Lord Ghirahim
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Captain Earth |OT| Can you feel the soul of mecha anime in your BONES?
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Jex
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[Captain Earth] - 1
I can't get into any kind of discussion about this first episode and my reaction to it without setting it in the wider context of what Studio BONES has produced over the last few years and how that compares with some of their more popular titles. You could argue that I'm not being entirely fair to the show as a result because I'm not judging it in a vacuum, but there's no point pretending that BONES haven't had a bad track record with these kinds of shows recently and as a person I am going to take that all into account when I watch a show by them.
As many of you are no doubt aware, BONES are a studio known for putting out a lot of high quality work whether it's FMA, RahXephon or Eureka 7 or Sword of the Stranger. However in recent years there output hasn't been particularly...stellar. I'm talking, specifically, about their 'Original' works that aren't based off of existing properties, stuff like Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, Star Driver, Xam'd and Eureka Seven AO. Original works are, obviously, trickier to develop than straight forward manga adaptations because you have to create and write the whole thing.
This, I feel, is where the problem lies. Those original works have all, at some point or another, collapsed under the weight of their own nonsensical writing. Rather than making simple, solid and straightforward stories these writers for these shows decided to make incredibly convoluted stories that lack form and elegance. They seem to confuse having lots of characters, factions, buzzwords and twists for good storytelling and as a result they aren't satisfying or enjoyable to watch because the stories degrade into various degrees of nonsense. I know I'm generalising a little here but if you've watched some or all of these works I imagine you'll understand what I'm getting at. All these problems where at the back of my mind when I sat down to watch this episode and they certainly influenced my impressions.
So, onto the episode itself. It's essentially your classic first episode in any mecha series - we get introduced to the protagonist, his life, his backstory, and then an event happens which means he has to 'step up' and into a robot. There's nothing particularly fresh about this setup which is perhaps why it's partially told in a non-chronological order, to keep the viewer engaged. However this is where my problems with this episode start to manifest.
Firstly, all this cutting back and forth through time (and also between completely separate characters and groups) really destroys any kind of flow the story could be developing and it doesn't give the audience any time to get invested in what's going on because it's so piecemeal. Perhaps if the writing was really strong that could serve as an anchor to keep the viewer engaged with the material but sadly that isn't the case here. Yes, I know that the blue stone is there to help you keep track of time so you don't lose your way but that's more of a marker. The fundamental problem still remains - if you're only getting a scene that lasts thirty seconds that's no time at all for the viewer to get to know the characters or better understand the situation or develop any kind of emotional rapport with the text.
Here's one really key example, and I really hate when shows do this, it's the famous
It doesn't, and won't ever, work because we have no idea who these people are, what they are doing, or why. In the wider context of a series of scenes it's totally viable to do something like this but when you just flashback to a sequence without context and worse, have characters spew out unbelievable dribble, you can't expect anyone to care.
Someone has already brought up the comparison with Eureka Seven's opening episode and that's really a master class in handling very similar plot points in a far better way. We spend a couple of minutes at the start of the episode introducing some people from Gekkostate and, perhaps more importantly, we get totally sweet mecha action (not just launch porn) within the very first scene of the episode as opposed to some cock-tease at the end. Then the entirety of the rest of the first episode is simply devoted to introducing Renton, the environment he lives in, his hopes, dreams, etc. That's a lot of time spent fleshing out the protagonist before the main plot really kicks into gear and that's important because if we don't care about our main character we won't care about what happens in the show and once everything starts to get crazy we've already been introduced to the main character in his normal life so when he changes and develops we've got a base line to measure his growth and development.
