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EP. REVIEW: Snowball Earth


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L'Imperatore



Joined: 24 Mar 2014
Posts: 1080
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 8:44 am Reply with quote
This is the first non-Gundam mecha show we've had in a while, no?
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K.o.R



Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 242
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 12:19 pm Reply with quote
The OP reminds me a lot of the first Fire Force one, which I found amusing since they're so opposite in basic theme.
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malvarez1



Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 2976
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 1:07 pm Reply with quote
L'Imperatore wrote:
This is the first non-Gundam mecha show we've had in a while, no?


How could you forget Bravern? Show was epic.
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unready



Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Posts: 428
Location: Illinois, USA
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 8:02 pm Reply with quote
Jeremy Tauber wrote:
... Think of it like if The Iron Giant and The Day After Tomorrow fused together...

My reaction was more like "What if Attack on Titan was mecha?"

Also, he's only been away from Earth for 14 years, but Earth has become wholly an iceworld and nobody remembers the "savior of humanity." What?

I know TV isn't real, but sorry, no.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2557
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 9:42 pm Reply with quote
unready wrote:
Also, he's only been away from Earth for 14 years, but Earth has become wholly an iceworld and nobody remembers the "savior of humanity." What?

I know TV isn't real, but sorry, no.
Most of the world has been trying to collectively memory-hole a global pandemic from six years ago.
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TJ_Kat



Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 868
Location: Saskatoon, Canada
PostPosted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 11:38 pm Reply with quote
I swear everyone is just standing around slack-jawed for 90% of this show.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4285
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2026 7:47 am Reply with quote
I'm getting the distinct impression everyone is watching a slightly different show. The first episode I saw had a montage of kaiju battles on Earth prior to going to space.
And after watching the dub, then the sub, I went back to check just now and it's still there.

Are people looking for reasons not to like the show? I can say I didn't like the subbed version as it didn't really convey what was going on with Tetsuo's social anxiety. The dub is definitely the way to go here.

Anyways, I love the show as I think it's an "after the ending" type of story but instead of some apocalypse, it's after the "bad ending" of a mecha show.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 3020
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2026 1:51 pm Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
I'm getting the distinct impression everyone is watching a slightly different show....Are people looking for reasons not to like the show?...Anyways, I love the show...
As a disinterested party, I appreciate your honesty so I'd be interested to hear you go more into depth on why you like this show so much. What parts make you feel that what way and what do you relate to most? As someone who has struggled with the issues brought up here (albeit presented so ineptly) my whole life, I could imagine those could resonate.

More directly, I'd offer that criticism tends to focus on and highlight specific elements as emblematic rather than go into a long list of specific issues and that is what you are observing in commentary. Also, negatives are easier to expound on than positives because they create stronger reactions and so are easier to analyze. It's not that people who are interested enough to watch a few episodes are generally looking for things to criticize, though some do that, but they are finding various elements they didn't like or were different than expected and talk about those mostly and so give the impression that they are observing through a mental filter.

I believe it is more rare that someone considers a show as a whole and reacts to that more than it's parts. And it is true, especially for an episodic show, that some people can find an individual element or something from an individual episode so objectionable that they do form a mental filter and stop observing what is actually presented in the rest of the episodes. My observation of commentators here is that the latter is more an extreme than the norm...
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1742
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2026 4:07 pm Reply with quote
unready wrote:
Also, he's only been away from Earth for 14 years, but Earth has become wholly an iceworld and nobody remembers the "savior of humanity." What?

I know TV isn't real, but sorry, no.

That's why I always felt that some post-apocalyptic stories like Mad Max didn't make much sense, at least when it comes to the concept of people forgetting about the past, I know in many of those stories there's usually a huge cataclysm that maybe destroyed important records or something, but what about people telling how things were in the past? Even if millions died or something, there's probably tons of survivors that remember a lot of what happened.
As for the show itself, I only watched the first two episodes, it looks very weird, at first I thought the animation was kind of limited, but then I realized it was done in GCI
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 5342
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 12:42 pm Reply with quote
Silver Kirin wrote:
unready wrote:
Also, he's only been away from Earth for 14 years, but Earth has become wholly an iceworld and nobody remembers the "savior of humanity." What?

I know TV isn't real, but sorry, no.

That's why I always felt that some post-apocalyptic stories like Mad Max didn't make much sense, at least when it comes to the concept of people forgetting about the past, I know in many of those stories there's usually a huge cataclysm that maybe destroyed important records or something, but what about people telling how things were in the past? Even if millions died or something, there's probably tons of survivors that remember a lot of what happened.
As for the show itself, I only watched the first two episodes, it looks very weird, at first I thought the animation was kind of limited, but then I realized it was done in GCI


I expected that after Yukio appears in episode 2, people would realize that their big hero was back. Most of the people he meets are old enough to know who he is. But...I guess not?


I'd probably be ok with the CGI if not for using it for the characters all the time. Something about using 3d CGI to mimic 2d characters always distracts me. Things like the limited facial animation we'd see in anime being applied to a 3d model just highlights that it is barely animated.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 4364
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2026 3:02 am Reply with quote
Watched the first episode previously a week or so ago and just finished the 2nd & 3rd episodes earlier. I'll give it another episode or two, but it does feel like something we've seen before. The CG is serviceable.

