Forum - View topicKADO - The Right Answer (TV).
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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KADO - The Right Answer (TV) Genres: science fiction Plot Summary: Kōjiro Shindō is a highly-skilled negotiator working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As his plane at Haneda airport prepares to take off, a huge mysterious cube appears from the sky. 'It' expands rapidly, and absorbs the passenger plane and its 252 passengers. The cube's name is "Kado". A strange being called Yaha-kui zaShunina appears from within Kado and tries to make contact with humanity. Shindō, who was been absorbed by Kado, ends up taking on the role of mediator between Yaha-kui zaShunina and humanity. The Japanese government sends its own negotiator, Saraka Tsukai. ---------------------------------- Episodes 0 and 1 After almost the entirety of episode 0, I was pretty much in for just a show about bureaucracy and negotiation. But the sci-fi twist at the end was a mighty surprise that felt like a pleasant surprise. The turn of technique for how they were handling the encounter also had me quite interested. A scientist commenting on a little fact like no heat signature or a black hole for infrared, yet some sort of reflection of visual light, it has my interest of thinking through the logistics. |
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Yttrbio
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I certainly hope the show stays away from the moralizing I've come to fear from this kind of thing. There's a whole genre of human disempowerment fantasy centered around the idea that human conflict shouldn't exist and wouldn't if everyone would just do as they're told, so here comes some powerful force to make them. Some of this show's preview material made me expect that, but thankfully, we haven't had it yet.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2830 |
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Science fiction angle aside, this looks to be fundamentally about the art of negotiation. Shindo's ethos on the art and objective of negotiation appears to be very much at odds with what passes for negotiation in some political circles.
Haven't seen a TOEI animation series for a while (lots of movies lately) so nice to see something unusual both in theme and presentation. If Shindo is as skilled as he's made out to be, then he'll get his wish dealing with a project commensurate with his skills and capabilities. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23740 |
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I'm really liking this one a lot. As I mentioned in the preview thread, I went into episode 0 knowing absolutely nothing about the series. So obviously for a good chunk of it, I was assuming this was going to be a fairly interesting workplace drama about a super-bureaucrat.
 It says something about how well that stuff was handled that even if the show really was that, I probably would have liked it. Anyway, when the cube appeared, it nearly took the top of my head off because I had absolutely no idea it was coming. I love being that surprised. This is why it sometimes pays off to not learn anything about a show before it airs. Anyway, very intrigued to see what happens next.
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Anime: The Day the Earth Stood Still is great.
This show will likely somehow end bittersweet if not an outright tragedy. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 2
It is not saying it outright, but the implication is along the lines that this is not Yaha-kui's original form, that it was maybe made from interaction with a person. He did not even seem to understand normal vocals as after he scans the brain for information he follows up with a mess of sound in trying to get in audible range, and mimics first speech he hears, but the entire thing was actually quickly learning from zero. So far he says that he wants to advance humanity, but also with how communication is troubled we don't know what it could mean. This does feel like t could have been a movie, and has aspects in some Hollywood movies. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11330 |
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I did get a kick out of Klaatu's request for communication. "I set a time. Six seconds. ... One minute. ... One hour. Two hours? Three hours? ... Then three it is!"
It was also nice to not have to deal with loopy scientist girl. But the whole time I was laughing imagining this in the real world. "I want to talk to Japan." ::US government goes apeshit, military rushes somebody over from Okinawa to try to take over, threatens to bring nukes:: Anyway, I'm loving this utterly so far, except for the lavender filters which were giving me Hand Shakers flashbacks (thankfully they've dialed it back a bit this week). |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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That may say so in jest, but it would actually be something to consider in context as zaShunina tells the people of Japan to continue to consider the position of the future relationship, it may be easier for humanity to "unite against the outsider" than for Japan to stand alone and be consumed by international strong arming. I am not sure if this show will become that ambitious, but just as well if first contact was made by interdimensional aliens you bet your ass it would cause chaos. |
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lebrel
Posts: 374 |
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I was thinking pretty much the exact same thing... I wonder if the show will deal with the rest of the world's response, although I suspect it is set in "of course Japan is the center of the world stage" territory. Also, I am now 100% sure this is a female-targeted series (helooooo nekked bishonen alien butt). It's been a good couple of years for older female anime fans; I wonder if they are a larger percentage of the market than they used to be, or if the industry is waking up to the sales potential of capturing older (=more disposable income) and underserved audiences. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2830 |
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I must be imagining things, but zaShunina's choice of human appearance seems to mirror Shindo Kojiro's build and facial structure. If this extradimensional being is really just an accumulation of data and matter it makes sense to copy the first human being attempting to make contact with it.
