Fifteen-year-old Izumiko Suzuhara just wants to be a normal girl, but that is easier said than done. Raised in a shrine deep in the mountains, she grew up extremely sheltered and painfully shy. She also has the unfortunate tendency to destroy any electronic device simply by touching it.
Despite this, she still wants to try and change her life. To mark her determination to follow through on this transformation, Izumiko begins by cutting her bangs, which shocks both her classmates and protectors. And that's only the start! Her guardian, Yukimasa Sagara, forces his son, Miyuki, to come to the mountain shrine and become Izumiko's lifelong servant and protector. Too bad Izumiko and Miyuki cannot stand each other. They have known each other since they were children, and Miyuki bullied her terribly. He simply does not understand what is so special about Izumiko. His father calls Izumiko a goddess, but that cannot be true…can it? Will Izumiko and Miyuki work past their differences? Is she actually a literal goddess? Find out in RDG: Red Data Girl!
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Comentários
Stark700
Stories aren't always about narratives. Sometimes, we can discover more ideas by ourselves if we put our efforts through. And of course, discovery comes from experiences. For a certain shy and dull looking (I think she's cute though) girl according to her peers, she's about to experience some whole new changes in her life. Her name is Izumiko Suzuhara, the Red Data Girl. RDG: Red Data Girl is an anime series adapted from the light novel of the same name written by Noriko Ogiwara (The Good Witch of the West). Her talent of writing involves in the field of fantasy and supernatural so expect some of thosethemes from RDG. Otherwise, P.A. Works handles the production of the series. They are known for their usages of serene visuals and clearly does not disappoint; at least in the art department. However, the experiences I got out of this series is not exactly enthralling or exciting. In fact, it was something quite different.
In essence, this series is like a fantasy but takes place in modern times. The time period it takes place seems to be normal and likely perspective to our very own 21st century without high tech gadgets or space cars. Rather, it is a normal and typical school life setting in a modern civilization of development. Suzuhara Izumiko is the main female protagonist in this and she's always been shy. Even from the first episode, it's easy to pick out from the fact that she has a hard time socializing with others or being part of a group. It's not too surprising though by her nature considering the fact that she has been raised in the mountains. Or rather, Suzuhara has been associated with the Tamakura Shrine and along with her miko outfit, we can consider her to be a shrine maiden.
The series spells out some confusion and mystery. For example, Suzuhara seems to have a strange power that lies dominant in her and these powers are let out when she is near technology. This is proven when electronic gadgets she comes in contact with results in destruction. Additionally, her glasses when removed seems to gave her visions of the supernatural, or otherworldly beings. From an initial standpoint, it's hard to tell anything by how these powers came to be. For one thing, we know that it's some sort of ability and very likely has a connection with Suzuhara's origins. It spells out mystery and the viewers' curiousity may peak from some of these aspects; at least I know I did. Regardless of her strange abilties though, Suzuhara enrolls to Hōjō High School in Tokyo where her life becomes more normal. At least, that's what she originally hoped.
Then on the opposite of the globe is Miyuki Sagara. This guy is essentially introduced as a prick. His attitude is literally a bully by the way he talks to Suzuhara and behaves around her. For whatever reason, Miyuki seems Suzuhara as a nuisance and more so because he is assigned to be her protector. Luckily though, their relationship seems to get better and possibly even go on the road of romance. It's at least not in the friend zone section but the two definitely has some engaging moments. These moments are captured by their dialogues and some development, especially after a certain event that reveals an even deeper secret of Suzuhara.
The secrets in this series also reveals some other aspects with the character cast. Take example, Mayura Sōda who is known as a cherry girl with friendly demeanor. However, she has more secrets and particularly gets caught in a rivalry among the school grounds. Among other factors, perhaps the biggest secret revolves again with Suzuhara. We learn that there's a supernatural vessel within her. It could be something related to a divinity or a goddess. We don't know too much about it but it has connections with her origins and the mysterious powers that she possesses. Unfortunately for her, she knows little about her origins herself or those powers. She does have a knight in shining armor though. But even so, Suzuhara still can't live the normal life a young teenage girl. With the ability to destroy electronic devices through an unintentional or intentional touch, she won't ever be able to use iphones, listen to ipods, or watching anime on a computer like most people. Damn, shame.
Among other factors, there's the serene like atmosphere that is constantly present in the show. The mountain atmosphere gives off a fresh scent of the settings and brings out a sense of realism in Tokyo that makes you feel right at home. The way some of the structures are designed as well to fit within the traditional Japanese ways. Needless to say, it presents its Shinto themes in the right direction. After all, Shinto is considered a spirituality and in Tokyo, there are many practices that establishes connections between them. In RDG, we can see some of the way the characters are dressed, the monuments, the festivals, the clear mountains, and shrines that are all over the place. The school itself is traditional and consists more of the modern atmosphere rather than anything too out of place.
