Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Appare-Ranman!
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Episode seven had a car radio which wasn't invented until around 1930. The first commercial radio station, KDKA in Philadelphia, didn't go on the air until 1920. They also managed to survive temperatures well over 100 F in Death Valley without any apparent wear-and-tear. The cars themselves, of course, look like nothing from the period in which the show is set. The show's director told us that it's all a fantasy, and we should avoid making actual comparisons to historical events. I totally did not recognize Aoi Yuuki as the voice for Hototo. I'd gotten used to her darker voicings in Boogiepop and as the cursed sword in Thunderbolt Fantasy. I thought she was unusually talented when she made her first anime appearance in Kurenai back in 2008. She only gets better with age. |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1545 |
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Crazy TJ completely embraces his child side and I commend him for it.
Barely any plot progression and no spun wheels, but it was so joyously fun that I can't ask any more from this episode. And at the end of it, I have to wonder whether Sophia is locked in that train with Gil, or he is locked in there with her. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1388 |
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Oh my sincerest hope is that we just ignore the train for 2 episodes, then come back to it in the finale to see a bruised and battered Gil desperately fleeing the train while Sofia just waves out the window. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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^That would be kinda awesome, ngl!
I think the staff of Appare-Ranman secretly hates animating car racing, because every episode feels like a filler episode. But the show is so earnestly silly, it’s hard to complain. And this episode was adorable. I think my favorite part was the Xialing/Kosame shiptease/conversation scene. Appare crashing into Edison’s lab and quoting his most famous quote at him (Appare inspired Edison, get it?) was perhaps too twee I’m finally giving up my theory that Hototo might actually be a girl. If there was any episode to do a surprise gender reveal, it would be the hot springs comedy ep. |
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Sisyphusson66
Posts: 96 |
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I feel similarly to the whole situation, just with a more negative take. It is cheap not only because it feels like his development was "finished," so killing him was the easy choice, but also because it felt like everything just came out of nowhere. Nothing leading up to this point seems to have had any impact on the events of this episode, as Gil was always in control. He overpowered everyone pretty much single-handedly (I think his subordinates only existed to show that he had no mercy and would kill anyone). The reason things happened this way was because Gil decided to do these things, not because the events of the show led to this. It was such a sharp shift from the wild unpredictability of these characters and setting to just fail to do anything to Gil, falling to his will and design. I still hope this can still end well, but with only three episodes left, I have some serious doubts. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Well I will be shocked if Kosame is dead (or dies next ep). The entire reason for entering the race was to get him back to Japan, since Appare couldn't care less where he is as long as he has machines to tinker with. But this series just doesn't have the mood or chops to end this with Appare learning some lesson about not being so self-centered because his impulsiveness and lack of concern for other people was what stranded them in the US in the first place and got his best (only) friend killed. In other words, killing off Kosame would put Appare in a pretty irredeemable position that this series would simply have no hope of resolving. Right now Appare is a fun and eccentric character, but if Kosame dies, he's just an asshole who couldn't see any farther than the wrench in his hand, no matter how sorry he might feel about it later.
As for this episode, I'm not quite clear on how Gil expects them to come up with 1.5 million bucks after leaving them stranded in the desert with no working cars. The race organizers can't come up with a ransom since nobody even knows this has gone down yet, and as far as I could see, he's left them no way to let anyone know. But yeah, Tsuda's performance was really one for the books. It sounded like he really was enjoying himself. 
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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I wondered about that myself. Gil's demand made no sense if the racers are stranded in Missouri. Still I suspect most of the damage Gil inflicted on the vehicles was cosmetic. He didn't, for example, set their gas tanks on fire and cause the cars to explode. I also wondered why one of the armed racers didn't just shoot Gil at the outset once it became clear who "Richard" was. Kosame looked pretty dead lying in the bed with the cloth over his face in the preview. Reviving him would be an "ass-pull" of major proportions. No matter what transpires it seems unlikely anyone will be arriving in New York before the season ends. Maybe they can make it to Chicago if they get their cars repaired. |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1545 |
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Only if that scene actually happens. Wouldn't be the first time a character is deadbin a preview for that to be a nightmare or something. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Appearances can be deceiving and that was a preview. It could be a wall poster fell down and floated onto his face, who knows. I'm just saying that killing off Kosame would be a mistake of much greater proportions than a mere run-of-the-mill ass-pull. If Takahiro Sakurai and Kenjiro Tsuda weren't in this, it would be grievous enough to make me drop the show. |
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Dop.L
Posts: 714 Location: London |
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While it was kind of a cop-out after the trail at the end of ep.10, it was at least a logical cop-out rather than a "With one bound he was free!" type cop-out.
spoiler[ Kosame was saved because the bros had an intact car and because of medical science. Seemed like a logical way to get out of the situation. Explained the cloth on the head by just playing a (rather bad taste, really) joke on Appare. I'm prepared to forgive the show for the cop-out because damn if it would have been depressing as heck to kill Kosame off. ] |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I never thought Kosame’s life was in danger—this show is too lighthearted for that, and Kosame’s too central to the cast. Kudos to the show for Appare’s realistic reaction when he wasn’t sure Kosame’s would make it. Boo on women in refrigerators, although is it just me, or is Claudia’s demise kind of vague? It could be a relatively unimportant detail, or it could be a sign that Claudia is actually Gil’s Lady Henchman. Calling it now—she was bored by orphanage caretaking, so she died her hair and opted for the Outlaw Life, or something like that.
Also hoping that Sophie plays an important role in taking Gil down. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the people working on this show must not actually like animating races. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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That was a fun ending. I'm disappointed that Sofia got reduced to the damsel in distress right to the very end (when Gil started talking about the train, I was all but certain he'd tied her to the tracks or something), but it was nice to see Hototo finally land at least one shot with his weaponry after numerous failures over the season.
I also kinda thought they might let Kosame go home and wrap things up there and then return with his bride after a time skip, but I guess they didn't have time to work that out organically, so I'm ok with him sending a letter. Hope he got a refund on the ticket... I guess next season will be air races, if they do one. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13552 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Even if the disc sales are great and P.A. Works has enough ideas for a second season, sadly that doesn't guarantee we would get another season. Now, I am certainly for a second season.
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Sisyphusson66
Posts: 96 |
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Appare-Ranman proved me wrong. I thought it had taken a turn for the worse when Kosame was shot, but the past few episodes have been strong and fun. I don't think we need a season two, but I certainly would have liked this season to have been 24 episodes. There were so many fun dynamics and interactions that we only got brief glimpses at that could have been fun, but we couldn't get because there wasn't enough time (I, for one, would have liked to see TJ show an increasing interest in Sophia after she drank him under the table).
Overall a decent show. My only gripes are that it was too short, and its villain was oddly boring. For an anime with as many crazy scenarios and characters as this one had, Gil's motivations and actions just felt sort of standard and dull. |
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TexZero
Posts: 583 |
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Season 2 better be announced soon with an around the world in 80 days esque story featuring airplanes/balloons and other assorted steam ships.
You can't go planting that seed on me and just leave me hanging like Tiger and Bunny did. |
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