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Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation (TV).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:13 pm Reply with quote


Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation (TV)

Genres: Sci-fi
Themes: Game

Plot Summary: TV anime adaptation of the online RPG game Phantasy Star Online 2. It will feature an original story that takes place on Earth in the near future.
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I heard the game is pretty popular and this will focus on an original story. Might give the game a try too since some of the battle scenes I've seen are pretty neat. I'm curious to see how the story will be written for this though.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:14 am Reply with quote
Episode 1:

Hmm, that felt underwhelming.
The animation feels lacking while there's too much going on at once.

I know this is based on the rl life game version of Phantasy Star's mechanics but I'm not feeling much for it at the moment. The MC is pretty dull as well. Izumi seems like the perfect girl but we don't know more about her then that. It's the first episode though so I guess there will be room for her development later. I hope the show improves.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:32 am Reply with quote
There are ways to make a set up where it is about "a game", ie you do what most other sports anime adaptations do and exaggerate the subject matter as well as the characters.

I can appreciate that it doesn't dump the over used " NOW THEY ARE IN THE GAME" set up, but just as well if the protagonist focus is generic male lead why should the audience stick around.

Maybe future episodes will make what is in practice a slice of life set up with a few people playing an MMO work out, but this first episode did not give my personal viewership much hope.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15580
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:06 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

That was... one of the most cliché and generic anime set up episodes I have ever watched. Seriously, if you though by the books dark elemental magic school was bad, just go down the list of this.

Bland yet nice main character is okay at everything but feels down because he is not really great ay anything. Of course we had to have him questioned as suspicious by security guard. Perfect student president who knows everyone's name and face, and we have to get a dialogue of just how perfect she is. Of course we have such generic side characters as standard main character friend #5, and guy who keeps correcting his glasses. I think it was almost late for school, Main character getting forced into student council, reasons being something lame like perfect attendance, and the scenario just feels like a try too hard way to get noob play game.

Really, several times it had me thinking if it was making fun of the genre with making pause the video and physically groan over some of the least creative developments. And I have no idea how we are meant to find the idea that he is just playing a non-VR game to be engaging, it looks nice in the moment, but he is just playing a standard MMORPG, right?

Seiha Academy. That makes me think of Sehagaga Academy, the plot device school in Hi-sCool! Seha Girls, and clearly this is just as much a Sega anime. In fact, I think that I remember those same bird things that appeared in ED as being in Hi-sCool! Seha Girls. Problem is that while the other one was not really great, kind of corny really, it did have a sense of humour on how much it comes down to being a Sega property advertisement. This show thinks that it is being serious, which makes me think that it is for some target market that has no idea how uninspired this anime is.

The twist was easy to see coming, but still got me enough to watch a bit more, although I doubt this will be very notable.
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:51 pm Reply with quote
Well... first half was pretty slow.
Forcing the kid to play was a bit unusual.
Things got a bit more exciting near the end, but nothing special.
This one did not peak my interest.
Skipping it.
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xifeng.hu
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Joined: 18 Dec 2014
Posts: 103
Location: Oahu,Hawaii
PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 8:21 pm Reply with quote
I used to play PSO2 using the English fan patch and stuff so I found it amusing but not very good. As a side note: spoiler[Why does Izumi play a generic male CAST? The real game has quite a bit of character customization and tons of parts for CASTs and costumes for other races. ]
I think I'll give this one more episode to see if it will continue to be amusing.
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Kamagor



Joined: 11 Jan 2016
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:55 pm Reply with quote
I don't think I've personally seen a weaker excuse for utilizing an RPG as the focus of the show. The main guy is so generic, he picks himself in the RPG and he's also super good at it right away, despite having no interesting in gaming. Then having it be that the school is purposefully having the student council play games to understand it's "social" aspect?

As was pointed out in the preview guide reviews, it's a really shameless plug for the game that doesn't really do anything interesting. Also treating the game world like it's Sword Art Online, with the character behaving in ways that wouldn't make sense played through means of a keyboard/mouse, really disconnects the whole experience. Exaggerate things abit, but don't act like they are all playing with crazy Sword Art VR gear lol I'd honestly give the show more respect if they treated the experience more like an actual game, cutting between game and real world and dealing with it in a more realistic way.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 12:25 pm Reply with quote
Kamagor wrote:
Then having it be that the school is purposefully having the student council play games to understand it's "social" aspect?


