Forum - View topicHell's Paradise (TV) (w/ index).
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3443 |
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#11
This episode feels like a follow-up of last week's expository episode, but the animators realised it would bore the audience to have too much talking two weeks in a row, so they threw in quite a few actions sequences to keep the audience occupied while the Tao concept is further elaborated upon. Also, this week's episode is one bombshell after another. Mei's background is for better or worse made clear to Gabimaru and the others, and it's a good thing Gabimaru has acted against his former instincts and is willing to save her. Gabimaru acquired his skills through life-threatening training which stripped his humanity, yet even he couldn't figure out the secret behind the Doushi's powers as instinctively as Aza Choubei did. Whatever he did to incorporate the vines into his body, it's certainly working as he's acquired the same sight the Doushi did in literally a few minutes of airtime. For the two brothers, they probably got a lucky break as their opponent didn't take them seriously until it was too late. Regardless, they have their victory and their captive. How much information they can squeeze out of it will determine their future successes. On the other hand, the Gabimaru trio struggled immensely to comprehend Mei's speech. The episode title encapsulates it all, and were it not for Fuchi and his encyclopaedic knowledge of foreign works the pair of them could have killed for hours without improving. Gabimaru and Sagiri have somehow arrived at the same point through widely differing paths, so I'm eagerly anticipating what will happen when the disparate groups finally reunite and pool their knowledge. First thing for Sagiri and Yuzuriha: survive the Tensen who has apparently decapitated Houko. This week's action sequences are longer but slightly inferior in quality to the Gabimaru fight two weeks ago. Not to say it isn't good, but it feels somewhat off because of the nature of the fights (lots of small fry enemies being summoned and killed by our main cast). Good thing the animators are weaving in the expository parts with lots of action though, it looks there's no break for a while until our visitors can escape or kill their way out of their encounters. |
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Edjwald
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I'm kind of wondering if the humanity stripping part of his training is why Gabimaru struggled as much as he did - how that corresponds to the "weakness" he was having so much trouble accepting. Mei shook her head pretty vehemently (for her) when that dude said that Gabimaru was no longer human too. And I'm definitely thinking that Aza chewing down on Monster Meat in the previous episode is at least partly responsible for his quick transformation/mutation/possession/what-have-you. The one thing that keeps the guy human is his bond to his brother, and there were a couple of small signs that it was starting to fray a little bit. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 4997 |
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Yeah, I fully expect his insanely fast increase in power/tao to come with a hefty downside. Right now he only has a few vine marks, but he will probably turn into something worse.
As for Gabimaru, I think it was more that he has a battle trained/hardened mindset, only power and strength matter to win. Thinking of weakness or being vulnerable does not come into that and once he realised that and accepted those feelings he got control of tao near instantly. That said, his aptitude and superhuman traits probably also make it easier to use tao since I think he was already somewhat using it with his flames. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3443 |
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You sure about that? Might want to rewatch that part as there's enough in this episode to disprove your assertion. 1. The camera literally stops short of showing Choubei biting into the Soushin flesh. 2. The Doushi overcome by the two brothers specifically attributes Choubei's improvement to the pit vines he was freed from by Touma. 3. The Doushi specifically interrupted the two brothers just as Choubei was about to eat. There's enough to suggest despite his sight mechanic that he can see what others are doing and he was already in position to interrupt the two brothers before Choubei could eat. If Choubei had eaten the Soushin chunk, the Doushi would have mentioned this explicitly as the reason for the increase in power, and not the vines. 4. Even Touma attributes the powers to the vines, and he would know best of all people if his brother did eat the flesh. So far Aza Choubei has consumed blood fluids from the monsters to quench his thirst, and incorporated the pit vines through unknown means into his body. The former didn't seem to do much to him prior to fighting the Tensen, but the latter took effect almost immediately after he hauled his brother out of the pit. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 3510 |
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Am I sure that I'm thinking about it? Um...let me check. Yes? Am I willing to reconsider it? Sure. 
But to clarify, I wasn't excluding eating the vines. Nor was I saying that the vines weren't important and the monster flesh had to be the real deciding factor - which you seemed to get from my post if I'm reading your response correctly. I was trying to use "chomping on monster flesh" to characterize Aza whole heartedly taking foreign substances into his body at a rate and in a way that made his brother queasy. . Whether Aza actually bit into flesh or just talked about it while drinking blood from a hunk of flesh and waving the amputated limb around like a drum stick while his brother made a reference to Aza consuming monsters and so on...I'm not that invested in it as long as we agree that Aza is taking foreign substances connected to mutation into his body. Aza's mental state of being willing to embrace change is obviously key too. The show keeps bringing up this idea of "losing humanity" on multiple fronts, and the connection between vines/and elixir and channeling Tao and being immortal and being inhuman and being human is a little murky, but there should be one since the Tensen are all about turning humans into magic nectar. It kind of reminds me of the Norse and Greek gods. The Aesir had to eat golden apples tended by Idun to keep from aging, and the Olympians had to drink ambrosia. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3443 |
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I'll need to remember not to take anything written on this forum as-is from this user in future, since it's impossible to actually say something literally and then twist it like politicians do to mean something else. Especially if it leads to said user laughing off their obvious lie as "banter" and then moving on the subject to something else. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 25599 |
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We don't need to remember that you are a completely humorless poster who's frequent obnoxious responses really should be moderated. We don't need to remember because you do this often enough that it is impossible to forget.
