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[The Purple Pill]

ah finally found the thread.

It's been my favourite show of the summer season, and hasn't disappointed me yet.

i like the build up in mostly character driven with story intervals, not to mention the interesting flashbacks for backstory, which always gave me goosebumps. And how their use of each "game" is built around expected human (emotional) reactions and possible errors.

also their use of "hope", as written in Icelandic "Von". Which seemed to be forwarded to the world or someone specific.

Episode 9:
i still have

i liked the whole Shibazaki's visit to former health minister and their talk, also him pointing out their excuse of "just following orders", had been used in history before.

Lisa is the human element in this show, all dem feels i got from that scene and interaction.

feels like this could be a "gone with the wind" ending. :.(

 

[Nohar]

At first, I was excited because Yoko Kanno composed for the anime.

Now? I'm disappointed. The anime has an interesting premise, but sadly suffers from poor execution. Lisa's character is not very interesting (we get it, she is a normal person caught in an awful situation, but she fails to make me empathize with her: she is too withdraw, and keep making bad decisions), and Five is both insane and cruel, the epytome of a kid with way too much power in her hands and who act without restraints. She comes off as just a psycho, whereas her past could have helped to build a much more interesting character.

Good OST though.

 

[Edag Plata]

Good OST though.

Absolutely incredible soundtrack, really. Like, even the OP, ED, and BGM are some of anime's best.

 

[thequickandthedead]

Why is Lisa's solution to everything running away?

 

[Edag Plata]

Why is Lisa's solution to everything running away?

Because that probably would have been the smart thing for her to do in episode 1.

 

[Pooya]

I really feel bad for Lisa's mother now. She wasn't the crazy one.

 

[The Purple Pill]

I really feel bad for Lisa's mother now. She wasn't the crazy one.

just because there's someone crazier than you, doesn't make you sane.

Also being a psychopath, doesn't make crazy, since there are many different traits of psychopathy, so if any of the traits would deem you crazy, i guess all of humanity is crazy by that term, since most has some form of psychopathy.


http://www.psychopath-research.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1837/16_Faces_of_a_Psychopath

Lisa's mother was borderline mental, and any person in her sphere would be psychological traumatized in some form or another.

 

[LordCanti]

I really feel bad for Lisa's mother now. She wasn't the crazy one.

All the mother ever did was get a tiny bit clingy and freak out when she thought Lisa had died in that building. For all we know she's a perfectly sane, loving mother.

Spoiler

Even if she is crazy, you'd go crazy too if that human piece of garbage Lisa was your daughter

 

[Blablurn]

That episode was not too bad. I hope something crazy happens soon.

Spoiler

Too bad Lisa didnt die.

 

[V_Arnold]

I swear to you folks, those who want Lisa to die are the same ones hating on Laurel on Arrow

Incompetence does not equal bad writing or bad character. Many classical stories involve "incompetent" characters that still move forward the plot in a reasonable manner.

 

[duckroll]

I don't want Lisa to die, I want her to not be in the show, because she does nothing for the story. She's a bad character because the show fails to present her flaws in a compelling way, or allow the audience to appreciate anything worthwhile about the character. The writing is bad because it's filled with genre conventions which we've all seen done before and more importantly done better in myriad other shows.

It's possible for a character to be bad, and incompetent, and in a poorly written show, without any of those factors individually suggesting the others.

 

[The Purple Pill]

All the mother ever did was get a tiny bit clingy and freak out when she thought Lisa had died in that building. For all we know she's a perfectly sane, loving mother.

Spoiler

Even if she is crazy, you'd go crazy too if that human piece of garbage Lisa was your daughter

what?

if anything, it's obvious that Lisa became how she is, because of her mentally ill mother, has clear signs of extreme paranoia, and it has deeply affected Lisa's growth.

Also i get the hate towards Lisa, because she's acting very human, and what does people hate to see the most? The sad truth of humanity, that we are more than often cowards running away from ourselves, simply to survive another day.

EDIT: i also want to point out i actually like Lisa, because she is the human element in the show, 9 and 12 were emotionless before they met her.