In Captain Earth they spend about two minutes trying to set up the main character and a lot of that time is spent with characters talking at the main character about stuff that isn't really relevant or interesting, it's effectively dead time that doesn't tell us anything about him. We learn that he looks out the window and plays vidoegames. As soon he sees the TV broadcast that brief period of time stops and we start to get into what I loosely call "weird shit" territory where our protagonist starts getting involved with weird shit that we can't really relate to anyway and which still fails to develop him because all we learn is that he can jump over fences and occasionally display human emotions but apparently this was mainly when he was a child. Still, most of the time our hero has a completely vacant expression on his face and displays all the charm and enthusiasm of a cabbage. Oh yes, and he also has this whiny teenage line about not liking his hometown, but it's never explained why he doesn't like his hometown. It's a hollow, empty line that serves to remind you of Renton's line from Eureka Seven except that in that show it's explicitly made clear why Renton doesn't like his hometown.
Compare and contrast with Renton from Eureka Seven. Renton has well defined hopes and ambitions even if they're really dorky and completely unrealistic his enthusiasm and excitement are thoroughly charming. You see how everything to do Gekkostate and riding waves brings him joy and excitement and as these important things are taken away from over the course of the episode (the old guy who repairs boards is leaving to go elsewhere, the military move into the spot where he wants to ride waves, his grandpa tries to take his board away) we feel his crushing disappointment and we understand why he dislikes his crummy town. He also explains that he's a kid who lacks the freedom of an adult, which is of course a very relatable situation, and that he's looking for adventure in his life. At school he's teased about his family and he responds with violence showing he has feelings, and he's even teased by girls because he's dorky. Then he meets a cute girl and we learn that he's understands the concept of romance and attraction to others humans, showing that once again he's a human being we can relate to. He tries to show off to impress her and ends up being clumsy but still kind of charming nevertheless. Finally at the end of the episode everything that we've learnt about him comes together to show both his determination and also his childlike naivety as he literally plunges into the unknown but importantly he's fully aware of everything he's doing and he moves and acts with full awareness of what he's doing.
As for Captain Earth kid, he has literally no idea what's going on, or why, so his choices and actions are meaningless and hold zero weight. He went down some stairs and met some little kid and rode a ghost elevator and then had a feeling that bad stuff was coming towards earth. Then he magically teleports around and he's next to a mecha. I guess he does what he does because...in the past he jumped over a fence and met some weird kids. Also some guy said something about his Dad being a good Captain? I have no idea. This is a real problem because a character that just reacts to events out of his understanding (and completely beyond our understanding) or control is pretty boring to watch, because nothing he does can possibly hope to have any weight or impact.
The other thing that serves to keep viewers at arms length during these bite-sized Captain Earth scenes is all the nonsense that spews from people's mouths. Here's some examples:
Now, when people just spew a bunch of acronyms, technobabble and other assorted nonsense the viewer is left distanced from the text because they can't understand what's going on why they should care. What's worse is that if characters are only saying plot-related stuff we don't understand we can't get any kind of feeling for them as people and that's another turn-off because it makes the series appear like it's filled with completely untreatable characters. This is exactly the same problematic writing that appears in the Star Wars Prequels where no-one feels like a real person because there's nothing in their dialogue that has any authenticity to it. If everyone is speaking in babble or clichés then it's tough for the audience to care.
It's certainly right that some of this stuff is fairly clear code for easily explained concepts but then why is their this line drawn to pointlessly distance us from the story? In Eureka Seven's first episode the only piece of babble is LFO, a concept that's explained two scenes later in a classroom where a teacher explains the acronym, as well as the key concepts and history of the story in like three sentences. This very neatly tells us everything that's going on, and why. They even call the Air Force in that episode "The Air Force" - how novel! We don't really get that kind of explanation or clarity here.
Still, there can be perfectly reasonable times to for characters in a certain technical field to talk in a language only they'd understand - because they're talking between themselves and they wouldn't need to pointlessly exposit for the sake of the ignorant audience. Still, I think Infinite Ryvius is the only show that I can think of that got away with leaving the audience completely in the dark because a couple of episodes later they nearly explained everything and allowed us to get caught up. This may well happen here but it's part of the aforementioned worrying trend in BONES shows.
