Zeldafan2 wrote: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: ...I'm still a bit peeved the series is so linear in its portrayal of super-human and human interactions. I mean . . . Not everybody would try to kidnap them in this way, or torture them for "Research". Some people would find super-powered teens cool; many would use them to help their own organizations; this disturbing broad/vague view of what people with power (whether criminal syndicates or research labs) would do once they found out about something like this is painfully linear. I mean, this kind of thing needs an unbiased viewpoint to be compelling; the rather over-the-top viewpoint this series takes (confirmed when they reference back to witch trials from the 1600s) confirms how silly this is. Where are the humans who like super-powered beings; the ones who treat them like decent people?...
Zeldafan2 wrote: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: ...Yuu acted pretty ridiculously in this episode. I know he's a teen who hasn't killed anyone before, but he's driven by a desire to save his love interest and his brother's best friend. Yet, instead of sending these thug dudes sprawling to their deaths, he CHECKS THEM FOR WEAPONS!! He doesn't even try to have them punch each other! Considering the number of powers he has, this confrontation was totally contrived; there were so many better ways he could have solved this confrontation. I know they threatened him, but even so, he did NOT use the plethora of powers he's acquired well at all...
MangaRocks! wrote:Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, a.k.a. Snow White With The Red Hair, episode 10:
Ah yes, I always enjoyed the whole bit with the birds SPOILER: Highlight text to read: (as well as the clever legal loophole Shirayuki and Zen found so that they could indeed protect them and Shirayuki's triumph despite the lord's attempted cheating)... and, of course, even more so because of what it leads to!![]()
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<3
...Though, one thing I do have to note adaptation-wise is that they somehow missed actually drawing in the SPOILER: Highlight text to read: underwater broken branch that gives Shirayuki that cut on her arm, but oh well.
(Also: In case you might be wondering, there is actually a pretty good reason why a number of the lords {including the ones in those flashbacks with Izana and the one in this ep.} were getting a bit full of themselves {it involves the royal family, as you might imagine}, but if I am correctly recalling where that explanation is, it's going to be at *least* next season before they get to it...
) Anyway, this was another great ep. (for multiple reasons!
), and I am greatly looking forward to the adaptation of the aftermath chapter next week! <3
Castle Town Dandelion episode 9:
LOL at the guy's confused reaction when he was about to say "Princess Akane" and she was all like, SPOILER: Highlight text to read: "...SCARLET BLOOM!!!"Indeed, it was pretty amusing to see how everyone know exactly who she is (as they most certainly would, of course, for all of the obvious reasons!), but just pretend (or get forced to pretend
) to not know that it's her for her sake (even on the news broadcasts).
(Shun's reaction in particular was great, too, as was the reaction of the fanclub-head-guy.
) Also, I couldn't stop laughing when it got to the part with the whale.
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And the tiny bit of Misaki and Haruka focus (before all of the Aoi stuff) in the second part was nice, too.
Charlotte episode 11:Zeldafan2 wrote: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: ...I'm still a bit peeved the series is so linear in its portrayal of super-human and human interactions. I mean . . . Not everybody would try to kidnap them in this way, or torture them for "Research". Some people would find super-powered teens cool; many would use them to help their own organizations; this disturbing broad/vague view of what people with power (whether criminal syndicates or research labs) would do once they found out about something like this is painfully linear. I mean, this kind of thing needs an unbiased viewpoint to be compelling; the rather over-the-top viewpoint this series takes (confirmed when they reference back to witch trials from the 1600s) confirms how silly this is. Where are the humans who like super-powered beings; the ones who treat them like decent people?...
