Forum - View topicTrain to the End of the World (TV).
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2901 |
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#8
Another exercise in surrealism, but I can't fault the animators and writers for coming up with the most left-field scenarios to bring forward the one fact some viewers have suspected from at least last week onwards: Youka is the ruler of Ikebukuro and all the other petty rulers of their respective stations are scared of her. It's a bit difficult figuring out which stations they passed through on the way to talking pig land, but there's a pig's head in the poorly hand-drawn map and that's what the travellers have just cleared. I'm not able to match Attack of the Itchies and the 18th circle of Hell Guilt Trip with the pictures, but the dog face is there so the Shougi bag was two stops away from pig town. We know Youka was a huge fan of that surreal anime-within-an-anime created just for this episode, so she knew the plot as well as the rules of Shogi and manipulated it to deter travellers. This episode is notable as one of the few where the girls don't have the time nor opportunity to ask the conductor for help during the 5-minute window. They didn't need it, because Akira also knew enough about the show and the rules of Shougi to turn the tables. There's a bit of wordplay as well in this episode which isn't easy to translate, but the visual gags are worth it (将棋倒し). This is also the episode where Reimi's background is casually mixed in with the chaos. The only one from a broken family, so it explains her mental preference of avoiding conflict. It also makes her more rational than the others in looking ahead and trying to solve the problem at hand (something the guilt trip station must have helped with). There's enough time to finish this without a second season, the only question is how it will end. Either Ikebukuro is the last stop of this really weird journey, or they'll make the return trip and end it where they started. I'm leaning towards the former; they cannot finish this trip without convincing Youka and that's going to be harder than anything else they've survived through this journey. It'll will likely take up plenty of airtime as well, and it's anyone's guess how that's going to transpire. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2086 |
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That sure was a fast paced episode, it was in fact so fast paced that there was barely any room for the gang to have small talk, I had to check whether I had accidentally set the playing speed up to 1,5 several times. That said, if they really want to finish the adventure and have a proper ending this season then there is a need to get to their goal, there is not that much time left.
The episode itself was completely bonkers and pretty dark in parts come to think of it. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11428 |
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Hmm, so I guess the dancing half man-half octopus was the illustration of their reaction to the itching station, and the person on hands and knees was gloom and doom, but they didn't seem to pass through the people drowning in fire to get to what is a fine rendition of Chaos. I'm guessing the upcoming musical pig is actually a bear since we just had pigs.
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2341 |
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This show feels like it'd be very at home with a Kisagari Station visit.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11428 |
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Might as well. Tonari no Youkai-san and Mysterious Disappearances have both visited it, so it seems to be the season for it.
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3908 |
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With 7G in this world, Kisagari Station has probably been turned into a perfectly normal train station!
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15511 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I think that I just had an actual fever dream. And it would have bn that way even without the really weird trauma scene which implied traumatically witness parents fighting, and I think killing an animal as a kid. The rest of the episode dedicated a story come to life that was a weird mix of for kids really not for kids.
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 593 Location: North America |
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Episode 8 confused me. I thought Shogi involved firing an energy beam out one's bum?
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23883 |
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I was gonna drop a tab of acid just before watching episode 8 but held off, thank goodness. Tripping would have been utterly redundant. Needless to say, my least favourite episode to date.
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2901 |
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#9
The series' lack of predictability is ironically the only constant about this show, but as far as structure goes this episode is straightforward. It's a setup for the finale to come and tells us what exactly happened to Youka after she pressed the switch and why she is feared as Ikebukuro's witch. The only new character introduced this week is actually the unknown variable which might ultimately decide how this surreal tale ends. "Mayor Pontaro" only claims he found "Pochi" and saved his life, hence the stoic bodyguard has put up with being treated as a dog reincarnated as a human and waiting hand and foot on a random high school female for years. There's nothing wrong with him physically, yet mentally he seems to have resigned himself to his new role yet is surprisingly loyal and submissive to the very confused Youka. I do remember "Pontaro", after all he was the master of ceremonies who prompted Youka to press the switch which started the mess in the first place. He was the one who performed the lobotomy on Zenjirou, and as "mayor" is the real political power in the expanding bubble that is Ikebukuro and its environs. He's not much different from the tyrant of the miniature town; he's keeping the status quo because he's the main beneficiary and would rather watch the world go pop than admit liability in being an accessory to the current state of the world. As for Youka, her shattered mind remains capable of moulding the world as she sees fit. Unfortunately, the world she envisions is an absolute nightmare and the surviving residents of Ikebukuro risk being transfigured into Chawan Mushi when she gets angry. Otherwise, she's just surviving day to day being waited on hand and foot and trying not to think about what is going on around her. She doesn't even have drugs or alcohol to fall back on to deal with the shock, so her friends (flawed as they are) will be the only catalyst remaining to save her (and what's left of the world). Reuniting with the Swan Hermit gives viewers a few home truths (twisted as they are), an update on their current position and a preview of what's to come. Like viewers, our main party has finally realised the awfully-drawn map had a surprising degree of accuracy in describing the Ikebukuro line. Now they have to rely on the improved, coloured version to steel themselves for the two final stops, knowing the terminus cannot be reached as the line has broken. How's this train ride going to end? A wreck, a scheduled service termination or a detour into something unexpected. I'm anticipating number three, since chaos has been a constant since the series first premiered. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15511 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Kind of felt like people figured that it is all going to pop because of reasons.
