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Terror in Resonance |OT| Bebop/Champloo director takes on 24 and Sherlock

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LordCanti

Member
Episode 07

Lisa got used as the person Five didn't know about much quicker than I'd have expected or liked. She's still a non-person, she's just a non-person that is actively both semi-helping their plans and simultaneously screwing them up.

Does Shibazaki and the entire team just get sent to the countryside now? Is that how this works? Why didn't he take her into custody, or at least try? Five's speech at the end was the equivalent of Dr. Claw stroking a cat and going "Next time Gadget...next time". Why in the world would there be a "next time" when there are multiple cops and air traffic control personnel as witnesses to what she did? Why is anyone letting her do what she's doing in the first place? What is there to gain? They could just kill them at any time...

Aah whatever. It was pretty entertaining while I was watching it, so that counts for something I guess. This clearly just isn't the show I wanted and it never will be, but hopefully they can close it out with...some sort of focus that isn't currently there.
 

Finalow

Member
yep, I've lost hope for this show.

I also just noticed that five talked to her men in japanese near the end, not sure if she did this already but I thought that she was speaking english becuase those guys couldn't understand japanase. not only bad engrish but also no reason to use it to begin with. okey
 

duckroll

Member
I think the black guy and the blond guy are bilingual, while the rest of the team aren't. So the idea is that she speaks English during the operation so everyone can understand her, but when she specifically talks to either of those two characters they can understand Japanese. When she's talking to you Nine in Japanese, you can see the black guy talking to the others, presumably translating for them what's going on?

That's all in the concept though, if it was executed properly it might be interesting to talk about, but as it is, yeah it's a huge mess. Get a proper ADR director who understands the language if you want to do recording in that language! Goddamnit, it's not that hard. :(
 

Finalow

Member
I think the black guy and the blond guy are bilingual, while the rest of the team aren't. So the idea is that she speaks English during the operation so everyone can understand her, but when she specifically talks to either of those two characters they can understand Japanese. When she's talking to you Nine in Japanese, you can see the black guy talking to the others, presumably translating for them what's going on?

That's all in the concept though, if it was executed properly it might be interesting to talk about, but as it is, yeah it's a huge mess. Get a proper ADR director who understands the language if you want to do recording in that language! Goddamnit, it's not that hard. :(
oh, that's probably it. rewatching the scene it seems that the black guy is translating for the rest of them, and in the end she also speaks just to him.
well, whatever, it was still really bad.
 

Frog-fu

Banned
Didn't know there was a thread for this, subbed.

I gotta say, Five is ruining this show for me. She's way too over the top and her actions completely break my suspension of disbelief.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Episode 7

Five's actions in the last bomb plot at least fit into something that was plausibly deniable by the police. But everything she does in this episode is straight crazy. There's no way we can be expected to believe that the police wouldn't get serious blowback for what happened at that airport. And the whole idea of playing a chess match to find the location of the bomb relies on Nine making the 'optimal' move in response to every case. It's just... ugh.

As a result it was surprising how little I cared about anything in the first half of the episode. Ultimately, it came together decently thanks to the strength of the soundtrack and eye closeups, but if Five's not actually serious about catching dudes, and we don't really know what Sphinx wants, it's not going to matter how good everything else is. Shibasaki's the only one whose motivations make sense, so he's the only one I can really care about.

It's going to be tough to bounce back from this episode, unless Five gets fired or something.
 

JKTrix

Member
Five is not a police officer, and her blonde retainer is in support of whatever her goals are. Since the show is not giving us answers, we're trying to link unknown things to things we understand and it's misleading us.
 

LordCanti

Member
Five is not a police officer, and her blonde retainer is in support of whatever her goals are. Since the show is not giving us answers, we're trying to link unknown things to things we understand and it's misleading us.

She's a federal agent from the US, so she is basically a cop Edit: Apparently NEST isn't a government org/she's not technically a federale. I give the MPD the benefit of the doubt and assume that they background checked them. I realize she could have forged her identity, but she has quite a large team. If it turns out that she's not actually an agent, I will roll my eyes harder than I have in a while.

Episode 7
It's going to be tough to bounce back from this episode, unless Five gets fired or something.

Even her getting fired would be an insane underreaction for what she did in front of so many witnesses. I have a feeling that Shibazaki and Co will somehow get in trouble/told to keep quiet, but I don't think it's going to be believable at all.
 

duckroll

Member
She's a federal agent from the US, so she is basically a cop. I give the MPD the benefit of the doubt and assume that they background checked them. I realize she could have forged her identity, but she has quite a large team.

