Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul
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JohnHawk
Posts: 84 |
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Completely disagree with the front page article snippet, having rewatched the first season recently it had a much stronger start for an adventure series where s2 is just diving into grimdark action as fast as possible. Not that that's bad, but not nearly as good.
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LoriasGS
Posts: 91 |
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I'm loving it so far but for me at least the series is going to have to try a bit harder to endear me to Azazel as a good guy. His claims about killing the humans for all the horrible things they were doing to his people would have a lot more impact if it wasn't for all the killing and torture he was doing long before the humans were enslaving demons.
Bad guys becoming good guys is a staple of anime but it's the journey that makes the change worthwhile, it's no use bringing us in 10 years later and saying "oh he's a good guy now" I want to see it happening. Well it's a 2-cour series so maybe they'll find time for a flashback showing how he went from colossal jerk to freedom fighter, and I hope they do because I think he's an interesting character and it would be an interesting story but for now I'm finding it very hard to sympathise with him. |
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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The only problem I have so far is the season's attempt at making me sympathize with Azazel and the demons. Him showing Kaisar spoiler[the demon torture porn exhibition] rings pretty hollow when last season involved him taking delight in tormenting humans, even having best girl Cerberus and her puppets list off the various grueling means of mutilating them for funsies.
And maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but was the god faction really that bad? I recall Jeanne being corrupted because a demon manipulated a weak king by playing on his insecurities since Jeanne was heavily favored by the gods, particularly Michael. |
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1414 Location: End of the World |
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About Azazel, i think people are misunderstanding. He's not suddenly a good guy, he just want to stop humans who are trampling on his and his fellow demon's prides. And torture i guess. It just so happens that we consider that to be a "quality" of a "good guy".
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eXtacy
Posts: 3 |
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This easily had the strongest start to anything airing this season so surprised that it only landed in a B grading, and I have checked out 26 odd shows. If it keeps this quality it will definitely be anime of season, possibly the year.
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Midaro
 Posts: 147 |
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I think we still have much to learn of the story. spoiler[ Charioce found some new power in Cocitos that enabled him with enough power to destroy both demons and angels. One of the angels told him at the begining of the first episode that he was wrong to think humans could handle such power. ] About Azazel, spoiler[he warns Kaisar he hasn't changed. He says he truly hates humans, specially him, because Kaisar is an hypocritical. Azazel's honest when he says he's evil. He never pretended to be doing the right thing or to be good while torturing humans in the past. He was an evil being doing evil things. So he's not a good guy now either. He's just lost his status and wants things to be the way they used to be, like angels do. But, because he's a demon, and he particularly likes things plain and clear, he shows Kaisar the slaughter of demons with no real powers. He knows Kaisar thinks of himself as an honorable man. Like I just said, Azazel killed and tortured many humans in the past, well aware what he was doing was evil. So he is showing Kaisar the truth, the kind of evil acts Kaisar supports by working for Charioce. Here's a critic to those who pretend to be good and yet look away before atrocities that don't affect their kind, or simply don't even care to dig into them to maintain their status. This also tell us that doing good will always be harder than doing evil. Doing good requires more power. That's why its essence is more pure and can't be silenced but never destroyed. Azazel is calling Kaisar hypocritical and dispises his lack of truth, because, demon or not, all warriors prefer to fight someone real. Yet Kaisar feels empathy for him and doesn't aprove what Charioce is doing. He also has some faith in Azazel because he saw him doing something good during the battle against Bahamut. Kaisar is about to show Azazel how wrong he is about him. I hope he does find the courage to fight Charioce. I'm also intrigued by Mugaro. He must be an angel and his warm presence may be the key to help Azazel become good somehow. Azazel has never felt love before he met the kid. ] I'm honestly enjoying a lot this series. I love it. It's one of my favourites. I have only compliments for it and could hardly be more happy for its return. Azazel moves in the city like some sort of Batman. It's really cool. The animation is brilliant and Nina is crazy and lovely. Something tells me many more cool things are coming. I'll stay tuned. How I wish I could watch episode four right now... I can't wait to see Favaro and Jeanne. Thank you, Amazon. I heard the production team had a lot of trouble to accomplish the series. It's great, they found the support. We need more series this level. Keep on helping them if they give us a third season, please. Last edited by Midaro on Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:57 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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I'm not denying the in-universe perspective. I would fully expect if the shoe was on the other foot, Azazel wouldn't bat an eyelash, just like in season 1. My issue is the writers trying to frame him as the guidepost for how we should feel about the demons' circumstances with Nina and Kaisar as the self-insert reactions. Just look at how helplessly innocent Belphegor is portrayed compared to her actual faustian, manipulative nature. It feels a little disingenuous.