Unfortunately, the show is hard to grasp and connect together. There's a lot of confusion among the characters and what's there. The plot itself is also a bit loose and I find it dull at various occasions. The Shinto atmosphere might also not fit well for target audiences. In fact, RDG is more the type of the show where we have to expect the pace to start off slow, flow smoothly, and hopefully wrap up in a tolerable way. However, I find the pacing to be a bit intolerable. At many occasions, I find that the plot itself to be just too dull. It tries to present its story with a mythical narrative that plays along influences of the Japanese culture. At the same time, the way it executes it is not so exciting. Unless of course you're really interested in the Asian culture along with Japanese traditions, Red Data Girl may not be for you. However, there are instances though that I find the series to be interesting. The title character Suzuhara keeps her innocent outlook and seems to be on the side of a 'coming of age' drama. She is the 'miko' and host of a powerful divinity.
But for some things to care, there are the visuals. P.A Works handles the production of this series and the artwork gives a definition of beauty. As mentioned before, the artwork aesthetics gives the details to the surrounding atmosphere as well as the nature of the series. There's the mountain, the shrines, the outfits, and even spirits to match traditional Japanese ethnics. Of course, Suzuhara herself is drawn as a plain girl with the nerdy glasses and braids to match her statue. For one, I am pleased that P.A. Works is involved in this as it gave me a nostologia of Hanasaku Iroha and Tari Tari; at least in terms of visuals.
As for the soundtrack, the series maintains a balanced rhythm. It's nothing too special to take notice of as most of the time, the OST remains smooth and light. There's no intense beats or rock. Rather, there's this linear pace of natural sound. The OP song "Small worldrop" by Annabel is sung with a smooth voice and at the same time shows some possible foreshadowing. Then, there are the ED songs that plays off the traditional themes again. In the song itself, we can see that Suzuhara is walking as in a possible reference to her development in a modern coming of age/fantasy story.
Ultimately, I'd say this series is a gamble to watch. Some people may like the serene backgrounds along with the spiritual vibe that gives off while watching the show. Then of course, there are others who may be bored out of their lives of trying to figure out what is going on. Then, there are the folks who watches the show to pass time. It's a tough gamble but I hope it'll play well for you. Now, phew that was a lot of data to absorb, or rather info.
gumi-tan
I'm supposed to be studying right now but whatever. Okay, unlike the majority of the reviews, I actually liked Red Data Girl. It's surprising 'cause I'm easily influenced by the reviews here on MAL. Before I watch an anime or read a manga, I always check MAL and read the reviews so as to see if it the said anime/manga is worth it. But before I read the reviews on RDG, I watched a few episodes of it. And well, I really liked it. I think the best factor that got me hooked into the anime was the art (and maybe Miyuki /shot xD) and also thetheme. I always loved Japan and since the theme was about Japanese culture, I got myself interested.
Then around the middle of the anime, I got confused. (Yes, just like all of you who watched) Everything was going too fast and nobody was explaining things at all. So, just in case I wasn't the only one, I checked the MAL reviews on this anime. I wasn't surprised to see negative reviews everywhere. All complaining about the same thing I was complaining about. I was a bit discouraged to watch after reading all of the reviews, but when the next episode came out, I still watched it and even finished. :D
Sure there were so many unanswered questions but I think the anime was good enough. Although, it should've had more episodes so they could've at least explained some stuff.
Okay, let's talk about the characters now.
I really liked Miyuki's character development. (And I also really like Miyuki X3) He started of as the lean and mean bully who seemed to hate the world so much he'd rather jump of a cliff. But around the end of the anime, he started to warm up to Suzuhara. (*squeals*) xD
The other characters were okay, but nothing out of the ordinary. Suzuhara was the typical shy girl who struggles to become stronger in the end. Mayura, Manatsu and Masumi were cute, but again, they weren't very interesting. (Masumi got my attention a little bit tho. HE WAS SO CUTE IN THE END)
Music was good. I'm not good with critiquing sounds lol but I really liked the bg music and also the music when Suzuhara dances. :3
Okay so overall, I really liked RDG and if you're into Japanese culture, fantasy and the likes, then this is the anime for you. ;)
But if you're an impatient person and if you don't like getting confused, then I don't think you'll like this anime at all.
Toucanbird
RDG: Red Data Girl: Too Much Data And Not Enough Storage I have to say that this might be the first time I'm genuinely disappointed with a P.A. Works anime. After creating some wildly successful series like Angel Beats and Another, I had reason to believe that P.A. Works could be developing into a strong production company. Unfortunately, I have to chalk RDG up as a dud in their repertoire. I thought with the plot that this series had, it had to the potential to be really good but fell flat in the two biggest aspects...it's story and it's characters. The biggest problem with this series isit tried to tackle way too many sub-plots with not nearly enough episodes to work with. It causes some extremely choppy pacing as well as several unresolved plot points. I found it's "ending" to be rather ironic since I was feeling the same way Miyuki was when I completed this series. For all the sub-plots going on in this series, it sure did find a way to bore me to sleep. Going back to the limited episodes, this series seemed to set itself up for a sequel and that could be the reason for unresolved plot points. However, I still feel P.A. Works left too many open. This series didn't have the closure it should've had, even for a series that would plan on continuing.
