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EP. REVIEW: To Your Eternity


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a_Bear_in_Bearcave



Joined: 14 Jan 2019
Posts: 482
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:37 am Reply with quote
John Thacker wrote:

Still, there are books that are primarily about the world building that are not bad writing, but where the world building is the point. I think it's fair to have the sole purpose of a scene be world building when the entire concept of the book is to explore the consequences of a hypothetical world; much of the classic Asimov works and other fall in this category, and it's a beloved type of SF.

I think there are books where the world is basically "the main character" of the story, with human characters just wandering in and out of the story, each weaving their own part of the tapestry of the world. That requires a lot of world-building, but it happens naturally throughout the book if writer is skilled. There are books where, like you mentioned, some aspects of the world are integral to the story or even the main reason for the story, where it's OK to have some explanation scenes. In most other cases, it's better to keep to strictly "show not tell" where it comes to the world, and just have the characters talk about the aspects of the world which directly impacts them, which makes dialog more natural then sudden lesson in history of the region or lecture about magic traditions.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:52 pm Reply with quote
I think I'm just gonna refer to those people as the "Yanome not-so-nice-people".
They're doing this child-murdery thing for the sake of Oniguma... but they don't believe in him. And even after the (supposed) Oniguma is dead, they want to keep front. Yeah, this is totally not just a way to exert power over the neighboring villages. Those kids aren't being sacrificed to Oniguma, they're being sacrificed to Yanome (and random forest critters I suppose). And now that they have a new god in their midst that could have easily ended him... of course they decide to torture and experiment on It.
I guess this will end poorly for the Yanome not-so-nice-people.

As for It... at the beginning of the battle I had to pause and slowdown to notice what the human form did - basically It dislocated Oniguma's jaw, which was by far its most terrifying weapon. And damn, infinite HP is broken, if painful. It no longer takes any time to heal back lol
I also noticed It getting very stimulated during the fight... I wonder whether it was just gaining intelligence or copying Oniguma. If it's the latter, I guess this will end poorly for the Yanome not-so-nice-people.
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njprogfan
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Joined: 08 Feb 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:54 am Reply with quote
That last line? Best spoken words this season!
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:15 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm not much of a stickler for spoilers these days. As with anything, there are exceptions to this rule, like Attack on Titan or HBO's Watchmen series, that I genuinely benefitted from not knowing what happened next as I watched them


It's sad that the people making the show don't agree and seem to have gone out of their way to make sure the opening is as full of spoiler as possible. You even see someone whose almost certainly grown up March, so we know she'll live at least long enough to grow up.

The sequences of event was pretty weird in the battle sequence, even before it. When Fushi went into the fort, did no one noticed him until he was already in it, despite him coming in the same way they were leaving?
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Zefram



Joined: 02 Oct 2019
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 1:10 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:


It's sad that the people making the show don't agree and seem to have gone out of their way to make sure the opening is as full of spoiler as possible. You even see someone whose almost certainly grown up March, so we know she'll live at least long enough to grow up.



I disagree. That person in the opening could be grown-up March but more likely its Parona or a new character. This show just screams in its premise that characters closest to Fushi will die soon and not survive to grow up. I'll be surprised if any of characters, who are good ones (not enemies) and are close to Fushi, will survive and live to adulthood.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 4:05 pm Reply with quote
Zefram wrote:
I disagree. That person in the opening could be grown-up March but more likely its Parona or a new character. This show just screams in its premise that characters closest to Fushi will die soon and not survive to grow up. I'll be surprised if any of characters, who are good ones (not enemies) and are close to Fushi, will survive and live to adulthood.

So far, half of the characters he has gotten close to have survived their greatest threat.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 4:50 pm Reply with quote
I can't make up my mind about how much I enjoy or not enjoy this show. Yes, the first episode was great, it was really, really good. First class.

But also it set a bar that neither of the following episodes have managed to get even close to, especially with the tonal whiplash, coming from the quiet tragedy of the first episode to this busy fantasy world featuring exciting and unrealistic action! cute girls! even cuter little girl mugging for the camera and making cute noises! etc.

For some reason what broke the back of the camel for me was the Oniguma stuff. The whole thing just didn't make sense. While yes, I understand the thing about the Yanome people not believing in Oniguma but sacrificing to it anyway, it's kind of ridiculous. One, if it was just one or two characters not believing in Oniguma then sure, no problem - but apparently no Yanome person thinks Oniguma is real, and in that case what's the point of going through the whole complicated thing of the sacrifice? Just strongarm the villages into them giving you all their stuff as it usually happens in these relationships; or if you must deceive them, just kill the sacrifice or take her as a servant/slave/whatever, rather than going through the trouble of prettying her up only to just... like, leave her there, apparently. And two, apparently the Yanome have lived in that forest for generations without anyone ever noticing a literal demon bear, a white beast as large as their city itself, that lives right in that forest... come on!

Also, there's this thing with the overall tone where it tries to be really really epic, and it tips over into cheesiness every now and then, especially with the narratied bits. In the narration for episode 2 I couldn't help but chortle when they had TsudaKen do this Very Serious Narration to Very Serious music, while showing the character die in increasingly ridiculous ways. (Somehow I don't think they were going for irony there.) Similarly in episode 3 during the wolf vs bear fight, the music was doing this Really Epic thing but the animation just wasn't up to the job, and then again it was back to Fushi getting killed again and again, and when he wasn't he was hanging off the nose of the bear which was just hilarious after a while. (I couldn't help comparing this fight with the wolf vs giant walrus fight in Wolf's Rain, and frankly, Wolf's Rain won.)

