Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Snowball Earth
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5357 |
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It seems like Kaiju Tamer might be an exaggeration of what is happening. Chicken Kaiju cooperates so long as he keeps getting what he wants, and mole kaiju disobeyed his tamer because he wanted to eat more humans. I suppose it could be that to everyone else it seems like taming an animal because they can't hear the conversations that make it sound more like a deal between human and individual kaiju.
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Nobody14
Posts: 47 |
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I don’t really get jt. Like “yeah I mostly liked the episode but I don’t like how it looks, 5/10” is kinda wild when… is it really that bad? It’s jarring sometimes, but charming and I’ve put up with worse. Plus with the kaiju almost always being CG it just feels plain beneficial. They’re creepy and jarring as all hell. Something that should not exist and just feels wrong. Is this the intent? Honestly it’s probably a mix of it being cheaper but also working out that way. But action direction is pretty good, where the story is going is interesting, a lot of the odd complaints are just… mysteries the show is setting up that are supposed to feel weird. I really don’t get why a lot aren’t vibing with this show like I am.
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IronWish
 Posts: 234 Location: Ukraine |
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Yep, this gets tiresome after some time, considering that "My eyes! My eyes! This 3D CG is horrible" has became a vacuous way to say "Look at me, I'm a sophisticated weeb with taste in animation" without ever engaging with exceptional 2D animation besides praising flashy action things (although those things are cool most of the time, don't get me wrong). Like, come on, experimental gem of an anime Botan Kamiina is grazing the bottom of seasonal rankings on ANN, where are all these sakuga connoisseurs, they should be enraged by this injustice? This reminds me of Medalist S1 reviews here with constant bemoaning of it having 3D CG skating routines, while these numbers were like top-5 best animated things on TV that year. And just to be clear, Snowball Earth is nowhere near as good looking, at best I'd describe its looks as serviceable. But we get plenty of serviceable or worse 2D stuff reviewed each season, and unless it melts down in a catastrophic way, complaints about animation usually don't take up half the review, every review. There seem to be tacit understanding that not everything can be and neither should be Frieren, but for 3D CG for some reason people make a fuss about it as soon as it doesn't hit Studio Orange level of quality, of if 2D/3D compositing is not up to Ufotable's standards. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 5357 |
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I think the main reason it comes up here in the reviews as much as it does is that the usage is inconsistent and ends up drawing more attention to it as a result. Mech anime is prone to use CGI, but usually for the mechs. Plenty of anime these days use it for fight scenes, but keep it to those scenes. Here, it switches with no discernible reason. It's easier to settle into some generally ok looking CGI for a series like The Duke of Death and His Maid because everything is CGI. If something is flipping between 2d and 3d within the same seen, it makes it stand out more than if it was entirely 3d. |
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Wilco499
Posts: 21 |
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Sagami's reasoning to be a villain really are bizarre. I could take his weird jealously of child up to the point when he is saved Tetsuo from a Kaiju. Yet somehow the ramps his jealously into overdrive. On top of that, the weird binding with the Kaiju and man. Why would Sagami be chill with that? He has spent his whole life in an organization whose primary goal is to slaughter Kaiju and he has seen first hand the destruction they wrought. Like there has to be some sort of incident that change him since he doesn't seem like someone that make a compromise for some greater goal. And if it is a the savior complex then why is he chill with slaughtering other humans?
He really finds himself in some of the worst written anime villains around. |
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Nobody14
Posts: 47 |
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Man I kinda wish I didn’t vote for this series for review now, these points are terrible.
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 3033 |
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Man, now I wish I'd have voted for this because of these reviews! I usually vote for shows that look like they could be stupid or "bad" enough to be entertaining but didn't want to subject some poor reviewer to a show I could see was not going to be entertaining, just stupid... but little did I know...
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Greed1914
Posts: 5357 |
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The guy really did make the jelly school from South Park. 
