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EP. REVIEW: The Reflection


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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Oh, man... if I had known it was directed by the same guy that directed Aku No Hana, I would not have wasted my time with this to begin with.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:39 pm Reply with quote
I disliked the art style and the show is strangely slow paced as if they were padding it for time. This isn't the worst superhero anime I have seen but it is close. The show has a few amusing moments but for the most part I found it boring.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:59 pm Reply with quote
>review of the premiere is advertised on the side column
>everybody hates it.

This site, man. It sure is special. Confused
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tzarye14



Joined: 09 Jul 2017
Posts: 8
PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 7:24 pm Reply with quote
Whe didn't got much from the plot but the animation (except for the fight scenes where it could've been more fluid) and the music where very good!
It seems that the characters would be likable and their designs are prettu awesome.

Overall: 8/10
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Levitz9



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 8:13 pm Reply with quote
Stan Lee has been pretty weak when it comes to collaborations with Japanese creators. I appreciate that he's been trying to make stuff that appeals to both sides with the best that both groups of creators have to offer; but none of it is turning out very well, is it? Ultimo kinda just was, and now The Reflection kinda just is.

I'd love to know what's going on. Hiroyuki Takei is a great artist with a fantastic flair for action, Ultimo should have been amazing. And with the people working on The Reflection, it really should be much more engaging.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:06 pm Reply with quote
I think it is kind of fact that you cannot just rely on there be superheros, you need to put your own spin on it, and it kind of felt like the first episode did not know what the spin was that it wanted. Flowers of Evil I think is a good title to sort of bring up, because you can feel some of the same eerily tone that sort of makes it uncomfortable. I don't hear it much, and it is not like I am a big fan of that series, but Flower of Evil is not only a psychological show, it is a horror, where the horror is pretty much in terms of social and societal expectations, where really you would not normally call some of the fairly mundane things as scary, but you actually feel that the risks of what they are doing is scary. The same tone is in The Reflection, but there does not feel like it is willing to commit or even take advantage of that.

Lets take the opening scene for example, we start in Japan where they are releasing lanterns, which feels a little sombre, and then some students watch a video where we hear screaming, it feels like we are about to watch something kind of terrifying, something that might change the world in a kind of scary way. This played up by the art style that has a sort of vague look to it, one where we can't see faces past a certain distance, which makes the faces we do see seem kind of intimate, as I would say the rotoscope at times movement (not that it is necessarily rotoscoping. This kind of feels like we are getting into an intimate look from people who are about to see their world shattered, that what we will see might seem kind of vague, and the reliance on a sort of atmosphere rather than the music makes all of the sound effects kind of stand out. In summary, it feels like we are about to see something that will have aspects of horror without being what we would normally say is scary, but how it could be none the less kind of terrifying, kind of like the opposite of All Might of MHA be a comfortable type of exciting.

The animation is a sticking point, and so I will point at another show, Yami Shibai, an anime that has a sort of puppet show vibe, where the limited animation can kind of be used to sort have your mind fill in the blanks to have it all the more terrifying. A use of vague aspects played with the atmosphere to unsettle you, which is quite effective even if the short aspect of the show means they can at times be limited for a full compelling story. For some weird reason The Reflection kind of feels like that, but then that kind of feels unintentional, that instead there was not point to those little moments pauses that go on just a bit much to kind of make you feel tension, that it was pointless. And it runs into the villains too, that the ones we have seen were kind of creepy, the chameleon and bat guys actually could have been used to sort of instil this feeling of unease, how were not necessarily getting a good look at them and their inhuman like aspects could make them feel sort of like movie monsters rather than super hero villains. It even goes into the more human looking villain towards the end who controls the metal and kills the guards, that could be kind of scary if used the right way, but it does not feel like they maybe even intended it that way and don't use it.

