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ChibiKangaroo
Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
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 Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 4:02 pm
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When I saw you mention the dragon battle I was half expecting you to say that Touya came up with a new spell that allowed him to tame the dragon and turn it into his own pet. Then it changed into a super hot monster girl dragon who begged to join his harem. And his response to all this? "Meh, if you feel like it. I don't really care one way or the other."
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SleepySkull
Joined: 03 Jun 2017
Posts: 36
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:06 am
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| Chrono1000 wrote: | | After episode 5 when my faith in humanity crashed against the rocks of cruel reality I am now much better prepared for this show. Of course Yuminia wouldn't be the youngest member of Touya's harem and I am guessing that the only reason that his entire harem didn't go on the trip to the slime castle is because there will be even worse locations in the future. I do find it strange though that this show is so inconsistent with the fanservice and episodes 1 and 6 have none. |
If it's any consolation, unless they make big changes from the LNs they're adapting, Sue won't be joining the harem. But I agree with your general point. Would that the rest of the episodes were like episode 6, where the fan service makes way for something approaching coherent storytelling.
The Slime Castle segment had me scratching my head. While the dissolving clothes fan service was pretty mild, I can understand people being creeped out by it. That along with Touya's groping the boob slime which seemed to go on longer than necessary, and the peeping at Linze in her underwear bit seemed to come from left field. I came to the conclusion that the studio was modifying the original story to better track its intended (Japanese) audience. At this point I'm sorry to guess that a future gratuitous beach party segment is all too likely to be elevated from a quick, minor joke interlude to taking up half an episode.
| Christopher Farris wrote: | | This brings up even more questions about Touya's powers and the people he's ostensibly serving at this point in the series. Frankly, the show might actually be interesting if anyone in the story acknowledged how absurdly overpowered Touya was. |
God, I hate being that guy who continually bleats about how much better the original source material was. But yeah, explanatory material has been trimmed a lot in this adaptation. While protective amnesia has set in on the first episodes, I remember in the LNs that when Touya discovers how ridiculously OP God made him (ostensibly to guarantee that he wouldn't quickly die after reincarnation) he's embarrassed by praise because, as he puts it, it feels like he's being praised for cheating. Later on when he meets Charlotte, the court mage, she's fascinated by his atypical power and she seems torn between extensive interrogation or just having him translate all the Ancient Magic Script scrolls in her library. Along the same lines, from the opening visuals it seems clear we'll also be meeting some new characters who understand the implications of his unique magical power.
It's just my interpretation, but I've always thought there was good chance that the king's desire to marry off his daughter to Touya and his gift of a giant house within sight of the palace could be a matter of enlightened self-interest. Once Touya demonstrates how useful he is in guarding royal health, it make sense to try to keep him close at hand through bribes and/or seduction. I'm kidding, of course. So far the royal families are portrayed as the most noble and just characters that cardboard allows.
BTW, after my vociferous exception to your episode 4 review in fairness I have to say I appreciate your more moderate language in the last two reviews. I'm not quite as disappointed as you in this anime so far, but I won't disagree with most of the points you've raised.
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Blanchimont
Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3448
Location: Finland
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:56 am
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| SleepySkull wrote: | | If it's any consolation, unless they make big changes from the LNs they're adapting, Sue won't be joining the harem. |
Is that bit of info from the webnovel? I ask because at least in the j-novel translation the girls have pretty much decided she will become part of it, it's even explicitly mentioned once to Toya (check novel 3, ~two-thirds down)(there's also another mention somewhere else in a conversation between the girls), although Yumina does mention it'll be in about 3-4 years down the line....
Admittedly, whether or not it happens it won't be in the time-frame the anime adaptation covers...
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SleepySkull
Joined: 03 Jun 2017
Posts: 36
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:15 pm
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| Blanchimont wrote: |
| SleepySkull wrote: | | If it's any consolation, unless they make big changes from the LNs they're adapting, Sue won't be joining the harem. |
Is that bit of info from the webnovel? ...
