Arata Kangatari-Not What I Expected

Written by RenjiWu09 on August 13, 2013 at 5:39 PM

I read the synopsis and it looked interesting but the truth is I only watched 2 and a half episodes. Why is that? I'll explain. This story has characters that cross into parallel universes, it should be interesting enough right? I couldn't get hooked onto the series because of the main character, Arata. Wait there are two Aratas from two different worlds. One is a highly unconfident Arata and the other is overly brash. The manga was well received I heard but I have not personally read it. So far in the three episodes I have watched, it featured the wimpy Arata and he really pisses me off. I'm not a fan of pathetic characters because usually they exhibit slow changes. Arata has reasons to be wimpy because of past bullying and betrayal but for some reason it just didn't resonate with me. I couldn't feel pity for his character. It's more like me shouting at the screen "Do something already! Don't just stop and stare!" The other Arata on the other hand adapts to his environment more easily and is willing to man up to things. Not only do we have a pathetic character, we also have Kotoha who serves as wimpy Arata's more than just a companion. Due to the complicated circumstances or maybe not so complicated, the switching of Aratas isn't noticed in both worlds because they don't realize that there's an Arata wearing a school uniform in a Ainu-like village and an Arata with traditional gear in an urban city. Kotoha will refer to wimpy Arata as Master Arata and continue to believe that the Arata she knew lost his memory rather than disappearing into another reality altogether. Not that smart but then I don't blame her. She's also very clingy to Arata and becomes a bit of a burden. However she does possess a healing ability which kinda makes up for it but I don't really care because authors love making female characters that are innocent and possess healing powers. I'm sure you can name a few for argument's sake.

The animation is ok, not exceptional but not poor. They used effects since this is a fantasy genre and there are special powers like Hayagami. I thought the 12 Shinshou had some cool designs and Yuu Watase's drawings of them looked pretty cool. Other than that, the 12 Shinsou are kind of all asses because they just killed the princess and framed the murder on Arata. Events are fairly predictable making it one of the reasons I decided to drop the series. If you are a big fan of Yuu Watase's works, maybe go ahead. Arata Kangatari is her first shounen series because all of her works so far are shoujo. I'm sure there are viewers that are interested in this type of parallel universe fantasy genre. It just wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately.