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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit
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Kalhiki
Posts: 57 |
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Glad to see this show get covered!
Encouragement of Climb is my favorite anime, and I'm so glad that it got such a wonderful season to potentially conclude the series (nothing confirmed this is the end, but considering the tone, it's likely. I also don't believe there's anything significant that happened in the manga past this point). Loved Next Summit. Brought all the wonderful character writing, directing and beautiful animation from previous seasons in full force. I also kinda like that they stuck with half length episodes, since I feel it works for the show's pacing. Just a solid show all around, and I really wish it'd be more popular in the west. Seems like it's been unfairly overlooked all these years despite being one of the best animated and written shows in its genre. Also sucks that the previous three seasons aren't available to stream anywhere. Crunchyroll used to have them, but not anymore. With Sentai getting Next Summit, I can only hope they license the other seasons. |
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 2209 Location: Springfield, MO |
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I agree completely. Really hoping Sentai is able to put the entire series out on home video. |
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RobbiRobb
 Posts: 45 |
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Next Summit really was a rollercoaster ride in all its phases, from what it initially set out to be, what it became when the episodes were airing and what legacy it leaves behind now that it's over. Right from the start the story was centered on revisiting Mount Fuji, not least with the main key visual literally showing the characters on the peak of the mountain. The step from half-length episodes to full-length episodes was very promising, only to fall a bit flat when the episodes themselves came and all but a few episodes actually just contained two different stories.
While I didn't mind the four recap episodes at the beginning - even though I spent the last few weeks before the broadcast began rewatching all previous episodes - I don't really think they did anything good for the series or the franchise as a whole. That will sound gatekeepy, but I personally think it would have been better if they weren't there, mostly to prevent people from starting with this season. Because while yes, the episodes do recap most of the important events of the first three seasons, that is literally about it. The entire story lives from the characters' lifes, the daily shenanigans and all the drama between the different friends, mostly Aoi and Hinata. And the recaps do a really bad job at conveying this, the drama of season two is really more in the background, mostly centering around the Fuji arc. The drama of the second half of season two and that in season three more or less falls completely flat and only the mountains themselves are in the spotlight. And even though I'm happy to see new people getting into my favorite series, it is a bit sad that a lot of them don't get to experience it more fleshed out. The rest of the story then has some very interesting turns. The entire season, apart from a few of the opening szenes before the recaps, is taken directly from the manga, adapting from volumes 9 through to 16. In past seasons there were often some parts completely original to the anime, that is basically not the case in this season. Against my initial guess we also didn't start right after the end of season three, which ended in volume 7. And not only were volumes 8 and most of 9 skipped, but also volumes 13, 14 and most of 15 were skipped entirely. Which makes me really wonder how much they wanted to get to Mount Fuji in this season. I get that there had to be some goal to work towards and since the middle of season two this has basically been Mount Fuji. But at the same time this season skipped as much content as it adapted, resulting in the sometimes weird pacing. Those problems wouldn't have been as predominant if the series got double the runtime or even just replaced the recaps with new content. In the end it seems like a weird decision they rushed for Mount Fuji and I think the series would really have profited from not skipping a lot of content. Which brings me to question where this series can even go now? Quite a few of the stories have been adapted out of order, so it's not like they couldn't just put all these chapters that were skipped in an additional season in the future and just adjust the setting. On the other hand though there is now no more big goal the story could aim for, making it questionable if there will ever be another season. Still, Yama no Susume is my favorite anime and I'm glad I could finally watch a season as it was airing, because I discovered it after the third season was already over. I really hope this doesn't mean the end for this franchise. Even through the sometimes odd pacing and the questionable chances at getting another caused by production decisions, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the new episodes every week. And maybe we can also get an official translation of the manga at some point, but I guess if an airing season isn't a marketing opportunity, I don't know what is, so I'll keep my hopes low. |
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BlackWolf26
Posts: 26 |
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The age of the series (10 years!) is probably why the recaps were necessary. I don't see them as taking away from the show, but rather, catching both existing fans and new viewers up with why Aoi's looking to climb Mount Fuji. At any rate, I encourage this thread's readers to go and read a review of Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit written by someone who actually hikes. The depth of this series is captured to a much better extent in that review.
Last edited by BlackWolf26 on Mon Jan 16, 2023 11:25 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 571 Location: North America |
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The previous seasons are available to stream, but you need an eye patch, parrot, and peg leg, as well as good anti-malware software to see them. 
My only real complaints are that more new (to anime) material was not presented, and a season 5 is very unlikely. Overall the 4 seasons are one of the best SOL/CGDCT/Iyashikei series of all time. |
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