I just want to get my point across
I can definitely see why people would hate it, If you are new to the concept or story of kagerou project then MCA would probably a convoluted mess of rushed story with no direction whatsoever, and that cgi sure it was just a couple of minutes but its like eating a soft moist chocolate cake and as you chew you felt a hard sensation in your mouth followed by a bitter taste.
[Cons]
That being said MCA is not a complicated or heavy mystery to solve, in it's core it is simple if looked at the right perspective. The common thing people hate this for is that the story barely explain itself, the show itself assumed that you are a BIG BIG fan of the kagerou project and have listened, watched and sometimes analyze the music video. A few scenes mostly highly important scene where I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH requires a lot of explanation certain key plot points where just ran over like it was an irrelevant piece of the story this can be seen in the heat haze daze It was a powerful sequence that cemented the importance of a certain date but did they explain it? of course not they killed the girl off and we never get to see her again only in the ed song.
Another thing people hate is the art style, in my opinion it is a bakemonogatari-esque art style and it can be a good thing and a bad thing, Mr. Akiyuki Shinbou is an amazing director with a very unique art style that has taken a hold of my heart differentiating his works from the generic run of the mill art style that can be seen in most anime, however his talents shine in the best when he DOESN'T USE A FU**NG CGI! seriously?! what the hell is what creepy ass CGI and whats more, Mr. Akiyuki's animated art style could truly enhance it by a mile I don't really like comparing anime but hell did you guys remember when Ararrarargi and Senjougahara lay down and look at the stars, it was simple, expressive and the wonderful use of Kimi no Shiranai was just amazing. Just imagine Ayano's theory of happiness(a song by which will warm even your ex's cold heart) playing without that creepy ass cgi and only the director's art nothing more and nothing less it could be very well one of the most amazing moments of the series a light hearted short music video showing how wonderful the world is.
The characters as well didn't have enough time to be developed, again in heat haze days they showed that [SPOILER WARNING] this girl will die over and over and over again and a cat is somewhat evolved but the series went "sure we showed that she dies a lot of times but we won't elaborate her further but hey shes the center of the ed that's good right?" [SPOILER WARNING END] to which the character development felt off remember when you watch an anime and there was this side character that had a gruesome past or mysterious past and they don't elaborate it because the viewers didn't care enough for that side character to further his/her story it felt similar granted we(or me) relate to the character a bit more compare to a mere side character but if you are going to tell the story in a way that using the Director's art style it requires a more time to sink in, because as much as I love Mr. Shinbou's directing and shaft's art style it requires more time to settle to know what is really going on, again I hate comparing anime but bakemonogatari was a great story because it was long and has a lot of time to give the viewers to think unlike MCA which jumps from one event to another it felt rush and not to mention the missing pieces for those who are not familiar with kagerou project felt it was a jumbled story line
[Pros]
Now enough pissing on the series like im a self entitled selfish f*ck, with that all said and done this series was amazing and there are things that this series do in the most ironic way possible.
The thing that most people hate is the things most people love
First off the story, when the series tells the story what made kagerou project amazing the first place is when the series truly shine, when you watch the music video of the kagerou project and analyze the lyrics of the song which tells an amazing story. Each episode tells a different story making a decent character development on which they left out a series of missing puzzle for the next episode, its like eating at grandma's after the full course meal feeling all satisfied and then grandma goes "who want's dessert" and you go "I DO! I DO!" like you have an extra stomach. Watching how the fate of each characters entwine with one another gives a feeling of omnipotence and belonging. The "being so coincidentally fated to meet one another" was decently executed however it could been a lot better if they funded more time to develop the characters more deeply but then again it's only 12 episodes and thats probably the reason why the series just assumes that you are a big fan who studies the source material to fill in the blanks.
Next is the art style, now I said before that it is a very bakemonogatari-esque art style. People often complain that the background is a bit off or too similar to the bakemono series, well being produced by shaft the series did have some decently looking scenes and some amazing ones but as I watch it the phrase "discount bakemono" keeps popping on my mind and if they are going to use a similar style to bakemono people will truly compare the two which is a bit unfair since bakemono hides the cgi really really well and was animated amazingly well that being said it is still pleasing to look at for the most part it hides the cg pretty well.
Lastly the characters, I would highly say that it was well voiced acted (for the jap dub) however I couldn't say that it was well dialogue written since I don't know how to speak nihongo however being familiar with the songs, music vids as well as analyzing the lyrics of the kagerou project especially heat haze daze, imagination forest, and ayano's theory of happiness gave me a background on what the characters are like and seeing them have their own voice and animated decently gave me a more strong connection with them.
[TL;DR]
It was decent it did some things great but the bad really shows and holds the show back, also it didn't explain it self very well. |