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EP. REVIEW: to the abandoned Sacred Beasts


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L'Imperatore



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:00 pm Reply with quote
I'm following the manga (just finished vol 3), and while the first stories are pretty much "monster of the week", it gets more interesting once spoiler[the two leads confront Cain and the subsequent time skip.]
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 2:38 pm Reply with quote
I like the characters, the monster designs are impressive, and the story has good pacing. The part about the Incarnates being former soldiers who gradually turn into monsters could be interesting but so far it looks like Hank having to kill his former friends each week which is several layers of tragic and that is not usually my type of show. Ironically the author seems to want to brighten the mood in the story but his method of including random moments of cute comedy is giving mixed results. Killing Bites from last year had both serious scenes and comedy but the author of that series knew how to transition between the two while Sacred Beasts goes between them a bit too quickly. Still it is a good show overall.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11286
PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:54 am Reply with quote
Quote:
in the original manga Hank made the offer for Schaal to come along rather than Schaal insisting on doing so; I prefer the anime's version.

I think I would have preferred the reverse. Schaal is already getting on my nerves as the classic "Stay in the car! No, I'm coming with you! ::gets in the way or needs rescuing::" trope, and if he'd at least suggested she come along instead of her demanding to, I might be less irritated by her presence.

I actually laughed out loud during the Danny scene. "How do you know he killed them? Did you even ask?!" "I killed them." "Oh. Never mind, carry on." I don't think that was the reaction they were trying to evoke.

Other than that, though, I'm finding it very watchable, and even tear-jerking when it means to be. And I do agree about the music being excellent.
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MasterGhost



Joined: 29 Nov 2011
Posts: 125
PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 5:03 pm Reply with quote
4 episodes in and there's only 4 comments on this thread?

Most underrated anime of the season.
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steelmirror



Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Posts: 342
PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 5:30 pm Reply with quote
MasterGhost wrote:
4 episodes in and there's only 4 comments on this thread?

Most underrated anime of the season.
The thing about shows is, really good ones get people talking about what is going on because they are that into it. Really bad ones get people talking about the show because of how ridiculous or awful the latest ep was.

Shows that don't reach either of those extremes get mostly left alone, because there just isn't that much people feel compelled to say about them.

Or at least, that's my read on this one. It's been a fine if forgettable road so far for me, enough so that I actually forgot it was airing and caught up on 2 episodes this week. It feels like the kind of show I'd be happy to binge some slow weekend or vacation when I just needed something to occupy my attention for a few hours, but nothing to really stand out from the many other shows I've seen that tackle similar issues.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 7:55 pm Reply with quote
so has the story yet dealt with the fact, these "monsters" of the week are war vets suffering from PTSD and killing them instead exactly the right way to deal with that.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3647
PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Theoretically, it's making a point along those lines. But the fact that they made Cain a cackling villain suggests they're not much interested in the issue aside from highlighting the tragedy.

It's weird, because there's no good reason to make Cain a nutcase. He could be a compelling and sympathetic antagonist just by him saying "we shouldn't have to be killed for this," but I guess they figured it wouldn't be enough? Or maybe they were afraid to make their protagonist seem like a bad guy?
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Leviathonlx1



Joined: 10 Dec 2018
Posts: 189
PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 9:39 pm Reply with quote
I don't care for the change to who kills Gargoyle. After this and the pointless changes to Raph in Shield Hero ('I can't kill him because I'll be as bad as him durr') it makes it feel like a lot of anime Directors dislike woman fending for themselves if a man is there with them.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11286
PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:17 am Reply with quote
While there are some parallels with PTSD soldiers, they're hardly exact and the series certainly isn't advocating we put down human soldiers suffering in real life.

But what would you have them do? Schall's father was killing livestock on his way to completely losing his mind and graduating to people. All the rest except the Behemoth were also indiscriminately killing and could not be reasoned with, nor were about to be passively tied down or sent to some mutant psychiatric hospital. There's no cure (yet), nor psychiatric help available. So how should they handle them, if you're opposed to dispatching them? At least Wolverine is a comrade who still remembers their humanity.

On a completely different and random note, what is the deal with Schaal's eyes? They look like she has contacts that have gotten wicked scratched and it's cringey to look at them. Who thought this design was attractive?
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11286
PostPosted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 5:28 am Reply with quote
Do they have no records or any idea of how many Incarnates are out there? Is there some limiter I missed or forgot that prevents them from making enough of the fancy bullets to dispatch them all? They seem to be going at this with some pretty paltry ammo.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3647
PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:28 pm Reply with quote
Is there any explanation of where Liza gets a bag of Incarnate-killer bullets, and/or why, if they have access to such things, the special Incarnate-killing squad does not use Incarnate-killing bullets? It seems like it might be more useful than shiny air jets.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:29 pm Reply with quote
Episode 7 is my favorite of the series thus far. I didn’t dislike Schaal before, but this week made her quite easy to root for in my eyes and I’m looking forward to seeing where the series goes and takes her from here.
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:02 am Reply with quote
Yttrbio wrote:
Is there any explanation of where Liza gets a bag of Incarnate-killer bullets, and/or why, if they have access to such things, the special Incarnate-killing squad does not use Incarnate-killing bullets? It seems like it might be more useful than shiny air jets.


The anime is very inconsistent with the way it's original material.is being injected into the story-and I mean injected vs blending in...

In this instance the anime created the wannabe Attack on Titan gear.And hence we get some scenes with Coup de Grace armed with Civil War-ish weapons and others where they go AoT cosplay.

But I've digressed....

What Liza gave Schaal is the god-killer round used by the Coup de Grace unit. This round is a far less potent version than those used & created by Elaine (scene in the first episode). The anime has left in mention of their potency,or lack of, but animates 'em as if they were the original god-killer rounds..
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11286
PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 5:58 am Reply with quote
7
This episode was nearly the last straw for me. They send out troops to deal with an Incarnate, then when they find what they're looking for, say, "Well, we don't have the weapons to deal with this right now." Why the hell not? Why bother looking for it if there's nothing you can do but die when you find it? Rolling Eyes Not to mention they actually did have Liza's box o' bullets available, so why was no one loaded up with them? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And the dialog. Liza's ridiculous sexual harassment aside, after Papa lumbers off, the Major is stunned to hear his name, cannily putting 2 + 2 together to realize (shock!) that it's her father, though that too has to be spelled out for him by Liza. Oh, so that's why she was calling it "Father" over and over again! Now he gets it! (and let's not forget he "read her file" which apparently contained no biographical information, such as place of birth or relatives, on her at all) Geesh.

And the animation. When the boys came float-skidding around the corner like paper cutouts on sticks after Papa crumbled, I almost spit out my coffee laughing. Any emotional beats earned were instantly lost.

8
That was actually a nice story, but I think a singer who looked like her would be able to find work. As long as she didn't start screeching at them, people would flock to hear a merangel sing. Also, I don't think the writer knows how political dynasties work. He's not heartlessly using his naive son for his own ends, he's grooming him to take the reins and continue his legacy.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:39 pm Reply with quote
Sacred Beasts doesn't go out of the way to be tragic like Elfen Lied but it is starting to get depressing. Almost every week an Incarnate get killed but previously it at least made sense since they had lost their sanity and had to be stopped. With episode 9 this is the first time that an Incarnate has been murdered purely out of fear. I can see what the story is wanting to say but it does crank up the tragedy level. I tend to prefer monster shows like Killing Bites which have a lot of fighting but are also optimistic. Unless something in the story changes Sacred Beasts looks like it will be a Hamlet style tragedy.
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