I found the characters to be another huge weakness to this series. Their actions and lack of development left a lot to be desired. Still, I do believe the lack of character development does span from this series trying to introduce a ton of sub-plots. Really, the best way I can describe it is that this series suffered from an identity crisis. It couldn't decide if it wanted to be a plot-driven story or a character-driven story and as a result, it ended up being neither. I found it difficult to get invested in Izumiko and her "plot" because it was so damn confusing. It seemed like even the writers were having difficulty trying to figure it out. That's not to say it wasn't "good" because I found some aspects of it to be interesting. However, its progression and explanation is so choppy and so poorly explained that it strongly detracted from the overall quality of this series. Miyuki was one character I really got a bit of a laugh at because there was one episode later on in the series where I called him a male tsundere. You just don't see that in anime very often. I can't say it really did anything for the series, because the development between him and Izumiko was so hacked that I just couldn't become invested in their relationship (if you can even call it that). For the most part, the characters are fairly forgettable. I can't say there is one memorable character at all in this series. Maybe Masumi, but even that's a stretch.
While I did find the story and the characters to be big weaknesses, there were some things the series did rather well. I really loved the artwork as well as it's traditional Japanese themes. The one thing I'll give P.A. Works is that they are very good with their animation and artistic design. While I did rip this series for having so many sub-plots, that's not to say it didn't have good ones. I did think the main plot was interesting albeit confusing, but it just seemed so rushed and choppy due to having so many sub-plots. I did find the sub-plot revolving around Masumi to be interesting as well as the one behind Wamiya. The sub-plots in themselves were "good" but suffered from choppy pacing and lack of strong progression due to having way too much going on in way too little amount of time. The atmosphere for this series was REALLY good and was what had me coming back week-after-week.
All-in-all, it's such a shame to see this series fall flat. P.A. Works is one of my favorite smaller animation companies and they've produced some really good anime in the past. However, much like it's most popular series (Angel Beats), this needed to be 24-26 episodes in the worst way. It had a good plot and good sub-plots, but it was so overly ambitious with how much this series tried to accomplish. It didn't have a smooth-flowing narrative and that in itself, caused some VERY underdeveloped characters. That's not to say I didn't enjoy watching this series because I did. It's just that after it was all said and done, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. I knew P.A. Works had something good going with this series but got overambitious with it. They tried to make it bigger and deeper than it had to be. It needed more of a focus on it's main plot and developing its main characters with that plot. It's extremely sad that I thought the Souda siblings got more development than the series' lead characters. I would only recommend this series to those with an interest in ancient Japanese traditions and lore. I found those aspects to be pretty good for this series. However, if you're looking for an anime with an excellent story and well-developed characters, it just simply doesn't have it and I'd say give this a pass if this is what you're looking for. Even if you're looking for a good romance series, this series is poorly advertised in that regard and doesn't have a good romance in the least. In the end, I feel its time P.A. Works really starts putting more of a focus on making bigger anime series because the 12 episode format is just not quite getting it done anymore, especially when it came to RDG: Red Data Girl.
FuzzyProxy
Every season, at least one show comes along that has the potential to impress, whether it would be due to a particularly interesting premise, an animation studio associated with quality work, or a staff who has been known to work well together in the past. However, for whatever reasons, that show does not fare well in execution, ending up either forgettable or just plain disappointing. The Spring 2013 season was no exception to this, having a few flops in and of itself. However, personally, one show perfectly encapsulates this idea: P.A. Works' offering, Red Data Girl.Red Data Girl's premise is a hard one to describe without spoiling the first few episodes, leading to a synopsis that does not fully communicate what the show is actually about. The show does actually change locations entirely at the end of the third episode, with Izumiko going to high school in Tokyo and the plot shifting to a larger school conflict. The show itself is filled to the brim with charming, if somewhat generic, characters and the makings of a truly tense school drama. It all sounds fine on paper, but the execution makes Red Data Girl come off as inconsequential instead of truly interesting.
What Red Data Girl does right is incorporate many different aspects of traditional Buddhist and Shinto mysticism into the show's own structure, creating a very strange set of circumstances surrounding Izumiko and the rest of the cast. The dense amount of material to take in never feels rushed, with everything happening for an exact reason, abilities and limitations being discussed, and being overall accessible to those with very little background into either spiritual practice. As someone who is enchanted by Eastern spiritualism, seeing how they work with the bits and pieces brought up made me adore this aspect of the series. What I found particularly interesting was the nature of Izumiko's spiritual abilities, and what is later revealed about the spirit residing inside of her. When details about that are finally revealed, they do end up being quite intriguing when you put the pieces together.
