×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: To Your Eternity


Goto page Previous    Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:15 pm Reply with quote
Nordhmmer wrote:
Fushi stood there in the middle of his battle stunned by his transformation into Parona but having no time to truly process that fact as he's in the middle of combat.

As that fight is over,next episode we'll see the fallout.

yuzumei wrote:
Understand that up until now (if I am not mistaken) Fushi has been able to take the forms of beings that died in a close proximity to him not beings that died years ago 100s of miles away. The audience might be confused about his sudden Parona form.

Maybe we're intended to be.

Nord, when you read the source material, did you immediately understand the implications? Fushi seems to have gained some abilities (or discovered abilities he always had) along the way, like copying inanimate things he's come in contact with. I thought maybe he'd discovered in the desperation of the moment that he could be anyone he remembered, but in any case, I was content to wait and let the anime elaborate on what had just happened.

When you jump in and clarify present issues with the benefit of future knowledge, even if all the clues have already been presented, it really takes the fun out of it, especially when you sound so exasperated that we're all so stupid for not having gotten it. It's like reading a murder mystery and having someone who's read the book pointing out all the seemingly unimportant clues dropped during the early chapters that reveal the murderer so clearly that anyone could figure out who it obviously was by the halfway point, if only they had noticed. And they're going to make sure you notice, now, whether or not they did when they read it. And maybe you're brilliant and you did, or maybe the manga made it less open to instant interpretation than the anime did. It's still using future knowledge to hammer us with not being able to sort out the clues we already have.

As you said, he didn't have time to process it, and maybe some of us didn't either. Plus we'll find out the fallout next episode anyway, so did we need you to correct our wrong impressions this week? I can't speak for everyone, but I could've waited.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:22 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:


Nord, when you read the source material,



Does not take skimming through the source material to see that Fushi cannot take the form of a living,sentient being- really Gugu's death-episode 12 portrays the scene so very well- did not drive home that Fushi only takes on the form of those whom have died?
The wolf
The Boy
The giant polar bear.
March
Gugu
The very large mole.
and now he's suddenly gained Parona's form.
Explain to me how that cannot be gleamed from watching the anime?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yttrbio
Subscriber



Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:17 pm Reply with quote
yuzumei already did. Every example you gave was someone who died in close proximity to Fushi. That rule seems to have changed, why would we assume all other rules stayed the same?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:30 pm Reply with quote
Nordhmmer wrote:
Does not take skimming through the source material

Wait a minute. Are you saying that you don't actually read all these manga, but only skim them just so that you can tell us all what bits we should be noticing and piecing together at the pace you think we should?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:03 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Nordhmmer wrote:
Does not take skimming through the source material

Wait a minute. Are you saying that you don't actually read all these manga, but only skim them just so that you can tell us all what bits we should be noticing and piecing together at the pace you think we should?

It's a long series(15 volumes). Sometimes you need a refresher.

But I think he's saying that the anime alone gives enough hints...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 11:06 pm Reply with quote
I know that's what he's saying and no doubt the hints are all there, just like all the hints are there by the halfway mark in any good mystery story.

But Easter egg hunts really wouldn't be any fun if someone who already knew where they were was there pointing out all the places you should be looking. I mean, that's not spoiling anything, right? The eggs have been there from the start. It's your own fault you didn't see them. You should've noticed all of them right away. How could you have missed that splash of color in the grass over there? Pay attention! It's right in front of you! ::all the kids go home::
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:18 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
I know that's what he's saying and no doubt the hints are all there, just like all the hints are there by the halfway mark in any good mystery story.

But Easter egg hunts really wouldn't be any fun if someone who already knew where they were was there pointing out all the places you should be looking. I mean, that's not spoiling anything, right? The eggs have been there from the start. It's your own fault you didn't see them. You should've noticed all of them right away. How could you have missed that splash of color in the grass over there? Pay attention! It's right in front of you! ::all the kids go home::


just what the F are you on about?

What Easter eggs? Goddamn story is not being coy about each form Fushi has taken is that of a being that has died.Ergo simple goddamn logic tells me that he only takes the form on those that have died.

And as far as distance from the deceased,that's just speculation.

Also I completely forgot about the bizarre crab,that comes before the mole, in the previous comment.

And also, no I've not skimmed though the manga just to point out simple plot points to you- it's been over a year since last I've actually read it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yttrbio
Subscriber



Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
PostPosted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:10 pm Reply with quote
Nordhmmer wrote:
What Easter eggs? Goddamn story is not being coy about each form Fushi has taken is that of a being that has died.Ergo simple goddamn logic tells me that he only takes the form on those that have died.

And as far as distance from the deceased,that's just speculation.
There's literally no difference between these two things to make one more speculative than the other. The story wasn't coy about each form he's taken being something in his immediate vicinity, so simple logic, even without damning from any gods, etc. etc. In fact, he's also able to make inanimate objects based on direct interactions in his immediate vicinity, and they didn't die. He took the form of a rock, first, based on vicinity, not death. It's all magic nonsense anyway.

I mean, the show seems to be taking your point of view, but the fact that it doesn't seem to think it's a revelation is the writing gap people are talking about. Your inability to separate yourself from the knowledge you already have from the source material and recognize that people who don't have that knowledge are going to react to the information they are given is no reason to start throwing a fit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Everlasting Coconut



Joined: 22 Jul 2019
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:29 pm Reply with quote
Does anyone know if the sudden drop in quality in the past two episodes is due to the usual hectic production schedule and poor planning that affect most anime, or due to inexperience on part of the staff? I'm asking because usually episodes like these will have a ton of animation directors working on them, but I saw that episode 15 had only one animation director, so it made me curious.