 

[V_Arnold]

I don't want Lisa to die, I want her to not be in the show, because she does nothing for the story. She's a bad character because the show fails to present her flaws in a compelling way, or allow the audience to appreciate anything worthwhile about the character. The writing is bad because it's filled with genre conventions which we've all seen done before and more importantly done better in myriad other shows.

It's possible for a character to be bad, and incompetent, and in a poorly written show, without any of those factors individually suggesting the others.

I just do not agree, I guess.

Lisa *does* many things to the story. Due to her flaws, she makes the duo vulnerable. It also shows their human sides, as if an interface were joined - instead of the audience - to show everyone how they operate. They are obviously not evil and have no god complex, and now they just got entangled with an innocent bystander and took ownership of what came with it.

Does Lisa's predictability make them vulnerable? Yes.
Does it add an emotional charge to the otherwise pretty cut and dry scenes? Imho, yes.

So she has a role and has an imporant part to play, like a flaw in a clockwork. You can say that it is just a speckle of dust, but it is more important than that.

Spoiler

(Also, there will be a great analogy to 12 helping lisa the same way 9 will help 12 in the future, should it come to that.)

 

[duckroll]

She does many things -to- the story, but she does nothing (positive) -for- the story. Is she a plot device? Yes. Does her characterization and the use of the character in the writing enhance the show or give the character depth beyond being a plot device? No, I don't think so.

Being a part of the plot is inherent a positive or negative thing, it's just a thing. A plot existing doesn't mean the plot is good. So we have to look at what it adds to the story and the layers of the narrative. I think the show had a much more promising start with regardsto that. She was introduced as a character with anxiety problems, unable to deal with relationships well, and wanted to "run away" from her life. These are not uninteresting character traits, and I actually find weakness to be a compelling aspect of characterization when explored in interesting ways.

But since she ran away, what has the story done with her as a character? They waste scenes on her showcasing how she's clumsy, how she cannot cook, how can't handle anything on her own, but yet she is drawn to these mysterious hot guys. What are her personal concerns? How does she really feel about her mother? What was her childhood like? What are her hobbies? These are things which could give her personality more depth, and they don't have to be important things tied to the narrative, but rather things which connect her better to those around her in small ways. Has her mother reported her missing yet? Surely she is concerned. Does she blame herself? Does she take it out on someone else instead? Being able to just see slices of this would give more dimension to the characters connected to Lisa.

Instead she is literally only there to serve the needs of an already weak narrative. Weakness in characters can be a great strength in stories, it just isn't here. This is just a by the books piece of genre fiction which tries to hit the notes of many other stories which have done it all before but better. It's just not as compelling, polished, or insightful on any of the matters it chooses to include in it. The excellent visual direction and soundtrack do wonders for the weak underlying concept, but even then it has become increasingly clear how the foundations are made of flour instead of cement.

 

[LordCanti]

Lisa is an object that exists to move the plot along. I had hoped that she'd be the unknown element that spoiled Five's plans but they kind of threw away her capacity to do that and transitioned her into the damsel in distress rather quickly. Her personality and actions are one thing, but her also being poorly fleshed out is the real reason I think she's disliked.

what?

if anything, it's obvious that Lisa became how she is, because of her mentally ill mother, has clear signs of extreme paranoia, and it has deeply affected Lisa's growth.

Alternatively Lisa was getting bullied at school every day, the mother knew it, was worried, was trying to reach out via text message, etc. She could be having a hard time connecting to her, and she does lose her temper after Lisa shows back up at home after the incident, but I don't think that she's "obviously" crazy. She very well could be, but they didn't really spend enough time selling it IMO.

Edit: Like Duckroll said, we needed an episode or scenes in various episodes where the mother is losing her mind trying to find her missing daughter, or where Lisa is having flashbacks about how bad things were at home, or something. Anything would have been more insightful than what we've gotten so far.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

lttp to this. I need to watch.

 

[a secret-boss]

Is it a taboo in anime to say I LOVE YOU. usually its implied

Shoot him when he has a plutonium on his back. lol

 

[Finalow]

Boredom in Resonance

 

[sonicmj1]

Episode 9

Duckroll is right. This is a poorly-written, superbly-directed genre exercise. As Aoki said, they're not human: they're pawns on Ya no Shoten's chessboard. It's a testament to Watanabe's skill as a director (and Yoko Kanno's skill as a composer) that the Ferris wheel scene worked as well as it did, despite being centered around a romance between such a poorly-defined pair of characters.

