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Can't wait to rewatch this whole series in a row at the end of the season and see how this episode recontextualises all the prior Akane interactions.
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Dec 2, 2018 03:52
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While there's no helping someone who won't help themselves, the fact that the gridman alliance basically just left with a couple of parting words is kinda sad. Yak of Wrath posted:Yeah, Akane is so desperately alone and without any connection to people, she has no family (except in the dream when she briefly imitated Rikka). She created her Kaiju world where even was to like her, and she could erase anything that went "wrong". Then she made the dream within the dream, where the gridman alliance loved her. She doesn't want them to need her so much as she needs them. And Alexis certainly doesn't have her best interests at heart, keeping her isolated and angry brings out the best of kaiju after all. I'm really interested in finding out what might be up with her real world family - Assuming there is a real world to have a family in, that is. Are they all dead or do they just not care, or what? Speaking of imitating Rikka, I wonder if she did that because she thought she might be more likable like that. Spiritus Nox posted:Anyway I just rewatched it and, man, what a stunner. I liked Little Witch Academia more than a lot of people I know, but if you had told me before the season that a Trigger reboot of an obscure sentai show would deliver a strong contender for the best episode of anime I've seen all year, I probably wouldn't have believed you. What Utsumi said before leaving was kind of interesting too.[/spoiler]"If this was how we met, I think we would [have been friends]."[/spoiler] Depending on how many layers of  you're on, maybe he meant something about the real-real world and not just the one we've mostly seen?It's definitely not the show I expected to be the character drama I enjoyed the most. 
Cuntellectual fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Dec 2, 2018 |
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Dec 2, 2018 04:01
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Ibblebibble posted:Can't wait to rewatch this whole series in a row at the end of the season and see how this episode recontextualises all the prior Akane interactions. Normally, when knowing about a villain changes something, it does so by making everything creepier. This is not the case here, I can imagine that rewatching the series would just make every Akane scene really depressing. She's desperate to have someone, anyone, to the point that she made people to love her, and even there, even after adding even more layers to it, she's still alone. She completely fails to understand how to relate to people, but she wants to, so much it hurts. And to make the situation worse, she has someone that is fully aware of this and of how to turn that sadness into rage, to manipulate her for his own goals, which only drives the wedge between her and everyone else that much deeper. If she stopped doing the whole kaiju thing, if she truly tried to befriend everyone, then it'd work. It's painfully obvious to anyone but herself because she genuinely can't understand how other people think or work. She fails at even the most basic social cues. She yearns for human contact but constantly screws it up. And she tries to punish everyone, herself included, for it, but the only thing she's accomplished is making the situation even worse. In a worse-written show she'd come across as a total sociopath but here it's fully believable that she really, really, really needs a hug.
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Dec 2, 2018 04:07
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I doubt it's her failing to recognize social cues, to be somewhat pedantic. She strikes me as incredibly aware of social cues and it makes her anxious due to past 'failure' to socially interact that she remembers as embarrassing. This causes her to push real life away/react violently in private when things don't go her way and retreat into a sanitized world where she can't fail in interactions because everyone likes her. People who miss or don't get social cues tend to be like more absent minded or clueless about how the way they interact with people effects them. I believe that Akane has expectations for how she should act around other people, and how other people expect her to act, and how she'd like them to interact. I think she has like social anxiety, trouble making friends, and a self defeating attitude when it comes to personal growth. Anyways may be projecting a bit, but that's how the character strikes me.
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Dec 2, 2018 04:16
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Spiritus Nox posted:Please, please stick the landing, Gridman.  Between this, Zombieland Saga, and JoJo it's been a great season. e: Also, I LOVED how they changed the OP to reflect the new form. Very Sentai, and I wouldn't be surprised if I missed it before now.
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Dec 2, 2018 04:26
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I haven’t seen the latest episode but this show definitely went from something fun to the thing I look forward to the most of all currently airing anime.
