Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Active Raid
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5501 Location: Iscandar |
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On the one hand Active Raid continues to be a stupid show, but on the other hand episode 5 saw the return of silly fun. Also, I was very pleased with the fanservice from Haruka.
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Themaster20000
 Posts: 871 |
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Fantastic! By far the best episode. They went all the way with the campy elements and it was great. Well written and funny unlike the other episodes. Only issue I had was the cost cutting animation in the first half(understandable for this episode).
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Kendra Kirai
Posts: 187 |
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Sh-shut up! I'm not crying! You're crying!
*Manly tears* |
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jroa
Posts: 546 |
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Quite happy with this episode. We may not get something like this every week, but it's good to know the series can in fact pull itself together quite well from time to time.
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3993 |
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Yeah I've been enjoying this show.
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jroa
Posts: 546 |
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Episode 7:
Why not both? You can laugh at any number of things and silly gags throughout the episode, including Haruka's wacky obsession with trains (which was shown to repeatedly surprise the other characters, even if her knowledge was relevant to the case this week), and still feel (only very slightly) sad when it comes to an innocent person being killed off against his will. It's not even necessary, in my opinion, to treat everything else in the episode as serious (which it arguably really wasn't, if we were to analyze each scene in succession) in order to reach that conclusion. Nor does the victim need to have been a fully developed character either. I don't care about Kobari as a person, but it is still unfortunate to see someone suffer that fate. I think the concept is simple but effective.
This is our main point of disagreement. For me, the episode was simply overly emphasizing the melodramatics of the scene in an almost Showa-era Tokusatsu fashion (music cues, close-ups, flashbacks, etc) precisely because Haruka herself cares so much about trains, even though the rest of the team and the audience itself does not, which creates an amusing contrast rather than a straight or genuine tragedy. If there was any sincerity to the drama, in my opinion, it was during the very last scene with the final outcome. Everything else, knowing the inherent ridiculousness of the show, didn't come across like that to me at all. In other news, I like the new OP. Which, incidentally, highlights the underlying silly nature of the series with the characters literally falling out of the sky while not wearing their power suits and all the sound effects. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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Her recording of train sounds reminded me of one of the characters from Rail Wars, which is not a desirable comparison for the show to draw.
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jroa
Posts: 546 |
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Train otaku were already a thing long before Rail Wars, but I will be polite and say that at least the comparison makes some sense this week.
In any event, it's good that the show being episodic and focusing on other characters means this probably won't come up again soon. |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
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I have generally refrained from the comparison as aside from the their vehicle and this week's episode, it wasn't relevant. I say that as someone who watched and didn't hate Rail Wars. Yeah it probably come up again. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18435 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Thanks to a vacation a couple of weeks ago I'm still a week behind on this one, so I just finally got to episode 6.
Have to agree with others that it was a surprisingly emotional episode, as it was far more poignantly told that I would have guessed possible. I agree 100% with Nick about the themes in play and loved how it capped the whole story with Funasaka using the greatest weakness of the giant robots against them. The doctor's death at the end, though sad, was also perfectly fitting, as symbolized the finality of the end of the giant robots. Of the nine series I'm following or semi-following this season, this is easily my pick for the best overall episode of the season so far. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11586 |
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Right down to making excited noises while she's recording her precious sounds. smh Can someone explain what the bands are that begin the suit-up sequence? On the guys it's around their neck, on the girls it's around their waists, and seems painful when it snaps into place. Is it solid and they just forgot to draw them in for the body shot of the train girl this time, or is it some sort of energy field that does...something, and becomes invisible once in place? |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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I'm pretty sure the bands snap everywhere, the animation team is just trying to make the suit-up sequences a bit different... (for the guys we don't get a butt or thigh shot either!  ) Other than that I think it's best not to think too deeply about it, I mean the inner suit seems to just materialize out of thin air, full-face visor and all. It's a more "realistic" version of a tokusatsu suit-up transformation.
I quite liked this episode, and I agree that while it was a somewhat more serious episode than some of the earlier ones, it still wasn't really taking itself seriously. The whole train business was mostly a joke, it was used to make the case "personal" for Haruka, since the perp/victim was another train otaku. Other than that I think the point here was the political maneuverings, and LOGOS' connection to it. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2902 |
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I am pretty sure the train talk makes more sense for the japanese since they take trains several times per day and all that; it even hints at trains getting abandoned even in the city, which ties nicely to giant robots being an already abandoned technology from the previous episodes.
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Kendra Kirai
Posts: 187 |
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During the suit-up, it appears that the bands are probably actually physical things that snap onto them fairly hard, and the undersuit is then sprayed on over them and 'cured' with that ring. The bands are likely a kind of nervous interface system so that they can move freely and without having to use physical controls. A step away from a brain-machine interface, using an array of electrodes bonded to the skin rather than invasive surgery. The armor is then attached and the officer is sent on their way. |
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Eternal Dragon Of ChaOZ
 Posts: 84 Location: Australia |
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I was mad keen about trains when I was young.
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