Despite Shibasaki being a cliche, I still like following him the most, because he's the only one who feels like a full character. He has a life and a history. He's made choices that brought him to where he is. He has interests outside of work. And he's capable of reacting to events around him without being the mouthpiece to tell the audience that Medical Experiments on Children Are Bad, as if we weren't aware.

Lisa's a plot device that pulls the terrorist pair to different places. Five is like her opposite, negative force. Instead of being logical extensions of the characters' motivations, events and circumstances are arbitrary or rushed. I still don't think this is a bad show, just because it's so well-made as a series of moving images set to sound, but it's deeply disappointing to see a show fall so far short of its potential.

I've spent so long wondering when someone was going to interview Lisa's mother after a Missing Persons report was filed.

 

[Jarmel]

Episode 9

Duckroll is right. This is a poorly-written, superbly-directed genre exercise. As Aoki said, they're not human: they're pawns on Ya no Shoten's chessboard. It's a testament to Watanabe's skill as a director (and Yoko Kanno's skill as a composer) that the Ferris wheel scene worked as well as it did, despite being centered around a romance between such a poorly-defined pair of characters.

Despite Shibasaki being a cliche, I still like following him the most, because he's the only one who feels like a full character. He has a life and a history. He's made choices that brought him to where he is. He has interests outside of work. And he's capable of reacting to events around him without being the mouthpiece to tell the audience that Medical Experiments on Children Are Bad, as if we weren't aware.

Lisa's a plot device that pulls the terrorist pair to different places. Five is like her opposite, negative force. Instead of being logical extensions of the characters' motivations, events and circumstances are arbitrary or rushed. I still don't think this is a bad show, just because it's so well-made as a series of moving images set to sound, but it's deeply disappointing to see a show fall so far short of its potential.

I've spent so long wondering when someone was going to interview Lisa's mother after a Missing Persons report was filed.

Great write-up, completely agree. The Ferris Wheel is really well directed but the writing is so awful and Lisa has just been too much of a non-character to be invested in. This is a show that might have benefited from a longer episode run and a slower pacing, along with a toned-down Five.

 

[Branduil]

Terror in Resonance 8

This show is substantially improved when it pretends Shibazaki is the main character. It's probably because he actually has characterizaton.

Terror in Resonance 9

This episode is a good example of the contrast between the writing and the direction in this show, in that the writing is bad and yet the direction and music are working overtime to try and make things work. It doesn't entirely, but there's something resembling real emotion in the ferris wheel scene, despite the absurdity and unearned-ness of it.

 

[Blader]

Episode 9

Duckroll is right. This is a poorly-written, superbly-directed genre exercise.

I can get behind this. I still really dig the show, even though it's about something much different than I thought it'd be. Expectations aside, the only major flaw I have with the series is that Lisa is a complete non-entity as a character. I don't even necessarily mind characters-as-plot-device type writing as long as the characters themselves are endearing or interesting enough to justify being on screen, but there's absolutely nothing to Lisa whatsoever. She's a complete void of personality, characterization, anything.

It's my only big sticking point with the show and it's unfortunate that so much of this second half seems to hinge on her.

 

[thequickandthedead]

Interesting opinion regarding Lisa

I've seen some people bagging on her for being the "damsel in distress" of the series, which I wholeheartedly disagree with. Lisa's a civilian, so obviously she has no idea on how to deal in high pressure situations. As a character, I've no qualms with her especially after episode 9, I see her as the human connection to the audience since the cast seems so detached from the audience. The difference with Lisa and a lot of damsel characters is that she tries to be useful to them the active to help Nine and Twelve out despite the circumstances she's in, so I can't fault her for trying to fit in, and the fact that she's able to trust those two more than her own mother is indicative of that. Remember, annoyance with a character does not always equate to bad writing, it's fine as long as it's been firmly set up from the start. Lisa has always been painted as the ostracized one from the beginning, but we've seen her being successful whether it be establishing an emotional connections with Nine and Twelve, or lending a hand to them.