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Dec 2, 2018 04:42
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I wonder if Rikka actually is an NPC. Akane certainly thought so, but Rikka has repeatedly not gone along with the claim that she was created to be Akane's best friend, and then there was this end of episode cliffhanger. Maybe Rikka is the one person genuinely in the know about how Akane ended up here.
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Dec 2, 2018 05:04
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I find myself far more concerned with Anti making it out of this show alive and healthy than with Shinjo's murderous self-pity party.
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Dec 2, 2018 06:43
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I can't get over how much I love Anti's scream before attacking, usually before he even finishes acknowledging the enemy is there. Like, GridmaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN. I also can't get over the echoy BE in Griiiiid BEEEEEEEEEEEEAM. Some nice dialogue/sound effects. Love it.
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Dec 2, 2018 06:58
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I nearly fell off this show after the beach episode. I'm extremely glad I gave it another shot.
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Dec 2, 2018 07:26
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Schwarzwald posted:I nearly fell off this show after the beach episode. I'm extremely glad I gave it another shot. River rafting episode gave us pudgey Shou and some of the best NGJH crew jokes, so I dunno why you'd fall off it  ok i kinda know why you would but shh
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Dec 2, 2018 07:57
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"Trapped in a Dream" episodes are my guilty pleasure and this one did not disappoint. Also lol that Utsumi realizes it's a dream because his interactions with a girl are going well.
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Dec 2, 2018 10:41
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galagazombie posted:"Trapped in a Dream" episodes are my guilty pleasure and this one did not disappoint. Also lol that Utsumi realizes it's a dream because his interactions with a girl are going well. Yeah, that's great. Yuta needs Gridman to knock him off the dream, alongside his natural sense of duty. Rikka is unexplained, but she seems to be breaking free of Akane's control by herself even before this episode. Utsumi? "Nah this is too good to be true, dream". And you can fully see it hurts him to admit it, too.
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Dec 2, 2018 14:52
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it that like some sort of metaphor, man
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Dec 2, 2018 17:56
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Akane's plan was kind of a lotus eater scheme, or at least an attempt to win the Gridman Alliance over to her, but as much as the dreams were there to give them something they wanted (or at least what Akane thought they wanted) - a caring girlfriend for Yuta, the neglected friendship restored for Rikka, and interest from his crush for Utsumi - all of the dreams are really things AKANE wants; a significant other, a best friend to hang out with, a friend who she can genuinely nerd out with. All of them devoting their free time to Akane. Even beyond her "god whom everyone is designed to love" thing, she seems to have at least those two girls (Marusan and Seven) as her usual class friends - but they aren't super interested in kaiju like she is, they don't hang out with her after school, and, given they're the leads of a yuri story by the director, aren't likely to be romantically inclined towards her, either. That with the symbology of everyone else on the bus disappearing after Rikka tells Akane that she has lots of other friends, well. It's not like it's a closely guarded secret that Akane is desperately lonely. If the ending sequence is something of a record of "the real world", then combining that with the details from the Rikka dream and other episodes- they're 1st year students, and Rikka and Akane didn't know each other in middle school. They met near the beginning of school in spring (April, in other words, like Utsumi and Yuta), and the show is taking place in the second semester; September through October so far. Something happened that had the two of them drift apart - Akane brushes it off on the group date episode, but when they reach summer vacation in the dream, Rikka declines the invitation to go with her. Maybe that time was the spot of distress in the real past as well? The final shot of the ED is Rikka standing alone wearing a scarf - which suggests it's taking place beyond any of the depicted events thus far, in winter (plus, it doesn't have any of the filters the preceding scenes have). I'm also curious if that brief sequence of Akane running against the train is tied to anything beyond a visual metaphor; the other points of interest so far about the train in the show are that it doesn't actually go anywhere when there's not an "outside" like the rafting trip, and people riding it get forced asleep.
