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REVIEW: Ajin season 2




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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:29 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I was frankly very put off by the treatment of both Ajin women in this season. I loved the first season, but am not sure if I can even consider this one worth purchasing. I'm all for uncomfortable content, and am okay with a lot of very questionable stuff in other series, but I found the way they treated both of them to be pretty irritating, and kind of salacious at times. Other than that, I didn't find myself quite as drawn in by the story this season as I was in season one either, for whatever reason. I still loved Sato, but everyone else was a little boring, and I felt like there were a few too many contrivances. Maybe it's due a rewatch when I'm in a different mindset, but yeah, I was rather disappointed.
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danpmss



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 763
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 3:00 pm Reply with quote
Aren't all Ajin people treated like trash by everybody?

I don't thing this is exclusively for the women at all (in fact, I'm yet to see any Ajin woman being brutally tortured in this, like many of the male Ajin characters, as for terrible mistreatment we had it in both sides).
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 4:03 pm Reply with quote
It was more the fact that they were essentially pets, and at times literally beaten by their "masters". Yet shown to seemingly have emotional and even romantic attachment to them. And there were no female characters of note really outside of them that were shown in a more independent or positive light.
I don't remember any of the male characters going through anything like that. They were just tortured unceremoniously.
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danpmss



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 763
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 4:26 pm Reply with quote
I see your point, to an extent (both male and female in this series are still treated inhumanly, no exceptions, even kids), but I have one huge impression that this is yet another light example of Unfortunate Implications (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnfortunateImplications) caused by the Fantastic Racism-heavy thematic of the series.

As for the "romance" (very debatable) and apparent sympathy from some other characters, it's more of a case of some kind of Stockholm Syndrome, as all of the Ajins are treated as hostages for their on lifes (in Izumi's case, it could be more of a "if it wasn't for this guy, i would be pretty much tortured for the rest of my life" kind of developed affection through more or less the same process). Said relation could correspond in a kind of Lima Syndrome sooner or later spoiler[ because of some recent stuff that happened in the manga ] (as it was already shown than the adult version of Byakuya Togami in this series actually cares about people around him, besides being one cold guy... spoiler[and even the MC, who was recently shown in the manga to be a really nice person, besides almost everything up to that point going misleadingly to the opposite direction ]).
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 12:10 am Reply with quote
Yeah, that's a fair enough point. I've gotten more aware of the existence of sensitive material recently, so it often at least flashes on my radar, even though it usually doesn't bother me. I think the combination of that with the overall miserable atmosphere of the series just made it even more uncomfortable and unpleasant to watch. Like I said before, it might be worth a rewatch at some point. I have had an unexpected string of really dark media in my life over the last month or so, which has kind of burned me out a little bit.
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G_Spark233



Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 1:42 am Reply with quote
Definitely weaker than the manga with fights and characters but I still enjoyed this season.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 901
PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:57 pm Reply with quote
Needed more Kaito. His subplot didn't really go anywhere, and spoiler[he wasn't even in the last episode, even though Eriko came back alright].
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4374
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:33 am Reply with quote
G_Spark233 wrote:
Definitely weaker than the manga with fights and characters but I still enjoyed this season.


true, though the manga definitely had more development with some characters. the only problem i had with both is that they made kei an enormous ass and is still acts like those smart alec bastards. if there is one character who would absolutely remind anyone of CG's lelouch, its kei nagai. which is why i cant really be surprised netflix had lelouch's VA to voice him.

also i was really sure that steve cannon was voicing tosaki, but of all people TODD???? the same VA that did FT's Natsu and D Gray Man's Allen Walker??? If someone in any forums had told me that, i wouldnt have believed that person cause to be frank, tozaki doesnt sound like him at all!!!


Quote:
However, the true star of this series' second half is Sato.


THAT THERE IS MORE THAN AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!!

he is basically an old man version for Hunter X Hunter's Hisoka. both smart like a lion looking for food, have absolutely inhuman fighting abilities and both are completely psychopaths and nutty like a couple of fruitcakes.


though i wonder why the dub voice for saito wasnt released. could it be possible that the VA chose that he didn't wanted his name to be public???


Last edited by jr240483 on Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3982
PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:42 am Reply with quote
This was so damned good.

Glad we finally got more of Izumi, as mentioned too. It's true though Sato always steals the show when he's on (in both languages).
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JRPictures



Joined: 03 Aug 2016
Posts: 117
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:46 pm Reply with quote
jr240483 wrote:

though i wonder why the dub voice for saito wasnt released. could it be possible that the VA chose that he didn't wanted his name to be public???

Hard to say since Netflix hasn't provided English credits for the show at all, though headway might've actually been made on identifying Sato's voice actor as Pete Sepenuk is credited for the role on his IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0784614/

And upon listening to his voice over demos, some of them do sound a lot like Sato's English voice: http://thesep.com/demos/
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