Like reflections in the glass!
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I thought it was because they wanted to establish Japanese dominance over the tech industry by leapfrogging to the 7th generation of the technology.
I'm going to take a stab here and assume its to do worth desires worldly or otherwise. Techbros are not exactly the most spiritual of folks (unless your Ted Faro and are looking for a scapegoat for your mess of course
) and are likely as materislstic in the other sense as they are in that sense. That is to say the guys pushing for 7G are likely tethered to worldly desires.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 10th 2024 at 3:54:30 AM
I'm not saying it can't have multiple meanings, but I think it'll end like SSSS.Gridman, where they have some tortured Engrish explain "SSSS" stands for "Special Solution to Save a Soul!" or something like that.
Like reflections in the glass!
Episode 7(it is 7 right?)
turns out the zombie queen is not actually a zombie, the undead have a perverse weakness and Nadeko might be a Gamer.
also the quartet is now halfway there (needle scratch) halfway there (needle scratch) hallway there (SpongeBob laugh)
While it's nowhere near as bad as the catastrophe of episodes 4 and 5, the pacing, editing, and cinematography of this show continues to feel disjointed.
Then, when the girls run away, they clumsily insert ten seconds of the Zombie Queen's flashback for no reason before cutting back to an unsatisfying sideways shot of the girls going through their walk cycle. Did they want to have a better establishing shot, with some actual sakuga, but they ran out of money and threw in whatever footage they had no matter how badly it flows?
And the scene where the conductor dude teaches them the erotic song. The Morse code rings out while they cut to the massive mound of zombies piled on the tracks, so it looks it's happening at the same time even though the skies are radically different. But then, fifteen seconds into the scene, we cut to the train sitting in the field, revealing it's actually much later, even though the auditory cue of the Morse code indicates it's happening within the five-minute span of time conductor dude can speak. It would've been much more effective if they'd built tension by actually showing the girls slowly roll down the rails on their train, seeing the zombie mound rise up on the horizon, empathizing with their dread as they head towards a showdown. But that would cost money, so instead we just get a bunch of still images.
It's not the most low-budget show I've ever seen, but the pedestrian direction (ironic, for a show about a train) and clumsy editing/pacing really undercut this show.
The story wasn't anything to write home about either. I really hope there's more to the zombie plot than this. I thought it would lead to some follow-up on the "your thoughts control your reality" stuff from the end of episode 5, but there is none. It feels like a waste of a unique premise (a rarity in anime all by itself) to spend two episodes on this Wacky Wayside Tribe and not tie it into the main plot. There's kind of a connective thread with "The Boss" from the last two episodes, but it's pretty tenuous. This would've been much better if the Zombie Queen was supposed to be an idol. You could've done so much with that. Offered up commentary on idol fans being consumerist zombies, the theme of subjective reality with the way idol fans construct unreal images of celebrities in their minds, the way rural towns use local idols to try and revitalize themselves. Something related to the themes that have been introduced.
But instead it's "I did something bad because I was misguided, though I had good intentions. But now that we're tomodachi, I am inspired to be a better person!" I can get that from dozens of other anime. I want something more interesting from this one, befitting its original premise.
While I would not be as critical as the poster above, I also question the relevance of this zombie mini-arc. I’m generally a fan of these random side trips that let writers throw stuff at the wall and let their characters show off more of themselves, but with a limited episode count you should be more efficient with your storytelling (and broadly speaking, these road-trip/adventure anime really need at least two cours to sell that feeling of wanderlust). The zombies being weak to erotic stuff was amusing, though. Did not expect Akira to suddenly launch into a recital of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
I suppose Shizuru did get to confront what led to her falling out with Yoka. It’s just odd that her issues didn’t particularly tie into the zombie queen’s backstory and themes.
The queen of Ikebukuro is definitely Yoka. The queen of 7G.
