Seitokai no Ichizon’s second season has received a PV, with the defined artwork managing to alleviate any concerns – albeit when it comes to the “how” and “why”, that’s certainly something best physically seen.
An earlier released key visual of the series was sporting a very washed out palette of hues in comparison to the original run – yet now, this preview clip has come, and rather than that, the colors are extensively packing saturation and contrast, even more so than found within the first season of Seitokai no Ichizon. There’s not a series which sports this extent of intensified color tones – however, it is a signature aspect of Seitokai no Ichizon’s artwork, and it’s certainly wonderful to see how splendidly it has been implemented within AIC’s own variant of the style.
Now colors aside, one can still however take note of the lines and shape. As seen with the key visual, they’re much sharper than the Studio DEEN rendition, and the trait is actually quite noticeable – although it’s almost as if AIC caught realization of this as well and then subsequently decided on altering the colors to be heavy in order to account for the far too divergent line and shape.
Ultimately, the trade off is quite successful – it’s inevitable for the art to be even ever so slightly different, and none can be blamed for such. One can however find right to complain if there’s simply no effort spent in recreating the most appropriate take on the characters – yet there’s no such reason to do that here as AIC has gone the mile marvelously. Since the colors take most of the attention, the remainder doesn’t feel particularly odd as it is generally spot on – with the main distinctive aspects of each character accounted for.
A promising second season certainly seems to be awaiting – yet that’s only confirmed in terms of visuals. As for the story, the PV admittedly looks quite lacking in that regard since it’s mainly scenes of chatter with no action whatsoever – however, since the visuals were made excellent despite possibility of the worst, hope remains for the plot and otherwise as well.
Anticipation does not seem wasted being excited for this second season.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 10:31 CDT
No loldrama please.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 11:04 CDT
Elaborate…?
Jul 21, 2012 @ 11:14 CDT
Y’know, the last couple of episodes with Ken where it showed when he got bullied because he apparently ‘two-timed’ some chick. It was really cheesy and unnecessary.
So yeah, I’m hoping there’s no drama of the sort in the 2nd season.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 11:20 CDT
I’m neutral on that – didn’t bother me much personally, though I didn’t particularly like it either. I can see why someone wouldn’t be fond of it much – though since the series had its fair share of nonsense, I just tossed it in within all of that.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 15:35 CDT
I haven’t watched it in awhile, but I had no issue with the drama. It was a break from the zany comedy. I think the creator really wanted to have drama for character development.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 22:51 CDT
May I ask what is so great about how this series looks? The character designs are extremely ugly in my personal opinion. Eyes and hair are way too big while the girls as a whole look incredibly generic. One of the worst offenders of bishoujo/moe character design 101. I just don’t get it, you’re usually harsher on series that looks like this.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 23:07 CDT
“that looks like this”
That looks like what? You’re missing all the distinctive illustrative qualities – AIC’s version isn’t as grand, although the original Seitokai no Ichizon character designs are splendid, and these are fairly nice as well.
“Eyes and hair are way too big”
I don’t find anything wrong with their size since it’s essentially average for anime, and Seitokai no Ichizon is an earlier highschool series before the levee of generic entirely shattered. The hair and eyes are stunning as they employ colors of a palette which aside from being marvelous in itself, is rarely touched by most other character designs – and the lines composing the hair are notably precise and well-considered. Both the hair and eyes being heavily saturated as well make them quite distinct – and it’s immensely rare for characters to be unique in such basic traits which they actually should be to begin with.
Another fine facet of Seitokai no Ichizon’s art in general is the overall “stylish” aspect of it – with the original artist having made the characters so elaborate in appearance, many of those aspects carried over to the anime, and several examples would be the plaid skirt, as well as the signature hue of violet utilized to color the seifuku.
Perhaps the character designs degraded somewhat into the making of the first season of the anime, and they definitely did in the second season – yet the originals are nothing less than spectacular, and I find that the first season certainly managed to replicate them well. The second is doing its best – they’re not as on par, but it’s recognizable and the important details are present.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 23:27 CDT
I meant moe heavy anime in particular, you tend to be very discerning of them.
While your arguments are very respectable since I do agree with you about the seifuku, but I still fail to see what is so great about these character designs, including the original light novel designs as well. They scream generic eroge to me, not scratching my “moe itch” if you will, like several other series.
Jul 21, 2012 @ 23:33 CDT
“I meant moe heavy anime in particular, you tend to be very discerning of them.”
You must have been misunderstanding me the entire time then – I don’t care about moe. That’s not a metric of quality, and I rarely mention it aside from when recognizing something as such. What is a metric of quality however are aesthetic attributes.
‘not scratching my ‘moe itch’”
Well that’s great for you – or perhaps “unfortunate” would be a more appropriate term.