As ridiculous as it is, I think I can see why he is doing it. He is not just fixated on himself being the "savior" but that Erde should be adored for what it did. Tetsuo may have teamed up with Erde after he started piloting Yuukio, but he wasn't a member or trainee. Sure, we can see that training a bunch of kids to surpass Tetsuo is stupid, but to Sagami, these are Erde soldiers that he trained. He sees the mall as aligned with a false savior, so he is fine with killing them. In his mind, saving people is not the goal. Reverence for Erde is. I don't think it is all that strange that he would tame kaiju. He understood that mechs were going to replace troops, and when he wasn't going to be one of the pilots, he shifted focus to gaining rank to take control. Also, in one scene, he tried to shoot Yuukio, and nobody noticed because he was out of ammo. A note on something in the review, Sagami's troops weren't retreating to let Tetsuo live. They were splitting up to ensure that some of them could attack the mostly defenseless mall. Sagami changed his orders when he realized that Testuo would at least defeat some of them. The audience can see Sagami for how ridiculous he is, and that may or may not work for the viewer. But, his motivations as a character make sense in terms of someone who is deranged beyond the point of being rational. |
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bassgs435
 Posts: 464 |
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I don’t understand thinking that the detail would be kept without CG. Nah. That shot of Tetsuo crying was detailed precisely because it was a single still shot. Many 2D productions do the same of having detailed shots for key moments and then going back to the standard not as detailed style. I don’t understand thinking it’s an issue exclusive to CGI.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4287 |
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Really? I thought it was a decompression of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Therapy is on the menu, not fun. Instead of piloting mechs, the newtypes pilot kaiju... and this series keeps hinting at something for Tetsuo, an upgrade of some type for him... I wonder if it's possible for a kaiju to cyberize itself. And I've been trying to decide if Tetsuo the Iron Man fits in as an influence or not. It all can't be just Evangelion, right? And if really is sourced from Evangelion, there really is only one role for Tetsuo's father to play in this. Also, Tetsuo pulling off a one handed Gendo pose? I didn't think it was even possible. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 882 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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This show spends way too long focusing on Tetsuo feeling sorry for himself. Last episode Colonel Bad-guy said it would take 4 minutes for the kaiju to reach the mall, this episode picks up shortly after that, and ends with them reaching the mall. Less than 4 minutes passed this episode.
If you want compare it to Evangelion (I did) Shinji's angst feels like pathos that is integrated into the story and moves along with it. Tetsuo's feels like whining that is separate from the story, takes away from the story, and only serves to slows things down. Shinji's depression feels real, Tetsuo's feels like.. well... a cartoon character. And +1 for wishing the reviews would just stop with the crying about the CG. We get it, you don't like CG, but it's half the "review" every week. |
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Cosmos503
 SubscriberPosts: 14 |
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I don't think I have been as frustrated over an anime since...well never...though I think only because most of those that might've competed I stopped watching after an episode or two. Here we are episode 7 and I stopped it mid-watch 4 times glaring at the screen and debating if I should just remove it from my watch-list (luckily I was doing other things at the same time so wasn't a complete waste of time...though the fact I am spending time here to vent is ironic in the extreme). I can NOT stand the crying and self-loathing. I was ok the first couple of episodes with the "angst", figuring its was going to be part of the "hero's journey"...but here we are midway through the season, and instead of a broader world-building of an snowball apocalypse or other developments or successes...we get this multi-episode fight...with entire episode of "I am lonely" "I am useless" "I failed my only friend" "no one loves me" etc etc etc Only to be saved by (whatever the robots name is...not going to bother to look it up) overriding the controls at the last minute....
Was the author going through some trauma and writing this was therapy? Maybe I not understand the audience this is for? Maybe I was in the mood for a happy, scrappy hero saving the day...and this wasn't it... 
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Greed1914
Posts: 5357 |
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I will say that when I finished the episode, I did find myself thinking, "What do you mean that was episode 7?" For as big as the setup of the whole series is, it feels like it has spent a lot of time on relatively small things. It's also weird how more than once Sagami has commented that Tetsuo is wasting so much time, but also we seem to be working on Namek time here where a minute is as long as the story says it is. |
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Nobody14
Posts: 47 |
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This episode really got to me. Opening yourself up to people is scary. Yeah, you can get the good, but eventually opening up your heart is going to lead to getting hurt. There are bad people out there, and it can lead you to feeling like you should never even try because at least that way you don’t have to deal with the pain of failing. I feel like it’s a dilemma most people with social anxiety have struggled with. Sure, things may go well for a time, but when your tolerance is so low, even one bad interaction can feel devestating.
…it’s a shame the review can’t talk about aspects like this and instead just looks at screenshots every week to say “LOOK! IT’S HIDEOUS! I ADMIT ITS PRETTY WELL DIRECTED BUT MY VIRGIN EYES, OH GOD THE AGONY!” Dude could not survive a week watching something like Ajin. Last edited by Nobody14 on Tue May 19, 2026 12:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 882 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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I'm enjoying Ao and Land of Men. I'm wondering if Land of Men is so much stronger because he and Ao have a mutual symbiotic bond, while Verde seems to have enslaved their kaiju.
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