Completed: Arata The Legend

aka Arata Kangatari.

so when i watched one ep of every show (minus the obvious fan service shows and 3 min shows) at the start of spring season this one caught my eye.

nice character design, bright and colourful as well as decent music.

Also it was a story of someone being thrown into a completely different world which is one of my favorite storylines (right next to normal world with slight supernatural elements)

Hell it was two people getting thrown into different worlds cause they essentially switched places.

so.... why am i kinda bummed out?

Why did i just not connect with this show the way i expected to?

1. Reminded me a lot of Escaflowne... which is a million times better then this.
Okay other then person gets sent to another world and main character is a sprinter the two shows have nothing in common. but they bring up the sprinting thing damn near every episode.... it was bad enough that when a certain 'twist' was revealed most of the human race could have figured it out in the first episode. I know compairing it is unfair but honestly i can't help that it reminded me of it.

2. Made up worlds and bullshit terminology.
Okay... so even though 90% of what i read is fantasy i still HATE made up terms... to a point.
I didn't mind it in Night angel trilogy cause you know what any and all terms mean... but in this has so many terms and yet you know what they are but you never are told why.... the reason why things are like that is as important as what the thing is... i can't give a shit about the world if every two seconds your throwing shit at me that i'm supposed to care about but i can't since i am lacking the context.

3. 12 episodes and i don't care about anyone/stupid motivations.
there is no reason for me to get behind any characters... they are all EXTREMELY shallow.
the main antagonist hates arata simply becasue they tied in a race and he took that as taking pity on him. he is willing to kill for this.
no
NO
NO ONE IS THAT SHALLOW!
"oh but he's just being possessed by the evil spirit of his hayagami!"
so what, he was willing to kill arata before he got the dumb sword.
and arata is no better "i guess i will do this cause people trust me and i don't want to lose that trust"
how about "i'll do this to better myself and those around me"
or "i'll do this cause the fate of the world kinda sorta is resting on my shoulders"

4. i was expecting two fish out of water stories... not one.
Arata in fantasy world is the main focus.....
but there is still arata in real world which to me sounds like a much crazier less pity party story... we maybe get 20 minute total of arata in real world and i'm sorry his actions should be affecting something in fantasy world....

5. it's all been filler.
no seriously.... except for maybe the first and last episode all the others have just been "here is arata doing shit and helping people and moving on"

6. it's not really over.
it's going to have a second (and third and fourth season at it's current pace) season eventually.... but these 12 episodes are not enough to make me wanna continue the story... it just wasn't enough to make me care.

7. Shonen-ai overtones instead of furthering the plot.
I have nothing against shonen-ai or shoujo-ai overtones if it works with the world and story but this is just "lets get these guys so close that their lips almost touch and make the fangirls squeal and hope they don't realize we haven't given them any story yet" it feels like hakkenden all over again. and we know it's just fangirl baiting because there is a canon love interest though that relationship happened really fast.... how do you go from "your not who i thougth you were, you are a stranger" to "omg i luv you so much!" that quick?

Anime needs to be more then just fanservice.... i am so damn tired of shows that use fanservice instead of plot or characterization.
Again going back to escaflowne, that show has love interest and even some fanservice but it works in that world to develop the characters... this just has it and at the same time pretends it doesn't.

i'm sorry i'm just annoyed cause after 12 episodes.... nearly 5 hours... i should care more then this.... and i just don't.... will i watch season 2? i dunno... if there is nothing else when it airs... otherwise i'll probably just continue to be bored with it.

however if you like fish out of water stories with lots of colour give it a try... yo uwill probabyl enjoy it more then i have