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DuskyPredator
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15546
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:55 pm
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I was kind of getting the feeling towards the end of the episode that Trader may not be a villain, and was actually kind of saving Reflected from the public actions like the police, and having them gather in the wetlands somewhere. Like some sort of X-Men like thing.
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TymersRealm
Joined: 05 Jan 2017
Posts: 93
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Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:12 pm
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Well, I'm impressed.
Ep 5 of The Reflection is about the best I've seen so far. While I'm still not sold on the Art Design, the overall narrative in this ep helps get past that. We get some action and some character growth that is pushing the narrative forward.
Other than definitely getting a X-Men vibe now (Considering who's partly involved), I want to wait for the ep review to post before commenting further. Some of the underlying tones presented, while already expressed in earlier eps, might ratchet up ongoing public discussions.
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Sahmbahdeh
Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 713
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 11:00 pm
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Episode 5 is definitely my favorite episode of the show so far. The emotions behind the characters certainly helped the intensity and drama of the episode, and Eleanor using her powers like that was cool, too. While the animation was about par for the series, I think the direction was a step up, especially during the confrontation in the swamp. Also, I'm not sure if it's always been the case and I'm just noticing it more now, or if it's actually an improvement in this episode, but the sound design was on point for this series.
I will agree that I'd like for X-On to have more to do/say, but honestly I like the rest of the characters so much that I only noticed/had that complaint after the episode ended and I had time to think about it.
I'm even more interested in seeing where this show is going now.
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Sahmbahdeh
Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 713
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 11:00 pm
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Episode 5 is definitely my favorite episode of the show so far. The emotions behind the characters certainly helped the intensity and drama of the episode, and Eleanor using her powers like that was cool, too. While the animation was about par for the series, I think the direction was a step up, especially during the confrontation in the swamp. Also, I'm not sure if it's always been the case and I'm just noticing it more now, or if it's actually an improvement in this episode, but the sound design was on point for this episode.
I will agree that I'd like for X-On to have more to do/say, but honestly I like the rest of the characters so much that I only noticed/had that complaint after the episode ended and I had time to think about it.
I'm even more interested in seeing where this show is going now.
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Agent355
Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 4:36 pm
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DuskyPredator wrote: | I was kind of getting the feeling towards the end of the episode that Trader may not be a villain, and was actually kind of saving Reflected from the public actions like the police, and having them gather in the wetlands somewhere. Like some sort of X-Men like thing. |
Wow! Exactly right--how did you guess that? I'm impressed!
This episode was very X-Men. I love Michael's character design, his outfit felt very old-timey New Orleans to me, though as a New Yorker I'm hardly an expert. I hope Vy can return to normal whenever she wants now. The way her powers manifested was like a literal, physical tsundere form--she never hated her husband, but because she was so angry at him when she was turned, she locked herself into an armored form. Hard on the outside to protect her vulnerable feelings, unable to communicate through anything but her actions, which were always protective--sounds like a tsundere to me!
I liked the boy mentioning Michael's hiding place's connection to the Underground Railroad, because it reinforced how guilty he felt about giving away its location.
So, Michelle is in denial about being a Reflected, and we haven't seen her powers yet. That's certain to become relevant, especially if the villains get to her first.
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Agent355
Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 10:57 pm
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I'm going to copy-paste my comment on The Reflection's last This Week in Anime column:
Agent355 wrote: | I like it, but I do think it has some weird pacing issues. Not in the overall plot development sense, but within individual episodes moments seem slower and quieter than in most anime. They're depicting some events move at a nearly realistic pace with minimal soundtrack, which is probably done for realism, but feels "off" in a superhero action anime.
The characters are great, though--I completely agree that X-On feels familiar without us knowing anything about his civilian identity, which works in this case. If you're going to put in a tropey tsundere hero with a Batman-esque attitude--i.e. "I work best alone! I'll team up with you guys, but it's not like I'm *happy* about it!" (Is secretly happy about it)--at least give him an air of mystery to keep it fresh.
Lisa is a breath of fresh air: the happiest, peppiest, youngest hero on the team. I had this dumb smile on my face when she declared that she was powered by imagination, the strongest power of all! You could feel her earnestness through the screen. Eleanor keeps getting tougher, and it's a joy to watch her grow and learn how to protect more people.
What happened to Ian last week was brutal. Wouldn't be surprised if he joined the dark side in some way at this point. |
Ep 8: I decided X-On is more like a younger Wolverine than Batman, and he may just have a project X in his past. Perhaps his powers precede The Reflection incident 3 years ago?
The pacing is still too realistic and soundtrack-free for a superhero show, but when you say it's "David Lynch-like" it seems more like the artistic choice it is.
You didn't mention that Eleanor will probably be wearing the wire the feds gave her, so she's not really giving in to Metal Ruler & Co, she's infiltrating them.
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Dop.L
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 719
Location: London
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:43 am
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I always feel Nagahama's most Lynchian moment was the episode of Flowers of Evil, where Kasuga and Nakamura are walking home in the early morning after trashing the classroom in the episode before. The first part of the episode goes on for minutes, no dialogue, no music, just ambient sound. That just struck me as very Lynchian.
Then again, Nagahama showed how to handle the quiet moments in Mushishi.
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Merida
Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 10:28 am
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So the "Japanese schoolgirls" are travelling to America now? Perhaps their existence will become less random and pointless with this...i'm still moderately enjoying this anime, but i could have done without it promoting some random idol group.
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Valhern
Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:09 pm
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Merida wrote: | So the "Japanese schoolgirls" are travelling to America now? Perhaps their existence will become less random and pointless with this...i'm still moderately enjoying this anime, but i could have done without it promoting some random idol group. |
The Japanese schoolgirls are actually a superhero squad though, in the OP they're the last silhouette shown. I assume the point is to show how different the superpower affected people depending on the culture. These girls became masked superheroes with secret identities and fight for justice; the US Reflected on the other hand have more a problem of social stigma and a battle of power. There are basically no heroes in the US culture after 3 years aside of X-On, if he can be called a hero; now Eleanor, Lisa and I-Guy (although he is quickly going down the crazy spiral) arguably are heroes, but they are a very unstable group too.
Not that Japan has less problems than the US regarding the handle of superpowers, but these schoolgirls are meant to show some particularities. According to this, the US would have mostly individual superheroes, and Japan would make a Toku Sentai squad.
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Agent355
Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 9:14 pm
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I don't think we can draw any conclusions about any cultural commentary the show may be making yet, because we've seen so much of the US and so little of everywhere else, including Japan. A lot of the struggle for power seems to be coming from how the powers were distributed, and we still don't know how or why that happened.
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Sockman
Joined: 24 Sep 2017
Posts: 1
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 12:56 pm
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If I remember correctly, Eleanor's brother was mentioned when Lisa talked about her parents expected a boy.
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meiam
Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
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Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 2:55 pm
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Just FYI, the Eleanor that X-on pursue is just an illusion created by the kid who can make illusion (he made the snake and the scene where everybody looked like the girl Eleanor was pursuing). That's why she's just ignoring everything that's happening as the mansion get destroyed.
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