^ The problem isn't that non-power-using people who like, support, and help power-users don't exist in that world (because they do-- for example, SPOILER: Highlight text to read: back in the introduction episode for the idol girl, the guys around her are totally fine with it, and help her as much as they can; also see the {apparently} good older scientist dude + his current colleagues; etc. etc.). The problem is that the people who have evil (or, at the very least, completely amoral) intentions (such as a number of the other scientists, the baddies in this ep., etc.) are way more invested in and dedicated to their 'research'/plans/etc., and have been for many years-- so, currently, they have the most 'power'/influence over the situation (socially/economically/informationally/governmentally/even criminally/etc.). The only reason SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Shunsuke had gotten as far as he finally had SPOILER: Highlight text to read: in his last loop through was because he used his powers to get boatloads of money, which he then used to literally *buy* just enough 'power'/influence/etc. for the task at hand (namely, the whole thing with the 'safe-haven' schools, the SPOILER: Highlight text to read: future vaccine, and etc.). Right from the very start of the series, it was always a race for SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Shunsuke and Kumagami and the 'student councils' of all the respective 'safe-haven' schools to get to power-users first before the baddies did, simply because the baddies are just that invested/dedicated.Zeldafan2 wrote: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: ...Yuu acted pretty ridiculously in this episode. I know he's a teen who hasn't killed anyone before, but he's driven by a desire to save his love interest and his brother's best friend. Yet, instead of sending these thug dudes sprawling to their deaths, he CHECKS THEM FOR WEAPONS!! He doesn't even try to have them punch each other! Considering the number of powers he has, this confrontation was totally contrived; there were so many better ways he could have solved this confrontation. I know they threatened him, but even so, he did NOT use the plethora of powers he's acquired well at all...
^ As for Yuu: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Really now, aside from his power(s), he's a (mostly) normal/average kid, with average at best intelligence, with no self-defense/power training whatsoever (and who {in this timeline} didn't even know about his now-many other available powers until the previous day, so he didn't even have the benefit of experience in their use), who also has a number of latent mental/emotional issues (of which he is fully aware)-- and once he recovered from that extremely destructive downward spiral a while ago, he never wanted anything to do with even going near that sort of mindset again (and he also became significantly kinder and more empathetic after that, too). I mean, he didn't even think of trying to kill the baddies in the original 'bad end' timeline, and that's before all of the personal growth he's had now. There's no possible way that he could intentionally kill someone at this point, so that was never going to be an option. The real reason the plan went to heck was because the baddies were *very* well-prepared (thanks to their aforementioned previous dedication and plans to countermeasure time-traveling {likely thanks to their own power-users} + their information extraction from poor Kumagami), and then once Yuu got slashed in the eye he (quite understandably) started reacting/lashing out on pure instinct (hence the random telekinesis)-- after which was the collapse due to that power being automatically triggered once the user gets too agitated/freaked out/afraid. Now, sure, I'd agree that some of the scenes/events/plans/etc. could have been shown/explained/whatever in a better way; but, plot-wise, once the driver guy got blackmailed (which happened to be so far back in the timeline that having Yuu try to go back to stop *that* would've been basically impossible without messing everything up) there was really no way for the characters' situation to end well at all regardless.
Charlotte has always been a series where close attention is important while watching, because there are some things that are just mentioned once/seemingly in passing that end up becoming explanations for other things later on (or sometimes even just *imply* the explanations/details, which you then have to infer via context on your own), and this episode was no exception. *However,* I will agree that everything happened so fast in this ep. that not only was it easy to miss some of those details, but they did indeed end up rushing some of the writing as well (for example, the SPOILER: Highlight text to read: criminal cabal or whatever should have been foreshadowed before their sudden mention + reveal in this ep., and I'm pretty sure they weren't; etc. etc.). In that, I think things could certainly have been shown/explained better than they were. Still, though, even that wouldn't have made much of difference in terms of the plot points overall; it'd just make those plot points easier to understand/accept.
...Now, all that said, here's my personal comments on this episode: ...HOLY......!!!![]()
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SPOILER: Highlight text to read: ...*Takes deep breath*... Okay, I knew they were building up for something else bad to happen, but that wasn't just bad, it was downright catastrophic.
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Before I get to the major seriousness that was this ep.
, though, I thought that the explanation of how the powers came to be was actually pretty brilliant (and finally explains the name of the show, among other things)-- and weaving in the RL-historical witch hunts was also a pretty nice touch, IMO. Also, it seems like I was mostly correct in my assumptions about Kumagami's powers (in terms of range, etc.), it's just that his cost (revealed in this ep.) is that it's 'random'-- the awareness of it just comes to him whenever it comes; he can't consciously make the awareness activate (which makes that race to find the power-users all the more urgent). As for the really serious stuff: Holy crap-- that was absolutely brutal.
I was *not* expecting to see full-on torture in this.
Even though they didn't show much of it while it was actually happening (which I'm really thankful for, because given what it showed that they *had* done to him once they were through I definitely couldn't have stomached watching through all of that onscreen
), it was still difficult to watch. Especially since the poor guy had already chosen to sacrifice himself for the blackmailed guy's family... but then still ended up betraying his closest companion in the process (even though he at first tried not to).
