Uh oh…Margaret is one of those anime characters that never opens her eyes. They are usually extremely dangerous or pleasant. Fortunately, she seems to be extremely pleasant with those little apple bunnies. Surely everything will be ok…right?
I have been traveling recently, but have had a chance to check out a couple new shows this season. Some early impressions:
Returning shows:
I think it was more harmful in this episode compared to last. I am going to include some manga panels as examples below, so I am going to put it in some spoiler blocks, however, I haven’t included anything outside of content covered in this episode. Honestly, I could include a lot more than this, but I just chose three examples, all from the same manga chapter (chapter 3).
First, let’s look at what Romelia was thinking in the lead up to Al’s speech to inspire his fellow soldiers to charge into battle when they were hesitating. In the show, we just see her lay out the plan and then charge off…there was then a bit of awkward silence until Al spoke up and gave his speech. In the manga, Romelia charges off again, but this is what she is thinking while she does it:
…she knows that they aren’t about to follow her just because she asks. Instead, she is setting Al up to give his speech and naturally grow into that leadership role. As proof, let’s also look at what she is thinking immediately after his speech ends and the men charge into battle:
Another example from this sequence is why she singled out Ray to follow her and kill the injured demon. In the anime, she just tells Ray to follow her and then has him finish it off. But why? How did she know that Ray would struggle with this? Well, let’s look at this small bit of internal dialogue that was left out:
…now it makes sense how she knew that Ray was hesitating. It’s a small line of text, but it motivates her actions a lot.
At the end of the battle, Romelia gave every soldier 1 silver, and gave a Al an extra silver in recognition of his merit. We see Al then proceed to buy an extra sheep and share it with the rest of the men in celebration of their victory. We see Romelia kind of smirk knowingly at this…but what is actually going through her head? What is the reason behind this reward system? Let’s look at the manga. Here is her internal dialogue after Al buys the extra food to celebrate with everybody:
…so she is using this both as a bonding experience due to the feast, but also as a way to help them burn through their money to motivate them to earn more.
This has been a really interesting adaptation to me. I have read up through this point in the manga and it handled this story very differently. I mentioned it in last week’s discussion thread, but the manga has way, way more of Romelia’s internal dialogue as we go through, and we learn more about her state of mind and her opinion on those around her. She has an incredible sense of what these soldiers around her are capable of and she tries to set up situations for them to overcome and help develop their abilities. In this adaptation though, we only ever see her actions, and don’t hear her rationale for why she is doing these specific things.
We learn about her ability this episode, Grace. I read the beginning of this manga ages ago…and this ability has kind of stuck in my brain ever since. I think it is a really interesting way to have an ability that is incredibly powerful, but never feels OP. Just imagine if you could make every cosmic coinflip just a bit more likely to land in a way more favorable to you. Nobody knows you have this ability or can stop you from exercising it - it happens even whether you realize it or not. That is a power that has the ability to move mountains…probably before you even realize you needed them moved. Coincidences seem to always work out when you need them to…you have a fortuitous chance encounter with a person possessing the skills you need at that point in time…your enemy is more likely to take the bait on a bluff you make…the possibilities are endless, and subtly powerful.
I already loved Elmina from reading the manga…and then they go and have Fairouz Ai do her voice? A+ character right there.
Mod-approved self-promotion post.
Enjoy the melancholy! Wait…that might be the wrong sentiment.
I remember reading one time on sakugablog that the average anime takes about 3 years from start to finish to make. However, there are many, many examples of deadlines being missed for episodes or a final cut being turned in literally at the last minute. Often the show is mostly done by the time the first episode airs, but there is usually some work still ongoing for future episodes as it is airing.
The animation in that battle for the 8th floor boss was really good. I don’t remember the first season having sakuga sequences like that. Looking forward to what they do for the final dungeon boss.
I like that we’re getting to know Romelia through the eyes of people around her, instead of listening to her inner monologue
This is actually very different compared to the manga adaptation and I like the choice a lot. I think it is clear to the viewer that Romelia is not doing this on a whim and has a plan and goals, but they largely are still a mystery to us. It makes it easier to relate to the soldiers that they introduced this episode because we see Romelia in mostly the same way they do.
I really enjoyed this manga, but unfortunately it was dropped by the translators pretty early on.
I will preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of the manga adaptation of this series. This first episode was a bit underwhelming to me, but I think helps set the tone for what is to come. I think the humor in this series is at its best when the MC has a comedic straight man to play off of, but it still came through here.
One of my favorite parts of this series and her power is that she gets both the good and the bad of the internet. Like, yes, you get practically god-like knowledge at your fingertips. However, you also get popup ads, spam, forum trolls, shipping wars, all the rest of it too.
I really like the background art style they went with for the show. However, I do feel like they are leaning really hard on the 8-bit sequences to save animation budget/effort. Also, there is just so much text on screen sometimes that it is hard to parse without a lot of pausing.
Anyway, looking forward to more to see how this adaptation works out.
The manga adaptation is pretty cool, so I am probably going to check this one out. However, there are signs this has been caught in production hell for some time, so I am not too hopeful.
Looks good! Welcome!
Best Dragon
I wait for this award every season!
Felt like it was time for a new one of these threads.
Alright, going over the list for next season, here are my takes:
This pretty much reflects my experience as well. Though, like you, I didn’t watch Akira until relatively recently, so that probably has something to do with it. Experiencing it in the late 80’s/early 90’s might have left a very different impression. From reading retrospective reviews, lots of critics praise it these days for the impact it had on the industry as much or even more than the story it was trying to tell. Short story time…
A couple years ago, my partner and I decided to watch through all of the AFI Top 100 movies, and there were plenty on that list that I genuinely thought were pretty bad. However, in reading about them after watching them, they are on the list because of the tremendous impact they may have had on the industry; special effects innovations, directing techniques, etc. I kind of lump Akira in that kind of basket these days. It was a technical showpiece that had an outsized impact on the rest of the industry, especially the actual animators who have inserted countless Akira references into their art over the years.
Mine is probably one that hasn’t been released yet, but I read the manga source, The Moon on a Rainy Night. The funny thing is that I found I related to it a ton, but as an adult, it had nothing to do with the school setting. It deals with the issue of disability in a way that felt so real and it was easy to map onto my life’s experiences.
In general, the other thing I relate to often is transfer students. I went to more than 10 different schools through K-12 because my family moved…a lot. So I was almost always the transfer student, and almost always preparing to say goodbye. It made me really good at making new friends wherever I found myself, but it also made me really good at dropping friends from my life for little to no reason.
The stupidest fucking timeline…
I don’t consider myself a loner…but I have an awful time remembering names; so I feel this a lot.