Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Concrete Revolutio
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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I also don't think ep 1 was all that confusing, once you realize it's a flash forward everything flow very smoothly.
I also think 1 was far better than 2. I guess my biggest problem was that we're supposed to feel bad for the bug, but I really couldn't since they really didn't help there cause. When the small bug was caught, she could have just spoke up to get free, but she didn't. Same things for when they invaded, they just show up, kill a bunch of people and never even try to communicate. Also they apparently send there entire population, like 100% of it in the city. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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I'm really liking this show a lot, I think it'll be the sleeper hit of the season. There's a lot going on here, and I'm a huge fan of genre mash-ups. This show reminds me of Blood Blockade Battlefront crossed with Warren Ellis's Planetary (DC/Wildstorm comic book series from the mid 2000s).
Episode 2 did a lot to solve the few problems episode 1 had, mostly in that the end was really confusing. Knowing that there's a time jump plot thread running through the series really helped that make more sense. Can't wait for episode 3, and its cyborg detective. Shades of Ghost in the Shell and Robocop I'm sure. |
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Dai_Setsudan
 Posts: 7 |
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Without giving anything away, I'm convinced that episode three is making constant references to the Kikaider franchise
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5872 Location: Virginia, United States |
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I like the show, despite its problems it is interesting.
But for me all the time jumping is just destroying character continuity. I could see why it would be nice for this ghost boy's arc, but for the entire series. I am going to watch this one until the end, but if we are going to need to put charts on our wall to figure out character continuity, it is going to be one big negative for this show. |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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Episode #3:
The previous episode referenced Japan's political climate during the 60's (A.K.A. "The Black Fog"), and this episode referenced Yokoi Shōichi's return to Japan in 1972, where he continued to "fight in The War" (WW2) long after it had ended. Additionally, the android, like Yokoi Shōichi, was found "in a country to the south" -- Guam. |
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Mr Adventure
Posts: 1598 |
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Interesting, I wonder if it will continue to take real world events and insert super-human variations of them as it goes on.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15511 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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So episode 3 was about the movement of love not war, about the fears that such actions would destroy countries instead of actually making people stronger?
Episode 2 was about past simpler ideas of right and wrong, and how simply acting rashly may commit a greater evil. And Episode 1 was about.... illegal aliens maybe? In a country as protective of its borders there is a lot dislike for people who arrive that should not, and they are not real citizens, and there is a no tolerance perspective. But would the ending of the episode hold mean in that regard? Maybe that there can be people of authority who care about the merging domestic and foreign aspects. |
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 429 |
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I can see why they would choose that format of jumping between time frames, I think this anime is amining for a reflective aproach, giving the moral of how power defines people's desires and changes them through their lives, for that this series need to show us the "result" meaning how their actions affected their lives into the future.
I think the message this anime is trying to say is as follows: each individual identify themselves acordding to what they are capable of, and so defines their path in life and filter their input on life depending on how they believe are able to affect the world. also that humans are able to relate to one another because they see on them the same strugles and wishes, thus being born/become unafected by other's every day necesities or difficulties render us unable to relate to them an ultimately affect our sense of morality. jiro (the MC) is a regular human but recognizes that these super-humans are also part of what shapes society so he tries hard to work in orther to help integrating them into society, and also to stop rogue supe-humans so people dont get a negative opinion of them and become discriminant. that is until he (for some reason) becomes a super human himself, betraying (?) his own beliefs and so each episode present us with how someone unafected by a common limitation has problem fiting into society and on the long run is driven to not be able to properly recognize the value of others. there are super-humans that can achive thing others cant but dont know how to live like them, as a result they are suceptible to become criminals. for example: on episode 1 kikko (magical girl) is shown limiting herself by hidding her true potential, since she can easly acomplish anything she wants (through magic) she is afraid of people rejecting her out of fear or envy (symbolizes someone talented), thats why she is shaken when jiro offered her a place on his group, because someone told her that he needed her talents and gave her a place to call home, as a result she is shown on the future desperately chasing after him. the red ball thingy sitting on her chest symbolizes her conscience telling her what she must not do even if she is able to, and reminding her that her talents should be meant to help society and not for spoiling herself