Kurenai
Youth is made of sweat, tears and overflowing juices: thoughts on Kurenai thus far
You wouldn’t (usually) find me watching anything loli. Note that, I placed “usually” because I’d like to keep an open mind though, and who knows there might be some loli anime worth watching. Anyway, Kurenai wouldn’t be the kind of anime in my watch list. After all, the premise of a high school guy living with the seven year old girl he’s protecting sounds like loli to me, especially so, that it is anime. Stuff like that do happen in anime, afterall. “But Kurenai is not loli!” I hear someone protest. Right-o. But even the obaasan at the baths commented on Shinkurou being into girls “like that” and Tamaki telling Murasaki that Shinkurou has lolicon.
It was hayase from Cute Proxy’s Anime Rants who introduced me to Kurenai. And how did she convince me to try to watch it? She didn’t tell me to watch it because the story or the animation’s good. All she said was “It’s like Red Garden“. Now Red Garden is one of my favorite shows. If Kurenai’s like Red Garden, it has too be good.
So I watched a few episodes first to find out. I saw the similarities to Red Garden right away. Kurenai is directed by Matsuo Kou who also directed Red Garden. Aside from that, the character designs for Kurenai are done by Ishii Kumi who did the character designs for Red Garden.
I have read a lot of blogs saying that Ishii Kumi’s character designs are ugly. I disagree. I find her character designs fresh and mature. Her style seems to have a Western influence and it suited Red Garden quite well. For Kurenai, most of the younger characters have been adapted to the usual anime style while the older characters (Benika, especially) look like they came straight from Red Garden. And Ginko looks like Kate except that she isn’t blond!
Animation-wise, Kurenai seems to have a high budget. The attention paid to details is painstaking. The movements look fluid too.
Aesthetics aside, Kurenai has an intriguing storyline. The concept of a traditionally raised girl living in the “outside” world is interesting, especially in terms of how she interacts with people around her, how her prejudices are being erased, and how she comes to learn different things.
The characters are fun though I find Ginko annoying sometimes. It’s clear she likes Shinkurou but she is only able to display her feelings and concern through annoyance. Murasaki can be a little bratty but that can be attributed to her upbringing. Still, I sometimes think she should be disciplined well. ^^;
Like Red Garden, the voice recording is done before the animation. I think this is effective in the sense that the seiyuu get to deliver their lines with raw emotions (this worked effectively for Red Garden).
Similarites to Red Garden wouldn’t be complete without the characters breaking out into song. Well, Kurenai has that too. Matsuo Kou seems to like musicals, doesn’t he?
Oh yeah, if they ever made a live-action of Kurenai, Yamada Yu, who did Son Rui for the Nodame Cantabile live-action special, would be perfect for Renjou’s wife. And Kuriyama Chiaki would be perfect for Renjou’s lackey.
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14 comments for “Youth is made of sweat, tears and overflowing juices: thoughts on Kurenai thus far”
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[1] Here comes a raging baka-raptor…
[2]
Are you being SRS here? [I'm assuming you are seeing past Kure-nai's self-satire]
[3] I am watching this because of its “lollardy” [if that's what Daniel meant by it], in all SRSNS
loli-hater absolute0 enjoys Kure-nai *gasps* but I digress. Kure-nai is indeed not a loli anime, despite the current wtfudge revelations it still isn’t.
Also, you should post commentaries about the currently airing shows more often! You have more authority to critic all the artsy stuff and watchamacallit production values of shows more than I am, methinks
and lol at Kuriyama Chiaki and Lee Chenshin’s uncanny similarity
Oh I don’t like it when shows are similar lols
I actually don’t find Kurenai to be loli. If I did, I would have dropped it ages ago.
@Lelangir I’m sorry, I don’t understand what “lollardy” means
@blissmo similarities between Kurenai and Red Garden only include the direction and the character designs and you can’t avoid that in anime (or whatever show for that matter). though if the plot has similaries with some other show’s plot, that would be a different case already
‘Lollardy was the political and religious movement of the Lollards from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation.’ - I was trying hard to come up with a word that THAT would find hard to write about.
Anyhow, I’m not sure I understand the ‘loli / not loli’ debate. It’s a show with a little girl as a significant character. Of course a lolicon would enjoy it. Does that make it ‘a loli show’? You tell me.
oh I thought “lollardy” was the state of being loli
maybe lolidom would be better.
I suspect that particular verbal fortress is already occupied, ‘lolidom’ being the category used to refer to Kaioshin’s series covering ‘The Top 20 Most Asskicking, Crotch Stomping Badass Lolis Around’.
Part of the reason I like it is because it’s loli
@IKnight Well a lolicon could enjoy a mecha show (devoid of loli, for instance)… would that make it a loli show too?
@Lelangir “Lollardy” sounds better, I think. Would probably be harder for THAT to write about compared to “lolidom”
@LDC Part of the reason I like it is because it’s not loli
Ah… loli is in the eye of the beholder!
/me slaps absolute0 with a large trout for posting separate comments for each replies.
make the most out of one comment space!
@usagijen