Forum - View topicREVIEW: When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace Episodes 1-12 Streaming
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1799 |
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While I'm not sure if I ever left the show with the notion that it was a parody in mind, in spite of it's many, many missteps I can't really bring myself to hold any heavy ill will towards it. I do like the main cast, to where even when the show wasn't actually making me laugh (which most of the time unfortunately) I did keep an easy grin the whole time watching them bounce off each other. Everything else about the show leaves a lot to be desired however, for a show that's supposed to be about having powers in a mundane environment, the powers themselves didn't have a lot of focus to me. I was sort of hoping for episodes to be fully about someone's abuse of their power but it never happened. at times I wondered why they were even a part of the story to begin with... that and spoiler[the fairy games stuff was completely forgettable, inspite of it being the supposed "overarching" story point.]
It's sweet at times but you can find characters like these else where so unfortunately it feels like a pointless creation. While not something I'd mind getting a season 2 to expand on things, I'm not especially holding my breath for it. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18435 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I agree with most of what Rose said about the series (both praises and criticisms), I did not feel that the stated problems wrecked the series. I am also not convinced that any parody of harem series was ever intended; Saekano would fit that description much better.
Still, it was interesting to see commentary on the influence that KlK had on it. I am definitely not a fan of the latter, so I guess I liked the series in spite of the connection rather than because of it. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Eh, I think the allusions and shoutouts to Kill la Kill weren't an issue. They certainly didn't bother me.
As for the real problems? Well, first of all, Andou was not nice or sympathetic, he was a huge jerk. Hatoko took him to task in her rant but nothing happened to him, he got no development. It was really annoying to see the show claim to deconstruct the chuunibyou mindset and take such people to task for being posers, while in fact it really wanted to make chuunibyou's out to be cool. For example, Andou talks smoother than a gigolo, and in the pool episode his chuuni knowledge wins him not only the contest but also the heart of Chifuyu's friend. But the real issue with the show is that it teases an overarching plot without ever delivering on it. Only three episodes of the twelve have anything to do with the plot, and that includes the first one which is marginal at best. In the mid-season one, heaps of characters get introduced only for them to do nothing at all, and sub-plots are hinted at without ever being realised. Everything would have been fine had the show been two cours long or had just stuck to its knitting and kept the focus on the literature club. What we got however was a one cour show that was incompetently plotted. Ouch. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18435 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yeah, it definitely seems like it was written with a second cour in mind. It would probably come out better in the overall evaluation if it had that.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Is there a possibility to get author names with reviews on the front page? This now makes the second review by Rose that I'm not really finding to be worthwhile and I FULLY admit that it's due to her and myself having COMPLETELY different approaches to certain shows. I'd prefer to just know certain authors wrote certain reviews at the outset, rather than having excitement that there's thoughts on a show get dashed after reading the first few sentences. I appreciate that aspect about the season primers.