Admittedly, whether or not it happens it won't be in the time-frame the anime adaptation covers... |
Yeah, my comment was meant to reassure the more easily offended that the source material being adapted isn't as creepy as they feared. The opening visuals only indicate the first three volumes, which is also the limit of my experience.
I haven't been keeping up with this series as well as I might, however. A check on Amazon shows a Kindle version of volume 4 arrived just last week, and (for those who read Japanese) the Tankobon editions are up to volume 9. Actually kind of impressive for a guy writing novels on his phone.
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Ghaleon
Joined: 16 Mar 2016
Posts: 2
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 4:55 pm
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I dont understand why people are expressing so much hate over this great work but I will admit that the pace of the anime is fast and as a result, a lot of important content from the novel is being skipped but even so, there is still enough material to make an entertaining anime the girls each have strength and weaknesses that increase the fortitude of the party the best element the anime has going for it is not completely knowing what could happen next then there's the humor namely Touya's personality his inner mischief and how slip is his trademark spell for various reasons and while a lot of speculation has been made regarding Touya's origin I'm sure that his background will be explained when he finally tells his harem who he really is overall I firmly believe that the positives outweigh the negative enough to warrant the anime adaptation
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SleepySkull
Joined: 03 Jun 2017
Posts: 36
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Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 4:02 pm
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| Ghaleon wrote: | | I dont understand why people are expressing so much hate over this great work but I will admit that the pace of the anime is fast and as a result, a lot of important content from the novel is being skipped but even so, there is still enough material to make an entertaining anime... |
While I enjoy the novels, calling this anime "great" is rather a stretch. Still, your question stands. I think what's going on is that while most of us enjoy Japanese culture and fantasies specifically because they're different from our own, some viewers are having their taboo circuits triggered. I mean, it doesn't surprise me that a reviewer who gushes over Sakura Quest would be inclined to dump on this anime. But did he have to flash his PETA credentials by describing the dragon battle as "senseless lizard murder"? Oh, wait. My bad. That didn't happen. It was the quest to rid a forest of rampaging killer apes in episode 4 that got described as "they murder a bunch of monkeys for some reason". I'm pretty sure that description wasn't because the reviewer is unschooled in Japanese camping lore ("Leaves of three, let it be. Eyes that glow, just say 'no'").
So why the different descriptions of essentially the same sort of battle? I think it was because his judgement of episode 4 was compromised with outrage over (what he saw as) the sexual exploitation of children. I cried "foul" at that point because while my blood will boil over something like the real world Rotherham scandel I'm not emotionally invested in age of consent issues for pixels and the implication that this anime is somehow pandering to pedophiles was silly.
To be fair, the translator of the subs has needlessly stirred things up too. When God calls Touya with congratulations on his engagement the seiyuu uses the term "ipputasai". In the LNs, Google translate, and just about anywhere else this word is rendered as "polygamy". The translator decided to strike a blow for gender studies majors, however, by translating it as "polygyny", a term so obscure that I originally assumed it to be a typo. The reviewer mistakenly concluded that this was a deliberate word choice by the creators to reinforce the patriarchy. Or something. It's hard to tell because once someone's taboo circuits are firing, you tend to get rationalizations instead of rational discussion.
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Chrono1000
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:31 pm
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| Ghaleon wrote: | | I dont understand why people are expressing so much hate over this great work but I will admit that the pace of the anime is fast and as a result, ... |
Great work? If Smartphone had played to the strengths of the light novels it might have been good but at the moment I would say it is about average. And even when excluding the Yuminia issue the show doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The show can't decide between adventure and fanservice which is a bit of an issue since there are better examples for each of those genres. For adventure it is competing against Chaika The Coffin Princess and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress while for fanservice it is competing against Keijo and Monster Musume. I generally like isekai but this show has issues. To be fair it has several episodes left and there are hints of an overall plot so maybe it will get better.
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teferi
Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 400
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:53 pm
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| Quote: | | and the resulting shot of these fantasy-realm anime girls marveling over their new firearms is so goofy and incongruous that I had to pause to give myself a chance to stop laughing. At least the show can offer unintentional comedy now and again. |
I get that it's a goofy fantasy series but all I could think about was how he just gave two teenage girls firearms without explaining anything about how to properly handle them.
