Forum - View topicCombatants Will Be Dispatched! (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (TV) Genres: action, comedy, fantasy Themes: Plot Summary: With world domination nearly in their grasp, the Supreme Leaders of the Kisaragi Corporation-an underground criminal group turned evil megacorp-have decided to try their hands at interstellar conquest. A quick dice roll nominates their chief operative, Combat Agent Six, to be the one to explore an alien planet...and the first thing he does when he gets there is change the sacred incantation for a holy ritual to the most embarrassing thing he can think of. But evil deeds are business as usual for Kisaragi operatives, so if Six wants a promotion and a raise, he'll have to work much harder than that. For starters, he'll have to do something about the other group of villains on the planet, who are calling themselves the "Demon Lord's Army" or whatever. After all, this world doesn't need two evil organizations. ---------------------------------- Anime adaptation of the light novel. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
Well, there was a Konosuba music when Six heard there was magic and chanted "explosion", including having some of the music from said series. But the episode did not really have the charm of something like Konosuba, for one Six is far less likable than the likes of the sort of scumbag Kazuma, and a lot of the jokes kind of felt like they were just talk fast. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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Funny that you say Konosuba, DP, because everything put together; the displaced tank, the magic, the willful crossing into other worlds, the specific spell "explosion", the characters, the attitudes, and the studio JC Staff, reminds me of Familiar of Zero.
You can't even say "but this one has guns" because Zero had guns as well. At least Alice is more likeable than Louise at the start. |
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bonbonsrus
 Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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This is exactly how I felt, I heard the Konosuba connections and was thinking, I liked that well enough, I'll like this show, but I was wrong. It was NOT the same sort of comfortable or funny, and the animation designs while similar in parts and different in a way I really hate, like some of the faces Six was making are really off-putting to me. I'll try a few more, but unsure if I'll finish it. I am really trying to NOT be such a completionist and not force myself to watch stuff I really don't like anymore...not always successfully. 
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 2
I think that I realised halfway through the episode what one of the worst parts of this show was, more than the main character being less likable than Kazuma. There is a total lack of comedic timing, the entire show just feels like one long stream of consciousness, something within this show is not doing effective use of things like pauses and stuff that would sell the jokes. Compare this to Konosuba, which we might in regards to the original creator, which would sell entire jokes on having something like having Aqua throw a tantrum and then pausing to focus on that moment. Like look at Megumin, she would hype herself up, and then you would have a beat that was just a bit too long to undersell her seriousness. You would also have things like scene transitions, the important thing was that there were ups and downs, and this show feels like it can't take a moment to let that awkwardness it is trying to use as comedy to sink in. I think the comedic timing being off lessened it, but by the second episode I think the show at least introduced something that is kind of interesting, a character that I might call this show's Megumin. And it is not the character that looks like a young girl and a bit of a chuuni thing, but actually Grimm, the red haired women in a wheelchair, who came across desperate for a boyfriend and I think is a cleric to death god. I can see the elements there for an interesting character, even when her and Six are being vindictive of ruining the time of happy couples, that kind of negative characteristics can be funny. And a character bound to a wheelchair, that could still go along with the fantasy party, and not be some sort of character to be pitied for it, that is an interesting character trait. Even though I think that last part was kind of spoiled in this episode revealing that apparently it is about not being able to wear shoes, but perhaps that was itself ruined by the lack of comedic timing in this show. It could have been like how Megumin making it sound like she has an actual reason to wear an eyepatch, before revealing it is just to look cool. Am I alone in these observations? My complaint is kind of like what I often think is wrong with Chinese productions. |
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Kabuby 77
Posts: 21 |
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The central point of this series will be to do some satire, you remembered konosuba, we have already seen some comedy sketches that go in that direction.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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Grimm, Snow, Rose... well, I know where the names came from... Alice... Every Alice is an Alice Allusion, especially in Iskeai happy Japan.