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Dec 2, 2018 19:38
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I wonder if Anti might be a good window into what Akane's real emotions might be as well. He might have picked up a lot of her feelings cause he was made to be human and Akane may know it on some level as well given how she treats him
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Dec 2, 2018 20:46
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SatoshiMiwa posted:I wonder if Anti might be a good window into what Akane's real emotions might be as well. He might have picked up a lot of her feelings cause he was made to be human and Akane may know it on some level as well given how she treats him Wouldn't be surprising, especially given the physical resemblance and Anti's own noticeable attachment to Rikka.
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Dec 2, 2018 20:58
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This episode was so loving good. It had a ton of poo poo that I've loved from different parts of my life.
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Dec 2, 2018 23:51
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For the running part, seems like it was meant as a parallel to the Gridman Alliance, since they're running to the right before they get out of the dream.
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Dec 3, 2018 00:14
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This whole episode hurt, like as someone who is habitually alone it got a little too real in places for me. Rikka's attire while at school, like Akane was literally projecting Rikka's ED appearance onto her. Maru and Ako were on the bus behind Akane but gone once Rikka was 'waking up'. I'm so mixed between  and  . Akane just wants anyone to connect with.
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Dec 3, 2018 00:19
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On a completely non-story note, anyone more familiar with such things have an idea what the odds are of something like Akane's jacket getting another run? It should be fairly likely, right? I am a consumer slave and wanted to get it, but didn't have the extra money due to holidays and getting fired. 
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Dec 3, 2018 02:37
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I happened to see a full cosplay on Aliex just now while looking for an 3.33 Asuka hat (which I did find!) but can't speak to quality. Could poke around a bit more for just the jacket, but looks like ~$60 either way.
Ranzear fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Dec 3, 2018 |
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Dec 3, 2018 07:52
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Just watched the episode, and... holy gently caress. Nth'ing the whole "I've been diagnosed/dealt with depression and that hit way too loving close to home" (I do consider myself insanely lucky to have gotten help at the point where I did). This is gonna sound weeby, but goddamn I wanted to reach and give Akane a hug. 
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Dec 3, 2018 13:01
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Official preview for the next episode. https://gridman.net/story/#/10      Synopsis: The days where Akane was absent from school and kaiju did not appear continued. The last kaiju made by Akane was swiftly defeated by Gridman and eerily stood back up.
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Dec 3, 2018 17:53
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Akane is Not Okay.
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Dec 3, 2018 17:56
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Looks like it's finally time for Alexis to take center stage.
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Dec 3, 2018 18:33
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I can understand Utsumi's reasoning of things being too good to be real. Imagine dreaming that you're in a bookstore and you find this book that sounds absolutely amazing. Wonderful concept, intriguing plotline etc. so you can't wait to buy it. Then you notice that the text keeps changing.... Happens way too often. Though the funniest parts had to be cosplay Alexis for me. Normally I'm not interested in that sort of thing, but I now genuinely want to see a good Alexis costume just to see how they do the smoking head.Also, was that a suicide attempt at the end or a case of 'ladders are for mortals'? Or perhaps both? Akane has been looking way more openly depressed/apathetic these last few episodes. A far cry from the early episodes where she was more 'Kaiju-stomp yes! Woohoo!'.
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Dec 3, 2018 19:23
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maninthesuit posted:I can understand Utsumi's reasoning of things being too good to be real. Imagine dreaming that you're in a bookstore and you find this book that sounds absolutely amazing. Wonderful concept, intriguing plotline etc. so you can't wait to buy it. Then you notice that the text keeps changing.... She hasn't been giving a poo poo about her health and wellbeing for the entire show. See also, her garbage-room and her broken, unrepaired glasses. Less 'ladders are for mortals', more 'ladders are for people who care'.
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Dec 3, 2018 19:29
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maninthesuit posted:Normally I'm not interested in that sort of thing, but I now genuinely want to see a good Alexis costume just to see how they do the smoking head. I'm not tall enough (and wouldn't risk platforms and a long cloak at a con), but it can be done pretty well with some really fine white fabric, LEDs (mixed colors on white fabric looks best), and a small squirrel cage blower or two, exactly how I saw someone did Inferno Cop of all things. It'd all be 5v, so you just run it off a USB battery bank, and there's plenty of helmet to build it in.
