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Welp. Today's episode got hard to watch. So how the gently caress are we getting 3 more episodes after we just lost? Minor thoughts: -I wish Sophie had just been a zombie of the original white witch instead of a clone - felt like it would have fit better with the aesthetics of the show. -Wonder what makes the Emperor so sure they can control their witch. Sounds like they have something specific on her. -That loving shot of all the germanians filiming Izetta in defeat. Christ.
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Nov 26, 2016 18:11
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| # ? May 2, 2024 09:46 |
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Nov 26, 2016 18:28
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Hah. That's a good one. ...Uh, although I wonder what the gently caress they're gonna do with this episode.
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Nov 26, 2016 18:36
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the twist in this ep's gag comic will be that nobody is endangered ever
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Nov 26, 2016 18:39
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Endorph posted:the twist in this ep's gag comic will be that nobody is endangered ever That'd be something. ...Although on second thought I bet they just have Sophie be the one to pratfall this time instead.
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Nov 26, 2016 18:49
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So this is the sort of show that builds tension in the second arc by having everything go perfect for the villains. Writers all over the world should be shot when they have the defining trait of their antagonists be unflappable smugness. gently caress you trigger you still aren't off the hook for ragyo
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Nov 27, 2016 01:09
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Every time they say Coenenberg I think Cronenberg and I get ready to H A I L T H E N E W F L E S H Other than that, I thought it was pretty neat how they had Izetta zipping around Europe, helping out resistance cells in Not-zi territory. That was kind of the direction I was hoping they'd go at the start of the series. I wonder if Sophie's hatred of normal humans is some real, genetic memory-type thing or something her creators fed her in order to give her a reason to fight. Seems to me like it'd be pretty easy to throw that back at her--"Hey, you're being used by rear end in a top hat humans to fight a war too," or something. I imagine the next few episodes are going to be the Archduchess' escape from the capitol and Izetta pulling off a one-woman, magic-fueled POW camp breakout. This show...every time I watch it I try to come up with reasons to stop, and every week it gives me just enough of a hook to keep watching.
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Nov 27, 2016 07:56
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chiasaur11 posted:That's not really a good match to history. Generally the American response to things has been enthusiastic but ill-considered. With the exception of domestic affairs, there's been a lot of "Yes! We're helping! Enjoy FREEDOM, foreign nationals! Yes, FREEDOM sometimes smells like napalm. It's... we're working on it, alright?" These are good points, but I can understand that guy's reaction. It's worth remembering that it's not like we're seeing all of Atlanta's glorious freedom Senate voting to go to war with Elstadt, just one ambassador who got freaked the hell out by the power of real actual magic in his face, and doesn't feel comfortable with that being out there as a potential threat. And in his letter he does recommend taking out Germania, then moving on to the Witch. Izetta's such a wildcard compared to what was actually happening in WW2 that it throws everything out of wack too. I'm really digging the show, I was hoping it would last for 22-ish episodes but when things went from A-ok to our country is conquered in one episode 12 makes much more sense. I hope that we see our heroes improve their situation but still have enough balls up in the air for a second season, it seems like there's a hell of a lot to wrap up in 3 more episodes in terms of telling a complete story, but it could work as a fairly satisfying season with another season upcoming. I've also definitely been bothered, as some others have, by the lax security of the good guys. Spies in the super secret chamber, sure ask them to surrender and don't gun them down immediately. Weird girl just kissed and bit your witch superweapon? Sure stop and talk to other people instead of immediately tacking whichever one you can, or if Izetta has magic there just having her capture them both laughably easily. I just feel like there could have been ways to have the bad guy still accomplish their goals without making good seem quite so dumb. I feel like Izetta is doomed to die by the end of the series, bringing in the time of peace she was hoping for. Kind of an inverse Maria the virgin witch, where Maria suffered more over the course of the series but got a happy ending for herself, but Izetta endured relatively less severe bad times but gets the sadder personal ending. I worry that Izetta's going to suffer at nearly a Maria-level in the near future though, witches in this type of show never seem to avoid torture of one kind of another.
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Dec 1, 2016 10:49
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NowonSA posted:These are good points, but I can understand that guy's reaction. It's worth remembering that it's not like we're seeing all of Atlanta's glorious freedom Senate voting to go to war with Elstadt, just one ambassador who got freaked the hell out by the power of real actual magic in his face, and doesn't feel comfortable with that being out there as a potential threat. And in his letter he does recommend taking out Germania, then moving on to the Witch. Izetta's such a wildcard compared to what was actually happening in WW2 that it throws everything out of wack too. Yeah I agree the writing is incredibly contrived.
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Dec 1, 2016 16:28
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yeah im enjoying the show but it's pretty hokey. some stuff works (i don't really care that they somehow managed to clone a witch despite it being fairly standard ww2-era germany because whatever, dna science is more advanced, i can go for it) but the entire spy subplot was terrible, and it wasn't helped by us spending an episode acting like this was a harem show from the perspective of a nazi spy.