No, she's not a federal agent. It's actually one of the weirdest points about her character so far. It's deliberately contrived. Her handler is a federal agent, and the task force is supposedly made up of FBI agents too. Five herself is part of NEST, not the FBI, and is attached to the team as a sort of consultant, presumably after they learned about the plutonium incident. Why she is allowed to lead the entire team and make ridiculous calls is really questionable.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Five is not a police officer, and her blonde retainer is in support of whatever her goals are. Since the show is not giving us answers, we're trying to link unknown things to things we understand and it's misleading us.

I understand she's not a cop, but her cover is that she's a consultant for NEST, the cover for her team is that they work for the FBI, and the airport employees think they're all cops. The public shitstorm would hit Tokyo MPD for sure. That department may have been embarrassed earlier, they may be powerless against faceless conspiracy, but are they really that powerless?
 

LordCanti

Member
No, she's not a federal agent. It's actually one of the weirdest points about her character so far. It's deliberately contrived. Her handler is a federal agent, and the task force is supposedly made up of FBI agents too. Five herself is part of NEST, not the FBI, and is attached to the team as a sort of consultant, presumably after they learned about the plutonium incident. Why she is allowed to lead the entire team and make ridiculous calls is really questionable.

Fair enough. She isn't technically an agent, she just controls a whole team of them for some reason :p

A whole team of them who have to know what she's doing...right? It definitely begs the question of why she's allowed to do any of the things she does.
 

Branduil

Member
Terror in Resonance 7

iysBWJ6r4iBuV.jpg

This show has gotten quite silly, but at least Five has become entertaining to watch in an over-the-top villain kind of way.
 

Frog-fu

Banned
The vitriol for Five is seemingly everywhere. Good. Her level of bullshit is up there if not worse than L in Death Note and his
ridiculously contrived theories based on estimates of nana fucking parsento.
 
Okay, I'm all caught up now. This is basically "everyone is extraordinarily incompetent while trying really hard to sound intelligent and then a bunch of shit happens: the animated series."

Despite all that, I'm enjoying it so far.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Nine and Twelve's plan was brilliant. Lisa's being that clumsy to run into three consecutive people and Five's catching it on camera seemed a little contrived, though.

Fair enough. She isn't technically an agent, she just controls a whole team of them for some reason :p

A whole team of them who have to know what she's doing...right? It definitely begs the question of why she's allowed to do any of the things she does.
Since she, seemingly, got left behind during the escape, she must have finished the Rising Peace Academy.

Therefore, she is extremely well connected in Japan and probably has free reign to do whatever she wants.

What's interesting is how Shibazaki will handle this. From an authoritative standpoint, he is obviously in over his head. However, I don't think his sense of justice will allow him to do nothing.

We need to find out more about Rising Peace Academy before we really know what's going on.
 

LordCanti

Member
Since she, seemingly, got left behind during the escape, she must have finished the Rising Peace Academy.

Therefore, she is extremely well connected in Japan and probably has free reign to do whatever she wants.

What's interesting is how Shibazaki will handle this. From an authoritative standpoint, he is obviously in over his head. However, I don't think his sense of justice will allow him to do nothing.

We need to find out more about Rising Peace Academy before we really know what's going on.

Extremely well connected to people that presumably want to keep their positions and that would be troubled by a loose cannon doing the crazy things she's doing. If she isn't reined in after this, it will be much harder to suspend disbelief.

Am I remembering wrong, or didn't one of them say that she could have escaped if she had wanted to? I'm wondering if she ever wanted to escape in the first place.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Terror in Resonance-7

So yea I also liked this episode. I don't think it's particularly necessary to know the terrorist's main motivations in order for me to root for them. The show has given enough breadcrumbs to point to where they're going with the backstories and motivations that for them to spell it out with some flashbacks isn't really needed (although I'm sure they'll do it anyway). I do have to agree that I'm not happy with the way they've depicted Sphinx in that the writers never fully committed to the terrorist angle and are using some contrived methods to get around it.

As to the complaints about Lisa, I have no clue why some people were howling earlier. I can see Lisa causing a split between the Nine and Twelve but for now she's fine. She's mainly serving as the observer into all the events.

