Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Active Raid
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zrnzle500
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Yeah we don't have much to go on so it could go either way. I wouldn't say they consider it hot though. Kinky probably. Plus the sisters are usually not blood related in such things, except in siscon hentai, cause LN/Manga/Anime creators are too cowardly to make it actual incest and just go with quasi incest, but not hentai as it defeats the purpose of them being sisters. If someone's looking for incest hentai, they're looking for a brother and sister to fudge, not adopted or step siblings, though I assume they have that too. Ugh, reminded myself of Oreimo's terrible ending, where they seemed to take the incest to its logical conclusion but then saying "Just Kidding, they're not actually eloping" after thoroughly burning all the brother's romantic bridges. I'm not saying incest is okay or anything but if you make your brother come out as a siscon to every girl he has any romantic connections with, you better at least fudge him, directed at both the character and the creators of the series (not necessarily on screen). That's what they have doujins for I guess. Not sure who that little girl he is seen with is to him. Bond villain with a loli instead of a cat maybe. Lolis are not pets though. |
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Themaster20000
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The show has quite an issue tonally so far. This episode was just a big "WTF did I just watch". As terrible as that was,I wasn't bored at all. Other than the tonally issues,the other issue I have is the villains. Every scene involving them is cringe-inducing. It seems like it settling in to a "wacky hijinks of the week" which will probably bridge into a "GRR DARK AND GRITTY" second cour.
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jroa
Posts: 546 |
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This is assuming, of course, that such a WTF tone was not the intended effect. And that's precisely where I continue to think some people might be looking at the show upside down or, admittedly, might just not find these things amusing (age, tastes, preferences, whatever applies). Agreed about the villains, they're not good so far, though it wouldn't be the first time that I can watch a show even if the bad guys aren't remotely impressive or anything. I don't think it'll get much darker than, say, a Power Rangers show might. Which is to say, they'll probably disband the unit or make us believe one of the members died (without a body nor anything clearly showing his or her death). Something along those lines, but not kill off half the cast for real nor go into ultimate angst mode. |
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SHD
Posts: 1757 |
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I agree. I'm kind of boggling over the complaints that the show is a "mess" or it has "tonal issues" or "it's not sure exactly what show it wants to be". To me it's clear that the show just wants to be a fun, light-hearted tokusatsu type story with some police/procedural/workplace elements. It's not trying to be a drama, it's not trying to be simply "[insert genre] only". It just wants to be light-hearted fun. I think it will turn a bit more serious later on, but not too much so - the director specially mentioned that he wants to keep this fun and not very serious. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2892 |
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agreed, watching this as a toku makes it very enjoyable, toku is kidna silly and an acquired taste so I can see a lot of people getting turned off by this (really, in toku world evena toku written by urobuchi would have fruits for weapons.)
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sunflower
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I got the feeling the villain's sister and other females with him were robots. Not sure why. At any rate, the villain is the part of the show I can't stand. The rest is just light fun.
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jroa
Posts: 546 |
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Curiously enough, for once I liked an episode significantly more than Nick did. That being the case, I'd really have to disagree about the episode being "superfluous" for three reasons:
1. The relationship between police, military and government plus that data matrix is probably going to become important in the medium and/or long term. That much already justifies this incident as necessary foreshadowing. 2. I'd argue the episodic conflict actually did raise the stakes to a certain degree, which was a nice change of pace from the low risk situations we had seen to date. Honestly, the inherent danger of an airplane exploding and/or crashing is a lot easier to swallow than, say, any idol-related debacle or school property being destroyed. 3. I liked the bickering between Sena and Kuroki. Not necessarily in terms of excitement or "believability" to use Nick's phrasing, because their exchanges weren't really aiming for that, but simply because they were amusing, period. All the same, I would tend to argue the military officer's brief interactions also brought a little variety to the proceedings. I hope she gets a larger role sooner or later. |
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Themaster20000
Posts: 866 |
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I actually enjoyed this one a bit. People were actually in danger for once,and we learned the villain's motive which is to steal the mcguffin data.I do agree with the way their painting the relationship between Sena and Kuroki which is buddy cop writing 101(they aren't boring though). The episode did a decent at setting up for future conflicts,though next week looks to be a comedy episode which am not a fan of so far.
