The Great(?) Light Novel Adaption Project: Pt I

Light novels these days are known to be carbon copies of each other more than other genres…so I wanted to try a little something. Stop by in 24 hrs for the next part and 48 for the 3rd part.

Also, trigger warnings for topics on one of the adaptions (the last one of the trio, just in case you don’t heed this warning).

The process:

1) Without having picked the light novel adaptions in question, create a bingo card for light novel adaptions, as inspired by the Glorio Blog’s “Iro’s Mad Libs Bingo”. Use only expectations and clichés to fill in the spaces.

2) Pair the game of bingo with the 3 episode rule if you don’t normally use it, to allow for better filling in of bingo cards.

3) Choose three light novel adaptions you were planning to watch anyway.

My choices:

• DanMachi (Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?)
• Asterisk War (Gakusen Toshi Asterisk)
• Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash)

4) While playing bingo, take the time to write down expectations from the first episode, at the 3 episode point and document thoughts after finishing the show (should the 3 episode rule prove not enough for winning and/or entertainment value).

Of course, this “project” was really just an elaborate excuse to see more of a genre I don’t think particularly highly of, so results may vary wildly should you try it.

I decided on “clichéd first, according to someone else’s expectations”, to raise my expectations later (sabre from AniList ended up being that “someone else”). Bingo cards can be found in this Google folder.

Now, to the first ep impressions!

Asterisk War

• LN/manga licensed by Yen Press? Yup.
• Adaption by A-1 Pictures? Yup.
• Made me regret trying it after 1 episode? Yup. After 3 minutes I had 6 crosses and after 1 ep I had 12! (But sadly, no wins…)

This anime isn’t completely terrible on the eyes, but it does run clichés of the genre into the ground. The ones I expected, anyway. Not only does it involve “new transfer student” (general school anime cliché) and “magical academy” (a setting I specifically made a set of bingo cards for), but the protagonist enters the main waifu’s room without permission through a window, which is pretty much breaking and entering. Certainly, it shows how some people have powers in this show, but you could’ve done that a million other ways that didn’t involve such heavy exposition.

Something this terrible should probably stay out of most watchlists, so why did I pick it again? The guy responsible for the music was a guy I’d heard a song from before.

That’s it. That’s the reason.

I wonder whether I can last 3 full episodes of this…

DanMachi

• LN/manga licensed by Yen Press? Yup.
• Adaption by A-1 Pictures? Nope.
• Made me regret trying it after 1 episode? Only when the boob jiggles happened.

It’s not bad by any means. It’s just that the girls’ clothes (Aiz’s and Hestia’s) seem a bit too skimpy and Aiz seems like someone I really can’t get behind in regards to Bell wanting to win her heart. I mean, he barely even knows about her and he has at least 3 or 4 other more viable harem options to boot. “The show can’t really figure out whether it’s a fantasy or a romance” is the biggest sticking point I have with this show, though. Haven’t won bingo yet though, so gotta keep going.

Grimgar

• LN/manga licensed by Yen Press? Yup.
• Adaption by A-1 Pictures? Yup.
• Made me regret trying it after 1 episode? Only when the more fanservicey moments happened (leery camera angles on Barbara, suggestive talk about Shihoru and Yume) plus uncomfortable suggestions of Shihoru having anxiety

The show’s very pretty (it reminds me of Tsukigakirei with that watercolour washed-out look) but there seems to be a melancholy underpinning it in the same way as Girls’ Last Tour, and while I knew that show was produced well, it just didn’t resonate with me due to the war implications. There’s a lot of exposition, thus it’s hard to get behind. It’s hard to tell whether some of the bingo categories apply too, so that made my life a lot harder than it should be. The ED doesn’t have a lot of effort in it, and I know from internet buzz this show handles death of at least one character or another, which makes me worried for the rest of the show…

I only have two crosses right now, so let’s keep going…

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Well, that’s it for the first episode test. Next time, it’s the 3 episode mark.