Forum - View topicKatana Maidens: Toji no Miko (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko (TV) Genres: action, supernatural Themse: Plot Summary: Since ancient times, shrine maidens who wield swords have been exorcising "aratama," strange existences that threaten the human world. These young women who wear school uniforms and a sword are called "Toji," and they serve as an official unit within the police force as a "special religious service police squad." The government authorizes the Toji to wear swords and serve as government officials, and the government has set up five schools throughout the country for the girls to attend. In the spring, the five schools send their best Toji to compete in a tournament. As the tournament comes closer, all of the representatives rigorously train themselves in order to get stronger and improve their skills. |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Episode 1:
Dang, that was an intense start for the episode. It didn't take long for the episode to get straight into the action and fighting. I think first episode is fine so far. Kanami Etou is cute and the show protrays her with a bright personality. The first episode is setting up for a fighting contest and we see some action already. Hiyori is a pretty cool girl from her appearance and talent so far. There's some fan service with the baths but I'm not bothered by it. Hope the pacing slow downs a bit as it feels like a lot happened so far, at least for the first episode. |
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TymersRealm
Posts: 93 |
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I liked that the viewers got to see what the maidens are supposed to be able to do right off the bat. Though I figure that's more of a tease of what we'll see later on. Otherwise, I'm surprised the 'tournament' went as quickly as it did. I wonder if we have another High School Fleet forming here, in terms of story expectations here?
I figure whatever Hiyori's issues with the Origmai Family is gonna driving these early eps, as well as a eventual friendship between Kaede and Hiyori. I figure this is at least worth another couple of eps. |
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xifeng.hu
 SubscriberPosts: 103 Location: Oahu,Hawaii |
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Somewhat interesting since it seems there will be a plot twist spoiler[Hiyori going after Origami implies something is going on]. Also the sword nerd in me can't help but notice the pronounced false edge on Hiyori's sword (not sure if that is intentional) similar to a saber blade. If you want to know a false edge is the sharpened edge on the back of a mostly single edge sword (like a saber or katana); katana normally don't have a false edge though as far as I know.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I have seen all of the recent ensemble battle girl anime, the likes of Ange Vierge, Schoolgirl Strikers, and Battle Girl High School, the type where groups of teenage girls have magic meets some sort of tech power and fight monsters. And if I was to say there was a problem, it would be that especially lately they have gotten bad, where the creators feel the need to showcase particular heroines to overload the audience, and in the end it feel like they are not actually trying.
But so far with this first episode, it actually feels like they are trying, we had a focus on a cast that is manageable with a peak at more. The animation is not too bad comparatively, and I kind of enjoyed it. Possibly goes into the not quite bad, but not great to most people. But myself being someone who should enjoy these sort of things, it is comforting that this is actually decent. |
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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I liked it, mostly.
