10. Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA
No anime series is perfect. Sometimes, a series will come damn close, but it would be foolish to assume that even the most carefully crafted show won’t stumble some point along the way. Frustrating as they may be, such stumbles don’t have to be the defining feature of an otherwise enjoyable show. However, when they occur near the end, they tend to color your memories nonetheless.
And that’s why it feels strange to be writing about Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA right now. At some point during its broadcast run, I wrote, “the final episodes will decide its legacy.” If I were to stand by that statement, I would have to describe the legacy of Idolmaster XENGLOSSIA as uncertain. I’m still not entirely sure what to think of the show’s final act. It was typical Sunrise fare, I suppose: throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. And it definitely didn’t do the show any favors. But, as stumbles go, it didn’t make me come to dislike the show in any particular way, nor did it make me forget why I came to enjoy the show so much in the first place.
In an era when high production values and competent direction have become increasingly common in anime, Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA stands out from the crowd like most every Sunrise series. Somewhere along the line, Sunrise learned how to make anime look and feel not so much like cartoons, but like live action without limitations. The thoughtful camera work, consistent animation, polished score, and talented voice acting typical of most Sunrise productions is clearly present in the show. The concept may be silly, but the package is professional.
If you think about it, Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome were similar: silly stories presented in such a competent manner that you couldn’t help but find them engaging and fun to watch. We’d make jokes about, “Stuff happened and then there were boobs,” but we were still glued to our seats, anxiously awaiting each new episode. Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA didn’t have nearly as many followers, of course; it was always haunted by its origins, fans of the original game crying “bastard!” and the rest groaning “give me a break!” And to say the conventional wisdom sorted the show into the burnable garbage pile early on would be an understatement.
Which is probably why I write about Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA today. It was a show that was far from perfect in many ways and suffered no shortage of abuse for those imperfections, real and imagined. And, yet, when the final credits of the final episode rolled, I looked back on everything that had come before and thought, “all things considered, that was some good anime.” And for that, it deserves recognition.
I clearly need to finish this one… I got up into the mid-teens and stalled out (when I basically stopped watching anime for a couple of months). It’s no great shakes story-wise, but it has certainly annoyed me far less than did Otome.
Nice to hear, for once, that someone praising Sunrise for something - anything. Do you think it’s easier to see past a dodgy final act and assess a series as a whole when some time has passed since the show ended? I often find this is so.
I dropped Xenoglossia not to long ago. I might go back to it just because of Yukari Tamura’s voice, but not any time soon.
“If you think about it, Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome were similar: silly stories presented in such a competent manner that you couldn’t help but find them engaging and fun to watch. We’d make jokes about, “Stuff happened and then there were boobs,” but we were still glued to our seats, anxiously awaiting each new episode.”
Yeah, you hit it right on the dot. That’s the weird thing about Sunrise shows. It leaves me with that kind of feeling as well even when I was watching Code Geass.
Take care.
Yep - I thought of the same things - some series, like Mai Hime, are extremely far from being perfect - and yet when they ended, the audience couldn’t help but want some more.
Wow, I think you’ve actually put your finger on the previously intangible quality that causes me to like Sunrise shows so much. Bravo!
In regards to Xenoglossia, I didn’t mind the final act so much - come to think of it, most of the discussion I’ve seen regarding the last few episodes has been largely positive. I do think there was a period through the middle stretch where in lulled a little - it seemed obvious where it was going, but didn’t actually want to go anywhere. I kind of think a couple of episodes could have been cut out of the middle in order to stretch the ending out a little - some of later events could have done with some additional expansion, and I’d kill for a proper epilogue.
That said, I’m nitpicking, and I’m kind of thinking it was probably a conscience decision by someone at Sunrise to not have the crap hit the fan at Episode 14 when we’d normally expect it. I have a sneaking suspicion someone at Sunrise was was purposely being a little subversive with their plot twists - things like Haruka being stranded with with Chihaya, Yukiho having just one last chance to activate Imber, Asuza trying to get Makoto to open up by forcing Haruka on her are all very, very Sunrise plot developments. The ultimate resolution to any of them, however, aren’t - I was kind of taken aback by how willing Yukiho was to play the villain, for example (even if the actual twist was visible miles off).
Anyway, whilst certainly not the best show of the year (Baccano and Denno Coil would get my vote), I have to say it’s probably the one I had the most fun following, even if it was near impossible to find other people doing so.
The problem for me was that I couldn’t overcome the illogical progression in the end. I watched through the whole series for there was much potential for it to be better, but it ended up as a one of the show I forgot after 5 minutes.
I think episode 25 was a great place to stop, because 26 sorta kinda maybe resolved stuff.
Still pretty happy about watching episodes 1-2, and then 17-26. It was a pretty show that was put together well enough to warrant the time to watch it. Hey Jeff did you even watch 20 new anime this year? I mean if you did end up watching about 20 shows, then I would agree that Xenoglossia is about middle of the pack :p
This is an example of “damning with faint praise”, I think.
If Xenoglossia is licensed, I’ll have to take a look at it.
I’ll agree with you about Mai-HiME, but I found My-Otome neither particularly competent nor engaging. Well, the first few episodes of Mai-Otome were fine, but the show deteriorated after that — it was a show both blessed and damned by its predecessor — blessed, because without the tie-in, it would have had even less of a following, damned, because Mai-HiME was a damned hard act to follow. Good soundtrack, though. That song that Arika, Nina, and Mashiro share was haunting and lovely.