One thing I think was actually used okay was the teleportation, it worked quite well with the animation, that with the technique with the art style sort of set up this feeling that you cannot trust your eyes when we first see the teleportation. That it has us think that we did not see properly, and even if we do quickly pick up that it is an ability, something as fantastic as being able teleport around being at the hands of someone wo feels otherwise as secondary as an ordinary photojournalist. Rather than playing up the power fantasy of such a combination, it can kind of feel like we don't know what we might expect, that the rules we call normal are being broken without necessarily everyone having a super power.

It is otherwise ruined by say, as I called it "you know it is America because of all the American flags". It was silly and clashed with the tone. That I did not even know what the deal was up with all of the video screens on buildings. Was it normal to have all of those screens which happened to be prepared as flags for a memorial service of some sort? Was I-Guy able to hack into those screens and sound system while fighting to put on things that personally psyched himself up to make him fight better? You could kind of then consider that as sort of scary that this personal fighting force was not only making himself a defender of the people, but control things that should be for public use as something that personally fits his desire, like a self-proclaimed god. Or were there even screens there in the first place as it felt kind of vague in not being able to fully follow. There was also on the villain side too where one kept on wanting to take the fight into a public arena to get attention, like that was part of what they were doing, acting out these villain roles for the attention, which makes it a reflection of the sort of attention we give super villains. But it does not feel like they were quite ready to actually use that.
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Spastic Minnow
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Joined: 02 May 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:09 pm Reply with quote
Thinking Stan Lee + anime, personally, I was expecting another HeroMan Generic, derivative, forgettable, and largely cringe-worthy. Basically, the same thing Stan Lee has put his name on for the past twenty years. My expectations were so low I didn't even bother watching it yesterday and as I started reading the review I thought my expectations were being met...

But those complaints didn't match with my expectations. Slow and arty? "Stan Lee Presents" usually comes with "Flashy and shallow, full of copies of his previous creations"', that's what I thought we'd get.

So I watched it. Surprised to say, I enjoyed it alot. Expecting the same old clean lines and muscle heads inspired by modern US comic cartoons we get a toned down mix of the pop stylization of a Mike Allred and the 80's noir look of David Mazzucchelli.

So, maybe still derivative, but not the type we've gotten in mainstream fare.

And god, I'd hate it if it were sped up. I saw a lot of meaning in this deliberate pacing. The good intentions but clumsy showiness of I-Guy, the secretive restraint of the other guy (I think he's "Xon"- not "The Reflection", which is the phenomena, not a character).
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2501
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:50 am Reply with quote
What about killed it for me other than the wonky animation (call it an art style...) was the silly "Pow!!" etc. sound effects text appearing on the billboards/screens on the buildings during the fight. And having all the screens showing American flags? As if they didn't already tell us where it was...
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neozxtc



Joined: 25 Jun 2015
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 1:52 am Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Honestly? It was terrible. There was almost no animation. I'm not a fan of the style. The pacing was super-slow and everything this episode was boring. There wasn't one interesting thing that happened. Guys with super-powers were fighting but the attacks lacked any kind of impact. I just couldn't get invested, and I love super-hero stuff. Maybe people who like Western super-hero cartoons will like it better, but let me warn you: this is not Tiger & Bunny. This is 10 leagues bellow it.


I don't like that style either. It almost reminded me of the terrible graphic novels like Watchmen.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 2:48 am Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Oh, man... if I had known it was directed by the same guy that directed Aku No Hana, I would not have wasted my time with this to begin with.

I kinda feel the same way (troll me once, shame on you, troll me twice, shame on me), but then again he also directed Detroit Metal City. If he could have imparted even a tenth of the energy of that into this, we might've had something pretty cool.

The art style is not my favorite, but I could get used to it if the story wasn't so just-kill-me-now plodding, or even if it made a lick of sense. I know I-Guy won the fight, but I still can't tell if he was the good guy or not, or whether it was a two against one fight or a random melee a trois. I still don't know why it began in Japan with only like 20 people in the entire city celebrating O-bon or whatever. I don't know why the three guys were fighting in NY, or what X-face was up to on the ground. I don't know why there were American flags on all the outdoor screens. I don't know why I watched it to the end (I confess to ffwding during some of the most crawling-through-quicksandy parts). Ah well, I won't make that mistake again.
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HandofBobb



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 80
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 4:58 am Reply with quote
I guess I'm in the minority here, but I was pretty blown away, and that's not something I say often. From the moment the credits started, till the end, I was riveted- it didn't seem overly long to me, but maybe thats me being an old fogey...