And oh man, Kumagami then *truly* sacrificing himself at the end to try to make up for the harm caused by the info that was forced out of him + save Nao was just devastating, especially with Shunsuke's reactions (the two of them were even closer than I first thought).
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I was literally shaking as the credits rolled. And I have no idea where this is going to go from here...
Classroom☆Crisis episode 11:
OH MY GOODNESS THIS EPISODE.![]()
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Actually, minus a few rather minor quibbles here and there, this series has been unexpectedly good-- and IMO this episode just further cemented that status. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: That talk between (male-)Nagisa and the oldest brother was quite intriguing (and dangerous). And it turns out that he knew almost everything-- including knowing the entire time that (male-)Nagisa was actually a stand-in (although it *seems* that he at least doesn't know about the *real* Nagisa surviving... I mean, not that I really trust that, but for now that seems like something that could be used to {male-}Nagisa's advantage later on). Interestingly enough, though, while he knew all that, he didn't actually care-- he's such a hardcore business guy that the only thing he cares about is the benefit to the company (expansion + profits + shareholders being happy + etc.), and actually by that very line of reasoning very nearly won (male-)Nagisa over to his side even after devastating him.
Also: Whoa-- I mean, I was hoping there'd be some real romantic developments in this, especially since (male-)Nagisa clearly did rather like Mizuki, and of course Mizuki freely admitted her love for him in the previous ep.; however, I wasn't actually *expecting* even so much as one kiss onscreen, no less three (!!!), no less *that entire scene* (which was natural/realistic and cathartic and romantic as heck)! <3
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SPOILER: Highlight text to read: (Along with that really adorable scene with Kaito afterwards, too.
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) Consider me impressed. ...Holy *crap,* though, that ending...!
I had lowered my score rating for this show by a point a few ep.'s back due to the SPOILER: Highlight text to read: gun silliness in that one ep.
, etc; but at this point I don't even care about that anymore-- this ep. just made me raise it right back up again. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: (Male-)Nagisa had just better not die. *shakes fist* I mean, given the tone of the series so far, at this point I really doubt they'd actually go through with that; if they did, though, I'm not sure whether I'd rage or be really impressed. (Probably both... but mostly rage, LOL.
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) Bring on next week!
Gakkou Gurashi! (a.k.a. SCHOOL-LIVE!) episode 10:
OH CRAP...SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ah, so that's why there's more zombies around now. Holy crap, though, both Taroumaru and Kurumi get bitten, Yuki's delusions are crumbling, and to top it all off, the zombies have broken the barricade?!
Everything sure went to heck there real fast...
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(Also: Whoa, so there *IS* an antidote!
)
Gatchaman Crowds Insight episode 10:
Man, it was so creepy to see Gelsadra have no feelings whatsoever about SPOILER: Highlight text to read: the poor kid and her dad...![]()
Also, LOL at the public only just figuring out that Gelsadra's a dictator now... uh, yeah, that should've been obvious ages ago, guys...
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Tsubasa's whole conversation with her grandfather was excellent, though-- including the very powerful "The most terrifying thing in this world is atmosphere" line, and the whole parallel with the atmosphere surrounding the war (props to the writers for not holding back there!
). Also: Heh, Hajime finally got Gelsadra to *think* for himself (something he's never done before... which is also why he never had a bubble above himself before, LOL!).
And Rui's finally back to himself, too!
Rokka: Braves Of The Six Flowers episode 11:
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: The first half of this was intense. I didn't expect Adlet to get hurt that badly, nor let himself get stabbed again to escape...(His kick to Nashetania's face was quite appreciated, though.
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) And aha, it looks like Hans got the idea I'd been suspecting he might-- since Chamot was only supposed to 'watch' him, she'd get pretty darn bored pretty darn quickly; so I'm guessing he might have suggested that both of them-- with her still 'watching' him, of course
, since that was all she was supposed to do-- take a stroll over to where all the action was since that'd certainly be more 'fun'...?
Also: Yep, Adlet's theory was right on the 'what,' it just took him a little while longer to work out the 'how.'
(And that was a *really* good how, BTW.
The way the clues were scattered in very early on {things such as the temperature, details about the Private and the King, the missing Sun Saint-- who I had honestly completely forgotten about, LOL!
-- etc. etc.) was pretty darn ingenious, because you wouldn't really be thinking anything of those kind of comments back then.
