After watching the first episode of Mokke a few weeks ago, I wrote, “The first episode didn’t necessarily grab me as much as I would’ve liked, but I think the show has a lot of potential.” Yet, despite my optimism, I proceeded to put the show out of sight and out of mind, almost to the point of forgetting about it entirely. This past weekend, however, I sat down and watched a few more episodes and discovered that my initial impression of the show was pretty much on the mark. In fact, I’d even go so far as to now label it one of my favorite shows of the season. I’m glad I gave it a fair chance.
When it comes to evaluating anime series, I’ve occasionally been accused of being a bit of a pollyanna in my assessment. I suppose it’s true, to a point; I consider myself an optimist and I have this annoying habit of being flexible and open-minded when presented with problems or new situations. It’s something I inherited from my father, I guess. He’s much the same way.
It’s also why I’m such a horrible anime reviewer. It’s not that I don’t view anime with a critical eye - otherwise, I’d be drowning in dreck - but, if the good in an anime series vastly outweighs the bad, I’m likely to describe it in glowing terms, ignoring even those flaws which clearly deserve mention. When your audience consists of a bunch of cynical anime fans, however, what do you do? Do you take the high road and stick to your guns? Or do you play to their desires and start dishing out the snark, poking at a show’s every imperfection, no matter how insignificant it may be? For me, it’s neither. I just said, “screw it,” and stopped writing reviews.
But impressions are another matter entirely. The nice thing about impressions is that they’re quite often snapshots of a moment in time. If I write, “I’m really enjoying Suki Suki Neko Rangers at the moment,” and leave it at that, I’m not committing to any particular opinion of the show as a whole. If the show goes down the drain five episodes later when its revealed that Neko Ranger Blue is, in fact, a descendant of God sent to rescue the Earth from an invasion of robotic Neko Ranger embryos from the past (boy, do I hate it when that happens), it doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed Suki Suki Neko Rangers at some point in time. And, when it comes time to judge the show in its entirety, the fact that it went in a direction I didn’t care for doesn’t mean the time I spent watching it up to that point was all for naught. Bait and switch is such a common feature of anime storytelling that I’ve grown accustomed to taking things one episode at a time. There’s less disappointment that way.
With the start of every new anime season, however, first impressions abound. From the minute the first new show premieres in Japan, the race is on to see who can weigh in the fastest. There’s definitely some value in these first impressions; with something like fifty new shows premiering each season, how does an anime fan determine what to watch? Spend a half hour on each and every one? Of course not. We rely an awful lot on the impressions of others when building our watchlists for the season. Unfortunately, however, those impressions aren’t always very trustworthy.
Compare and contrast the following statements…
1. “The first episode of Suki Suki Neko Rangers was far from perfect, but I like the characters and the premise. The animation was actually pretty good for this sort of show. I don’t know how it’ll turn out, but I’ll give it a chance for the time being. This is kind of a weak season so far, so I’ll take what I can get.”
2. “Why was this show even made in the first place? The animation is nowhere near the quality of the Sad Kittens in Rain remake from last year. I know they’re different studios, but it doesn’t matter. Suki Suki Neko Rangers? More like Sucky Sucky Neko Rangers, amirite? Still, I might as well watch it… it’s better that all this other crap. Worst anime season ever.”
Now, if you were thinking of watching Suki Suki Neko Rangers and went looking for impressions of the first episode, which of the above would you find more valuable? Assuming you’re not this guy, most likely the first statement. However, spend enough time reading anime blogs or hanging out on anime discussion forums, and you’re likely to see a lot of the second statement.
Everyone’s different, of course, but I know I find such premature proclamations of value (or lack thereof) to be useless. Terribly misleading, too. Far too many times, I’ve seen a show turn itself around following a lackluster start. And too many times I’ve seen a show blow a spectacular start in only a few episodes time. This is typical for most forms of serial entertainment, I suppose, but it seems especially common in anime. The smaller the sample, the harder it is to make sense of the big picture.
So, when I wrote, “the show has a lot of potential,” in sharing my initial impression of Mokke, I was essentially saying, “I want to see the big picture.” And I think this insistence on focusing on the big picture has helped me maintain my interest in anime after all these years. I find I don’t have to deal with disappointment as often as I think I would had I focused too much on the little nits and flaws that plague even the best of shows. And I’ve stumbled upon a lot of pleasant surprises along the way.
To be honest, I can’t even remember the last time I finished watching a show, only to think, “Gee, that was a colossal waste of time.” Even if I’m wearing rose-colored glasses, I seem to be having lots of fun all the same.
And I’m OK with that.
