Reading Report: 09 June 2024
This week I flew to America. I started reading 伊坂幸太郎's オーデュボンの祈り, watched the Escaflowne movie/rebuild, and continued watching なるたる. I also watched three episodes of 伝説巨神イデオン. Spoilers for each inside.
なるたる
I've read the manga for this, as mentioned last week. While episode 1 was fairly faithful to the story, it's unfortunate to see how much was cut to make the 13-episode run work at all. Not only did they strip away most side stories, they basically cut the story at the half way point. From the animation quality I imagine it was a budget thing, but it's kind of a shame such a unique property has such a poor adaptation.
エスカフローネ
I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie. It's essentially a re-telling of the original story with a bunch of elements moved around and greatly truncated for time. I wasn't a big fan of how most of the characters were changed, and Folken in particular was very unlikable right to the end in this version of events. The music and animation was beautiful but I certainly preferred the pacing, world, characters, and story of the original.
伝説巨神イデオン
I watched this on a day when I was too sick to do much else, so my attention was also a little bit occupied by a fever. Regardless, the setup seems fairly interesting. A bunch of people from various affiliations/classes boarded a mystery vehicle after a gunfight broke out, and the vehicle turns out to be an ancient fusion-type mech, Ideon. I imagine once they get into space and the factions have to start interacting with each other to make Ideon function properly the drama will feel more interesting.
オーデュボンの祈り
I'm reading this on my e-reader which isn't separating out chapters perfectly, so I'm not sure if the entire book is one story or if it's a series of short stories. Either way the first two sections are of the storyline. The story is about a man (伊藤) who wakes up on a foreign island full of odd people and conventions apparently separated from the Japanese mainland. The story jumps between the present and various past experiences the man had that give some context for his own behaviour. For example we get a number of anecdotes about his grandmother who was very opinionated about the world, and we see the main character repeat some of those opinions. We also learn about his failed relationship and failure to do the right thing at critical points in his youth.
A major "character" is a kakashi/scarecrow called 優午 (ゆうご) who claims to have been around for over 150 years, with the ability to tell the future.