) Science FTW!
And of course there was more Adlet x Flamie goodness <3
, and Hans actually being... gentle
(and, again, awesome
), and that extremely satisfying apology getting dragged out of Maura, etc.
As for the ending: I literally laughed out loud, because as soon as Adlet paused, I *knew* that'd be the cliffhanger.
(Also LOL at the next episode's straightforward title.
) Although, by now it's honestly dead obvious who it is; all there is left to explain is the character's reasoning.
Can't wait for the finale next week! <3
And Durarara!!x2 Ten episode 10:
Comments on this are in the dedicated DRRR!! watch thread!
Zeldafan2 wrote: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: The problem is, just because organizations such as these are extremely dedicated to this type of research, doesn't mean they would gain so much power, influence, and economy from these shady dealings that no one would blow the whistle on the fact they're kidnapping teenagers and using them for research until they burn out so they can experiment on someone else. Somebody is sure to do that, and once law enforcement is informed of the situation, this becomes a lot more complicated than the show likes to argue it would be. Second, this is not ordinary behavior for organizations like this. What is so important about finding about these teens' super powers that you would kidnap them and experiment on them like this? Most scientists are not sadistic sociopaths; this bears further elaboration. Also, why are they the first to find out about this sort of thing, thereby gaining the most influence anyways? Where are the corporations who would make money on these people getting fame for their abilities by being mascots for the company? Economics states that people must have something to gain from wanting what other people have; how could the scientists possibly gain any money from this costly, unprofitable research? They aren't selling the kids to criminal groups, they aren't making any money out of this; so, what's the point of resorting to these out of their way, immoral schemes? Again, corporations, the film industry, heck, even local/national gangs would have more reason to recruit these kids (and successfully do so without coercion) to their respective fields because of the self-interest (money in the first two, power in the third) without having to go through this super-evil business the research groups get on to. Furthermore, because they something have to gain from involving themselves in these super-powered lives, THEY would be the ones who ultimately be more influential figures in the social affairs of super-powered beings. Money makes the world go 'round; to have influence and power over matters such as this, you need money.
Zeldafan2 wrote: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: As for Yuu, he may be book dumb thanks to his chronic cheating, but the matter in which he uses his power to rig high school life in his favor requires a great deal of intelligence and skill with indie ploys. Cheating isn't easy without getting caught. Yes, Yuu has a gimmick that no one would suspect. That does not change the fact that outside of multiple choice and mathematics, copied answers raise red flags. In the space of five seconds he memorizes a person's answer, rewords it to make it less suspicious and writes it down showing incredible short term memory retention and decent ability to interpret answers by the seat of his pants. He may not give the knowledge he acquires much thought after he uses it but the very fact that he is able to do all of this in such a quick and effective manner speaks greatly for his natural intelligence and quick thinking. Furthermore consider the cunning with which he is able to study people and evaluate their usefulness to him. He seeks out the best students to cheat off of by examining their progress at cram schools, he boosts his own popularity by clever use of his powers to create just the right circumstances to increase people's esteem of him and again, does detailed and accurate research on people showing not only thought but methodical thought, which brings me to the next thing that should be apparent when one really looks closely at Yuu; not only is he an intelligent competent schemer, he's also a bit morally... different. This is apparent in the first episode. His scheme to win the heart of the school's most popular girl is played by Maeda in such a way to deliberately show how uncaring and sociopathic he is towards people he doesn't care about. His plan involves split second timing in which he pushes her out of the way of a truck JUST IN TIME as the driver crashes into the wall behind them. Whether this guy died or not from the incident isn't something he was worried about in the least; he's just glad the girl was impressed by his gesture. This teen's idea of base morality is FAR off from your average joe. In addition, this shows how cocky and confident he is in his own abilities; he risked the life of three people, including himself, because he was THAT sure his ingenious plan would work. If that doesn't display how skilled he believes he is with his powers, I don't know what does. This comes up again in episode 7; when he goes through his BSOD, sinking deeper and deeper into self-destructive behavior, one of the big moral wrongs he commits is messing with people who have nothing to do with him just for the fun of it. He gleefully stabs one of the thugs in the leg with a pair of chopsticks and causes horrible pain to a