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Senkou no Night Raid (TV).


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Mister V



Joined: 15 Apr 2009
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:29 pm Reply with quote
Senkou no Night Raid

I thought I'd find a ten-page topic here by the time I got to watch the episode... at least, judging by the universally positive reaction from reviewers. It certainly deserves attention.

I must say that it's the only series so far that impresses me. I'm sure Five Leaves and Yojo-han will deliver in their own, trippy way, but this is quite different - it's not a comedy or bizarre take on a typical story, but a show that takes itself seriously. A real anime spy flick with supernatural noir, can you imagine that? Well, not that it's absolutely groundbreaking, but the level of quality alone makes it stand out. The art and direction are classic, or retro - in a good way. I'm not entirely sure if the animation (especially during fight scenes) is made to look a bit slowish, like old movies, or they just lack the budget.



On to the episode proper...
Is it me, or the guy with the violin speaks Chinese with a thick Japanese accent? Not that I know Chinese, but it doesn't sound very natural, unlike the other guy.
Didn't follow the time thing. Does he have a limit to using his power? And then a cooldown timer, I presume Razz But really, there's always a cost associated with these powers, so - is it going to be something like the contractors' remuneration, I wonder.

I'd also be quite disappointed if sometime later we wouldn't see a soviet spy with powers. Really looking forward to that Razz
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wandering-dreamer



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:08 pm Reply with quote
I've heard mixed reactions on the Chinese (some people saying it was okay, some saying it was bad) but everyone agrees that the violin player was speaking very bad Chinese.
The opening of the first episode really reminded me of old spy movies, especially with some of the stunts pulled there.
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tarheel91



Joined: 28 Sep 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:35 pm Reply with quote
The violin player was Japanese. What'd you expect? Fluent Chinese? That'd be unrealistic.

In general, I found the episode excellent. However, this has the potential to go VERY badly. They're telling a portion of the Second Sino-Japanese War from the Japanese perspective. A lot of terrible things were done for the sake of Japanese expansion. I'm waiting to see how they address such issues.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:48 pm Reply with quote
Setting the historical issue aside for a moment, I have to say that while the animation production values are top-notch, the episode left me a little cold. Mainly, I think that's a function of getting introduced to the characters. Some shows have the knack of getting a viewer involved and feeling engaged with characters right off the bat - Night Raid isn't doing that for me. However, I will definitely stick it out and I anticipate I'll have a growing interest as the show goes on.
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wandering-dreamer



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 10:14 pm Reply with quote
tarheel91 wrote:
The violin player was Japanese. What'd you expect? Fluent Chinese? That'd be unrealistic.

What I've heard most people say is that his Chinese wasn't bad, it was atrocious and some people have even pointed out that spy's aren't supposed to have an accent so bad it blows their cover.

Also loved the artwork in this episode, the backgrounds and character outfits were all very detailed and great to look at. Haven't seen many of A-1's works before so was this the usual quality or very good for them?
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Niomo



Joined: 21 Jul 2009
Posts: 516
PostPosted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:09 pm Reply with quote
Art was good, plot was pretty interesting. IMO, the show felt like Ghost in the Shell...just without robots. You've got the team, their psychic communications, the two characters that get all the action-y glory and the politically smart boss-man. And i'm 100% fine with that. I loved GitS.
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LaFreccia



Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 324
PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:51 am Reply with quote
I wasn't overly impressed, but, as Blood- said, best to give it another episode before writing it off. Some of the ideas were cool, but I didn't connect with anyone.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:34 am Reply with quote
I don't usualy like watching shows that take itself too seriously, I pretty much only watched because of the supernatureal parts. I guess though that since it takes itself so seriously, the characters don't seem conectable enough. But I will watch a bit longer to check it out.
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Mister V



Joined: 15 Apr 2009
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, but once you watch too much shows that break the fourth wall, etc, you start getting tired of it all - the escapism value gets drastically diminished. Maybe it's just me... my soul is currently being healed by the escapism of Bounen no Xamdou Razz and this might help, too.

tarheel91 wrote:
However, this has the potential to go VERY badly. They're telling a portion of the Second Sino-Japanese War from the Japanese perspective. A lot of terrible things were done for the sake of Japanese expansion. I'm waiting to see how they address such issues.