Why do they feel the need to introduce so many concepts, factions, and ideas in this first episode? It's far too clustered and messy and all this time could have been better spent fleshing out the cast. As a writer you really don't have to show all your cards at once in the very first episode. I believe that you've done some world building and there's lots of story to come later on so don't just dump it all in my face in very first episode of the show.
I understand that, as the audience, we're not supposed to understand what's going on because, like the protagonist, we're new to this world and it's rules. That's fine, in theory, but when you're going down that root you really have to do a better job of introducing and developing your main character before we fall down the rabbit hole. He can't just be some bland lump. As I've said above, if BONES hadn't made a habit of producing shows that all feature these consistently messy and convoluted stories I wouldn't need to raise so many warning flags so early but I feel entirely justified in doing so based off of previous experience. I think we've all been burned too many times to give them the benefit of the doubt.
This though, this is really like a slap in the face from the writers. They're actively acknowledging that everything is a confusing mess and that eventually they're going to sort it all out and pull you through. Seriously, screw you. If you have faith in your ability to write a decent story then write one and let the audience make up their own minds. Don't ask us to blindly put their faith in the ability when they've demonstrated time and time again that they're not up to scratch.
I'd really like to be wrong and learn that no, all these characters, words, phrases and factions will all mean something important and that the story will develop organically over the course of the show and it won't be filled with hammy writing, bad character designs and bullshits twists. We shall see.
Here's some other random thoughts:
- Night launches are cool, shaky cam is not!
- Are we so tired of Rei-type character designs we have to make boy Rei's now?
- I suppose we have to blame Cowboy Bebop for popularising the kid hacker character stereotype.
- The animation in this first episode was pretty good
- These character designs are awful and why does is the computer system called "Macbeth". Anime.
- This girl has already lost.
I can't get into any kind of discussion about this first episode and my reaction to it without setting it in the wider context of what Studio BONES has produced over the last few years and how that compares with some of their more popular titles. You could argue that I'm not being entirely fair to the show as a result because I'm not judging it in a vacuum, but there's no point pretending that BONES haven't had a bad track record with these kinds of shows recently and as a person I am going to take that all into account when I watch a show by them.
As many of you are no doubt aware, BONES are a studio known for putting out a lot of high quality work whether it's FMA, RahXephon or Eureka 7 or Sword of the Stranger. However in recent years there output hasn't been particularly...stellar. I'm talking, specifically, about their 'Original' works that aren't based off of existing properties, stuff like Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, Star Driver, Xam'd and Eureka Seven AO. Original works are, obviously, trickier to develop than straight forward manga adaptations because you have to create and write the whole thing.
This, I feel, is where the problem lies. Those original works have all, at some point or another, collapsed under the weight of their own nonsensical writing. Rather than making simple, solid and straightforward stories these writers for these shows decided to make incredibly convoluted stories that lack form and elegance. They seem to confuse having lots of characters, factions, buzzwords and twists for good storytelling and as a result they aren't satisfying or enjoyable to watch because the stories degrade into various degrees of nonsense. I know I'm generalising a little here but if you've watched some or all of these works I imagine you'll understand what I'm getting at. All these problems where at the back of my mind when I sat down to watch this episode and they certainly influenced my impressions.
So, onto the episode itself. It's essentially your classic first episode in any mecha series - we get introduced to the protagonist, his life, his backstory, and then an event happens which means he has to 'step up' and into a robot. There's nothing particularly fresh about this setup which is perhaps why it's partially told in a non-chronological order, to keep the viewer engaged. However this is where my problems with this episode start to manifest.