The big problem with the show is Five. She's just way too over the top and it's going to be interesting to see how the scriptwriters handle the fallout from this episode. Unlike everybody else who seems to have a decent goal in mind, she just seems batshit insane. That alone isn't bad enough but rather it's the fact that the 'government' seemingly approves of her antics. Even the CIA in a third world country wouldn't be as straight out brazen in their tactics as she is here. So there has to be some serious repercussions on her side or yea I'm gonna say this a 'jump the shark' moment because of her.
 

redhood56

Banned
What was that song that played when
that played when nine was carrying the plutonium in episode 1? it also played toward the end of this episode too
 

Squalor

Junior Member
What was that song that played when
that played when nine was carrying the plutonium in episode 1? it also played toward the end of this episode too
It's not a song from the OST, so I can't help you there.
Extremely well connected to people that presumably want to keep their positions and that would be troubled by a loose cannon doing the crazy things she's doing. If she isn't reined in after this, it will be much harder to suspend disbelief.

Am I remembering wrong, or didn't one of them say that she could have escaped if she had wanted to? I'm wondering if she ever wanted to escape in the first place.
Meh, you just have to wait and see.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
I think the series has had some nice highs, but there are a lot of questionable situations.

I still don't quite understand why they even wanted to stop their own bomb in the train episode. They're planting bombs in the first place, so they should commit and accept that there won't always be a save by the police or some other agency.

As far as the previous two episodes go (6-7) I have to say that the same thing applies. Even though it was not their bomb, they are still doing the same thing as Five.

They are playing a role of the anti-heros, but then they refuse to go all the way.
 

scarlet

Member
I think the series has had some nice highs, but there are a lot of questionable situations.

I still don't quite understand why they even wanted to stop their own bomb in the train episode. They're planting bombs in the first place, so they should commit and accept that there won't always be a save by the police or some other agency.

As far as the previous two episodes go (6-7) I have to say that the same thing applies. Even though it was not their bomb, they are still doing the same thing as Five.

They are playing a role of the anti-heros, but then they refuse to go all the way.

I thought that their initial plan was that they make the hint easy so the police could stop the bombs.
 

Tomohawk

Member
Alright caught up with this show and I like it less and less every episode. I started off intrigued, but now I'm getting weird twilight vibes I don't want. They basically took something dangerous, and made it PG but still serious. Then they have this girl whose got no back bone and is just pale, listless blob and she joins up with these terrorist cause she's got ... "problems?". Also how you gonna make me believe these terrorists are super smart yet they recruit this girl. Actually why would you ever reveal your plans to a random girl you barely now and especially one that goes to the same school as you. I mean the truck, these guys are the dumbest terrorists ever. Their all like ya we blow up buildings in public places, but we don't kill people. I don't know in what state of mind this makes sense. Also the english is annoying.
 

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
The whole Shibasaki \ Oedipus riddles were pretty amazing.
.. But since Five showed up.. i really can't feel this. It's going down.
 

duckroll

Member
Episode 8

Liked this way better than the last two episodes. Five is still a ridiculous villain, but I think the episode did a pretty good job of setting stuff up for the next stage of the story. It's definitely a very cliched genre piece, but I do appreciate that they cut a lot of the bullshit out of the way in this episode instead of leading people on. They clear up exactly who Five is in terms of employment status, they make it clear that the Japanese police aren't taking this sitting down but have their hands forced, and they also make it clear that the Americans are concerned that things are getting too heated.

Shibazaki's personal investigation plays out pretty much as expected, and while Lisa continues to be a totally worthless character, at least they're giving Twelve something to react to now. This episode had a much tighter pace than the recent lot I think, with a lot happening in the a short runtime. Can't say much for the intellectual nature of the show, but it's still pretty entertaining!
 

LordCanti

Member
Ep 8

Lisa's the worrrrsttttttttttt aaaahhhhhhhh


That went about how I assumed it would. Despite witnesses, she gets away with it and they get suspended. It took another heinous event for the American guy to go "You know...you should probably tone it down a bit. Just a bit." Meanwhile, she's so smart that she knows exactly where they're going to hide next and the plan that they devised is being destroyed from within.

I don't even care that Lisa is caught. I don't want their plan to succeed (assuming it's what they're alluding to), I don't like Lisa, and Five is ridiculous. There's no one to root for :/ Shibazaki maybe? I guess he seems like a mensch. Let's all root for him to bring the whole conspiracy down.
 
