Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 361 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I’ve only managed to watch the first episode so far, but I’ve really impressed so far. It’s easily one of the best shows out of an already impressive season, with Nina & Momoka being an absolute delight together. Granted, I have a soft spot for the energetic but naïve youngster teaming up with a more experienced but world-weary senpai dynamic, but I feel their immediate rapport strikes true to life. Sometimes you just meet people that are in some ways very different, but that very degree of separation allows for a level of comfort and lowering your guard. In that sense, seeing them doing karaoke mere hours after meeting never felt forced or the result of being pushed along by the plot. They’re strangers, and in some regard awkward around the each other’s unknowns, but I felt their bond quite sincere.
In regards to the cg… well, it’s certainly ambitious & for the most part works. Having watched most of Orange’s offering, it definitely feels take the staff had been paying considerable attention to that studio in terms of mimicking the framing and facial movement of shots. I don’t think the models are quite there yet, with certain mid-distance scenes really highlighting how lacklustre some of the shading is, but I think it’s a damn valiant effort. Plus it allows for moments of genuinely delightful creativity. I particularly Iove the depiction of building frustration as emanating waves of rage leaking out from within. That feels very relatable. It’s almost like a more personal take on the whole emotional = energy approach in shounen shows. So yeah, I’ve no idea where the show will end up, but based on the character writing in the premiere I have high hopes. |
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impognagrift
Posts: 12 |
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The article is a review for this anime: anime#27601 I have a feeling you are talking about this anime instead: anime#28002 |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 361 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Wait, so I posted to the wrong 'Lesbians in a Band' comment section? Then where's my Jellyfish post? Errr, can someone direct me to the Whisper Me A Love Song forum again? Or the Eupho one, although at this point I think that just links to a youtube clip of two cats hissing at each other. |
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Cryssoberyl
 Posts: 241 |
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Contrary to the assertions being made here, the characters behave extremely relatably and believably as the children that they are, including saying a lot of very passionate-and-earnest-but-very-silly things that others might call "cringe" - I do not, for I hate that term and the assumption of the inherent virtue of saying and thinking only socially cogent things driving its use. Children say and think a great deal of "unnatural" things if that is your criteria.
This show is great, and the only actual foot it's put wrong so far is the fanservice in the first episode. Otherwise, fantastic. I count myself blessed I can enjoy it as such, instead of opining about how my astronomical expectations of the depictions of the emotional depth and complexity of schoolgirls aren't being met (and that based in large part on the interpretation of the wording of a single subtitle, i.e. not even what the character actually said). |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 361 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Seriously talking about the show for once, there is a certain level of artificiality to the dialogue, almost like the lines are being performed by a theater troupe. Everything is loud and openly declared as if delivered to an invisible audience.
Given the almost pantomime level of exaggerated in heightened anime melodrama, it honestly doesn't bother me much. However, I also don't think it's deliberate, and this is simply a case of an overly blunt script by a writer that lacks the skill in fluently delivering information. Well that, or a deliberate move by the staff, who somewhat insultingly don't have any faith in their audience to grasp the most basic of information. Given how absurdly on the nose some of visual metaphors were in the first episode, I could honestly believe the latter. That said, the only thing I truly despise so far is Yoru's little sister, if you can even call her that, given that she acts and talks like the writing staff breaking the fourth wall to wink at the audience. Which would in a sense play well with the idea of a stage performance, but all she's done so far is blurt out some meaningless meta garbage. The fact that it's through her pov that we get the most leering fanservice shots of Yoru pretty much tells you who's pulling the strings behind that character. I hope she gets phased out, but I suspect she'll be snickering and offering wry comments throughout the show's entire run. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4116 |
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Here's a fun term that occurred to me while I was thinking about episode 2: Unreliable narrator. I will take one shared instance of their flashbacks as true... that Kano assaulted someone as Idol group member Nono... and everything else I'll just keep as "allegedly".
Why did it occur to me during episode 2 that their past might not be as rosy as they say it was? If Nono's the lead singer, how could she keep up an extended conversation with a fan during a meet and greet? Her fellow member was surrounded by people... Oh. Well, that's going to get interesting... |
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Chipp12
Posts: 319 |
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Yeah, I feel like it's because it's written by a light novel author who's never written for anime before, and the staff put too much trust in him. Sometimes it can work, like Urobuchi's Madoka Magica, but arguably he had previous experience working on Blassreiter as a series composer and wrote scripts for about a third of the show, so it's not really his first time writing for anime. But this time, it's just not one of those cases. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 67 |
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Urobuchi became known in the west first probably for doing Fate/Zero light novels, but he started out as a writer for visual novels- a visual medium with voicing and produced by a team; I don't know if that helped him transition to screenplays, but it seems closer than light novels to me.