It's not like I think it's a bad show or anything, but after that stunner of a first episode, I've been completely underwhelmed by the second and third. I'm still watching but also I'm not excited anymore.
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Vanadise



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 5:17 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
While yes, I understand the thing about the Yanome people not believing in Oniguma but sacrificing to it anyway, it's kind of ridiculous. One, if it was just one or two characters not believing in Oniguma then sure, no problem - but apparently no Yanome person thinks Oniguma is real, and in that case what's the point of going through the whole complicated thing of the sacrifice?

It's easy for us to dismiss, but history is filled with cultures that made blood sacrifices to their gods but never actually saw them in the flesh and would have no doubt completely flipped out if their god actually appeared before them and started rampaging through the forest. Religious beliefs and cultural traditions make people do irrational things.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 5:25 pm Reply with quote
I'm with SHD (not exactly for the same reasons) in that I liked episode 1 a lot and have gotten increasingly disappointed as it goes on. I just don't gel with this March thing at all, and wanted/expected something different - an otherwordly or god-knows-what entity learning what it means to be human/becoming human is absolutely my thing, and I feel like the last two episodes were instead spent on stuff that I ultimately don't care about at all. Expectations are absolutely playing a part here, but still
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 5:25 pm Reply with quote
Vanadise wrote:
SHD wrote:
While yes, I understand the thing about the Yanome people not believing in Oniguma but sacrificing to it anyway, it's kind of ridiculous. One, if it was just one or two characters not believing in Oniguma then sure, no problem - but apparently no Yanome person thinks Oniguma is real, and in that case what's the point of going through the whole complicated thing of the sacrifice?

It's easy for us to dismiss, but history is filled with cultures that made blood sacrifices to their gods but never actually saw them in the flesh and would have no doubt completely flipped out if their god actually appeared before them and started rampaging through the forest. Religious beliefs and cultural traditions make people do irrational things.

Btu those people still believed in those gods (well, most of them, anyway, obviously not everyone) even though they haven't seen them. The Yanome people apparently don't believe in Oniguma whatsoever, they think it's just a fairlytale. Also, religious rituals have a tendency to become more symbolic with time, likely as society starts taking the gods as such less seriously. What used to be a human sacrifice mellows into a few drips of blood; sacrificing live animals turns into just handing like a couple of rabbits over to the priest, and the priest will find an excuse to eat them for dinner, and everyone just shrugs.

In this particular case the Yanome people seem to go through all these motions in all seriousness, down to prettying up the sacrifice and preparing this pretty sacrifical bed for her, only to just... leave her there...? and all this without actually believing in the deity they're sacrificing for? And for what reason, anything they couldn't do without going through all this trouble? It's just pointlessly overcomplicated to me.

Also, re: the bear being around in the flesh, the point I was trying to make is that there's this very visible beast which has been apparently around for quite a while in the same forest that the Yanome people live in, and yet none of them have ever seen it? That's just weird.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 6:28 pm Reply with quote
Didn't the bear kill Fushi in one of the death montage? That would imply it migrated north at some point (maybe even kill the caravan) but then when Fushi pass by it followed him back South toward the tribe land.

As far as killing when they don't believe in him, its pretty similar to people who don't believe in Christ but celebrate Christmas, it's a tradition they're just following. It's not like they sacrifice their own and it keep weaker tribe in line.
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Calsolum



Joined: 11 May 2010
Posts: 898
PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 6:40 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
It's sad that the people making the show don't agree and seem to have gone out of their way to make sure the opening is as full of spoiler as possible. You even see someone whose almost certainly grown up March, so we know she'll live at least long enough to grow up.


I don't know If you've seen Jujutsu Kaisen or far enough into it but there a couple of scenes in the opening that are a blatant lie.

And I've noticed some in this opening as well. As the series goes on and we gain more knowledge about the show I'm sure it'll be possible to predict what are real and what isn't.

But for anyone is wondering spoiler[In the opening you see a zombieplantlike child mash attacking for a moment, it's a 'form' that was stolen from Fushi and Fushi can only transform into living beings that have died at that specific point. In other words, Mash had to have died as a child for Fushi to have gained her form, which was then stolen. (much much later on he learns how to regress forms)]
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 6:45 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
Didn't the bear kill Fushi in one of the death montage? That would imply it migrated north at some point (maybe even kill the caravan) but then when Fushi pass by it followed him back South toward the tribe land.

It killed him when reaching the forest... and I swear every damn cliff in the region connects to the same swamp.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 7:01 pm Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:
meiam wrote:
Didn't the bear kill Fushi in one of the death montage? That would imply it migrated north at some point (maybe even kill the caravan) but then when Fushi pass by it followed him back South toward the tribe land.

It killed him when reaching the forest... and I swear every damn cliff in the region connects to the same swamp.


The forest can expand far north, much further than the territory the tribe frequent.
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:19 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
Yuvelir wrote:
meiam wrote:
Didn't the bear kill Fushi in one of the death montage? That would imply it migrated north at some point (maybe even kill the caravan) but then when Fushi pass by it followed him back South toward the tribe land.

It killed him when reaching the forest... and I swear every damn cliff in the region connects to the same swamp.


The forest can expand far north, much further than the territory the tribe frequent.


The Orb/Fushi did not encounter the bear till "he" crossed over the mountain passes.
Tribe? you mean tribes.

Surprising I believe no one has commented on the bear's odd state-
Constantly bleeding from it's eyes & mouth- bleeding before encountering the orb-and it sure seems like branches growing out of it
Sure is odd for a "god" to be bleeding like that ....dun dun dunn

These first episodes are laying the foundation of a story that,yeah,ya'll should have your favorite brand of tissues at the ready.


Last edited by Nordhmmer on Thu Apr 29, 2021 6:29 am; edited 1 time in total
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