Firstly, all this cutting back and forth through time (and also between completely separate characters and groups) really destroys any kind of flow the story could be developing and it doesn't give the audience any time to get invested in what's going on because it's so piecemeal. Perhaps if the writing was really strong that could serve as an anchor to keep the viewer engaged with the material but sadly that isn't the case here. Yes, I know that the blue stone is there to help you keep track of time so you don't lose your way but that's more of a marker. The fundamental problem still remains - if you're only getting a scene that lasts thirty seconds that's no time at all for the viewer to get to know the characters or better understand the situation or develop any kind of emotional rapport with the text.
Here's one really key example, and I really hate when shows do this, it's the famous
"introduce and kill off character and have them make heroic speech that sounds nothing like what any human being would ever say and expect you care anywhere" scene where we both meet and say goodbye to Captain Earth's father. Please, writers everywhere, you can't just drop in a 45 second heroic sacrifice out of nowhere and expect anyone to give a crap about the character that dies.
Someone has already brought up the comparison with Eureka Seven's opening episode and that's really a master class in handling very similar plot points in a far better way. We spend a couple of minutes at the start of the episode introducing some people from Gekkostate and, perhaps more importantly, we get totally sweet mecha action (not just launch porn) within the very first scene of the episode as opposed to some cock-tease at the end. Then the entirety of the rest of the first episode is simply devoted to introducing Renton, the environment he lives in, his hopes, dreams, etc. That's a lot of time spent fleshing out the protagonist before the main plot really kicks into gear and that's important because if we don't care about our main character we won't care about what happens in the show and once everything starts to get crazy we've already been introduced to the main character in his normal life so when he changes and develops we've got a base line to measure his growth and development.
In Captain Earth they spend about two minutes trying to set up the main character and a lot of that time is spent with characters talking at the main character about stuff that isn't really relevant or interesting, it's effectively dead time that doesn't tell us anything about him. We learn that he looks out the window and plays vidoegames. As soon he sees the TV broadcast that brief period of time stops and we start to get into what I loosely call "weird shit" territory where our protagonist starts getting involved with weird shit that we can't really relate to anyway and which still fails to develop him because all we learn is that he can jump over fences and occasionally display human emotions but apparently this was mainly when he was a child. Still, most of the time our hero has a completely vacant expression on his face and displays all the charm and enthusiasm of a cabbage. Oh yes, and he also has this whiny teenage line about not liking his hometown, but it's never explained why he doesn't like his hometown. It's a hollow, empty line that serves to remind you of Renton's line from Eureka Seven except that in that show it's explicitly made clear why Renton doesn't like his hometown.
Compare and contrast with Renton from Eureka Seven. Renton has well defined hopes and ambitions even if they're really dorky and completely unrealistic his enthusiasm and excitement are thoroughly charming. You see how everything to do Gekkostate and riding waves brings him joy and excitement and as these important things are taken away from over the course of the episode (the old guy who repairs boards is leaving to go elsewhere, the military move into the spot where he wants to ride waves, his grandpa tries to take his board away) we feel his crushing disappointment and we understand why he dislikes his crummy town. He also explains that he's a kid who lacks the freedom of an adult, which is of course a very relatable situation, and that he's looking for adventure in his life. At school he's teased about his family and he responds with violence showing he has feelings, and he's even teased by girls because he's dorky. Then he meets a cute girl and we learn that he's understands the concept of romance and attraction to others humans, showing that once again he's a human being we can relate to. He tries to show off to impress her and ends up being clumsy but still kind of charming nevertheless. Finally at the end of the episode everything that we've learnt about him comes together to show both his determination and also his childlike naivety as he literally plunges into the unknown but importantly he's fully aware of everything he's doing and he moves and acts with full awareness of what he's doing.
As for Captain Earth kid, he has literally no idea what's going on, or why, so his choices and actions are meaningless and hold zero weight. He went down some stairs and met some little kid and rode a ghost elevator and then had a feeling that bad stuff was coming towards earth. Then he magically teleports around and he's next to a mecha. I guess he does what he does because...in the past he jumped over a fence and met some weird kids. Also some guy said something about his Dad being a good Captain? I have no idea. This is a real problem because a character that just reacts to events out of his understanding (and completely beyond our understanding) or control is pretty boring to watch, because nothing he does can possibly hope to have any weight or impact.