The execution of the show, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The major problem here is the lack of focus placed on the main plot, which comes across as a wholly-serious popularity contest. The show executes this idea in a way that does not make it sound completely stupid, but it still does not resonate due to the fact that the results of this ongoing major plot are never on screen. Given the context it has with Izumiko and her inner conflict (which is barely any at all), it could have been better-integrated by being executed on-screen instead of just being discussed through dialogue. The dilemma surrounding Izumiko given the spiritual forces inside of her that may potentially bring about the world could have managed to meld into the seemingly mundane main plot to form something meaningful, but instead comes across as trying to do too much and not showing enough of what gets a primary focus. Even then, one element of the basic premise is barely explored, which is Izumiko's strange relationship with technology. It is brought up only once after the first three episodes after being brought up in the premise of the show.
There is a basic tenant in visual media: show, don't tell. Given the fact that the source material is a light novel, the overly narrative nature is to be expected, but this is where the magic of animation comes into play. Why constantly mention something happen in the background when you can show a shot of the event? It would be quite easy to do. However, this show refuses to put forward a potentially interesting plot by sticking it within dialogue only. The overall result makes the show feel insignificant and inconsequential.
The cast itself is filled with typical moe tropes, but each character definitely feels unique and consistent. Izumiko is your standard shy, glasses-wearing wallflower who wishes to be more out there and make more decisions in his life. Miyuki is a male tsundere but is tolerable despite the fact that he is a jackass in the beginning. Mayura and Manatsu can have some potentially great scenes together, due to Manatsu's ditzy behavior. The characters meant to be seen as villains, though, have very little in the way of characterization or personality, particularly in the case of Takayanagi. The motivation is consistently unclear with him, along with Yukimasa's true motivations, and the show does not do a good job of clarifying either of these.
P.A. Works and Studio Easter handled the animation and background art work on Red Data Girl, and just like all of their efforts in recent memory, impress more often than not. This project is no exception in the slightest, boasting a delicate style to its animation that is quite fluid and devoted to making the most out of its supernatural focus. When the show goes into its more spiritual focus, the effects compensate by having either eerily dark, vaguely humanoid shadows or by having grand, immaculately-designed yokai when called for. The background work is also the best yet from Easter, fitting the scenes perfectly and being gorgeous enough to just admire on their own. The opening is rather generic, going through a visual novel-like visual of each of the characters, with their names and everything scrolling by. The ending is walking animation, but yet again, the background art is so beautiful that it can be forgiven. The art and animation are definitely the strongest aspects of the show, despite typical P.A. Works character designs, which can be eerily doll-like.
The sound of this show can be a bit of a mixed bag. The score itself is not particularly memorable, but it is effective when utilized. Moments of tension feel tense due to the eerie score, and moments of true supernatural beauty have the score take on this sweeping orchestral sound with folk instrument accompaniment, feeling opulent and beautiful in nature. The opener is particularly generic, being yet another Annabel song that is pleasant to listen to without being too memorable. The Masumi Itou ending theme is also pleasant and not too memorable on its own sans the chorus, but there is just something about the way it is utilized with the ending that makes it feel much more delicate and vulnerable than it actually is. On the voice work side of things, we do get a rather solid set of performances all around, especially from Saori Hayami as Izumiko. Many other big name voice talent shows up every so often, as well (including Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya, and Jun Fukuyama), who always sound great.
Overall, Red Data Girl was a show that had plenty of promise. The supernatural Buddhist/Shinto topics have been frequently explored in anime (especially recently), but the way Red Data Girl presented them felt like they could have been fresh and inviting. Instead, the show fumbles its execution by deciding to not show any of what is actually important in favor of events only tangentially related to what is going on. What could have been something fantastic ends up inconsequential and pedestrian.
--BREAKDOWN--
Story - 5
Art - 9
Sound - 6
Character - 6
Enjoyment - 5
Overall - 6
ChibiStarChan
It's been years since I first reviewed this, so I want to change my review a bit! When I first watched it, I didn't quite understand the context and the culture surrounding it. However, I always find myself returning to this anime as I am personally attached to it for many reasons. It is truly a hidden gem. --------------------------------------------- STORY 8/10: It starts off at the Kumano Shrine in the Kii Mountains where Izumiko Suzuhara lives. She lacks self-confidence and does not feel like a normal girl. Any technology she touches stops working. (Spoiler I guess?) -> It is soon learned that she is the nextvessel for the Himegami, a powerful goddess which causes many struggles for her. This is why Miyuki Sagara is sent to protect her from people who want her powers.
(Non-spoiler) So it's a nice concept based off of a book series, which I have not read. Everything seemed to flow smoothly until around episode 4. Things start to get confusing and many things are unexplained (or rush through explanations). I think they were trying to fit several volumes of the book into this short anime, not sure that it would succeed for another season. So some of the conflict was not very clear the first time I watched it and I didn't feel like there was much danger when it came to the threats at school. Other than this, it is a great coming of age story about a girl wanting to grow up normally but must bare the burden of the Himegami. It's very centered around Shintoism and Buddhism, which is very interesting.
