I wonder if it will sell since it's a collaborative effort by the creator of Ghost in the shell and Excel Saga
Active Raid 1
So the character designer is TOSH. No wonder the main lead looks like adult Soma.
First episode was kinda meh. They explain a lot of thing, and the action is well, average. I'll check the next episode since it remind me of tokusatsu show.
Not bad. There's a ton of monologue, but I guess they're going for the POV style direction. Most of it works pretty well, but sometimes it feels like an easy way out to have exposition establishing characters and relationships. I really like the pace of the story, and I'm hoping the series retains that tempo. It's a good mix of the mundane and the dramatic, rocking the boat enough to keep things interesting and suspenseful throughout. I'm wary of the mystery hooks and the time reversal theme though, those things are hard to get right in any medium, and anime has a bad track record for satisfying mysteries in particular. Having said that, I have full faith in the adaptation writer Taku Kishimoto to do the best job he can with the material. Hopefully it pays off at the end!
Director Tomohiko Ito posted on the official Twitter account of the ERASED (Boku dake ga Inai Machi) anime on Thursday that the show will portray the original manga's ending, although the manga has not yet ended. The anime is listed with 12 episodes, and is slated to end on March 24. The May issue of Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine (where the manga is serialized) is slated for March 4.
I'm certainly interested, but something about this episode really lacked punch. The pace is simply too fast here for the show to ever wind up and deliver something that felt meaningful, but it's pretty obvious that there was a greater focus on packing the set up into a single episode. That's admirable enough in its own right but this style of pacing feels pretty superficial to me, and the over the top heightened dramatics they built towards just wound up feeling cheesy. If the show wants to move fast and play up the thriller angle that's fine, but there are weird pieces attached to it that would benefit from longer, quieter moments to develop character relationships. For example: when that high school girl needs to leave she gets a lift to the train station, but the scene taking her there is just two short and mostly meaningless lines before we see the main character back at his own home. Stuff like this could be cleaned up considerably, but the perspective and setting has a tendency to jump all over the place without gaining much in the process. At one point a character walking through the supermarket hits such a brisk pace that it makes the supermarket seem comically small.
As for the build...
the passing by the red-eyed killer who tips his fedora to you? It's just...the least interesting interaction imaginable. And I get that the main character is supposed to have certain hang ups that make him unappealing, but he essentially gets shocked into time traveling way, way far back into the past. This is a scene that could have happened with a greater focus around the death of the mother, but instead there's this weird element of "oh no, I don't want the police to think I did it" that kind of just deflates the scene. And again, that's another example of this unnecessary piece tacked on that doesn't add anything. The pace makes this feel very messy. If they want to actually make something of the theme where the innocent are framed and found guilty it isn't going to come across in these snippets the show tries to pass off as scenes.
It probably just means the manga is ending? This isn't very unusual, there are lots of anime adaptations which start when the manga conclusion is more or less decided with a target date, and they end either before the manga ends or just after the manga ends.
It probably just means the manga is ending? This isn't very unusual, there are lots of anime adaptations which start when the manga conclusion is more or less decided with a target date, and they end either before the manga ends or just after the manga ends.
I love how this show does shit and you can't tell if it's metaphorical or real. Dudes just appearing in this elevator in between floor-changing shadow-wipe shots. So cool. Impossibly large rooms.
Somehow it feels not in the spirit of watching this not to watch the entire rose battleground sequence every time...
had no idea this series had a mascot rat
oh no someone hacked a rose clipart onto my transformation sequence
Is the issue that releases on March the final chapter? The article doesn't mention if that 's the case and I just assumed it's ending later than the anime.
They haven't said, but March is a good bet because the live action film is also coming out in mid-March. I think Kadokawa has been planning this for a while, and know when the manga will finish, so they want to maximize marketing as it ends, to capture as wide a new audience as possible with the anime and live action movie, hoping that people who like those will also pick up all the existing volumes of the manga as it concludes.
Without ANY spoilers whatsoever, the manga is pretty much winding down to the end at the moment. Be very careful about what you read about the show as a result so you don't spoil yourself - for instance, steer clear of Wikipedia
They haven't said, but March is a good bet because the live action film is also coming out in mid-March. I think Kadokawa has been planning this for a while, and know when the manga will finish, so they want to maximize marketing as it ends, to capture as wide a new audience as possible with the anime and live action movie, hoping that people who like those will also pick up all the existing volumes of the manga as it concludes.
Without ANY spoilers whatsoever, the manga is pretty much winding down to the end at the moment. Be very careful about what you read about the show as a result so you don't spoil yourself - for instance, steer clear of Wikipedia
It's the emotion you feel when the show you're watching hits rock bottom right ?
I actually thought this was probably the best episode since the first one but that ending ... I didn't know stupidity was infectious but clearly, Quon's has spread to other members of his crew.
