07 Ghost Episode 1
I don’t know how many of you read the Spring previews that Anime News Network do - I suppose with the multitude of blogs doing exactly the same thing none of us are starved for opinions on anime, but for some reason I like to read them (mostly because, after a few years of doing so, I like predicting exactly what some of the reviewers will say!).
Unfortunately, this means I’m going to claim that Someone Is Wrong On The Internet. Be warned.
Zac Bertschy has been writing these things for years and is obviously about as jaded as any other number of longer-term anime watchers. Normally I actually agree with him. However, his comments on 07-Ghost - (which, I hasten to add, is not exactly the Second Coming of Anime) - annoyed me slightly.
Without plagiarising, to precis his comments he basically says that it’s shit because it makes no sense and is entirely designed for people who’ve read the manga and know what’s going to happen, so it’s filled with foreshadowing that only they will understand. (He also has some valid comments to make about the likeability of the characters, but why let validity get in the way of an argument?)
I’ve never read the manga of 07-Ghost before, but this was clearly a challenge I couldn’t resist. So I took a quick look at the first few chapters of the manga version.
Guess what? If anything, the anime version is clearer than the manga, and follows exactly the same storyline and cribs a lot of the dialogue. Those watching the anime only are in no better or worse a position than those who read the manga to start off with; any problems with the disjointed narrative have nothing to do with pleasing manga fans, that’s just the way it’s written.
So I don’t think it’s really fair to criticise a show like this for making no sense because it’s designed for those who know what’s going to happen. It makes no sense for different reasons!
Anyway, 07 Ghost on its own terms is a fangirl-friendly fantasy featuring high school boys with ropey CG magic powers and more repressed homoeroticism than you can shake your flowing bishounen locks at. The first episode introduces Teito, a competent lower-class student at an elite academy, who ends up on the run after he tries to kill the moody Amagami, who in turn appears to have killed Teito’s father some time ago in an angsty flashback; that’s pretty much all there is to it, aside from introducing some side characters who aren’t especially interesting as yet.
As far as girly action shows go, 07 Ghost is fine. There’s nothing particularly special about it; Studio Deen is not a studio that likes to take risks, unfortunately, and I’d love to see what the team who worked on Nabari no Ou could do with source material like this to make it a bit more interesting visually. Plot-wise, there’s just not much to say - no doubt Teito will be beyond special in some way and I’m sure things will get very complicated along the way, but it’s hardly impenetrable at this juncture.
I can’t really get particularly enthusiastic about 07 Ghost, although I might end up watching a little bit more of it. I think it serves its target audience well, which is more than can be said for a LOT of fangirl “action” stories, and there’s enough world-building in the first episode to suggest that some of this may have been planned relatively well.
April 13th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Zac just enjoys the role of curmudgeon far too much.
April 13th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
YES. I just wanted to agree with this so much, I read the manga and while I enjoy it I admit that on one level the art is pretty but on another level it’s messy and makes the story kind of hard to understand (many of the minor characters look a lot alike). So I think the anime makes it a lot clearer, when I read that review I was really surprised because IMO the anime definitely made more sense at the beginning than the manga did.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I like how you are able to precisely address a point of contention, and not go on to endorse the opposite view either. I have yet to watch 07 Ghost (only had time for so many shows) and from the looks of things it’ll be a while longer before I make time.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:24 am
I have a problem with the same ANN writer. It doesn’t really make sense to me that he complained about things not making sense on the 1st episode. It’s the 1st episode first of all; you’re not supposed to know everything on the first episode. FMA (the original and the new one) doesn’t even go into detail about the plot until the 2nd episode. In my opinion, the first episode should be about catching the interest of the viewer. Once you have their interest, you’re supposed to go on an elaborate. That’s pretty much the standards for a lot of anime nowadays. Even some American movies use that style.
I love reading your posts and it would be great if you could blog this for as long as you can but I don’t think you’ll like this series very much. The manga has a bit of universal appeal but the anime looks like it’s directly aiming for support from a female audience.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:31 am
The main characters are the usual suspects: Teito, the arrogant, despondent, and withdrawn pretty-boy masking his tortured soul and a clouded and fittingly traumatic past, his burgeoning talents ignited by a deep-seeded vendetta; and Mikage, the warm and over-zealous friend who’s towering devotion is shadowed only by his unerring love for Teito. All right, so maybe my world is forever bathed in a lovely shounen-ai rosey haze, and there’s a large dose of wishful thinking on my part, but they practically spooned by the midpoint of the episode (Mikage better be the outer-spoon btw).
I can’t say that I was completely enraptured with the show so far; the plot wasn’t ground-breaking that’s for sure, the action and graphics were innocuous, and as much as I liked the gratuitous hand-holding, sleeping together, and professions of eternal devotion, I never was one for the brooding, cold, and distant types; but I think I’ll give it a few more episodes–if only for the show’s heavy-handed romantic under-tones–before I make my final decision on it.