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Dec 1, 2016 16:59
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Yeah. Fine and Izetta go together well enough for me to forgive a lot, but the show's really falling short of the all-timer I think the premise could have given us. The writing just isn't smart enough - our leading ladies are likable and charismatic enough (Fine in particular) and have a good dynamic together, but they're pretty one dimensional, and while the propaganda angle was a potentially interesting one to inject into a magical-realism war story, they don't really do enough with it. Add in a main plot that is propelled primarily by contrivance and the show's general inability to see how jarring and unfunny the vast majority of its attempts at humor are, and I'm left with a show that's way trashier than it needed to be. And I can still like it through all of that -Fine/Izetta's relationship is simple and pretty static but it's at least pretty reciprocal and endearing, and the art and animation ranges from 'passable' to 'really quite good'- but it'll definitely be a big 'what could have been' sort of show for me.
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Dec 1, 2016 17:06
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The thing about the spy plot that I can't forgive is how after the guards shot the second spy as he was running away, they somehow failed to notice a third spy walk up and loot the body. Like did they shoot him and then go have a tea break or something before they went to investigate further?
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Dec 2, 2016 00:15
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Those breaks are in the contract buddy
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Dec 2, 2016 00:49
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Yea like the basic idea but stopped watching a few episodes ago I think those dudes chattering away secrets at the riverbank gave away how poo poo the writing was
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Dec 2, 2016 16:08
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I'm going to be really loving sour if this show ends with Izetta using the Magic Stone to save the day and dying as result. I feel like I'm probably going to be really loving sour.
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Dec 3, 2016 18:25
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We'll always have these.
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Dec 3, 2016 18:35
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I suppose there's still a chance for Fine to make it drat clear to Izetta that she won't let her sacrifice herself. The next episode is just titled 'Fine', after all. But if that doesn't happen, I'll probably skip out on the final episode. I am not down for a sad ending in this story, especially not in 2016.
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Dec 3, 2016 18:38
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I have remained silent on this show's really awful plot contrivances before but... It's known that Izetta can't fight in areas with low magic. Apparently, the entire time, it was also known by the spymaster dude that his family knew her secrets too, and had the workaround. And yet he's let her go off, more than once, to low magic areas without thinking to mention it? I mean, what the gently caress? Maybe I'm just sour because it feels like Izetta's getting a real humiliation conga-line for being earnest and dedicated atm, because I note I tend to be more critical of shows' writing when I'm upset by what's happened in them, but we've apparently been sitting on the workaround for the only weakness Izetta has and it wasn't thought to mention it? EDIT: Indirect spoilers I guess. spectralent fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Dec 3, 2016 |
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Dec 3, 2016 20:00
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I just sat down and marathoned this. I loved the first episode and I enjoyed the next four or so episodes after that, but something started gnawing at me after that and I think my issue with this show is that it's too loving cynical. Outside of the Eylstadt group, the only friend/ally Izetta and Fine have is Lord Redford and for all we know, even he could plausibly end up being a collaborator with Germania. Everyone else who is even remotely aligned with Eylstadt is self-serving and unhelpful and, yeah, a lot of that is fairly realistic, but it just feels thoroughly unpleasant. If the whole "fairy tales have miserable ends but we change them afterwards because we want to believe in happy endings" message from the spy subplot ends up more or less being the moral of this whole show then it's a really lovely theme and an especially lovely one for 2016. It just kinda really sucks to watch the only noble, empathetic, and loving people in this show getting stomped into the ground by smug, ruthless fascists, especially when stuff like Flip Flappers and Yuri on Ice are out there this season with the message that love always wins (explicitly so in Yuri's case)! I want to believe that this show can still pull out a happy-ish ending, but it still won't change the fact that every character outside of the Eylstadt group is kind of an rear end in a top hat, to the extent that they're even remotely developed at all (except, again, Lord Redford, who is such an exception to this pattern that I can't help but feel he secretly isn't). I don't by any means think that every anime needs to be super cheerful or have a happy ending necessarily, but I would at least like them to not be nihilistic or cynical with their sad endings.
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Dec 4, 2016 05:10
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jellycat posted:I just sat down and marathoned this. While you're at it go marathon Magical Girl Raising Project then: Lucy Heartfilia posted:also this anime is about what would happen if the wrong people were powerful... just like in the real world
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Dec 4, 2016 11:34
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I don't mind the depressing nonsense as much as I do the writing being lazy as hell.
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Dec 4, 2016 11:48
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jellycat posted:I just sat down and marathoned this. At least Redford being a spy wouldn't be contrived. "Hey everyone we saved the witch's secret! Lol no there's actually been a third spy the entire time and also nobody saw him, for reasons". If it'd been that Redford's around and picked up the stone or something at least they wouldn't have pulled it out of their rear end so they could stomp on Izetta.
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Dec 4, 2016 13:13
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im glad bad things happening in 2016 means that no shows are allowed to explore more depressing themes, ever again not that this show is doing a good job of exploring that theme or making a point, at all, but the idea of most stories having unhappy endings that we change after the fact is actually pretty true, it's like the one good bit of writing this show has stumbled into. and feel me to call me out on this in a week or two but I don't think Izetta's dying. mostly because her dying might make people too sad to buy the fanservice izetta posters and figurines, and might prevent them from making some sort of weird season 2.
