The hyped up villain still remains at large and the final episode was just an exam to obtain the powers necessary to fight the villain.
I still liked it though and hope the OVA/DVD episodes cover the stuff that's been hinted at.
Overall, I'd put this season higher than the first. It was exponentially more hilarious, had a better comedy:serious ratio (only 1 srs business episode) and some solid new characters like Chris. The overarching conflict was mostly put on hold for more of Ayumu and the gang just fucking around in typical supernatural kitchen sink world fashion. We also got to see some of his awesome dance moves, something absent from season 1.
I still think I'd call this the best show of the season. I haven't cracked up this much at an anime in a while. With a combination of general absurdist randomness and occasionally an actual good boke + tsukkomi routine, I'd call this one of the best anime comedies in recent memory.
The hyped up villain still remains at large and the final episode was just an exam to obtain the powers necessary to fight the villain.
I still liked it though and hope the OVA/DVD episodes cover the stuff that's been hinted at.
Overall, I'd put this season higher than the first. It was exponentially more hilarious, had a better comedy:serious ratio (only 1 srs business episode) and some solid new characters like Chris. The overarching conflict was mostly put on hold for more of Ayumu and the gang just fucking around in typical supernatural kitchen sink world fashion. We also got to see some of his awesome dance moves, something absent from season 1.
I still think I'd call this the best show of the season. I haven't cracked up this much at an anime in a while. With a combination of general absurdist randomness and occasionally an actual good boke + tsukkomi routine, I'd call this one of the best anime comedies in recent memory.
I still haven't seen the last 2 episodes but I agree with this. The first had shitty "serious" episodes and the conclusion was confusing and dumb. The second season is just pure comedy and random shit which is why it's infinitely better than the first.
And we're not that bad, hahah. As far as snobs go I think we're pretty fun, but I suppose that every anime fan on GAF that isn't an active participant in this thread would disagree.
While this was a visually appealing film, the characters felt almost irrelevant to the story, and the story itself came off as a cliff notes version of a more fleshed out work that the people making this movie assumed we already watched.
There are some light spoilers in the linked images/gifs in this post. Nothing that will ruin the thing, though. I just wanted to link them to be courteous. : )
Story
The opening exposition (if you can call it that) reveals that six vessel from space landed on Earth and drew all of its natural resources into them. The Earth is now a shriveled, dry ball of dust where people have gathered around these six structures to receive what amounts to handouts of water. These structures are called the "Rodo," and the people of Earth have split into the Rodoists, who see these structures as gods, and the Hazard who are anti-Rodoists. Ran is a young boy living in one of the towns near the Rodo, and he has dreams of joining the Hazard to avenge the death of his mother as a result of a fight between some Rodoists and a man with a giant scar on his chest during an attack. He meets a young girl named Aira, who is part of a Hazard group in the area. He leaves home to join them and find the man with the scar, she gets kidnapped, and some other stuff happens along the way.
This was such a confusing movie, but not because things didn't make sense. I could follow what it was they were doing, but nothing mattered. Ran was completely inconsequential to the story. Aria was completely inconsequential to the story. Honestly, I think every character was completely irrelevant to anything that happened. There were perhaps two or three people that actually affected events in the movie, but they were some of the least developed characters with very little screentime, in comparison to Ran. I don't know that I've ever seen a movie do so much and do so little at the same time. At least there were some cutecharacter moments. For what that's worth.
This felt like an extremely traditional "boy wants to save girl that is part of some way the bad guy can get what they want" story, but it wasn't. The reason it wasn't is because I have no idea who the bad guys or good guys were.
The Rodoists were poised to be the evil force of the film, but, later on, the Arch Bishop of the Rodoists tells the (I guess) good guys what they have to do in order to stop the Rodo from turning the people of Earth into trees. Yeah, don't ask. The Hazard are poised as the good, rebel force at the beginning of the film, but when Kita (the leader) captures Aira, he is portrayed as more malicious than anything we see from the Rodoists. Ultimately, his methods and intentions end up being the correct way of stopping the Rodo, but he and his underlings are such a mess in how they're shown that it's impossible to sympathize with their cause.
