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REVIEW: Time Travel Girl Episodes 1-12 Streaming




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Octonian
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Joined: 07 Jul 2011
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:16 pm Reply with quote
I agree with the review, I found this fun and charming. Though I think I liked Mikage as an antagonist more than Amy did. Yes, in some ways he felt out of place, but his perspective on the role of investment and utility in inventing made an interesting and even somewhat thought-provoking contrast to the idealism of the scientists.

I also liked the way the timey-wimey stuff was handled, in particular spoiler[the timeline of the armillary compass only works because at a critical moment in the last episode Mikage and Eiji swap compasses]. My only objection is they mention using apples in early time travel experiments, but everyone knows bananas are the only appropriate test subject.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:25 pm Reply with quote
Like Amy, I was struck by the absence of scientists and inventors outside the West. I wondered what subtle message was being conveyed to Japanese kids watching this show. Is innovation and scientific creativity a monopoly of Western societies? Are there no Japanese scientists who might have been included in this show? Perhaps that's true when it comes to the development of theories about electromagnetism which is the show's principal focus, but I still wondered about the subtext of the story when seen through the eyes of Japanese children.

Even for an old guy like me, this was quite a fun show to watch. I found some parallels between Mikage and the villain in Noein, Shinohara Makoto. Both men are industrialists with dangerous agendas, and both of them are attempting to exploit the heroines' fathers. Sadly both of them are also too "cartoonish" to be taken seriously as antagonists, at least for an adult like me. That's a bit more acceptable in Time Travel Shoujo which targets children than in Noein where the story aims for an older audience.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:10 pm Reply with quote
I would disagree that "lack of diverse inventors" is a minus, this anime is based on an educational book whose first volume focus into the history of electromagnetism, maybe if they ever do a sequel it would focus into other science subjects.

yuna49 wrote:
Like Amy, I was struck by the absence of scientists and inventors outside the West.


I think it is a well known fact that science as we know it was born in europe and only recently it has spread to the rest of the world. I would even argue that Graham Bell and Thomas Edison were not really scientists per se, they used the advancements of science to create new inventions, but did not formulated any new theories that helped better understand electromagnetism.
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:38 pm Reply with quote
This was a very underappreciated show, and I wish it wasn't exclusively streamed by Funimation. It's got charming characters and it tells a smart, satisfying story that's educational without feeling too didactic.

I have to disagree about the animation quality, though. There aren't any flashy scenes or very elaborate movements, but the characters are consistently on-model and very nicely drawn with decent levels of detail, shading and reflexes, and I don't recall any particular scene that was shoddily animated. I'd give it at least a B.
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Chester McCool



Joined: 06 Jan 2016
Posts: 322
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:57 pm Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:
Like Amy, I was struck by the absence of scientists and inventors outside the West. I wondered what subtle message was being conveyed to Japanese kids watching this show.


It's hard to argue for "diversity" in the context of historical accuracy. There's no subtle message being presented here, just history. Most modern inventors were westerners.
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DanQ



Joined: 07 Feb 2004
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:10 pm Reply with quote
Simply my fav anime of the year.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:33 pm Reply with quote
I never did get to finish this show due to the Crunchy-Funi deal. I really enjoyed what I saw of it though.
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Shaterri



Joined: 03 Jan 2008
Posts: 173
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:24 pm Reply with quote
I'll duck the 'history of invention' minefield (I'm in the 'little from column A, little from column B' and I believe there are a lot of subtle complications and biases around what we decided was societally important) and just note that this show brought forth a fascinating reaction in me: it really made me actively wish that I were a 13 year old girl just so I could imprint on it. I think the grade is totally fair; it's not a 'rush out and show this to all your friends' show. But it's charming, entertaining, legitimately educational, and exactly the kind of thing that I wish Disney Anime hyper or Discovery Family would pick up to give tween-ish girls a more directly educational adventure.
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Hikarunu



Joined: 23 Jul 2015
Posts: 950
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 4:31 am Reply with quote
I hated how they made some of inventors less focus. It is like they randomly goes back to past to do something unimportant. The ending is badly written too. We dont know what actually happen with Shun-kun in future considering he is also main character like Mari.
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