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Dec 4, 2016 16:39
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Depressing themes aren't a dealbreaker - depressing themes that are built largely around contrivance and that go mostly un-examined are. Like, the fairy tail bit isn't baseless, and you could build a nihilistic but interesting, enriching story out of exploring it, but that's not what we've gotten. It's just kind of been thrown out there as a premise for the rest of the show to either flatly reject or accept.
Spiritus Nox fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Dec 4, 2016 |
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Dec 4, 2016 17:48
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well, yeah, but this show's writing would be bad if it had a happy ending too.
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Dec 4, 2016 18:07
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Endorph posted:well, yeah, but this show's writing would be bad if it had a happy ending too. Sure, I'm just saying that if the show has to devolve into schlock I'm going to prefer optimistic shlock over teen-cynic shlock every time. It's easier for me to forgive bad writing to an extent when I at least get some warm fuzzies -however shallow- out of the product. Spiritus Nox fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Dec 4, 2016 |
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Dec 4, 2016 18:12
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The show's been kinda schlocky for a while, honestly. But yeah if I'm going to eat trash I'd rather eat ice cream than burnt toast.
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Dec 4, 2016 18:25
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drilldo squirt posted:I don't mind the depressing nonsense as much as I do the writing being lazy as hell. My problem is basically that it's depressing nonsense that is written lazily as hell. To clarify, I'm perfectly fine with depressing stories and sad endings; I actively seek out stuff with sad endings plenty of times (specifically good stuff though, lol), but the depressing nonsense in this show is really shallow. People are selfish and bad things happen to good people, sure, but that's not a novel observation or an interesting message. If you pay any attention to the news or follow any socially/politically aware people on social media, that message gets beaten into you day after day. If you want to go with that angle, you need to say more about it for it to be interesting! I know there's a couple of episodes left and, again, I believe that it's still possible to salvage some of it and come up with a somewhat satisfying ending so I don't want to sound too final on where I stand on this show, but a lot of this show has been building up to the fall and I'm just worried that it wasn't building up to anything else. (sorry, I don't want to sound like I'm blowing up at you or anything, I just thought your post was a good jumping off point)
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Dec 4, 2016 18:35
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New episode was...workmanlike. Didn't set my expectations sky high, but didn't scare me away from the finale either. Still, I'm not sure I've seen an anime with such a poor grasp of its own strong points. It has solid-to-really good art design and animation, pretty strong action setpieces, and a great foundation for a main couple - it could easily have built a really strong show just by using the war as a tragic backdrop/catalyst to explore that main couple and the action scenes to punctuate character arcs. But it just threw way too many ideas in there and didn't really do any of them justice. Half hearted-attempts to characterize actual Nazis (come on, they're Nazis! Half the point of using them is not having to do any characterization), that weird arc with the pilot trying to sort of become Izetta's rival but never actually posing a real threat to her and then just kind of leaving once Sophie showed up, the propaganda war aspect that was potentially interesting but largely evaporated after an episode or two, Sophie herself just feeling kind of like an unneccessary plot device, the show's generally cringe-worthy attempts at comedy...Just, man. I said early in the show's run that I'd be real excited for it if it leaned into the romance and avoided needless complexity, and it's mostly failed at the former and really failed at the latter. I probably won't wind up regretting spending time on it, but the things this show could've done with better, more focused writing. How good would Izetta and Fine's last scene in this episode have been if they had been built up as more than the broad, if likable, archetypes they are and the show was willing to make their relationship explicit?
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Dec 10, 2016 18:31
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That's very inappropriate Hans.  
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Dec 10, 2016 18:32
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I'm glad that Izetta and Fine's relationship got some time before the end and I hope Junichi Suwabe stays a "good" guy until the end and at least dies an okay death.
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Dec 10, 2016 18:59
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izetta and fine jsut made out and hosed on a mountain, its explicit
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Dec 11, 2016 06:39
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Endorph posted:izetta and fine jsut made out and hosed on a mountain, its explicit Forever in our hearts, amen
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Dec 11, 2016 06:42
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Endorph posted:izetta and fine jsut made out and hosed on a mountain, its explicit
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Dec 11, 2016 22:01
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Spiritus Nox posted:Forever in our hearts, amen 
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Dec 11, 2016 23:57
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Dec 12, 2016 00:10
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enhance
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Dec 12, 2016 00:15
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episode 11.5
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Dec 12, 2016 00:38
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I've been slowly losing interest in this show after the strong start and I'd probably drop it after that last episode, if it weren't for the fact that there's only one episode left anyway so I may as well finish it at this point. The last episode I zoned out pretty hard on and barely paid attention which might not be entirely the show's fault, but still it doesn't say much for the show's ability to hold my attention.
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Dec 12, 2016 00:50
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| # ? May 2, 2024 09:46 |
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Xinder posted:I've been slowly losing interest in this show after the strong start and I'd probably drop it after that last episode, if it weren't for the fact that there's only one episode left anyway so I may as well finish it at this point. 
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Dec 12, 2016 00:51
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