Well if they don't stress too much over those well-known issues, it'll be fine. And I'm sure they've taken all the possible precautions, because a central TV network airing a show about that is in the same situation as someone balancing on a rope above a pool of sharks, and that someone also has to carry a ton of historical baggage. I kinda doubt their managers are so incompetent as to allow them to come under fire for things like this.

This was just the introduction though... I don't think we're supposed to immediately connect to the characters, it's more like being thrown into the thick of it.
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tarheel91



Joined: 28 Sep 2008
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 4:56 pm Reply with quote
Mister V wrote:
Yeah, but once you watch too much shows that break the fourth wall, etc, you start getting tired of it all - the escapism value gets drastically diminished. Maybe it's just me... my soul is currently being healed by the escapism of Bounen no Xamdou Razz and this might help, too.

tarheel91 wrote:
However, this has the potential to go VERY badly. They're telling a portion of the Second Sino-Japanese War from the Japanese perspective. A lot of terrible things were done for the sake of Japanese expansion. I'm waiting to see how they address such issues.

Well if they don't stress too much over those well-known issues, it'll be fine. And I'm sure they've taken all the possible precautions, because a central TV network airing a show about that is in the same situation as someone balancing on a rope above a pool of sharks, and that someone also has to carry a ton of historical baggage. I kinda doubt their managers are so incompetent as to allow them to come under fire for things like this.

This was just the introduction though... I don't think we're supposed to immediately connect to the characters, it's more like being thrown into the thick of it.


I don't think you're realizing the situation. This story is being told about Japanese main characters by Japanese creators for a Japanese audience. I have no idea how the Second Sino-Japanese war is taught in Japan, but there's a good chance the terrible things the Japanese did are spun more positively. Plus, logical anime convention dictates you make the Chinese, the main characters' enemies, the bad guys.


I think it's a very dangerous possibility that will happen. The Japanese were undeniably in the wrong in the Second Sino-Japanese war. If the anime tries to turn this into a battle of good vs. evil, or attempts to minimize the atrocities that were committed during the war, it will lose my support.

That said, the main character(s) seem pretty distrusting of the Japanese government, and we're pretty early on in the war, and on top of those signs, that little message at the end suggests they know they're walking a fine line. Thus, I remain optimistic the show will handle its setting with grace.
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Mister V



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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:24 pm Reply with quote
I do realise the situation. I've read some literature on the current state of affairs (at the very least between China and Japan, the history book controversies etc.), and that is exactly why in my opinion they will not in any way create a show that somehow justifies their actions. Nationalist radicals who attempt to do that have always existed in Japan, but it's like, you know, Germany still has neo-Nazis, and somehow Der Untergang wasn't trying to portray the regime in a positive way. In our case, they don't like to apologise, and not likely to do so; so they'll probably let the subject be, and maybe not directly show war crimes committed by the Japanese, but definitely no outright revisionism (unless TV Tokyo's board of directors runs their meetings at the Yasukuni shrine...). I stress that before putting this show on air it must have gone through one hell of an acceptance procedure, since things like this can have diplomatic repercussions nowadays.
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tarheel91



Joined: 28 Sep 2008
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:54 pm Reply with quote
Mister V wrote:
I do realise the situation. I've read some literature on the current state of affairs (at the very least between China and Japan, the history book controversies etc.), and that is exactly why in my opinion they will not in any way create a show that somehow justifies their actions. Nationalist radicals who attempt to do that have always existed in Japan, but it's like, you know, Germany still has neo-Nazis, and somehow Der Untergang wasn't trying to portray the regime in a positive way. In our case, they don't like to apologise, and not likely to do so; so they'll probably let the subject be, and maybe not directly show war crimes committed by the Japanese, but definitely no outright revisionism (unless TV Tokyo's board of directors runs their meetings at the Yasukuni shrine...). I stress that before putting this show on air it must have gone through one hell of an acceptance procedure, since things like this can have diplomatic repercussions nowadays.


