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Vatican Miracle Examiner (TV).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Jul 07, 2017 10:02 am Reply with quote


Vatican Miracle Examiner (TV)

Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Drama, Shounen
Theme:

Plot Summary: To detect lies, refuse fakes, and reach the miracle of God - that is their mission as Vatican Miracle Examiners. Hiraga, a scientific genius and Roberto, an expert on the decryption of cryptography and ancient documents are not only good partners but also "Miracle Examiners" working for the Vatican. They are secret examiners, who are requested to examine and identify the authenticity of miracles from all over the world.
---------------------------------

First episode is out today.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Fri Jul 07, 2017 10:52 am Reply with quote


Never started one of these discussion threads, so here goes and hopefully there aren't any errors requiring fixing from the administrators.

#1

The Catholic Church first started the practice of verifying miracles from the eleventh century onwards if my memory hasn't failed me. Too many shrines and pilgrimage sites needed a clean-up from Rome to stop the dispersal of pilgrims from established routes at the time. This series builds on a practice that is still very much alive today but dresses it up as a mystery with the two leads in charge of uncovering hoaxes and possible conspiracies masquerading as miracles.

Nothing much to go on for the first episode; viewers learn a little bit about the two partners through snippets but the main thrust is jumping straight into the mystery of a potential Immaculate Conception and a statue crying tears of some kind. It became clear towards the end of the episode that the solutions would have to be uncovered in subsequent weeks, too much material to process and very few hints to go on.

I don't know what kind of series this will turn out to be, but if the mysteries are properly set up and unravelled as the episodes air I'll be satisfied with sticking it out.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Jul 07, 2017 8:54 pm Reply with quote
I bitched about this in the Preview Thread, but damn I found the constantly moving camera/quick edits of this show to be very distracting. I almost yelled at the screen, "quit moving around so much!" Hoping the camera is less hyper next episode.

As for the content itself - it's the kind of subject matter I find interesting but the way things are unfolding isn't super compelling. Again, it's only first episode, so we'll see.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 6:33 am Reply with quote
For the first episode the pacing is a bit of a mess, there is kind of this breakneck speed that kind of under does setting up proper tension. But despite those problems that that the dude pair not doing much for me, this is actually right in my interests. Reading about the occult and such things was something I kind of spent my high school years doing, and as an adult I am pretty into horror stories, especially along the lines of The Conjuring franchise. Which is to say I kind of like the Catholic church involved in ghost or demon stories, or really kind of like Ghost Hunt, another J.C.Staff horror anime, which I would be giddy to something similar of.

Simply put, I know that there are some problems as of so far, but it is really scratching this niche part of me. And to be honest, this is kind of the first new show of the season that actually has me feeling a little interested/excited.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:26 pm Reply with quote
#2

Still the same breakneck pace as the first episode, but with more questions to answer each time there's a martyred corpse put on display. For the first mystery which the investigators solved, it all hinges on how heavy the statue in question is. Hiraga is too frail to lift the statue on his own so he asked for help whereas the murderer was able to kill someone with it, drag the corpse away and still have the time and strength to plunge the entire statue into a fountain to clean off the bloodstains.

The science involved in solving the statue weeping seems plausible enough, but I'll need to do more research to find out if Luminol is really as effective as they claim in this episode. There are more hints dropped in this episode regarding the identity of the murderer and the motive, but because of the pacing it's hard to note down one clue before the next one rockets in.

Whatever it is, this series (and the story arc) looks like it's here to stay for a while. The artificial time limit imposed initially in the first episode has now been conveniently extended thanks to floods, but the investigators have their work cut out to resolve their original objectives and take down a satanic cult as part of the job.
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Noctis313



Joined: 24 Dec 2012
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:59 pm Reply with quote
idk why its rating is slow low on ann
base on first 2 epis, this anime seems really good, specially for mistery-lovers like me. Have been waiting for high-quality mistery anime since rokka no yuusha. Finally!
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Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 8:14 pm Reply with quote
I was really hoping the Perpetually Moving Camera was just going to be a first episode affectation, but no such luck.

This show is almost continuous shoe leather. "Shoe leather" is a phrase used to describe television or movie detective stories where the detectives move from place to place interviewing witnesses or examining clues. I wish this show would break up the "shoe leather" bits a bit and give us some character work. As Harleyquin pointed out, we are constantly being barraged by clues and information.

