Forum - View topicWizard Barristers (TV).
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Well I guess on the one hand, this show has some stuff going for it. That battle at the start was pretty nice. And I really like the two cops. They seem pretty cool. The premise seems pretty sound too. I like the idea of a world where magic exists, but as a result, magic users are feared and frequently harassed and treated unfairly. Not only does it seem like a pretty realistic take on what would happen if some people actually did have magic powers, but it also could go a long way toward making the focus on defense lawyers work. The trouble with such stories is that they usually require increasingly contrived excuses for the defendant to be clearly innocent to keep you rooting for the protagonist. It's also good to see that they'll be extending cases over multiple episodes. Maybe that will give them room to actually be something interesting.
Trouble is, there is also a mountain of stuff to dislike too. Annoying, cutesy main character. (Really, all the lawyer girls are not very appealing). Even more annoying and pointless frog sidekick who's a huge perv for some inane reason. Character designs have way too much going on. And while you might forgive Cecil's outfit as intentionally ridiculous, as her co-workers repeatedly call attention to it, that itself just seems nonsensical when they are all dressed in outfits that are themselves nearly as garish. Oh and there's big, dumb, awful looking CG mech things in this show. Yeah, didn't expect that. They justify it with magic but really, it feels like a pretty obvious budget driven choice. "Hey guys! Remember that great fight from the beginning of the episode? Well fudge if we can afford that on a regular basis. So forget the wizards that this is supposed to be about. Here are the same shitty (but cheap) CG mech fights from every other anime!" Actually, that whole action focus in general made me a bit wary. I mean okay, the cops catch em before the lawyers can defend em. But when they start tossing the lawyers into the action as well it kinda ends up coming off like they don't actually have confidence in their ability to write an interesting legal drama that stands on its own. It also doesn't bode well that in an entire episode, all they managed to actually cover was that this guy killed someone but it was probably self defense (aka what everyone knew from the very start). Again, doesn't really leave me with a ton of confidence that the legal cases will be more than window dressing. |
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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Yes, but you're only afraid of him because he chooses to have those things, which may imply he's interested in using them, as opposed to inherently having the potential to be very destructive as a passive ability. Your neighbors probably have several gallons of gasoline in their possession, which could be used very destructively (for arson for example), yet you're not afraid about that, because you know that there are other reasons for that to be there. |
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leatherhead333
 Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
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I'm actually kind of against this kind of thinking. Really in my opinion it doesn't make sense why humans haven't tried to create a Wizard Force for combating rouge Wizards. I mean sure you can go with the argument "they don't trust them" but just look what they are capable of here. They pretty much robbed a bank with absouletly no problems at all. Not only that they are capable of destroying buildings and trains in seconds. And based on what i've seen only normal humans who realistically don't stand a chance are fighting against them. I'm pretty sure the two inspectors who we saw stop the first guy have plot armor. I mean i think they could easily use the Wizard Barristers as a "Wizard Defense Force" considering they have been complying with the legal system for a while now and can be trusted better than any other group. But instead they are basically sending swat teams of guys to their deaths. I mean if the show went that direction it would lose it's originality a bit but it would just make more sense to me than pretty much telling my guys to fight against people who can simply block all their attacks and burn them to crisp. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15493 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
I actually like this defence lawyer idea, I see nothing wrong with following pretty alright people who are making sure those who may have committed are crime get their rights and fair treatment. And it works well into the theme of magic ability being a source of prejudice. If I had to lay out my thoughts of the episode it would be along the lines of a mix between Phoenix Wright and Psycho Pass. I really did not notice much particularly bad CG, although maybe it was just the low quality I was watching. The frog might be voiced by Wakamoto, but perverseness and such make the character feel like a negative. Maybe she watches too much anime and thought people who try to help others have to have ridiculous outfits, perhaps those clothes carry all the necessary equipment she needs to protect herself if need be. She does appear to be wearing a suit next week during the case. And although she seems to have gotten to the truth of the case I do see it likely the facts will be stretched by prosecution to fit what they think would be better outcome for them. Curse you Edgeworth! Also my guess at the moment that perhaps the spoiler[guys that attacked were prosecution or something]. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23822 |
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I wonder if the pervy frog (whom I adore - screw you hatahs) is a French-Canadian reference? He always ends his sentence with "bon" which of course is French for good, so Umetsu seems to be nodding to the slur "frog" referring to someone of French extraction.
... If the frog starts snarfing back poutine and drinking Pepsi, we'll know for sure. |
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leatherhead333
Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
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Personally any character that has a verbal tick like that (Naruto, Rana (Freezing), Shizuku (Omamori Himari) etc.) give me brain cancer
Had he not added "bon" to the end of his sentences i would not feel the need to rip his eyes out and drown him in acid  .
To each his own i guess :I |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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I generally dislike using people with super power as a way to talk about racism/sexual orientation and such because it's completly different. People of different race are just like us so it makes no sense to judge them differently. Wizard (mutant, esp user and such) aren't just like us, they can do things that normal human cannot, things that can cause widespread destruction. It makes complete sense to judge them differently. Just like, I dunno, we don't treat cats and tiger the same way.
