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12-04-2020, 05:22 AM | #181 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
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Ghoulgilas coming back as a Mecha version is similar to what the og show did with a few of its monsters in mid season, sticking armour on them to become Mecha versions (the exceptions being Anoglilas, who was reused as a fake version and Shinobilar, who was at first straight up reused, before being painted red and given a nunchuck in his third appearance to become Kung Fu Shinobilar). Syber Squad either acknowledged them as upgrades, or treated them as separate monsters.
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12-04-2020, 08:42 PM | #182 |
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Location: Michigan
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Episode 9: Dream ...I got nothin' for this one. No, really. This episode did absolutely nothing for me. The best I can really do is just kinda summarize what happens. Akane uses a Kaiju to put the kids into a dream where she's their BFF. With Yuta it's a repeat of the first episode, with Sho it's a repeat of when they talked about Red King, and with Rikka it's just kinda them hanging at school. The issue is that this entire episode is designed to try and make the viewer feel sympathy for Akane, which, guess what, I don't. And frankly, why should I? So the Alliance have learned not to be friends with a psychopathic murderer. Oh woe is her. Her life must be so hard. It's incredible to me that Malcolm from Syber-Squad, a show which wasn't even all that focused on character depth nor drama, did the angle of the tragic loner way better than anything Akane ever could have. I can't go into too many details as of right now, but come the end of the show? Oh yeah, I'll definitely break down why I feel Malcolm is done much better. But hey, we get to see Zenon, I guess. And the fight it debuts in isn't even a fight. It's done in one stroke. So even the action side of this episode is lame. Maybe I'm just a heartless jerk, but this episode did nothing for me. The character moments don't lend anything good, the atmosphere drags, and the action is lame. It's the first episode in the whole show that I just straight up don't like. Maybe there's some hidden gem to it that I missed? Lemme know.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 12-05-2020 at 07:18 AM.. |
12-04-2020, 09:01 PM | #183 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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I remember having my mind blown quite a bit when that was pointed out to me. Made me gain new respect for the nerdy priorities the geeks making this show had (f***ing nobody but the hardest of core would think to do this), and also made it seem really silly whenever I saw people criticizing SSSS Gridman merchandise not working in more articulation for Powered Zenon. It's literally canon, guys! ...and, uh, I'll totally back you up that Akane isn't very sympathetic and that I find the way the source material handled its equivalent character better in many ways (though in my case I'm talking about Takeshi), but that's also because I didn't find much to like about any character in this show not named Anti. I've kind of been holding back on saying anything because I'll probably have trouble stopping myself from getting real salty about some of the quirks of SSSS Gridman's writing. I have complicated feelings about this series, but it's been fun reading thoughts from someone with maybe a more overall positive outlook. The last few episodes were the strongest by far, in my opinion, so it'll be especially fun getting to those.
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12-04-2020, 09:08 PM | #184 |
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Location: Michigan
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Hey, when the animators go out of their way to have Powered Zenon not having elbow joints to make it more like some DX robo toy, it probably limits the options for complex choreography!
I remember having my mind blown quite a bit when that was pointed out to me. Made me gain new respect for the nerdy priorities the geeks making this show had (f***ing nobody but the hardest of core would think to do this), and also made it seem really silly whenever I saw people criticizing SSSS Gridman merchandise not working in more articulation for Powered Zenon. It's literally canon, guys! Quote:
...and, uh, I'll totally back you up that Akane isn't very sympathetic and that I find the way the source material handled its equivalent character better in many ways (though in my case I'm talking about Takeshi), but that's also because I didn't find much to like about any character in this show not named Anti. I've kind of been holding back on saying anything because I'll probably have trouble stopping myself from getting real salty about some of the quirks of SSSS Gridman's writing. I have complicated feelings about this series, but it's been fun reading thoughts from someone with maybe a more overall positive outlook. The last few episodes were the strongest by far, in my opinion, so it'll be especially fun getting to those.
Will of course go into more detail in due time.
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12-05-2020, 04:51 AM | #185 |
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,550
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Yeah, I also got nothing on this episode. Both Gridman and Syber Squad had more interesting “trapped in a dream” episodes (the former heavy on the wtf by having the big bad attack the supporting cast with an army of clown minions*, the latter focusing on the horror and mind screw aspects)
Since there’s not much to talk about, I’ll discuss some alternate SSSS combinations that can be done with the toys, but never appeared in the show. Buster Sky Gridman As the name implies, it’s just Full Powered Gridman without the arms or chest. Moving on. Full Powered Gridman Initial ver. This is Full Powered Gridman recoloured to match the blue Gridman from the first episode, as you can see in this video. I love this colour scheme and the only reason I haven’t searched up and bought this variant already is because I have enough trouble as it is justifying buying this set. *when I think “clown minion”, I can’t help but think of the subject of my first regular YouTube video. |
12-05-2020, 06:19 AM | #186 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,401
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Quote:
Yeah, I also got nothing on this episode. Both Gridman and Syber Squad had more interesting “trapped in a dream” episodes (the former heavy on the wtf by having the big bad attack the supporting cast with an army of clown minions*, the latter focusing on the horror and mind screw aspects)
As for those combinations, they don't really do much for me, personally. Speaking of Initial Gridman, I remember when a Figma of him came with the JP Blu-Ray of the anime but not the US one and alot of people were upset by it. And while yeah, sure, it'd certainly be cool to own, I don't find it very "necessary" ya know? I more wish that GSC had made Figmas of all of Gridman's' various combos instead. But sadly it wasn't to be.