See my above response. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1946 |
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Well, if you're unable to sympathize with Azazel personally, you should at least be able to sympathize with his cause? "Two wrongs don't make a right" and all that jazz...i for one am all behind him, it doesn't hurt that he's sexy as hell and got himself a cute Robin, of course.
 There seems to be no real opposition to the treatment of demons and that king doesn't look like someone to be reasoned with. So whatever his motives may be or whether or not he's still "evil", Azazel really looks like the only hope for those enslaved demons so far.
Speaking of Charioce XVII, i wonder what his deal is. His strength while wrestling with Nina sure didn't look entirely human to me and there needs to be some deeper reason for his irrational hatred of demons and gods... Anyway, i'm happy this show is back and i'm sure we'll be in for a fun and exciting ride. 
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Midaro
Posts: 147 |
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In my opinion, it's part of the game to play with the viewers. There are many levels of evil, but one can be evil and love his/her mum and suffer when being kicked. That's why loving your enemy, pity them, like Kaisar does somehow, becomes so important to distinguish one from the other among the greys. |
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Hunter Sopko
 Posts: 259 |
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This is what I remember too, and then the demon manipulated Jeanne at her weakest in turn (in very unconvincing fashion, probably the weakest link set of scenes in an otherwise stellar show). |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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One of the best shows this season, and quite possibly the year. I'd put AoT's second season above it, but just by a hair. Nina is just great, the animation is phenomenal, and it's been an enjoyable ride so far. I don't have a problem with the demons being more sympathetic. Maybe they weren't better than what the humans are doing now, but that isn't an excuse for what is being done to them.
If I had any quibble, it is that Let it end is not the ending, though tonally I guess the it works better as an OP and the other as an ED. |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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Oh come on. Yes, I'm sure that this series, which had been in development for at least two years, is the way it is because a show half a year ago was really popular. I'm sure of it. ...Or maybe anime producers had realized that women are a buying force that's worth pandering to years and years ago (why do you think Yuuri on Ice exists? and why is Yuuri on Ice treated as some sort of watershed moment when it's nowhere near the first successful show that caters to a female audience?) and they already planned Virgin Soul to be the way it is. (Not to mention, fujoshi =/= all female viewers who appreciate pretty boys but at this point that's neither here nor there.)
Actually, I'm pretty sure the love interest is Charioce - one of the promotion videos is almost entirely about the two of them on a date, being romantic and all. Azazel had his moments in episode 2 because it made for a good joke (Nina getting flustered while Azazel is getting in her face and saying things like "it has to be you!" and "I need you!") but the emotional aspect of Azazel's story seems to be set up to revolve around Mugaro, and Azazel's obvious affection for the kid. (Speaking of fujoshi...) Considering that Mugaro's power seems to be at least in part angelic, and Azazel being who he is, I can see at conflict arising from this. Personally I'm really enjoying the show. I didn't feel the first episode as strongly as I did the first episode of the original series, but the subsequent episodes were increasingly better, and by now I'm fully invested in the characters and intrigued by the story. |
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1414 Location: End of the World |
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Gonna be honest... only ready your comments did i notice that the arm wrestling dude was Charioce... Kill me.
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Badcrazy
Posts: 31 |
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My take on it is people found out the gods really didn't give a shit about them. Some of the angels realised how bad they got at the end of last season as well. With that in mind when you have the power to take out the demons why not be rid of the useless Angels as well? |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3019 |
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I'm going into this show having not seen the first season at all, and I'm surprised by how easy it is to understand. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff I'm missing, but so far, it's pretty enjoyable by itself.
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