High Guardian Spice - Tumblr: The CalArt Anime

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damian said:
Sure is strange how we've literally only seen a few clips in some compilation trailer for HGS and yet this pile of trash got a legit trailer:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0jCPQe9g-TE
Another premium Crunchyroll exclusive.
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Looks trashy, but probably will be more fun to rag on than HGS. It's also listed as an ecchi on MAL, so expect some boobs that will be entirely missing in HGS.
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Anime had long been sneaking boobs and violence into the U.S. since the early 80ies with a nary a peep from the Moral Majority. As long as just enough of the naughty bits scenes are cut or edited everything was good to go. Which considering the complete and utter shitshow the Moral Majority was making over American made cartoons having any violence have been baffling.
 
I think I'll summarize the state of Crunchyroll Originals:

Onyx Equinox: November 2020
Noblesse: October 2020
The God of High School: July 2020
Tonikawa: October 2020
Gibiate: July 2020
So I'm a Spider, So What?: January 2021
Ex-Arm: January 2021
Tower of God: April 2020
In/Spectre: January 2020
High Guardian Space: TBA
FreakAngels: TBA
Meiji Gekken: TBA

Note that all the ones that came out or are about to come out (except for Onyx Equinox) were made in Japan, and all the ones that still don't have a release date set were not.

Baka gaijin think they can outperform the masters of the the animation craft.
 
3 weeks late, but:
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On November 7, 2019, Raye Rodriguez, the creator and executive producer of High Guardian Spice, tweeted he and his team had finished production on the series and that it was only a matter of time till it would be released into the wild. Over a year later and that Tweet is still pinned on his Twitter page.

Meanwhile, Crunchyroll has been radio silent on the exact date of High Guardian Spice's premiere, except to say that it's "Coming Soon." This phrase was tweeted on February 25, 2020, by the official High Guardian Spice Twitter account. The account has made no updates since, despite the show supposedly still coming out in 2020.

Between November 2019 and November 2020, Crunchyroll has rolled out numerous other Crunchyroll Original series. Some have been quite popular and well-received such as The God of High School and Tower of God, but others have been utter disasters. Currently, Gibiate ranks as the lowest rated full-length TV anime series on MyAnimeList, and EX-ARM's recently released trailer has an over 90% dislike ratio on YouTube.

High Guardian Spice received quite a bit of blowback when it was initially announced. Many disliked how Crunchyroll announced the series with a trailer that centered on diversity among the staff instead of the quality of the product. Some were angry that Crunchyroll is spending its money on producing American cartoons instead of paying translators better wages and acquiring more anime licenses. Of course, there were also trolls opposed to the show's diversity period.

The controversy around High Guardian Spice was perhaps a valid reason for Crunchyroll to delay it until they'd rolled out some of their other Original series, but at this point, the delay is seeming ridiculous when considering what shows Crunchyroll is premiering. The dislike ratio on the EX-ARM trailer speaks for itself. There's something oddly endearing about the naive overconfidence of said trailer, with its final line "Declaring war against all of the SF series around the world!!" It almost comes across as parody, but unfortunately is not.

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At Crunchyroll Expo 2020, the director of EX-ARM, Yoshikatsu Kimura, held a virtual panel with voice actor Soma Saito on the story and development of the series. There, he reassured everyone that he had some connection to anime because his previous job was at the prestigious Production I.G ... as a live-action director. Yes, his only credits are live-action credits, and according to IMDb, even that isn't too long a list either. Thus far, everyone announced for the series has never worked on an anime before.

Despite how everyone involved's lack of experience inevitably leading to a disastrous production, EX-ARM was greenlit regardless. It was originally set to premiere in July 2020 but was delayed due to COVID-19 to January 2021. Unfortunately, it does not appear that delay has given their team enough time to release a competent product.

As disastrous Crunchyroll Original productions like Gibiate and EX-ARM are released and given premiere dates, High Guardian Spice has been left on the backburner. High Guardian Spice isn't even the only Crunchyroll Original receiving the silent treatment. On Crunchyroll's Original homepage, Meiji Gekken: Sword & Gun and FreakAngels are still copyrighted for 2020 but there's been no news about them since their February announcement. Meiji Gekken, at least, seems to be that it's relatively early in production -- the staff hasn't been announced, and even the title is a working title. FreakAngels has to deal with creator Warren Ellis having been accused of manipulative and predatory behavior by over 60 women and nonbinary people.

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Crunchyroll's fear of the anti-diversity crowd that complained loudest about High Guardian Spice seems to be hurting the chances of other creators trying to pitch diverse shows to the service. In August, animation creator Sara Eissa discussed on Twitter how her show pitch for Astur's Rebellion was rejected due to bias against elements of diversity such as POC and LGBTQ+ main characters. She never directly stated which company rejected her pitch, but she implied guesses the company in question was Crunchyroll were correct.

Say what you will about High Guardian Spice's art style or marketing, but at least showrunner Raye Rodriguez has years of experience in animation. At the very least, High Guardian Spice will be a professional-quality product, and diverse stories are worth celebrating (even if it's an awful idea to make a trailer that's just about diversity). Crunchyroll has embarrassed themselves with Crunchyroll Originals like EX-ARM and Gibiate, and it's doubtful High Guardian Spice could be worse... and in fact, there's reason to believe it could be a good show.