That's why I had to watch the finale instead of waiting another day. Don't worry though. The moral of the story is that stupidity leads to us all FEELING ROCK EMOTION! BURNING ROCK EMOTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love how this show does shit and you can't tell if it's metaphorical or real. Dudes just appearing in this elevator in between floor-changing shadow-wipe shots. So cool. Impossibly large rooms.
Somehow it feels not in the spirit of watching this not to watch the entire rose battleground sequence every time...
had no idea this series had a mascot rat
oh no someone hacked a rose clipart onto my transformation sequence
Meme was probably the wrong word to use as I fully believe the initial reviews, it's just there's that weird issue on the 'net where people like to get their digs in. I guess I'd feel far less skeptical about further reviews if the initial round hadn't caused an uproar on twitter etc. The Santorum connection lends this to politicizing and it feels like I've seen it so often online where people are quick to post reviews of a business they may never frequented if only to "make a stand" of sorts. Couple that with the things people are willingly to post anonymously (like the OT anonymous confession thread where people are quick to point out which is their fictional story that others believe) and I think it just ends up murkier as it goes along.
I don't mean to defend Funi either, just trying to explain how my skepticism comes about.
It was neat to see the series from Konno's perspective as a manager. It helps to give another dimension to seiyuu work and to flesh out a character who up to now had been a bit of an enigma.
I found nothing wrong with the story at all as far as tone and consistency goes. It's still the same story from the first episode, and carries on from the cliffhanger in the previous episode pretty neatly. This is clearly the endgame of the story, so there are major developments which clear up certain points touched upon in previous episodes, but nothing I would really consider an outright twist. If anything, I would say that thematically the show is headed in the direction it was meant to all along, and for better or for worse it is very much a story about the cycle of tragedy, and the consequences of power. Good themes even though the characters used to tell the story can be really dense or frustratingly dumb at times.
The horror movie aspect of Towa no Quon is really interesting in retrospect, because the first 3 episodes feel like one half of a horror movie - the creepy aspects bleeding in, the strings being tightened, etc, while the last 3 episodes here are the other half of a horror movie - the part where all the characters start paying the price for their one-dimensional character traits and stupid weaknesses as the boogiemen go all out on their hunt. I wonder how much of this tone was inherent in the original design concept of the show before Umanosuke Iida passed away. He worked on the Devilman OVAs way back in the 80s, and this feels like it shares a number of passing similarities to Go Nagai's stuff. Even Quon's Insania design is very much a modified Devilman, especially when he leaps and forms those energy wings.
All that aside, the REAL highlight in the final two episodes is clearly the action and animation. There's some really exciting and solid action towards the end of episode 5, along with really nice effects too. The animation isn't quite episode 1 quality, but the storyboarding is very strong, and I especially like how the fight at the end shifted between the camera view and Delta's first person view. That was neat. The way Quon moves and jumps also has a really unusual but attractive quality to it. The finale is just fantastic though. Episode 1 quality animation and action with some great climatic fights and a shit load of effects and debris animation at the end. Nakamura da gawd.
I honestly have zero idea what the complaints are regarding the ending being unsatisfying or going "off the rails". None of that happens. I mean this isn't amazing storytelling or anything, it's a pretty generic run of the mill X-men storyline applied to Japanese mythology elements with original characters and setting. There's nothing particularly impressive about the narrative but it certainly isn't bad. It does the job fine.
Story spoilers:
Everything that was "revealed" in the last two episodes were foreshadowed or heavily hinted at from the point each element of the story was introduced. It was clear that Magneto had an ulterior motive and that he wasn't really following things by the book. It was also clear that the guy helping Devilman run Amagi Brilliant Park has connections to the Illuminati and that he was playing more than one side. Devilman's flashbacks being incomplete was a telltale sign of an unreliable narrative, especially since the whole point of the episode this was introduced in was about locked memories and not facing your past demons. So when it turns out his brother has a secret part to play in the events, it doesn't really come as a surprise. Especially since we know his brother is Towa, and the show is called.... Towa no Quon. Kinda laying it thick with the double word play there.
Ultimately, if there is one critique that is totally valid, it is that everyone in this show is fucking -dumb-, this goes for the good guys, the bad guys, the not-really-bad-guys, and even the neutral parties. Everyone is dumb as fuck and makes terrible decisions or comes up with stupid plans which will obviously not work. It's a pretty infuriating aspect of the show because with better characters, even if the generic and simple story remained the same, it would be much, much better. But as it is, I think it was still a pretty great watch!
