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Blade & Soul (TV).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 12:11 pm Reply with quote


Blade & Soul (TV)

Plot Summary: Alka is an assassin for the Clan of the Sword. She's on a journey to find the woman Jin Valel, who killed her master Hon. Jin is demon-like woman who controls the Energy of Chaos and kills without feeling - not unlike how Alka has learned to kill in her work as an assassin. On her journey, Alka encounters three strange women, each great warriors in their own right, and grapples with her slain master's wish that she leave the life of an assassin behind.
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Episode 1:
Not bad although it wasn't stellar imo. The OP song is decent I guess and the beginning escalated quite quickly. I think this show established some of the main characters well already but I hope to see more characterization soon. I like to remind myself this is a fantasy show though so the background are pretty consistent on most parts.

Haven't played game before yet though. There was more fan service than I had thought. I think spoiler[Aruka and Jin] has a nice little connection already. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing more world building in their fantasy world.

Oh and the first episode had more spoiler[violence in the second half than I had thought. They sure don't waste time with those guns, don't they?]
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John Hayabusa



Joined: 30 May 2012
Posts: 1270
PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:55 pm Reply with quote
Looks like a Queen's Blade clone. Not as ecchi as QB but I will keep on watching it for now.
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casualfan



Joined: 24 Jul 2012
Posts: 333
PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:22 pm Reply with quote
After seeing the first episode, it's definitely not a clone of Queen's Blade (Not that I would mind). It takes a more mature and serious tone. I definitely enjoyed the first episode. Hopefully they can keep the quality for the next one.
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KLAC
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 1121
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 7:06 am Reply with quote
ep.1

spoiler[white hair female being chased by some troops yet she got daggers to slash their necks & run off give time later random person get troops guns say hello big guy who just unleash "beast" to eat him & 2 other females in black checking the area.

meanwhile on tavern inn give drinking & ha one of black female who is part of palam empire send bounty message for 7000s gold to hunt person with butterfly shoulder.

back to white hair female clean herself notice some people to even scare one of them who wet his pants yet other hold on hire her for a job & her name is arka.

so arka arrive at village meet daughter chief who test her & show her village give cause area being target by palam empire cause they want heaven flower so next day palam messenger arrive yet village no buy for it.

palam go forced evict til arka take down 2 with slash bullet split to head with messenger notice her should report to palam elite members.

village people are worry should tell arka to leave yet palam empire go full take no prisoner kill em all villagers cause of having arka yet also member of clan sword.

yet arka beat palam member yet only daughter chief survive with wonder to do yet arka said revenge is on her mind with her code to do. ]
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:25 am Reply with quote
This one sure promises to be action filled!
Story is not bad at all, at least for now.
Too many females & too much boobs might turn me away from this.
It all depends on how the story will progress.
Alka is a very interesting character.
I like her personality and nice hair color.
She is also one scary girl!
I'll give this a few episode before my final decision.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15457
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:59 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

Don't take this as being a psycho, but one thing I liked kind of straight off was the show had the guts to have spoiler[women be goons and allow them to be killed]. I then got worried that this might be one of those shows where they make almost all character female, but in this episode they did manage to avoid it in a few places. And I think it looks like it might not be as sexist as I was starting to fear if they give roles out against usually permitted.

And what were the writing staff thinking? "Lets like spoiler[create an entire village scene with a few interesting characters and setting, and then like kill them all except two]." There is something adult about this show, and so far it has not been in an as naughty way as I would expect.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2261
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Well the positive thing was that it wasn't quite "Queens Boobs", even with the augmented curves, like I was worried it would be. I'm also happy that the women don't look like typical anime females. I liked some of the backgrounds as well. However, this first episode was choppy as all heck. I think I would have preferred if they had reworked this into 2 episodes or pared this first episode down more. This way we could have spent a little more time with the village, spoiler[so when the extermination] occurs it has more emotional weight.

I'd agree with the preview grades so far (about 2 out of 5), and it does come off as a little dull. However, as long as they don't stray into game mechanics, since its based on a game, I'm willing to give this another episode or two. There's room to grow, whether they can do it is another matter.
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WhiteHairGirls



Joined: 27 Apr 2011
Posts: 4713
Location: New York City
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 3:04 pm Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
There is something adult about this show, and so far it has not been in an as naughty way as I would expect.


