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03-13-2021, 08:11 AM | #271 |
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Ya know I can see why, given the big amount of focus he's gotten ever since Gerd died. He also seems to be the main way inwhich the show wants to preach its messages, and as such he might as well be the main character now despite it seemingly still being Joseph for now.
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03-13-2021, 11:17 AM | #272 |
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Episode 10: Inside the Conspiracy Color me surprised that Urobochi was the one who wrote this episode. Because honestly, with the way this episode structured itself? I was under the assumption that this was another Kobayashi episode. Remember how I gave points to Episode 8 for actually bothering to like, introduce and expand on characters traits, as well as actually having a decent grasp on atmosphere? Same deal with this episode. Gotta say, I was surprised at how much of a direct follow-up it felt like. Long-hair man got another step in on his bullet-necklace story, the atmosphere holds a good sense of mystery all throughout the episode, we get a better look into Joseph and Beatrice, and they even remembered that Gerd existed! It's small steps in terms of the plot itself, which I'm fine with. I called it about Malek not being dead; he's just in a coma. Meanwhile the squad members of the XAT rightfully theorize that there's something alot more sinister going on with the Amalgam outbreak, and everyone gets Motorcycle-Tank-Mecha to add to their arsenal, meaning this show technically qualifies to be in Super Robot Wars. One thing I'm definitely curious about though is what exactly Beatrice IS. The show seems to be implying that she's something other than a typical Amalgam, if she even is one at all, and alot of the stuff she does comes across as straight up magic, such as giving Wolf(XAT leader) visions. I also wonder why exactly Wolf fell in love with her considering he has no real reason to. Mind control maybe? Seems the most plausible at this time. But yeah, this episode isn't perfect by any stretch, but it actually managed to do a solid job at getting me intrigued on where exactly it's going. It's almost like having actual characters in your story, even if they're simplistic, is a good thing!
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03-14-2021, 06:50 PM | #273 |
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Episode 11: Prelude to Apocalypse It's the lead-up to the season finale, and boy do I feel unfulfilled. The plot of this episode is that Wolf has succeeded in infecting most of the XAT, resulting an army of Amalgams being let loose on the city. As such you get what you'd expect from a show like this. Streets littered with corpses, gunfire, explosions, Amanda and Hermann getting broken out of confinement, and our "heroes" claiming Malek is innocent and Wolf is a monster. Meanwhile the AI in Joseph's' motorcycle(yeah she's a thing and she's annoying), breaks Joseph out of of the XAT headquarters so he can do his best to save the city. And props to the new girl piloting the Paladin mech(Clavier); she's one of the few to realize that Joseph is fighting Amalgams. Also, I gotta hand it to Beatrice's' actress, Lydia Mackay. As basic of a character as Beatrice is, Mackay takes the role and goes in on it, making Beatrice sound incredibly mysterious and sinister for the entirety of the show's' run so far. The only other role that I think alot of people would recognize her from is that of Trisha Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist; a very different type of character. She also drops a line about her "true enemy" to Joseph, being a blatant hook for next season. That and the entire rest of the episode really matters though, because what grabbed my attention most in all of this wasn't the action, the dire situation, and death, none of that. What pulled me in more than anything else this episode was this: A short, sweet, and to the point scene between Brad and Clavier. One that highlights a bit more of their past together, and how the bullet necklaces they both wear represent a time long gone but meaning plenty to the both of them. It made me really interested in what exactly their relationship is, ontop of the entire scenario surrounding the mission they went together on in the past. That entire scenario has been far more interesting than anything in the past few episodes. And all it took was just most minuscule of an attempt at a character arc. Wait, what the heck? Was he the pope the whole time!?
