Forum - View topicBeatless (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Beatless (TV) Genres: action, science fiction Themes: artificial intelligence Plot Summary: With the introduction of an ultra-advanced AI that surpasses human intelligence, beings that mankind is yet to fully comprehend made from materials far too advanced for human technology begin coming into being. Lacia, an hIE equipped with a black coffin-shaped device, is one of these. In boy-meets-girl fashion, 17-year-old Arato Endo has a fateful encounter with the artificial Lacia. (from manga) |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3670 |
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I feel like this show is filled with ideas that, while interesting, the show isn't smart enough to really investigate.
The main character can't exist in the world the show hypothesizes. He shouldn't still be rambling about the robots as if they're people when society clearly doesn't see it that way, and everyone around him says so. At the very least, he would learn to stop talking about it, and his friends would stop putting up with it. He's inserted from another world because the writers want someone like that in the show to poke holes in the setting, and there's no way to square that with the idea that he comes from the same setting. The EULA was way to short. Even today they're too long to read within the timeframe of an anime episode. Can you imagine them getting shorter in the future? We've already got the technology that would allow people to fill a basket with groceries and just walk out the store while being automatically charged, why would they need to shove it in a compartment and have the customer put his card up? For that matter, why would there be a physical store anyway? It's the kind of thing which makes it seem like they thought "this will show how hi-tech things are" when they're not thinking through what the hi-tech world they postulate would really be like. 737 yen is really, really cheap. For anything. After a hundred years of inflation, if those groceries only cost 737 yen, food must be basically free. Obviously, none of this is really a big deal in any normal futuristic show, but this one clearly wants us to think about what a future might look like, since it keeps calling attention to the technology. So I can't help but wonder about these things, to the point it's distracting. If they're going to call attention to it, would it kill them to think about it themselves, first? |
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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The first episode is quite something....got a very sci-fi feel from it with what it had offered so far.
Arato's introduction wasn't impressive but he fits his role for the MC so far. I like the setting with the more modern/advanced city look. The technology is peculiar for this series but definitely has my interest so far with some of the other AIs introduced. Lacia's introduction this episode was predictable but worth waiting for considering that she's probably going to be a central focus in this show. I don't find Arato's relationship with his sister appealing so far. It just feels like a generic sibling relationship you'd see in a show like this. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24157 |
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Eh, I'm kind of a sucker for chicks who carry coffins around with them... it's a thing. Anyhoo, this seems like a very middling effort so far. I'm not turned off enough to drop but my lacy panties aren't soaking with anticipation for the next eppie, either... ewwwww.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I have had some trouble in trying to think what to say. I think that there are some cool ideas, but it might just not be able to pull them off. And we went from cool robot battle warrior, to her being a housewife in the kitchen.
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Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Really slow pacing. I hope the action and main story picks up soon.
It seems the show is focusing on showcasing Lacia so far although I do see another character at the end that will probably be prominently featured. I have to admit though, Lacia's behavior really is human-like. |
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3670 |
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Reporting in from Episode 14, or 16, depending on how you count.
I started by saying I thought the show wasn't smart enough to say anything about the interesting questions it raises. I think the show has definitely improved on that front, starting to raise some really compelling responses to ideas like what change means, what it means to be left behind by change, and what a person can do about change. Even Limpdick McWhinyface's magical robot girlfriend is criticizing him about sitting back on his ass and expecting said magical robot girlfriend to make everything perfect for him without even slightly disrupting his normal daily life. Kouka going out in a blaze of glory was great, and I finally gave the thumbs up (all three) to think of her as sexy. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I have found the show continuously troubling. Like I have a hard time so many character don't trust AI, and then they facilitate the androids to mess things up, and don't take any responsibility. The whole analogue hack thing is stupid, like they act like it is only something AI can do, but it is just manipulation and humans can do that too, the specific tools that the robots act is largely a tool for that. The show keeps removing the fact that humans had roles in coding they various systems, and for the most part the "analogue hacks" are not robots acting independently. What do they think advertising today is?
Or when they do those things, it is to say they are tools, and that we should not feel anything for a robot being treated like crap. But that logic itself is stupid, because if they did not want to feel for the robots, then they should not have made them look like people. There was something wrong with saying a system that sees humans as dolls that only look like HIE, when I imagine that if they can program things complexly enough, then having the system recognise its relation to its human makers should be easy. If they want to recognise that it is a time with systems running society and or humanity, then it seems remiss to not recognise that society itself is a system, there are things like rules that keep it running. The negative take on humans possibly attachment to robots, also feels like it ignores that you still get cases of people loving something like a video game character, or a hug pillow. You don't see people going crazy at yelling at people why they are attached to a car, their phone, computer, or who knows what else. I am the type of person that feels sympathy for a character in a video game, and will often go out of my way while playing to be helpful, does that make me crazy? The show has to be so backwards and forwards on whether the Lacia robots can have emotions or not, like they are made to say they don't, but clearly have their own intentions. The show seems to keep putting the discussion down to things like saying they don't have a soul, which is stupid. What, you can only treat something with respect if it has a "soul"? Many other franchises have done the question (better), enough that it should barely be worth answering, there has been something like the American TV show Westworld. There barely feels like this show has actually brought much interesting up. And then I have complaints like cheap things like music cue kept being used to try and create some character. |
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3670 |
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I think if you're specifically looking at it as a show about AI and androids and human psychology, the show hasn't done anything particularly interesting. It still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as sci-fi speculation.
But the thing about the show that's growing on me is the more general discussion of societal change and what that means for people affected in various ways by the destruction of old roles and creation of new ones, and those who can afford to ignore the change that's going on around them. Arato's generic nice guy schtick is really him using the privilege he gained through sheer luck (magical robot girlfriend falling into his lap) to insulate himself from social upheaval where his friends don't have the luxury to do so, and the show is now calling him on that in a way that most shows with characters like him never do. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 19 (Episode 23 including recap episodes)
The thing is that although it clearly about societal changes, it does not feel like it is actually using the tools it has. In this recent episode they were attacked by the military, not just Lacia, but the military used rockets, assault rifles, and tanks against a teenage boy, who has not done anything like hold weapons, or perhaps a hacker. It is pretty crazy that JSDF think that they could attack them, and think that they will get away with it, because a bonus of a super intelligent AI is that she can record everything, and the people who organized that attack would have their career in ruins. I am not even sure why they are after Lacia, it is not like she has been the openly dangerous as the others, it could not be just because she is a super AI, because the government is working with one. So far it has really treated the effects these robots can have is in direct situations of combat, and although I think there is a possibility to reveal something, the obvious answer should be it pretty easy for the super AI to start to try and influence society in their favour. Releasing articles of events that paint actions against human and android cohabitation as blindly violent, sourcing campaigns that make it appealing (like that modelling thing earlier). Really getting people to the point that they do the work for them. It is exactly the thing advertising companies do, it should not be magic, but be a lot more mundane and simple for a super AI to handle. I think the show still could do that, but it will be in a way that it is like a surprise, when it should be obvious. Anyway, next episode should be the last before the last four episode coming in September. |
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