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SHD
Posts: 1757 |
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Yeah, this was probably my favorite episode so far. I think it flowed really well, it made all the points it wanted to make and they had enough impact, and I found the Kuroki-Sena interaction enjoyable, bickering included.
I think Nick missed part of what this episode wanted to tell about Kuroki and Sena: it's that they might bicker and have issues with each other, but their professional relationship is, indeed, very good. Kuroki went after Sena as a matter of fact, and he not only supported him directly (flying him around, saving him from falling, etc.) but he also pretty much kept the entire situation under control to allow Sena to do his thing and save the plane. This is an aspect of their relationship that we haven't seen before, and steered their dynamics right out of "rivalry" into something more interesting, even if it's basic buddy cop stuff. And I find it really amusing. Also, about the stakes - I don't see how this was a step back on that account. Episode 1 had random teenagers wreaking havoc; episode 2 had a loved one of a team member being threatened; episode 3 had an idol event getting hijacked; episode 4 had a bomb on an airplane flying over a densely populated city area, never mind the introduction of a government secret that I'm sure is going to figure into the main plot whenever we get there. Add to this the introduction of the military with their own attitude and own special suits... I suppose what Nick likes about the show is the more office/day job elements, and we didn't get much of that in this ep. |
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Themaster20000
Posts: 866 |
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The plot for this one was about as dumb as the one for episode 3. It was mostly just meh,with flat direction for the most part. I thought the best thing was how Kuroki,actually took to the time to put a little black bowtie on his Wilwear. Not a lot to it's commentary on gambling to be really compelling for me.
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SHD
Posts: 1757 |
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I'd take episode 4 over this one any day...
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jroa
Posts: 546 |
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Indeed. In my opinion, the fourth episode would get a full B, because it was pretty solid, while five felt more like a B- than anything else.
I did notice a couple of the things that Nick pointed out in his review, such as what legalized gambling means in this fictional society and how things have changed as a result, but I tend to think it's really hard to make the surrounding topic feel too exciting. Gambling is difficult for most regular people to get into, at least not without slowing things down, bumping up the budget and making each move the whole dramatic focus of your show instead of just one part of an episodic adventure (see Kaiji, Akagi). Obviously they weren't going for that ultra-dramatic angle here, since we probably won't see another gambling episode for a long time, so they needed to use shortcuts. On the more positive side, it was slightly amusing to see the section chief actually try to make a move (and predictably fail). It seems he'll continue to be relevant next episode, though hopefully in a more entertaining way (the preview sounds vaguely creepy, but I think it'll mostly be harmless since the Liko app hasn't been super accurate yet and that's part of the joke). Moreover, Madoka herself got a fairly decent amount of necessary characterization for someone who had received almost none before this point. She got a couple of particularly nice scenes. Generally speaking, I found several of the dialogue gags and remarks just as funny as they've always been, so the show is still fine on that front. There were a few clues about Logos too, for that matter, but they could be red herrings. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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A couple of points.
First off it would have been much better if this anime had even the remotest idea of what Poker looks like. What they showed was not even close. The stronger player doesn't pull straight-flushes and full houses out of thin air with sheer force of intellect where the opponent can't. Drawing five cards you will get three of a kind or better only once out of about 600 hands. A showdown between advance players will will be often own two-pair against another, and the better player will force the slightly weaker player out of a winning hand. They talked about "bluffing" in this episode but nobody ever was shown to fold even once. Secondly, advanced Poker is not "gambling" as such. Yes luck plays a role and anyone can win, but someone from the pool of better players win 90% of the time. Aside from that AR seems to be pretty limp at this stage. I mean who cares? Edit: The statistic I quoted above is wrong. It is actually 1 in about 46 five card hands that will have 3-of-a-kind. One in 600 is for drawing 3-of-a-kind with three cards. A straight flush will appear 1 out of about 72,000 hands! How many of them did they have in the story? Phooey regardless. Last edited by HaruhiToy on Fri Feb 05, 2016 12:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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sunflower
Posts: 1080 |
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So much this. It was like they thought a skilled player was one who could magically make higher hands appear. Poker is a game of psychology, and better hands have little to do with it. What a joke, and so frustrating when I had higher hopes for this show. I'm done with it. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2468 |
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They couldn't exactly show 600 plays in the episode without it being extremely boring. They did cover bluffing/reading the other player as best as they could, though, with the polygraph fooling, and the villain reading the girl's mannerism wrong.
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