Shirow came up with the concept (His original designs for the two characters are on /u/). The other guy did everything else. And yes, red head (Nene) is absolutely smitten over the cat girl (Clarion). The two girls are Cocoa and Chino all over again with Nene being all touchy feely with Clarion and Clarion rejecting her. The younger cat girl (Clarion) is played by the same VA who voiced Retroree and Yumi (Shirobako).
Director: Konosuke Uda (Ginga e Kickoff, Majin Bone)
Character Designer: Kazuto Nakazawa (Terror in Resonance, House of Five Leaves)
Music: Yoshihiro Ike (Kuroko's Basketball, Rage of Bahamut Genesis)
Animation Production: MAPPA
Director: Konosuke Uda (Ginga e Kickoff, Majin Bone)
Character Designer: Kazuto Nakazawa (Terror in Resonance, House of Five Leaves)
Music: Yoshihiro Ike (Kuroko's Basketball, Rage of Bahamut Genesis)
Animation Production: MAPPA
I found nothing wrong with the story at all as far as tone and consistency goes. It's still the same story from the first episode, and carries on from the cliffhanger in the previous episode pretty neatly. This is clearly the endgame of the story, so there are major developments which clear up certain points touched upon in previous episodes, but nothing I would really consider an outright twist. If anything, I would say that thematically the show is headed in the direction it was meant to all along, and for better or for worse it is very much a story about the cycle of tragedy, and the consequences of power. Good themes even though the characters used to tell the story can be really dense or frustratingly dumb at times.
The horror movie aspect of Towa no Quon is really interesting in retrospect, because the first 3 episodes feel like one half of a horror movie - the creepy aspects bleeding in, the strings being tightened, etc, while the last 3 episodes here are the other half of a horror movie - the part where all the characters start paying the price for their one-dimensional character traits and stupid weaknesses as the boogiemen go all out on their hunt. I wonder how much of this tone was inherent in the original design concept of the show before Umanosuke Iida passed away. He worked on the Devilman OVAs way back in the 80s, and this feels like it shares a number of passing similarities to Go Nagai's stuff. Even Quon's Insania design is very much a modified Devilman, especially when he leaps and forms those energy wings.
All that aside, the REAL highlight in the final two episodes is clearly the action and animation. There's some really exciting and solid action towards the end of episode 5, along with really nice effects too. The animation isn't quite episode 1 quality, but the storyboarding is very strong, and I especially like how the fight at the end shifted between the camera view and Delta's first person view. That was neat. The way Quon moves and jumps also has a really unusual but attractive quality to it. The finale is just fantastic though. Episode 1 quality animation and action with some great climatic fights and a shit load of effects and debris animation at the end. Nakamura da gawd.
I honestly have zero idea what the complaints are regarding the ending being unsatisfying or going "off the rails". None of that happens. I mean this isn't amazing storytelling or anything, it's a pretty generic run of the mill X-men storyline applied to Japanese mythology elements with original characters and setting. There's nothing particularly impressive about the narrative but it certainly isn't bad. It does the job fine.
Story spoilers:
Everything that was "revealed" in the last two episodes were foreshadowed or heavily hinted at from the point each element of the story was introduced. It was clear that Magneto had an ulterior motive and that he wasn't really following things by the book. It was also clear that the guy helping Devilman run Amagi Brilliant Park has connections to the Illuminati and that he was playing more than one side. Devilman's flashbacks being incomplete was a telltale sign of an unreliable narrative, especially since the whole point of the episode this was introduced in was about locked memories and not facing your past demons. So when it turns out his brother has a secret part to play in the events, it doesn't really come as a surprise. Especially since we know his brother is Towa, and the show is called.... Towa no Quon. Kinda laying it thick with the double word play there.
Ultimately, if there is one critique that is totally valid, it is that everyone in this show is fucking -dumb-, this goes for the good guys, the bad guys, the not-really-bad-guys, and even the neutral parties. Everyone is dumb as fuck and makes terrible decisions or comes up with stupid plans which will obviously not work. It's a pretty infuriating aspect of the show because with better characters, even if the generic and simple story remained the same, it would be much, much better. But as it is, I think it was still a pretty great watch!
This morning Crunchyroll is announcing the addition of Sekko Boys to its winter 2016 anime lineup. The series will broadcast on Crunchyroll every Friday starting January 8 at 8:40am Pacific Time.
I felt the rock emotion, the burning rock emotion too but that ending twist of towa no quon of
Haha I was also a mutant and also I have a power that allows me to beat every other power no shut up Tommy this power is totally real and fair I'm telling mom what you did
was too much for me. The sakuga of episode 6 made me erect AF though
And how can you say the ending wasn't unsatisfying when it was left as open as it was? It was like
the final battle happened they were like "hey we won" cool and then the credits rolled
That just felt awkward for me, especially with the open ended ending that more could come in the Universe.
Edit: for a 6 part show that wouldn't get any more screen time I felt they could have just added like an extra scene so it didn't end like if more were to come eventually.