Everyone can have there moment of weakness/insanity, where they can commit horrible act. So if we consider that wizard act just like normal human, then they too can have there moment of weakness, but in there case they can flick there finger and blow up buildings. Normal human have to stockpile large amount of dangerous material, which is hard to do both financially and legally, they also have to carry these things without being spotted. Wizard aren't limited by that, which makes them far more dangerous. Just imagine the sort of planning that would be involve in creating as much destruction as the guy did in the beginning of the episode for one normal human, where he did it with no planning whatsoever, essentially at the drop of a hat. Imagine a world were a bar brawl or something can end up in a huge explosion because one of the drunk person involved in the brawl was a wizard and instead of just drunkingly flailing his fist around he ended up casting a spell. Maybe if the police force were actually competent and equipped to deal with these threats you could make a case about it, but it's pretty obvious from the beginning of the episode that they absolutly aren't. The one things that was shown was that they had some sort of magic supression bracelet, if I was a normal human in that world who had just witness the event at the start of the episode, I'd be asking the governement to make it so wizard were legally obligated to wear those at all time outside of moment where they need there magic (maybe job related or in special area where they can freely use there power). |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Until specifically mentioned, one just has to assume said bracelets are actually composed of powerful magic to suppress the wearers power and takes an extended ritual just to craft the device, as such it would just be impractical if not outright impossible to have every living magic user suppressed. Also, if Japan has Magic users then there might be a proliferation of magi in the world, so if a foreign group of magic terrorists were to attack, what is the benefit of suppressing your own magic yielding populace. |
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Bugnin
Posts: 575 |
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Came into this one not expecting much, and it thoroughly impressed me. Interesting characters, quality animation, nice soundtrack and a decent premise.
What an awesome, OP, btw. Did a great job of getting me interested. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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What is really interesting to me is that here we can see the same character artwork being produced with both the old and new techniques. The characters are obviously the same art as from Kite and from Mezzo Forte, which were done too soon to be computer generated. Yet the characters look similar and they look great. I love the kind of broad-faced/overbite cuteness the female characters have. As for fan service I wonder if director Yasuomi feels himself constrained, and if we will get a "director's cut" of Wizards Barristers with the same sort of out-and-out porn that Kite and Mezzo got. One thing for sure is he really knows what a sexy butt looks like and how to use it. |
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Bango
 Posts: 1122 |
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Wow. Extremely unexpected Canada REPRESENT! I snickered once I caught onto the perverted frog familiar. Ooooooooh boy I've gotta be careful who I show this one to.
Also, maybe it was just the Umetsu factor talking but I can't shake the feeling that some of the characters are banging off-camera. (especially the one with the glasses and the blonde. We'll be seeing doujins of that in no time) So we get top notch animation, designs, music and art. The only thing I wasn't so cool with was that the dragon didn't mesh with the scene very well at all. But it looked super cool on it's own so I can forgive it. The overall concept is an interesting take on an age-old idea. I don't know jack about legal stuff though so I'm really hoping the show makes it's own rules (due to the magic system) and defines them very well before applying anything too unbelievable or sudden. I like that the police can at least restrain mages with their funky magic sink cuffs and that even with magic they're still just flesh and blood people. I played a Champions game in Hero System once and one of the system's biggest flaws was that powerful foes couldn't be killed because you were the good guys, but they couldn't be restrained because making a power sink item strong enough for them was impossible unless you were already strong enough to have trouble not accidentally killing them. I would've loved to have whatever their handcuffs are made out of. I felt the ending scene's main purpose was to show off her power and that could have waited until episode 2. It felt rushed and a little awkward. It was helluva cool but I think they could've done something else. I really want to see where this goes and I certainly want to see the damage bill at the end of the series. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 2:
Yay, spoiler[the trial and case closed on a good note. I guess that's a decent start for Cecil's career.] She might be a newbie for now but she has the heart to undertake every task if she keeps at it like this. I do wonder how her relationship with colleagues will develop though especially with Natsuna. |
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WhiteHairGirls
 Posts: 4713 Location: New York City |
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Man I wish this show was more serious. I don't care what they wear to the office, but can she at least wear respectable clothes during court. LOL at wearing knee high socks with stars on them. Any legit judge would have kicked her out.
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13230 |
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A mecha smack down automatically makes everything 3 times more awesome.
I have no problems with her outfits. It's an expression of her individuality and there's hardly anything offensive about it. Not like she's showing up in torn jeans and a bikini top or something. |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I don't like how the mechs are, well, like mechs. Since this is magic I would think they'd be played like golems, but instead she manages conjure up a full-sized mech with *puking sound* buttons and a control panel. Like, that's not magic. I understand Umetsu has a history of working on mech shows, but that really bugs me. I don't hate it, but it bugs me how they're fully functional mechs. If they weren't manpowered I wouldn't care at all, but it takes the magic out of it when she's inside a cockpit pushing pedals and buttons.
As for the attire, I think the hair beads might hold some significance, like power limiters or something, but starry, high kneesocks and a mini-skirt? At least wear a full-sized skirt to look a little professional while still being "combat ready". Again, I don't hate it, hell it doesn't even really bother me, but it's still weird. |
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