Edited by fillerdude on May 13th 2024 at 7:29:12 AM
After letting it digest, and reading a little more about the existential nightmare behind the anime, I'm feeling a little more charitable. Take this article about how Japan's economy is on the verge of collapsing
.
Aside from mentioning how many rural towns are dilapidated and overrun with wildlife (which the people of Agano turning into animals is surely a reference to) and the fact that Japanese deaths outnumber births (which puts the tombstones and pessimistic air of episode 3 in a whole new light), it also mentions a huge part of the problem is Japan's incredibly toxic work culture not giving people enough time or money to start families. Given that all the villains they've encountered so far (mushroom lady, "the boss", the zombie queen, and presumably the 7G corporation) are leaders controlling other people for their own ends, it may be saying something about leadership? Top-down solutions are needed to save Japan from shitting itself? Shizuru must learn how leadership works from all of them?
I can sort of see something in the zombie arc, maybe. The Japanese people as Shinto zombies, obsessed with youth as a sort of mono no aware, worshipping a teenage girl at a Shinto shrine, but their heads explode at the slightest hint of actual eroticism. The essentially Japanese reaction to sex.
I still don't think it was particularly well done, but I'm trying to give the show some credit here.
King of Anime
Honest question but do you have anything positive to say about the show? All I've seen you do is talk about how bad you think the anime is and as someone who's enjoying it seeing you put it down is kind of a downer. I kind of get the feeling you're expecting more out of it than what it actually is.
The series is okay.
It's got original ideas, instead of being another isekai power fantasy.
But the direction is severely pedestrian. And since this is the same director as the Girls und Panzer franchise, which has amazing direction (especially where 3D vehicles are concerned), I know he can do better than this. I'm expecting more from this show because he's shown he is capable of it.
The characters are likeable enough, but the muddled writing doesn't do a very good job of fleshing out their personalities beyond archetypes like "gyaru" or "motherly caretaker", or giving them motivations that actually tie into going on an epic adventure. It's like the author is on autopilot, plucking out stock characters and plopping them into the story.
A Place Further than the Universe did everything right. This does not. But it's watchable enough, if you can get past the bouts of startlingly inept pacing/editing.
EP 7: Another great episode, if a little slow. Weaponised fanservice was not something I was expecting, nor were zombies that explode from erotic stimulation. Also loved the actual licensed Sega Saturn!
Yoka is absolutely the queen of Ikebukuro. Shizuru is going to have a bit of trouble when they get there.
Clear prop!
Got that happy burst of nostalgia from seeing House of the Dead!
Finally got around to watching the latest Girls und Panzer film (entirely legally, of course). So I decided to rewatch episodes 4 and 5 to compare them. I stand by my criticisms about episode 4 (pedestrian direction, pacing is fucked, hard cuts ruin the flow between scenes), but I enjoyed episode 5 more this time since I'm not constantly getting blindsided by choppy editing.
There's some questionable animation at the beginning (what is up with the folding ladder on the Self-Defense Force guy's hut?) and the second half is still choppy and rushed, but the shot composition and animation is better. Not great, but good. I guess episode 4 was just the "budget" episode. Which is dumb, because a train ride across the country is where you should be lavishing your money on this show.
I have a hard time believing the man who directed a film with tanks skiing down mountains blasting each other in time to Finnish folk music would look at those awful overhead shots of a picture of a train sliding across a picture of a field and say, "This is the best way to tell my story." There's only a single train shot in episode 4 which actually looks good. Right after they talk to Zenjiro, the train (an actual 3D model, not a JPEG) putters into the distance while the camera pans up to reveal wooden pylons. It's creepy, it's dynamic, it shows how small and vulnerable our heroines are, and it sells the motion of the journey in a way abrupt hard cuts between stations can't.
As always, the underlying social commentary is more interesting than the execution. A nerdy military otaku has turned the Japanese Self-Defense Force into an army of toys for his personal amusement, and they've been emasculated to the point a single gyaru can take them out. That's amazing. Given that "the boss" turns out to be the kind of military hardware fetishist who'd probably obsess over Girls und Panzer, I have to wonder if the director is having some doubts about his role in the military-industrial-otaku complex.
