Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Concrete Revolutio
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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The show feels like it's a hit or miss. It's a lot of fun watching it with the superhero gimmicks. I also found the art to be kinda expressive in terms of the designs. Not too much into the story of the first two episodes though.
Oh and after listening to the OP song a few times, it became one of my favorites for this season. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5502 Location: Mexico |
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I'd like to point out that, althought the subs call him a "ghost" the Japanese term is obake as in "spirit" or "supernatural being" which means he's not necessarily a former human but rather that he's always existed as a spirit. He even mentions that, as an obake, his job is to make friends with children. You could say it's similar to the Zashikiwarashi, spirits that bring good fortune to households. The term can also be used as a synonym for "ghost" in the Western sense of a spirit of a dead person, but the former is its most common use (afaik) |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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Episode #2:
The thing I find odd about Fūrōta's characterization is that he, by his own admission, can't comprehend "complex issues" due to his young form... What? Kids can't comprehend difficult things because it's their first time learning about them. As a spirit, that limitation doesn't apply to him, because, despite his young appearance, he still learns and remembers new things. I don't know what that moment was suppose to convey about his character, but to me it felt like cheap writing. |
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 471 |
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I'll give credit to episode 2: It was just half-messy in comparison with the first one, mainly the better grasp of the time-jumps, less introduction of disconected plots, and an emotional and thematic element better placed. I liked the ghost-kid, and I also appreciate in theory the stuff with the ghost kid, how he never grows up and is a kid forever who doesn't know whether he wants to mature or not, and he not knowing it means he is a purely motivated innocent person but who has a limited moral view that can be really dangerous, and while he feels bad because of it, Jiro (the MC) likes that because it reminds him why he does this in the first place. And also, of course, past VS present dilemmas.
Also, did you notice the difference between the saturated colors from usual, and the more normal and calmed down colors from every normal human TV/camera? That seems to also play in the contrast between human world and superhuman one. I guess Jiro's "rebellion" has to do with that dynamic. But "just half-messy" is still too much. I appreciate that in theory, but I didn't quite feel it because even though the execution in the climax was decent, the buildup was just as messy that it doesn't make the payoff work, especially with this lady bug who we barely get to know to care. But the most "WTF" aspect out of all is when, right after the ghost kid sees Jiro and that other woman together, then decides to tell the witch, and she responds "yeah I know, she was teacher Jiro's assistant in collegue, and I know they are in love, just leave me alone". What, how are you in love with him when you just knew him and haven't shown ANY sign? Is he teacher in collegue, was he? What? WHAT?! Things like that leave me so confused, and even if I end up processing all that shit, it still loses any investment for my part and it becomes just enigmatic stuff, nothing else. But at least this 2nd episode gave me a reason to keep watching and confident that maybe it will slow down a bit. At least it will be interesting, whether in a good or a bad way. Last edited by justsomeaccount on Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:50 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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IzanaginoOkami
 Posts: 55 Location: USA |
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Also a point this seems to pull from the Japanese political climate at the time the "Black fog" incident actually happened in Showa 41 in Japan which 2nd episode is based on. The "Black mist scandal" which happened in 1966. Some company got money from the government illegally in exchange of national forests.
"With respect to a decision on whether to dissolve the lower house, officials close to Abe said the prime minister has been drawing on the so-called "black fog resolution" carried out in 1966 by then Prime Minister Eisaku Sato." http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20141112p2a00m0na013000c.html the years might be references to Ultraman began in June of Showa 41 Kamen Rider began in April of Showa 46. Last edited by IzanaginoOkami on Mon Oct 12, 2015 12:34 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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From reading that, sounds like it might have a similar problem to Punch Line, where it vomits up everything at once & spends the rest of the series trying to make sense of the pieces.
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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I understood that she was the guy in the labcoat's assistant who's probably supposed to be Jiro's father (or big brother?)? But yeah, the sudden "love triangle" sure came out of nowhere... That aside, i'm enjoying this show, i don't have much of an idea what's going on, yet but it sure is fun and i'm in for the ride to wherever it may take me. 
