Has Kyoto animation gone South?

This is how I feel watching every KyoAni series for the past few seasons.

Has Kyoto animation gone south?

by AC

Kyoto Animation has built quite a reputation for itself. A small production studio that began with anime series such as Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Air and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid ― the third example being one of their finest works ever in my view ― they slowly and gradually found their niche in producing shows that emphasize high-quality visuals and lean towards the moe genre. Kyoto Animation’s niche productions are a sign of how it has found its own comfort zone and, although not all viewers would appreciate moe every time, it makes sense for the studio to stick with what it’s good at: slice-of-life high school shows.

But lately I’ve noticed a trend from KyoAni judging by the last few seasons. Back in Spring of 2012, they gave us Hyouka, a series that started with a few weak episodes but gradually became an amazing story that not only maintains top-notch visuals (which in this series were a little overzealous sometimes), but focuses on illustrating intricate storylines and building its characters. However, all the series that follow for the next few seasons up to now have been far from impressive, from the loony cast of Chuunibyou to the fujoshi-pandering Free! and now the underwhelming Kyoukai no Kanata. I’ll go into detail why each of these series have been disappointing:

DISCLAIMER: The following content may contain some spoilers. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Number 1: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

Touka is my favorite character here… and she doesn’t even need to be weird to be interesting.

Chuunibyou is a weird series. Really, how can anyone not think that this isn’t a weird series when the characters are made up of kids who don’t even act their age? The zaniness isn’t the problem here: it’s the storyline. While KyoAni vividly visualizes Rikka’s larger-than-life battles, it doesn’t focus on simply telling a compelling slice-of-life story. What I thought would be a tale about not being afraid to be oneself eventually turns out to be one of Rikka simply refusing to accept reality, and with that, undermining her already childish behavior. From then on, it degrades into a melodramatic ending where they all remain who they are without growing up.

See, having a show about characters behaving like children in a fantasy because they are children deep inside is one thing, but not seeing them develop into something else is another. I don’t feel emotionally invested in such characters. For all of KyoAni’s fluid animation on Rikka’s fights, things would’ve been so much better if there was more time spent on developing characters rather than just showing how odd they are.

Number 2: Free!

A fugly male with a masculine name would be great, but we all knew that’s not going to happen.

Oh, this series. You know, a lot of male viewers ― including myself ― dreaded Free! even before it aired because they all knew what they were in for: hawt sexy male characters in Spandex. And indeed, that’s what everyone got. But that’s not all: the male leads have girly names and they also behave like girls (think K-On! if they had spent time swimming instead of making music over afternoon tea… after undergoing sex changes). Deep inside, I was hoping that I would see at least a half-attempt at KyoAni making a genuine competitive sports anime. Oh, how more foolish and wrong could I have been?

Anime has been criticized as a chauvinistic medium but we all know it also has a generous amount of material out there to gratuitously please the female viewers. So hey, it shouldn’t harm anyone if KyoAni produced one aimed at pandering to the female folks, right? Well, at least that’s how we justify this series.

#3: Kyoukai no Kanata

Yes Akihito, I find your show “unpleasant”.

“KyoAni producing a show about spirit hunters? Now that’s going to be a treat for everyone,” I first thought. Oh, how disappointed I felt just after watching Kyoukai no Kanata! Not only is the show a Bakemonogatari-wannabe, there’s nothing compelling about the show at all so far. Led by a pair of protagonists made up of Kuriyama Mirai, who’s your textbook meganekko, and Kanbara Akihito, who’s basically Araragi to a vast extent (even the immortality part) sans a different name, the show hasn’t really lived up to my expectations. It has been a two-trick pony relying on either the fight scenes or Kuriyama and Kanbara’s one-two bokke tsukkomi routine, both of which just don’t gel very well in a supposedly dark series.

Being something similar to one of Shinbo’s most popular works isn’t a problem per se, but when you have something made up of unoriginal and uninteresting elements, it doesn’t have substance to be intriguing. It’s still early to really say if KnK would impress eventually, but so far it hasn’t given me the positive signs to think or hope so.

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So these are 3 series by KyoAni that have made me think the studio is somewhat losing its edge. Either that, or it has set its sights on producing shows that pander to certain groups of viewers only. I know it’s asking too much to see something like Hyouka or The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya more often, but at least I would say that there’s a downward trend when it comes to the past few seasons.

So what do you think? Are Kyoto Animation shows dropping in quality as of late? Or is it going for a new direction? Maybe my observations are invalid? Voice out and share your opinions with the rest!

(And one more thing: if you are wondering why I left out Tamako Market, it’s because I didn’t watch it. I couldn’t even make it past the first episode; why would I give a damn about a show on a shopping a street and a talking chicken diva, anyway?)