grosse augen (giant green guy) was an alien that upon arriving earth realized that he was the only one able to fight giant monster so he tought it was his duty to do what only he could do even if it meant taking the life of the cop who found him. at the same time such cop was some one who tought that the oportunity to save others was more valuable than his life (meaning he stopped living as a member of society in order to obtain strenght). as a result we can see that in the future not even kikko knew he was still alive on episode 2 fuurouta (ghost boy) is unable to age and therefore to mature, he is not preassured by running out of time or loosing his life he cant understand why someone's would act against their feelings or why their intentions would differ with their emotions, and so cant understand that the world is not white and black and that evil is just a matter of perspective and bad actions are not always made out of malice. in the future he is shown realizing that his oblivious actions can harm others and that those scars will acompany through their life, his unability to mature makes it imposible to travel along side those who are looking for their way. on episode 3 chiba (the detective) believes superhumans are not fit to catch criminals, implying that since they dont live like regular people they dont deserve to judge their actions) and thinks that since he no longers has physiological needs (as a result of becoming an android) he is incorruptible and a proper judge of wrong doings, without realising his own hypocresy. through out the episode we are show the sence of justice is something circunstantial and idiosyncratic, modeled by what each person things is their role in society and by what thy think are able to do. on the future he is shown having learnt that "siding with society"is not justice by itself, that the opinion of the majority is not necesarily rightious, and after facing the two robots merged that "pure" justice as dictated by a computer program, is aplying the same treatment to everyone in an algorithm fashion without considering their personal circunstances, something that normally humans cant accept when aplied to themselves thats what i am getting from the show anyways, i could be off mark though. they could just be trying to be a pot of science fiction archetype with stereotypical justifications to battle eachother and i am just reading too much into it. what i noticed is that while each episode may be confusing as a stand alone, after watching a given episode it is easier to understand the themes when rewatching a previous episode. so i think they aschived a very interesting effect |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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Now that I understand that that's what they were doing, and what this show is going for, I actually really like the idea of using two timelines to tell parallel stories that feed into each other both thematically and narratively. That's a really neat idea that I'm not sure I've ever seen before, at least not in anime. Episode 3 was a huge step up in terms of cohesiveness and storytelling, and I'm very interested to see where this show goes next.
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HelloBucket
 Posts: 477 Location: Upstate New York |
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I'm not sure exactly what's different between episode 2's and 3's use of time-jumping, because they seem to follow the exact same format and accomplish the exact same things, unless I'm forgetting something. Really, episode one mostly followed the same format as well, but with a some tweaks to allow them to introduce the time-jumping and that Jiro had left the Bureau in the future while still wrapping up the episode's story. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11428 |
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With all this timeline jumping, I wonder if it's meaningful that there's a character who can stop time?
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Shinraisei
Posts: 18 |
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Well, yes in fact, there is. I don't think it's a spoiler (it's hinted heavily in the ED and OP and mentioned on his profile), but Jaguar--the sort of handsome tall one--can stop time, but only momentarily and probably at a cost.
Oh man, I'm glad someone else caught it. I've never watched Kikaider, but the designs are similar! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11428 |
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^ To coin a saying, I know you think you understood what I meant, but I don't think you realize that what you read is not what I wrote.
(unless you just forgot to explain what the meaning of having such a character might be) |
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 471 |
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I'm not sure she actually is Jiro's mother, but she is probably imitating her aspect based on those photos ("What are you doing now?" "I like this new aspect"). One of the confusing parts at the end (but confusing in a good way, just a plot thread that will be explored later) is when that kid identifies Emi as the same lady that was in the house (and then Emi puts her kitsune face to frighten him). That is a bit confusing: Is Emi's power to possess other people, or turn into other people? I'd say the latter because of the flashback with Jiro's mother's photos, but if that's the case, then was Emi all the time that woman? Was she knowing about all of this from the beginning? We'll see in future eps. And I also agree this was the easiest and most straight-forward episode, I'm glad the show finally calmed down. |
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RHorsman
 Posts: 151 Location: Loch Loman |
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I wasn't sure why they weren't going with "monster", until the scene with Emi in the car where they used "monster" to translate "yokai". So I'm guessing it was already taken in the translator's "bible", and they had to distinguish the two in English somehow. |
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