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My impression basically lines up with that. This show really wants to come off as smart, but keeps falling short with long bits of somewhat nonsensical exposition and people being convinced by faulty logic. Also a bunch of the character actions in general don't make much sense.
I don't mind things being slow, but I do mind things being stupid.
It's a shame as the show has some neat bits of animation flourishes and I actually really like the character designs of the fictional characters. They brilliantly walk the line of inspired yet generic, which fits their background to a T. I also like the role Meteora, who usually would be a support character, has taken as the core of the group.
Any praise in that regard and in design is then immediately undercut by Shota, however, who is an annoying wet blanket and really shouldn't have as much screen time as he does. Plus the insistence of other characters to keep him around when there really wasn't much of a reason, at least not before the blatantly obvious twist about his connection to the main villain. In a smarter show a character like him could be used to subvert expectations, but I don't trust the show enough to think that'll be the case here.
So yeah, I find this show really frustrating. It tries to be all meta and subversive, which are basically catnip for me when it comes to shows, but doesn't have the writing chops to pull that off. It still looks sorta neat, I suppose.
And it doesn't help how boring the MC is. Literally has the personality of a plank of wood.
Warrior to the very end! My tumblr, dood!The what's-his-name MC keeps getting worse. Seriously, he failed to confess that he knows about Altair's origins after Ms. Exposition told him they discovered a few things...
On a more interesting note: Mamika is into Alice. Not that anyone really doubted it, but now it's "official". Alas, it look like it's not meant to be. At least Mamika goes out with a big boom.
edited 27th May '17 8:42:13 AM by NHunter
So was it deliberate that Yōko Hikasa's character has an attack named after Iron Hand Götz
, while airing alongside a show where her character is a blonde knight obsessed with someone based on Götz?
edited 27th May '17 1:00:36 PM by Prime32
At least we know Sota's deal now - he's a walking bundle of PTSD because his friend committed suicide and (rightly or wrongly) he's pretty sure he was responsible. That at least explains why he's holding out on his friends - any explanation of his connection to Altair would, in his mind, end with '... and I think she wants to destroy the world because I killed her creator'.
What's precedent ever done for us?Holy shit, things got really serious now. Souta is being an idiot hiding the truth, probably because he doesn't want to take responsibility, making him an easy target for Magano blackmail. Kinda surprised that Meteora didn't figure him out already.
Is it wrong that the first thing that I though when I saw Magano in that maid uniform was "Oh god, she probably killed someone to get it!"?
I'm really suprised that Mamika of all people recived most character development so far. Well, I now see why it's so.... poor girl, I actually started to like her, but I knew she was a gonner the moment she went to Altair.
I love this series, it's just so good.
Eh, she strikes me more like the type of villain who causes a lot of trouble in the middle of the story, but gets eliminated before the end game. Kind of reminds me of Caster from Fate Zero.
I actually didn't think of that. My mind jumped assuming she actually like, applied and got the job just set up that little ambush.
Your explanation probably makes more sense.
Magane isn't mastermind material because she doesn't have it in her for delayed gratification. She does whatever she wants, whenever she wants. But it's precisely that unpredictability that makes her scary as a villain. You don't know if she's just going to tease you, or kill you.
That said, I still can't imagine her actually being the main villain of the show. Mostly because she loves this world. She'd never do anything to threaten it; it's her playground. While in a smaller scale story hunting down the serial killer would high-enough stakes, in this case they've already put the end of the world on the table, and Magane isn't going to end the world.
edited 27th May '17 11:25:07 PM by Clarste
Yep. That last-minute Magical Splash Flare, then cut to episode title: I CHOSE this way of life. Mmmmm. I hope she lives.
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It could go either way, honestly. Which makes things a lot more intriguing.
Souta's a lot more tolerable now that it's clear how traumatic Setsuna's death was for him. Still not enjoyable to watch him "gloss over a lot of things", so thank the gods Magane is there to become his crazy psycho not-girlfriend.
Wonder how hard Mirokuji tossed his creator around. And Matsubara's like, it's okay to break everything as long as he can still work afterwards. Hahaha.
And now that it's been brought up in the show proper, I wonder if anyone will be encountering a fanfic version of them. There's still 14 more episodes to go so anything can happen!
Oh, and I share this imgur album of recap omake
that they release on the show's website after every episode.
Hiroe said this is the Last Action Hero of anime, so I guess (after reading the WMG and all) this makes Magane the Benedict of the series: killed the creator/employer, and since in the real world bad guys can win, she's preparing to summon fictional villains -such as the Hound of Tindalos- to unleash chaos and carnage.
I'm looking forward to that, since after the show seemingly killed off Mamika, the only character that showed a minimum of personal growth and maturity, in my eyes Magane is the only thing that can redeem this messy snoozefest of a series.
"Effective Altruism" is just another bunch of horsesh*t.Magane sure made it to the list of top villains there. Also, she has to have a secondary power. Being in the right place at the right time how many times in a row?
edited 3rd Jun '17 11:28:14 AM by googlebot
“You can’t be an important and life-changing presence for some people without also being a joke and embarrassment to others.” -Mark Manson.I still don't believe that she's the final boss, and honestly I don't see how this episode would even remotely change anyone's mind about that. She's a Joker-type character causing chaos. We already knew that, and that's still all she is. At this point, her main purpose is to artificially prolong the conflict, because if all the characters were honest with each other than the series would be over almost immediately.

The show does suffer from a Slow-Paced Beginning. After about episode 4 or 5, the plot and action really get going.