I felt the rock emotion, the burning rock emotion too but that ending twist of towa no quon of
Haha I was also a mutant and also I have a power that allows me to beat every other power no shut up Tommy this power is totally real and fair I'm telling mom what you did
was too much for me. The sakuga of episode 6 made me erect AF though
And how can you say the ending wasn't unsatisfying when it was left as open as it was? It was like
the final battle happened they were like "hey we won" cool and then the credits rolled
That just felt awkward for me, especially with the open ended ending that more could come in the Universe.
Edit: for a 6 part show that wouldn't get any more screen time I felt they could have just added like an extra scene so it didn't end like if more were to come eventually.
I don't see the issue with the villain being a mutant considering they already showed how ineffective their detection tests are when Shun was outed as a mutant too. I mean, you would think that considering the fact that they turned him into a CYBORG and have complete access to his biology and mental state, that there would be signs, but whatever, if that's how the setting wants to roll, that's how it is.
It was always clear that the baddie is a sort of loose cannon though. Just look at the way he handled operations all along and the reactions he got from the staff. He was holding shit back and deliberately baiting them because he wanted something they had, rather than actually just exterminating them.
As for his power, it's really not anything new. I mean, this is basically Rogue's power in X-men. In the hands of someone more calculating and more experienced, her power could have the same effect in the X-men world especially in a scenario where no one expected it.
I found the ending pretty conclusive. It wasn't about Ordo, they were a background element to make the setting more interesting. The story was about Quon and his struggle with guilt and regret, and how he is chained to his destiny. The antagonists in the story were ManRogue and the NotSacredSeven Cyborg Unit. By the end of the story, Quon comes to terms with his past and is freed from the chains of immortality. The antagonists have all been defeated - the Cyborg Unit is mostly dead, and ManRogue has been rendered an invalid. I'm not sure what else there is to tie up. Ordo continuing to exist doesn't change anything.
Easily my show of the season. Episode 1 was so amazing with all the ability users, and the Divine Gate idea. Aoto is pretty cold but seems to be wanting to do the right thing if only he can find that spark to get interested in things again. Akane is pretty hilarious with all the comedy and expression but deep down concerned with the friendship and honesty thing. Visuals look stunning with the fire, water, and wind effects and what is seen in the ED moments gives me hope for really huge things once the series gets going. This is amazing and definitely one I will buy as soon as humanly possible.
I guess, maybe my issue stems more that I thought many of the episodes had an awkward cut for an ending in a scene or transition that could've been done better. My issue with the villain holds though, it felt like your derivative anime
villain surprise where they pop in and they're the most powerful being ever for the convenience of having an epic fight at the end where the lead has to go super saiyan to beat him/her
. But as you said maybe it largely all stems over how much I hated Quon's stupidity for a 1000 year old being.
Episode 6 was fantastic though, my problem probably comes more with the ending reveal of 5 than with 6.
Boku Dake ga Nai Machi ep 1
Holy shit I didn't expect A1 to use Asian Kung-fu Generation's Re:Re song from their Solfa album. Brings back memories years ago when I was listening to that song as a teen.
I always knew hat tipping fedora wearers are up to no good.
As for the show I'm can say I'm like it because it's not often we get rewind scenarios and this added mystery of what happen to the MC in the past that affects his situtaion now. I wish they would develop the mom further cause she just suddenly appear out of nowhere and involved heavily without telling much about her.
Good opener, probably won't throw up many surprises but im along for the ride. Looks amazing at times though I can't wait to see them go all out animating one of the races. There were a lot of short-cuts at times but it was till looked very impressive. Haru with glasses was pretty cool.
Erased 1
Interesting start. Hinted at things nicely and built up characters and motivations in a very natural way. Not as blown away as some others seem to be be but still great overall. Worried about the re-writes they apparently have to do to fit everything into 12 episodes so hopefully the writers find a way around it.
Active Raid 1
Some cool stuff happened. Didn't think much of it. Hate the overly quirky characters. Worst OP of the season for definite.
Sushi Police
Wtf. James and the giant peach art style? Why?
Marshmallow man 1
Good stuff. Similar to I cant understand what my husband is saying.
Haruchika 1
Bad timing for this because it looks horrible coming off the heels of similar shows like Your lie in April and Hibike. Sensei's VA doesn't suit him at all, sounds way too young. The mystery was kind of like a really dull version of Hyouka without any of Kyoani's visual flair. Im interested in what they do with Haruta but i see myself dropping it before long.
Osomatsu 13
Part 1-This a comedy show right? Parts 2-3-amazing. I think overall Osomatsu has around an 80% hit radius in terms of jokes which is pretty impressive. And even in the few sketches that are misses you can kind just admire the visuals.