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03-15-2021, 07:12 PM | #274 |
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Episode 12: Judgment Day Blassreiter really only succeeded in shooting itself in the foot by now. By telling the viewer to not get attached to anything and that cynicism and nihilism are the way, guess what? I end up not caring about anyone or anything involved. This is a season finale that, in a better written show, would certainly carry alot of emotional weight and impact, being one where nearly every character meets their end in a dramatic way. But unfortunately, the cast is full of characters we know basically nothing about, the few characters who did have arcs have long since been shoo'd out of the show by now, and anything else done up until now just falls flat because all leading to... not even a resolution really. It just kinda stops dead. Literally. Even the stuff with Brad and Lina, two characters that I was actually kinda growing to, doesn't hold as much impact as it easily could've because their entire relationship is explained away in one quick scene, swiftly followed by death. In other words, it was a huge waste of time making me wonder why they even bothered. With Gerd I was furious. Here I'm just numb to it. In the end, the only survivors are Joseph, Malek, and Amanda, meaning that everything in this show I actually gave a crap about is now gone. And the only thing about this episode in particular that I was even remotely interesting was seeing Beatrice's' Amalgam form. Will the second half/season fair any better? Since they seem to be starting with a clean slate, it's certainly possible, but I highly doubt it.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 03-18-2021 at 10:03 AM.. |
03-16-2021, 07:49 PM | #275 |
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Episode 13: Distant Memories ROLLING MY EYES. STILL. I'm definitely starting to feel the definition of insanity when it comes to these write-ups. I feel like I'm just gonna be repeating the same thing over and over. This episode deals with Joseph's' backstory, only we kinda never get a proper explanation on what exactly his deal is, nor is it in any way any sort of proper payoff. "Too little too late" is a phrase I'm feeling deja vu over here. The backstory proper that we're provided is essentially exactly what you'd expect from a show like this. Joseph grew up on orphan who was mistreated by society at large for being a foreigner, and everything good in his life is taken away via that prejudice, including having to take the blame for a crime. The lead-in is flawed right off the bat though, because Joseph is dumping his life story off on Amanda, and with essentially no provocation to boot. Heck, instead of at all demanding any answers about say, the Amalgams, Wolf, Malek, any of that, Amanda just kinda sits there and listens to him talk about his childhood as if that's what she pursued him for(and it wasn't). Like, I get that this is done for the sake of the audience and giving them an idea of the type of person Joseph is(he's totally super nice guys you just never noticed!), but in terms of anything in-universe, especially concerning Amanda, he just kinda starts going off for no reason. Like, no joke as soon as Joseph said "And that's how Xargin and I first met" I straight up expected Amanda to ask "...Who?" because her and Xargin have never met. Maybe if Joseph's' character had any at all proper mystique to him(Heero Yuy he ain't), or if we'd not seen him be a hypocrite multiple times up to now, this episode would have more impact. I will admit though, it was nice to see why he's obsessed with making carvings of the Virgin Mary, atleast. And I guess they felt the need to make his backstory incredibly tragic as a way to justify why he's cold to emotion? Personally I feel like they went way overboard with it, especially given a character I'm pretty numb to. So yeah, this episode is just more of the show being misery porn. And hey if that's your thing, great. But for me, especially for a show where none of the characters I gave a crap about are left, I just find it trite.
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03-17-2021, 04:47 PM | #276 |
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Just discovered that 4 of Blassreiter’s main characters are representatives of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Joseph is Famine, Hermann is War, Gerd is Conquest and Xargin is Death. Thought I’d mention it because KR Gaim’s 3 movie Riders (Bujin Gaim, Fifteen and Mars/Jam) are also based on the Horsemen.
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03-17-2021, 05:46 PM | #277 |
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Quote:
Just discovered that 4 of Blassreiter’s main characters are representatives of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Joseph is Famine, Hermann is War, Gerd is Conquest and Xargin is Death. Thought I’d mention it because KR Gaim’s 3 movie Riders (Bujin Gaim, Fifteen and Mars/Jam) are also based on the Horsemen.
This show confuses me on so many levels.
