Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka
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TanyaTheEvil
 Posts: 332 |
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I am loving this anime so far
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Everything about the aftermath was a cop-out---reattaching an arm is one thing, but perfectly, without any marks?
The memory erasure is not only a cop-out, it has ethical implications. Is it ok to erase an entire week of someone's memory without their knowledge or consent, good and bad memories alike? Even if only erasing bad memories, not everyone would want to have their negative experiences erased. And they're doing this partly because she'll be an easier mark to be kidnapped again (not that Kurumi knew that when she suggested the treatment, or Nozomi's dad realized that when he agreed to it). In the end, they erased a whole week of someone's memories without their knowledge or consent to avoid long term trauma, which is ethically dubious all on its own.
Kurumi didn't meet Sayako until after her trauma had "set" and was impossible to erase, and Asuka didn't know memory erasure was an option until this incident with Nozomi. |
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Terrible90sDub
 Posts: 168 |
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Yeah, this crossed my mind as well. I don't think they wanted to erase her memories without her consent, but she wasn't in a state of mind to give her opinion, and if they waited long enough for her to stabilize, it would permanently imprint, so the decision automatically went to her guardian. That's pretty standard for most health situations if an individual is incapacitated, but then it's not uncommon to have people arguing over what is the right thing to do even in less dubious situations. Asuka did almost offer a differing opinion at least, but I wish they'd explore that more since you could probably get a lot of material over exploring memory questions, but again... I doubt they will. That reminds me of another question I had though-- wouldn't she question why the date jumped a week when she woke up? |
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Michformer
 Posts: 13 Location: Worcester, MA |
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As far as expressive countenances go, Nozomi’s upon contracting PTSD from her close brush with death is just heartbreaking.
It’s just so… raw and unbridled in its execution, if a bit overplayed. You can tell Nozomi’s torn asunder within. A shame, then, that the Deus Ex Machina from the manga that is Kurumi’s mind wipe has been reused in the anime. Removes the potential for drama and character development in Nozomi’s part. |
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Random Name
Posts: 651 |
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I'm so happy the Russian duo were easily dispatched. It's what I wanted last week but I guess they needed to draw it out for suspense. And then we got a glimpse of the overwhelming power of the real enemy. Overall great episode and I'm happy no one got killed off.
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Alex_Sandy
Posts: 26 |
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Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind for Nozomi. Yay! It would have been sad to have all of Nozomi's energetic enthusiasm disappear. Now she can have it ground out her by a couple of decades of disappointments like the rest of us. Poor Gabriel gonna be hard to use her scissors now. I feel I overreacted to the torture scene. I just re-watched Accelerator rip the leg of one of Misaka's replicas and the clone training girls make the latest one clean up the room full sister of corpses from the previous murder session (This is Railgun, if you haven't seen it) So compared to other anime this one is kind of tame. Anyway I quite like this so far, the animation is a bit limited but not bad It will be interesting to see where the story goes. Maybe they'll end up pumping Asuka and the others full of anti-psychotics like real modern militaries do. to their burn-outs
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2062 |
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I’ll admit, even though I’m enjoying this series quite a bit, it’s the hardest to watch for me out of all the shows I’m viewing this season. The gore has been more visceral than I expected it to be and I’m feeling really bad for Asuka for having to go through this experience. It looks like things will not slow down from here though, so while I would have appreciated a breather after the last two episodes, I’ll have to buckle in for what this show has in store next.
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Nordhmmer
Posts: 1028 |
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I brought up Sayako to point out though the writing is lazy,even a ex machina-such as this treatment is- has limits.One of which is Kurumi's character,what with her being a yuri-yandere trope. --------------- This manga is not some indepth look into PTSD. It's girls with guns mixed with dark magical girls,and of course it panders to it's intended fanbase. |
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3013 |
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You know I somewhat disagree with this. The memory erasure is not necessarily a cop out, precisely BECAUSE it has ethical implications. If it does just turn out to be a perfect reset of the status quo with no longer term impact on Nozomi or any of the other characters, then yeah it's a cop out, but if the show actually addresses aspects of this including the disturbing ethical implications of everything in the future so that Nozomi's experience does have meaning, then it might not be a cop out. We'll see I guess. |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1624 |
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Well, without it we wouldn't see so much of how terrible the adults are and what new plans they have.
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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Interesting insights by the reviewer this week, as well. It does kinda feel like that's where the series is leading; magical girls trying to get free.
As for Nozomi's memory erasure, i didn't have a problem with it, mostly because it felt like something that would be brought up again later. Also, it wasn't done on a whim or anything; we can absolutely understand why all the characters would wish to somehow "undo" Nozomi's trauma, and Asuka especially wanted it as a kind of surrogate to erase her own experiences. Like a lot of the more mature content of this story, it didn't feel to me that this element was being treated lightly. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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Shouldn't all of these be "Colombian?" The CR subtitles did get it correct. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Fix'd. |
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Terrible90sDub
Posts: 168 |
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This is a nice review with some good insights.
... but there's something, clearly important to the plot, that stood out to me: What was Mia eating at the beginning? My initial thought when I saw it was "wow, these special Starbucks holiday fraps have really gotten out of hand" until it zoomed out and seemed to be some kind of... ice cream? |
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XerBlade
 SubscriberExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 162 Location: Depletion Garden, Nashville, TN |
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Uhh, that girl wasn't a magical girl. Just a normal magic-using mercenary. |
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