Forum - View topic(The) Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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(The) Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War (TV) Source: Video Game (developed by Nihon Falcolm, published by Xseed Games) Demographic: Seinen Animation Studio: Tatsunoko Production Genres: action, drama fantasy Theme: military Plot Summary: In the Year 1205 of the Septian calendar, Lavian Winslet is a girl born and raised in the poorest region of North Ambria, located in the northwestern part of the Zemurian continent. In order to protect her hometown and to prove that she is different from her grandfather, Vlad, who was once revered as a hero but betrayed North Ambria, she joins the largest Jaegers group on the continent, known as the Northern Jaegers. She volunteers as a hunter and carries out her duties. One day, Lavian, who is immersed in her mission and repeatedly violates the rules, is ordered to form a platoon with Martin S. Robinson, Iseria Frost, and Talion Drake on a reckless secret spy mission to the Erebonia Empire. Together they must get information about the possible existence of "Hero of the Empire" that threatens North Ambria. Air Date & Platform: January 6, 2023 (Friday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 12 episodes |
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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What an unfortunate show. Production values so bad that even I can see the seams, tragic pacing, and characters that I struggle to maintain interest in. And I still don't know the answer to a fairly important question: who is the intended audience? Newcomers aren't given much reason to care about most of the cast and setting across these episodes, and as an established fan, I'd really like to see the titular war, rather than cameos and detours to familiar locales.
Oof. Trails deserves better. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23813 |
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Episode 5
I don't dispute that this show is kind of a mess. I'm anime-only on the title, so I have no familiarity with the source material. However, despite all of its flaws, I find it bizarrely... watchable? Keep in mind, I have noted elsewhere I am in an incredibly tolerant frame of mind these days. Out of the new shows, I've dropped exactly one: that ghastly one about a dude who turned into his crush's dog. This one throws a bunch of political and historical info dumps at us which mean nothing to me, but I find the core group of four kind of appealing. Ooooo, Lavi, you had the hero of the Empire right there... and didn't even know it, ha ha! Loser. 
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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I'd be curious about your impressions on events and characters going forward- I'm coming at it as someone who's played the games, so I'm certain that influences my perception.
I'm hoping, rather irrationally, that as we get to the titular Northern War the show tightens its focus, stops being a travelogue of "remember this from the games?" This is an interquel covering a period fans know of, but was skipped in the games, so while I know the generalities of what happens, the specifics may yet be interesting. Fingers crossed, I guess. |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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Aye, it's not a good anime. The animation is bad and I find Lavi to be kinda boring. I'm getting something out of this because I'm a huge fan of the games and I'm weird. I really enjoyed Rean meeting Lavi, not because the encounter was well written but probably because I've played 4 games as Rean, each being like 50+ hours long. So I'm just getting giddy about seeing him on screen along with Altina.
I find it kinda weird how little presence Sara has had so far. Obviously she hasn't even made her first appearance yet (though was briefly mentioned in the 1st episode), but she feels weirdly absent from the opening as well. I think there's like a short flash of her in the opening but all the other characters are shown fully so it's just odd that Sara gets so little attention considering how relevant this story arc is for her character. I was kinda hoping for some Rean x Sara action from this anime. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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@Cam0 Ah, another Sara fan! Yeah, I have to think- given what we know about the chain of events from CS3- that she'll be a bigger presence in the narrative toward the end. Another reason to hope the titular war begins soon. I'm also generally ecstatic to see more of Aurelia being a badass, so I'm hoping for some of that as well.
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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This was probably the best episode yet, at least from my perspective. A bit more characterization for Lavi and Martin, more characters from the games (that actually make a degree of sense rather than being shoehorned cameos,) and legitimate narrative forward progression.
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Cam0
Posts: 4888 |
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Yeah, this was a good episode. The story seems to actually be moving forward now and we learned a bunch of new stuff. I remember the razing of Celdic from Cold Steel 2 but I didn't remember that the Northern Jaegers were hired to do it. Millium and Altina having disastrous teamwork was kinda funny and makes sense at this point in the story.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23813 |
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Episode 6
Interesting that we've gotten into war crimes territory with a character we are supposed to be sympathetic with. I wonder how big an element this will be going forward. And Milli and Al certainly have some sweet rides. I imagine they'd be a fairly formidable duo if they ever get their act together. Anyway, we are definitely getting closer to the "Northern War" part of the title becoming accurate. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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Yeah, it's an important bit of the setting that Jaeger Corps as a general rule are not especially averse to doing whatever dirty deeds their employers may wish. And for the North Ambrian Jaegers, that holds especially true. They have to send the money from jobs back to their devastated nation- they don't feel like they have the ability to say no to more terrible commands. Which in turn cultivates a reputation for perpetrating such crimes, resulting in their employers leaning into their "willingness" all the more.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23813 |
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Interesting. Given that background, I'm even more curious as to how characters that I perceive as protagonists (i.e the "good guys") will react if put in a situation where they have to be, if you'll pardon the WW2 allusion, "good Germans."
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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And just to go into a bit more detail than the show has- I believe it mentioned the "Salt Pale Incident"- something that occurred 20-30 years before the show, where a large pillar of salt just...showed up in North Ambria. Its still present. This devastated the small country- not only did this strange structure just show up in the capital, but it massively affected the salt content of the soil, effectively killing a lot of crop growth. Basically, to survive after foreign aid dried up, the country as a whole turned to mercenary work (Jaegers,) as their primary export. They've generally been portrayed as the generic faceless enemies at several points in the games, but their willingness to take on questionable paid work is done with this background.
And really, that's one of the things that the series is good for: most (not all,) characters have fairly reasonable motivations for even villainous actions. Friends can turn foe and vice versa, and it generally feels very earned because they always act according to their motivations, preferences and goals. "Antagonists" are a lot more common than "villains", and I like that distinction. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23813 |
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Okay, b-dragon, you are now officially my Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War guide. I will depend on you to provide me with these background details and other information that will help me understand the show. But fair warning: the job pays crap. In fact, it pays nothing. But just think of the prestige...
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b-dragon
Posts: 460 |
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The pressure, the prestige....well, I can think of worse reasons to gush about a favorite franchise. So be it- I'll try to provide what info is relevant to understanding the show, w/out dropping unneeded spoilers. Thankfully (or not,) there isn't too much thus far- the shows lackadaisical approach really feeds my inherent laziness. But ask any questions you may have as well.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23813 |
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I may take you up on your kind offer to ask questions but I have to say you've been doing a great job so far without any prompting from me in terms of providing non-spoilerific info that just helps me understand this world better. And given that a lot more people read these threads than post in them, I'm sure plenty of other non-source material peeps are benefitting too.
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