continue watching? The intrigue of the show, for me at least, is this question of why and the study on how people react in times of disaster. When the shit hits the fan in this show, the human characters who before were ruminating on the ethic and moral quandaries of the situation they are in, throw that right out the window and become absolutely brutal when the weight of the decision "us or them" is presented to them. However that comes near the very end of the series and up until that point you are left twiddling your thumbs.

You see its not that the show is slow or paced poorly, no on the contrary it is paced excellently and isn't necessarily slow. The story beats of the anime don't come in at a slow pace rather these beats are presented without huge impact or are very similar to others. The snowball doesn't roll down the hill gathering mass and momentum rather this is more akin to the rock slowly gathering moss until somebody comes along and just decides to destroy the rock. Not something very cathartic or in line with the traditional 3 act narrative but is strangely alluring and engaging in a metatextual sense.