Mother's Basement Reviews Every Crunchyroll Original (Except Shenmue)

[PicardMan]

Mother's Basement just posted a review of every Cruchyroll Original except Shenmue, which is just starting to air. Crunchyroll Originals do have a very bad rap, but a few shows aren't that bad, with Onyx Equinox and Tower of God being promising shows that unfortunately might not be getting second seasons.

 

[Frontier]

I loved Tonikawa .

 

[PicardMan]

I loved Tonikawa .

That's generally considered the best Crunchyroll Original, and Mother's Basement does have that on the list of good Crunchyroll Originals. Maybe they should have invested in more romcoms in the originals line. It was a little surprising that Anime News Network and THEM Anime Reviews both gave the show mediocre three star reviews, but the review staff on both those sites seem incredibly biased against the Crunchyroll Originals.

 

[Kino]

I like woke media. Steven Universe, She-Ra And The Princesses of Power, Avatar and The Owl House are some of my favorite cartoons of the past 20 years. I say this so that you'll believe me when I tell you that High Guardian Spice is bad. You all remember RWBY, right? The deeply flawed, poorly paced, underwritten action cartoon with great music, fighting, and unambiguously good bones? This is "woke" RWBY, with even less effort put into it than RWBY seasons 1-3. High Guardian Spice is rated TVMA, but it reads like it's TVY7. Kate's Leth's talents are wasted here. I got through three episodes and that was it. It says a lot that I would rather watch RWBY, with it's even more hamfisted attempts at queer rep, than High Guardian Spice.

​

 

[Daikun]

High Guardian Spice is closer to a low-rent clone of Little Witch Academia. Thankfully, there is a much better executed concept of the show called The Owl House. Just watch that instead, or watch LWA. Both are better options than HGS.

Personally, I recommend watching Spilling the Milk's riffs on this show. You'll have a better time.



EDIT: While we're on the subject of CR originals, they also did a riff on Ex-Arm.

 

[Kino]

High Guardian Spice is closer to a low-rent clone of Little Witch Academia. Thankfully, there is a much better executed concept of the show called The Owl House. Just watch that instead, or watch LWA. Both are better options than HGS.

Personally, I recommend watching Spilling the Milk's riffs on this show. You'll have a better time.



EDIT: While we're on the subject of CR originals, they also did a riff on Ex-Arm.

Unlike a lot of people, though, I don't blame Raye Rodriguez or his writing team for the fact that the show sucks. I'm betting that some coked-up exec at Crunchyroll saw that Avatar and Steven Universe won Peabody Awards, thought, "We need us some a' those!" and gave like, half a tuppence to Rodriguez.

 

[Daikun]

DaftPina just released a video on HGS' production troubles, and he interviewed some of the staff behind the show.

 

[doomrider7]

Unlike a lot of people, though, I don't blame Raye Rodriguez or his writing team for the fact that the show sucks. I'm betting that some coked-up exec at Crunchyroll saw that Avatar and Steven Universe won Peabody Awards, thought, "We need us some a' those!" and gave like, half a tuppence to Rodriguez.

I have absolutely nothing to add except to say that you should read Witch Hat Atelier. That is my Ted Talk for the day.

 

[Pooky]

DaftPina just released a video on HGS' production troubles, and he interviewed some of the staff behind the show.

I might regret posting this but... I haven't found the production team's arguments very convincing or sympathetic. They seem to be trying to have "relatively low budget" read as "production issues", but some of the most popular and beloved Animated TV shows of all time, from all over the world, have been built out of creative solutions derived from low budgets; much lower budgets than this show had (and no, not all of them because the animators were poorly paid). Perhaps the modern American animation pipeline just isn't conducive to that kind of creative thinking and they are just pawns in the system. But still, think of how many people would kill to produce cartoons with $275,000-per episode budgets and major corporation backing (enthusiastic or otherwise), and what they could do with them, regardless of how that compares to the budget of other shows (which were probably far lower budget before they became super-hits). It's odd that they're saying the writing suffered from not having enough "notes"; how many TV writers have said that notes have been the bane of their life!

I don't deny that there has been a lot of disingenuous, unfair, vitriolic and unnecessary criticism of this show, much of which doesn't even have anything to do with the final product. At the end of the day, it's a harmless TV show; people got paid (well or otherwise), got experience, and there must be some people out there who like it. I'm glad that many of the staff have moved onto what by all accounts is a better and better received show. But I think when you've been given an incredible opportunity many dream of, you have to take some responsibility for how it turned out, it's a bit crass to just handwave away any flaws with "budgets".

As for the video...good lord, I don't think I've heard so many end of sentence inflections in my life.

 

[PicardMan]

A lot of people use South Park as a counterexample of a very well beloved cartoon with a very low budget. Imagination is the biggest key to making good cartoons and Onyx Equinox proved Crunchyroll Studios could make a decent product. High Guardian Spice was just soulless. Still find the obsession with this specific series a little annoying as this was far from the bottom of the Crunchyroll Originals barrel. I guess the American cartoon=bad people just can't let go.

 

[Kino]

I have absolutely nothing to add except to say that you should read Witch Hat Atelier. That is my Ted Talk for the day.

What is Witch Hat Atelier?

 

[JMTV]

Not too long ago, Anime America did a review/rant on High Guardian Spice and explaining on why it's a complete dumpster fire. Plus, it has a funny little song to boot.

 

[doomrider7]

What is Witch Hat Atelier?

Description
In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem …

Nominated for the 11th Manga Taishou Award in 2018.

Won Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia, together with Cats of the Louvre, at the Eisner Awards in 2020.

Won the Best Manga Award at the Harvey Awards in 2020.

 

[PicardMan]

New interview from Anime News Network gives ambiguous information as to whether the Crunchyroll Originals line is continuing, but co-productions will continue. It seems like the co-productions without the "Crunchyroll Originals" branding like Shield Her and Odd Taxi have done a lot better than the ones with it. Should they just make co-productions and retire the brand?

What We Know About the Funimation-Crunchyroll Merger

Crunchyroll brand will takeover home video releases, company is working on streamlining sub, dub options

www.animenewsnetwork.com