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03-17-2021, 08:06 PM | #278 |
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Episode 14: A Saintly Decision Who??? Anyway, this episode is the last bit of Joseph's' backstory, and as such many of the complaints I had about the previous episode still apply here. Thus, this is gonna be one of those posts where I simply describe what happens, maybe with a side comment here and there. It's not in any way a compliment to this episode's' story; Just more that I have nothing to say that I haven't already. Joseph decides to join Xargin's' charity organization in the hopes of being able to help those in need, and it just so happens that Xargin's' girlfriend, Sasha, is Joseph's' long lost older sister despite her looking alot more like Xargin's' sister than anyone else. Sasha is the first Outsider to be granted her own research facility, and is apparently research a "controversial subject" that, should it pay off, be able to rid the world of disease. It's gonna be needed too, because the local shelter is hit with an outbreak of scarlet fever, and the locals won't in any way just give antibiotics to foreigners. So, Joseph and Xargin decide to break into the lab to steal some, only to be stopped by the military. This is blatantly so it can be revealed that the Pope/XAT Director is the guy who kickstarted the entire plot at large, but considering Sasha intervenes and he has no problem with her "taking her own drugs" it makes me wonder why the heck Sasha didn't just go in and grab them herself. But hey, let's ignore that for the sake of a twist and some mistrust amongst the cast. Of course though because this is Blassreiter the scenario has to end with nearly everyone involved dead(big surprise), and it's revealed that Sasha's' research involved nano-machines, the very thing that creates Amalgams. After Sasha gets killed by a gang of racists, Xargin allows the XAT Pope to talk him into becoming an Amalgam himself, and is the first one to totally keep his mind upon transforming. He declares war on the entire world, and Joseph attempts to him, only to nearly die in the process. Joseph tries to tell Xargin to not give up hope, and that even in people's' darkest hours there's still alot to live for and to keep belief in people. Xargin tells him it's all crap, and turns Joseph into an Amalgam, outright challenging Joseph to "prove him (Xargin) wrong." XAT Pope then gives Joseph his unique motorcycle, which makes me wonder why he's been trying to kill Joseph all this time if Joseph has been infact doing his dirty work. The episode ends with Mei Fong(somehow still alive) showing up, alongside a new, mysterious woman, who is apparently Sasha despite looking nothing like she did before. If any of that at all sounded engrossing, trust me, it wasn't.
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03-18-2021, 10:54 AM | #279 |
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Episode 15: The Millenary Knights of God No screenshots for this one, because frankly there was nothing interesting to 'cap. Instead, here, allow me to steal Sunred's' thunder and show you all the new opening the show has. And lemme tell ya, this opening is just lazy. The song is fine, but the animation? Let's just say that almost every clip in this opening is ripped right out of this very episode, and the context surrounding those clips is dull. Heck, the animation in the episode itself is just off and inconsistent, which is surprising since this episode is mainly just talking. Makes me think this was a budget episode. Now you'd think that, with an episode based entirely around dialogue, that anything the characters had to say would made interesting. But then you remember that this is Blassreiter, and that even if it somehow were interesting it'd just be made a moot point in the end anyway. Urobochi is the one who wrote this episode, and I gotta ask something about this guy's' writing style (again): Is he also known for writing characters who are major hypocrites? Because everyone in this show has become one. We have Joseph claiming that Xargin is only after Zwolf(new Relgious Military group) and not humanity(not true), we have Sasha claiming Zwolf doesn't force anyone to do anything only to immediately give Joseph a no-win scenario, we have Victor(XAT Pope) claiming that it's okay for Zwolf to commit war crimes because their goal is to rule to world while lambasting Xargin for the same thing, and we have some idiot in a muscle suit demeaning Amanda and then trying to claim that he really respects her. See, this is one of the major issues with stories that are super up their own butt like Blassreiter is. When you starting trying to flex how smart you are, you open yourself up for not just deeper analysis, but also much harsher criticism. And needless to say, the writing in this show isn't very good! To give one example from this episode alone, they try to claim that Amalgams can only keep their humanity after transforming if they shut down their emotions or otherwise keep them in check. Meanwhile, Xargin and Malek both managed to keep their minds entirely despite the entire reasons for them becoming Amalgams in the first place was their very rage fueled ideas of revenge, meaning that if anything, they should've become deranged mass murdering psychos pretty much instantly. Add the fact that there's literally no one left to root for in this entire thing, and yet again I must ask, why in the world should I give a crap about anything this pretentious anime has to say about anything? Yes, Xenophobia bad. Yes, people often use Religion as an excuse for their own misdeeds. And yes, the world is full of people who care nothing for others. Stating the obvious does not make you smart. Instead of just sitting around and whining about how awful the world is, how about you instead try to inspire others and give them ways that they could improve their lives, or at the very least offer some consistent characterization. Otherwise all you accomplish is coming off like an edgy, whiny, closed-minded 10 year old. Nothing this show has to say is at all deep or thought provoking, even by 2008 standards, and even on the basis level of seeing CGI monsters fight eachother, it falls short. It just amazes me how, with just how much obvious Kamen Rider influence this show has, that it manages to miss the entire point of that franchise as a whole. It's enough to make me think that the minds behind Blassreiter view Kamen Rider with utter contempt.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 03-18-2021 at 12:20 PM.. |
03-18-2021, 12:02 PM | #280 |
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In regards to the writing style… surprisingly, Blassreiter comes up nowhere in this description of his various tropes of choice. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...or/GenUrobuchi
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