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12-05-2020, 07:14 AM | #187 |
Reiei
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 3,691
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...and, uh, I'll totally back you up that Akane isn't very sympathetic and that I find the way the source material handled its equivalent character better in many ways (though in my case I'm talking about Takeshi), but that's also because I didn't find much to like about any character in this show not named Anti. I've kind of been holding back on saying anything because I'll probably have trouble stopping myself from getting real salty about some of the quirks of SSSS Gridman's writing. I have complicated feelings about this series, but it's been fun reading thoughts from someone with maybe a more overall positive outlook. The last few episodes were the strongest by far, in my opinion, so it'll be especially fun getting to those.
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12-05-2020, 07:55 AM | #188 |
King of Souls
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Georgia
Posts: 841
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I guess the feel I always got from this episode was everything starting to actually come down on Akane. Trying to stay spoiler free, but seeing the Gridman alliance just yeet from the dream world really hurts her for reasons that will become clear by the end of the show. It's not really "you should feel bad for her" but instead "this is what you deserve"
Also fun fact, I missed this episode the first time and had to come back and watch it later.
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12-05-2020, 08:44 AM | #189 |
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Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,401
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Episode 10: Collapse I've already done alot of complaining about Akane, so I'll try to spare you all that. Instead, something I wanna bring up that I haven't mentioned as of yet is that when I first watched this show, it was of the SimulDub. For those who don't know what I'm getting at, when it comes to SimulDubs, they often feature first drafts of the script, in order to be able to pump the episode out faster. These scripts then get revised when the show gets a home release. During this rewatch I've been watching the Blu-Ray release that I bought ages ago but never opened until now. And admittedly, while it has been close to 3 years since I saw the SimulDub, I haven't noticed any major changes to the dialogue. Minor bits, sure, but the show has been mostly the same. However, I bring this up now because the revised script makes two major changes that I don't approve of. One in this episode, and another in the next. I even went ahead and skimmed previous episodes as well as the next one in order to make sure I wasn't crazy in misremembering this(which also lead me to discovering the other change I didn't like, but that's next episode). Surprising no one who's been keeping up with these posts so far, both of these changes involve Anti. During the scene in this episode where Anti confronts Full-Powered Gridman, Borr makes a remark akin to "Oh, you again? Don't you ever get tired of losing?" And Anti's' response is "I'll keep going until I finally crush you!" Standard villain dialogue right? Well, that's not actually how the exchange went in the SimulDub. Here's how that went down: "You again? Don't you have anything better to do?" "Yeah me again! And as a matter of fact, no I don't!" Which to me is A) Hilarious, and B) speaks alot about Anti's' character and state of mind throughout the entire episode. Whereas before now his sole purpose in life being to kill Gridman was something he embraced, now he does it solely because he knows nothing else, and you can tell by the way he's breathing heavy and how his movements are slower than normal that this is weighing heavy on him. In other words, unlike Akane, he is an example of a tragic loner done correctly. This will be further exemplified later on. This episode might as well be all about Anti as far as I'm concerned, even though he only takes up maybe a third of it, because yet again, he's the biggest highlight. And his character arc as a whole comes to a head with this: This is Anti's' final form, Gridknight, and from what I can gather he's based off of the many different concepts for a Gridman sequel that never came to be. And to help differentiate him from Gridman, Gridknight does not fight in the standard way that Gridman has fought all throughout this show, instead focusing on wild movements and high acrobatics. It's a ton of fun to watch via contrast! So what takes up the other two thirds of this episode? Well, outside of the typical Akane nonsense, I actually kinda dug the first third, though it does have its own issues. Essentially it's the characters talking about the nature of their lives; What their purpose is if they really were born from Kaiju, what the state of the world might mean should their God disappear, and how most of the Gridman Alliance are infact aliens. The problem is that they jump to alot of conclusions without any real substantial evidence. For example, the Junior High Squad theorizes that they and Gridman were all originally one entity... even though in previous episodes they've displayed knowledge and history with one another as separate beings. They also yet again keep assuming that Alexis is the mastermind and that Akane is innocent, despite how even the audience has seen by now that, frankly, that doesn't really hold much weight. That aside though I did enjoy the discussion aspect. Is it done better in other shows? Certainly. I've already talked about Android Kikaider in this thread afterall(seriously go watch that), but to make this clear, I am in no way demanding this show go super "deep" with its themes. I'm just glad that there's a follow up at all to the question posed towards Syber-Squad that I brought up in a previous write up: "What if people lived in those virtual cities?" SO WITH THAT SAID LET'S END ON A NEGATIVE NOTE(SORRY!) The episode ends in a moment that shocked pretty much everyone who'd been keeping up with the SimulDub at the time... but it kinda just made me roll my eyes. Ignoring the contrivance of the Team leaving the Junk Shop door open and Akane just happening to be there, Akane waltzes in, right up towards JUNK, and just starts taunting everyone. And rather than, I dunno, immediately decking her in the face and restraining her in order to get information, everyone makes the great decision of letting her get the chance to do this: Certainly makes for a great visual though, I will give it that.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 09-18-2021 at 08:38 PM.. |
12-05-2020, 08:48 AM | #190 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,401
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I don't know. A escapism-ridden character with a cynical and cruel mindset kinda hit close to home for me. Tho, it's probably just from personal experience with knowing someone who kinda suffered from a similar experience with Akane. The end of the anime and the implications of the music video adds to it too.
Not gonna get into it quite yet, but let's just say I too have personal experience with someone of whom this show is trying to represent. Quote:
I guess the feel I always got from this episode was everything starting to actually come down on Akane. Trying to stay spoiler free, but seeing the Gridman alliance just yeet from the dream world really hurts her for reasons that will become clear by the end of the show. It's not really "you should feel bad for her" but instead "this is what you deserve"
Also fun fact, I missed this episode the first time and had to come back and watch it later.
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