The other thing that serves to keep viewers at arms length during these bite-sized Captain Earth scenes is all the nonsense that spews from people's mouths. Here's some examples:
Now, when people just spew a bunch of acronyms, technobabble and other assorted nonsense the viewer is left distanced from the text because they can't understand what's going on why they should care. What's worse is that if characters are only saying plot-related stuff we don't understand we can't get any kind of feeling for them as people and that's another turn-off because it makes the series appear like it's filled with completely untreatable characters. This is exactly the same problematic writing that appears in the Star Wars Prequels where no-one feels like a real person because there's nothing in their dialogue that has any authenticity to it. If everyone is speaking in babble or clichés then it's tough for the audience to care.
It's certainly right that some of this stuff is fairly clear code for easily explained concepts but then why is their this line drawn to pointlessly distance us from the story? In Eureka Seven's first episode the only piece of babble is LFO, a concept that's explained two scenes later in a classroom where a teacher explains the acronym, as well as the key concepts and history of the story in like three sentences. This very neatly tells us everything that's going on, and why. They even call the Air Force in that episode "The Air Force" - how novel! We don't really get that kind of explanation or clarity here.
Still, there can be perfectly reasonable times to for characters in a certain technical field to talk in a language only they'd understand - because they're talking between themselves and they wouldn't need to pointlessly exposit for the sake of the ignorant audience. Still, I think Infinite Ryvius is the only show that I can think of that got away with leaving the audience completely in the dark because a couple of episodes later they nearly explained everything and allowed us to get caught up. This may well happen here but it's part of the aforementioned worrying trend in BONES shows.
Why do they feel the need to introduce so many concepts, factions, and ideas in this first episode? It's far too clustered and messy and all this time could have been better spent fleshing out the cast. As a writer you really don't have to show all your cards at once in the very first episode. I believe that you've done some world building and there's lots of story to come later on so don't just dump it all in my face in very first episode of the show.
I understand that, as the audience, we're not supposed to understand what's going on because, like the protagonist, we're new to this world and it's rules. That's fine, in theory, but when you're going down that root you really have to do a better job of introducing and developing your main character before we fall down the rabbit hole. He can't just be some bland lump. As I've said above, if BONES hadn't made a habit of producing shows that all feature these consistently messy and convoluted stories I wouldn't need to raise so many warning flags so early but I feel entirely justified in doing so based off of previous experience. I think we've all been burned too many times to give them the benefit of the doubt.
This though, this is really like a slap in the face from the writers. They're actively acknowledging that everything is a confusing mess and that eventually they're going to sort it all out and pull you through. Seriously, screw you. If you have faith in your ability to write a decent story then write one and let the audience make up their own minds. Don't ask us to blindly put their faith in the ability when they've demonstrated time and time again that they're not up to scratch.
I'd really like to be wrong and learn that no, all these characters, words, phrases and factions will all mean something important and that the story will develop organically over the course of the show and it won't be filled with hammy writing, bad character designs and bullshits twists. We shall see.
Here's some other random thoughts:
- Night launches are cool, shaky cam is not!
- Are we so tired of Rei-type character designs we have to make boy Rei's now?
- I suppose we have to blame Cowboy Bebop for popularising the kid hacker character stereotype.
- The animation in this first episode was pretty good
- These character designs are awful and why does is the computer system called "Macbeth". Anime.
- This girl has already lost.
TheVampire
Banned
I have no idea wtf was going on with this anime.
Lufiaddict
Member
Libido? Orgone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone
It's going to be one of those shows where things get weird and then the last episodes take place in the protagonist's mind, won't it? (I'm not familiar with BONES' work)
Yeah.
And nice post, Jexhius. I agree with pretty much everything (save for the fact I haven't seen Euraka Seven).