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Hikaru Suzuhara
 Posts: 88 |
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For the unreliable narrator trope to apply there needs to be some sign that things aren’t lining up. Like two people having different recollections of the same event in which both were allegedly involved. Kim’s encounter, her conversation, with Nano/Kano that day had to have happened as without it everything from her change appearance to her coping mechanism for the stressors in her life now have no explanation. Kano was the first person in her life outside of perhaps her family to show her genuine kindness. We know this because we’ve gotten to know Kano outside of her idol persona. That the two are, for the most part, one and the same person. You can infer that, at least prior to the scandal, Kano had done meet and greets for a number of fans, that at some point they likely, at least to some capacity, began to bleed together. This coupled with the fact that Kim had since heavily altered her appearance and Kano had ceased her idol activities two years prior was why it took an accidental orange sauce spill on her ID to finally jog Kano's memory. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 67 |
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Caught up and you are 100% correct. Anime does not typically create very plausible child characters, but this really is one of the least. To me, its very clear that without ability to write endless sarcastic inner monologues as per a light novel, instead this character has been created to do essentially exactly the same thing but in dialogue. Its not done smoothly at all. |
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Panino Manino
 Posts: 748 |
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#3
This is Doga Kobo's Wonder Egg Priority. No only they chose the cheap path of showing us character "dramas" first and foremost instead of trying the hard parth of developing the characters while they interact with each other, they also showed the characters being... not "nice" actually, definitively not "right", and wants us to agree and root for them because of those reasons. I'm sorry, but no, this Kiui is completely delusional, she has nothing to prove against the world because the world has nothing against her. |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1404 |
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On a lighter note --- Kiui's self introduction in high school reminded me of Suzumiya Haruhi.
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Eilavel
Posts: 67 |
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For most of the episode, I thought the message was that Kiuis self-absorbed chuunism was the problem, not her interests, and that her arc would involve learning to actually connect with real people. But yes, it then suddenly swings into "just find people who love that your an attention seeking braggart". I mean, it is possible they could pull off both at once, but its not really giving me that confidence. |
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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I think the show is doing a pretty good job of showing the emotions of the characters and not just stating them in the, admittedly, sometimes very blunt dialog. In episode one, Yoru's sadness over the way her "friends" reacted to her mural was readily apparent in the animation and voice acting, from her body language to facial expression to tone of voice. The current day character showed her discomfort when being praised for art work in the same manner. Even when she, finally, stood up for her art while Kano was singing in front of the mural by tearing down the poster she was deferential to the other artist afterwards.
In episode two, Kim's isolation and mistreatment, largely because of her natural hair color not being black (a trope as old as the hills but still one that rings true, especially when the character is involved in something like classical music where the participants are expected to be more reserved and "buttoned-down" even in the west... though I suspect some of the best and brightest are the ones with lavender hair and tattoos) was shown in the same manner. It's clear that the animation team knows how to use facial expressions and body language to show a character's emotions quite well. (It reminds me a bit of "Tari Tari", which is an anime that I consider to be fantastic at subtle character animation showing the characters' actual feelings.) As for the "Thing I love" line... 1) This IS a first pass subtitle translation script. They tend to go for more literal translation, as well as tailored to fit on the screen in bits that are readable in the time they are on screen. 2) The Japanese language doesn't use a whole lot of those things we use in English called "PRONOUNS"... so it could be as simple as a literal translation of a pronoun free sentence with "Thing" because there wasn't anything like "I want to look like her, the person I admire." 3) It could ALSO be very intentional, as a statement about the idol industry. The person is removed from the equation. She is a product released on the market for sale to be consumed by her fan base... I tend to go with that interpretation. Then there's episode 3... I feel like the reviewer felt like the show hit the right balance in that episode, showing Kiui's spiraling and emotional vulnerability extremely well. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4116 |
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I don't even think episode 3 was being subtle about it but people really think Kiui was having problems going to an all girls school because of cringe and not because Kiui has gender issues?
"It's not about you, deal with you, she's so chuuny!" I was worried when people decided this show was CGCT without even seeing it and rather than having the show inform their opinion on the cast, people have already decided. I know I would see a line like "She calls herself a guy! That's so sad." "And funny!" in K-On. |
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