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JaggedAuthor
 Posts: 981 |
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Great review! I never really got the impression that this was a parody of harem anime, but I can see why others might view it in that light. If I had to classify this as a genre parody, I'd call it a send-up of "ill-defined after-school club" series. Of course, it's been almost half a year since I watched it, so it's possible I'm forgetting some prevalent parodic elements related to harem series featured therein.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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It's in the byline, which is literally before every other part of the review. It's in slightly smaller text than you would see in front of a season preview, but otherwise it's already the same as every other byline on a piece of editorial. |
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JaggedAuthor
Posts: 981 |
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But are reviews only worthwhile if they act as echo chambers to your thoughts on certain media? Honestly, if every review I read were in lockstep with my personal opinions, I think I'd forgo them altogether. |
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meiam
Posts: 3448 |
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I adored episode 1 and 2 because they were really funny and used visual gag very well. The premise was interesting and the character while cliché had some comedic potential. Boy was I hugely disappointed by the other episode (I think I endured up to episode 6). The show almost completely dropped the comedy aspect, joke were few and far between and really not funny if not downright cringe worthy (when they tried to stretch the joke about the MC being a lolicon for like 5 minute, it was just painful to watch). Even the power almost completely disappeared, the show became just the most cliché and uninteresting harem show ever with the character just going trough the motion we saw hundread of times. If it was supposed to be a deconstruction, it failed massively. I guess the comparison to KLK are appropriate, if it really wanted to denounce fan service, having a big chunck of an episode dedicated to the girl cosplaying in raunchy costume for the MC was a terrible idea.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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No, and I in fact often read reviews and thoughts BECAUSE they differ from my own view. However, Rose's reviews SPECIFICALLY (and often Zac's) differ in a very specific WAY that I'd prefer to not read them. Largely, because they make me want to critique the REVIEW and I really don't think that's fair to the reviewer or even entirely appropriate as a course of action. I like to look at things for shows I like simply to see what others say about them, but if I KNOW its certain reviewers, I'd prefer to just jump to comments so I can reply to other viewers rather than being a jerk about the reviewer. And I realize this probably comes across as being a jerk to Rose right NOW, so I asked in order to avoid it in the future to avoid agitation for both of us.
Yeah, I saw it in the byline which is why I knew for certain it was her. To be honest, I usually skip the byline (unconsciously) unless I start to register certain things about the review and check it to confirm my thoughts on the reviewer. To be fair, I'd also find it beneficial in the other direction, since Theron is one reviewer I agree with a large percentage of the time, I'd appreciate knowing if a new review was his since I'd be more likely to read it even if I was previously uninterested in the show being reviewed. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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So it's one click, read the byline, hit back or close the window if that reviewer's voice is not your bag. Seems pretty simple to me. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I'm not adding bylines to the already-limited frontpage text space as an early warning system for opinions you might not agree with.
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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I can't say this review resonated very strongly with me. I saw the relationship to Kill la Kill as nothing more involved than visual references to the studio's previous and successful first TV series. I can't say the animation style or designs bore any real resemblance for me either. I'm sure you could find some similarities, but I would think that only natural, given the studio producing each.
Rather than attempting to parody or do anything subversive with harem tropes, it seemed to me much more simply that they were trying to make a good harem show, and that they largely succeeded. I can definitely see how Hatoko's rant in episode 7 could be taken this way, and does stand out, probably for that reason. I agree with dtm42 that the series's true weakness is its underdevelopment of its larger plot. I wasn't enthralled by it, but it was so such a minor part of the show that I don't even feel I can engage with why that was other than "I didn't find the bad guys immediately interesting". Of course, "barely being in the show" is another potential criticism, but that would be missing the point a little. The fifth paragraph seems to pick up on this, but situate it in the show's "pandering to chuuni" and say that the lack of resolution (as well as too many romance subplots) is an issue of Inou Battle's desire to be a genre commentary, which I don't think it had. It seems simpler and more accurate to me to say that it wasn't constructed as effectively as it could have been. Overall, I thought the show was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. In this, and especially in its disconnectedness, it kind of reminded me of C³-bu, though I thought that show managed each of the several discrete shows it seemed to be better. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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I enjoyed the first 4-5 episodes when it was just a bunch of bored kids dicking about with magic powers they just happened to find they possessed. Then half way through it went & tried to take that high school SOL with magic stuff & turn it into a harem-romance-action-fantasy-fairies-tournament-whatever else story which sucked all the fun out of proceedings. But hey, it's an adaptation so they can only do what the source material lets them.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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For the record, I often disagree with Rebecca, Bamboo, Hope and others, but I respect their opinions. I dislike Rose's reviews for shows she's CLEARLY disinterested in because they are LAZY to the point that she has on occasion even gotten elements of the episode WRONG. That wouldn't matter to me if someone asked and she blithely responded with some half@$$ response, but in the review itself she sometimes points out an INCORRECT element and tries to make a point about it. |
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