The problem is that the horrors of the Second Sino-Japanese War are far less known than those of the Nazis in WWII. A minority of people (worldwide) know about the Rape of Nanking, but I'm guessing a majority of those people don't even know what war or time in history to associate the event with. The number of people who know about the whole story of the Second Sino-Japanese war is far smaller. Hell, the only reason I know a good amount about it is because I took a course on East Asian Music and Culture. After doing some research, I've found revisionism is something that HAS been an issue in Japan. Not so much the revisionism of 1950s history text books in the US that painted the KKK as glorious knights defending the honor and virginity of white women from black apes, but the type of revisionism that glosses over the whole ordeal (e.g. Then we went to war with China as the start of WWII. Unfortunately, we lost, Moving on...).

The whole concept sounds something like a Japanese version of the WWII movies that are so prominent in the West. If research done for this anime is as pathetic as most of the research done for most WWII movies, things really could go badly.

However, as I said before, I remain optimistic that they will handle this correctly. I really hope they do, as the setting lends itself to some very interesting situations (with the discord within China itself providing a lot of it).
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zalasta524



Joined: 16 Sep 2009
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:13 pm Reply with quote
Mister V wrote:

Is it me, or the guy with the violin speaks Chinese with a thick Japanese accent? Not that I know Chinese, but it doesn't sound very natural, unlike the other guy.


Be thankful you don't speak Mandarin. It made my ears bleed every time I heard it. Not like I can switch my brain off and just read the subtitles either. No way anyone with that thick of an accent could pass as a native speaker, which made the whole conversing while infiltrating enemy base all that much more ironic.
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Tempest
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:34 pm Reply with quote
Mister V wrote:

Is it me, or the guy with the violin speaks Chinese with a thick Japanese accent? Not that I know Chinese, but it doesn't sound very natural, unlike the other guy.


zalasta524 wrote:
Be thankful you don't speak Mandarin. It made my ears bleed every time I heard it. Not like I can switch my brain off and just read the subtitles either. No way anyone with that thick of an accent could pass as a native speaker, which made the whole conversing while infiltrating enemy base all that much more ironic.


I'm surprised that no one mentioned this yet.

Yes, the guy with the violin (Aoi) speaks atrocious Chinese, but this was done on purpose. He's Japanese and the creators didn't want him to speak Chinese (Mandarin) perfectly. I was very impressed with the way they handled this.

對不起, 我的 國語不大好.
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JacobC
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:47 pm Reply with quote
tempest wrote:


I'm surprised that no one mentioned this yet.

Yes, the guy with the violin (Aoi) speaks atrocious Chinese, but this was done on purpose. He's Japanese and the creators didn't want him to speak Chinese (Mandarin) perfectly. I was very impressed with the way they handled this.

對不起, 我的 國語不大好.


While it doesn't bother me because I don't speak Chinese...(my roommate DOES, and she was like "WOW. WHAT are you watching, that is the gnarliest bad Chinese I have ever heard!") ...Are you sure that still makes sense? Even if he is Japanese, he shouldn't sound it given his occupation.

Aoi is a spy. If his Chinese was atrocious he would stick out like a sore thumb. I really enjoyed the episode, it was hands down my favorite show this season (okay, maaaybe tied with Heroman,) but I actually thought it was erroneous to give him a bad Chinese accent. He'd be caught instantly! There's a moment where he and Kazura have to walk through the enemy camp disguised as soldiers, making small talk in Chinese while other recruits are brushing up against them, and that's definitely not a place where you want to sound Japanese! Laughing
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