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Dec 3, 2018 20:05
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Darth Walrus posted:She hasn't been giving a poo poo about her health and wellbeing for the entire show. See also, her garbage-room and her broken, unrepaired glasses. Less 'ladders are for mortals', more 'ladders are for people who care'. Or "ladders are for people who deserve them"
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Dec 3, 2018 20:08
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Darth Walrus posted:She hasn't been giving a poo poo about her health and wellbeing for the entire show. See also, her garbage-room and her broken, unrepaired glasses. Less 'ladders are for mortals', more 'ladders are for people who care'. Hence why I said 'openly'. The deepseated unhappiness has always been the core of Akane's whole character I think, it's just that she used to have some form of (temporary and unhealthy) reprieve in the form of murdering npcs. Its very similar to venting frustrations with a random videogame rampage now that I think of it. But now this Ultraman-wannabe has even taken that away from her. I'm not even sure if anyone really 'died' ever since Akane's target (and probably Alexis' as well cause Gridman is an unknown but worrying factor) has changed from random people that irritate her to the seemingly nigh-invincible giant that keeps pulling new tricks out of its metaphorical sleeves. Now logically speaking there should be tons of dead people every episode. Buildings get trashed and cars get flung by the dozens after all. But I can't remember ever actually seeing a panicked crowd getting squished. Now I may have just missed it as I'm not exactly the most attentive viewer, but the fight-scenes still come across as clinical to me. It doesn't help that I'm not sure if the city is half-empty because most people died from Kaiju-related incidents, or if it was always half-empty. Though given the riverside not existing until it was needed, I'm leaning towards the latter. What I'm saying is, the only confirmed deaths have been specific targets. Everyone else just gets amnesia so any other victims are simply forgotten, or everyone (except Akane and Gridman-aligned folk) gets restored from backup.
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Dec 3, 2018 23:18
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maninthesuit posted:Hence why I said 'openly'. The deepseated unhappiness has always been the core of Akane's whole character I think, it's just that she used to have some form of (temporary and unhealthy) reprieve in the form of murdering npcs. Its very similar to venting frustrations with a random videogame rampage now that I think of it. But now this Ultraman-wannabe has even taken that away from her. I'm not even sure if anyone really 'died' ever since Akane's target (and probably Alexis' as well cause Gridman is an unknown but worrying factor) has changed from random people that irritate her to the seemingly nigh-invincible giant that keeps pulling new tricks out of its metaphorical sleeves. Now logically speaking there should be tons of dead people every episode. Buildings get trashed and cars get flung by the dozens after all. But I can't remember ever actually seeing a panicked crowd getting squished. Now I may have just missed it as I'm not exactly the most attentive viewer, but the fight-scenes still come across as clinical to me. I feel like we were explicitly told at some point - though I can't remember precisely where - that the only person who dies for real when a Kaiju attacks is whoever Akane designates as its target. Any one who's, say, in a building that gets smashed in the crossfire or gets stepped on because, remember, they can't actually see the Kaiju just gets reset when the attack ends and the maintenance Kaiju reset the world. Edit: Some cool production notes on the latest episode via the sakuga blog: https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/1069643095535427589 If there was any doubt about how Akane thinks about Rikka, the fact that she (and, y'know, the show runners) chose to place an LGBT counseling poster in the background of the nurse's office where she and Rikka meet in the dream world should be a rather overt tell. Spiritus Nox fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Dec 3, 2018 |
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Dec 3, 2018 23:32
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What if it's Rikka that liked Akane? I don't know, Akane cast Yuta as her boyfriend and Rikka as her bestie, and something about the bus scene made me feel like Rikka rejected the dream because "you're one of my friends too!" is not what she wanted to hear as an answer to "what about all the other girls you hang out with?" The poster goes both ways.
