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EP. REVIEW: Mikagura School Suite


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chex mix



Joined: 28 Mar 2015
Posts: 415
PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:02 pm Reply with quote
Lol, I noticed that too. The animation in that entire scene was fairly garbage, but that was really, really bad. Laughing
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 8:13 pm Reply with quote
This episode's most noticeable deviation from its source material (other than completely skipping Biimii's backstory) concerned Shigure's bed:

By this point in the novels, spoiler[Eruna and Otone are "sleeping together" in the dormitory hallways - i.e. Otone has pushed her sleeping bag up against Eruna's. ]

When Shigure shows up with the bed, he isn't implying that he wants to sleep in it with Eruna. He's implying that spoiler[Eruna and Otone should sleep in the bed together, instead of sleeping on the floor.]

(However, Eruna still declines Shigure's gift, because Otone points out that an umbrella with "Eruna" and "Shigure" is carved into the bed's headboard.)

I've noticed that this has been part of a trend to make Shigure look like a much less sympathetic character than in the novels.
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chex mix



Joined: 28 Mar 2015
Posts: 415
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:05 pm Reply with quote
Wait. What?

Shigure is different/tolerable/possibly even awesome in the source material? And also they left out Bimii's backstory, which I would have liked to see more than literally anything that happened in this episode?

The. Hell. Is. This.

Spoilertag Bimii's extremely abbreviated backstory for me, please, since clearly they don't care about depth on this show, yeah?
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:19 pm Reply with quote
10 episodes in, Bimī still plays favorites with Ichinomiya Eruna. Her being the Promised One or whatnot wasn't really addressed so far, and as it's most likely a 1-cour show, that leaves between 1-3 episodes (excluding OVAs) to resolve that issue. And because it wasn't properly addressed, him constantly aiding Eruna why more than he does for the other students makes his characterization appear weak; actually, aside from a short scene in Episode #1 where some student asked for assistance, I can't recall him doing anything for other students (school events don't count, since they are "par the course").
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 5:55 pm Reply with quote
chex mix wrote:
Spoilertag Bimii's extremely abbreviated backstory for me, please, since clearly they don't care about depth on this show, yeah?


Here are the Bimii backstory scenes that the show has cut out so far:

spoiler[During Seisa's first semester at Mikagura Academy, Headmistress Mikagura (who, as Bimii mentions in the first episode, is Seisa's grandmother) orders a pink-haired bishie teacher that she had previously turned into a flying cat to unlock Seisa's Killing Art powers and to train her to become the Academy Flagbearer. Seisa and her fellow Art Club member Kyoma develop a very close relationship with the teacher over the course of Seisa's training. However, after horrific flashback scene, Seisa is no longer emotionally equipped to act as the Academy's Flagbearer. Headmistress Mikagura orders Bimii to leave Seisa's side, and to investigate whether any members of the Ichinomiya family have the potential to serve as the new Flagbearer.]

Note that they still could show all this stuff; they might be saving it for some kind of "exposition episode."
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chex mix



Joined: 28 Mar 2015
Posts: 415
PostPosted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 6:02 am Reply with quote
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
chex mix wrote:
Spoilertag Bimii's extremely abbreviated backstory for me, please, since clearly they don't care about depth on this show, yeah?


Here are the Bimii backstory scenes that the show has cut out so far:

spoiler[During Seisa's first semester at Mikagura Academy, Headmistress Mikagura (who, as Bimii mentions in the first episode, is Seisa's grandmother) orders a pink-haired bishie teacher that she had previously turned into a flying cat to unlock Seisa's Killing Art powers and to train her to become the Academy Flagbearer. Seisa and her fellow Art Club member Kyoma develop a very close relationship with the teacher over the course of Seisa's training. However, after horrific flashback scene, Seisa is no longer emotionally equipped to act as the Academy's Flagbearer. Headmistress Mikagura orders Bimii to leave Seisa's side, and to investigate whether any members of the Ichinomiya family have the potential to serve as the new Flagbearer.]

Note that they still could show all this stuff; they might be saving it for some kind of "exposition episode."


They have time for 10+ minutes of "let's have a surprise party for some reason or another" every episode but none for actual backstory or characterization WHEN IT ALREADY EXISTS?

Oh, show.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:05 pm Reply with quote
Episode #11:

This episode's art style was quite nice, looking good for the most part - especially in the Photograph Club room.

