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EP. REVIEW: Combatants Will Be Dispatched!


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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Wed May 05, 2021 5:24 am Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
In which Six completely deserves the embarrassing nickname he brought on himself and should be so called for the rest of the series
My least favorite part of that cringe-awful sequence was Six’s implication that women traveling alone at night “deserve” or are “asking” for harassment. Doesn’t he come from the modern (or future) world? Aren’t all his bosses and colleagues women? Shouldn’t he know better? It’s not like he’s getting “evil points” for aside comments. That comment made my blood boil. The harassment itself was bad enough, but “evil points,” wtvr. Although, we’ve seen that Six can earn “evil points” via more innocuous or silly means—that “chinchin festival” comment didn’t target anyone specifically, and he doesn’t need to target random civilian women and kids on the street.


Women traveling alone in this setting is not the same as women traveling alone at night in our modern world. I was amused Six was getting evil point for the harassment while what he was in effect doing, sending non fighters inside just prior to a siege, was an actual public service.

Then again, one could always ask what they were doing outside at night in a medieval fantasy setting... It's poor lighting conditions, you'd be an idiot to be outside on even moonlit nights unless it's your actual job... but that would just get in the way of the joke.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Wed May 05, 2021 3:31 pm Reply with quote
^That argument is and has always been victim blaming. I don’t care about the time period or the setting, women have the right to move independently without being accused of “asking for” harassment or assault. And this setting is a town/city, with some people out at night and some lightning—it’s not in the middle of nowhere (not that it would make a difference in terms of people being allowed to get from one place to another safely, but there are people in the street.)

Also, this is a fantasy world where women are actively serving in the military and some are powerful magic users. It’s not a completely regressive, sexist world where all women are expected to stay home all the time.
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 978
PostPosted: Thu May 06, 2021 6:22 am Reply with quote
I feel like you guys are missing the point that it was supposed to be evil. Its there in the name: Evil. The show goes out of its way to show that Six only goes as far as embarrassment and intimidation but that he has to do evil things to get points to keep himself supplied with weapons and ammo.
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helln00



Joined: 01 Apr 2016
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2021 7:30 am Reply with quote
I guess its more that the definition of evil here is very outcome based. He only didn't get evil points from harassing the women because she might have been sort of into it. If she wasn't into it, would he have gotten evil points? and if so does that mean that evil only happens in the interaction and not in the pre-meditated action itself. Is the fact that he wanted to inflict nonconsesual assult on women but is denied that make him not evil. does a person failing in a crime not make it a crime?

The logic doesn't fully work and it hurts his character imo
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MiloTheFirst



Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2021 4:20 pm Reply with quote
helln00 wrote:
I guess its more that the definition of evil here is very outcome based. He only didn't get evil points from harassing the women because she might have been sort of into it. If she wasn't into it, would he have gotten evil points? and if so does that mean that evil only happens in the interaction and not in the pre-meditated action itself. Is the fact that he wanted to inflict nonconsesual assult on women but is denied that make him not evil. does a person failing in a crime not make it a crime?

The logic doesn't fully work and it hurts his character imo


I don't think that was the scenario at all. it seem to me that his intention was specifically to scare the hell out of those woman, to traumatise them maybe, if he had set out to really assault them he would have, you know, do just that, instead he just stood them watching them as they flee. I don't think evil points are based on whether the user is "committing a crime" but instead on how much suffering the user is inflicting onto others.

a bigger plot hole regarding evil points imo would be why he did't gain a ton of them in this battle. one would think all the sniping and butchering would cause suffering and be considering evil even if directed at enemies. unless he indeed gained a lot of them but the laser chainsaw was so expensive it still left him in the red, maybe novel readers would know
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3627
PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2021 9:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Six is the longest-living henchman in Kisaragi. You don't survive as a front-line field agent in a war against superheroes by being weak.


Are the superheroes fighting against Kisaragi mentioned in the light novels or back in episode one, because that feels like new info to me.

Also, I got the impression from what was said this week that Six was the oldest member of Kisaragi next to the highest leaders, not that he was the longest living member (implying that there were other's hired before him, but have since died). Or is this a novel detail?

MiloTheFirst wrote:

a bigger plot hole regarding evil points imo would be why he did't gain a ton of them in this battle. one would think all the sniping and butchering would cause suffering and be considering evil even if directed at enemies. unless he indeed gained a lot of them but the laser chainsaw was so expensive it still left him in the red, maybe novel readers would know


I don't know if I would consider it evil to defend yourself in a battle. Even more so when Six is on the losing side (up to that point) and fighting in defense of others. It's much more heroic than evil.