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EmpyreanBlaze
Joined: 14 Jul 2017
Posts: 44
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:48 pm
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The usual benevolence. Slip goes his Majesty. He took a horizontal picture vertically... 612 year old loli, and I bet the same zero tolerance prudes will riot when her ecchi scenes arrive. Plus there are now guns! He even uses one against cloaked assassins. Spicy Japanese curry... What else is new?
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Rob49152
Joined: 19 Dec 2014
Posts: 118
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 11:18 pm
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I see this anime as 1) making fun of the way Kirito is so OP in SAO. 2) being kind of like what One Punch Man would be if he tried to entertain himself instead of be so bored with everything.
I also is a palette cleanser between much more average anime this season.
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Cam0
Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 4888
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 4:05 am
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| Episode 7 review wrote: | | There's so many steps of Touya creating, programming, and testing the thing, with every detail of how it works (which all just boil down to ‘magic’ anyway) spelled out. Magic gunblades aren't a new idea in this kind of fiction by any stretch, but the writer seems so proud of themselves for the over-detailed way they came up with how it works. Maybe this kind of thing is fun when you're discussing role-playing game systems and exploits with your friends, but it doesn't make for a compelling story. |
I kinda like this part of this show in general. Like Touya learning new abilities and using them to create something new. His creations and ideas aren't super unique or creative, but I find it kinda fun to see how he'll make use of his ability to basically be able to do almost anything.
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SleepySkull
Joined: 03 Jun 2017
Posts: 36
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:16 pm
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| Christopher Farris wrote: | | but the writer seems so proud of themselves for the over-detailed way they came up with how it works. Maybe this kind of thing is fun when you're discussing role-playing game systems and exploits with your friends, but it doesn't make for a compelling story. |
This is a light entertainment anime. I seriously doubt that anyone involved has ever intended it as "compelling". And like it or not, thinking through the implications of being able to combine magic with another world's technology and accumulated knowledge is a significant part of the source material. If you don't like that sort of thing, fine, but plenty of other people do. It certainly seems apropos for an anime called Isekai Smartphone.
| Quote: | | The last drop of narrative torture this week is Touya finally investigating those mysterious characters they foreshadowed way back at the beginning ... while Touya calls them by name as if we're supposed to remember who these people are, I was hard-pressed to recall the right information for this Scooby-Doo reveal. When you're shockingly revealing someone's true identity, the audience's reaction should never be “…who?”, but that's where we are with Isekai Smartphone. |
Yeah, about that. Both the maids and the mysterious observers were introduced last episode. At the beginning of this episode Touya ponders the mystery of the thrown knife and Kohaku reminds us of the mysterious observers. I don't know what else they were supposed to do to narratively hold people's hands. Should they have had Touya wonder aloud at the dinner party, "Gee, I wonder what our new maids Lapis and Cecile are doing right now?"
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ChibiKangaroo
Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:35 pm
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As usual, this review is the highlight of my visits to ANN for the week. Seriously Christopher, you could do a comedy show reviewing this anime and it would be better than the goofy youtube reviews of SAO. 
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TasteyCookie
Joined: 19 Jan 2017
Posts: 421
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:56 pm
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| ChibiKangaroo wrote: | As usual, this review is the highlight of my visits to ANN for the week. Seriously Christopher, you could do a comedy show reviewing this anime and it would be better than the goofy youtube reviews of SAO. |
Oh definitely. While I don't always agree with the reviews, they are genuinely entertaining.
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Chrono1000
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Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 10:51 pm
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Touya made himself a gunsword out of Dragon tooth and gave guns to two of his harem. An obvious harem protagonist mistake since that shows favoritism. I do like the new girl Leen even if the main point of Touya meeting her in this episode was to get a new spell.
| teferi wrote: | | I get that it's a goofy fantasy series but all I could think about was how he just gave two teenage girls firearms without explaining anything about how to properly handle them. |
From what others have said the anime for Smartphone is like the cliff notes version of the story.
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