Mikagura Seisa's powers going berserk hints that her power in working based of her mental strength, and many all the other students' powers, too. That would suggest that Seisa is tsundering Ichinomiya Eruna, since Fujishiro Otone words (and not necessarily her actions) have had a greater effect on Seisa than she thought it would, introducing an interesting element in her characterization.

She is still pretty much the stereotypical High-School Elitist, but the framing works here quite well.

Next episode is most likely the finale; should be interesting.
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Nyaomix



Joined: 13 Apr 2015
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:53 pm Reply with quote
The whole photography club setup was nice. Really, this episode heavily outclasses others in art. Not really happy to be going darker for the end of the season/series though. Otone who is apparently supposed to be awesome still feels very undesireable, outside of her sometimes cute bad English.

Really liked the ending for this episode, it`s nice that we`ve gotten a few alternate ones.

And I already said we don`t need more fatigued Bimii, he really gets pushed far too often.

They went ahead and spent a bit of time on Shigure and Enoyan, but still I have no idea what hero time does.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:03 pm Reply with quote
Episode 12

I think the series' main problem is that it had about 4 episodes or less worth of plot to spread over 12 episodes. Or it had 24 episodes of plot and they took so long getting around to unfolding it that they had to just throw it all to the wind at the end like celebratory confetti.

The review was the most straight-up apologist piece I've read in a long time, but it was masterfully executed and made me laugh several times, probably more than the series itself did. I give it my kudos, and not sarcastically. It really was impressive. I mean, I don't believe that the series had any message, but the review almost had me convinced that it was all part of their plan. Well done! Very Happy
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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
The review was the most straight-up apologist piece I've read in a long time,

Yeah. Although I kind of liked this line:
Quote:
It doesn't get stuck in plot holes so much as it splashes around in plot puddles.

I might steal that sometime. My take on the series is that Eruna is a pretty good genki-girl but the whole thing has little else. We get the wimpy boy, the stoic boy, the mystical boy, the perverted boy and everybody is a darn good sport about everything. Nothing much matters and it shows.

At the end of the day Eruna never did get out of the sleeping bag, did she?
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:28 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
At the end of the day Eruna never did get out of the sleeping bag, did she?


I think you summarized the whole show right there.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 10:32 pm Reply with quote
Funny that you'd start by saying that the show stayed true to itself when honestly I think that's the exact opposite of what the show did in these last few episode.

I dunno for you, but what I found fun in this series was just Eruna going around being a fountain of energy and going at her own pass. Most episode where really just joke, and that was perfectly fine. Then these last 2-3 episode it turn around and tries to have an actual plot, and boy was that boring. Just this episode, I could barely stand around for the first half, there were maybe 2 joke in 12 minute. Same with last weeks, I truly do not care about Seisa and her sad backstory, she's just there as an object to motivate Eruna, suddenly being asked to worry about her just kill the show momentum.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 11:04 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
Yeah. Although I kind of liked this line:
Quote:
It doesn't get stuck in plot holes so much as it splashes around in plot puddles.

I know, right? He had a couple other ones, like
Quote:
Unlike most of the school's architecture, she survives the experience in one piece... After a little harmless breaking and entering...

Deftly gets the image and point across with an economy of words. Seriously, the review was more fun to read than the episode was to watch.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Jun 25, 2015 12:59 am Reply with quote
I thought that the show was consistent in its themes of just being yourself and having fun. It's most powerful asset was its high energy, and that was its weapon in defeating the darker themes it set up through the series. Plot and animation were not as important, and it did manage to keep that largely consistent to not think you were watching something else.
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Metalraptor



Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Thu Jun 25, 2015 2:00 am Reply with quote
I didn't really like the last episode, it felt rushed, as though they merged several episodes into one, and some of the artwork could have been done a lot better.
Example:

Now I'm not saying that I didn't like the show, I did find it amusing, but I didn't find the grand final all that grand.
There wasn't enough tension, as a matter of fact, the creepy smiling during the fight pretty much destroyed the little tension that had built up, because you know that the outcome doesn't really matter, she's going to join the club even if she loses the fight.
It would have been better if more things went wrong, so that the goal would have been more of a challenge to reach, instead everything just conveniently reset itself, enabling a happy ending that wasn't earned.
They could have had Seisa's power go farther out of control, forcing Eruna and Otone to work together to save her and the school, because as it stands, Seisa and Otone are still not friends, and haven't made peace with each other.
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