The worst offender of all was the ending. I'm all for having open-ended resolutions, but there was no resolution with the majority of the things that mattered.
The Holy Mother (which I guess is the Rodo?) comes to life when Aira joins with the other silver haired maidens. Yeah. Or something. Then, Kiba and Jeke set off this bomb to stop it, but it doesn't. Then it does? Finally, it begins to rain upon the world, and the resources are returned to it. What happened to the people that were turned into trees? What happened to the Bishops? What happened to Jeke/Kiba? The place that they had been at wasn't clear on if it was within the Rodo/Holy Mother or not. What happens to the Hazard/Rodoists dispute? What happens to anything? It just wrapped up too soon with no indication one way or the other with the majority of characters/factions/events in the story to leave me with any kind of sense of closure.
Presentation
This is what made watching this completely worth my time.
The world they created (while short on narrative details), was rich in visual hints towards the history of things, throwbacks to fantasy/scifi of the 70s/80s, and had some exceptional animated sequences.
There were some pretty diverse landscapes and locales visited over the course of the movie from the desert, dilapidated towns,
vertical ruinous structures with a hidden oasis, the inner throne rooms of the Rodo Bishops filled with flowing water and girls with palm fans,
and all sorts of other places.
The animation was a little hit-and-miss, but when it was good, it wasreally good. Characters reminded me of the recent Avatar: Korra series with the attention to body language. Some of the more unnaturalelements were really cool to see in motion. Surprisingly, the violence in this movie was... articulate beyond what I had imagined it would be. The earlier moments when there would be a punch thrown or something came across as cheaply censored by the people adapting it to America, but there were some rather violent (and somewhat disturbing) scenes in the last two episodes. Overall, the three episodes were really great to see.
The dub was... okay? I had seen people praise the dub, and, while it was nice to see an english dub without the same ten people voicing everything that we currently have, it was just okay. The dialogue was really stilted with a focus on matching lip flaps exactly, there were some noticeably canadian sounding pronunciations of words like "sorry," and some of the voices were just bleh. Honestly, the thing that surprised me the most were this group of young kids in the first episode. The voice acting for them was extremely impressive, and it was probably the most believable child voices I've heard in any medium. I really wish it had gone on a little more extensively to see how well it carried, but it was well done.
Final Thoughts
The overall theme (I guess), was about taking care of the Earth and its natural resources. The opening exposition, when talking about the Rodo falling to the surface and taking in the resources, was excused by saying something equating to, "Well, people weren't taking care of the planet anyways, so it just sped up the process."
They only other times I can recall them bringing it back up so explicitly was within the first few minutes where Ran's adoptive grandmother told him of how it used to rain all of the time back in her ancestors' days, and near the very end when Aira is talking with the Holy Mother/Rodo thing inside the structure. She tells Aira that they will share all of the "green" with the Earth again by turning the people into trees so they can't hurt it anymore. The problem is that they never really go anywhere with it. Aira agrees to help her, so long as the people aren't changed, but (surprise) she says she's going to anyways after she ties up Aira. It's obvious they had an environmental message to share, but they didn't ever do it. I'm honestly glad they didn't, because, it the rest of the plot is any indication, it would have been pretty awful.
This felt more like a really well executed proof of concept than an actual story told with moving images. Things were half-baked, at best, the characters were impossible to care about because they were never developed enough to make me care. The stakes weren't properly established or given the right context to make the weight of anyone's actions have any tension to them, and the flip-flop of sides in the third episode was jarring to the point of making me stop caring. I still think the visual side of things is compelling enough to warrant a recommendation, but be sure to properly temper expectations on anything significant developing from the narrative.
The hyped up villain still remains at large and the final episode was just an exam to obtain the powers necessary to fight the villain.
I still liked it though and hope the OVA/DVD episodes cover the stuff that's been hinted at.
