21
votes
Season 2 of One Punch Man is coming but being animated by a different company
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- Title
- The Second Season Of The 'One-Punch Man' Anime Starts This April
- Authors
- Ollie Barder
- Word count
- 317 words
I wasnt aware they'd use a new animation studio. I am slightly weary because I am a huge fan of the original style for sure. Hopefully this works out. Is anyone familiar with the new animation company?
The new animation studio, JC Staff, has a pretty rocky track record, especially in recent years. They are mostly known for doing a lot of projects, which often leads to management issues, and we can see OPM S2 is already being affected. This is not to say JC Staff never did good anime, they most certainly have (Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Toradora, Bakuman, Nodame Cantabile, Hachimitsu to Clover are some that jump to mind), but they often have a lot of "filler" anime projects in between the big ones, which don't get much love.
Now it's also important to point out that the first season of OPM is kind of a miracle. The majority of the staff who worked on it were freelancers who simply wanted to work on the project and give it their all, and it very much shows, so it was very unlikely that we would ever have another season like the first one and people already lowered their expectations. But even after lowering expectations, this newest season's promotional material is really uninspiring. Most of the action shots shown were very static, the character design is a lot less detailed, and 1/4 of the newest PV was literally just black.
Compared to the first season's promotional stuff, which was full of life, this new season is looking more and more like a massive downgrade, and at this point I'm not holding out hope for it to be good, but of course I would love to be proven wrong.
To be frank, though, the action itself or the animation - the production - was never really what made me like the first season of OPM. I mean, yes, admittedly, this shit's bangin', but still - my point is, the reason I went out and got the first volume of the manga after watching was the story and characters, because it's that bizarre framing that makes the show remarkable, and unique.
And the first season, at least, followed the manga on a basically per-frame basis. Unless they deliberately start going off script, I can't imagine it's going to be terrible - it's still the same writing, just different people executing the action.
As a manga reader myself (before the anime even aired) I also agree an important part of my enjoyment as I watched the anime was the story itself, so I will give JC Staff some credit if they do justice to the story, but it's undeniable that a huge chunk of the appeal of season 1 was seeing just how beautiful and full of life everything was, whether it was a static scene or an action scene, there was always stuff happening on screen, and all the other elements like the soundtrack and the choreography complemented every frame, and I don't know how much I trust JC Staff to carry that over to the new season, especially when they don't have the best reputation around.
For sure if they keep the pacing of the story right it'll still be on the good side of the spectrum, but losing that lively animation will really damper my enjoyment I feel like.
Of course in the end we can only wait and see, but I can't build my hype like I did when the season one trailers dropped, especially when all we got now was 1/4 black screens and the other 3/4 mostly static shots.
I do very much hope I am proven wrong though, because I want this anime to be great.
That's fair. It's just, like - I honestly can't say the same, which is unusual for me. Typically I'm very attentive of such things. It's just that frankly, all of the interesting action bits of the series - Saitama getting faux-pummeled by the house of evolution monster, the deep sea king, the fight between the S-classes and the mud-creature, even Saitama's fight with Boros - were, for me, all interesting because they contributed to that story, rather than being particularly spectacularly animated. The only exception I can readily think of was when Genos and Saitama were fighting, due in no small part to the aforementioned bangin' tunes. The rest of the fights, though well animated, where kinda... generic anime fights.
I donno. I don't mean to contradict you just for the hell of it. Just giving my thoughts.
JC Staff is one of my favorite animation studios in spite of their rocky quality. They were the first anime studio where I was able to notice their particular style. I stopped enjoying them as much after I realized I didn't like the genres they tended to go for (A Certain Magical Index is the perfect example) anymore. But during the late 90s to naughties, it seemed that a lot of the content I wanted was either produced by them or Studio DEEN.
Well this dampened my excitement for season 2. Last time a show changed studios for season 2 it turned one of my favorite shows ever (Psycho Pass) into something generic and boring.
There's obviously still potential, but I'm going to temper my expectations.
While it is unfortunate that the quality of season 2 will most likely decrease a lot, I'm not too bothered by that. Murata's version of the manga is so good that I don't feel the need for an anime. In the meanwhile, ONE's other work (Mob Psycho 100) is also being animated and both seasons are godlike in terms of design and animation. Season 2 is at its climax, this week's episode was the best 20 minutes of Japanese animation that I have ever watched.