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Dec 4, 2018 04:57
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Caphi posted:What if it's Rikka that liked Akane? I had actually gotten a bit of that impression myself earlier in the show - last episode was the most Akane's actively reached out to Rikka specifically all show, and even then only in a context of 'somebody, anybody, please love me.' Yeah she went with Rikka on the group date with the Boydols, but that was pretty explicitly just a matter of trying to confirm whether or not Yuta was Gridman. Meanwhile Rikka's constantly fretting over Akane, starts singing happily to herself after Akane asks her out, the least willing of the trio to fight with her, etc. This could just be because Akane made her that way as a form of wish fulfillment, but then you'd think she'd have programmed Rikka to be in her more immediate friendgroup like the two yuri background charactrers, wouldn't you? I hadn't thought about Rikka's "you have lots of friends" line in that context, tho. All of this is also complicated by my suspicions that Rikka isn't actually one of Akane's constructs like Akane assumes she is, and that the world in general isn't actually behaving the way Akane assumes it does/should, but we'll have to see. Show's built up a lot of confidence tho. ...You know, for as much as people seem to get annoyed when you suggest that this show has Evangelion in its heritage, I feel like what they're doing with Akane is kinda the clearest sign yet. God knows Eva had feelings about desperately lonely and damaged teenagers, badly fumbling about for validation. Spiritus Nox fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Dec 4, 2018 |
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Dec 4, 2018 05:59
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We do know for a fact the world doesn't work like Akane wants it to, from the fact that she had to make a simulator-kaiju within the simulation just to get things back on the rails and it still doesn't work and she says something specifically like "this is how it was supposed to go [...] even in here they don't do what I want." I suspect this episode probably reveals even more about Akane than it appears at first glance, which is quite a lot, if you dig a little, which I haven't. It's also possible that she did simply create them all, and that part of the plot is worth taking at face value, but they are also sentient and subject to emergent behavior, particularly if she can't just give Yuta bravery and Rikka loyalty and then say "no, not like that." c.f. Anti, who was made with a very simple behavioral pattern, not even something broad like "be a friend," and has since attempted to interpret his identity within that framework in a succession of unexpected ways.
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Dec 4, 2018 06:29
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On a lighter note, audio drama 9.9 Max has a thing for... Rikka Mama?
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Dec 4, 2018 16:48
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A man of good taste.
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Dec 4, 2018 16:54
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That one sure went places. Cali-chan?
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Dec 4, 2018 16:59
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You know, that makes me think of something... thematically interesting, I suppose. So, as we all know, Akane's the god of the world. And from her point of view, it seems the Gridman crew seems to be the most important part of it. The world hierarchy is her, then Alexis, then Yuta, Rikka, and Sho, then extras who are to be killed whenever they're inconvenient. (See her disregarding her actual best friends in the dream, and stealing Rikka's family for easier Yuta seduction.) And that kind of fits with how the show has to function, because it IS called Gridman. But things like the audio dramas and taking characters from one of the crew's old yuri fiction and even the background plot where Akko meets a guy down at the river emphasize that the parts we see in focus aren't all there is. That Akane's view is wrong, and that even the Go-bots joke from the first episode is a person, with a family who loved her, with hopes and dreams, with a life. They're fun and funny, but they also provides backing to the heroes. Even if the world isn't "real" in the standard sense, the people in it matter.
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Dec 5, 2018 00:48
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Yeah. The show's felt really interested in playing the notion of Toku shows as big silly action spectacles with goofy villains and loudly declared attack names and poo poo like that against the notion of the world as a mundane, intricate, and at times incomprehensible or alienating place since the very beginning. I wouldn't even say it's trying to do like a take down or !DECONSTRUCTION! or anything like that, but there's definitely a fascination with sort of competing perspectives there, or something. Having a little trouble articulating what I'm getting at here tbh.
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Dec 5, 2018 00:55
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