Renn’s 12 Moments in Anime: 8 Noitamina

I usually save the moment till the end of the post, but let’s get this out of the way: moment eight is all about the shift in Noitamina. The shows in the time-slot are not always good and very few are accessible, but they don’t conform to anime trends. They try to use anime to convey something different. I really love that time slot. Or, at least, I did. There’s no getting around the fact that Noitamina changed this year. Most of this year’s eight shows are different from year’s past.

I could put most of the new qualities under the umbrella of “otaku pandering,” but that’s not fair. It’s not that this year’s Noitamina turned into harem anime or eroge adaptations. They just took some jarring elements, slapped them in, and hoped for better DVD sales. How has Noitamina changed? Let me count four ways…

(1) Sex. With most anime, you say, come on, it’s just sex. You don’t need to make it sacred or into some dirty joke. Noitamina shows, by contrast, have had a refreshing view on the subject. Genji Monogatari Senneki, Paradise Kiss, Nodame Cantabile, and Trapeze use sex pretty casually. And at least, none of the Noitamina shows glorified sex as the end-all, be-all, determinator for a girl’s purity.

But this year, I don’t think there was a single sex scene or implied casual sex scene in the Noitamina timeslot. And worse, two Noitamina shows discuss sex in the most conservative, otaku-centric way possible Oh, God, the 15-year-old Phryne is tainted, so her soul needs to be replaced by a 10-year-old Nessa. Anaru must be a virgin, despite her sultry image, or the DVD sales will drop. Come on, Noitamina. It’s just sex.

(2) High school students. Teens have always been a rarity on Noitamina. Pre-teens, children, and adults are the norm. On average, a teenage cast won’t be as mature as a cast of adults, nor as whimsical as a cast of children, especially if they’re in high school. And as “whimsical” and “mature” have been the defining adjectives for Noitamina, slapping in teenagers marks a shift in tone. This year, four Noitamina shows featured teenage protagonists: Fractale, Hourou Musuko, AnoHana, and Guilty Crown. Two of them are about high school students: AnoHana and Guilty Crown.

What’s ironic though is that while Noitamina shifted to teenagers, many 2011 anime shifted away from them. Tiger & Bunny, Steins;Gate, and Fate/Zero all have casts with adults, and they were some of the biggest hits this year. With their DVD sales, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see less teens in the following years. Maybe with high school casts, Noitamina will continue to buck trends, after all.

(3) Moe. Well, it’s not that Noitamina has never had moe characters. Honey and Clover’s Hagu and Nodame Cantabile’s Nodame have moe qualities, for example. But look at Nessa (Fractale), Menma (AnoHana), and Inori (Guilty Crown). They don’t fit into any of Noitamina’s old shows. Guess they’ve gotta sell those figurines.

(4) Ambition. But the biggest criticism leveraged at Noitamina shows this year is that the writing sucked. Okay, look at premises for this year’s shows. Those are big plots, even if they had 26-episodes, let alone 11. Of course they’ll suck.

High-concept premises are not new to Noitamina, but grand-scale premises are. Prior to 2011, only Eden of the East and Jyu Oh Sei had grand-scale, sci-fi plots. This year, Fractale, No. 6, and Guilty Crown all had the fate of world on their shoulders. There’s a commonality between all five of these shows: rushed endings and bouts of bad writing. It’s tough to keep a big story compact, and this year, Noitamina bit off more than it could chew.

The bright side? But look, it’s not that Noitamina was complete crap this year. [C] and No. 6 would have fit perfectly into years past; they’re just as good as stuff like Jyu Oh Sei and Genji Monogatari Senneki. Hourou Musuko, Usagi Drop, and Un-Go are very true to the old Noitamina spirit, and they’re fantastic. And, sure, Fractale and Guilty Crown both defy Noitamina norms are and are awful, but AnoHana is not an awful show. A slight shift isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

And all of these shows did have Noitamina staples: big budget and/or unique-looking animation, planned stories, and high concept plots and/or characterization. It’s not that the time slot has abandoned its roots completely… yet.

So, what does the future hold? Well, for now… it doesn’t look that good. Black Rock Shooter has moe, high school students, and, I’m sure, puritanical views on sex, plus it’s made by the same company as Fractale. I don’t mind a Black Rock Shooter anime, but that it’s being featured on Noitamina is worrying. And, then there’s Thermae Romae, which fits the mold of an old-school Noitamina, but it’s only three-episodes and made in Flash. We will see.

Where do you stand on Noitamina?

Note: This is moment 8 in the 12 moments in anime post. One moment a day, twelve days straight. As you can see, I’m late. Why do these posts have to take place during exam time, darnit? But as exams have finished, and I’m home, I’m going to get three of these out today, and two out tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Image Credit: Header, Fractale, Hourou Musuko, [C], AnoHana, Usagi Drop, No. 6, Un-Go, Guilty Crown, Ender

/ 4 Commentsleave a comment /

• trzr23 says:

  December 25, 2011

  Been a while.

  To me, noitaminA has never been the noitaminA that everyone seems to fawn about so much. I only look at it as a block that produces above-average anime. Like you say, it's noitaminA's tendency to stray from normalcy that attracts me.

  This year, noitaminA did stray from normalcy…but did it succeed? Not quite. Having original anime such as [C], carries with it several risks because there is neither an existing fanbase nor a completed story. With Fractale, Yamakan was screwing things up so bad, the mangaka posted a blog entry complaining "I don't know how to make a manga out of this shit…" (well, that wasn't her exact quote). Usagi Drop and Hurou Musoko – adaptations of two successful manga. End result? Excellent anime. Hurou Musoko did take a huge hit because it messed up the manga's story or so I hear. Ultimately, I think it all comes down to whether to be original or to adapt.

  It's not that adding moe and fanservice increased viewership for its slot. On the contrary, noitaminA's rating plunged big time. They weren't catering to anybody, they just screwed up. I also read somewhere that noitaminA may be trying to change their demographic audience, so that might have something to do with the direction they're taking.

  My recent post Two in one

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  • Renn says:

    December 25, 2011

    It's been forever. xD Really looking forward to your 12 days of Christmas post. :)

    I think Hourou Musuko flopped because of its topic. The Japanese are pretty conservative, so it's a risky kind of show. And as for adaptations vs original debate, I think adaptations are usually better on-average, so I agree for the most part. But to be fair, Noitamina had a good track record with original anime till this year: Eden of the East, Mononoke, Ayakashi, Trapeze, Tokyo Magnitude, AnoHana, and then some adaptations like No.6 just aren't that great. I really think it's the nature of the topic that matters most. You can only do so much with 11-episodes.

    I agree they were a complete mess this year. Hoping they'll get back on track after Black Rock Shooter, since I'm not hoping for much from that show. xD

    Reply
• Spinarakk says:

  December 25, 2011

  I don't see why people worry so much that noitaminA is losing its roots or straying from what it used to have. The way I see noitaminA, it's just another programming block that screens two anime a season which have only 11 episodes, nothing more. I don't see it as some kind of gateway for anime that is better than the rest. The fact that they're trying to do more otaku-centered works doesn't worry me at all as it shouldn't matter that noitaminA are doing so, they're just trying to make money by targeting different audiences.

  Reply
  • Renn says:

    December 26, 2011

    Hmm, I liked Noitamina because it used to host anime you'd have a tough time finding anywhere else, not necessarily that it hosted better anime. Few other stations would host stuff like House of Five Leaves and Hourou Musuko, and Noitamina always provided an outlet for those quiet types of anime to be made. In contrast, anime like Guilty Crown and Black Rock Shooter could air on basically any station. Different strokes, I guess.

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