First Impressions – Supernatural: The Animation
Carry On My Wayward Son~They’ll Be Peace After A Season of Win
Hime: Hey folks, sorry for the delay. I’ve been amazing sick this week, but I’m on the mend now, thank god. Well, anyway, Supernatural. All I can say is; ABOUT FREAKING TIME. And even after all the missed release dates they decide to throw us bloggers a curveball and release 6 episodes all at once. Do you guys know how annoying that is when you cover something weekly!? Urg. This better be worth it, or else I’ll sneeze on them and give them my disease.
Fosh: Well finally Supernatural the animation is out! This was pushed back what two to three times?? Time to find out if Madhouse can add their own spin to this popular American television series! I have a bit of faith that they will have no issues with it, anyway time to join Hime on this first impressions tag review of the first two episodes.
Hime: To those unfamiliar with the television series, Supernatural is about two brothers, Sam and Dean, travelling around America in their kick ass car fighting demons and exorcising spirits; just think of it as… the Ghostbusters on a road-trip.
Well lets dive in; episode 1 starts out with a woman being killed by her husband under mysterious circumstances. Naturally our wincest couple roll into town to check it out. They flash their fake Ids to some hot detective who teams up with them to help solve the murder.
They interview the husband, check out video footage and go to the house, where Sam finds a blood trail leading to the sewers. Sam and Dean are attacked and wake up to find themselves strapped to some sort of tube when the spirit (who now looks like Dean) explains what it is. He’s a shape-shifter, and as such can turn into anyone and download their memories. It leaves the two, planning to see Detective Boyle, claiming that “she will understand him.” He’s a lonely psychopath, d’aww.
Dean, who can’t stand the idea of someone besides him boning Katherine, escapes. He gets to hers only to find the shape-shifter in her guise whose set a trap for him to be caught by the police. The shape-shifter then leaps out the window, leaving Dean to the cops.
Then in an amazingly confusing sequence, Sam is outside the house where Dean meets him, disguised as one of the swat members. Okay so he managed to escape then. No. Cause we then see Dean tied up inside the house. Okay so then the shape-shifter is Sam, since he’s outside and we clearly saw the thing jump out the window. But then how can Dean be there if he’s tied up inside? And if he’s the shape-shifter then how can it be both Sam and Dean? AH, never mind, so the two are in the car when A Sam steps out in front of the car and shoots through the wind shield, killing the Sam in the car. Okay…so he was the shape-shifter…SO HOW COULD DEAN BE OUTSIDE TALKING TO SHAPE-SHIFTER SAM IN ONE SCENE, AND THEN BE INSIDE TIED UP IN ANOTHER? Segues guys…they’re important! This makes no sense! Okay so maybe the Dean that was in the swat uniform was the shape-shifter and between scenes he knocked Sam out, shape-shifted to his form…no, cause then how did the real Dean get away from the house and into the car in that time…I’m really fucking confused right now…if anyone can explain this to me please do. I might just be missing something glaringly obvious.
HNGG..DAT CAR…
So yeah, like I said, they have a brawl in the car until the real Sam shows up and takes out the shape-shifter.
They save Katherine and make their way back to the station as that kickass song plays us into the credits. End of episode 1! -rocks out to “Carry On My Wayward Son”-
Episode 2: “Road Kill”. While I don’t think it was the second episode of the live action series, this ones story was one of my favourites. It’s very like the film “The Others”, which I hated…so it’s weird that I’d like this so much. Anyway, the episodes begins with a married couple driving down a highway. They crash when they swerve to avoid hitting someone, and the woman, Molly, wakes up to find her husband David gone.
Sam and Dean are driving down the highway when Molly runs out in front of them, nearly causing them to crash as well. She begs them to help her find David, and of course they do. But there’s hints that perhaps they know something she doesn’t.
The guys find a cabin and when checking out the attic, the corpse of a woman who committed suicide. Apparently, she was the husband of the man who died on the highway, who returns as a ghost to cause crashes. The guys are attacked but manage to escape, they go to burn the bones of spirit’s body in the hopes of stopping it. But Molly is dragged into the river, much to the bewilderment of the brothers. Had they not got the right body?
They come to the conclusion that it’s the wife of the dead man that’s haunting people, and Dean races back to burn her body. Sam meanwhile goes to help Molly.