Despite what I've said, keep in mind the series hasn't finished its run.

 

[Branduil]

Lisa's not a bad character, she's just badly written.

Give the same characters to a good writer and we'd be talking about a very different show right now.

 

[Edag Plata]

Who is the script writer again?

Watanabe is just directing, right?

 

[duckroll]

Who is the script writer again?

Watanabe is just directing, right?

Watanabe came up with the concept of the story and he directs the writers, so in the end it's still his fault. There's no specific writer leading the charge, just different screenwriters for various episodes. The story concept, outline, and narrative pace of the series is all on Watanabe.

 

[Haly]

Watanabe needed to watch The Wire.

 

[Branduil]

Feels like Watanabe had a bunch of different ideas with no idea how to blend them together.

Maybe if the show had a truly excellent writer collaborating with him we would have gotten something better.

 

[thequickandthedead]

Watanabe came up with the concept of the story and he directs the writers, so in the end it's still his fault. There's no specific writer leading the charge, just different screenwriters for various episodes. The story concept, outline, and narrative pace of the series is all on Watanabe.

Out of interest, who came up with the story for Bebop? Watanabe directed it but according to wikipedia it was written by Keiko Nobumoto. This leads me to think that she handed a script to Watanabe and he basically worked with the material provided.

 

[Branduil]

Out of interest, who came up with the story for Bebop? Watanabe directed it but according to wikipedia it was written by Keiko Nobumoto. This leads me to think that she handed a script to Watanabe and he basically worked with the material provided.

That's almost never how scriptwriting works.

In Cowboy Bebop's case I'm sure Watanabe had a big hand in making it what it was. The script is strongly intertwined with the many film and musical homages that the show plays with. Nobumoto is also a good writer in her own right.

 

[duckroll]

Out of interest, who came up with the story for Bebop? Watanabe directed it but according to wikipedia it was written by Keiko Nobumoto. This leads me to think that she handed a script to Watanabe and he basically worked with the material provided.

Cowboy Bebop's story was definitely more of Keiko Nobumoto and Dai Sato. It wasn't a case of her handing him a script though. As the director Watanabe probably came up with the premise with her, and she fleshed it out into a series outline, screenplays, etc, with the writing team. They had previously worked together on Macross Plus which was Watanabe's directorial debut, so there's already a connection there.

I'm not sure why Watanabe no longer teams up with a strong writer to act as a series editor for his shows. He didn't do with Kids on the Slope and he didn't do it here. The results are clearly a series with weak narrative construction. For Space Dandy it's understandable since it's an anthology work. When he made Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, both shows had much better narrative cohesiveness. It would be nice to see some of that again.

 

[Branduil]

Cowboy Bebop's story was definitely more of Keiko Nobumoto and Dai Sato. It wasn't a case of her handing him a script though. As the director Watanabe probably came up with the premise with her, and she fleshed it out into a series outline, screenplays, etc, with the writing team. They had previously worked together on Macross Plus which was Watanabe's directorial debut, so there's already a connection there.

I'm not sure why Watanabe no longer teams up with a strong writer to act as a series editor for his shows. He didn't do with Kids on the Slope and he didn't do it here. The results are clearly a series with weak narrative construction. For Space Dandy it's understandable since it's an anthology work. When he made Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, both shows had much better narrative cohesiveness. It would be nice to see some of that again.

Wish he'd brought Nobumoto in as series composer for TiR. Losing her Space Dandy episodes wouldn't be the biggest loss.

 

[duckroll]

Wish he'd brought Nobumoto in as series composer for TiR. Losing her Space Dandy episodes wouldn't be the biggest loss.

I wonder if he asked people he knew and they just didn't have the time or interest to commit.

 

[The Purple Pill]

Interesting opinion regarding Lisa

nice to see more takes on her character.

Lisa's not a bad character, she's just badly written.

Give the same characters to a good writer and we'd be talking about a very different show right now.

i disagree, she acts within a character of her knowledge, and lack of confidence, would do, not to mention her own doubts about herself, it was shown pretty well in the first couple of episodes, what her character consisted of.

