I don't know, It could be because I watch a lot of dorama but the main conflict in this episode just didn't click with me. I got the whole youth in love thing but the pacing was just too breakneck so much so that I had a hard time buying into how much their relationships have developed that they'd feel love.
This does have one of my most favorite confession scenes ever though. I'll give it massive props for that. I think what would have been better was if:
Kaoru says nothing and Ricchan figures it out just from the song and the performance
Ritsuko can't figure it out because of her inferiority complex. I liked her line "this is your dress rehearsal," because it reveals her feelings about herself, in relation to others and especially Sentarou. She feels used and unappreciated.
I'm going to side with Uchip here. He has a point. Whether you like it or dislike it, he has a point. There's a lot of relationship drama in ep3. But it IS a romantic drama series.
There's certainly drama, but I guess I define melodrama by long draggy stuff that's just dragging out the story for no reason but just for the drama of what's going to happen but nothing really changes.
While I guess the line between melodrama and drama can be subjective(can we call it the "Okada Line"?), I don't really feel that standard teenage relationship issues cross it.
While I guess the line between melodrama and drama can be subjective(can we call it the "Okada Line"?), I don't really feel that standard teenage relationship issues cross it.
well teenagers are naturally melodramatic
I think it was just the fact that we are only on episode 3 and it feels like that whole drama would have gone down when we actually know the characters better
When events artificially play out in a sensationalized manner it becomes melodrama. I think it's pretty hard to classify Kids on the Slope as that. Nothing here is being portrayed as life changing or world ending.
When events artificially play out in a sensationalized manner it becomes melodrama. I think it's pretty hard to classify Kids on the Slope as that. Nothing here is being portrayed as life changing or world ending.
Exactly, I feel melodrama really only applies to things that try to have a HEIGHTENED sense of reality like a stage play or something. There was really nothing stagey about the drama in apollon, nor did it feel like it was exaggerating the characters actions to appeal to my emotions.
Basically drama =/= melodrama. I find people tend to confuse the two.
So I'm not very well-versed with anime. I've seen the complete Cowboy Bebop and a bit of Rurouni Kenshin, but that's about it. I've looked at more recent anime and there's something weird about the characters but I'm not sure how to explain it. It's like they're lighter, less detailed and don't exactly mesh with the backgrounds as well as they did in older anime show.
they say that people that post about drama are destined to get married
ive never felt this emotion before!
*slaps lafiels mouse hand*
ITS MY FAULT
I will be upset if you suddenly grow up and take interest in someone even though ive never made it clear that I like you!
are you trying to start a fight?
but i love you and will confess even though you have your eyes on someone else
they say that people that post about drama are destined to get married
ive never felt this emotion before!
*slaps lafiels mouse hand*
ITS MY FAULT
I will be upset if you suddenly grow up and take interest in someone even though ive never made it clear that I like you!
are you trying to start a fight?
but i love you and will confess even though you have your eyes on someone else
Just watched episode 2 and I'm so into what this show is doing.
The setting is just fantastic, and I've always been a sucker for stuff like Dandelion Wine where it's the daily lives of people in those times. My only personal objection so far are the moments when Kaoru is day dreaming, since I've never been a fan of those types of scenes. It's probably why I have such a hard time rewatching anything FMA.
Anyways, this has been an extremely refreshing show coming off of everything I've been purchasing or watching on simulcast.
I think I like the show, it is quite a bit more angsty than I want but I'll keep watching for the jazz parts. The opening and closing songs are awful. Really really bad. But every other song I've heard has been fantastic and the art is really gorgeous and I don't hate any of the characters so I'll keep watching it.
it is kind of funny that this classically trained pianist can suddenly play jazz piano like it ain't no thang after transcribing it and then improvise with a group with no prior practice
. There was really nothing stagey about the drama in apollon, nor did it feel like it was exaggerating the characters actions to appeal to my emotions.
The drama and conflict over relationships that were just formed and seem to be based on very superficial premises (at this point) did indeed come off as exaggeration to me. Relationship drama can be interesting, but only when you feel like the relationships are valuable and important. The third episode basically came off as a soap opera to me, maybe not the Webster definition of melodrama, but certainly the every day use of the word.
it is kind of funny that this classically trained pianist can suddenly play jazz piano like it ain't no thang after transcribing it and then improvise with a group with no prior practice
Though yeah you are entirely correct. Due to his strict Aunt he doesn't even seem to get much time to play either, so you couldn't even say that he just does a ton of off-screen practising...
