Oofuri anime & Shion no Ou - impressions

The Oofuri anime [1] is close to the manga, but is nicely
paced and the animation is well done. There are bits
'n pieces that are nice additions like the Mihoshi
Academy boys paying homage to the Nishiura younger
manager. It does well in retaining the alternatingly
goofy and dramatic scenes of the manga. Like when Abe
went looking for Mihashi right before the practice
game, there was just enough super-deformed and tension
breaking lines to make that scene work.

The Shion manga [2] was well drawn and I liked the overall
feel. The anime [3] kept close to the original, but I felt like the
director sleep walked through the adaptation except
when he transformed Shion into a lollicon. The
manga had a clean presentation that was lost in the
animation, especially when it came to the color
palette. Shion herself was made more scruffy with her
hair and her unbuttoned navel button. Where the manga
had a more cool and eerie air to her character design,
these subtleties were entirely lost on the animator
who gave her reddish, doughy cheeks a la Kamichu. Ugh.

Shion manga, I give a read rating. To the Shion anime,
I would say skip except when bored.


[1] fansubbed by Entropy & Saizen (watched up to eps 4)
[2] "Shion no Ou" scanlated by Hanashi (Vol 1 & Vol 2 ch 7-9) and Xiphias (Vol 2 ch 10-11).
[3] "Shion no Ou" anime episode 1 fansubbed by Live Evil, who did a good job, but I just didn't like the source material.