The art style really reminded my of the various Hellboy and related animated movies- it was a bit jarring at first, but definitely grew on me- seeming like it was intentionally 'off'.

I did wonder at the signifigance being give to the lantern festival at the beginning, as they certainly spent a lot of time on that, and then the girls watching the videos of something happenign "in America" with people screaming, I was almost expecting a 9/11 reference...
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:50 am Reply with quote
neozxtc wrote:
DmonHiro wrote:
Honestly? It was terrible. There was almost no animation. I'm not a fan of the style. The pacing was super-slow and everything this episode was boring. There wasn't one interesting thing that happened. Guys with super-powers were fighting but the attacks lacked any kind of impact. I just couldn't get invested, and I love super-hero stuff. Maybe people who like Western super-hero cartoons will like it better, but let me warn you: this is not Tiger & Bunny. This is 10 leagues bellow it.


I don't like that style either. It almost reminded me of the terrible graphic novels like Watchmen.


I'm curious, why do you think Watchmen is terrible? That's not an opinion I hear often.
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Spastic Minnow
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Joined: 02 May 2006
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Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 8:14 am Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
What about killed it for me other than the wonky animation (call it an art style...) was the silly "Pow!!" etc. sound effects text appearing on the billboards/screens on the buildings during the fight. And having all the screens showing American flags? As if they didn't already tell us where it was...


The people were gathered for a memorial of some sort. The song playing, the flags switching to the space background, the "Pow", "Zap" graphics- those were all part of I-guy's power, or his suit's power. As demonstrated by his attempt to display his name at the end. Was it theatrical? Did you not hear that he was from L.A.? The guy is some sort of "Hollywood" superhero, obviously.
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TymersRealm



Joined: 05 Jan 2017
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:19 am Reply with quote
To start with, I've been interested in The Reflection since it was announced, last year, I think. I know Stan Lee hasn't had a good track record with Japanese collaborations, but this seemed interesting.

While I actually like the Character Designs, The only thing I can say about the Art Design and the Animation itself is: It Sucks! It's like some of the background elements of RWBY's first series: very bland, limited definition. It just feels 'off' is the best way I can describe it.

As to the story itself, for a opener, it's not bad. We get introduced to the main 'heroes' (I-Guy, X-On, and Eleanor) and some of the recurring 'villains'. We also learn that the self-titled event happened several years back. So we're seeing how the world is adjusting with actual super powered people in it. That's kinda cool.
For a 12 ep run, this first ep's story could of been a little better, but it works.

I do kinda like how most of the powers aren't overly flashy. I rather like the minimal take on Eleanor's teleporting. Very nice.
I also liked Flaming Fury's Full-on flame form though. It'll be interesting to see how that form is handled by the animators.

What kinda of bothers me is if The Reflection's story doesn't turn into a vehicle for the idol group that voices in the show and does the EP (which is decent, BTW...). The fact that they, in essence, bookend this ep worries me a little bit.
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Sahmbahdeh



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 712
PostPosted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 7:52 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, I love the character designs, and the art style is amazing. I really dig it. The actual animation, however, was not good at all. It was stiff, janky, and weirdly lightweight, like the movements didn't have enough impact to them. And this was the first episode, so I can only imagine how crappy the animation will be in the rest of the show.

Pacing-wise, I'm confused by the complaints. It didn't feel that long at all to me. It just felt like a regular, 25-minute anime episode. Also, anyone who thinks the direction was bad has no idea what they're talking about. Although I found the characters kind of basic, this is just an introduction, so I'm willing to give it time to develop. I'm curious to see the rest of this show, although I am wary of the animation.
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