I just Deleted all my Xenoglossia Related Stuff (including Mai otome with the exception of mai HiME) after I watched the episodes back 2 back Because i was so sad and no desire to studying, eating and sleeping because of the storyline plot when Chihaya-chan takes Imber from haruka-chan( She has Done it again, DAMN IT!! I Should AVENGE FOR HARUKA!!) also same goes when Hibiki is one of my hated character in xenoglossia. The same thing as last year’s Mai Otome where Nagi Dai Artai is also one of most hated character ever because for what he did to Nina & Sergey. I felt sorry for Nina & Sergey at the end. *cries and depressed*
Because my Japanese Final Exam is just around the corner, I have to so i can concetrate my japanese lesson that i just learned earlier(i wanna get the higher score because my japanese is good).
I always told myself that I wanted to watch this because I have been told by a few people that it is quite a good show. Up to now, I still have not acquired the series at all. It is probably a huge pity. ~_~
“Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA didn’t have nearly as many followers, of course; it was always haunted by its origins, fans of the original game crying “bastard!” and the rest groaning “give me a break!” And to say the conventional wisdom sorted the show into the burnable garbage pile early on would be an understatement.”
I agree on that. I’ve read two bloggers who posted things about Xenoglossia: Omni from Random Curiosity and Xebek from Xebek’s Anime Blog. Omni was completely turned off by the cheesiness of the anime, which is why he stopped it blogging midseries. Xebek is more cautious, but optimistic, in saying his reactions. Which is why he finished it.
You may stop watching an anime if you are turned off by it. But if you’re the type who watch an anime series indifferently from start to finish, even if you find something that really turns you off in the middle, you may end up liking it in the end. Just like me involving the first Negima anime, its animation is flat if not bad, but overall it really wasn’t that bad.
Perhaps it was good for some, but it was definitely boring for me.
Really now… you can’t deny that the whole plot device for the anime was just too “off”. Also, Haruka in love with Imber was just painful to watch.
I agree that Haruka x Imber was weird, to say the least. I didn’t pay it much attention, however, so it didn’t really color my impression of the show in any particular way. Perhaps I’ve watched too much anime. Weird story concepts don’t phase me anymore.
And, Omo, including the shows I’m watching now and fully intend to finish, my total for the year is probably around 20. There are another 5 to 10 shows I watched in part, but never finished. A few of those, I’ll probably finish eventually, but time is hard to come by. I agree that Xenoglossia was pretty much “middle of the pack”, but just good enough to deserve special mention in the end. As for the ending itself, I don’t think it disappointed me as much as there were extra elements included which didn’t necessarily help the show in any way. It seemed like the story got artificially complicated at the very end. In fact, I’m not even sure I fully understand some of what happened.
Anyway, I think Xenoglossia is a great example of a show that was dismissed without just cause. Yes, a lot of people watched the first few episodes and decided it wasn’t for them, but I think just as many (if not more) jumped at the opportunity to pass along the “oh, it sucks” idea without actually checking the show out for themselves. And, as always, I think that’s a shame.
I kinda liked the show but i only have seen the firsts episodes so i couldnt tell.
At beginning i didnt expect to be about mechas, because i thought about Idols as Idols, and not about mecha drivers, but i think the show title was a good move.
Hm..I really enjoyed this one in the beginning but then I just felt it became decent.
THEN all that stuff happened and we moved to the later parts, ending etc etc…I got the feeling that it tried too hard, tried to become a little too epic for it’s own good…
Of course it had it’s moments, I mean some of the characters were gold.
…I found it amusing that Asuza looked much much better than her game-counterpart and Chihaya did not.
Jeff: I guess it doesn’t hurt to check this show out. I did out of the recommendations of some and at least I didn’t regret it.
I do think I would have regretted it if I started from the beginning, however. This is really the kind of show, I believe, that you don’t really lose anything by missing out. And for what it is worth, all those comparisons drawn to Mai-Hime only highlights that it’s worse than a “bad” show, if Mai-Hime is the “best worst” show since some time…
Hooray, another person who enjoyed Idolmaster Xenoglossia. I actually listed it as the series I felt had the best overall animation in 2007. And as IKnight said, it’s always refreshing to say somebody praising Sunrise for something instead of just unfairly bashing all their efforts and failing to see the good. Hopefully in 2008 we start seeing more people giving this studio’s work a fair chance instead of just carrying on this meme that if a series is done by Sunrise it will be a trainwreck. Sunrise isn’t full of idiots, they’ve been around since the 70’s and wouldn’t be around today if they didn’t have a knack at making enjoyable anime, so I don’t know why this mentality has come to grow among bloggers.
That a mecha oriented company targeted at people like me, who are really into that stuff can reach out to more Slice of Life and Moe, not just once, but multiple oriented fans says a lot to me. To date it is something I can’t think of any other studio that has managed to bring about such a uniting of different fanbases on more than one occassion, and if they are to be damned for that, then it’s a darn shame. If they have one major fault it’s that they often try to do to much in too little time and there are some plot lines that get left up in the air. That I’m sure can be worked on though.
Well Yukiho looked a lot cuter in the game than her dumbass messed up in the head counterpart. Yukiho’s cuteness in the game was one of the reasons she is my favorite character in the game. I don’t really hate the show but I ended up seeing a lot of stuff you wouldn’t see Yukiho do in the game. The only thing I hated about the show was the idea of making Idolm@ster characters evil. There are certain people who should be lucky that they didn’t see the later episodes because I guarantee the stuff that happened in the later episodes would have shocked, upset, and angered people like it did to me. Now I hope that I can finally quit obsessing about the shit that Yukiho and chihaya did.
I will always like the idolm@ster until the day I die!!