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 11: Weak and Strong
Summary: Pending Comments: Pending Screen Caps:  
 
 
 
 
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Edjwald
Posts: 3510 |
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Just saw episode 12 and am still loving this show. Normally, when a show has multiple episodes in a row that are basically all fight scenes, or worse, one fight scene with tons of exposition explaining the implications of every minute move in detail, I get bored. Depending on the quality of the show, I either drop it, or I put it on hold and wait until the season is over, then go back and binge it so I don't have to go week to week waiting for some actual plot or character development.
But this show hasn't bored me at all. And in fact, it manages to balance character development and action pretty seamlessly in my opinion. I will say this...even after they spoiler[left the "dead" tensen behind, I was sitting there thinking that I wouldn't have stopped until I'd burnt the corpse into a pile of ashes and peed on it ] |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 3443 |
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#12
This week sees the last trio get their crash course into Tao, what it can do and what the Tensen are capable of. It's also been the worth the wait to see what Yuzuriha and especially Senta are capable of in combat (they've been avoiding it all this time or fighting off-camera in Yuzuriha's case). When you've been immortal for over a millennium and have perfect understanding of why you're like that and everyone else isn't, it's no surprise you can be overconfident and let down your guard. That's exactly the case with Mudan, whose personal talent is controlling cadavers like a perverse puppet master. He soon finds that he should have gone hard like his peers did against Gabimaru and Shion. Turns out the weakness Gabimaru and the others discovered last week had conditions attached before it can be exploited, and fortunately for this week's trio they satisfied the prerequisites to win round one. Just as it looks like there won't be a round two, Shion arrives with perfect timing just like Yuzuriha wished. If this season is going to stop at next week's episode for a future quarter to finish up, then it's a good place to end with the conclusion to this set-piece. Yuzuriha's powers aren't just for fanservice fetishists; turns out she'll give Gabimaru a good run for his title as the strongest human visitor if they were to duke it out. It's very versatile, but limited by its need for preparation (without her vials she can't use it) and the speed in which she can release the fluids. Gabimaru doesn't have this, so she'd lose in a quickdraw against him. That said, she wasn't holding back with how she can wield her powers once the setup is complete. Senta's been the mascot character in this series for so long that viewers might forget he's on the island on merit. His name is finally introduced for real this episode, although it's unfortunate he's followed the template set by Tenza and doesn't live for long after he explains his own background to the audience. Interesting style as well; he uses his Katana like a rapier or epee with his lunges. He can slash as well, so a very different fighting style compared to Sagiri despite being members of the same school. After seeing his background, it's somewhat sad that he doesn't continue his journey with Yuzuriha. Sagiri in particular was badly affected by the shock at seeing what Mudan's attack had turned him into. This week's lesson on Tao hints at compatibility: some types of Tao are more dangerous to certain Tensen than others. In Mudan's case Sagiri is his weakness, yet Yuzuriha is assessed to be the same "type" so the latter cannot permanently kill Mudan no matter what she uses. Different case for Sagiri: slicing up his navel and dismembering him by her hand buys them time as the regeneration is slowed down for the monster transformation shown in previous weeks. Perhaps we'll learn more about this down the line, as well as why both Gabimaru and Sagiri appear to be hit particularly hard when they use their specific techniques for utilising Tao over an extended period of combat. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 25599 |
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The big reveal for me this episode is that the Elixir doesn't exist. Well. Ain't that a pisser.
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Edjwald
Posts: 3510 |
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It didn't have that much impact on me cos (1) I haven't once trusted that the...shogunate? would keep its word on sparing any of the convicts in the endgame whether they succeeded in getting the elixir or not. Everything done by the powers that be so far have been arbitrary or detestable. (2) It seemed highly likely that if there was an elixir, it would be something that would transform the drinker into a weed sprouting sociopath. (3) It's not like the guy saying there's no elixir wouldn't enjoy saying that just to cruelly toy with their emotions.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 25599 |
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Well, excuuuuuuuuse me for being naive and trusting unlike some coldly skeptical peeps I could name...
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Edjwald
Posts: 3510 |
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No worries, I already gave you up as a hopeless case when you revealed that you would have been one of the female ninja's boob blinded patsies earlier in this thread.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 4997 |
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That was a great last episode of the season. One hell of a fight and plenty of hooks for the second season. Be it Gabimaru having lost his memories, wondering whether his wife is real or not, still having plenty of immortals to deal with, reinforcements(?) being sent and that one dude still slowly going insane due to his root tattoos. Plenty to look forward to.
The season as a whole was great with a fun mix of bloody action, colorful mystery and decent characters. I also liked how who survived and who did not so far was not all that predictable. I am still surprised that one guy with the eye patch went out as he did. It also makes me question their rankings once again, since Shion is one hell of a fighter. |
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