With the ghost killed, Dean and Sam take Molly to David, who they’ve been assuring was alive. Pulling up outside his house Molly is finally able to see him, …with his wife. Awkward…It turns out that she actually died in the car crash, and that it was in fact 15 years ago. Naturally, this is very distressing news for her and at first she can’t accept it. But with some help from Councillor Sam, she’s able to go to the light.
EXTRA WIN
Dean’s rape face
The Impala needs an episode of it’s own
“This is for voicing Jason Todd in the latest Batman cartoon!”
The anime is making me fall in love with this car all over again…
Jared looks great in anime form, Jensen…not so much
“Cheryl?” ~ I can’t be the only one who thought of Silent Hills Opening scene when they saw this
Man tits; AWAYYY!!!
…Yeah, it’s the car again…What? ITS AWESOME.
Manservice~
END THOUGHTS
Hime: Episode 1 filled me with a little bit of dread for the rest of the series. I found I was either going “ZOMFGdkfjdfkdjfd, that was AWESOME!” or “What the hell is going on…*cringe*”. If I hadn’t of seen the live action show I probably would be very lost. And even having seen it I found it kind of hard to fill in the gaps sometimes, like that part towards the end when everyone was having an identity crisis. It was very rushed and I guess that’s just what comes from trying to cram a 40 minute story down into 20. The second episode completely redeemed the series for me, though. Instantly.
Like I said, I loved this story in the original TV series, and it was handled very well in the anime. Things had time to develop and the ending was amazing; if a little overly cheesy. They really spent a much longer time on Molly before she went to the light than I thought they would, which let the dorama shine and I even got a little misty eyed. It’s very bittersweet and even within all that emotional stuff they managed to give the watchers unfamiliar with supernatural a little glimpse into Sam’s dorama. Likewise in episode 1 with the dream.
Now for the technical stuff. I don’t really like the harsh shadows on everything, but I understand…it’s just a style thing. It won’t stop me from enjoying the show. Another thing that I don’t like is the lack of detail on the eyes. They are so blank, so when Dean hits on people it just seems creepy. The action scenes are phenomenal, though. There’s a real sense of weight and movement and big action. Prime examples I can pick out would be the (sadly brief) fight in the sewers with the shape-shifter, and the scene where Sam shoots his doppelgänger. FROM OUTSIDE. THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD. OF A MOVING CAR. That…is just badass.
Fosh: The first episode really sets up the story of Sam and Dean quite well, even thou they took the plot straight out of one of the tv episodes. So far I am impressed with the high quality art work, the car the brother’s drive was great looking! The characters themselves took a while to get used to for me. The only thing I didn’t like probably the overly used shadow effects, guess that is a way to make animation cuts.
Second episode was really amazing too! Not sure if I saw this one or not. I enjoyed this second one a bit more than the first episode, mostly because I don’t remember seeing it before. I loved how they didn’t give the ending away, until you go somewhat back in time to witness what Sam was talking to Dean about at the start! I was blown away with that twist at the end good job Madhouse.
And that ending song was pretty epic; when I heard the lyrics kick in near the end of the first episode! I was like HELL YA! That was really great. Even though it was hardcore engrish by the Jap singers, still they did a great job including the song. Over all this is a great start to Supernatural! Can’t wait to see what other episodes get remade into the anime, fingers crossed for the black and white themed episode.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular and Bassun-yo~ with 118 comments
For some reason the art style reminds me a lot of Linkin Park’s Breaking the Habit music video, which is win in my book.
As a Supernatural fan though, I guess I owe it to myself to check this out. The screen caps look really good, seems like high quality stuff.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Finally some love for Madhouse. I was getting tired of their superhero anime. >.>
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
YES. Now that you mention it it does look like the LP music video, I knew it was ringing a bell somewhere. Tbh, the more I watch the anime the more I’m warming to the shadow thing.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular and Bassun-yo~ with 118 comments
While the character styling isnt similar (LP had some very sketchy rough lines for the people), the background is so similar with that grungy-dark look.
I think it fits Supernatural, it has an awesome look to it. And that was one of my fav music videos ever, I even bought it on itunes >_<
POWUH: Metanorn Regular and Bassun-yo~ with 118 comments
But yea, Dean looks kinda psycho here, which is sad cos he’s awesome in the show haha.
