Natsu no Arashi: Storm of Quality & Scandal
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Mar 31, 2009 05:09 JST
- Tags: Blogs, Internet, Marketing, Natsu no Arashi!, Production Controversy, Starchild
Upcoming anime 夏のあらし！ / Natsu no Arashi! (Storm of Summer), airing April 5th, has succeeded in attracting attention to itself for all the wrong reasons.
Preview images show Asread Quality in evidence, and as if to inadvertently draw attention to this, the producer Starchild has incited a storm of criticism after retaining the services of a marketing firm (“Blogscout”) whose innovative PR move was to offer bloggers a paltry ¥1,000 Amazon gift voucher if they would write about the show on their blogs, subject to several conditions.
Even (or perhaps especially) fans of the original were disgusted by this “yarase”, or shilling.
The deal in this case was a 1,000 Amazon voucher if unprincipled bloggers would offer a link to the anime’s homepage (Google would not be amused), a 300 character article and a “web bug”, or 1×1 invisible .gif to allow the marketing company to track users.
Such bankrupt marketing tactics seem to have backfired, as the coverage naturally all centred on the offering of the bribe, and speculation soon centred on the preview pictures you can see below, compared against the original manga character designs:
Could this be an effort to distract attention from the lacking anime itself?
Source Neko to Negima amusingly applied for the reward after writing up a highly critical expose of the affair. He awaits a reply.
Disclosure: we will not be applying for the 1000 special reward, placing any web bugs or otherwise, although it would certainly be most amusing to do so.
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It's like they already know it's shit, and wants users to distract from that.
wow the anime character designs look like something from the 70s/80s and yet the manga's from 07
no, last i checked, the designs back from the 70s/80s looked better then this awesome bit of quality.
Agreed.
indeed
oh god
that really dissapointiing. though it would be drawn like on the wallpaper -.-
I wanted to watch it but know...
C'mon guyze, watz with the long face?
lamo
this is starting to become a trend - minami-ke okaeri/okawari, akikan
Can't agree more...
Still, i want to hope this time it's some silly marketing stunt, as that's just too much of a reap of the original art.
hope the same, its sad how the quality of many anime are going so steadily downhill
WOW...insta-pass now. Thought the book art looked good enough to check into the anime.
Was hoping the chick would look like Eri Sawachika, nvm.
I could care less about animation qaulity its all a illusion to accentuate the story and likable characters.
Poor Kobayashi Jin. That's what he get for ditching the School Rumble series..
Summer Troll indeed, though a bit early.
The top image is misleading. Just look at the damn PV!
Exactly what someone above said, this is some divine retribution for fucking up School Rumble so badly. Perhaps if this flops he'll retcon his shitty ending.
that's sad, and i wanted to watch this. :(
Anime character designs look different compared to manga character designs - it happens all the time, so what.
That viral marketing scheme is really sad, though.
To watch, or not to watch? Latter is already within sight... I was already looking forward to watching it as well...
This looked pretty good when it was announced but after seeing the first previews Im pretty dissapointed. Some shows might actually have an intention to draw the characters like clowns but I just get a feeling that this show is an exception. If the story is good I might follow through, but so far the faces are really a huge bummer for me.
O god... and i thought Akikan was the worse...
I smell a troll...
wasnt this show supposed to be by SHAFT?
Oh, that show looks like something from the 80's.
it is by SHAFT so it has been expected of them as we have known their style especially that sayonara zetsubou sensei series
Huh? Then what's with the "Asread Quality"? Or does that just mean that, even though it's produced by SHAFT, it looks like something done by Asread?
Do I have to explain it?
Yes you do, I do not have a clue what you are saying. =P
Oh it's that thing from the creator of School Rumble. Hmmm...this isn't looking good for the anime.
Seems only Kaja(long silver haired) girl and the reverse trap Jun are the ones similar to the manga, including Yasaka the main character. Anyways this is in my watch list.
Eh, still not Musashi-level QUALITY.
Worse than Akikan's production values...
SERIOUSLY :/
Funny how when you draw a girl with eyes close together and long noses (like real people) everyone screams OMG QUALITY but when you draw a girl with eyes 2 eye-lengths or more apart (Clannad) and with no nose (Kanokon) no one gives a damn.
I found it even more funny that everybody scream OMG QUALITY because FUCKING TWO SCREENSHOTS from the PV and ignore the screencaps at the bottom; while it's not the best, it's not something that should be used to judge the whole series.