But really, unless we get a proper definition of how these evil points work, it's clearly just being used as a convenient plot device for the author to take advantage of for comedy or equipment control to keep Six from getting to OP. He gets points when it works for what's needed and doesn't when it isn't useful.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, since this is primarily a comedy after all. It's probably best not to dwell on these things when the prime motivation is humor.
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b-dragon



Joined: 21 Apr 2021
Posts: 430
PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2021 9:50 pm Reply with quote
I think I've convinced my poor abused brain to avoid critiquing the execution of "Evil Points". They're used for comedy, follow bizarre inconsistent/unexplained rules, and are best not thought about in any serious manner.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18135
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2021 10:49 pm Reply with quote
b-dragon wrote:
I think I've convinced my poor abused brain to avoid critiquing the execution of "Evil Points". They're used for comedy, follow bizarre inconsistent/unexplained rules, and are best not thought about in any serious manner.

Isn't the whole concept of "Evil Points" patently arbitrary and absurd to begin with? That's the whole point.

Covnam wrote:
Are the superheroes fighting against Kisaragi mentioned in the light novels or back in episode one, because that feels like new info to me.

The novel only makes a couple of offhand and largely indirect mentions of this, mostly along the lines of Six having fought people wearing spandex and how America had the highest concentration of them. Pretty sure at least something was said about that in some earlier episode, but maybe I'm getting it mixed up with the novel.
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Netero



Joined: 10 Jun 2018
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2021 2:03 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I wonder, did Six not kill Heine purely for strategic purposes or is it that he has a problem killing women?

I'm assuming he didn't kill her because he wants more photo sessions!
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b-dragon



Joined: 21 Apr 2021
Posts: 430
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2021 2:37 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:

Isn't the whole concept of "Evil Points" patently arbitrary and absurd to begin with? That's the whole point.


Sure- but the lack of internal consistency is a thing that typically bugs my silly gray matter. Especially since the show is better about that in most aspects- magicite springs to mind. Its treated in a casual and silly manner but it has better internal consistency, even if mostly via handwaves.
Evil Points themselves are thematically sound- and if you've ever had a workplace that forced you to buy the tools to do your work out of your own pocket, you would likely agree that its an "evil" company, making the wordplay humorous to this office drone. Its just the execution that suffers so much from vague and inconsistent application, that I find it actually harms characterization a bit.
...dangit. I'm critiquing it again.
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Netero



Joined: 10 Jun 2018
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2021 5:50 am Reply with quote
b-dragon wrote:
...if you've ever had a workplace that forced you to buy the tools to do your work out of your own pocket, you would likely agree that its an "evil" company...

There are several trades and professions where it's quite normal to have to buy your own tools, chef is one that comes to mind. The only small compensation is that in many countries you can claim some sort of tax relief on the cost.
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b-dragon



Joined: 21 Apr 2021
Posts: 430
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2021 6:52 am Reply with quote
Netero wrote:

There are several trades and professions where it's quite normal to have to buy your own tools, chef is one that comes to mind. The only small compensation is that in many countries you can claim some sort of tax relief on the cost.


Fair. I'll concede my lack of knowledge. It had been my understanding that for such trades, you bought your own if you were independent, or contracted but once you were full time with an employer you could get your tools on their dime.
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LastPage 3



Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Posts: 190
PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2021 12:15 pm Reply with quote
[quote="Key"]
b-dragon wrote:
I think I've convinced my poor abused brain to avoid critiquing the execution of "Evil Points". They're used for comedy, follow bizarre inconsistent/unexplained rules, and are best not thought about in any serious manner.


I always thought of it as a critique of corporate culture. You normally have to do pointlessly evil crap to move up the ladder; Kisaragi has merely systemized that.

Plus, what better way to train your workers into doing big evil like world domination than to train them into lesser evil for profit?
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3627
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 2:40 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Tiger Man gave his Katana – which is broken and missing its tip – to Snow, who uses it throughout the episode and is none the wiser. It feels like this is the setup to a joke that we never got the punchline for.


I think the tip we see break off was from the top half of Snow's broken sword, not his own. Man, she sure needs to find another place to get her weapons from, because they are not built to last Laughing
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Richard Eisenbeis
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 17 Dec 2018
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 6:32 pm Reply with quote
Covnam wrote:
Quote:
Tiger Man gave his Katana – which is broken and missing its tip – to Snow, who uses it throughout the episode and is none the wiser. It feels like this is the setup to a joke that we never got the punchline for.


I think the tip we see break off was from the top half of Snow's broken sword, not his own. Man, she sure needs to find another place to get her weapons from, because they are not built to last Laughing


I'm not saying your wrong (as the blade tip falls off what appears to be a straight sword and logically they would want to be hiding the broken blade) but if you're not wrong, then someone on the storyboarding side really dropped the ball. Not only do we never see Tigerman pick up the broken blade, in the shots before, the sword he is holding is definitely his unsheethed katana while his other hand appears to be free.

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