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Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Daemons of the Shadow Realm
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19136 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Wholly agree with Richard's take on the first three episodes, including the part about the tonal shift. That's also been throwing me a bit. But FMA wasn't beyond implementing big tonal swings, either, so it's not surprising.
Very curious to see what's really going on here but I'm not expecting any quick answers. |
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meiam
Posts: 3674 |
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Yeah the tone whiplash is one of the most WTF aspect I've seen in an anime. Like in episode 2 the daemon goes back to rescue the daughter in the village, and its treated like a comedy scene, but her mom decapitated body is literally right next to her, with the blood on the daughter face most likely from her mom...
Its also really hard to care about Yuru and Asa being reunited when Asa is presented as a complete monster. I fail to see what kind of reveal could possibly justify this level massacre on an entire population. Certainly the fact that the sibling were separated does not come even close to justifying this. We also spend a lot of time with chompy girl, where they make sure she's safe and all. And she's presented as a normal person, even thought she just just killed hundreds a few hours ago. Yuru also switching to seemingly not caring about the fake Asa once he learn they're not blood related is also disappointing. Sure she wasn't his real sister, but he presumably has only known her for a really long time, possibly all his life. That should be a far stronger bond than blood relation to what is really a complete stranger to him (not to mention, one who's responsible for killing most people he knew his whole life). Its also really jarring with the rest of the story, which is otherwise a very typical shonen story. It almost feel like initially the assault was supposed to be far more tame, maybe just a small rescue/kidnapping of Yuru with few, if any, deaths. And late in the story writing it was decided that they needed a bigger bang for the start to make it stand out, and they turned the violence to 11. As much as I feel like chiding them for that, I'm not sure I would have sticked around after ep 1 if it was a very mundane shonen without the tone shift, so it may really have been the right call. /shrug |
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malvarez1
Posts: 2983 |
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It’s weird how people are surprised about the tonal shift, or maybe I’m just showing my age, but one of FMA Brotherhood’s biggest discourses back in the day was about the same thing, with people complaining it was way more jarring than the original FMA.
As a manga reader, I can say right now that aspect isn’t going away. |
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FanGamer24
Posts: 301 |
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The tonal shift is fine, but I do think it's weird how they haven't seemed to really commit to Asa's group being the villains despite their actions. I mean, their first impressions are slaughtering the villagers, but then the story tries to get us to care about them? It's definitely a weird choice.
I'm all for nuanced villains, but the story hasn't seemed to really decide if it wants Asa's group to be the villains despite their actions. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1750 |
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So far I've enjoyed the first three episodes of Yomi no Tsugai, though I do know if if should rewatch the first episode again, because I think I missed some details, it's that I feel like there was a lot that happened in the first two episodes, but there's not a lot of explanation, like, I do not like an excessive amount of expostion, but FMA (both series) were a bit more direct in regards to the what the story is about and how alchemy worked, in certain aspects I kind of feel a bit lost, just like Yuru. In regards to the characters, I haven't read the manga, but I wonder if Asa and her associates will end up not being the bad guys, especially the way they're portrayed in the OP and ED segments, because after what they did in the first episode, particularly Gabby's actions, don't feel like the kind of actions that could be forgiven.
I do remember how after finishing FMA '03/Shamballa and jumping straight to Brotherhood I notice how much more prominent the comedy was in comparison, I mean, there's plenty of darker and tragic moments in Arakawa's original story, but I did feel like sometimes there was a considerable amount of mood whiplash. The slaughter of Yuru's village did shock me, though I do agree that it seems like Yuru got over the whole thing very quickly, though it seems he was still a bit worried about the fake Asa. |
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Mami-kouga
Posts: 305 |
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They're not "committing" to it because the story is expecting you to think more. Why did Asa and their parents leave the village? For what reason would she have enough vitriol to come back willing to kill them? Why did they insist on killing the adults only? Why did the village lie to Yuru with the obvious intent on making sure he'd never even consider leaving? This doesn't really mean Asa's group is necessarily good, in the same way Dera and Hana while overall helpful aren't trustworthy, but as of now the only character the story expects you to unambiguously trust is Yuru. |
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FanGamer24
Posts: 301 |
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I get that, but in that case, why not present Asa's group in a more neutral light? It's kind of hard not to see them as the bad guys after what they did. Presenting the villagers as being more than hapless victims would have helped as well.
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b-dragon
Posts: 625 |
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That seemed very deliberate though. The show doesn't commit to them being villains because it doesn't want you to feel comfortable viewing them as such. As best I can tell, you're supposed to feel mixed about all the factions we've seen up to this point. It feels like the setup for a much murkier plot than I expected, and "weird" only in the sense that it didn't gel with my initial expectations. |
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Mami-kouga
Posts: 305 |
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The story is keeping us as close to Yuru's perspective as possible, just like how fake Asa just being in a cage isn't really framed in any particular way despite it being obviously odd. And once again "why do they insist on killing the adults only?", they're obviously not indiscriminate murderers or they wouldn't have gone out of their way to leave the kids be. Don't just be taken in by the violence, wonder more.
That said, once again this isn't necessarily me saying that Asa's group are the good guys, the villagers being so weak except Dera does indicate this force was excessive. Whether or not their villains, they're pretty casual about murder (well so is Yuru though) |
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EmeraldSaucer
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The story wanting to keep things ambiguous as to what we the audience are supposed to make of the different factions makes sense. But as already mentioned here (and as I mentioned in the preview thread), comedic moments like a young girl being scared of Right while her decapitated mother's body is in-frame the entire time are just plain jarring. It's not there for a purpose, it's just an indicator that the tone is maybe not as consistent as it should be - which is partly Arakawa's sensibilities as a writer, but also I think the adaptation stumbling in a couple places (the next episode's horror scene with the stalker not having quite the tension it should being another example of that)
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meiam
Posts: 3674 |
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The problem is twofold:
1- Real Asa could have just told Yuru, "Hey Yuru, I'm out here killing all the adults you've ever known because of XYZ, its important you know not to trust them". They had more than enough time to do so, her not saying anything makes it look like she has no (or petty) reasons. 2- There's almost nothing that would justify slaughtering all the villagers like this. Like, are they all in on a plan to wipe out humanity or something, none of them being coarse into it? |
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Mami-kouga
Posts: 305 |
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Actually the adaptation is more serious in some ways lol. Like the scene where the soldiers realise they're trapped in the village is played seriously in the anime but it was very much a comedy beat in the manga |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 921 |
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Hence why including scenes like the comedy beats despite making some things more serious and gruesome only makes it more jarring |
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Mami-kouga
Posts: 305 |
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Tone shifts in manga's written by female shounen action mangaka happen so often I guess I've just learnt to roll with it. I have my limits and some parts are more "oh, okay I guess we're making this a running gag???" than others but I guess for me this is just about the level I still find it even. |
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FanGamer24
Posts: 301 |
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Yeah, these are definitely the main problems with trying to make it seem more ambiguous despite the slaughter being so one-sided. Also, the whole "no time to explain" excuse is just silly. |
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