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Knoepfchen
Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 698
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:04 am
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I guess you could probably phrase everything in a way that would make it sound ridiculous. Doesn't change the fact that that was a well crafted first episode the show never quite met the level of afterwards.
As for Urobuchi only writing three episodes of Aldnoah.Zero, that's a bummer. It can still be a great show, of course, we'll know soon enough.
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jl07045
Joined: 30 Aug 2011
Posts: 1527
Location: Riga, Latvia
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:42 am
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Knoepfchen wrote: | I guess you could probably phrase everything in a way that would make it sound ridiculous. Doesn't change the fact that that was a well crafted first episode the show never quite met the level of afterwards. |
I probably could, but my point doesn't depend on that. It was a very straightforward setup, little subtlety about it. I'd say Madoka was way more subtle, especially for those who didn't know Urobuchi's previous works. Or maybe I just misunderstood what you meant by "subtle". Was it well-crafted? I was quite engaged apart from the crappy cg battle.
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Knoepfchen
Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 698
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:07 am
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Yeah, "subtle" might have been the wrong choice of words, here. It wasn't telegraphing things like F/Z and PP did (I love those shows, just to be clear), but what I tried to explain was more along the lines that Urobuchi's shows usually get better and better with more episodes after some rather unsubtle world explaining in the first episode. Gargantia was not like that, it threw us into the world along the MC without a lot of monologuing, so I guess you could call it "subtler", but I was mostly trying to say that I don't need the first episode of an Urobuchi series to be 100% awesome, as it's the journey and scope of things developing that fascinates me, not the exposition, so I'm not worried if I'm not over exited after a first episode.
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meiam
Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:33 am
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Knoepfchen wrote: | I guess you could probably phrase everything in a way that would make it sound ridiculous. Doesn't change the fact that that was a well crafted first episode the show never quite met the level of afterwards.
As for Urobuchi only writing three episodes of Aldnoah.Zero, that's a bummer. It can still be a great show, of course, we'll know soon enough. |
Gargantia episode 1 and 2 were some of the best introducing episode I've ever watch, those were very well crafted (far better than this first episode). Shame that episode three onward did all it could to destroy the show ("You can't kill the pirate with your giant robot, stay back while we kill them with out cannon").
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jl07045
Joined: 30 Aug 2011
Posts: 1527
Location: Riga, Latvia
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:40 am
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Less talky then? In comparison with F/Z and Psycho-Pass, I agree. Gargantia peaked early for me though and then went downhill.
Back to Aldnoah, I agree that currently it looks like there will be deuteragonists in Slaine (unless his unfortunate name implies otherwise) and the other guy with no emotions. There was more focus on them and being pilots their experiences could provide a good perspective on the issues Urobuchi wants to address by developing both sides of the war.
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ChibiKangaroo
Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:13 am
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I do think there is actually a pretty good point to be made about the subtlety issue. He did lay it on a bit thick with a lot of the theming here. One easy example is the "racism" theme. Instead of developing the racism issue through some kind of nuanced storytelling, he starts off the episode with an innocent, friendly looking guy being slapped around and told he's nothing because of his "race." Compare this to a more subtle approach, like for example how Tezuka approaches racism in Astro Boy. In that first episode, Astro doesn't have someone come up to him and smack him down and tell him he's a no good robot. Instead, people talk about him and say he's some kind of monster, or they outwardly fear him. I find the Tezuka model to be more effective.
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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:46 pm
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jl07045 wrote: |
Knoepfchen wrote: | Subtlety in establishing a world isn't his biggest talent of his IMO, with the exception of Gargantia. That was a really well done first episode. |
There was a one-sided battle between typical future totalitarian humans and space squids, suddenly wormhole and we're on Waterworld with hippies. |
and pirates.
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Stark700
Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 12:50 pm
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Episode 2:
Pretty good episode overall. It showed how weak humans are against those "Martians". I'm curious to know the mechanics behind their mecha since the purple one seems to have some sort of absorption shield and is also able to phase with humans/inanimate objects. I wonder what its weakness is.
