Forum - View topicActive Raid (TV).
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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Bridges usually have formidable railings which would stop that. In both sever and minor earthquakes the #1 risk is having something fall on you. Building parts, power lines, trees, stuff off of shelves, glass separated from upper stories. This is why the usual instruction its get under your desk or table -- or in a doorway if that is not available, or best get out of and away from the building. Even with Fukushima -- reportedly the concrete containment building was flexing and distorting. But what caused the real damage was the flood from the tsunami later. Most bridges are designed to cope with the energy of earthquakes and will stay intact. Of course in Active Raid everyone just stands still and hangs on to each other. Animation budget I suppose. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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It is amusing because in a funny background event, the show heavily implies someone pick pocketing during the mass panic. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 11:
Honestly, the first half of this episode kinda bored me with all the tense buildup and planning. Second half was alright with more action. I think they tried to get everyone on the Unit 8 division team some moments and I guess it worked. Then again, they got bigger problems to deal with now. Somehow, I thought this episode felt more like a season 1 finale though. Oh Liko...I'm kinda tempted to say "all your base belong to us" or something like that. At least they got the system back up now somehow. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Well that resolved. Glad to see Liko back but the fight itself felt kinda funny. Maybe it's because of the silly moves or resolution. Rather, I am at least glad to see a happy ending.
Yeah, this show was kinda average for me. I liked some episodes while others really felt like a chore. Happy to see Liko back though. Rating it as so-so. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Just another busy day for section 8, almost getting killed in an international incident during a digital takeover of Japan.
The characters were enjoyable enough, but the "main story" kinda petered out. |
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jroa
Posts: 537 |
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Well, I felt the last episode was generally satisfying and fairly conclusive.
Like I've said before, this show never really aimed for any truly sophisticated or innovative main narrative, so it was to be expected that the whole plot involving Mythos and Logos would have a typical resolution rather than anything spectacular. The characters were still amusing and several of them received varying degrees of development, but in the end it was just a fun romp. Thus I thought the plot was good enough in terms of providing a number of entertaining scenarios. Morever, I'd also argue the second half of the first season was generally stronger than the initial set of episodes. Still quite lighthearted and rarely truly serious, not to mention far from completely realistic, but amusing and enjoyable in its own way. That's my take on Active Raid and why I liked it. Of course, the show never really became popular, but I've already said enough about that part of the topic. Presumably the next season will bring a whole new set of antagonists, which should help address one of the weaker parts of the series, given that Mythos never really came across as an interesting foe. I'd tend to doubt we'll see Bird again, other than in a cameo appearance, but who knows? |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
It is a good thing the government negotiated with a terrorist, letting them go overseas to continue their terrorist activities without consequence. It sets a good precedent that tells other prospective criminals that they can get what they want and escape prosecution by being involved in threatening the government. Well at least that was so with Bird. With Mythos we learn the "sad" story where his sister was taken out of the country to protect her from discrimination from being part of a cult, while he was not allowed to leave the country because there may be other cultists overseas. Can someone tell me where that lead to needing to screw with innocent people and ruin many lives and possibly end up someone killed where emergency services may not be able to save people? And apparently his whole rampage was worth stopping with information gathered in a couple hours that he should have been able to find out at any time. Or what about how we are meant to be happy that the virtual character is back to normal. We found out that she was pretty much created by the terrorist and has the ability to watch and even control the access of devices it is loaded onto. Who in their right mind would still use that even if it had some useful aspects? I imagine that the idiots that uploaded it onto the computers of the police department (even against the wishes of those using it) would be liable to a few words about putting unlicensed programs on government systems. I feel like this virtual character has been shoved in the face of the viewers, and from the very beginning I was turned off by the show acting like she is some mascot while telling us that characters were just downloading it off the net. From the very beginning my thoughts was that downloading such a suspicious program was kind of stupid, but the show never acknowledges that it is just a overly animated Clippy and not an actual character. Tell me all you want that the show was not trying to be taken seriously, but in that regards it tried to have its cake and eat it too by trying to be really complex with things like protocols jargon. Just look at its poker episode where it tries to be serious about poker, but it is just one big joke in getting even close to how poker is played. I am sure that there is some nostalgia value in how the show emulates certain aspects of techno heroes with all the battle suits, but for me it just was not enough beyond occasionally being charming. I have not been sold on the show, I have voiced problems with it and usually I have gotten back that I am not watching it right or something, but beyond a couple interesting bits it just was not fun for me. I give a rating Weak (3/10), I kind of wish I did something else with my time. