by dm00
High above Not-Kyoto
I haven’t had so much fun since I first saw Noiseman Sound Insect. It’s like all the madness of FLCL compressed into one caffeine-maddened episode (no Pillows, though).
Poor Koto and her brothers seem to have been sucked into the world of gods and yokai, where they have special chaotic powers of their own. There’s a rabbit involved, and the episode begins with an extended quotation from Lewis Carroll, just in case you didn’t get the message. But this is no slavish adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
Apparently it’s a one-shot ONA, though the end holds out hope for more.
Here is the PV. It’s positively sedate compared to the half-hour of chaos that is the episode.
Cruising Google images for 京騒戯画 reveals that Toei and Banpresto already have figures out. And kanban musume:
Image source: http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/623/623327/
Update (29 Dec 2011): Accelerator’s review goes into detail about who all the characters are and what they are up to.
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That’s some impressive merchandising!!
I watched 7 minutes and quit.
The word “chaos” is there in the post title for a reason! It’s easy to imagine someone finding it to be too much flash with too little left in the pan for the brain to chew on. Poor video quality doesn’t help much, either.
I think this is an interesting take on Alice in Wonderland (it begins by quoting Lewis Carroll), the PV includes a white rabbit and a watch, chess images in the PV) with maybe some Through the looking glass — Koto’s brothers are Tweedledum and Tweedledee. As such, I think it’s one of the better adaptations of Carroll: not slavish, but a wild riff on his imagery.
That said, it’s only intuition that tells me there’s an inner logic to this thing, underneath all the manic energy and animator Chuck-Jonesing. But I think it’s a great cartoon.
There’s more inventiveness in one episode of Horizon than this whole thing. Not that I hated it, but I really don’t get what everyone’s raving about.
(A month later…) I heard so many good things about Horizon in the middle of nowhere that I finally took a look at it. Wow. I can certainly see why you said “there’s more inventiveness in one episode of Horizon than in this whole thing”.
As I was watching the teacher race across town pursued by her students in the first episode of Horizon, I couldn’t help thinking of Kyousogiga.
In a way, I’m glad I waited — I think being able to watch the series in big gulps made it a lot easier to appreciate.
Thanks for your comment, and thanks for being one of the people who nudged me into watching Horizon.
I think Kyousogiga is one of the worst things ever happened with Toei studio. It is copying visuals from other studios and directors: Akiyuki Shinbo, Yuasa Masaaki, Nakamura Kenji and had nothing original.
If you saw some Madhouse works (Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei), Production IG (Fuujin Monogatari), or some Shaft works (bakemonogatari, SZS), you got it. Awful plagiarism in every scene and in some characters designs too. For example Koto is very similar to CLAMP’s Yuko.
But it’s only an advert, ok.
I don’t think these things are bugs, they’re features. Stylistic similarity doesn’t constitute plagiarism — imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and at worst, at least they were stealing from something interesting instead of moeblobbery.
However, it’s probably more accurate to say that Toei hired a first-rate team and they brought along their A game than to accuse them of plagiarism. Takahashi Kurahara, did art design for Kyousogiga and was the art director for Mononoke and Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales (he therefore need apologize to no one for his visual style). I’ll also note that Hirotsugu Kakoi, one of the art directors for Kyousogiga was also art director of the several Zetsubou Sensei series. I’m happy to see these guys bring their techniques to new studios.
I can see the resemblance between Koto-sama and CLAMP’s Yuuko, but actually she reminded me a good deal more of Gonzo/Range Murata villainesses (Ryoko in Shangri-la and Delphine in Last Exile). And she’s not so very far from Jessica Rabbit — or Lauren Bacall, for that matter.
Thanks for the clarification. Seems like you’re right 🙂
That was a good call on Fuujin Monogatari — I looked to see if there were overlaps in the principle staff (especially among character designers), but I didn’t notice any. Designs like Koto and the twins could easily have appeared in that show.
Thanks for reading!
I thought it was awesome, quite honestly.
Then again, I’m also the guy who practices complete suspension of disbelief when watching anything, so I can’t really comment on the idea of people not having any idea what was going on.