Yeah I thought this was going to be a brainless ecchi fighting show. I didn't expect this to be somewhat serious. I will probably continue watching this. I like how Aruka looks.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23761
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 8:47 pm Reply with quote
Decent opener. Looks like it might be a fairly solid fantasy/adventure story. I'm liking the "woman of few words" lead.
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leatherhead333



Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 1187
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:43 pm Reply with quote
casualfan wrote:
After seeing the first episode, it's definitely not a clone of Queen's Blade (Not that I would mind). It takes a more mature and serious tone. I definitely enjoyed the first episode. Hopefully they can keep the quality for the next one.


It has a much more serious tone sure but the setup is almost exactly the same as Queen's Blade. Annelotte and Aruka looked pretty similar to me (though Aruka cut her hair at the end of the episode). They both are on the run from the oppressive rulers of their countries even though they are innocent. While Annelotte was pretty much going around helping people with their problems and Aruka is looking for work it's still a very similar situation since she's still helping people even if it's only for money. And of course they are both very capable fighters (though I'd say Aruka beats out Annelotte by a significant degree).

That's not to say Queen's Blade invented this scenario or anything but there are definitely many similarities with both shows so far besides the lack of over the top fanservice that is Wink
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15457
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 10:41 pm Reply with quote
Can I say that only now did I look at the series picture and were greeted by those?

It does remind me that at a time I thought the plot summary of QB sounded interesting, but when I found the first episode throwing that amount of ecchiness at me like they had no other way to sell the series, I stopped. So far this series has been far from blatant, but no knowing if that will change.
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ZorgonXtreme



Joined: 23 Feb 2004
Posts: 251
Location: Anchorage, AK
PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 5:52 am Reply with quote
I like the serious tone, the music and animation are fine, but geeze louise, the breasts everybody has are just gigantic.
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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:35 am Reply with quote
This is going to be a rough one. I really like Alka (or is it Aruka?) -- she obviously has what it takes to go the distance.

I am actually reminded more of Balsa from Moribito than anyone from Queens Blade.

Afterthought: Seriously WTF is up with those villagers anyway? Wanting to protect your ancestor's land is all very well and good but even an imbecile would realize how a militaristic, heavily armed avaricious neighbor country with no international law to restrain them would react to being brushed off. Actually it is amazing they offered to purchase the land in the first place.
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Melanchthon



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
Posts: 550
Location: Northwest from Here
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:52 pm Reply with quote
Episode 2...

I would like to compliment Blade and Soul for having the single worst animation scene of the year (so far). The 3-D animation of the bar chick dancing was so awkward and poorly integrated into the rest of the show I couldn't believe something like this could even be made in 2014. It was worst than the Fate/Stay Night Dragon, and I didn't believe anything could be worst than that.

Moving on...
This episode sucked. They're trying to make Alka into the strong, silent type, however it comes across as if she is utterly devoid of personality and has the IQ of a rock. Basically, as she currently is, she can't carry the show. The bounty hunter chick gave some much needed energy, but she was an one-note character composed entirely of cheap tropes. I didn't care much for her character design either, running around the city in only a bra I can write off to standard fantasy misogyny, but why is the bra two sizes too small? It's not only unpractical, it's looks damn uncomfortable as well. And the fight scene was pretty nice, but by that point my brain was numb from boredom, and it hardly registered.

So we have a plot that was generic and boring, animation that is reaching new lows, and lead character with all the personality of a hug pillow. Train wreck territory, here we come!
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KLAC
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 22 Oct 2009
Posts: 1121
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:55 pm Reply with quote
ep.2

spoiler[arka on desert wandering til meet a big ear furry give arka a shoulder cape but no money so tell town arka can visit.

so arka arrive at town give area is quite the "mess" of all kinds then say hello to hazuki the bounty hunter give she hunting for 7000s gold on butterfly shoulder then bring arka to inn tavern with it owner karen.

give karen is tavern boss also dancer give hazuki got drunk & no money yet karen saw arka's shoulder yet let her go keep her tavern safe.

then arka found herself in standoff of people want 7000s gold til arka quick move they all fall down yet sniper scope yet save by karen again yet known about clan sword.

yet sniper scope is hazuki so yea bounty chase is on hazuki go hit on arka give very tight til almost bought the wagon then again karen stop them which arka escape & hazuki wonder is going on yet want bounty.

& speak on palam there elite members give hapen black aura that smoke out a person cause got no info. ]
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