ART 10/10: I was quite impressed with the artwork in the anime, especially the setting. The backgrounds/scenery were gorgeous and set a perfect mood for a Japanese culture-based anime. My favorite background art would probably be when they were in the Kii Mountains, surrounded by nature, or the spirit dimension/plane. The style of the characters were also well done! It had soft, neutral colors and lighting. The clothing design also really fit into nature-centric feel of the anime. I especially love Izumiko and Miyuki's designs. The cover art for the anime is gorgeous.
SOUND 10/10: First, the music is wonderful. It is one of my TOP soundtracks PERIOD. It was very masterfully done with so much emotion and set the mood perfectly in each scene. This is also one of the things that kept my interest because of how dramatic it sounded. I suggest anyone who likes instrumental music to look up this soundtrack and just listen to it on a pretty day. The opening song was also good, but I prefer the closing song the most. It's a very cute song (I memorized the lyrics, I love it that much). Aside from the music, I love the voice acting in this anime (Japanese). Izumiko's voice is so gentle and soft, yet has a hint of maturity and strength.
CHARACTER 9/10: The two main characters are mostly the reason that I enjoyed this anime so much. I'm sorry to say that the other characters didn't mean as much to me. I did like the triplets, but it was more like icing on the cake. The triplets weren't that interesting or unique as far as personality in my opinion. Izumiko and Miyuki were great, though, with so much development from beginning to end. Izumiko starts off as very shy and lacks self-confidence, but she becomes a lot more confident and strong after going through her struggles. Miyuki starts off hating Izumiko and hating who he was, but in the end, he becomes protective of her. Their relationship is what I love most in the whole anime and it literally made me cry. I like both of their backgrounds which were probably the most carefully explained thing in this series.
ENJOYMENT 9/10: The first time I watched this anime, I had trouble following a lot of the information in the story. As I said, they sometimes either don't explain enough, or explain too much that it's too hard to keep up with. I recommend researching a bit about the World Heritage Sites, Shinto legends, etc. to understand some things. I have been to Japan since the first time I watched this and I have watched it 3 times, and I have to say, the last time was much more enjoyable because I understood much more. I especially enjoyed watching the interactions between Izumiko and Miyuki because it gradually changes each time.
OVERALL 10/10: I may be biased since this anime has a special place in my heart. Maybe it was just not written to it's full potential because they were unsure if they could make another season so it had to be condensed. I think that the art, music, cultural factors, and concept were very creative and different than I have seen in any other anime. I feel attached to it because of this and that the main characters influence me in my own writing and artwork very much. I recommend it to people who like romance, Japanese culture, and fantasy. People who are impatient with story progression or prefer more action would most-likely not find this anime amusing.
I plan to read the novels someday because I am a huge fan of the anime, and even bought the DVD.
Setsura1
"Red Data Girl" is not an anime you would expect by the name alone. You may expect something along the lines of Modern-Science Fiction as I was, but as they say don't judge a book by this cover. The origin of the name is actually quite interesting (you will find out in the OP). This anime revolves around the Shinto religion. You may not understand some parts of RDG if you are not educated in the Shinto religion. It brings to mind when you're watching "Rurouni Kenshin", you may not understand some parts if you are not fully versed in the history of Japan. Evenso you can still enjoy both animes. While the story was sometimes confusing, you could still get the gist of it. A lot of the aspects in this anime are appealing, such as the art. The music is also very interesting, as it mixes some traditional anime music with some modern music. The ED is particularly good. This is a very good anime that will make you want to learn more about the Shinto ways of Japan!
toph4prez
What the flameo happened here? I know that it is easy to be a critic and all... but: This Anime is best summed up by an announcement made at 20:44 in the last episode of the series: "Uh, at this point we are still unable to determine exactly what is happening." If you watch that scene before watching the series you might think to yourself that you would be able to figure out what is actually happening if you had watched the entire series... good luck. Admittedly my misunderstanding(s) and non-understanding(s) could be due to the fact that I don't know much about Shinto legends.However, I am human and I can usually follow plot points and basic story telling.
azandinoboi
K i know it's weird I'm giving it such a high score, but It isn't full 100% The scores don't give such a range and it's close enough to being that good. I honestly don't know why people are giving such low scores. People are saying that PA Works disappointed them this time, but I don't see how. That was amazing. Honestly. it really blended Japanese "religious/culture" well with a normal everyday "Fantasy" anime. It works. The story was well written, the script was well-written, and for me, that's something big. The story goes at a reasonable pace and it's slightly confusing, but they explain itin their own way. And there are slight hints at somethings. Sometimes.
Characters are interesting and intriguing and drive the plot themselves, which I like to see. It's natural and isn't force like some anime I'm watching this season.
The animation is good save for the fact that it's all in SD quality. It's still fine.
Overall, very good. As expected from PA Works.