I was scratching my head during the whole scene. "It looks cool... but what's the point?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone
It's going to be one of those shows where things get weird and then the last episodes take place in the protagonist's mind, won't it? (I'm not familiar with BONES' work)
Yeah.
And nice post, Jexhius. I agree with pretty much everything (save for the fact I haven't seen Euraka Seven).
I was scratching my head during the whole scene. "It looks cool... but what's the point?"
Jex
Member
Lufiaddict, you may have some good anime ahead of you...
Yeah, don't forget to watch X'amd =P. I've never seen Eureka 7 either so X'amd is literally my base comparison for all "Mecha" anime. Besides the complete lack of organic components, Captain Earth seems a bit into itself too.
Jex
Member
Xam'd isn't even a real mecha series sire! It's a very pretty, but rather flawed series.
That's why I put it in quotation marks !! It's the only thing Mecha I've ever seen that's not Evangelion and Gurren Laggan. Hopefully Captain Earth fills that traditional slot for me and I can have a new baseline. I've always described X'amd as "Pretentious in a good way". It's pretty flawed and tries but fails to be deep but if it wasn't so up it's own butt it actually would have just been another flawed "Mecha" series.
Captain Earth does a lot of the same things X'amd does when it comes to camera angles, exposition, and pacing. But that's only in the first episode. But it also feels like it has something to back itself up. We will wait and see, but I get the feeling I'm gonna ride this one out to the very end.
Lufiaddict
Member
Jexhius, you may be more right than you think...
I haven't even seen Gurren Lagann yet.
The opening animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8sxZEQaDe0
Uploaded on Apr 1, 2014
Jexhius basically said everything I would have. The whole episode kind of feels like "hey remember when [x] happened in [insert anime here]? Well it's in this anime too!" BONES needs to work a little harder in the writing department and go beyond just referencing their previous works and cheap anime tropes.
Someone give this man a medal.
Disappointing.
Episode 2
This show sure is a lot of fun. I like how Daichi just doesn't give a fuck. At some point I was thinking "this kinda reminds me of Kingdom Hearts..." and then I realized... he has the same voice actor as Sora. Lolol. There's quite a bit of silly stuff going on in this episode, and I think a lot of it adds to the fun of the show. If I had to guess, I'll say that eventually Daichi's friends will all end up piloting the other parts of the "Expand" system. After all, he's only in the main Earth Engine mech, while there are 3 Expand pieces which look like they could fly on their own too.
This show sure is a lot of fun. I like how Daichi just doesn't give a fuck. At some point I was thinking "this kinda reminds me of Kingdom Hearts..." and then I realized... he has the same voice actor as Sora. Lolol. There's quite a bit of silly stuff going on in this episode, and I think a lot of it adds to the fun of the show. If I had to guess, I'll say that eventually Daichi's friends will all end up piloting the other parts of the "Expand" system. After all, he's only in the main Earth Engine mech, while there are 3 Expand pieces which look like they could fly on their own too.
Episode 2
This show sure is a lot of fun. I like how Daichi just doesn't give a fuck. At some point I was thinking "this kinda reminds me of Kingdom Hearts..." and then I realized... he has the same voice actor as Sora. Lolol. There's quite a bit of silly stuff going on in this episode, and I think a lot of it adds to the fun of the show. If I had to guess, I'll say that eventually Daichi's friends will all end up piloting the other parts of the "Expand" system. After all, he's only in the main Earth Engine mech, while there are 3 Expand pieces which look like they could fly on their own too.
Spoilers from promo art:
Given that the key visual for the show has all four of them in pilot suits, I don't think your guess is way off base!
I particularly enjoyed the mischievous evil AI that's in your screenshot - the show is pretty ridiculous but in a very enjoyable way.
Feels like there's this simple story here buried underneath a layer of implications that I don't think they'll be able to resolve. All the odd, rather silly names implying things that are likely to end up as inconsequential fluff. I guess this is why the technobabble feels so pointless--there's no sense of it constructing a world. It just feels referential for the sake of it.
