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EP. REVIEW: Schwarzes Marken


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:26 pm Reply with quote
The second episode got most of my attention for this series although there's still quite a lot going on in this show. But then again, this is based on universe with a complicated story in the first place so it was kinda expected. The amount of historical references and violence in this so far is also quite something.

I don't like Katia much but some of the other characters interests me quite a bit especially Beatrix. Going to stick around for more of this show to see where it goes although I heard it's 12 episodes...
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B-K201



Joined: 27 Aug 2015
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:59 pm Reply with quote
Seems okay so far I doubt that this will hold an candle to Total Eclipse though.
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AnimeAddict2014



Joined: 16 Feb 2015
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 7:34 pm Reply with quote
was hoping for the sequel... but this is fine as well

so far so good
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 8:59 pm Reply with quote
Two German guys (both born in the former East Germany region, and both university students studying Japanese), have posted a YouTube video called HOW GERMAN IS IT? - Schwarzesmarken Analysis Episode 1 [シュヴァルツェスマーケン] (Muv-Luv), which takes a look at how legit and how bogus the first episode of Schwarzesmarken is from a historical viewpoint (spoiler: it's more right than wrong).
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Eztli_



Joined: 05 Dec 2014
Posts: 17
PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:42 am Reply with quote
^ Looks like the "Stasi" (TV Tokyo) have found the video and tooked it down. Man, I would totally love to learn how historically accurate Schwarzesmarken is from the perspectives of Eastern Germans.

By any chance, do you remember thier channel name?
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invalidname
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 6:28 am Reply with quote
Eztli_ wrote:
^ Looks like the "Stasi" (TV Tokyo) have found the video and taken it down.

Oh goddammit, that's obnoxious. It was a 45-minute video and they barely used a minute of clips from the show to illustrate their points. When you consider the usual tests of Fair Use (amount taken, purpose, effect on the market for the original), this surely passes with flying colors.

Then again, the same thing happened to me when I posted the video of my Anime Central session on the Muv-Luv franchise, and when I fought back on Fair Use grounds, TV Tokyo and Lantis dug in their heels and I ended up with a strike against me. So now I post all my con stuff on Vimeo.

Quote:
By any chance, do you remember thier channel name?

Yeah, the guy's name is Raith, and his channel is here. Maybe he'll re-edit without the clips (although obviously I wish he didn't have to!)

So, off the top of my head, some of the things they brought up in the video were:

  • All the character names were plausible German names, except perhaps Irisdina, which they were unfamiliar with.
  • There was an extensive Vietnamese guest worker program in East Germany, which explains why Pham is in the squadron.
  • The uniforms and mechanical elements were largely accurate to the times, such as the pistol used to spoiler[kill Inghild], and the car (which may have been a Russian Lada) parked outside the spoiler[Stasi's mass-execution]. One nitpick here is that the helmet style seemed out of place: more WWI than something East Germany would have had.
  • Running through the woods in Theodore's flashback is accurate in their desire to escape, and the brutality of their pursuers, but the presence of trees at the border is questionable: the East Germans cut down the trees so it would be easier to find anyone trying to flee to the West.
  • A logo on the shoulder of the uniform was correct in incorporating the DDR logo and colors, but seemed to also include the outspred wings of the Nazi logo, which of course wouldn't have happened. The actual East German air force logo was just the country's colors with a diamond.
  • While we're at it, they did note that DDR means "Deutsche Demokratische Republik", and not "Dance Dance Revolution", although characters in the subs use the English acronym GDR for "German Democratic Republic"
  • The presence of so many young women in the 666 shares the same justification as elsewhere in Muv-Luv: most of the young men have long since been drafted, and pushing females into combat (and lowering the draft/enlistment age) is the only option left.

So yeah, a little dry in that it consisted of two guys sitting at a table talking for 45 minutes, but quite an interesting brain-dump (and again, curses on TV Tokyo and YouTube for taking it town). They were both born in 89-90, around the time the Berlin Wall fell, and one of them actually has an East German birth certificate.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:20 am Reply with quote
I guess I don't understand why that one is down so quickly when so many others of its type which use video clips for a higher % of their running time are still available several months later. Is that a known problem with the franchise?

(And BTW, what little I watched of that was very informative. If they're going to do something like this episode-by-episode on a place where they will actually stay up, continue posting the links.)
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MakoMori



Joined: 18 Feb 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:55 am Reply with quote
Sounds like an interesting video! I'll watch it if they find a way to put it up again.
Another thing to add, though they probably mentioned it in their video (was it only about episode 1?) is that the German in the articles Theodor reads as well as in the order Irisdina receives is not only grammatically correct but also sounds "right", i.e. like an article or an order. It's a minor detail (and yes, I obviously stopped the video to read it), but I was impressed nonetheless. I have to hand it to the creators, it sure seems like they did their research.