Edited by WarriorsGate on May 14th 2024 at 2:02:34 AM
Unbeugsame Klinge
I think you're overestimating how much of this show is meant to be political commentary.
Nach jeder Ebbe kommt die Flut.
Like reflections in the glass!
In that case he missed the mark. South Park is more crass and designed to encourage apathy. Something that is at odds with the show current message.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 15th 2024 at 7:41:50 AM
You don't need to make an exact duplicate of something to take inspiration from it.
Besides, Doomsday Train does encourage apathy, in a way. Episode 5 is all about getting Akira her pessimism back. Then, episode 6 has Shizuru and Yoka argue about Yoka leaving the country to follow her dreams in the city, which is what's driving Japan's population crisis. And in that same episode*, Akira says, "Now I understand what Mono no Aware means!" Mono no Aware is an implicitly Buddhist belief about feeling wistful sadness at how the world is not permanent and things are constantly changing.
While I'm not saying the show will definitely go this route, if the ultimate message turns out to be "The population crisis is going to happen and there's nothing you can do to change it, and the next generation will inherit an empty Japan surrounded by dead people. Get used to it, Mono no Aware." it would be totally in line with Japan's Buddhist ethos. Like Girls' Last Tour, for instance.
* Correction, that happened in episode 2, and she says, "Memento Mori". However, since they mean pretty much the same thing, they sound similar, and she says it right after they speed past a big-ass Buddhist statue, I think you can see why I misremembered it.
Edited by WarriorsGate on May 15th 2024 at 1:49:53 AM
I decided to continue my rewatch with episodes 6 and 7. While my main criticisms about the writing and direction haven't changed, now that I know the weird edits are coming and that there isn't going to be any followup on the 7G brainwave plot, I found myself enjoying it more.
The conflict between Shizuru and Yoka is mirrored in the present day when Shizuru decides to leave. However, Nadeshiko is a much better Buddhist than Shizuru. Rather than cling to her friend, she lets Shizuru go off on her own and avoids causing them both suffering. Since the name Nadeshiko is used to mean a perfect Japanese woman, I guess this means the perfect woman is a good Buddhist.
My hunch about the social commentary in this two-parter turned out to be spot on. Both Lady Chatterley's Lover and Tatsuhiko (the author whose words were shoved into Akira's mouth in episode 5) were the targets of major obscenity trials in post-war Japan. Part of the Japanese Supreme Court's ruling stated that obscenity involved "exciting or stimulating sexual desire in vain" and "offending normal peoples' sense of sexual shame". The fact that they call it sexual shame tells you all about the Japanese hangups that result in their zombified corpses exploding when they hear anything erotic. Reimi literally stuffing the printed words of Tatsuhiko into Akira's mouth to return her maturity is also an interesting choice, since Akira seems to be an advocate of publishing and its ability to convey controversial ideas about sexuality. I assume it's saying Japan needs to get over its hangups about sex to reverse its declining population?
Also, I found it ironic that one of the zombies who rises up in front of the zombie pile is a flasher with his trenchcoat hanging open.
So what's coming up next? I didn't notice it until now, but in the OP you can see that manga girl with the noose around her neck running through a Buddhist cemetery. So it looks like the next two-parter is going to involve either cosplayers or fictional characters come to life. Maybe as some kind of tulpa?
Edited by WarriorsGate on May 15th 2024 at 4:10:51 AM
Like reflections in the glass!
EP 8
the girls wind up in a turn inspired by a magical girl show within a show that is ...bizarre aand have to fill in for the deceased heros
also Nadeko for us (finally) and it isn't a two parters so we can wrap it up neatly...oh and the somewhat obvious twist is revealed to the girls
I complained about the rushed racing before, but this time it was fucking nuts. Do you remember when they introduced Nadeshiko's angst about her parents in one scene, and then she got over it in another scene? This episode doesn't have character arcs. It has a suggestion of character arcs that never got developed beyond a one line pitch when it came time to throw them all into a script.
