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This Week in Anime - Akudama Drive is High-Octane Insanity


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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:32 pm Reply with quote
Swindler's haircut is for the WORSE!
Her bangs were to kill for!
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:01 pm Reply with quote
I'll confess, I only watched this because Pierrot was producing it. To explain why that's the case would border on self-promotion, so I won't go there. But still, this show was awesome, and some of the best work Pierrot's done outside of their big-name shounen franchises since, I dunno, Yona of the Dawn, maybe? Still, solid 9.5/10, so glad I watched it before y'all started preaching its graces.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:05 pm Reply with quote
Really liked the first 6 episodes, but the second part bored me to tear and I ended up dropping it. The first part knew that it needed to never stop or everything would crumble, the minute things slowed down someone literally push a red "excitement!" button to make sure things keep moving.

Second part then slow down so much it felt like nothing much happened every episodes. Cutthroat fight took forever and made 0 senses, its only redeeming quality being the shining reference (which themselves made no sense, why where the bathroom door made of wood when every other door was metal?). Swindler had 2 seasons of character development magically happen (something which would have been great stuff to see). Not even off screen, the script just needed her to suddenly be badass protagonist so she just became badass protagonist, who need arc when you have a new haircut, amirite? It pretty much had nothing to say beyond, "authoritarianism is bad m'kay", the plot made so little sense that the show itself made fun of it, which wouldn't be much of an issues if it'd keep moving at a brisk pace but instead it placed a tons of emphasis on its "though provoking" message (the early 2000 are calling and they want their cliche plot back).
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navycherub



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 233
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:18 pm Reply with quote
I think Monokuma technically has a higher body count spoiler[if you include what is going on outside the school, too.]
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Abraham Omosun



Joined: 05 Mar 2020
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:21 pm Reply with quote
I love this show bit one thing that really got to me was the censoring. "The Shining" was particularly bad in that regard where half the screen was black in some scenes. And for the naming system, I always have this head canon that the writer during production, had a sticky note saying "gives character names" but completely forgot about it so they decided to wing it Surprised
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1804
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Favorite anime of the season. The way cast interacted as they fought the law was fun as heck. The animation was pretty epic and the animation just made it more awesome. It's like watching an anime version of Final Fantasy VII's cyberpunk section based on how fun were the criminals (it doesn't help that Courier loves his bike like Cloud)
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 11:31 pm Reply with quote
I was considering watching this show, but after reading this TWIA I'm going to skip it. It sounds far too over the top for me.
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Kiskaloo
Subscriber



Joined: 04 Jan 2018
Posts: 79
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:50 am Reply with quote
My #1 of the season and #3 of 2020.

And I agree I wish Swindler had not cut her hair.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 11:53 am Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:
Swindler's haircut is for the WORSE!
Her bangs were to kill for!


Yeah, I genuinely do not get that. Sometimes there are character designs that are so good that it's very difficult for me to understand why someone would decide it's a good idea to change it.
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olgita



Joined: 09 Aug 2009
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:12 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
Yuvelir wrote:
Swindler's haircut is for the WORSE!
Her bangs were to kill for!


Yeah, I genuinely do not get that. Sometimes there are character designs that are so good that it's very difficult for me to understand why someone would decide it's a good idea to change it.


I mean, it was motivated by being a fugitive - Swindler has to at least change the haircut to be less recognizable by Executioners.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:00 pm Reply with quote
olgita wrote:
Greed1914 wrote:
Yuvelir wrote:
Swindler's haircut is for the WORSE!
Her bangs were to kill for!


Yeah, I genuinely do not get that. Sometimes there are character designs that are so good that it's very difficult for me to understand why someone would decide it's a good idea to change it.


I mean, it was motivated by being a fugitive - Swindler has to at least change the haircut to be less recognizable by Executioners.

That seemed to work for about 10 seconds.
Although it might have been useful to swindle the population since her looks were no longer tied to the wanted posters.
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 604
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 3:31 pm Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:

That seemed to work for about 10 seconds.
Although it might have been useful to swindle the population since her looks were no longer tied to the wanted posters.


Also, short hair is just more practical for situations like the one she was in. Or maybe she just wanted a change and, like Steve said, it's a common symbol for a shift in a character's development.

Man do guys get upset when a woman cuts her hair short.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:02 pm Reply with quote
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
Man do guys get upset when a woman cuts her hair short.
Well duh, most of the time it's a massive character design downgrade.

Sakura Haruno's one of the few who make it look good that comes to mind.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:29 pm Reply with quote
I finished the series but I've been trying to sort out my feelings towards it as I tend to prefer shows that think over ones that feel. This is how I'd describe my feelings about Akudama Drive:

"Hey, did you know the spoiler[Doctor wasn't always a woman?] [not really a spoiler] In fact..."
[Backstory Redacted ].
Then why bring it up?

Apply that to Everything. Yeah, awful series if you think about anything in it. The series gets even worse when it tries to be profound about things when previously it used them as spectacle.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:39 pm Reply with quote
FilthyCasual wrote:
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
Man do guys get upset when a woman cuts her hair short.
Well duh, most of the time it's a massive character design downgrade.

Sakura Haruno's one of the few who make it look good that comes to mind.

It doesn't help that they usually go for the blandest "now I'm a background character" haircuts ever.
At least Swindler's chardev haircut inherited the highlights and unruly ends, so even if downgraded it was still pretty striking.

Elaina's was also cute, even if it was 100% against her will.
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