Ep 1 - Not surprised that the super weapon didn't work, but didn't expect the slaughter after either. RIP.

Ep 2 - How did Tetsuo (and the shovel for that matter) survive falling multiple stories (at least) down on to solid ice? It wasn't even like they added extra material that fell down with him, just a drop into a hole.
I guess you can call it a perfect shot, or say that their hides are far stronger, but have a kaiju beaten by a small excavator kind of messes with their "power scaling"...

Ep 3 - So he spent (at least) 4 months in space before going in to cold sleep for some reason (and had the means to survive that long)?
I guess we'd have to presume that Yukio needed additional data that was downloaded once they returned to Earth and not that it took 10+ years to install...
Yukio: "I have no decent weapons. Just an escape pod that's lucky to have arms" Pulls out a very effective beam blade just moments later Rolling Eyes

I guess those white spheres brought about the new ice age?

Being in a region with volcanic activity like Japan makes sense for a warm haven for humans to survive, curious to see what it looks like next episode.
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Iron Maw



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 549
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2026 3:40 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Where the episode makes its misses, however, is within the flashback detailing Ao's backstory. It starts out good enough, showing how a kaiju rose from underneath the ocean ten years ago to freeze the Earth. Wait, I thought they all came from space? Maybe one fell from space and then into the ocean. Whatever, I can suspend my disbelief for this.


I don't see how its less unbelievable that some kaju may have come from earth than space given neither exist in either location in IRL anyway. Moreover fact that Tetsuo is shocked about this in-universe on top of point that's made that kajiu Tetsuo fought and one that froze earth had humanoid looking appearances as opposed to animal/lizard-ike space kajius that isn't just a random thing but foreshadowing about how humanity landed in this mess

Covnam wrote:
Ep 2 - How did Tetsuo (and the shovel for that matter) survive falling multiple stories (at least) down on to solid ice? It wasn't even like they added extra material that fell down with him, just a drop into a hole.
I guess you can call it a perfect shot, or say that their hides are far stronger, but have a kaiju beaten by a small excavator kind of messes with their "power scaling"...


Unless Kajiu were made out be invincible I don't see how this affect the power scaling? Like first kajiu Tetsuo lost much weaker Yukio worse weapons. Nothing eevry suggested they can't beaten with human ingenuity and in fact its pretty common for these stories to show case that. Aside from one Ao meet most of kajiu just big dumb monsters who act more instinct than intelligence

Quote:
Yukio: "I have no decent weapons. Just an escape pod that's lucky to have arms" Pulls out a very effective beam blade just moments later Rolling Eyes


Nothing contradicted what Yukio said tho. I thought episode made pretty obvious Tetsuo and Yukio won use of their techniques and experience not fire power. The were basically able kill the kaju by using physics to strike it weakpoint through sheer inertia, kinda of like excavator. Its farcry form when they able to just one-shot groups of these things with state of art weaponry
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 4364
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2026 3:28 pm Reply with quote
@Iron Maw When I'm talking about powerscaling, I just mean in terms of showing the army is useless and that a giant robot is the only way to win, and then later he wins with a tiny excavator. Doesn't really matter at this point in the story anyway (there's nothing but a giant robot to fight now anyway). Nothing I'm going to lose sleep over regardless.

That's fine if you disagree about that line, I just thought it was poor writing to increase tension right before it got negated (imo).
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 12721
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2026 12:31 am Reply with quote
Wasn't planning to watch this, but ended up with it anyway. It seems like most of the complaints have been addressed by Ep 4? Like he did have some survival supplies he ran out of, people do remember him, or at least his mission, they just didn't recognize him at first sight, Ao, et al do know the history of the time he was away, etc.

The pit as originally presented as a black hole so deep he couldn't see the bottom doesn't match the later representation as one shallow enough that everyone could climb out and still watch the battle from up top. The latter seems to be the reality, and fits with Tetsuo and the backhoe surviving the drop unscathed.

But yeah, the way CGI is used in this is weird. In itself it's not bad, but with 2D it's jarring. Like in one shot a character will be in 2D, and the next angle they're in 3D. More often, it feels like some characters were given to 2D animators to work on while others were assigned to 3D riggers, so that you have 2D characters interacting with 3D ones in the same shot.

Anyway, the story is getting more interesting as it unfolds. It kinda bugs me how they talk about the passage of time without regard to relativity or pov, but I can cope.
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TJ_Kat



Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 868
Location: Saskatoon, Canada
PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2026 12:45 am Reply with quote
Iron Maw wrote:
Quote:
Where the episode makes its misses, however, is within the flashback detailing Ao's backstory. It starts out good enough, showing how a kaiju rose from underneath the ocean ten years ago to freeze the Earth. Wait, I thought they all came from space? Maybe one fell from space and then into the ocean. Whatever, I can suspend my disbelief for this.


I don't see how its less unbelievable that some kaju may have come from earth than space given neither exist in either location in IRL anyway. Moreover fact that Tetsuo is shocked about this in-universe


I agree, I'm not sure what's here that you need to suspend your disbelief over. It's not like they tried to hide/ignore it and hoped no one would notice; the characters literally say this is something unusual and don't understand why.

Personally, my take is that since it happened just after Tetsuo and Yukio left, it probably still came from space but arrived a while ago, was hiding, and only decided to come out because Tetsuo and Yukio were gone.
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