Lisa is a quiet girl who is easily bullied due to her clumsy and introverted nature. Her introversion, makes her keep her problems to herself and usually resent the outside world. She feels she has a connection with Sphinx duo, and feels that the three of them share the same disconnection with the world. Despite her initial setbacks and doing dangerous operations with them she still chooses to keep on living, showing that she has plenty of courage and perseverance. She also seems to be quite clumsy, burning and dropping food, and also activating cellphones detonators from touching accidentally.

http://zankyou-no-terror.wikia.com/wiki/Lisa_Mishima

This is a realistic girl, who doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere, because of her lack of bond with her mentally ill mother, but who wants to belong somewhere, she doesn't want to live with her unstable, over protective, and paranoid mother, obviously no one would, it's created clear mental scars in her mind, you have to understand verbally shouting at your children, is the same as physically beating them, the trauma created by both are similar, and creates similar social dysfunctions.
yelling at children, verbal abuse and effects

This show keep showing the 3 survival choices in life, which I assume all know about;

fight - flight - freeze.

She has been choosing freeze almost all her life, or in cases where freeze could not save her, it was flight, Not to mention she, 9, and 12 stated that they have similar eyes of past traumas, disconnection to the world, or simply unable to conform to society's norm. This is her journey, leaving society, cutting her ties, that frames this. It is her, to whom Nine and Twelve feel kinship, as they too had to leave the “safe haven” that was their home, and run to the wilderness, from those who reared them and were supposed to protect them


now for 12's statement of her voice being the colour yellow, as he claims to see sound in colour.

Yellow: It’s the color of happiness, and optimism, of enlightenment and creativity, sunshine and spring.

Lurking in the background is the dark side of yellow: cowardice, betrayal, egoism, and madness. Furthermore, yellow is the color of caution and physical illness.

In Japan, yellow often represents courage.

colour sauce

Which can be followed to her "transformation", as she tries to fit in with 9 and 12, because she feels a connection with them, she also proves the colour(jp Courage), as she dares do, what she does in the airport, I doubt many would have mustered the courage to do so, in a condition such as hers, unless you felt a bond with the people involved. She shows her courage, or willingness to not have 12 sacrifice himself for her own mistakes of choice, of running away, this is also linked to feeling unwanted by people you would want to feel needed by. Bonds aren't only built around blood.

The main problem here I believe, is that people don't see how mentally unstable and paranoid Lisa's mother is, I thought it was clearly displayed in the first 3 episodes.

I want to once again call upon the fact that Lisa is the human element in this show, she's the bringer of human emotions, into the whole mix, as before her, 5, 9, and 12, were close to machines, savants with no bond to the world(society), disconnected. I keep getting Neon Genesis Evangelion vibes from her character, although she's not as complex as NGE characters, it's still there, because it's a trauma we see in the present, and it's very realized and expressed in all her strife from first episode to the 4th as well, I guess watching those a second time around would help seeing that.

 

[Antiochus]

Watanabe came up with the concept of the story and he directs the writers, so in the end it's still his fault. There's no specific writer leading the charge, just different screenwriters for various episodes. The story concept, outline, and narrative pace of the series is all on Watanabe.

This seems, in fact, to be one of the crucial differences and perhaps striking gaps TV anime has a whole compared to their Western live action counterparts. The average network TV prime time show has at least one standard deviation better overall execution compared to the product of even the most experienced and illustrious of anime creators

 

[metalslimer]

The writing in this show is pretty terrible, but oh man the music and the camera movement in the ferris wheel scene just made me feel what the terrible writing was trying to. I wouldn't mind the way they've characterized Lisa if this was a 26 episode show vs the 11 that it is. As of now they've really done nothing with her besides some stereotypical anime stuff. Also, I hope I never have to hear English being spoken that badly again.

 

[Branduil]

This seems, in fact, to be one of the crucial differences and perhaps striking gaps TV anime has a whole compared to their Western live action counterparts. The average network TV prime time show has at least one standard deviation better overall execution compared to the product of even the most experienced and illustrious of anime creators

I don't know if that's true. Western live action has higher highs nowadays, but it's still the same medium where millions of people watch and praise The Big Bang Theory.