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There is some light at the end of this tunnel for Crunchyroll at least. Onyx Equinox is releasing November 21 and will be the first of Crunchyroll's original American cartoons to be released. If this series proves successful enough to overcome the stigma against American cartoons on Crunchyroll, one would hope Crunchyroll will gain the confidence to finally set High Guardian Spice free from its cage.
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Oh boy, I haven't watched anything related to the other Crunchyroll Originals, and it seems like I missed truckloads of lol-mílk.
I just watched that EX-ARM trailer and I've seen amateur machinimas in the '00's that were better animated than that. And yes, as you might have guessed, it's a 3DCG anime. Think Rwby, but uglier.
Gibiate looks just cheap and bland. There's probably more badness there that the trailers don't reveal, I'll just trust the MAL reviews that call it the worthy successor to Mars of Destruction. MAL users can't be that wrong.
The fact that the FreakAngels' creator was #metoo'd is just an icing on the cake.

Suddenly, HGS doesn't seem that bad of an idea.
 
The redesign of Thyme really killed any interest I had in this. I would've at least watched it to see if its as bad as everyone was expecting/hoping, but something about the redesign is a massive red flag for me that the show won't even be fun in a bad way.
 
Diesel Boogaloo said:
Gibiate looks just cheap and bland. There's probably more badness there that the trailers don't reveal, I'll just trust the MAL reviews that call it the worthy successor to Mars of Destruction. MAL users can't be that wrong.
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I gotta get back into it, but I was enjoying the schlock, like it's a clearly stupid idea (Edo/Meiji I can't remember samurai and ninja somehow find themselves time traveling to the future of 2030 where a virus has been mutating humans for a decade) but they run with it. One of the samurai ends up kamikazing one of the mutants with a helicopter in episode three, it's pretty lulzy. Interestingly enough, the anime got Yoshitaka Amano to be the character designer, and the music composer is Yuzo Koshiro of Ys and Streets of Rage 2 fame.

And the producer's face makes me laugh tbh.
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It's much more put together than HGS and will be much more watchable if HGS ever gets released.
 
Since AT&T sold Crunchyroll to Sony/Funimation, it's safe to guess that this will end up on Funi or they really are going to push VRV as the new streaming service, since it used to have both CR and Funi on the app. HGS will most likely be thrown on that platform eventually. This whole delay reminds me of 'Close Enough' being set to air on TBS, getting shelved and ending up on HBO Max.
 
Diesel Boogaloo said:
Gibiate looks just cheap and bland. There's probably more badness there that the trailers don't reveal, I'll just trust the MAL reviews that call it the worthy successor to Mars of Destruction. MAL users can't be that wrong.
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Oh it's bad all right. The CGI is arguably on par with, or is perhaps even worse than, the stuff seen in the Ex-Arm trailer. And the story itself has some schlocky, yet badass ideas, but the execution between the half-baked writing and even less-baked animation and voice acting completely kills it.
 
Diesel Boogaloo said:
Gibiate looks just cheap and bland. There's probably more badness there that the trailers don't reveal, I'll just trust the MAL reviews that call it the worthy successor to Mars of Destruction. MAL users can't be that wrong.
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Jewelsmakerguy said:
Oh it's bad all right. The CGI is arguably on par with, or is perhaps even worse than, the stuff seen in the Ex-Arm trailer. And the story itself has some schlocky, yet badass ideas, but the execution between the half-baked writing and even less-baked animation and voice acting completely kills it.
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Yeah, I watched Gibiate a while back and thought it would have been far better in the hands of a more experienced studio (with money) and just more...everything really. Crunchy have really crapped up with these Originals. The Noblesse adaptation could have been something great, but they squandered it on a not very good studio, short episode run and other issues, meaning key characters got cut, arcs got fast forwarded through and the animation is very bland and not great at times.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
How did Tower of God go? I thought people were happy with that.
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People who never read the Webtoon were enjoying it enough, but fans of the Webtoon disliked it. It skipped through arcs very fast, and had similar issues to the Noblesse one. Also they put Crunchyroll ads into the anime itself too, as in posters and such with Crunchyroll logos etc on walls in the background etc (at least, I think they did, memory is a bit ehh). But I think it has been one of their more popular/successful Original so far.
 
Mao Hao Hao said:
Yeah, I watched Gibiate a while back and thought it would have been far better in the hands of a more experienced studio (with money) and just more...everything really. Crunchy have really crapped up with these Originals. The Noblesse adaptation could have been something great, but they squandered it on a not very good studio, short episode run and other issues, meaning key characters got cut, arcs got fast forwarded through and the animation is very bland and not great at times.
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Noblesse was Production I.G though.
 
Jewelsmakerguy said:
Noblesse was Production I.G though.
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Uranus Pink said:
People willfully forget even they shit out turds on occasion. Moreso if they aren't sufficiently payed to produce quality.
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Yep, it really doesn't matter what studio makes these Crunchy Originals, as they are being poorly paid, given shortened time limits/episode counts and so on. So even a great studio will be forced to cut all the corners to finish the show, or skip a ton of arcs to fit everything interesting into just 13 episodes.
 
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