Thanks for replying, you reminded me of a few important points I forgot to mention:
As much as you loathe SYD, you remember the contents quite well.
Yep. Well, besides boasting a pretty good memory, I DID watch all of the show and have discussed/argued about it several times so I knew more or less what I wanted to say.
I will not try to persuade you to like this anime. I just want to share how I enjoy this anime.
Same here - I'm not trying to "convert" you or anything, but it's important we see each others view at least.
In the manga, one scene is independent of another scene and there is no link between the scenes. I believe the animation staff took a look at the original manga and decided that the format in the anime is the best approach. Adding extra bits to try to explain the background or link the scenes to a longer story would just hurt what makes the manga so funny, namely a series of encounters between the characters having strange conversations, and so slow down the pace. Honestly I did not find all the jokes funny, but with hit rate of 60-70% (and of course add the cute girls) and in particular the fast pace, my enjoyment level never slipped.
I can agree that the character design is good, but I think what they did was quite lazy - I'll explain what I mean further on.
Because one scene is independent of another scene. Basically I just reset everything back to the original setting as soon as the scene ended. I did not try to bring what happened before into the scene I was watching. Of course sometimes one event of a past scene might be brought in, but I did not think too deep about it. I just let the characters to work the joke, with only the basic background of the characters in mind.
A smart/good comedy DOES have jokes that are both standalone, and just as important are the jokes that have some kind of connection to past scenes or maybe a good reference.
In fact the animation staff did try to add their own jokes and tried to add some narrative to extend some scene or link some scenes. And I found that it usually had an adverse effect, either it slowed down the pace or worse made things unfunny (more on that later)
Well, I'm criticizing both the original work and the adaptation here, but a more specific disappointment with the staff is that they didn't try to connect scenes somehow. Again, look at
K-ON - Not only did they add original scenes which were often great, they actually chopped up the order of the manga and inserted random scenes in some other stories making it work (like the "Romio" and Juliette episode - afaik the scene where they serve tea in a luxurious cafe place wasn't in the manga, but they put it there because it was a good scene and they managed to connect it to the story arc).
In SYD they just shoot themselves in the foot and say at the end of each episode exactly which panels are going to get animated. Talk about being uncreative and lazy, imo.
As for the random sex jokes, while some may sound better in Japanese (not sure how well they were translated)
Oh I totally forgot to mention the translation part. Here's basically how it went:
There is a certain fansub group that is known for being fairly "lenient" with the subs, localizing them and making them sound well to western audiences. I love their subs and the work they did on BGHK was fantastic because it kept the flow of the series while the second group doing it had these blocky, awkward subs.
I was hoping that they'd do SYD, but instead 2 really mediocre groups did it, each one missing out on jokes (remember one of the first episodes when Shino took a suggestion box and drew an ona-hole or something on the lid? Yeah, they forgot to translate the text on the box (it was obvious what she meant as it was censored with a mosaic (lol), but other text that was written on the whiteboard as part of the joke was lost.
At first I complained that the show loses its humor because of these groups, even watching the same episode twice with both subs (!).
The soundbite in the break between each scene (with those chops stamping on a board) was also not in the manga, and that I usually did not find it funny either.
Say, at the beginning of each episode they had these "lesson number #". They were horribly unfunny and just gave me a bad mood at the beginning of each episode. Do they somehow make sense in Japanese? Were they in the manga? Seriously, what they said there can't even constitute as a joke. Only like one of the 13 was worth anything.
Once that scene ends, I no longer assume she is wearing chastity belt.
It's a shame they mentioned it several times throughout the series when it just ruined it, then.
Again I did not ask why. I just take her as is, and some of my biggest laughes came from her -- mistaking the ear-cleaning between Tsuda and Shino, the sudden outburst of "pedo" at her brother at the genkan, the school interview....
She COULD have been funny, but why oh why is she like that? I just can't let it go. Even in SZS everything regarding the characters behavior has some kind of vague explanation (i.e their names when written horizontal)
And again I want to stress that quite many jokes have to do with Japanese. One of my biggest laughes (really got me roll on the floor) was when the discipline rep (the one with twin pigtails) warned Sihno about the serious consequences of a scandal between Shino and a male student (Tsuda) -- which is "kainin" 解任 (fired from the post), a long moment of silence ensued, and Shino replied there is no "kainin" 懐妊 (pregnancy) for her. Really did not see it coming. It is even better than the manga because the anime can take its time to build up the tension and made the revelation of the joke funnier.
Well, I'm used to not finding pun jokes funny because I wouldn't get it without a translator note or whatever. They rarely work if it isn't a more kind of visual joke.
I see I see you hate Omigawa Chiaki. Fortunately she did not feature so prominently in SYD. I guess you did not watch Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru then? Actually even in Japan there are anime fans who hate her voice. I am not a fan of her and I agree that her voice is really an acquired taste. If you don't like her, I can understand :) :)
I watched the first 2 or 3 episodes, then stopped. It wasn't an amazing show as it was, and my opinion of her didn't help as I was quite bias in any scene she was in. I wish SHAFT would have used one of their regulars for the MC.
Since so many people find it funny, shall we say that there may be more than one set of guidelines for comedy? :) :) I believe comedy is one thing that is more rooted in culture than other genres. I do not expect to change your mind about SYD, but if we can see things from other perspectives and you can come to see how some people may find it funny, then this discussion would be a very worthy one.
See, here's the catch - A lot of western fans DO like SYD. It is rated quite high on MAL and received a lot of love on /a/. But similarly a lot of people like crappy American comedies, and I don't care what they say, some of those movies
suck (
Rat Race - DO NOT WATCH, -5/10)
Just because a work is widespread and mainstream doesn't necessary mean it is doing it right (usually the first example given is Naruto). As I said, I think most people just like the fact that high school girls are swearing like drunken sailors, regardless of how bad the execution may be.
And the very strange characters (creepy or freaky in your word) are the real attraction in the manga and thus anime. So if you find it hard to accept them as they are, then most likely the fun will be severely curtailed.
I suppose. But the girls here barely have a personality - Shino, Aria and Tsuda's sister are basically the same girl in different shoes.
Unlikely. I have the first week sales figure for the BD (DVD is estimated to be <100)
01 1,358 10.08.06
02 1,115 10.09.03
03 ,936 10.10.02
04 1,014 10.11.04
05 ,914 10.12.03
06 ,878 10.01.07
Does it fit the figures you know?
I don't have here the numbers I've seen, it was just the numbers during the first week of BD sales when BGHK came out. Meh, this sucks. I heard some fans of Yukari Tamura (which did brilliant work in BGHK) were asspained about her playing a "slut" and threatened the studio or something. Jeez.
Oh, and here's a little surprise:
Yes, I was in Akiba and bought the character CD of BGHK and ED single of SYD (I told you I like the ED :)) among other things. I felt like it was important to somehow support my failing series, and some of the songs there turned out to be good (they should have used Yukari's character song as the OP, seriously). Ironically I supported SYD more than 98% of western fans that actually do love the show.