 

[sonicmj1]

nice to see more takes on her character.

i disagree, she acts within a character of her knowledge, and lack of confidence, would do, not to mention her own doubts about herself, it was shown pretty well in the first couple of episodes, what her character consisted of.

I don't think any of this analysis is wrong, but it doesn't refute his point. Lisa is fine as a character concept. Her motivations in escaping her troubled home and school life and trying to find belonging with Sphinx, as well as her character arc of going from accepting the misery of her life, to running away from it, to fighting to change it, are fine and make sense.

The problem is the way she's written. The elements I've described above feel like the only things we know about her. Nothing defines who she is as a person outside of the suffering and alienation she experiences, and her desire to escape these things. What does she like? Did she ever have any aspirations or dreams when she was younger? Was there something she used to comfort herself to get her through these hard times before things became too much?

There's a lot they could have done to make her seem more "real", so that her progression through her character arc would feel more meaningful. But they almost never try to do that, and the show's failure to build its characters earlier comes back to hurt it later at scenes that should be sure home runs like the Ferris wheel.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

Guys it's possible we just haven't gotten our Lisa centered ep yet. Imagine Bebop if Faye's back story wasn't revealed so early or if we never got "Speak Like a Child". She also didn't really contribute anything except for spending their money, running or or getting kidnapped.

As much as I dislike Lisa, I'm willing to wait until the show is finished before completely judging her as a character

Edit: Looking back, we didn't know Faye's back story till ep 15 " My Funny Valentine". It's been too long for me to remember what I thought of her on my first viewing. I'm also sure I didn't start from ep 1 either

 

[Branduil]

Guys it's possible we just haven't gotten our Lisa centered ep yet. Imagine Bebop if Faye's back story wasn't revealed so early or if we never got "Speak Like a Child". She also didn't really contribute anything except for spending their money, running or or getting kidnapped.

As much as I dislike Lisa, I'm willing to wait until the show is finished before completely judging her as a character

Edit: Looking back, we didn't know Faye's back story till ep 15 " My Funny Valentine". It's been too long for me to remember what I thought of her on my first viewing. I'm also sure I didn't start from ep 1 either

There's only 2 episodes left.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

There's only 2 episodes left.

Well in the last 2 Bebop eps we basically got the entirety of Spike, Julia and Vicious' backstory and a conclusion so who knows!

 

[LordCanti]

10

I don't even...I don't even know anymore.

Five

Spoiler

just wanted to beat Nine for once and probably loved him. No further explanation is given and I doubt we'll get any in the last episode. She was batshit crazy but her end was interesting...I guess. Am I crazy or did their thing seem more real and interesting than Twelve and Lisa's thing, even though it was a surprise and it only lasted five seconds?

There's this undertone in the series that anyone looking into the Athena Project or Japan's secret

Spoiler

nuclear weapons program

won't live to tell about it, but that's never felt like a present danger to any of the characters. There just hasn't been time to really cement the notion that it's this vast conspiracy headed by extremely powerful people. If anything, the ability of the Americans under Clarence/Five to project force is all that has really ever been visible.

I have no idea what Nine was doing this episode. He could get whatever statement he wanted out via

Spoiler

social media/the internet, so why did he need to get captured and hold a press conference? It felt very contrived to force a confrontation with Five, which I guess could have been his plan all along, but considering the plan he put into motion with the justification of "you interfered, now suffer the consequences" I don't know what he was after really.

I have a hard time thinking that the

Spoiler

weather balloon isn't going to just drift in the wind and go out over the ocean, considering that they didn't want to kill anyone before. I guess Nine could have changed his mind, but they were pretty desperate to avoid casualties. If the goal is to prove to the world that Japan was developing it, setting it off over the water would get the message across. I'm not sure how he'll connect it back to the group or the Athena program, but I guess we'll find out.

 

[Frog-fu]

This tanked.

Shoulda stuck with Shibazaki/Sphinx boys cat 'n mouse games.