The visual style of the show continues to underwhelm, but I'm used to that.
With the past two "bad leader" villains, the military otaku shows Shizuru what happens when you keep somebody from following their dreams, and the zombie queen shows her that "exceptional people" are just regular people who are full of shit. Right now I can't say I understand what this episode wants to express about our heroine's flaws, but I need to rewatch it and digest it before I come to a conclusion.
I find the first viewing of an episode of Doomsday Train is always terrible. On rewatch, when I brace myself for what I'm about to see, I can learn to appreciate it. I hated the zombie arc at first. Now that I understand why it was made like that, I love it. But I doubt the pacing of that hideously rushed subplot about resurrecting Alice only to kill her off is gonna get better with age.
I did like Akira's line about 7G making karma meaningless. It connects to Shizuru's last words in episode 7 about the past and future, and it seems like a pretty definite hint this is a Buddhist apocalypse.
Like reflections in the glass!
in its defense, it had crammed the plot into a single episode when it had gotten used to two parters thus far.
But yeah the pacing is rather rushed. I'd think it would've fared better if it got two cours instead of one, and used the extra half to spread things out more so that the character arcs aren't so rushed.
Though I had to take a stab at themes, it would be that the real world does end with a happy ending and there will always a risk of progress being undone but it seems like a tenuous link to leadership at best.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 20th 2024 at 7:50:47 AM
You can defend the fact that the train animation ranges from workmanlike to awful by saying it doesn't have the budget of Girls und Panzer das Finale, and you'd be totally right. But even if there's an understandable reason for it, it doesn't stop being a flaw.
There's no way in hell this would ever be a two-cour show. EMT Squared aren't PA Works or Trigger. They pump out serviceable isekai adaptations. This is their first original work, ever. It's an original IP with a weird premise that doesn't fit neatly into merchandising categories like mecha or idol series, so it's a huge financial risk that probably won't pay off. It looks so cheap already I can't imagine anybody at the studio saying, "We're willing to finance 24 episodes of this."
Like reflections in the glass!
Fair enough. It's prolly gonna hover around kamierabi.godapp in terms of reception. Except without Yoko Taro's star power (or conversely the stigma of being all CGI)
On can only hope they finally arrive in ikebukuro next episode lest the finale be rushed to hell and back.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 20th 2024 at 8:48:05 AM
I've caught up to this series after recommendation from a friend, so I'm not up to date with the discourse. As such, forgive me if what I'm about to say is obvious, or wrong.
So, from what I got so far from this series, I have theory that 7 G basically projected Yoka's thoughts onto reality. That's why the train line suddenly got so long, because she wanted to get as far away from Shizuru as possible, and why the night sky is so full of giant astronomic objects, because she loves space. Only the things near the train line exist because she never traveled anywhere else, and the other station were reduced to exaggerated versions of her impressions of them.
I dunno, I could be wrong, but that's my working theory.
That's a common theory, but episode 5 shows Reimi can also do it to reboot Akira's brain, so I don't think it's just Yoka. The first episode suggests none of this is really happening anyway. 7G is capable of creating visions and illusions. The fact that nothing outside of Ikebukuro seems to exist may just be because none of the girls can see beyond the railway to Tokyo. It's not part of their collective reality.
It's not just Yoka, but I think it's fair to say her thoughts were a major factor in the reality warping, as I highly doubt collective consciousness thought that one town should become the setting from an anime.
Didn't like this latest episode myself. They majorly rushed through some deep-seated issues in favor of a weird romp in weirdo city.
Edited by fillerdude on May 20th 2024 at 11:47:00 AM
Edited by WarriorsGate on May 10th 2024 at 3:51:52 AM