{"id":499,"date":"2015-10-05T08:35:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T13:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2017-05-04T09:42:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T14:42:04","slug":"kagewani-doba-anime-review-first-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"Kagewani “Doba” – Anime Review: First Impression"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If we\u2019ve learned anything from Godzilla over the years, it\u2019s that Japan knows how to make monsters memorable. With that in mind, when I saw the description for the new anime television series <\/span>Kagewani<\/span><\/i>, I was cautiously excited. <\/span>Kagewani <\/span><\/i>is about a scientist named Sousuke Banba who investigates a number of giant monsters that have appeared in Japan and begun attacking people. I\u2019ve now seen the first episode of the series, titled “Doba”, and upon my first impression I think it\u2019ll be worth continuing on with the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kagewani<\/span><\/i> is a short anime. Each episode is under eight minutes long, so there\u2019s not really much of an investment in time to keep up with it. Unfortunately, the short duration of the episodes means that there might not be much story to be had either. My hopes for a good story are bolstered a bit by the creative team behind the series though.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Both the director, Tomoya Takashima, and writer, Hiromu Kumamoto, previously worked on a horror anime titled <\/span>Yami Shibai<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Yami Shibai<\/span><\/i> was a short anthology series that focused on multiple tales of ghosts and other supernatural entities. Some episodes were better than others, but I quite enjoyed the series as a whole. It has some good creepy moments. The story in <\/span>Kagewani <\/span><\/i>looks like it will be approached differently since there appears to be a story arc carried over from week to week, but after just having watched the first episode, the tone of the series and the way in which the stories are told seem very similar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Not
The scares are more based on tension than anything else.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first episode is about a group of guys who attempt to fake a monster sighting video (kind of like the famous picture of the Loch Ness Monster) to post on their (presumably) YouTube channel in order to attract viewers. They get the wrong kind of attention though when one of their group disappears into woods. It\u2019s a fun little story that\u2019s not terribly surprising, but it is well done.<\/p>\n

The art style in <\/span>Kagewani<\/span><\/i> is interesting. It\u2019s very similar to the art style of <\/span>Yami Shibai<\/span><\/i> which was intended to evoke the traditional style of storytelling called \u201ckamishibai\u201d which uses paper scrolls. In <\/span>Kagewani<\/span><\/i>, the characters again look kind of like paper dolls with minimal animation. Some people might be put off by this, but I think it works for the stories that are being told. The limited animation allows for greater detail in the textures of the characters and backgrounds and the strange movements help to create a very unreal, uneasy sense of tension.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the episode we see Banba as he approaches the site where the boys were. He wasn\u2019t really involved in this episode much, but he appears to have a hidden dark side that\u2019s sure to come out as the series progresses. Maybe he\u2019s connected to the monsters in some way? I guess I\u2019ll have to keep watching to find out. I suggest you do too.<\/p>\n

\"What
What is going on in Banba’s head?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First Impression<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Keep Watching<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no Godzilla, it seems it will be focused more on tension than action, but <\/span>Kagewani<\/span><\/i> looks like it will be a fun series to watch for monster fans. And at eight minutes a week, it\u2019s not like many people can\u2019t find the time. The show is currently airing in Japan and is also being carried as a simulcast on Crunchyroll.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DETAILS<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Title: Kagewani
\n<\/em>Release Season:\u00a0Fall 2015
\nDirector:\u00a0Tomoya Takashima
\nWriter:\u00a0Hiromu Kumamoto
\nFeatured Cast:\u00a0Tomokazu Sugita
\nSeries Length:\u00a013 episodes
\nEpisode Length: 7:50<\/p>\n

Availability:\u00a0Streaming on Crunchyroll<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

REFERENCES<\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/myanimelist.net\/anime\/30524\/<\/a> (My Anime List page)<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kagewani is a horror series with giant monsters and lots of tension. After watching one episode, is it worth continuing on with?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443,5],"tags":[227,231,230,233,47,225,229,228,234,232,226],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anime-review","category-review","tag-anime","tag-doba","tag-first-impression","tag-hiromu-kumamoto","tag-japanese","tag-kagewani","tag-series","tag-television","tag-tomokazu-sugita","tag-tomoya-takashima","tag-yami-shibai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}