I was kind of thinking that she could become a god of a new universe, the pop like a big gang, so they want her complacent to mold her to influence it. Are they otherwise getting anything about her staying in a foggy status quo? |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2901 |
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#10
Last week we were told an ambush had been prepared for the expedition by Pontarou, which turned out to be the only thing that could be predicted for this episode. For all the antics, it feels more of a homage to a lot of well-known manga franchises for whatever reason or another. I don't recognise a lot of the references, but I do recognise what Akira was doing when she had the beret on and her bookworm imagination started bringing in the bizarre art style weapons. Ultimately the washed-up artists were beaten at their own game and humiliated enough to rescind their track destroying powers, allowing final passage to the terminus. Although the journey started with the sole motive of looking for Youka to bring her back, it turns out the girls might have a chance to revert everything back to normal. No idea how that's going to happen, but the midget professor together with Zenjirou will figure something out from the safety of Agano. The execution will be down to the girls, although it might be as simple as simply removing the reins from Pontarou and getting Youka back to normal. This episode might grab attention from the visuals, but the VAs for the girls and the group with Shizuru's father really got to showcase their ranges in the one episode. The girls who were transformed had to change their speech patterns on the fly (and revert them when the powers wore off), while Shizuru's father and pals had to add the animal-call suffix to their speech patterns during their segment. It didn't sound forced either, which is a testament to the professionalism of the VAs when they're in character. There's a showdown coming up, and that's all that's predictable. If the surrealism that has permeated this franchise from the start takes another wild turn, who knows what the end product will be as the process is completely off the rails. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2901 |
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#11
The pacing certainly turned it up the same way Shizuru was driving the train at the start of the episode. Only two episodes remaining, so everything has to end next week and this episode certainly contributed to that. I had guessed the manservant "Pochi" would be the wild card that decides how this all ends, and I'm not entirely wrong. It's clear his loyalty to Youka is motivated by something else other than blind obedience to orders; he is aware she is suffering under the burden of the 7G network and is quite willing to risk his life to keep her stable. He's most likely former security detail, so for the first time in this franchise Shizuru has an opponent she cannot physically beat. If the girls are going to have any chance of pursuing Youka and putting an end to the living nightmare, they need "Pochi" with them, if he remains against them the story ends with their failure. Having the bitter gourd grow vines all the way back to Agano is stretching it, especially as the second episode had plenty of devastation to make the return trip impossible if the world isn't returned to normal. That said, it's another surreal example of what the animators can come up with using edible vegetables as impromptu telephone receivers. It's also not surprising that pushing the button didn't end everything, as Pontaro himself confirms that Youka and the network are a package and both have to be secured to have any chance of redeeming the world. It's coming down to a madcap showdown between the pursuers who might save the world if they can get Youka to remember who she really is, and the self-centred egoist who rules the known world in the same manner as the tyrant of the miniature humans did. All of these characters are flawed one way or another, which is why there's not much empathy for Shizuru and her friends since there's plenty to dislike about each individual in the party even if their reason for making the journey to begin with was a perfectly understandable one. Regardless, this tale will end and a happy end is the last thing to expect because of how conventional it is and how the product as a whole is the very antithesis of convention (and it even pours scorn on it in the last week with the washed-up artists as the vessels to convey the message). If a happy end with some sort of reconciliation isn't on the cards, then my expectations are somehow lifted because I can't help but wonder what kind of metaphorical train wreck viewers would be left with when all is said and done. Otherwise, some kind of end with reconciliation and a semblance of normality would be disappointing, but also a surprise in its own way because it would be the only time this show actually respected convention. Only way to find out is to see what next week brings. |
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