The past year or so really shows that Watanabe caught lightning in a bottle with Cowboy Bebop. He's been exposed. He tried to mask his weaknesses by drawing upon the jazz connection with Kids on The Slope. Then with Dandy, he tried to base a whole series off one episode of Bebop and not ghe kind of episode that connected with Western audiences. It's been a disaster, with wasted potential with alien designs and world building. With this show, I don't know who is weiting this or why Watanabe would attach himself to this show. It's the Gatchman Crowds of this year. With nonsensical and amateurish plotlines like when a preteen would watch Gundam Seed and thought he was watching big boy political intrigue. Much like network television in America, anime is a dying medium. Sad because the manga industry is taking chances......
 

Jarmel

Banned
So I'm guessing that the Numbers are all dying from whatever medical experiments were done to them in the past and they all have some sort of expiration date.
 

LordCanti

Member
So I'm guessing that the Numbers are all dying from whatever medical experiments were done to them in the past and they all have some sort of expiration date.

Have we seen twelve grab his head in pain?

In any case, yeah, that was my takeaway. They were definitely experimented on, and potentially in a way that gave some (all?) of them brain cancer or something.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
The past year or so really shows that Watanabe caught lightning in a bottle with Cowboy Bebop. He's been exposed. He tried to mask his weaknesses by drawing upon the jazz connection with Kids on The Slope. Then with Dandy, he tried to base a whole series off one episode of Bebop and not ghe kind of episode that connected with Western audiences. It's been a disaster, with wasted potential with alien designs and world building. With this show, I don't know who is weiting this or why Watanabe would attach himself to this show. It's the Gatchman Crowds of this year. With nonsensical and amateurish plotlines like when a preteen would watch Gundam Seed and thought he was watching big boy political intrigue. Much like network television in America, anime is a dying medium. Sad because the manga industry is taking chances......

Space Dandy may just be the Anime of the Year, and it is something that is taking a lot of chances that a lot of other anime would not.
 

No Love

Banned
The past year or so really shows that Watanabe caught lightning in a bottle with Cowboy Bebop. He's been exposed. He tried to mask his weaknesses by drawing upon the jazz connection with Kids on The Slope. Then with Dandy, he tried to base a whole series off one episode of Bebop and not ghe kind of episode that connected with Western audiences. It's been a disaster, with wasted potential with alien designs and world building. With this show, I don't know who is weiting this or why Watanabe would attach himself to this show. It's the Gatchman Crowds of this year. With nonsensical and amateurish plotlines like when a preteen would watch Gundam Seed and thought he was watching big boy political intrigue. Much like network television in America, anime is a dying medium. Sad because the manga industry is taking chances......

What about Samurai Champloo? That too was lightning in a bottle. I haven't watched enough of Dandy to really form an opinion of it, though.
 

Moaradin

Member
The past year or so really shows that Watanabe caught lightning in a bottle with Cowboy Bebop. He's been exposed. He tried to mask his weaknesses by drawing upon the jazz connection with Kids on The Slope. Then with Dandy, he tried to base a whole series off one episode of Bebop and not ghe kind of episode that connected with Western audiences. It's been a disaster, with wasted potential with alien designs and world building. With this show, I don't know who is weiting this or why Watanabe would attach himself to this show. It's the Gatchman Crowds of this year. With nonsensical and amateurish plotlines like when a preteen would watch Gundam Seed and thought he was watching big boy political intrigue. Much like network television in America, anime is a dying medium. Sad because the manga industry is taking chances......

Space Dandy is great.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Also the problems with Terror in Resonance are not with its direction, it lies within the writing and characterization. If anything the directing and the music is carrying this show.
 

Crocodile

Member
The past year or so really shows that Watanabe caught lightning in a bottle with Cowboy Bebop. He's been exposed. He tried to mask his weaknesses by drawing upon the jazz connection with Kids on The Slope. Then with Dandy, he tried to base a whole series off one episode of Bebop and not ghe kind of episode that connected with Western audiences. It's been a disaster, with wasted potential with alien designs and world building. With this show, I don't know who is weiting this or why Watanabe would attach himself to this show. It's the Gatchman Crowds of this year. With nonsensical and amateurish plotlines like when a preteen would watch Gundam Seed and thought he was watching big boy political intrigue. Much like network television in America, anime is a dying medium. Sad because the manga industry is taking chances......

yeah_eddie_murphy.gif


I also see no mention of Samurai Champloo in your post which is an extra LOL
 

Extollere

Sucks at poetry
I'm still enjoying this show, despite the direction it has taken. It's been more enjoyable for me than most other things I've seen this season.

Space Dandy is great.

It's marvelous. I'm not sure how I felt about the first season, but the second has been absolutely incredible. I'm not really a fan of Japanese slapstick humor, but since the second season the show has really found its focus in original concepts and new worlds.
 