Leaving the rest of the world aside, everything so far seems realistic in terms of human response to an extradimensional visit. Aside from Tsukai's singing voice, viewers have absolutely no idea who she is and why she's considered Shindo's equal in his old workplace. Hopefully next week will bring more answers as to what zaShunina wants. zaShunina's last comment about how humans should constantly be thinking as the correct course of action implies logic rather than emotion is the overriding driver for zaShunina's motive of advancing earth and human civilisation. Perhaps it too will learn to compromise once it learns more about the world it has visited. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2830 |
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#3
So zaShunina's idea of advancing society is to eliminate the problem of scarcity entirely by introducing an infinite source of energy which does not appear to have side-effects like pollution or radioactive waste. That's going to be entertaining considering how humans don't think as logically as zaShunina does, next week's trailer seems to have confirmed as much. zaShunina's choice of location appears to be based on the level of human empathy and level of economic development in a specific locality. Japan (this being a Japanese anime after all) would be one choice, but any of the Scandinavian countries with their low Gini coefficients would have also been suitable choices. Shindo doesn't have everything his own way, I think this is the first time I've seen him flustered or panic outside of the first episode. Despite zaShunina's unscripted actions, Shindo remains remarkedly composed for someone who's been appointed to act as the human negotiator; something Tsukai seems to have picked up on. As for the dynamic between the two, practically zero thus far although it's clear Shindo is older than Tsukai but has less experience working in the United Nations and foreign affairs than she does. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11330 |
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Wow, I really cannot stand that ditzy scientist girl. She barely had any screen time this episode, and yet the few seconds she got made me want to gag her and launch her into the sun. It's been awhile since I've had such a viscerally negative reaction to a character that wasn't intended to be hated.
It's like there's a huge difference between how a grown adult scientist acts when they're awed or excited by some amazing new discovery (see NASA clips of the control rooms whenever they start getting telemetry back or have other hard-won successes), and how a five year old reacts to something cool, and she's the latter. Five year olds can get away with it because...they're five. She's not. Really enjoying the interplay between Shindo and zaS though. They're fun. 
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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She seems to be more like an exaggerated parody of the "kooky scientist" you might find in the Hollywood Movie equivalent, I totally understand if it grates on some people as her character is intentionally running against the grain of the rest of the "played straight" cast. Hell, this episode introduced us to relatively light hearted side characters in the form of a news camera crew yet they aren't complete cartoons of the concept. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I liked the sort of description that he has kind of been put forward that he is sort of extradimensional, which I take it means he exists in a place that has more dimensions than our own universe, yet at the same time exists adjacent. He moves his hands as limbs by them being able to appear disconnected from his human body, and they move by appearing to get smaller before disappearing before doing the opposite elsewhere, which is perhaps them losing dimensions from one place as they move through his universe to gain dimension elsewhere.
He is likely underestimating how humans on a personal level could react to finding out something as crazy as that energy source, from people working in the sector of energy creation to entire economies running off of it which could crash if suddenly there was no need. To all the sorts of implications of things changing so quickly in terms of requirements. As it stands he might have difficulty understanding the difference between an exchange in information and physically doing something, that cutting off all that power and then putting those systems requirements on his technology could come across as terrorism in holding that system hostage. But to him it might be the same as telling a person something they did not know before, that he equates the idea of going backwards from what he is showing as the same of trying to make yourself forget something you just learned. The things he is doing could really scare people and make someone do something rash. To make it less "Japan is the greatest", he might have been saying that Japan was the more likely to communicate without getting extra aggressive, and or some nature that humans are not aware of. And on that I would expect that a lot of international press would be interested. |
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3650 |
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Episode 4
Some things that were chuckleworthy curiosities earlier (Japan is the bestest at sharing bread, and America isn't all over this situation) are now becoming eye-rolling plot holes as we start including international relations. In what universe would the United States allow nonproliferation of a Japanese technology to be handled by the UN instead of handling it directly? What lunacy would drive the US to join Russia and China in threatening a key Pacific ally like Japan? I'm not sure these writers have ever read a book or seen a news article about international relations. It's the kind of gleefully ignorant self-serving fantasy stuff I was afraid of when this show started |
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