Pin the camera down. Take some time away from shoe leather. Then it might be a show worth sticking around for.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:21 pm Reply with quote
My opinion has not really changed, but I do think that they could have more confidence in their atmosphere and tension, that it could feel that we really could weigh up the pieces. To go at what I said before, I think that Ghost Hunt might be a good example to look at, where it really felt like we were taking in the atmosphere of what was happening without feeling like we were being barraged. I might even say that they need to lighten up on such the strong use heavy atmosphere, you need some light to be able to make a contrast. The lighter moments that set up a boundary between the horrific bits are just as important as those themselves, otherwise it is following a barrage of information and the automatic assumption something else bad has happened. Which perhaps it has done a little with things like crying statue and stigmata.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 10:58 am Reply with quote
#3

The threads are starting to come together in this episode, seemingly innocuous details from the first and second episodes turn out to be extremely important in revealing what's really going on in Saint Rosario.

Another thing the show is starting to highlight is how deduction, inductive reasoning and modern technology can work together under the right conditions to expose what is supposedly a supernatural occurrence into something very mundane and more akin to a cheap parlour trick. The "exorcism" scene is one case in point, the other is the truth behind the mysterious floating student with the stigmata.

Cheap scares aren't below the belt as far as this show is concerned, especially with the cliffhanger scene at the end of the episode. I certainly didn't expect that sudden appearance and it certainly jolted me!

Next week should see the conclusion of this story arc. From what I've seen thus far, I think I'll stay with this series to the end. It has its flaws, but the solutions when presented aren't completely outlandish and they're given enough time with regards to their presentation to allow the details to sink in with viewers. Others might disagree, but at least this show offers something to viewers this season which probably isn't available anywhere else.
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Bargain Hunter



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PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 8:08 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, I subscribe to Amazon Prime in Canada but episode 3 still is not available to me. I guess different regions get it at different times.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 11:12 pm Reply with quote
Harleyquin wrote:
Cheap scares aren't below the belt as far as this show is concerned, especially with the cliffhanger scene at the end of the episode. I certainly didn't expect that sudden appearance and it certainly jolted me!

That actually scared me for a second, which I think is practically worth points in that anime rarely ever manages to pull off a proper jump scare. I don't know, some people say jump scares in general are bad as a cheap in being particularly cheap, like anyone can have something jump at the camera to get a reaction, but carrying out a good one is something of merit. I can appreciate a good scare.

As for the plot, it is looking like remnants of the Nazis escaped to South America, and created clergy as sorts of bases. Of note the church seems to have been used for illegal practices with making profits that has been paying off high members of the Vatican, showing some corruption through it. There might be devil worship, but the least there seems to have been a bit of Nazi era experiments being continued, the students doing some level of devil worship might be some part of trickle down from the higher ups, or even a part of an idea to control the students.

The conjoined twins that we saw as a doll even has a rather interesting history aspect that I just happened to kind of find out about when I watched a video on a game called Franbow, I was on a bit of a kick watching some horror YouTube channels. There were some Nazi experiments on things like the genetics of twins, side not on that one man is apparently doing something with genetics as the hospital. A real life culprit was Josef Mengele, who led and did some really horrible stuff, and interestingly he himself fled to South America.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 12:07 am Reply with quote
The "Nazis in South America" trope is used in anime and is rooted in fact. Recently there was a report on a house in the outskirts of Buenos Aires that was a treasure trove of Nazi artefacts.

Hellsing was the last series I watched which used this trope, but I prefer the approach of this series with regards to this aspect of history since it seems more realistic. Vatican collusion with Nazi Germany during WW2 is a sordid era of Catholic Church history which sometimes gets an airing in popular media. This series probably exaggerates the influence of the "clients" with regards to their actual power and ability to influence papal elections.
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Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 5:35 pm Reply with quote
Well, the show waited a whole three episodes before broaching the topic of child sex abuse by priests. Admirable restraint!
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 11:50 pm Reply with quote
Episode 4

I kind of like how crazy it got here. Escaped Nazis started a church in South America with Hitler's cryogenically preserved body, and inseminated a woman with Adolf Hitler's semen, the first one kind of being a failure as unstable conjoined twins that died soon after. The second attempt (third child) turned out to be perfectly nice to the point they thought was a failure and tried for a new one, after which that kid became a psychopath, likely due to the Nazi brainwashing the church was doing. The deaths were a mix of Nazi priests, but also a group of Nazi fighting spies that had infiltrated to undo them, using the main characters also as a distraction.

Whether actually building up some good tension, or being totally insane like a hilarious B movie or Danger 5. I wonder how they might top for the next arc.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 11:57 pm Reply with quote
The background plot may be as outlandish as it gets, but the series didn't leave a single thread hanging and every question posed seems to have been resolved in some manner by the end of the episode.

If this arc is any indication of what's to come, it seems the religious motif for this series is merely a prop for the uncovering of whatever mystery is at hand. More credit is given to science, cryptography and old-fashioned investigation than to plain miracles.

As for the next arc, it looks like Hiraga's younger brother has a role to play if that bookmark is any indication.
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