Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Concrete Revolutio
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5322 |
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Must be a regional thing then(I live in the UK) and I just went on again and still no episode 10. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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Because Funi got the exclusive simulcasting rights for the show, so everyone outside of Funi's regions (US & Canada) gets stuck with the delaycast. Thanks again, Funi. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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Hmm... maybe the Funi block is only active in English-speaking countries and the American continent? I don't know if Funi distributes in the UK, tbh I thought their block was only for the American continent.
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Doodleboy
Posts: 296 |
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Ok this is a late reply, uh sorry. Honestly, it was hard to find the original article! I got that tidbit from twitter when the show was first announced and there are articles that say it was based off "watchmen", but the original interview? Can't find it. Tried looking for it for an hour and gave up. If I find it I'll post it. And I meant Sho Aikawa and not Seiji... whoops. Edit: And apparently the interview where he said that came from a japanese tokusatsu magazine. So, that's that. He might not have mentioned it for all I know. This is the closest. http://concreterevolutio.com/special/?page=20150703_2 Noboru is Sho Aikawa according to the japanese wiki at least. Can't read it, but google translate showed "Dark Knight Returns", "Wild Cards" (which I assume is the George RR Martin edited superhero universe), and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It'd be an interesting read if somebody who knew japanese could translate it. And I definitely see ALOT of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in ConRevo. But with sixties toku/anime instead of Victorian literature. And League is a much more "fantastic" comic like ConRevo is compared to the banality of Watchmen. Hopefully the Watchmen thing isn't some big misunderstanding. And yeah, you can use timejumps in a live-action medium. Just thought it was worth mentioning when talking about the Watchmen comic, since that was stated outright from the author. Watchmen is kind of a clockwork comic. Concrete Revolutio a puzzle... Although I'm not sure how on purpose Concrete Revolutio's structure was. As you said in your review, the time-jumping feels amateurish. It's just neat to try to compare it to other shows and see where ConRevo went wrong. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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It's definitely the George RR Martin edited Wild Cards series. He mentions that only the first three volumes were translated into Japanese. He also mentions the 1994 limited series "Marvels," which makes sense too. He was very influenced by those particular American comics mentioned that moved him with their sense of "reality" mixed with superheroes which made him wonder "where was Japan's version of this?" Interesting interview. |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6203 Location: Houston, TX |
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Judging from what we've seen in the future, Jirou clearly has powers. Last edited by v1cious on Fri Dec 18, 2015 10:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Doodleboy
Posts: 296 |
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Ah so that's what "Marbles" was. On another note, I'm kinda surprised at how much I'm enjoying this show now. It's gone from a failed but interesting experiment to the show I'm genuinely looking forward to the most week to week. The reason I watch anime is that it's so pulpy and cheap that risks can be taken. Sometimes you get something ambitious and powerful that you're hard pressed to find anywhere else. Concrete Revolutio definitely fits that criteria. Not knowing a whole lot about the Japanese politics which is being covered in the review, if I had to guess what the show is about it'd be that the "Hero/Villain" narrative is what hides corruption and oppression. And it's also what creates extremism. The latest episode makes that really really obvious. From Claude's tactics to Kikko's transformation from a white-hat to seemingly a black-hat. Of course that's a simplification, Sho Aikawa talks about alot of things. Gatchaman and from what I've read Samurai Flamenco critiqued this narrative too, but Concrete Revolutio is a lot angrier about it. |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2196 |
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Uhhh...
Jiro has kaiju powers (the red flames from the OP and the Kaiju episodes when he goes all LOCK THREE). He actively denies it whenever asked, but he's also a superhuman. Whatever event separated him from the Bureau also convinced him to master his Kaiju abilities, given his control over them in the future segments such as when he flees from Kikko, saves Furuota, and fights Iron Detective Raito. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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I don't think Jiro has any control over the supposed kaijuu inside him at this point in time so he wouldn't consider himself a superhuman, especially given how he still hates kaijuu. Post time-skip, if he has gained control of it, maybe, but not right now.
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Vent
 Posts: 318 |
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I'm pretty sure this isn't the penultimate anything. It was announced as a two cour show.