CG moves awkwardly, is badly composited, and in general is not what I want to see in anime. I was hoping it would be contained to the monster, but alas the characters are CG as well. At least they're drawn sometimes. But whenever there's a CG cut it's like someone thrust a katana deep into my suspension of disbelief and it takes me out of the whole thing. I'm a sword nerd as well, and for me the key to whether I can watch these 'girls doing X' shows is whether or not X itself is something I care about. So that's why I decided to watch it. I like how the swords everyone has are subtly different, (and sometimes dramatically different, like the sword with a false edge. If I remember correctly that's more reminiscent of older japanese sword designs.) My one complaint about Japanese swords is that they largely all look the same; there's not the wide range of blade and guard geometries that existed in europe. Nonetheless one can appreciate the subtle differences between them. I liked the solution the issue of the dangers of sparring: Unprotected full contact sparring with wooden bokken (which they did do) is pretty inadvisable. Doing it with unsharpened metal iaito unprotected would be REALLY dangerous (if you're doing this kind of thing, you really want some pretty significant protective gear). Sparring with sharps would be getting into the someone-might-actually-get-killed tier of dangerous. The idea that they can somehow turn their bodies intangible when they go at it with sharps does mitigate that problem. I'd have liked it if the techniques were animated in a more realistic way, but this flash stepping snappy impact stuff does look nice as well as a stylized depiction. I'm not really seeing why the main character protected the other girl when she tired to assassinate the leader. that really doesn't seem like something a sane person would do. I'll wait and see, though. the little girl with the big sword joke kind of fell flat. If she were wielding a regular odachi (japanese great sword) it would be funny since it would be a little ridiculous but not completely into the realm of insanity. To call that thing an odachi is a stretch; more like an ooooooooodachi 
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23770 |
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I agree with DP that, so far, this seems a cut or two above the "schoolgirl bughunt" shows that have come out recently. There seems like there is an intriguing story going on here... like why did that girl try to kill that chick during the final match (you can see it will take me a little while to get to know names)? Seems worth continuing on with.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 2
Nice kind of reveal that Kaede was able to see that something was suspect with the woman that Hiyori attacked, and thus did not only act in wanting to fight her, but that something bad was involved. Finding out that some really bad enemy has been taking on the head's identity. |
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TymersRealm
Posts: 93 |
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I'll definitely agree there. I just didn't expect that particular revelation to come this soon. And while that revelation is a part of Hiyori's issues, I get this feeling that spoiler[her deceased Mother] was a part of the backstory event mentioned in ep one. I mean Hiyori is taking this really personally to be just taking out the hidden monster. Now I haven't researched this yet, but there seems to be some significance to Kaede and Hiyori's Swords. Like a "these two shouldn't meet" type feeling. Or am I mistaken? |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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Yeah, I got that, too. The first time they met, and Hiyori tried walking by them, but then they both had their hands on their blades... it seems as if the blades definitely have a connection.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Yeah, I really feel like I really need to go and research a bunch of stuff to see if there are any real-world implications that I'm missing. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11355 |
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I mostly just watched the 2nd episode to see what the fallout of the attack in the first was going to be, but after 3, I think I'm in.
It does seem like they should be sharing some of their intel about Origami with their allies though, in case something happens to them to prevent them from seeing it through. There's definitely a lot of bad things afoot among the miko. That girl that attacked Mai in the hallway had a face that seems to be perpetually sucking lemons, kinda like Lily Tomlin's Ernestine character. 
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2061 |
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Episode 4
Is it just me, or this series getting better and better with each passing episode? The more detailed backstory between Hiroyi, her mother, and Origami was very interesting to hear about and made Hiroyi into more a character that can be easy to root for. I personally think that this show could end being one of, if not, the gem of the season because despite the somewhat okay premiere, the narrative has been getting some steam to make it engaging to those who have kept watching up to this point. Also, Kanami and Hiroyi simply running away after Kaoru and Ellen received their mecha armor was quite humorous. Things seem to be heating up even more next episode and I’m honestly very much looking forward to it. I wonder if anyone else felt the same. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Definitely not just you. Although I was all-in on this series from the outset (for some reason I've never really been able to pin down), there were a number of spots in the first episode where I thought to myself, "wow, imagine how much better this shot would have been if ____ was making this show". I've been making fewer and fewer of those observations every episode, to the point where I'm now convinced that the creators simply needed some time to get a feeling for how the show should look and feel. I can't remember ever being happier that a show had an early second coeur confirmation, because that extra length is (hopefully) going to make up for the early shakiness. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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In regards to how they reacted when the enemy got super powered suits, just as a great king once said: "Run away!".
One thing I am wondering is how easy it would have been to make this show trash like some similar shows of its ilk. The such heavy focus on its narrative despite how it could just show these girls in CGDCT situations is actually worth some praise. As of so far it has also mixed up the setting of each episode, nothing of all girls in the show happening to be staying in the same house or something. I do wish the main duo would finally decide to clue in other people that their little rebellion is because the person they are looking up to is a monster in disguise. Also, that little pet thing was kind of totally at risk of just being killed, and with good reason. |
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