At least in anime, Winter is over...
Weather-wise it keeps changing its mind (hopefully we've seen the last of snow? ::knock on wood::), but yes, at least in the world of anime-viewing, I can say that Winter is over. Everything of mine that was ending this season has ended, so a few final reports...
Before that, the only Spring thing I've gotten a good look at so far is still RDG: Red Data Girl; the fansubbed online sneak previews are up to ep. 3 now, and it's having a pleasant slow build. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet also looks promising from the trailer, but mostly I'm still at "waiting to see."
So, endings!
The end of The Unlimited was decent, though a bit rushed (and I do want to note since I complained about the flashback, I understand it better in hindsight; I do think they could have played it better, but part of the trouble was confusion on my part). There were things that needed to happen here, and they happened in satisfactory fashion, but it was kind of rushed, some elements weren't well explained ("time stop"?? what did you mean by that?? why did your eye change color??). One thing that disappointed me a little going into the endgame here was that Andy's employers conveniently outed themselves as evil and saved him from having to make a difficult moral choice, but it was probably unrealistic to expect otherwise, and they saved that for the finale, where he does it well enough.
Amnesia ended well for what it was (that is, shameless otome-game-based schlock). Unfortunately it involved a lot of standing around talking and an unseen Fairy King named Neil, but hands were waved toward making sense of the whole mess, said mess is happily resolved, and the central "who's your man?" question is left to the viewer, as it should be.
Yama no Susume started out cute and human and just stayed that way to the end. There is a pleasant little arc of Aoi coming out of her shell, but in 3 minutes a week it's hard to make a compelling plot. It didn't give itself much to do, but it did it well.
The one that really blew it on the landing this time? Maoyu. I stayed loyal to this one right through to the end even while it was throwing out economics lessons too fast to really follow them --- I was in it for the characters and just liked it that with swords wasn't the way all of them fight, or even the most effective way to fight. However, the last episode was still throwing out inventions (at least one of which could have been awesome if handled better), new problems, and mixing it in with too-hasty pat resolutions, oh, and killing off a villain who hadn't gotten enough screentime to care that much about (and letting our guy survive it less believably than Treize of Ixtova). It had its moments, but as a finale it just didn't really work.
Okay, here's how I would have done it: Let the good guys (minus Hero and Demon King) resolve the situation; not all tied up in a bow, because that would be cheap, but enough to give us a chance to breathe, like say we're safe for the winter. The fight with/death of eyepatch villain dude I would actually play up more; let him flash back to his previous experiences to ground us in what he's on about, let the maid sisters contribute something, and for godsake quit while you're ahead with Soldier cleverly surviving. Intercut the above with the fight between Hero and Demon King; that fight is the emotional money shot of this whole series, so work it; I'd try to wrap the rest up in the first half and put the final resolution of this fight across the commercial break. Then, when Demon King is back to herself, she comes back, proposes the eradication of smallpox, and tells the good guys who don't know yet that she's a demon, if you really want to do that --- both of those things are such big deals they really need to be done in person --- and take the rest of the time to reflect on how far we've come (rather than squeezing that in after the ending credits). The scenes with the League of Bad Guys and the Pope and the one with the bloodthirsty crowd of demons (the CGI crowd didn't look good, BTW) --- those just don't belong here. They belong in ep. 1 of season 2 if you get it; either way, don't muddy the ending with them; a check-in in the Demon World would be good, but it should be in keeping with the "reflect on how far we've come" theme.
Hah, ranting done.
Um, or not, because I'm pathetic and have to mention Shin Sekai Yori, which I still haven't been watching. I read episode summaries right to the end --- and I'll be honest this time, it's not that I only care that much, it's that I'm only willing to be that vulnerable toward it. On the upside, the ancient weapon bit apparently played out as well as I could have imagined (we get it, it works, heroine chooses not to use it), but now I'm back on the fence as to whether to go back and watch the rest --- because the word is in, and this thing does not have a redemptive ending. The reviews I read liked it and were all "Brutal Honesty! Art!" and there are things to be said for that, but "True Art is Angsty" is actually kind of a pet peeve of mine and my taste/faith runs strongly toward ennobling stories (eg, I'm the type who likes the movie of Nausicaa a lot better than the manga). I'm not sure I'm willing to tackle the rest of it just to see our surviving heroes end up continuing the cycle.
Coincidentally, in the last couple of weeks I encountered another weirdly compelling story where human aspiration does battle with the fear of itself and the fear wins: a two-volume manga called The Music of Marie (the scanlation isn't quite complete, but the main problem is resolved; I got hold of raws of the rest and can't guarantee what was going on with my weak Japanese skills, but it looks like the denouement is pretty weird, too). I didn't feel so bad about that ending in that one, but crucially the peaceful status quo in it doesn't rely on systemic baby-killing...
‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡
Before that, the only Spring thing I've gotten a good look at so far is still RDG: Red Data Girl; the fansubbed online sneak previews are up to ep. 3 now, and it's having a pleasant slow build. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet also looks promising from the trailer, but mostly I'm still at "waiting to see."
So, endings!
The end of The Unlimited was decent, though a bit rushed (and I do want to note since I complained about the flashback, I understand it better in hindsight; I do think they could have played it better, but part of the trouble was confusion on my part). There were things that needed to happen here, and they happened in satisfactory fashion, but it was kind of rushed, some elements weren't well explained ("time stop"?? what did you mean by that?? why did your eye change color??). One thing that disappointed me a little going into the endgame here was that Andy's employers conveniently outed themselves as evil and saved him from having to make a difficult moral choice, but it was probably unrealistic to expect otherwise, and they saved that for the finale, where he does it well enough.
Amnesia ended well for what it was (that is, shameless otome-game-based schlock). Unfortunately it involved a lot of standing around talking and an unseen Fairy King named Neil, but hands were waved toward making sense of the whole mess, said mess is happily resolved, and the central "who's your man?" question is left to the viewer, as it should be.
Yama no Susume started out cute and human and just stayed that way to the end. There is a pleasant little arc of Aoi coming out of her shell, but in 3 minutes a week it's hard to make a compelling plot. It didn't give itself much to do, but it did it well.
The one that really blew it on the landing this time? Maoyu. I stayed loyal to this one right through to the end even while it was throwing out economics lessons too fast to really follow them --- I was in it for the characters and just liked it that with swords wasn't the way all of them fight, or even the most effective way to fight. However, the last episode was still throwing out inventions (at least one of which could have been awesome if handled better), new problems, and mixing it in with too-hasty pat resolutions, oh, and killing off a villain who hadn't gotten enough screentime to care that much about (and letting our guy survive it less believably than Treize of Ixtova). It had its moments, but as a finale it just didn't really work.
Okay, here's how I would have done it: Let the good guys (minus Hero and Demon King) resolve the situation; not all tied up in a bow, because that would be cheap, but enough to give us a chance to breathe, like say we're safe for the winter. The fight with/death of eyepatch villain dude I would actually play up more; let him flash back to his previous experiences to ground us in what he's on about, let the maid sisters contribute something, and for godsake quit while you're ahead with Soldier cleverly surviving. Intercut the above with the fight between Hero and Demon King; that fight is the emotional money shot of this whole series, so work it; I'd try to wrap the rest up in the first half and put the final resolution of this fight across the commercial break. Then, when Demon King is back to herself, she comes back, proposes the eradication of smallpox, and tells the good guys who don't know yet that she's a demon, if you really want to do that --- both of those things are such big deals they really need to be done in person --- and take the rest of the time to reflect on how far we've come (rather than squeezing that in after the ending credits). The scenes with the League of Bad Guys and the Pope and the one with the bloodthirsty crowd of demons (the CGI crowd didn't look good, BTW) --- those just don't belong here. They belong in ep. 1 of season 2 if you get it; either way, don't muddy the ending with them; a check-in in the Demon World would be good, but it should be in keeping with the "reflect on how far we've come" theme.
Hah, ranting done.
Um, or not, because I'm pathetic and have to mention Shin Sekai Yori, which I still haven't been watching. I read episode summaries right to the end --- and I'll be honest this time, it's not that I only care that much, it's that I'm only willing to be that vulnerable toward it. On the upside, the ancient weapon bit apparently played out as well as I could have imagined (we get it, it works, heroine chooses not to use it), but now I'm back on the fence as to whether to go back and watch the rest --- because the word is in, and this thing does not have a redemptive ending. The reviews I read liked it and were all "Brutal Honesty! Art!" and there are things to be said for that, but "True Art is Angsty" is actually kind of a pet peeve of mine and my taste/faith runs strongly toward ennobling stories (eg, I'm the type who likes the movie of Nausicaa a lot better than the manga). I'm not sure I'm willing to tackle the rest of it just to see our surviving heroes end up continuing the cycle.
Coincidentally, in the last couple of weeks I encountered another weirdly compelling story where human aspiration does battle with the fear of itself and the fear wins: a two-volume manga called The Music of Marie (the scanlation isn't quite complete, but the main problem is resolved; I got hold of raws of the rest and can't guarantee what was going on with my weak Japanese skills, but it looks like the denouement is pretty weird, too). I didn't feel so bad about that ending in that one, but crucially the peaceful status quo in it doesn't rely on systemic baby-killing...
‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