Maybe it’s just the screens…
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
No, he really just doesn’t translate as well as Sam does to the animu verse.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
i believe it’s the short hair. Do you know any cute anime characters without bangs? ;D
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
They really seem to have done a better job with ‘Supernatural’ than with the Marvel animes.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
Madhouse also used this very shadowy style for their Batman animation project, can’t remember the name. It looked great for fight and night scenes but in day scenes it seemed out of place.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 107 comments
Did they really use Carry on My Wayward Son that was sung by Kansas?
I haven’t watch it, and still can’t decide whether I’m going to watch it or not. I’m a big fan of its american tv series, but I’m not sure I could like the animation >.>
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
They don’t use the one by Kansas, was probably a money thing, but just the fact they have the song proves that they care.
I think you should at least give it a chance.
In retrospect it could have been a lot worse than it is.
Episode 4 is an original episode for the anime, and even that was really good. I think these guys really get it, and are able to produce something faithful to the tv show that fans of supernatural will like.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 107 comments
Yes, I’ll try to watch a few episode then judge it after that 🙂
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
Episode 6, another anime original, is epic! 😀
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
man, the car reminds me of green hornet’s car. so effin cool
i never really watch supernatural, because there’s no proper schedule to air these episodes in my effin country. sometimes they show the same damn episodes twice in two weeks. the only american tv series i watch are House and that tv series where the main guy looks like heath ledger is-is this good? dean looks ugly…
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
House is awesome 😀 And you could always torrent download the Supernatural series from Vuze or something if you can’t watch it on tv.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Cool anime so far! Really impressed how well they are treating the original series episodes. Great to hear they are trying some new stuff too! Gotta watch the other episodes soon.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Yeah the original episode was great, I could totally see them doing it in the live action xD Was really cool
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
ZOMG so amazing XD i have to say road kill was especially awesome to see in anime form as it was the first episode of supernatural I saw ever ^_^
Honestly the anime turned out amazing, yeah confusing at times and the art’s a bit strange but the voices are done nicely (I was almost expecting the airy annoying shounen-ai voicing like in Night Head Genesis and UraBoku DX)
I really can’t wait until they get into some solid plot =P
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Oh God if it turned into Uraboku I think I’d just go jump off a cliff…
Thankfully, no, the animes turning out great 😀
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
u-uraboku? *sad face* i effin hate the anime.
…oops, my fangirl rage just popped out for now reason xD
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
It’s okay, it was a total piece of trash. Even if you were just watching it for the mild yaoi undertones, it even failed in that.
POWUH: 600-699 and Wingman with 655 comments
Bleh, the little asian boy dislikes this series 😛
too much “american” to me to handle with, but might give it a try if i got the time
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
I think western style anime works quite well, but I don’t watch that much western TV so maybe that’s why.
It’s kind of redundant to say but anime can be too Japanese. In terms of storytelling and plot points, it’s all formulaic now and there’s nothing new.
Basically the genre hasn’t offered me anything new for quite a few years so I’m bitter and like watching anime that isn’t really anime xD
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I can’t find this anywhere …..
Somebody, Help me !!!! TT^TT
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 36 comments
There’s tons of torrents for either the English dubbed (with Sam’s actual actor and someone else doing Dean till the last two? episodes — read that on ANN awhile ago) or the Japanese audio.
As for streaming, not sure. XD
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Animetake is where I got mine, and as dollssoulkirie says there’s a dub. I haven’t checked that out yet but I’m looking forward to see how Jared does Sam!
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 36 comments
I’m still debating rather or not to check this out.. main two reasons being that I’ve only seen like 5 episodes of season 1 (because a friend of mine made me watch the DVD when I visited her once) and I’m running out of room on my laptop for anime to download. I have a huge backlog atm. XD
But it’s cool to hear that they’re doing actual episodes from the live action as well as some original stories.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Maybe you could just stream the episodes or delete them as soon as you’ve watched them, if you’re downloading.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
You don’t really need to know the live-action show to make sense of the anime. They’re sticking pretty close to the original storyline of season 1 and 2 but also mixing it up with new storylines.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Yeah, but the live action series is still awesome.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 58 comments
Best part about the Supernatural anime THE IMPALA!!!
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Its so damn sexy!