I'm unfamiliar with the Muv-Luv universe up to now and was ready to dismiss this show, but the first two episodes have me intrigued. We'll see where it goes from here.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:51 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
I guess I don't understand why that one is down so quickly when so many others of its type which use video clips for a higher % of their running time are still available several months later. Is that a known problem with the franchise?

Beyond my anecdotal experience, I have no reason to suspect it's unique to Muv-Luv. In fact, note that the takedowns are coming from TV Tokyo, and not âge, which owns the franchise. It's âge that launched that kickstarter last year to bring the visual novels over, and they've employed -- dare I say -- realpolitik in dealing with the fan translator community. A recent update with some newly-translated dialogue from the VNs lists the translators as all being members of Alternative Projects, the Muv-Luv-focused fan translation group. Whatever problem âge might have had with these folks taking the Muv-Luv IP and running with it, they've managed to get over it.

MakoMori wrote:
I'm unfamiliar with the Muv-Luv universe up to now and was ready to dismiss this show, but the first two episodes have me intrigued. We'll see where it goes from here.

If you have any questions about the broader Muv-Luv franchise or timeline -- there are a lot of things I see in these first two episodes that only established fans would understand -- I'd be happy to follow up. I did a history-of-âge panel at a few cons last year (ACen, AWA, and Youmacon), and a video of my slides and presentation is available here.
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MakoMori



Joined: 18 Feb 2015
Posts: 19
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 6:43 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
MakoMori wrote:
I'm unfamiliar with the Muv-Luv universe up to now and was ready to dismiss this show, but the first two episodes have me intrigued. We'll see where it goes from here.

If you have any questions about the broader Muv-Luv franchise or timeline -- there are a lot of things I see in these first two episodes that only established fans would understand -- I'd be happy to follow up. I did a history-of-âge panel at a few cons last year (ACen, AWA, and Youmacon), and a video of my slides and presentation is available here.


Wow, thank you so much! I'll most likely take you up on this offer Very Happy
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BlackPoint.



Joined: 23 Oct 2015
Posts: 708
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Yep the rating for 2nd episode still missing here Smile hope some of the mods fix it quick^^
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 23, 2016 6:53 am Reply with quote
Our German friends have a new "What's German in Schwarzesmarken" video, covering episode 2, and I'm posting the link before I even finish watching it, so someone else can see it before TV Tokyo and YouTube drop the ban hammer.
Episode 2, part 1: https://youtu.be/rUfP8F5_9yg
Episode 2, part 2: http://youtu.be/_KAorNSmIJk

EDIT: a few screenshots so you know what you're in for / know what you missed:

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invalidname
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 3:50 pm Reply with quote
Coming at Episode 3 from the Muv-Luv fan contingent, I've got some mixed feelings. First, there's Katia's utter helplessness when pinned down, and her naiveté about battle. Seemingly meant to boost her moé stats and make her more adorably rescue-worthy, it's hard to believe that a TSF pilot could be so green, even if she's from the West. Muv-Luv Unlimited takes Takeru, the player character, through months of pilot training, and the "Comprehensive Combat Evaluation" early on is potentially lethal (indeed, Haruka, the seeming shrinking violet of Unit A-01, spoiler[lost her legs in a CCE accident that killed two other cadets]).

So on the one hand, it's hard to believe Katia would even be a soldier. On the other hand, it's quite easy to sit on the couch and second-guess what people would actually do when their colleagues are being bitten in half right in front of them. It's also worth remembering that Takeru himself completely broke down the first time he faced death in Muv-Luv Alternative. So, I'll give a grudging pass here.

The rescue at the base is rushed and not the point of the episode, but it's got some in-universe problems too. Specifically, why do Katia, Pham, and the rest linger in the hangar long enough to be surrounded by Tank-class BETA? Any human-sized hallway would offer an escape route that Tank- and Grappler-class couldn't fit through. Of course, I'm joking here, because there are smaller classes of BETA that would fit (Soldier- and Warrior-class) and these did most of the killing in similar scenarios in both Alternative and Total Eclipse, but neither of those types has yet appeared in Schwarzesmarken.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 4:05 pm Reply with quote
So far this show makes Iron Blooded Orphans look nuanced. Amusingly dumb.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2016 6:24 pm Reply with quote
a nice muvluv moment was the "good american chocolate", I was like, "but they are in europe, they have countries that make better chocolate ", then I remembered this is muvluv, so not anymore.
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