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Except Mythos MO was that he wasn't trying to get anyone killed, Mythos easily could have caused a massacre with any of the willwear schemes but in practice LET the schemes fail due to the existence of section 8. The only part that Mythos didn't calculate accurately were his so called partners. In a strange effort, Mythos was trying to redeem himself for his own past actions and save Japan from it's blatant hypocrisy, Mythos of course is breaking the law but he was never intending to be malicious. In the course of the story, Mythos is a well put together antagonist for Section 8 which the latter is simply a swat group executing the law, Police in truth aren't "super heroes" even if they wear power armor giving them such potential. And in an amusing stealth pun, "Bird flew away" |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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You think that crippling the entire economy as well stopping all internet, television and the response ability of emergency services is not going to foreseeably cause riots or an increase in unpreventable violent crime? It was lucky supermarkets were still operating, much of modern logistics is done via automated orders through internet, which would probably cause a big problem if it suddenly crashed. If you add in exporting and importing, and the cost of delaying dealings for a short time. Hits to international confidence in the Japanese market and the chain reaction it would cause. He might as well have gotten a bunch of people killed. |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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You would have thought that when he imploded an 80-story building in the middle of the city someone might have even remarked upon it. Before that point I had realized that the story here was weak but that pretty much sealed the deal. If you wanted a better thriller of high level intrigue I think "Speed Racer" from the 60's did a better job of it. This anime didn't fail outright, but everything they seemed to try out to do turned out kind of half-assed. The chemistry between Section-8 comrades -- meh. The will-wear battles -- meh. The little spy in the department -- eh. The cabinet-level politics -- who cares. I can't think of anything in the anime that isn't like that. It is like they spent all their energy on the will-wear suit-up sequence (meh) and didn't have anything left for anything else. |
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jroa
Posts: 537 |
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The story itself never treated her as an actual character, except perhaps in a purely meta sense through the next episode previews and other things that happened outside of the anime series.
Complexity, or even complication, does not equal seriousness. These are all different things and it almost pains me to see you're confusing them like this, right to the very end. You're still not getting how so much of that was part of the joke. Claiming this show ever tried to be "serious about poker" simply confirms there's some sort of a structural disconnect between your perspective and the whimsical presentation of the material itself. We can all make subjective judgments about something being good or bad, I will always respect that, but the show just couldn't be more obvious about its own silliness and carefree attitude towards poker, among other things. That doesn't mean you have to like it, not at all, but denying this much is something I would consider unwise at best and counter-productive at worst. Which certainly explains your consistently negative attitude towards the series.
If we must be pedantic, then the building could have been scheduled for demolition. But again, I think even worrying about that makes very little sense in the context of this series. I would never describe this show as a thriller of high level intrigue. Nor is it really heavy or deep in terms of story, to say the least, so obviously there are far better shows that actually did have such ambitious goals in mind. You're free to consider it "meh" or whatever, but for me it was just a rather low-key and laidback series made with a very old-school and Tokusatsu influenced style that was a harmless yet entertaining distraction. It could have been something special or simply stronger if the staff had different objectives in mind, as well as a larger budget, yet the fact is they didn't. Not everyone is going to appreciate what it was going for, yet I'd easily give it a 6.5/10 or so, which is not a failing grade in my book. Maybe the second season will be more of the same, aside from a new plot and some cast shifts, or maybe they'll decide to compromise and change their game plan in order to make more money by appealing to what the mainstream wants. That could certainly happen and the results may or may not be better. Either way, I guess the Japanese reaction will matter a lot more than what any of us thinks about it. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Arguably, that was the mark the show was trying to hit. To clarify, "future tech police" is frankly dime a dozen in presentation and often shows like to exaggerate how supposedly 'AMAZING' it is to be "a police man IN THE FUTURE", a la Psycho Pass, Ghost in the Shell, Etc. In the end, it is just a job, a temporary position that the standing Government can pull apart due to political whims. The show wasn't trying to "boring" as it was trying to bring down the mystique of a group "iron man tech armored warriors" In universe Giant robots are hobbies of middle aged otaku men due to how often you can see Will Wear users performing feats. Certainly the show could have been "a bit better" but if the focus for Active Raid was to make future SWAT cop seem a bit more human in place of "a different version of Power Rangers" I think it delivered that message. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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It feels like you are kind of being a bit too forgiving and simply basing it on your interpretation that it is what is intended. But if you are claiming that I don't get an anime that does not take itself that seriously where parts are made purposely silly and or somewhat nonsensical, well I point to Pandora in the Crimson Shell. Pandora in the Crimson Shell has been being released this same season and is a marrying of futuristic cyberpunk setting with a purposely dated early 2000's ecchi comedy, and I claim that it is one of the best shows of the season. Pandora in the Crimson Shell knows how to sell itself when switching to something somewhat silly, it simply shifts its animation into a silly style, it lets the animation do the talking. The anime gives a lot of hints to its almost dystopian setting, it will throw in serious moments where it is discussing something that may be present in a serious show, but then still use it in a joke. Rather than old school Tokusatsu it uses old school Magical Girl, and it uses it quite fine by I would say making it well known it is real old school. It does not try to overcomplicate it by throwing in spiffy CGI, which might be creating problems if it just wants to be fun. And to take it all home I don't think Pandora in the Crimson Shell is without depth on subject matter as I have been able to write a fairly large amount about the topic the show has been about. It really pains me that most people turned their noses up to Pandora in the Crimson Shell that could play fun with its animation but have things happen underneath, while they stuck with Active Raid that may have had good consistent animation but was anything but consistent with its story. |
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jroa
Posts: 537 |
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Well, I can always call you a bit too unforgiving then. I wonder if that makes us even? Everyone has their own interpretations, no doubt, as well as their unique personal tastes and reactions. There's the people who think Konosuba was incredibly funny and one of the best shows of the season, for example, and then you have those who thought it was too mean-spirited, gross and/or poorly produced. I didn't really watch it, so I wouldn't know which one of those positions to agree with. In the case of Active Raid, my interpretation is subjective but also based on a few distinct factors: knowledge about the staff's publicly stated intentions and an interest in looking up relevant background information, plus a fairly decent grasp of the atmosphere, in-jokes and other quirks involved in the presentation of the material as it exists within the show (as well as following what was being done outside of the series in some respects, such as with the app). I do not expect everyone to share my opinions, nor are they supposed to be inherently flawless, but I am certainly not pulling rabbits out of hats here. Quite a few of the above factors can be independently verified, even if much of the audience isn't interested in doing so. Which is entirely fine by me, but I will still remain true to my arguments. In short, I think Active Raid has been quite consistent in terms of how the show presented itself as lacking genuine seriousness. There are various aspects of the story that aren't realistic, but for me those aren't sources of inconsistency. In fact, they're the exact opposite. Like I've said before, in my mind there is no such thing as some sort of obligatory standard model for how any particular kind of anime, serious or silly, should be made. If there is one common theme throughout my various stances towards other shows, both better and worse than this one, it's that principle. Admittedly, I never kept up with Pandora in the Crimson Shell myself. At a glance, the subject matter didn't seem to interest me. Moreover, the character designs and kind of creepy fanservice elements weren't really too appealing either. I would need to read your posts about the show to see where you're coming from, regarding the setting and whatever depth you found in it, but I doubt it'll radically change my perspective towards either series. As a side note, I absolutely don't think the use of CGI qualifies as a "complication" nor does it necessarily create any major problems. Outside of not appealing to those who prefer other animation styles, that is. If the human characters are still being drawn in 2D, I am fine with it. I will also point out that Pandora in the Crimson Shell might have been watched by even less people than Active Raid, but neither show was remotely close to being among the most popular anime of the season. So there really wasn't any direct competition between the two productions. They're both small fry, to be honest, so it's not like either of them had much of an impact. Most fans simply found them wanting and moved on. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Season 2 Ep1
A political summit is on the rise and its time to rope in some of the old gang back. I don't recall the show clarifying, but it seems to be probably around a year in universe since the conclusion of season 1's events. Soichiro had since taken up a civilian contractor job with a rather eccentric female boss. Asami has taken up a position with a counterpart unit in the west known as Unit 9 (which may or may not be a touhou reference to Cirno) It is not surprising that real world politics of immigration reform and upcoming potential political shifts may become a theme for Season 2, if the handles itself as it did in season 1 even the vaguely referred to disaster in the past will somehow be tied up to political corruption or just as well government negligence all the while scape goating on immigrants and social minorities.. I hope season 2 proves worthwhile as for my own viewing experience was pleased with Season 1. |
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