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I still watch this show weekly, but I think their effort to try and limit how much information the audience gets directly, instead going for cryptic references, sudden bursts of exposition, and just generally having things being a mystery, has hampered them in the long run - mostly because they keep trying to keep as much to their chest as possible before they absolutely have to say something. And even then, it doesn't necessarily mean that the answer will be complete (see: We now know what Salty Dog's deal is, but not why their leaders are so damned convinced that this plan is somehow too out of hand to let the Knights do their thing). I liked the latest episode's dream sequence, mostly in how they might screw with things in brief edits that, when you're watching the episode through the first time, and in any other show, would indicate the depths of the Kiltgang's willingness to toy with Daichi whilst they have him at their mercy. Except, by the end... it appears to be nothing to do with them, defeating the entire point. And its yet another cryptic thing added to a show that has yet to explain some of its core concepts properly, seemingly just for the sake of adding more mysteries in. I actually thought when the vision ended that they were actually about to fire upon the Cocoon, because that made sense as like, an offscreen thing to have occurred after jumping into hyperspace or whatever. But no, still at the damned Impactor.
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Sep 8, 2014 19:33
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Yasser Arafatwa posted:What was up with the different version of the ED this time? Still dug it, but seemed odd they suddenly changed the instrumentation. Assuming it doesn't change back in the next episode, maybe its meant to mark the show going into its final lap?
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Sep 8, 2014 21:59
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Okay, credit where its due, they actually did end up giving a drat about the whole dream sequence deal. On the other hand, it leaves the lingering question of what the heck Akari was watching, but eh. I kinda wish the initial fight with BugBear had been more of the standard for the setting. Yes, it has the usual sudden turnaround, but before it the fight is way more balanced than the show usually allowed, both sides getting in their shots and evading others. I feel like the staff aren't normally very good at these things, for whatever reason, so it makes a refreshing change to see a fight with effort from both sides, rather than it being utterly lopsided till the finale. Plus the sudden turnaround ended up meaning something for Teppei's development, and... I actually kinda liked the notion that he, a nigh-immortal alien being, found reason to believe in some kind of higher power. Though... I feel like the twist with Puck is just gonna end up used as an excuse to let the Kiltgang off easy for all the stuff they've done by making them into technical good guys for the final fight.
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Sep 14, 2014 20:57
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Kanos posted:The only one of them who ever demonstrated any traits other than "totally evil crazy person" from the moment they awakened was Bugbear, and even then his attitude basically boiled down to "I've got nothing left to live for anymore so gently caress it". I guess Seiren hasn't been actively evil but she's had literally no development whatsoever. The Glittering Crux were a cadre of people who wanted the seals on the island broken for various reasons. Some just wanted to be able to gently caress around with giant robots, others just wanted to actually be capable of leaving without invoking a crazy timeloop, and some of course wanted to rule the drat world. A few were just bored otherwise and saw it as some eccentric thrill ride with only a few consequences involved. By comparison, as you note, once any of the Kiltgang - save Bugbear - awoke, they were instantly onboard and totally okay with attempting to commit total genocide of the human race. Hell, the only reason Seiren hasn't done anything so far is because she thought attacking the good guys one at a time was stupid, so instead she's been slowly building up the Orgone energy supplies so they could just attack all at once. Their entire schtick is that they operate on a Black Adam style god complex, biologically superior and thus think themselves free to treat other species however their wish - namely, feeding off them for sustenance. Beyond that, there's been little conflict of any kind revolving around their previous human lives versus the reality of what they are, or indulging in the various comforts of human society - aside of like, Malkin realising she has a fairly attractive body and wanting to show it off. It feels like a vastly missed opportunity for there to have perhaps been some inter-faction conflict among them, especially with Albion/Teppei having potentially set an example that they didn't necessarily have to just wander the universe being team Galactus. And given how few of them there are, it'd be way easier to characterise and play off that conflict than if they had been a full army or whatever.
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Sep 15, 2014 13:42
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Sindai posted:Yeah, the way the Kiltgang crew was handled is really weird. Especially Malkin's showing a faint spark of development and then getting instantly shut down by Amarok and going nowhere. I actually kinda like Daichi, but I do think there would have been room in perhaps using his odd status as a point of interaction between the various factions as something other characters could bounce off. I mean, you actually see it at some points in the series between him and Amarok, since the latter sees him as some strange thing who somehow convinced a 'superior' being that the cattle are people worth protecting. Whilst Daichi, in turn, has a special grudge against Amarok for, you know, killing his father and all. The others don't generally get that level of interaction with the rest of the cast, beyond their initial episodes. I was actually surprised when they brought back Aiatar's avatar being an idol singer as a plot point, since it gave her a briefly renewed focus, followed by her being Daichi's false romance in the dream world... for some reason.