Angelitocurioso
I didn't get it...at all!! I didn't understood the plot, or the characters. There is this girl who wants to change and the boy besides her who doesn't want to be with her. Then you got a goddess whom can destroy the world and a bunch of kids fighting to be number one on high school... Then there is a lot of magic, spells, and ghosts. It is a hot mess. I don't know why I even watch it all. Can someone please give me my precious time back!!!
robo731
It's always difficult for me to put a number and rate series that I have watched and as a result my numerical ratings tend to vary greatly. I can best express my opinions of a show through words. After the first episode this show began to draw me in. I was really interested in it. The story seemed very interesting and I liked all of the characters. I ended up liking the show more and more as I continued watching. In addition to the plot and characters I also really enjoyed the scenery, art, concept, and soundtrack. This show had a lot of great things goingfor it but there were a few places where it fell short.
I liked the nature and Japanese lore premise that the series employed. The soundtrack matched it perfectly and the art was beautiful. The characters were great and I really like them. These are all categories which the series excelled in.
This show had a few things that really held it back. The most prominent of these things and likely the cause of it's other flaws is due to the length of the series. I feel that there just weren't enough episodes to work with. With only twelve episodes the series seemed rushed other elements suffered because of it.
These elements include the plot and characters. The plot seemed rushed and as a result it ended up being a bit choppy and confusing. I would watch an episode and then the next week I would be a bit confused about exactly what was going on. Things could have been more developed and better explained. The characters could have also been better developed. I found myself a bit confused about the Souda twins especially. The plot did an okay job wrapping everything up, but again, it seemed a bit rushed and underdeveloped.
I think that if this series was longer and if the P.A Works had more episodes to work with that things could have been better explained and better developed.
All in all I really enjoyed the show and it's flaws all stemmed from the fact that the show seemed too short. The series does hint at a potential sequel which I would definitely like to see. Despite its flaws I would still recommend this to any anime fan, but specifically those with and interest in traditional Japanese culture.
AnimeEnjoyer420
Red Data Girl is a series that will not be to everyone's liking, but for those that can appreciate a quiet, contemplative coming of age story with a heavy focus on Shinto spirituality and storytelling through metaphor, this will be one of the best animes you will ever see. First, a bit of advice for watching. Don't try to follow the plot literally. Some happenings in this story are meant as metaphor and don't hold up to close scrutiny when interpreted literally. However, everything that happens makes perfect sense when viewed as a metaphor for the characters, their relationships, and their growth aspeople. Watch those scenes with that interpretation in mind, rather than trying to make literal sense of what is happening. In the end, this is a series primarily about Izumiko and Miyuki, their growth as people, and their relationship with each other. The magic and spiritual elements exist to illustrate these things.
For all of the fantasy and fairy tale like elements in this series, its focus is all on the characters, and they're very well done and show significant progression throughout the series as they face different challenges and meet new people. Izumiko and Miyuki both start off as somewhat unlikeable characters, Miyuki moreso than Izumiko, but the show's core is their evolution and growth as individuals. The Miyuki and Izumiko at the end of the series are almost unrecognizable compared to how they are in episode 1, and all of that growth is well-earned throughout the series.
The real highlight of this series however, is the artistic craftsmanship of everything in it. The artwork and animation is phenomenal, as is the sound, music and voice acting. There is a scene of Izumiko dancing near the end of episode 3 that is so genuinely beautiful that it caused me to tear up. It's can't-miss for the gorgeous artwork alone.
This is certainly a slower paced series, and those expecting fantasy action or a series that is more focused on its plot and mystery elements than its characters may find it boring or unsatisfying, but this is a real gem of a show for those with the patience to savor its generally serene atmosphere and dig into its many layers of metaphor. The artwork will absolutely blow you away, and the characters are likable and dynamic. Do not sleep on this show, especially if you enjoy slower and more intellectual material.
SakurasouBusters
In my opinion the most Underappreciated anime of the year. RDG: Red Data Girl received a lot of mediocre reviews. While i do disagree with these reviews i can understand why. This is not an anime for everybody.About 50 percent of the time it's hard to understand just what the hell is going on. Though confusing, the story is very interesting and personally kept me entertained throughout. The art was solid, Nothing exceptional but solid. The Soundtrack was quite good, especially the Ending, which was very calm sounding. There were characters i loved and characters i hated, i loved the two main characters and their relationship, it was my favoritepart of the show, seeing their relationship grow.
Overall Rdg is a very good show, and if it sounds any way interesting give it a shot and hopefully you won't be dissapointed :)
korison
When I read about RDG: Red Data Girl airing in Spring 2013, I was kind of excited. The whole Synopsis sounded really good. Now that it has finished airing, I can safely say it was not what I expected! Story: The story centers around a girl, that is "possessed" by a goddess and can't handle anything electric, since it breaks the moment she touches it. She has been raised in the mountains, but one day decides to go to Tokyo and enter a High School there. The Plot is based on different Shinto legends and sounds quite intriguing. Reality though looks a bit different. I liked thewhole concept the show had and in principle I liked how they executed it too. My only problem was, that I didn't understand anything. The whole show was full of fillers, that sometimes seemed kind of pointless to me (even if they weren't always). The explenations were , where I had my problems. It got me confused everytime.
6/10
Characters: We have our main protagonist Suzuhara Izumiko. A girl that has a goddess in herself. She is a really shy person. She does get some developement, but not as much as I hoped it to be.