I like Daichi as a character; he's straightforward, simple, just a guy who wants to show the world his boomerang.
I like Daichi as a character; he's straightforward, simple, just a guy who wants to show the world his boomerang.
The definition of technobabble is that it's meaningless fluff anyway right? Often technobabble is used in scifi to make mundane and simple scenes seem more unique to the given universe by using nonsense lingo which is often never explained or has no real scientific or logical meaning attached. That's not really a "good" thing, but I think in the larger scheme of things it doesn't really matter if it's nonsense if they're just filler lines for operators to shout and sound important.
Jex
Member
[Captain Earth] - 2
Last week I explained, at length, my concerns for the series based off of the content of the first episode. This weeks episode did nothing to assuage my fears.
It has shown me that, perhaps, underneath the needless layers of babble there good be a fairly simple and enjoyable show but I don't know how well that's going to shine through considering what I've seen so far.
I actually liked this episode more than the first, the pacing was better and the plotting of the events was more coherent.
Last week I explained, at length, my concerns for the series based off of the content of the first episode. This weeks episode did nothing to assuage my fears.
It has shown me that, perhaps, underneath the needless layers of babble there good be a fairly simple and enjoyable show but I don't know how well that's going to shine through considering what I've seen so far.
I actually liked this episode more than the first, the pacing was better and the plotting of the events was more coherent.
The Return of
Banned
Am I the only one who got rape vibes from the guy with glasses? Dude was a serious creep. I mean seriously, homie just stays in her room watching her closely. I don't want to imagine how he uses that button of his to get what he wants.
Yeah he totally looks like that rapey bad guy from Sword Art Online! Lol.
Jex
Member
I'm not sure what his name is, but I've already labelled him "rape-hand evil-glasses flipped-hair villain". It's not very succinct, I'll admit.
I actually don't think it's technobabble but rather jargon that the audience doesn't know yet. Some of the words do have clear concepts and ideas behind them such as the Orgone energy stuff.
But technobabble -is- jargon. I don't think it really matters if some terms might be explained in the story later on, rather what makes technobabble what it is, is that there is no need for the audience to understand what any of it means when they're being said because it's just filler being "said" in a scene to create a certain atmosphere based on what people expect from a scene.
Take the launch sequence for example:
"The Pegasus rocket is purging Earth Engine."
"Relative vector adjustment..."
"Delta RV, Sigma 3.2."
"2.6."
"0.7."
"First expand!"
"Tidal attractor functioning normally."
"Delta RV is within threshold."
"Combine robustness at maximum."
"Second expand!"
"Preparing Orgone connection."
"All systems are go."
"Final expand!"
While watching the scene and listening to all that, the dialogue is basically worthless in terms of actual comprehension content. All the audience is expected to know is that the rocket which was launched has released the robot, which is flying into these gates which are being adjusted and it connects with each piece and expands. Then it powers up and poses. The comprehension is from what's happening on screen, and the dialogue is total fluff. It's only there to create the mood of operators shouting things somewhat related to what's happening on screen so they sound like they're doing their job and the urgency of their shouting creates the artificial tension that SOMETHING IMPORTANT is happening.
It's pretty normal for pretty much any sort of of scifi show, and it's most definitely technobabble. Even if they explain every single term in some future episode, it would make zero difference to this scene in particular. It's just noise.
Despite all the jargony technobabble this episode was even more enjoyable than the first for me, my fears of all the main characters being typical douchey mecha leads are somewhat assuaged, Daichi is a great kid who just wants to show his friends his boomerang, you have to respect that. also no matter how wasteful it might be i love that launch sequence, the world needs more delicious 2d mecha and bones is more than capable of delivering it.
