Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Tokyo ESP
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 304 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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Is that Ga-Rei: Zero's thumbnail or am I mistaken?
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Mr_42
 Posts: 87 |
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The producers for Tokyo ESP decided to feature the characters from Ga-Rei: Zero in the first episode of the series because......reasons. Honestly though, this series has almost no redeeming features. The pacing is rushed, disjointed and unclear, the characters personalities and even designs are distorted almost beyond recognition, the sound and animation is loose and floaty even in the fight scenes and all the grit and tension that permeated the manga has bee stripped away for the sake of convenience. It's a bad series and an awful adaptation. |
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gedata
 Posts: 617 |
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I enjoy the content present here, but not how it's translated on screen. Action scenes feel weightless and dull asides from the first episode (which shouldn't exist, what was the point of the in medias res anyway?)
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Mr_42
Posts: 87 |
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I just read the review again and I noticed the line:
What the hell are you smoking Mr Theron Martin, Coz I want some! This series is Tokyo ESP in name only! The anime has removed the serious moments, lost the humour, dumbed down the morals, simplified the character designs, swapped personalities for fan service, completely disregarded the original story and is delivering animation that is deteriorating as the episodes continue to air. And you say it is succeeding? Check to forums! Even the people who say they're enjoying it say the fight scenes suck and anyone who's read the manga hates this series! It's an absolute joke to compare the anime to its original source and that's a real shame because I was looking forward to this more than any other series this season because I loved the manga. I honestly expected more and it actually hurts to see a series I loved to read butchered week after week by a studio tat pays the series practically lip service only. |
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Little_Hawk
Posts: 357 |
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It's a shame this wasn't as good as Ga-Rei: Zero
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gedata
Posts: 617 |
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Have heard of the rest of your complaints before, but this is new to me. Mind explaining? |
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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lol The thumbnail made me think of Kei from Gantz and Ga-Rei: Zero.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18447 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I go into this in a lot more detail about this in the Episode 1-7 part. When you get a chance to read that note that I am not saying a single word about comparing it to the source manga. I have not read the manga (as I typically don't read scanlations), so I am evaluating it entirely as a standalone series which is more aping American comic books storylines and putting an anime twist on them. In that sense I think it's working pretty well. It has not seemed especially rushed and the in media res trick used to set this up has been working very well so far. If the anime is leeching some of the humor out of the original, I'm fine with that, as what did make its way into the series I'm finding to be more of a distraction than a help. This is not frivolous subject matter that the series is exploring, and frankly, I find the "wacky asides even in deadly serious material" pattern seen in a lot of manga to be off-putting. (That's why I prefer the TV series version of Hellsing to its equivalent episodes in the more-accurate-to-the-manga OVA adaptation, for instance.) In general, you'll never see me give much credence to "oh, this is a crap adaptation of the source material" complaints. And yes, now that you've seen my forum name, you should notice that I post nearly every episode in the main forum series thread, so I am quite aware of what's being said there. This is my take on the series, though, not anyone else's. |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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The manga is not good. lol And to review anime, you don't need to know the source.
This anime is ok. Not good, not bad, nothing special. It's kind of like you average filler anime that they have to put out every season. There is nothing they can do, they need 20-30 new anime every season. not every one of them can be good. Ga-Rei: Zero's much better. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3994 |
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I've been enjoying this just as much maybe more sometimes, perhaps due to Rinka as the heroine for the reasons mentioned in the review, and also though maybe I just wasn't quite in the mood for Gai Rei Zero's spoiler[tragic side between the two leads at the time]. Not that I didn't enjoy it. |
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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I like this series. It ain't as good as Ga Rei, but seeing as how Zero was a prequel to the manga and not an adaptation, the circumstances are a bit different. The art isn't great, but it isn't bad either. I also really like Rinka: she isn't that hot, she isn't a genius, rich, or a martial arts master (at least not at first), she's just an ordinary girl, and I like that. I haven't read the manga, so I'm also enjoying the anime for what it is: a bloodier than usual urban super power fantasy.
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Mr_42
Posts: 87 |
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I know and I do get that, honest. I do believe however, strongly worded though it may have been, that a comparison between the original and the adaptation should still stands as there is almost always going to be a section of an anime audience that is coming to see the adaption, so I feel that aspect needs to at least be mentioned. But, as you say this is your take as someone who hasn't read the manga and I am perfectly aware that my preconceptions about what I feel the series should been have coloured my opinion of the show heavily, so I'm about as far from impartial as it's possible to be. When you say you
As I'm writing this I'm painfully aware of the Answerman article on my right talking about cynical jerks so I'm trying to judge the anime by its own merits. The ESP effects are good, especially the teleportation (very Nightcrawler-esque) and I get why they used the Ga-Rai characters in the first episode from a business/production standpoint but putting the start of the end at the beginning always creates the danger of an off-paced story as the series rushes to catch up and as a result elements are lost. This is what I refereed to when i mentioned the point og dumbing down some the morals:
Though perhaps I should have said skipped or missed instead of dumbed down. There is an entire chapter focusing on the sibling issues and relationship between Black Fist and her sister which is left out of the manga. All I can say is that (compared to the manga) the series lacks tension, humour drama and content. As a standalone series it is a series predominantly comprising action scenes but those same scenes (after the first episode) are rather tame with soft, floaty sound assess and animation and a plot that's moving too fast. But to quote,
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I was enjoying the pacing and build up of the anime tremendously until the last few episodes when it's dropped into a training arc. Too bad Yomi and Kagura won't come back and steal the spotlight, they're what caused me to start watching in the first place, but now I can find of see why the pre-order numbers for those show are pretty awful, ranking near the bottom.
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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Don't listen to Mr 42. I pretty much completely agree with your review Theron. Although I don't rate Tokyo ESP quite as high as I rate Akame ga Kill!, Tokyo ESP is still more or less the sleeper hit of the season in my book. It's nailed the mix of fun/goofiness and seriousness just right. Rinka is a fantastic character in so many ways. As I said earlier, she is very similar to Nike from World Is Still Beautiful, but I just think this story is executed so well that it makes her an even better character than Nike. The supporting cast are all getting some great development, and none of them feel useless or superficial at all, which can be a problem for some shows with large supporting casts. If I had to compare the feel of this overall show to another, I would say it gives me the same vibes as last years sleeper hit, Log Horizon.
Right now, Tokyo ESP is somewhere in my top 3. Probably number 2 or 3. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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Yea, the animation in episode 9 was abysmal. But at least the story elements were pretty good. I did feel the emotional impact of Rinka's downfall, even if it was executed fairly poorly from a technical standpoint. I can't really disagree with the rating for this episode, though I am still eager for next week's.
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