On another note, I think the princess is alive. We'll see soon but this a war now. A lot of action!
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ookamigirl
Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 12:58 pm
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#2
Things got intense fast!
Damn, those Martians sure had superior weapons.
Compared to them humans might as well had toys.
At this rate they'll be overrun with ease.
Those kids just kept driving around.
It was blast being stuck in the hot zone.
Not bad so far, but I'm still dropping it.
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leatherhead333
Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 1187
Location: Kansas
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:11 pm
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Yeah the OP pretty much spoiled the princess was ok before the episode did but given how the scene played out it's no surprise. I think the double was someone close to those martian girls.
At any rate the Martians are way to OP. Unless they have some ground breaking technology on hand the humans are going to get wiped out pretty easily. Which is why i can see this going down the route where one of their own leaks their mech technology to the humans so they have a fighting chance. Given the betrayals that have been going on that's the only way i can see playing field getting leveled without it coming off as some random deus ex.
I can already tell I'm going to hate this MC. All I'm getting is that he's pretty emotionless and we are supposed to see him as some kind of badazz but not much else. Best friend dies in front of him and not a single crap was given...........ugh
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Key
Moderator
Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18138
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:44 pm
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Stark700 wrote: | On another note, I think the princess is alive. We'll see soon but this a war now. A lot of action! |
Er, I thought that is was pretty clear that the taller of the two girls who accosted Inaho was the princess in disguise, especially given that Eddelrittuo was with her. Something like that was pretty much what I expected, as was the assassins turning out to be Vers sleeper agents. Did expect them to get waxed by their employer, but did not expect the only survivor to be thrown in with the Earth force group. That could be interesting.
I found it to be a pretty thrilling second episode, and liked that the Vers Empire wasn't entirely just depending on their mecha ridiculously overpowering anything the Earth forces had. (First strikes on communications networks is a tactic too infrequently used in mecha series.) Still, I entirely agree that the Aldnoah stuff is so OP that I can't see how the Earth forces don't entirely crumble without an ass-pull. Between being curious to see how they climb out of that hole and how long things play out before the nature of the "special passengers" comes into play, this one is a keeper for me this season.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 1:54 pm
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Hitting the comm networks make sense if there's something the enemy would be capable of that would cause a problem. Is there any evidence of that here? In fact, if the goal is glory, you would want the enemy organized for big, flashy battles.
Anyway, phase-armor dude doesn't seem to have it on his feet.
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LordByron227
Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 158
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 3:42 pm
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Welp, so much for F-22s being the best Air Superiority fighters evah.
The only way it looks like us Terrans can win is if them OPhracts run out of juice.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 3524
Location: Bellevue, WA
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:03 pm
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I agree that the Terrans are toast if they don't have anything more to throw at the enemy than that. I'm actually kind of astonished how inept the Terran side has been considering they had to have some knowledge of what they were up against. Yes, the Terrans have been recovering from Heaven's Fall, but they must've known -- in fact, they would've had to assume -- that the Vers was going to attack again eventually. So why didn't they prepare better for it? Why did they seem so utterly clueless about what they were going up against? This episode just created more questions for me.
Also, I noticed how all of the adults are gone now (the last adult ran away and was promptly killed), just the scrappy kids who will now fight with trainer mechas and probably figure out some way to get around the matter-eating field that is surrounding that purple mecha.
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Jacquipuff
Joined: 02 Jul 2014
Posts: 274
Location: Silver Spring, MD
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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:35 pm
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Hmm, not much to say about this episode, since it was mostly just "Look how strong the Vers Empire's mechs are! Boy, the Terrans sure are screwed!"
Of course, I wasn't surprised that the princess turned out to be alive, but I wasn't expecting to see her with a gun at the end of the opening theme. I wonder if that'll actually happen in the show...
Am really not liking Inaho being so emotionless. I mean, there's being stoic, and then there's...Inaho. Considering what happened at the end of the episode, I'd have been fine with even a small, subdued display of emotion from him, but we barely even got that.
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