To be fair you would still need to launch the pilot into space each time, and the main sections of the mecha are already in space - you can see he just has the small mecha when he lands, the arms/legs/heads presumably remain in orbit
good point
but i'll sacrifice that for the wonderful expand sequence, so long as they keep having nice swelling triumphant music with it every time they can do whatever they want to justify it!
But then it loses its significance as a fertilization metaphor.
Jex
Member
That's what I meant. It looks like there's plenty of room up there.
Remembering me that AO exists hurts so much, Eureka Seven is one of my favorite series ever, was doubtful about AO, then my soul was crushed
But the entire expand sequence takes place in space anyway. They can still do all that, without the super expensive rocket launch, and it can all take place inside a controlled environment without all the wasteful fuel used to move rings for alignment!
Jex
Member
Exactly, as anyone who has played Kerbal Space Programme would know. Perhaps the writers need to bone up on their knowledge of rocketry.
I strongly disagree with the idea that they're the same. While technobabble is a form of jargon, technobabble will never have a purpose(storytelling-wise) and as you mentioned, it's just noise to set atmosphere. Jargon on the other hand can have a strong storytelling purpose as it serves to note the distinctions between our world and the fictional world. It has a clear meaning and function whether the audience knows it or not. Most technobabble however is a random string of words used to overwhelm the audience or make it sounds like an engineer knows what he's doing.
That quote for example does have a ton of technobabble but stuff like the Earth Engine, the expand stuff, and the Orgone energy are all terms used multiple times in the story that have a strong definition behind them. They're all terms that the audience will know at one point or another. While the audience may not know what it means the first time around, as with any new terminology, it can affect rewatching in that the audience can follow along with the characters in the show. The vector stuff though (which almost certainly technobabble) won't ever make sense on rewatching.
Stuff like the Livlaster is jargon but it's clear what the show is referring to.
Dedication Through Light
Member
Hadnt realized okama in the OP credits portion, always good to see manga authors go and do some things beyond manga (Currently follow okama's TailStar manga)
2
Felt at times uninteresting in the scope of the other mechas that were with us this year and are coming later. I would rather have a more serious plot with more serious implications as the current baddie with us and his motive feels weak or just too much been there done that
while on base Salty Dog folks are too bad for the sake of bad. Minor points but it just made it difficult to really enjoy while not looking at the crunchyroll timer count up.
Daichi and co are alright protagonists but then I think it would have been more entertaining and easier to care for them if they were battling serious internal problems, emotions, finding their place in the world and more. Maybe Teppei and co would eventually have some of that crop up, but right now its just kids being kids?
2
Felt at times uninteresting in the scope of the other mechas that were with us this year and are coming later. I would rather have a more serious plot with more serious implications as the current baddie with us and his motive feels weak or just too much been there done that
selecting the humans he chooses
Daichi and co are alright protagonists but then I think it would have been more entertaining and easier to care for them if they were battling serious internal problems, emotions, finding their place in the world and more. Maybe Teppei and co would eventually have some of that crop up, but right now its just kids being kids?
Don't you have it backwards? That dialogue occurs alongside the launch sequence so the audience can infer from the visual context what the core terms mean; the audience can thus be informed what an "expand" is (when a new piece of the robot combines with the core unit) without clumsy exposition.
Episode 02
It only occurred to me this week that the Earth Engine combining is the inverse of a multistage rocket launch, with the machine adding new sections at certain intervals as it ascends. "Expand" is as good a verb as any for it, I suppose.
I can't tell you how amused how I am that the pilot is referred to as the "Earth Driver". Warmed my Shounen Kakumei Takuto-loving heart, that did.
Glad the protag isn't wishy-washy; there's no way the likes of Shini Ikari or even Renton Thurston wouldn't have agonized for several minutes of screentime over whether or not to destroy that signal tower
No, I think that much is pretty obvious even if the operators were all mute. Lol. It's not by any means a subtle show!
There's probably a considerable chunk of the Japanese audience who can't actually read Roman characters very well.
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