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Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~
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Originally planned as a media mix (both light novel and anime planned from the start) Basic premise is that people, in life, cannot be trusted, but in death, the unadulterated truth is exposed. If someone dies with a strong feeling of trust, love, hate, etc, they are able to send one letter to someone in the living world. シゴフミ = æ»å¾Œæ–‡ which translates literally into post-mortem message/letter. Characters Fumika - delivers shigofumi Mayama (Kanaka in anime) - Fumika's sentient staff Asuna - sub character and love interest of Shota for this story arc Shota - High school student designing a rocket who crosses paths with Asuna The production deals not only with death but human honesty in a hypothetical situation, making it a rather difficult subject matter to animate, let alone write about. Shigofumi does very well in that regards, and ep1 definitely had some twists and alluded to some events in ep2. In actuality, Shigofumi ep1 seemed to have the most potential of the winter '08 lineup, however ep2 was a little bit on the predictable side and ended on a little bit on the "happy" side. Failure of what Asuna was trying to accomplish at the end would have made the story significantly more depressing but more impactful. I think, though, the "upbeat" ending (still rather blue though) was done to bring people back from watching a story of redemption. The ending, however, is still bittersweet, in particular because of Asuna's motives and goals. One of the most difficult aspects of designing an anime around the concept of a post-mortem letter is that death actually needs to occur, so there are definitely situations which are a little forced, but imho, it's a small price to pay for a production of this quality. The voice acting is top notch, but the animation quality leaves a little to be desired. In a time when most anime are now being aired at 720p, it feels like this is just a standard def or 480p broadcast that was upscaled to 720p. Kanaka's CV performance will probably remind you of Tsuruya from Haruhi. Looks like there will be multiple short story arcs. OP - Kotodama by Ali Project...sounds more like it would be fitting for a horror story than about death and the human heart, but it's poppy and grows on you after a while. The animation here isn't anything to write home about. ED - Chain by Snow...balladish. This is nice as a standalone song, but I'm not sure if it goes well with the anime. Not on the level of True Tears this season, but with the short story arcs, I think there remains a possibility of redemption. Definitely looking forward to how this series improves or crashes, as the premise makes it somewhat difficult to write around without becoming repetetive. If you only have an opportunity to watch 2 anime from this season and aren't dead set on a certain genre, Shigofumi and True Tears I would highly recommend. |
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Re: Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~
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by
on 2008-01-20 08:34:53 |
i just watched the first episode and wew, thats a real psycho girl we're having 
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Re: Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~
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by
 
on 2008-01-28 14:59:49 (edited 2008-01-28 16:15:55)
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Just watching episode one right now, and it's looking pretty interesting...probably gonna be one of my favs =] Does anyone know the name of the violin/piano BG music at about 4 minutes into the episode?? it's really pretty *_* EDIT: Just finished it (after pausing it for so long xD)....and wow, was I surprised by the ending!! O_O I can't believe that happened... |
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Re: Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~
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by
 
on 2008-02-04 07:39:25 |
The anime got licensed D=  |
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Re: Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~
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I just watched it and immediately got addicted to it.  
Death is certain, the hour is not ~Gankotsuoh |