To be fair; I think you are both unaware how much time has actually passed in the series. as I'm pretty sure they are condensing quite a bit from the manga.
Fired up a two week Crunchyroll trial to check this show out. Just finished episode 2. I'm fucking loving it so far. First anime I've watched and actually gotten into since, god, 2006? Not that I've tried very many. Going to have to check out some other stuff as long as I have the trial going.
The other day, Bebpo was telling me how he really wasn't feeling the last 5 minutes of episode 3. He said something felt off, and the entire thing seemed like a dream sequence with bad transitions. I disagreed, because KotS is awesome, etc, etc. Then I watched Ep1-3 again yesterday, and it struck me that there was a very valid point. They way the specific transitions happened made the passage of time confusing for the viewer, and has a direct impact on how the viewer might react to the climatic scene. The rest of this post will be spoiler tagged, with some spoiler-free images embedded, and some simply linked..
This is the scene after Kaoru leads the record shop and goes home thinking that he wants to play something for Ri-chan the next time. We see him in bed, and he's looking at a Bill Evans record. It is night time, so we can safely assume that he bought this record at the store after his session with Sentaro, and this is what he plans on playing for Ri-chan after he masters it.
While looking at the record, he has a dream vision of him playing the song for Ri-chan. This sequence ends with a fade to white transition. A transition like this generally plays with the concepts of dreaming and state of mind. The vision does not fizzle back into "reality" but instead here it acts as a transition to...
An establishing shot of the school, right after Kaoru has his vision in bed at night. This suggests that this is the next day at school, and something is about to happen. But instead of it being a character scene which grounds the characters in an established scene, it transits to a half scene where Kaoru is for some reason in the art room (a place the show has never shown before or mentioned) and somehow manages to glimpse Sentaro and Yurika together. This appears to be a classic "misunderstanding" scene, just like many scenes in the other parts of this episode, but it seems to be inserted here without a narrative backing.
Next we are looking at an establishing shot to show that they're walking home after school. This suggests that after seeing whatever it is he saw, Kaoru didn't do anything about it, nor did he talk to anyone. That's not strange on it's own, but it just makes the scene kinda additionally pointless when the time could have been spent on establishing something more important to support the next scene, since up until this point we still expect that this is the day after.
Here Kaoru clearly implies that he HAS been practicing the song which he just bought, and the flashbacks which follow as he plays the song establishes that he has been doing this for a while. Which means that everything that's happening is maybe a week after the previous events, yet there is no clear communication to the audience that this has happened, leaving the entire sequence of scenes rather confusing and unnatural.
To top it off, after the confession, the scene again immediately transits to a dreamy sequence of Kaoru looking out of the classroom window, and seeing Ri-chan looking towards the roof where Sentaro is standing. This could be any other day after the confession, but it also brings into question two things:
- If Kaoru is already in class, why is Ri-chan only entering the school then?
- Since when did Kaoru sit by the window? What's he even doing there?
These two points don't make a lot of immediate logic based on what we know about the characters' classroom behaviors, so it creates an even more dream like feeling for the entire sequence of scenes.
Do yeah, I think there is an actual issue here, but it's not a huge deal since it kinda works itself out. It would be silly not to acknowledge that it could have been handled better though.
I'm glad it wasn't just me. I didn't pick up as much as you did (with the transitions and what not) but the Art Room scene was definitely jarring and looking back (I've only watched once) had to be intentional.
Will be interesting to view again and to see where the next episode picks up.....
Yeah, I felt the same way about the last 5-minutes of that episode, something definitely felt off, and I do wonder if it's intentional or just lazy editing on part of the fact that they are adapting 9-volumes of this into 12-episodes mmmm.
I did really like the very last scene, since I'm a sucker for that kind of shit.
I was a little iffy about the first ep, but its growing on me. I thought the second ep was charming enough to make me interested in watching more. And just noticing that its only 12 eps long, I'll probably finish it up. Thanks for keeping us informed, Duckroll!
