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This Week in Anime - B: The Beginning The Sequel




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MesousaGaby



Joined: 16 Oct 2018
Posts: 71
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 8:08 am Reply with quote
WOW, what a letdown. Three years for this?!
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Suxinn



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 242
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:31 am Reply with quote
Uh, think editorial grayed out the wrong names in the heading there...

Anyway, the only things I remember from the original B: The Beginning was 1) Lily was the best thing about it, 2) there were some blatant BBC Sherlock ripoffs, particularly the random words appearing on screen, that looked really terrible on Netflix because of the way they did subtitles, and 3) clowns were somehow involved??? So, uh, not much. (I literally went, "Who the heck is Yuna?" while reading this review.)

And from the looks of these screenshots, it seems like the production values took a serious nosedive in this three year interim, so it doesn't even seem like a sequel worth watching just for the spectacle. Though you two make the plot sound just batshit enough that I'm almost tempted to watch it out of a sense of morbid curiosity.
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anime-prime



Joined: 17 Mar 2020
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:54 am Reply with quote
I like the B: The Beginning sequel title references that the reviewers used in this series discussion. They know which ones I mean.
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Honeyman



Joined: 23 Oct 2012
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:26 pm Reply with quote
I was looking for something to watch recently and remember enjoying B: The Beginning due to its slow build to revealing the outcomes of its plots (who was the true serial killer and would Koku reunite with Yuna in order to live in peace?) That season even ended with a nice tease that made sense as you could imagine some of Koku's fellow students also escaping the assault on their school.

I've watched three episodes of this follow-up so far and something just feels off or missing. I'll watch the other three episodes as I like that Keith uses his wits and intellect to outmanouver dangerous foes. However you have to wonder if more episodes were originally intended as six only works if the story and character development are well-written and tightly plotted. Here its a little cast to the wind as it were and that's a shame given the high quality of its prior season (and a great ending track as well).
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Philmister978



Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 301
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Suxinn wrote:

And from the looks of these screenshots, it seems like the production values took a serious nosedive in this three year interim, so it doesn't even seem like a sequel worth watching just for the spectacle. Though you two make the plot sound just batshit enough that I'm almost tempted to watch it out of a sense of morbid curiosity.

At least part of that can be blamed on COVID, I think, I have no idea when the animation part of these episodes actually happened, but if they were done in 2020, I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the shows that got hit the hardest, since I noticed episode 6 reused some animations and in general looks far weaker animation-wise even compared to the rest this already weak looking season. Can't explain why this season was more of a mental mind fudge though.
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LastPage 3



Joined: 13 Jun 2010
Posts: 190
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:16 pm Reply with quote
I really think I'm going to have to avoid reading any of these TWiA things again. Every time I read one, it's basically people just dunking on a show while trying to be funny. No added value here.
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Lord Vaultman



Joined: 03 Mar 2017
Posts: 810
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:33 pm Reply with quote
LastPage 3 wrote:
I really think I'm going to have to avoid reading any of these TWiA things again. Every time I read one, it's basically people just dunking on a show while trying to be funny. No added value here.


Not saying they don't like seinen but this site generally likes to dunk heavier on seinen series more so than others it feels like. I really enjoyed B the beginning just because of the fact the show revolves more around adult themes. That alone in my opinion makes it superior to 2/3 of anime out there.
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russ869



Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 422
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:01 pm Reply with quote
The added value is just the tons of screenshots that give me a good idea of the visual look of the show. Honestly I never read any of the dialogue of these columns... It's pointless jokes (and pretty much the same ones every time).
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5888
PostPosted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:16 pm Reply with quote
LastPage 3 wrote:
I really think I'm going to have to avoid reading any of these TWiA things again. Every time I read one, it's basically people just dunking on a show while trying to be funny. No added value here.


Well you can always stick to the traditional reviews on the site.........and complain about the reviewers dunking on a show without the trying to be funny stuff.
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Denys Lalande



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:32 pm Reply with quote
Who wrote this -- Vince Russo? I saw episodes of World Championship Wrestling written by him more coherent than this.
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Philmister978



Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 301
PostPosted: Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:37 pm Reply with quote
Denys Lalande wrote:
Who wrote this -- Vince Russo? I saw episodes of World Championship Wrestling written by him more coherent than this.

The show? Or the review?
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zztop



Joined: 28 Aug 2014
Posts: 642
PostPosted: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:47 pm Reply with quote
Philmister978 wrote:
Suxinn wrote:

And from the looks of these screenshots, it seems like the production values took a serious nosedive in this three year interim, so it doesn't even seem like a sequel worth watching just for the spectacle. Though you two make the plot sound just batshit enough that I'm almost tempted to watch it out of a sense of morbid curiosity.

At least part of that can be blamed on COVID, I think, I have no idea when the animation part of these episodes actually happened, but if they were done in 2020, I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the shows that got hit the hardest, since I noticed episode 6 reused some animations and in general looks far weaker animation-wise even compared to the rest this already weak looking season. Can't explain why this season was more of a mental mind fudge though.


The Japanese website's production notes talk about this.
http://www.b-animation.jp/note/succession/

Producer Kuroki Rui confirms Succession's production staff mainly consisted of new people due to the long production gap, and hints at the Covid situation complicating things for them ("The production was more difficult than the first season due to the current situation, but the staff persevered and we were able to complete the project.")
https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1906855#msg62394292

As for this season's main story itself, Nakazawa Kazuto confirmed that "it was originally planned to be the main part of the first season."

Succession definitely feels like a Part 1 of the overall story though.

They'll need a S3 as a Part 2 to hopefully properly conclude everything.
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Honeyman



Joined: 23 Oct 2012
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:09 am Reply with quote
Suxinn wrote:


They'll need a S3 as a Part 2 to hopefully properly conclude everything.


I do hope this is the case. The way this ended feels like its halfway through where they intended to go with the story and is therefore incomplete. I still like to see what Keith is able to do in the situations he finds himself in and Lily has a very lively/active personality too. If the show concentrated on those two and Koku I think it'd be more focused but that's just me.

There's a chance for them to redeem the series as season 1 was pretty good in comparison. I hope they don't continue to drop the ball going forwards.
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1035
PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:18 am Reply with quote
Quote:
C: The Continuation ... E: The Ending

If you wanted it to end a season earlier you could go with D: The Denouement.
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