I don't find that strange. You don't think parents groups didn't thoroughly investigate World of Warcraft to make sure it didn't poison their children?

I honestly don't mind the commercialism aspect. I mean, it's really no different from other titles about people playing video games like Sword Art Online or Accel World. It's only that PSO2 is a real game that actually exists.

My main issue with the show is that Ms President is hyped as a super perfect beauty when really she's just generic in a plain sort of why. I do like how the protagonist is the only person who doesn't go all heart eyed over her.
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Kamagor



Joined: 11 Jan 2016
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 7:38 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
Kamagor wrote:
Then having it be that the school is purposefully having the student council play games to understand it's "social" aspect?


I don't find that strange. You don't think parents groups didn't thoroughly investigate World of Warcraft to make sure it didn't poison their children


Maybe it's not the idea of it itself that bugs me, but more how it feels so poorly implemented with the story itself. It more feels like a very half-hearted way to work the boring lead guy into playing the game, combined with how despite not being a gamer, is automatically good at the game, despite no real reason for him to actually do so. This isn't transported into a world or VR shenanigans. People just don't get good at a game out of nowhere lol Makes for an underwhelming setup.
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Vaisaga



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 8:21 pm Reply with quote
I think it's a stretch to say he was instantly super good at it. He was about to get killed pretty quickly before getting saved and that headshot could be attributed to beginner's luck.
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Kamagor



Joined: 11 Jan 2016
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 11:58 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
I think it's a stretch to say he was instantly super good at it. He was about to get killed pretty quickly before getting saved and that headshot could be attributed to beginner's luck.


I feel the bit about the headshot was leading towards him being a natural or good right off the bat more than it being simply beginner's luck. It's just too easy to turn this average guy in life into practically the "chosen one" in the game, where he just happens to be good at everything. We'll see, but that's how I felt it was portraying him.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 1:37 am Reply with quote
Episode 2:

Suzuki forgot to include that one of her specialties is stalking.

And she already got a position in the student council? That was fast. I'm still curious to see her battle in the PSO2 world..but I'm sure she is strong enough just based on her personality so far. Lol, the dream part made me face palm hard.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 3:08 am Reply with quote
Episode 2

"What do you think of lesbian relationships?"
What kind of school girl asks that question to a new female transfer student?

Also something about solo players with poor social skills being "forever alone". I am going to assume that was subbers messing around instead of this anime lightly insulting me as a person with poor social skills who the few times playing an MMO has done so solo.

I actually did feel some humour watching episode, which was mostly out of wonder if the show seriously just did something. They also just mentioned VR, is there VR or not. I do really think they could have got away by saying this was something like Phantasy Star Online 3, or what it would be like if it was VR so we could feel more involved past mostly watching a screen, and I think saying that the rest is artistic representation.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:13 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
"What do you think of lesbian relationships?"
What kind of school girl asks that question to a new female transfer student?


One with an obvious interest.

DuskyPredator wrote:
Also something about solo players with poor social skills being "forever alone". I am going to assume that was subbers messing around instead of this anime lightly insulting me as a person with poor social skills who the few times playing an MMO has done so solo.


Crunchyroll usually doesn't do stuff like that, so I'm sure it was in the original text. Don't take it as the anime insulting you, though. That's just what the internet calls people like that.

Anyways, this episode brings up some "It's more than just a game" possibilities.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:43 am Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
DuskyPredator wrote:
"What do you think of lesbian relationships?"
What kind of school girl asks that question to a new female transfer student?


One with an obvious interest.

DuskyPredator wrote:
Also something about solo players with poor social skills being "forever alone". I am going to assume that was subbers messing around instead of this anime lightly insulting me as a person with poor social skills who the few times playing an MMO has done so solo.


Crunchyroll usually doesn't do stuff like that, so I'm sure it was in the original text. Don't take it as the anime insulting you, though. That's just what the internet calls people like that.

Laughing
For some reason this makes me laugh. That the show would actually throw in that line with the obvious connotations, despite the fact it is not meant to be meta. And that it would actively call its audience something people only call themselves as kind of a joke.

Clearly this is supposed to be a light show which is an incredibly blatant advertisement for a product, and kind of feels so obvious that it is almost like announcement. But it does a few things that make no sense in that regard. Kind of makes me think of Fantasista Doll which is a complete mystery what its target audience was with quite tame style that could be targeted right at young girls who watch childs magical girls, and then sprinkles in random scenes for more otaku like cleaning a gun or the slight yuri themes.
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