load of others for no reason but to satiate the hole in his heart. During his time with the club, he's grown into a nicer individual, but ONLY because he's grown bonds with the people around him. He has little to no understanding (as is shown in the episodic conflicts in episodes 2-5) of people's internal angst around him, and can ONLY relate to those he's grown to know and care about (Yusa, Takajou, and ESPECIALLY Nao). Whem Nao convicts him of losing his humanity when he's about to take drugs, would he really have listened if ANYONE else had given this speech to him? No; it's because it's the girl he cares about/ loves who's telling him this that he listens; that he would be inhuman if he resorted to taking drugs. It would hurt himself, and it would hurt the people around him, including Nao; that's why he stops. It's not because he hurt those dudes that makes him guilty, it's that it would hurt his friends. So, in episodes 8 and onward, the lesson he learns is not that he shouldn't have beat up random people, it's that he shouldn't ruin his life when he has people who care about him. Therefore, his hesitance to kill in episode 11 doesn't really make sense because A., he doesn't instinctively care about people he doesn't know, and B., no one close to him has really successfully convicted him TO care. The couple times Nao addresses this early on were only enough to get him to participate, and even then, he did so reluctantly. Worse, NAO, the character integral to all of his positive growth, is the one whose life is now on the line. Without her, he would be a wreck as a person, plain and simple. He knows what happens when he loses someone close to him (Ayumi): he's not going to let fumbling about stop him from saving her at all costs. If anything, he'd delve somewhat into his own blood-lust; ultimately, he cares a lot more about Nao than these thugs who he doesn't know, and honestly, couldn't care less about.
Fantasia wrote:I wish there were more anime like this one.
Fantasia wrote:I watched episodes 2 through 10 of Non Non Biyori Repeat over the last couple days. This anime has everything I want from a slice of life show. Beautiful scenery, likeable characters, and a great balance of humor and peaceful moments. It even managed to have less problematic content than the first season.
I wish there were more anime like this one.
Rusty Claymore wrote:Last monday I went to NonNonByori on my queue, needing that extra little happiness to get the week started. And then I remembered it was over. This has been the worst week this season. >_<
skreyola wrote:Rusty Claymore wrote:Last monday I went to NonNonByori on my queue, needing that extra little happiness to get the week started. And then I remembered it was over. This has been the worst week this season. >_<
Time to start rewatching ssn 1?
Alternately, you could put the ARIA series in your queue.
GeneD wrote:Rokka no Yuusha: T_T SPOILER: Highlight text to read: That ending, whyyyyyy random cowgirl whyyyyy? I know because: ongoing light novel, but man it makes for an annoying ending “twist”. Seriously that made me face-palm so hard and feel kinda cheated.
I don’t agree with the statement that the only one they can now be sure is a real Brave is Adlet. As proven by the existence of Flemie (sp? forever) the fiends have different factions and schemes running at the same time, so technically the fake Braves (however many there actually are, clearly there could be an unending supply of them) could all be from different factions and not know who the others are. So just because he outed one fake doesn’t mean he couldn’t be one himself, in fact, considering he was the prime suspect, outing someone else would be the best way to clear his name, until another fake showed up, putting us back at literally square one. I was seriously expecting a fog barrier to spring up again.
Despite that, I enjoyed the show for most of the season, though I’d have liked the mystery to have more clues for viewers to go on. As fun as it was to speculate, it basically came down to who was the most in opposition to Adlet this episode, they must be the 7th. Adlet, Flemie and Hans were great, the fights were especially fun to watch and it’s a bit sad there wasn’t more of those. I’m still interested in the novels, or a second season if they make one, but the end was a bit of a blow to my overall enjoyment.
MangaRocks! wrote:... that finale twist does *not* turn out how you think it might *at all*{and that is a very good thing!
}. The story actually takes a turn in a very different {and even better!!} direction; and it also delves into certain characters' inside information, backgrounds, and relationships {and, consequently, a nice little bit of world-building about a few other things, such as SPOILER: Highlight text to read: the Saints, the Kyouma, and even a few details about the fake crest; etc.}-- and, to top it all off, it also greatly improves two characters'... well, characterization
, plus perfectly clears up the issues I originally had with another character's behavior in the first arc {it makes complete sense now, and is pretty darn ingenious, to boot!}. ...
Up though ep 18. There is a very brief hot spring encounter in ep 10 in which both parties blunder into each other and one of them goes "meep!" an vanishes into the distance almost immediately. That's all I can remember.skreyola wrote:re: Ushio to Tora - Is that true of the whole series, or the episode/OP specifically?
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