LordCanti

Member
09

This episode revealed what would have been a much better plot point around episode four or five:
Japan has developed their own nuke in secret and the US/Japan are desperate enough to retrieve it that they've sent in a completely deranged person to investigate, due to her knowledge of the perpetrators.
This revelation would have added much more weight to everything that happened previously because it would have explained why Five and Co didn't just jump on them at the first opportunity in the airport and why the Blonde guy is letting her do as she pleases. It does that in retrospect, but it's already too late.

They didn't do enough to make Lisa a real character and now it's biting them. I don't care what happens to her, and I don't know why Twelve does either. At least the music was great and the new angle was interesting.
 

duckroll

Member
Episode 9

Good:
- Seeing Shibazaki's face
- Pretty good mood and atmosphere throughout even though the writing was pretty bad

Bad:
- Watching the young cop with Shibazaki overreact on everything was like watching a bad J-drama
- The back story is predictably generic, like everything else on the show
- Five should take her own English advice and "shut up"

Ugly:
- Seeing the show actually attempt to make a dramatic and tense scene out of Lisa and Twelve when Lisa is one of the worst non-characters I've seen in ages
 

midramble

Pizza, Bourbon, and Thanos
Ep 9

Favorite episode so far. Really thought they were on the verge of doing something crazy with this show.

Most tension I've felt so far.
 
I thought the first four or five episodes were excellent but after that I had a hard time trying to figure out why this show exists. Like, what is it trying to do? What story is it trying to tell? Why do we care about these characters? Do we even know Nine and Twelve's motivations yet? How can we root for or against them and as such, care about what they do if we don't know that? Lisa hasn't been in the show enough to really have done anything where a death on the Ferris wheel would have meant much.

Then you get to the plot with the two officers talking to the old man about the center for kids to be programmed which I've seen so many times in anime...and I'm not even a huge anime fan nor have I seen many shows. It was at that point I honestly started to wonder if what I was watching was a tribute show or a parody of shows like Death Note and Monster.

So we have like, two episodes left, right? I feel like we're not in a position to care about anything heading into a show's conclusion where while the music is absolutely devastatingly beautiful and moving, it's really the only thing moving the show forward at this point.
 

duckroll

Member
I thought the first four or five episodes were excellent but after that I had a hard time trying to figure out why this show exists. Like, what is it trying to do? What story is it trying to tell? Why do we care about these characters?

Maybe Watanabe just had a really boring childhood: http://www.fujicreative.co.jp/Portals/0/special/anime/terror_in_resonance/interview.html

Interviewer: We still don’t know much about Terror in Resonance. What kind of story will it be?

Watanabe: Let’s see… I think it’s probably closest to a foreign TV show. It has been said that foreign TV shows are of an especially high quality recently. Because they are longer than movies, they are able to pursue profound themes while still filling the work with many amusing components. I would like people who enjoy the entertainment provided by foreign TV shows to try Terror in Resonance.


Interviewer: Foreign TV shows?

Watanabe: Recently, I have been succinctly describing Terror in Resonance as “a series like 24” (laughs). Tokyo is the setting for a terrorist attack. And then an old detective guy comes out to go after those terrorists (laughs). It kind of ends up sounding like a joke when I explain it like this, but we spent a lot of time and effort working on the terrorist group “Sphinx” and their riddles in every episode. I think people who enjoy Sherlock and shows like it would also enjoy Terror in Resonance.


Interviewer: What kind of series is Terror in Resonance? I know there is still a lot that has not been revealed yet, but can you give us some hints?

Watanabe: What can I say…? Well, I think in some sense, this is a series that paints a picture of adolescence. What I mean by adolescence is that strong feeling of incompleteness, immaturity, and prejudice. It is something that is nowhere near being completed. In that sense, adolescence has its own charm. Even though it’s immature and incomplete, I want to focus on the uncertainty, the transience, and the beauty, so we’re working on depicting those aspects on screen right now. Of course, like I said earlier, there is also the part that is inspired by foreign TV shows and the entertainment they provide. But, at the same time, part of it is the story of adolescence, and I myself went back to how I felt as a teenager in order to create it. In that sense, I feel like I am creating something new. It is something that I have wanted to make for a long time, so I am putting my heart and soul into it. I hope that you will all watch it.

Lol.
 
This might be the Worst Anime of the season. Lisa is a fucking idiot.. I wished they killed her on the stupid Ferris Wheel.. it would have made the story more interesting. I'll still watch until the end but I still think this show is disappointing.
 
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