Forum - View topicActive Raid (TV).
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I'll take "more of the same" for 10 million yen, Alex. * Repetitive equip scenes. If I am not mistaken they did one of those corridor runs on the helicopter unit clearly not big enough for it. * Tiresome banter of the kind "we are such great comrades and friends we can insult each other" nonstop. * Cloying fluff interview to start it all off. * Implausible villains that make no sense. Even the teenage hooker knew better. * Requisite socio-phobic girl who should be in the care of a mental ward not on a high-stress job. * Requisite blonde girl from Europe who speaks perfect Japanese. I am not sure why I watched this but I did. |
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jroa
Posts: 537 |
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*Sailor Moon and GaoGaiGar are allowed to have repetitive transformation sequences every episode and disobey the laws of physics in the process, but it's bad when Active Raid does the same thing.
*Characters in Super Sentai, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sitcoms and buddy cop films are allowed to engage in banter consisting of trading insults or jabs at each other, but it's tiresome when Active Raid does the same thing. And so on with the other issues listed, but repeating that would be pushing my point too much. There's no need to throw the book at this show, so to speak, for the crime of using a bunch of completely normal elements from both inside and outside the genre. |
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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I got a very similar feel of season 1 so far with the way season 2 began.
Some new female characters introduced as well, I hope we find out more about them. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Why does Unit 8 need that long corridor run, when the villains seem to be able to suit up just fine in a porta-potty? Did they actually censor "wanker" or was that some other word I'm not familiar with? |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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S2 ep3
That was... actually pretty funny. For better or worst that was probably the least Active Raid feeling episode at it effectively was an "overt cartoon" of bumbling law enforcement. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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s2 ep 6
ok, so after meandering around for most of this season, this is the first episode that feels "balanced" in regards to actually trying to set up intrigue while displaying the "normal lives" of our cast. The episode is parallel to the first season ep that was all about the giant mech craze that has lost its place, this one focusing on a now departed director whom instead had intent on using the "old style" to film kaiju films with the twist of giant 3d projection being used for more nefarious purposes. If you had enjoyed most of the first season, this is an episode that feels more a return to form in place of the previous s2 episodes which seemed to overtly be tongue in cheek parody. |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13224 |
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I knew Inagi would turn out to be evil at some point, but I was kinda hoping against it. Him and Rin are cute together, but I guess the Yamabuki girls have poor taste in men...
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Assuming she puts her best face forward when sending sexy pics, it's no wonder he doesn't want to go meet her.
 Maybe that should be "her best eye" forward...
Is she knitting a scarf in that or what? |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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Episode 8
Well that was a bummer of an ending.  I mean the culprit was never in doubt, but in essence making it a capital crime is a bit overboard. As shady as everything was in the government's dealings, they could've just covered up that they caught him, or that he was the guy in the suit.
The "Why couldn't it have rained like this then?" part really got to me though. That aside, he should've been able to rig up a distiller on his boat with all those cans. |
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EmbraceMe
 Posts: 2013 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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This show has been fun in the entirety of its run but I feel as if it wasn't as good as the first season. The new addition of characters was nice and all but I don't think they used the characters to their fullest; the two new females felt like mere replacements and aside from Emilia's one single episode devoted to her, I didn't feel much of her presence versus the removed cast. I also wish they made Kuroki more prominent, especially given his relationship with Inagi, this season. The finale also felt pretty rushed and the fight unimpressive considering its the final boss. A-ko's involvement with Bird/Hachijou also seems to come out of nowhere but I guess you can say it makes a bit of sense since she appears in all the scenes of willwear related incidents. Overall, fun show but lacking season compared to the first.
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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In comparison to s1, s2 was inconsistent and fell prey to the usual issues an unplanned for second season ends up in.
Active Raid still had its moments for s2, but at best it only infrequently met the entertainment of the first season and often meandered in trying to connect all the threads. My favorite side character was easily Abigail Martinez, Satomi Arai puts as much heart into the character as any of her other roles. |
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jroa
Posts: 537 |
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Considering I did have a lot to say about the first half of the series, I suppose it's fair for me to finally come out and write some of my thoughts on the second season of Active Raid. If you're not interested, go right ahead and skip this post.
I am not going to change any minds about what was one of the least watched anime of the year in North America and other English-speaking territories but, if nothing else, I believe there are certain factors that should be on the record in order to properly explain why there were still some people who appreciated the show around the globe. Frankly, I got roughly the same amount of personal enjoyment from the second season and would argue it was ostensibly better than the first series in various ways. Mind you, I do admit they didn't do much with the new characters after bringing them into Unit 8. That's a completely reasonable criticism and, as a matter of fact, it's probably one of the biggest weaknesses this time around. But at the same time, I really felt there were more episodic highlights in terms of pure entertainment value as well as a comparatively stronger and more interesting final arc. To be specific, I liked that the main villains were rather low key this time around. Unlike the first series, the second season didn't need to have Mythos openly gloating and making random comments almost every week. Instead, most of the time we got to see Inagi being a relatively reasonable person (for a politician) and they did give him some fairly adequate characterization through his connections with Kuroki and Rin. Even though it was increasingly obvious that he was going to be involved in the overarching plot, thanks to various hints, I thought all of this helped raise the stakes. In that sense, I don't think the show was ever truly "inconsistent" and the links between some of the weekly threats were handled about as well as you could expect from this type of progression within the genre. I believe the confrontation at the fake wedding was a good example of how both sides of the show could intersect in interesting ways. The setup was amusing and certainly ridiculous, practically feeling like something out of a 1970s or 1980s action comedy, but also provided a non-standard resolution that supported the characterizations of the main cast. Granted, I would never make a real case for Active Raid having huge amounts of actual character development because that wasn't even how the narrative was structured, but I felt they did make an effort to give more breathing room to certain individuals. In addition to Kuroki and Rin, I thought Sena's interactions with the illegal immigrant (in what was one of the best "serious" episodes with some relevant commentary and effective world-building inside an otherwise primarily campy production) reflected that. There were some brief moments where it was able to shine a necessary light on them. But even beyond all of the above, this show still was quite fun to watch for me. I had a blast with what we saw of Asami's antics (including the whole silly voice gimmick and her attitude towards the new Unit), the hilarious/gross idol performance, Mythos being semi-useful as an ally, the comparatively cynical take on fanservice during the "beach episode" of all things, the ongoing random cameos of "A-Ko/Girl A" as well as how they actually tied that back into the story in a valid manner, the next episode previews being decently amusing in their own right and listening to some kickass new BGM pieces. To say nothing of the over-the-top launch sequence and satellite battle (shades of Gundam 00/Gun X Sword), plus the simple joy of seeing Bird get violently slapped by someone he had manipulated. At the end of the day, I still found Active Raid S2 to be a worthwhile distraction and felt the last episode provided a satisfactory amount of closure (with room for more, but that's unlikely to happen). I am sure that this series will be quickly forgotten by almost every anime fan in the West, which is no doubt already happening at the time of this writing, but I am glad to have been one of the brilliantly foolish (or foolishly brilliant) folks who had a stupid good time watching this silly show. You might not think any other people like that existed, but they sure did (check out the Nico Nico ratings). |
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