 

[Branduil]

Terror in Resonance 10

Terror in Resonance feels like the rough draft of a much better story. As it is, it feels like something that got written without anybody at any point asking the question "does this make any sense?" I guess that could be explained by the earlier rumors that the script was still being written during production, but still, I'm not sure why that happened. We've known Watanabe was working on this series for quite a while.

The climactic action of the episode was also surprisingly disappointing for a Watanabe show. It wasn't exactly clear who was doing what or who was where, which is pretty important for a chase scene like that. Add that to the eternal mystery of character motivations and you have a recipe for meaningless spectacle.

 

[duckroll]

Episode 10

I'm trying to comprehend how the show ended up the way it did. And after a bit of thought, my conclusion is that a lot of the show seems to be written backwards. This isn't really uncommon for high concept serials where the intention is to have the "OH SHIT!" moments which turn into water cooler subjects. The problem is that not a lot of effort has been put into making the show particularly cohesive or emotionally satisfying getting to the set pieces they want to build up to. It really kills much of the impact. Poor motivations. Poor characterizations. Underlying themes which seem like they have something to say but without knowing how to really express it in a compelling way. What a mess.

Spoiler

Also, I don't know if this episode was unfinished or something, but there were a lot of weird stuff in the second half of it which felt really odd. When the truck was ramming the decoy vehicle, the side mirrors on it looked completely detached from the truck. After Twelve stopped Five's car with smoke bomb or whatever, why did he crash? Where did he go after that? Something felt really disjointed with the editing there, especially when she goes after Nine immediately after her scene with Clarence. Also, when Five blows herself up with the car, when the explosion goes off she completely vanishes from the frame. Was that intention? Did they forget to draw her dying in the explosion? Did she escape? ???????

 

[Branduil]

Shows must be written forwards, not backwards. Upwards, not forwards. And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards good writing.

 

[Branduil]

Can someone explain why

Spoiler

Five spent all that effort chasing Nine just to kill herself in front of him?

 

[Frog-fu]

Can someone explain why

Spoiler

Five spent all that effort chasing Nine just to kill herself in front of him?

Spoiler

Because she wanted to beat him before her inevitable death. In her mind she had beaten Nine, I guess, when she had him at her mercy, so she then decided to kill herself before her disease could. At least that's what I've gathered from the episode.

 

[Shard]

It is sad to note that the flaws I saw at the beginning only got worse, such wasted potential.

 

[LordCanti]

Terror in Resonance 10
Terror in Resonance feels like the rough draft of a much better story. As it is, it feels like something that got written without anybody at any point asking the question "does this make any sense?" I guess that could be explained by the earlier rumors that the script was still being written during production, but still, I'm not sure why that happened. We've known Watanabe was working on this series for quite a while.

There was a really cool and interesting show about Japan's march towards re-militarization that they could have done but didn't. The conspiracy never felt real, it never seemed like anyone was in danger from anyone other than Five, and it was just....eh...

Can someone explain why

Spoiler

Five spent all that effort chasing Nine just to kill herself in front of him?

My take is basically that

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she had always been unable to beat him at games (chess, tag, etc) when they were both in the facility and that all she wanted was to beat him for once. She may also have loved him (hence the kiss) but it's hard to say. Having beaten him, and with her disease about to take her, she decided to just end it on her terms. She didn't hate him or anything and Clarence had already betrayed her, so there was no reason to go through with the plan and to continue helping the Americans. Why she went from perfectly willing to kill him to not wanting to....I don't know. I don't know what she means by "you kept me alive" either. Does she mean that the desire to eventually beat him kept her going?

Episode 10

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After Twelve stopped Five's car with smoke bomb or whatever, why did he crash? Where did he go after that? Something felt really disjointed with the editing there, especially when she goes after Nine immediately after her scene with Clarence. Also, when Five blows herself up with the car, when the explosion goes off she completely vanishes from the frame. Was that intention? Did they forget to draw her dying in the explosion? Did she escape? ???????

It was a

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grenade, I think. Having said that, it didn't do the amount of damage that a real grenade would have, making it all seem very poorly done. I guess he wrecked after because of the force of the grenade going off, but that was also very poorly storyboarded. Where he went after that....and how Nine/Five ended up alone I....I have no idea. Oh and Five definitely dies in the explosion.