Zoku Studio Spotlight: P.A. Works

[blkmage]

Like the last two weeks of August to the SOS Brigade, Studio Spotlight is back again, this time with a fairly promising studio that has yet to achieve their full potential.

[SIZE="1"]「「お疲れ様！」」/「ろばた」[/SIZE]

P.A. Works is another relatively new studio, founded at the dawn of the millenium. While they've worked with other studios on projects, they didn't produce their own show until 2008. Since then, they've had a total of three anime productions. In my opinion, they've got production down: art, animation, and music is all solid. Their weakness is definitely in their writing and direction.

True Tears is the studio's first show. It's supposed to be an adaptation of a visual novel, but shares pretty much nothing in common with it, making it almost like an original production. Because of this, I think it's the strongest in terms of writing, even though it is a fairly mediocre love triangle plot with some external drama thrown in. I thought it was enjoyable, but it's definitely not best-of-breed stuff.

CANAAN is an adaptation of an arc from the allegedly critically acclaimed Wii visual novel, 428 (it got a 40 in Famitsu! lololol). This particular arc was written by Kinoku Nasu of TYPE-MOON fame, which usually means elaborate and deep. Well, it wasn't quite that; the only thing that was noticeably Nasu was the crazy eye powers. The action was quite nice and all, but I was kind of anticipating some sort of coherence and didn't get any. Watch it for the pretty action (GUNS), but don't expect anything to make sense (EXPLOSIONS).

Angel Beats! is an original production, written by Key's Maeda Jun, but this time, also wildly popular. Similarly to CANAAN, the writing did not quite match the expectations placed on the writer. Again, when there was action, it was great (and production quality, especially the music because that is what Maeda Jun is awesome at), but coherence in plot was noticeably absent again. In fact, it was even more haphazard than CANAAN, because it seemed like a random walk of Maeda Jun's best tropes.

Again, on the production level, they're really good. It's just that their writing and direction needs a bit of work. If they can get that together, I'm sure that they'll be able to become a top-tier studio for sure. They've got at least one show in the pipeline, called Hana Saku Iroha, featuring character designs by Kishida Mel, and looks very slice of lifey, taking place at a hot spring inn.

NEXT TIME: MADA MADA JI MI DA-NE


[SIZE="1"]「夕飯」/「パインパ」[/SIZE]


NEXT NEXT TIME (and so on and so forth)

Well, here's the game plan for this season. Yes, it's smaller than the first season. No, that doesn't mean I forgot about all the studios that aren't being covered at the moment. I chose these six because I felt they all had something in common that I didn't feel like throwing others in. If you can guess which ones these are though, then, uh, good for you. Two have already been done, so you really only need to guess the other four.

[Atria35]

This studio, while it hasn't produced something great IMO, definitely has some solid shows. I'm hoping that they raise themselves up and start producing great shows sometime soon.

[Cadence]

Hmm...PA Works productions always look incredibly nice. But, in the end I guess I've never really cared for anything they've made. I kind of hated Angel Beats! and despite looking so nice, True Tears didn't have anything else to keep my interest for long. I can't even remember CANAAN, though I'm pretty sure I watched an episode of it or so...

I'm looking forward to this new family-themed anime they are putting out in 2011, though...it's based on a story by a fourth grader, so maybe the writing will live up to my expectations. :p

[Falx]

Oh man Canaan is the platonic form of wasted potential.

It had SO MANY good things going for it on top of the stunning animation quality (pay attention to the reflections... so amazing) and yet still somehow managed to come up only above average instead of jaw dropping.

[MightiMidget]

I've heard the name Canaan around, but never really knew what to make of it. Is it a big deal on some level? Or one where it was such a fail everyone wonders if they can find something redeemable in it...?

[CrimsonRyu17]

Oh man Canaan is the platonic form of wasted potential.

It had SO MANY good things going for it on top of the stunning animation quality (pay attention to the reflections... so amazing) and yet still somehow managed to come up only above average instead of jaw dropping.

It was the ending that kind of killed it.

[spoiler]When SUGOI miraculously didn't die even after that dramatic scene, it pretty much killed it right there. It would have been SO MUCH BETTER if SUGOI had died. Everything else was fine, Canaan and Alphard's battle was spot-on.[/spoiler]

Ignoring that, it's actually a pretty good anime, methinks. Although most certainly not for the weak of mind.

[Falx]

It's pretty violent and there's some pretty squicky stuff near the end, but like I said, it had the chance to be amazing, but only ended up above average. So it's still pretty good.