Oh, I forgot they're the same people that called Birdy Decode:02 a QUALITY. Pardon me.
Because they (the likes of Clannad and Kanokon) don't look awful. It's like comparing American cartoons and standard Anime designs; both doesn't really fully resemble realistic human anatomies but we're sure the latter one looks light years more appealing..
Blame recession?
I can't believe Shaft made this.
Apparently, people here have absolutely no idea what QUALITY means. The character design is different from the manga, and given that Kobayashi Jin's designs are mediocre at best, this is a blessing.
They look retarded, get over it. "Realistic" eyes close together look just does not make a good transition with this art style.
"Source Neko to Negima"
reminds me of the "Magister quality" of the third OVA.
Okay. So that means one less show to watch?
Fuck you SHAFT.
What the hell, Shaft? Did they phone this in or something?
I guess this means we'll have to wait for DVD...
Do you watched the Negima Ala Alba OVAS?(the third)
the quality will not arrive to the DVD.
Its not that bad, kinda reminds me of old school anime which is a real treat in todays anime trends.
Hang your head in shame :P
My theory is that there are two shaft.
The shaft "dream team": the one that produced series as: "Ef: A Tale of Melodies" and "Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei", etc.
The other Shaft that I call "Shit Shaft" that produced things as: The three-Ovas of Negima (Ala Alba) and recently "Natsu no Arashi!"
Where does Maria Holic fit?
"Shit Shaft" is called Studio Pastoral.
Thanks Anon, now I know who to blame and hate.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=4748
The very first picture doesn't seem all the bad to me...maybe I'm just ignorant on this series/book/whatever it is based off of.
I can't seem to get past how the guy looks like a taller version of Detective Conan...
is this... really SHAFT?
i need some clarification.
seriously. someone, please come up with some sort of explanation.
Shaft's the Producer.
what...
so no execs from SHAFT ever monitor the production?
this is as mind-baffling as a kleine bottle (or whatever it's spelled.)
Chya... I'll still watch it.
Is just the art-style.
The character design is.... filled with double stuffing of fail. Let's not get to "it's a character design, that's their style" line.
Visually this fails. Only hope for them is to make the execution of the story well laid out.
Hmm, looks like they forgot to feed the Korean animators again.
Holy shit.....Arashi's eyes are too narrow.....
Thought she'll be the long-haired version of Yakumo and this is what I get ? One nasty Kamura Reiri & Enma Ai character with a pair of large & narrow red-eye !? Looking forward to this anime.
WTH, way to ruin an anime . . .
Continued report
http://catmania.blog13.fc2.com/blog-entry-2101.html
Well maybe this is a good reason why anime studios shouldn't rely on outsourcing production so much.
Shaft's a studio I consider hit or miss on their productions.
Maybe studios should just not over produce and rush shows.
NUOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOO
QUALITY IS SHITE!!!! NUOOOOOOOO
Arashi's eyes are supposed to be ONE eye apart.. not half!!!! aaargghhhhh stupid realistic eyes... bugs me as badly as real eyes that look damn close... nuuuooooo
at least Kaja is still gorgeous enough....
I really thought the art and animation would be more like School Rumble, but I guess I was wrong. I might have to drop this series, if it ends up like Akikan.
Don't dis the series until you watch the series. Although coming late to reply, it actually has a really good animation quality, just the promotion material lacks. After seeing it, it's quality is entirely better than School Rumble Series. And i don't take quality lightly.
It really does look a lot better once you actually watch.
They took a different art direction and it seems to work out just fine. Clean animation with bold color palettes. The series is one of the better ones of the season...at least by the look of episode 1.
I will put this on my list of things to watch, looks neat.
idk, why you guys complain so much, the manga version, is well done, if you do not like how the author draws his images, well just move on. i certainly have enjoy every single episode of the series so far. what drew me closer to this amine was quality of the work, sure there may be some other anime out there with a better quality, but i happen to enjoy how it looks, don't bash it, before you even get a chance to view it.
also marketing is marketing, they got you talking about either way..anyways take a look at it, and hope you guys enjoy it as much as i am!!! watching ep 6 at the moment on crunchyroll.
peace out!
This makes me want to cry...
Late comment!!
meh the quality was bad but became good on the later episodes..
The people that drew the anime drew it terribly compared to School Rumble, really...I mean Jin Kobayashi's work is good...but this time, the anime was a bit...off.