Then we have the next character, Sagara Miyuki. He is something like Izumiko's servant. At first he seems to be really rude towards almost everyone, but it's not long into the series until we realize that he is a lot more kind than you might've thought at first glance. He probably is the one developing the most in the whole series.
In total the other characters were ok. Nothing we haven't seen before, but nothing I would dislike either.
6/10
Visuals: The show was produced by P.A. Works, who published other shows like Angel Beats! or Another. The visuals look really nice. The character design is beautiful and the backgrounds great. The Animation is fluent and everything seems to fit.
9/10
Sound: The sound of the whole show is in total quite ok. I didn't hear a lot of the OST to be honest, but when I heard something, I heard something it wasn't anything extraordinary. Both Opening and Ending aren't anything special either. They are both slow paced.
The voiceacting was good and the emotions reached the one watching, if there were emotions needed.
6/10
Enjoyment: My main problem was, as I stated earlier already, that I didn't understand it at all. It was confusing that was it. I found myself being bored while they tried to explain me things, because I had lost track already. Of course it might be that I am too slow at getting things, but that's just how I felt it.
5/10
The Show in total was a bit of a disappointment for me as one of the people, that really were looking forward to this show. Still it wasn't crap. It was just mediocre.
Overall: 6/10
daisy-
This anime is like eating a sandwich packed and full to the highest level. It looks good but somehow parts of it fall off and it's a waste. Story: The start was really good, even the synopsis which is why I expected a lot from this anime, expecting it to be one of the best this season even but somehow even with the cute romance part between Izumiko and Miyuki, the end really failed to leave a satisfying ending. There's a lot of confusion in my part maybe because I haven't read the LN but that just makes it more reason that the story should be properly explainedespecially to non-readers. Some parts left me confused: Why did this happen? What is the reason for this? Who is this person? The end was disappointing. It did not leave the feeling of completeness to the series and failed to shed some light on some things. It's like it left a lot of holes and nothing to fill it with.
I like the concept of it but it failed to deliver. 6/10
Art:
The art was the one thing that's holding me to this series. That and the fact that I don't drop series even if they are on hold for so long already. Art is one of the strongest points, not a surprise since this is from P.A. works. Sceneries are good, character art is also good. *cough*Miyuki*Cough*
9/10
Sound: OP is catchy, I don't watch the ED much and the sounds when Izumiko is dancing is also good. 8/10
Character:
7/10
Izumiko and Miyuki develops at the end. The triplets somehow make a development but at the same time I feel like there's something lacking. I just don't like the part where the characters aren't properly explained. For example, what is seriously the deal with her mother. I don't know why technology doesn't work. (or maybe I failed to catch on). Why does Wamiya and Takayanagi look the same? (Or maybe I failed to catch on that too) I don't even get the gist of the judges thing. Nevertheless, the story fails to expound more on characters, their decisions and even on the triplets.
Enjoyment:
Not gonna lie, even if the story did fail to deliver, I was still somehow kind of hooked on the plot with all the goddess thing and during the times Izumiko does great things inspite of her insecurities. One thing that I really enjoyed was Miyuki and Izumiko. I love their end, but not THE END itself. Although I would have really loved it to see them kiss at the end. :C But like I said, too much confusion so 7/10.
Overall:
6/10
Even though I love those fleeting moments with Miyuki and Izumiko and the art, the story is still an important point and I feel like it's meant a 6 (Fine) rather than a 7 (good).
I wish they had more episodes so that it wouldn't feel so fast paced and won't leave that much confusion to the watchers part.
So much potential for this to become a good anime but 12 episodes butchered it or maybe it was the story board, who knows.
A sandwich is still a sandwich and it's still fine.
rossfudgew
Red Data Girl was the anime of the season that seemed like it was a filler. While it looked nice and was quite visually appealing in terms of animation, its plot and characters did not own up to the nice treatment the animators did in the studio. Story wise, this anime seemed like something that needed a full 26 episode season to convey what they tried to convey in 13. The plot had many major holes, and the story seemed rushed throughout the majority of this series. This is certainly not an anime to watch for the story, and if anything it was just something towatch because it looked pretty. I believe you can find better out there.
Now to go over the major sections:
--Characters and Story-- 4/10
In summary: Relatively close to current time, there is a girl in the mountains of Japan that cannot touch technology because of what she is. She is a vessel for a shinto spirit goddess, and has really long hair to channel the goddesses power. Suddenly she is assigned a protector mountain monk named Miyuki to prevent evil spirits from doing her harm. Eventually they end up going to a school in Tokyo, they make friends and live happily together for the rest of their school lives after rejecting a lonely spirit.
Izumiko is a girl that basically cannot mesh with technology. She touches anything electronic and it breaks, which is caused by her being a yorishiro, that is a vessel for a kami, a shinto spirit god. In terms of her character she is completely helpless in a modern society, and throughout parts of the series she looses control of herself to the kami goddess within her who is the exact opposite of how she is in real life.