Either way, it's always sad seeing a good story being brought down by poor direction. Not only were the animation and editing in episode 15 distracting, but the pacing was a little off too. I honestly feel like this could've been one of the highlights of the show, what with everyone in the island coming together to defeat the Nokker, Fushi regaining his memories of March, and him thanking Tonari for her help. What a shame.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
blahmoomoo



Joined: 27 Jan 2020
Posts: 457
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:59 pm Reply with quote
I think this adaptation has the problem of barely doing any adaptation. That is, the dialogue appears to be nearly identical to the manga, which is probably why some things fall a bit flat when spoken. Especially in this arc.

The shots in the anime also don't deviate much from the manga, such as only showing the outer wall of the prison cell Pioran was in during their conversation in this episode. Which is fine for a manga where they're talking for 3-4 pages (not to mention the wall is well detailed, and no two panels of it are alike, even in framing), but is boring to look at in an anime.

The one significant exception in this arc is a flashback that was skipped, which may be shown in a coming episode.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1804
PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 6:38 am Reply with quote
From what I get, Fushi's powers just involve things that interest him (to the point the series almost had a different title). I don't if there was a rule about it but he only made physical contact with the fighters when stopping her from suicide.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 3:42 pm Reply with quote
"Oh cool, Fushi has grown so much and thought about so much stuff now now he can get the necessary stimulus from the relevant memories of a person"
How naive of me.
And it feels pretty bad? Last time we saw Perona she was getting a hold of her own life at last. And now she's dead (and it's also disappointing that Hayase outlived her).
But more than that, isn't this too much of a "convenient tragedy"? At this point Fushi is fueled by tragedy alone. It wasn't necessary for inanimate objects but it seems to be the only option for living ones. Fushi got A LOT of stimulation from Gugu, he made him grow in a lot of ways very quickly and complexly. But that didn't matter: only death did the trick.
And when it comes to Parona? She made an impression on him but "nothing" came of it. But now, after YEARS of not seeing her, not knowing what she has been doing and probably an ungodly distance... she dies and THAT is what stimulates Fushi? Also kind of convenient that she dies right at the moment he needs a nimble body.
For a series about growing, understanding and learning, this sadistic obsession with death as the only event that truly matters feels off.

jenthehen wrote:
I find it really disconcerting that people seem to truly HATE these poor kids that are a victim of circumstance just because they aren't uwu pure.

I hate these poor kids because they're not-so-nice-people who dragged two people into this mess (knowing thet it would likely end with their deaths). And then acted uppity about it.
Although to be fair that's just one of them. I don't hete her that much anymore, but I won't really care when she eventually dies.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yuzumei



Joined: 03 Dec 2016
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 5:23 pm Reply with quote
Nordhmmer wrote:

...seriously the story has been hammering the point Fushi can only take on the form of a living being-that's stimulated him-if he/she/it is dead, from episode one on.



Understand that up until now (if I am not mistaken) Fushi has been able to take the forms of beings that died in a close proximity to him not beings that died years ago 100ths of miles away. The audience might be confused about his sudden Parona form.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeverConvex
Subscriber



Joined: 08 Jun 2013
Posts: 2266
PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 7:57 am Reply with quote
I'm an anime-only viewer, and after Fuji's transformation into Parona was momentarily confused, but when I saw his stunned expression I kind've figured "Oh, no, she's dead." It does seem a bit weird that he's wandered around the island so much since then without taking any time to process that, though, and I can understand how that inference wouldn't have hit everyone. I had always tied his powers to emotional proximity (emotional investment/stimulation generally, but pain, specifically and especially) more than physical proximity, but I can see how someone in slightly different shoes might have inferred that physical proximity was important. That's not a point the show's tried to assert about its magical Orb-boy, but it is a consistent theme in all the examples to date, and it hadn't tried to demonstrate the opposite, either, until the Parona transformation itself. There might be some design behind that confusion -- making us feel as confused and then emotionally shocked as Fushi himself clearly is about this transformation? -- but it could also just be a point the narrative was a tad bit clumsy with.

I am still not as invested in Tonari and the Kids as I was in the lives of The Boy, March, Parona, Gugu. "The Kids" are kind've surprisingly entirely undeveloped, but Tonari's smile-though-yer-sad-and-home-is-hell attitude does tug at the heartstrings a bit. Maybe the real investment & tears'll come when it finally hits Fushi that Tonari isn't actually happy, as he seems to have mistakenly concluded from her smiling all the time while living on prison island. He's certainly still emotionally very naive, and this arc feels like it is building towards trying to give him a few more layers to his humanity.

Anyway, glad I finally found this gem. Had somehow missed it all season, and with the upcoming season not looking that great to me, glad to have a show I'm genuinely excited to watch. I don't think TYE has driven me to full-on crying at any point, but I've definitely teared up and formed March's sad-face more than a few times already. Binge-watching up to Episode 15 was a real lachrymosal trial.

EDIT: Also, completely absurd tangent: doesn't Tonari mean "next to"? I wonder what her parents were thinking..


Last edited by NeverConvex on Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:21 am; edited 2 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:07 am Reply with quote
What I had always inferred is that the people close to him ceasing to be made such a huge impact on him that it "stimulated" him to take their form as some sort of memento.
Apparently I was wrong and the deal was just "touch living being, have that living being die whenever and wherever"... which is less ideal for a journey about developing emotions and humanity.
Sure Gugu was also "remote" but Fushi was in a stressful situation, he saw him getting buried in rubble and it wouldn't be farfetched that in such a situation and with so much closeness (both physical and emotional) he could feel something like Gugu's heart stopping.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 10 of 14

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group