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v1cious
Posts: 6203 Location: Houston, TX |
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Split cour. Second season doesn't start until April. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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So apparently at least Funi's subs got the name right. On Daisuki the English subs rendered it as "Galboi Riker", and the subs in most other languages got other hilarious mishearings (except for the Russian ones, natch; not sure about Thai since I can't read it). Although the original vocal track is at least partially to blame - while the Russian text shows the name correctly, the characters keep saying it as "Goluboy Laika", using the masculine form of the adjective (while the character is male, "Laika" is a strictly feminine noun; it can take masculine pronouns and past tense verbs, but not adjectives). Extra unintended hilarity/awkwardness in the fact that "goluboy" (light blue) is Russian slang for a gay male (the site says it's neutral, but I'm pretty sure many actual gay Russians will find it condescending at the very least). Anyway, while there were some overt and subtle Cold War references in previous episodes, I think this was the biggest reference to the Soviet Union so far, and as a Russian I couldn't help but ponder it. The colour "goluboy" can be interpreted as having strongly Russian connotations - language buffs and collectors of assorted trivia might be aware of the fact that the Russian language is unusual in treating "goluboy" (light blue) as a distinct colour from "siniy" (blue) rather than as a shade of the latter. At the same time it contrasts quite a bit with the officially presented Soviet colours of red and gold; this may possibly be symbolic of the character's commitment to peace (a concept often represented by a light blue motif), valuing humanity as a whole higher than "his" side of the East-West divide, and even going as far as disobeying his orders. Going back to the ever-present nuclear metaphors, this could be directly referring to Stanislav Petrov, whose refusal to blindly follow instructions averted a nuclear war, and perhaps a bit less directly to people like Andrei Sakharov, who was a major contributor to the Soviet Nuclear program who later turned against the Soviet state in campaigning for peace and human rights. Next, the surname(?) "Laika", which seems to be a reference to the space dog Laika, one of the first Earth animals in space. The Soviet space program was already alluded to earlier by Earth-chan's orbit form looking a bit like the Sputnik. Goluboy Laika's quote about the beauty of the Earth also seems to be alluding to the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, and his words about how beautiful the Earth looks from space, especially his famous message to "let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!" The part about being willing to risk one's life brings us back to Laika, since her flight was a notable step in the advancement of human knowledge and space travel, and also resulted in her death (although nobody asked her whether or not she was willing to sacrifice herself for that...). Given all this it's easy to accuse Aikawa and Mizushima of whitewashing the Soviet side while vilifying the US and the Japanese government. However, considering that the idea of the USSR as the big bad enemy was the dominant narrative at the time they probably don't feel that it really needs to be reinforced by specific examples; instead they make a composite character representing the numerous individual counterexamples to the prevailing narrative, and have him targeted by both sides (it's pretty subtle, but in the press conference shot one of the microphones is labelled "Radio Lubyanka" in Russian). I wonder if it's a coincidence that the main cast includes Sumire Uesaka, who has also expressed dissatisfaction at how the Soviet Union is portrayed almost exclusively in a negative light. |
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Go Mifune
 Posts: 63 |
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Have you forgotten the amount of moral ambiguity this show has been constantly reminding us of? One must have an emotional attachment to a moral position, then have a character strongly linked to that moral position in order for a person to cheer them on, celebrate their wins or lament their losses. And I think that the world to get lost in is Japanese post-war history. Granted that I don't think there is much relevance of Laika, the first animal to obit the earth on Sputnik 2 to the story. But those that know of Laika knew spoiler[that death was immanent.] But I do think that the moral question will be about the Japanese New Left or the establishment (or remain ambiguous due to moral relativity.) So the question I see here is whether they will force us to choose sides or leave it open with a sort of moral relativity in the end. And with this episode, it just bumped Noragami Aragoto down and has taken 2nd place on my top 5-- which again frustrates me that the poll and the reviewer picks couldn't wait until the actual end of the cour. Likewise, OPM is unmovable for me at number one, but had they flubbed the ending then it could have been replaced at #1 by CR final episode. (it still may but I find it highly unlikely.) Also I would like to note that I enjoy your reviews, you are one of my 3 favorites here. So I apologize if I come off kind of harsh-- it is that no emotion in text thing 
Keep up the awesome work! |
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AnimusPrime
Posts: 51 |
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This episode made it pretty clear: the whole show is a tribute to the late-60s, to self-expression, and to political dissent. All of the protests and riots that have been portrayed in the show were based on real-life incidents in 1960s-Japan. A "superhuman" in the show could be a fictional representation of a Showa-era protester or faction leader. Every time Concrete Revoultio refers to "laws against superhumans", they're talking about laws that were passed that allowed the government to interrupt protests, for example, this one on college campuses in 1969. The frequent references to the "DFE treaty" is a reference to the Anpo Treaty between the US and Japan, which was renewed in 1970 despite widespread protests. All the references to superhumans in the US military being made to do fight against their will might be a reference to the Vietnam Draft. |
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