This reverse mirroring carries onto the male lead character, Miyuki in an inverse sense. Miyuki is a mountain monk, and even though he has completed his training for dealing with spirits and sorcerers, he is practically useless in fighting them. He excels at everyday things, but throughout the series he feels burdened for having to protect Izumiko from society, and those who want to take advantage of her power.
And the rest of the characters are extras that don't really make sense and don't seem to fit into what this story became too well.
Plot wise, as you may guess Miyuki's feelings of burden slowly transform into love, which makes this story that had so much potential, go completely cliche. And because this story needed to develop into a love story, it completely ruined the epic spirits story that was going on at first.
--Animation and Sound-- 8/10
The studios that made this did a good job on this at least, so visually speaking you won't be disappointed. The characters faces are kinda flat, but that's about it. I have no real complaints.
-- Entertainment Value -- 6/10
I always stick bad animes out to the end, and though it was bad, it was still a decent watch. Just to me it seemed like an emergency filler anime for the studio and station airing it.
iSenpai
While the animation style was pretty good, I can't say that I liked much more than that. The anime wasn't that interesting overall, and it felt more like a chore to watch it then to actually enjoy the show. A lot of the character and plot development was either sloppy and cliche or really hard to follow. I did enjoy the sound track, and it did match the backgrounds and moods of the anime pretty well. Overall it wasn't a horrible anime, but it was boring enough to the point where I didn't want to watch it. While I personally didn't completely love theanime I think that it contains genres that others may be able to follow better than I did and many people do like this anime.
Seyfert
So, it seems most people seem to have a problem comprehending this anime... admittedly this may be due to there being a discrepancy between the novels/manga and the anime (manga ended in 2014, anime in 2013, although the novel came out in 2012)... and, I suspect, it contains more than the anime reveals. Still, every individual episode on its own seemed to make sense, especially if one makes sense of the abstruse language characters often use. It is a Shinto tale, so some researching could be useful at times (there are quite a lot of references, although not knowing the legends behind them doesn't necessarily precludeenjoyment of the anime) - it's really multi-faceted, though... even if it mythologically makes little sense, one can simply view it as a coming-of-age tale, as ultimately that is how it turns out... it is by no means conventional, and while some viewers might focus too much on the relationships of the characters to the exclusion of the surrounding narrative, in this instance their interactions are a crucial part of the storyline, as there was, throughout the series, a certain political struggle within the school... that was rushed, but the twelve episodes did in the end surely develop the main character.
The ideas presented, though, I think are the interesting aspect of the story here... one might be confused by them, but from an imaginative point-of-view, and with what limited explanations there are in the twelve episodes (and there are, even if viewers drop the anime after becoming very confused indeed) - concepts from having different ('spiritual') 'phases', to dancing to specifically access the subconscious, as only once suggested by a character, to summoning a spirit (unconsciously) due to loneliness - all understandable ideas (but, as this isn't a documentary they don't go on very long about them, which is why a curt or oblique explanation may be frustratingly confusing).
Ultimately, I don't think it was at all not done well... only twelve episodes, another season certainly useful, but the twelve existent episodes felt to me like they could be self-contained, although more of it would be nice...
Mahtari
For the longest time I wasn't even convinced that this anime actually existed and that the entirety of the show was just some fever dream I had due to lack of sleep but, lo and behold, here we are. All these years later and I can tell you absolutely nothing about the plot or any of the characters—all I know is that I watched the entire show and refused to drop it and it still haunts me to this day. The pacing was dreadful, the story-telling was either convoluted or mind-numbingly boring, none of the characters developed in any meaningful way other than MC takingoff her glasses, and—arguably the worst part—I lost six hours of my life because I clicked on braids and red glasses and expected something decent.
Save yourselves the trouble—read the source material if you want an actual story.
chazzisfirewmoji
I went into this show pretty new to anime, so I had my expectations low, this show couldn't meet one of them. The show started off slow paced, it focused more on character development between Izumiko and Miyuki, which really helped develop their relationship, but after that there really wasn't much time for the plot. In the end Miyuki is the only character to get true character development, going from a jerk to a decent guy, if RDG did anything right it's Miyuki, but that's where the good part ends. **********SPOILERS********** As I said the plot progresses slow, leaving the ending incomplete with a scene in the themesong the never happened(Miyuki and Izumiko's kiss) and a plot line left unsolved(Mayura and Miyuki's "marriage arrangement").
When I saw the first episode, even when I read the description, it intrigued me. The plot goes nowhere. The middle is hard to understand, choppy even. Things happening with little to no reasoning. Leaving things unexplained such as how Izumiko got her powers and why she can't touch electricity.
Izumiko's personality isn't very clear. In the beginning she's sweet, but at certain times near the end she becomes mean towards Miyuki for random reasons such as going on a 'date' with her goddess self and other things.
Izumiko's half goddess thing is also overlooked, the anime itself looks like a slice of life anime. RDG goes more into culture than they do the backstory.
If you like slow moving plots that go nowhere this anime is for you!