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RHorsman
 Posts: 151 Location: Loch Loman |
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My problem with this show is that I really liked the clever bit in the first ep where the Ultramanesque character steps out of the current timeframe to fight without damaging the "real" world. It really made me want the whole thing to be a big ol' Grant Morrison reality bender like The Invisibles or Doom Patrol (or hell, Kyousougiga if we want to stick to anime), and that's clearly not where it's going.
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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Haven't watched the second episode yet, but sounds like it's not too much better than the first one in terms of coherency. I'll give this show a few more episodes since I'm hoping it'll explain itself as some point, but we shall see...I can only stand unexplained craziness for so many episodes before I'm just...done xD
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nargun
Posts: 924 |
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It's buddhist doctrine that time is quantitised ["setsuna"]: the idea of gaps-in-time is actually a fairly common one in japanese spec.fic. I'm pretty sure at least some of the original rubber-suit tokusatsu shows used that conceit, I think with exactly the same "between the film frames" explanation. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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Funny, because Emi Kino looks a lot like Koto. Anyhow, I'm on the fence with this show. It seems ambitious in the way it wants to go about telling its story, but it's more than a little unfortunate that its pacing and time jumping are being so exaggerated and overused. Worse yet there isn't a whole lot of potential that the climax of the story is any different from the direction it already seems it's going to be, which would make it entirely predictable in the broader strokes, even if the finer points are more unpredictable or less direct. I'm not saying it can't still end up an entertaining show, just that for now it seems a bit too... convoluted, in telling what seems like anything but a convoluted story. |
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SailorTralfamadore
 Posts: 499 Location: Keep Austin Weeb |
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Well, we're only at episode 2. Why would there be all that much potential yet for what the conclusion will be? |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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I'm not quite sold on this show yet. I'll give it an episode or two more. However, I am still REALLY confused by the chronology of this show in general, especially episode 2. Could anyone explain to me what happened when?
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HelloBucket
 Posts: 477 Location: Upstate New York |
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I'm confused by all the confusion. I haven't had any problems following the story. IIRC, the style even shifts a little bit between the two timeframes (the future being darker and more detailed).
I kind of got the impression that ghosts in this setting aren't actually dead people, based on a comment made by one of the characters that they weren't sure exactly what they are.
What I took away from the scene was that the character really did understand the situation, they just felt like they didn't because they were somehow expecting there to be more - something deeper that they aren't getting that somehow makes it all OK. Jiro's comparative calm gives this impression to Fūrōta that Jiro understands something he does not, but that's likely not the case at all. |
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Darkmagick
 SubscriberPosts: 463 |
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After getting rather confused while watching the first episode the first time, I paid closer attention to the dates when I rewatched the first episode and watched the second. This is what I've gotten out of it so far (put in spoilers just in case): spoiler[*41st year of Shinka era, July - Jiro meets/recruits Kikko, Grose Augen's human host "dies". (covered in episode 1)] spoiler[*41st year of Shinka era, August - Superhuman Bureau picks up Fuurouta, Tartaros Bugmen are killed. (covered in episode 2)] spoiler[*46th year of Shinka era, April - "I'm now 20 years old!" Kikko and Fuurouta chase Jiro for unknown reasons, for some reason Jiro has superpowers now, it's revealed that he actually saved Grose Augen's human host by letting him combine with the defeated S Planetarian, Jiro says he's never going back to the Bureau. (covered in episode 1)] spoiler[*48th year of Shinka era (sorry I missed the month on this one) - The Tartaros Bugmen Queen tries to kill Fuurouta in revenge, Jiro talks her out of it. (covered in episode 2)] I expect many more blanks will be filled in as we go along. Especially why Jiro is so insistent he's a normal human in the past timeline and is shooting fire out of his arm in the future timeline. I have to say, the level of confusion the show introduces regarding what happens when with its time-jumping kind of reminds me of Baccano (at least, the anime version). Only less Narita. Which is maybe the problem. (Though I'm still enjoying it quite a bit. I have an obsession with needlessly complicated plots.) |
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