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Sep 16, 2014 01:35
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...So, final episode. My general impression, as well as for the series overall, is that this was made with a lot of ambition, but not necessarily the know how to realise it, certainly within the space it had at least. It wants to be some grand space adventure interwoven with mystery and conspiracies both on Earth and from beyond the stars. It wants to be a tale of the greatest summer a young boy has ever had, rising to become a hero, and finding the girl of his dreams. Of living up to a father's legacy whilst becoming their own person. Of learning what it means to be a human being. But it seems so... confused. The ending leaves us with more questions and open speculation than answers and closure, even with a few fairly neat fight sequences in between. Similar to the Star Driver ending, but cranked up to eleven, which if that means they're planning for a movie, then I just sigh and shake my head. What happens to the Kiltgang since their avatar bodies were still on Earth? What's the deal with the livlasters and the neoteny? Or wherever the hell Hana came from? How is Salty Dog gonna react to being totally ineffectual and counter-productive? Answers, please!
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Sep 20, 2014 20:38
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Alectai posted:"Neoteny" is a term for "An adult that retains aspects of it's juvenile state". Or something along those lines. In this case, it's Probably from the perspective of the Planetary Gears as "Someone who can use Orgonne like us, but still has the body of a fleshling" But then the ending adds on extra ~mystery~ with the implication she's Pitz as well, which then raises questions on whether Seiren was a candidate or something and why she could predict the future and oh no I've gone cross eyed. The Neoteny/Livlaster issue is one of more annoying aspects of the show because whilst I can get behind the idea of something being unknown in universe, but there's clearly several aspects that are known to characters in universe, mainly the Kiltgang, but what they understand is never explained to us. And, well, that makes it hard to say what it specifically refers to. Amarok obviously calls Teppei and Daichi Neoteny several times, but at other points he seems to be speaking about the livlasters, or rather, the beings responsible for them. There's obviously some kind of existing history there, but why is there a clear dislike of them? As Puck even points out, infinite energy is kinda awesome, and you'd think for an energy hungry race they'd be a bit reverent of that. Yet it also... sounds like the Neoteny/livlasters/whatever have a history of interference against them, yet evidently the Kiltgang can't have been defeated prior to this since, well, they're still alive. Unless they have been beaten and the reason they're asleep is that were energy deprived for so long. Or its something that even if they've not personally experienced they know through the culture of a wider kiltgang/planetary gears species since there has to be one unless there guys are literally the only ones to exist? Oh, and let's not even get started on how ego blocks are apparently supposed to work.
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Sep 20, 2014 23:01
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Sindai posted:Did they ever explain what exactly the Blume was and how it ended up on Earth? The general implication, IIRC, is that the Blume is the last ship of some species previously destroyed by the Kiltgang. In a way its the Macross, but pointier.
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Sep 21, 2014 00:02
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I think what would help Bones, and the particular staff involved, is if they dropped two particular aspects present in both Star Driver and Captain Earth, which seem to hamper the overall direction I think. First is the instant loss conditions with enemy victory. Admittedly Captain Earth did have one briefly clever subversion by dividing mecha fights into two tiers, meaning they could lose the fight in small mechs before heading up to the space battle. Otherwise though I find it ends up contributing overall to the rather one sided fights both series tends to have, since the heroes must win each fight without fail, whether that means a new move or simply being able to get in that last hit. They go all in having the villain then dominate because they themselves rely on that final turnaround to change things. Though admittedly its weird to say that given the Bugbear fight at Europa has one such ending, but its an exception that proves the rule I'd say. Second thing to drop would be the over reliance on cryptic mysteries. More specifically, having said mysteries and not being willing to properly solve them in a straightforward manner. Star Driver admittedly handled things better, but overall both series have an affection for trying to lead people on. Works for the first episodes to get people hooked, but they kept on adding and adding - alien invaders, teppei is one of them, salty dog, hana, livlasters, puck, kube, the kivotos plan - and tended not to do so well on explanations. It also makes it kinda hard to develop characters when you're trying to keep details about them hidden, since there's little in the way of open details to change.
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Sep 21, 2014 01:32
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darkgray posted:I took a break at ep 7, because the show didn't seem to be moving very fast, but now that it's ended I decided to marathon it over the past two days. I'd be hard pressed to call it a good show, or have any real grasp of what it was about, yet for some reason I still loved watching it. Reminded me of a more innocent age, when big robots fought other big robots, and the power of your heart could overcome anything. And of course kissing the girl is the only way to rescue her. So lovely. I think its one of those shows where its better to be watching it than to stop and think about it after the fact, and I don't mean in the usual kind of 'switch your brain off' sense. As has been discussed, its a bit of a confused show, but I will admit its kind of... earnest, about when it does try something. Helped that it has a really good soundtrack to help back it up. Mostly I think if the show had been willing to drop one of two of its numerous sub-plots, it might have had enough room to better play out the rest.
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Sep 22, 2014 23:26
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