Overall, I'd put this season higher than the first. It was exponentially more hilarious, had a better comedy:serious ratio (only 1 srs business episode) and some solid new characters like Chris. The overarching conflict was mostly put on hold for more of Ayumu and the gang just fucking around in typical supernatural kitchen sink world fashion. We also got to see some of his awesome dance moves, something absent from season 1.
I still think I'd call this the best show of the season. I haven't cracked up this much at an anime in a while. With a combination of general absurdist randomness and occasionally an actual good boke + tsukkomi routine, I'd call this one of the best anime comedies in recent memory.
To say it's better than the first season is a no brainer, the first season went all serious for far too many episodes. I know Gintama being on hiatus is hurting is all, but there's no need to over compensate man.
And we're not that bad, hahah. As far as snobs go I think we're pretty fun, but I suppose that every anime fan on GAF that isn't an active participant in this thread would disagree.
To say it's better than the first season is a no brainer, the first season went all serious for far too many episodes. I know Gintama being on hiatus is hurting is all, but there's no need to over compensate man.
I get no gratification from passing judgment on others, even when I disagree strongly with them. Playing the "bad taste" card is ultimately just name-calling so it's best used sparingly if at all.
It just so happens that the temptation to be petty is strong when it comes to MAL sometimes.
I think that we're diverse enough here now that there's no longer much of a reason to fear the "hivemind". When's the last time that someone actually got well and truly piled on for liking or disliking a particular work here?
maybe I was just so busy participating in the piling-on that I didn't notice
Though what little we got this episode, I did acknowledge the purpose behind. Jun and Sent working off tension between one another in one of the most effective ways they know how.
And with how the ending went, I hope this means less
I think that we're diverse enough here now that there's no longer much of a reason to fear the "hivemind". When's the last time that someone actually got well and truly piled on for liking or disliking a particular work here?
maybe I was just so busy participating in the piling-on that I didn't notice
I thought diverse taste was what made this a neat place to post. As I've said before, it's nice as it can introduce someone to a work they may not have investigated otherwise.
I think that we're diverse enough here now that there's no longer much of a reason to fear the "hivemind". When's the last time that someone actually got well and truly piled on for liking or disliking a particular work here?
maybe I was just so busy participating in the piling-on that I didn't notice
I thought diverse taste was what made this a neat place to post. As I've said before, it's nice as it can introduce someone to a work they may not have investigated otherwise.
I agree. Don't let a few instances to the contrary scare you off, firehawk12. Any place you can see DTL, Jexhius and cajunator posting back-to-back-to-back in a civil manner is alright in my book.
There's the occasional grief given, but that's part of the game. Unlike a certain other subsection where the requirements feel like: gush over this series + shit on that series.
I thought diverse taste was what made this a neat place to post. As I've said before, it's nice as it can introduce someone to a work they may not have investigated otherwise.
I agree. Don't let a few instances to the contrary scare you off, firehawk12. Any place you can see DTL, Jexhius and cajunator posting back-to-back-to-back in a civil manner is alright in my book.
There's the occasional grief given, but that's part of the game. Unlike a certain other subsection where the requirements feel like: gush over this series + shit on that series.
Well, are people disagreeing with you on these two particular series because you're not "conforming" to some sort of mandatory opinion or because it just so happens that a majority of people strongly disagree with your opinion on these works? It's always annoying to be in the minority on anything, but if the substance of your disagreement and not the act of disagreement itself is the cause of conflict, I don't know how that plays into the "hivemind" idea.
Congrats, you just survived the worst episode of Sailor Moon. It's all (slowly) downhill/uphill (whichever you perceive as the good kind of hill!) for the rest of R.
Who are these characters? Why do you keep introducing people with powers with no explanation? Maybe I should get round to watching the previous series.
Nah, Marrshu was defending the exposition dump in Episode 1, and how it was a faithful adaptation so we shouldn't expect the exposition to be handled any differently because of that reason. Of course, many disagreed with that.
Nah, Marrshu was defending the exposition dump in Episode 1, and how it was a faithful adaptation so we shouldn't expect the exposition to be handled any differently because of that reason. Of course, many disagreed with that.
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