I really liked Episode 2 as Grimm and Rose added dimension to the character dynamic, people more pathetic than Number 6... you know, calling him Six in Japanese only reminded me of Miss "Six" from Pani Poni Dash but writing it as Number 6 reminds me of something more relevant and somewhat less obscure. Or I think the Prisoner is less obscure than the Grimm fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. It's hard to tell what's intended and what's a coincidence. In the West, "You are number six" always means that number 6. Oh and Grimm is utterly terrifying. She can only curse people with an 80% success rate but still has a massive amount of kills to her name? How? Rose is far more straight forward but I still thought it was more a case of chuunbiyo until she started breathing fire. And I'm not surprised that there's some mutual attraction between Heine and Six but I am surprised she does actually respect him. So to complete the gag, Heine must be a lot more useless than she looks. The "evil points" running gag is growing on me as whoever is running keeps distorting what fully counts as evil. And I liked the moment Six and Grimm had after she revived though it shouldn't feel as smooth as it did. Grimm should look a lot older than she does... or there's a curse on that, that or that... because she comes off more as ineffectual goth than a repulsive creep. |
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bonbonsrus
Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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I did like the addition of the new characters, (especially Grimm) but I was questioning if this was going in a harem route as well...and with such a generally cringy guy as Six it's a particularly disturbing thought. Having said that, he was slightly more toned down and less abrasive to me this episode, at least in the way they animated him.
I was sad when Grimm died, I was like, seriously?, I really liked her in the show, but I was happy to see she revived. It was odd to me how sweet Six was when she revived, he didn't want her to be lonely. It gives me a wee bit of hope for him. And they said Rose had such a high kill counts because she had demon blood in her and people were afraid of her and so they always sent them into battle first, I kinda figured Grimm with her immortality would have high kill counts for that reason as well. I agree with you Dusky about the comedic timing, this show really doesn't seem to hit it well. It's hard to enjoy or find anything that I find funny, however I did enjoy seeing Six/Grimm dis on happy couples and run them over with the wheelchair. I still think it had room for improvement, but at least I found something. It's much easier to pick it apart though and find things that maybe had a chance at being comedic but they rushed it so there wasn't time to feel the awkward embarrassment of it. Good call out, it's one of those things that's easier to know it isn't working than to know why it isn't working I think. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Seems that we are in agreement with a few things as of the second episode, bonbonsrus.
At least so far, Six is more tolerable when he is not being an active sleaze, but a bit better when maybe he was just doing it for petty evil points. That he might be an idiot, but he cared enough about Grimm to be devastated when she appeared to be dead and waited for her to be revived. And the two of them being awful together can work. To pull from Konosuba again, although I think it is clear that Darkness might have some kind of feelings for Kazuma, their dynamic really is not that way. While Kazuma and Megumin have the chemistry that I think the story more supports in their shared devious childishness sides. Perhaps at this point I could see it working with Six and Grimm, rather than actually having a harem. |
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ACｘS
 Posts: 961 |
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1:
A KonoSuba derivative. Hmm, noooo. Noooo, I can't follow this show. I know the title is created by the same guy who did KonoSuba; it's too obvious. But I've already found one episode to be repulsive enough. The show's just riding on whatever worked for KonoSuba, but more blatant. Every girl reminds me of those in KonoSuba, and No. 6 is just a more tit-obsessive, dumber version of Kazuma (at least Kazuma has more logic and common sense than No. 6). This show doesn't even bother to build up the premise and story: just throw the odd couple into a foreign world with lulzy characters, and let's just watch the comedy unfold. No, even KonoSuba is more deliberate with the story. I can't take a show that tries too hard to be funny. Dropped. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 5
The princess showed that she can do some magic by invoking the power of a "great, beautiful, and noble" water goddess from another world that is "worshiped by millions. The fact that it amounted to a party tricks pretty much calls for the assumption that it would be Aqua. The episode also had Six trying to get evil points by pretending to hold the threat of lecherous things to women walking alone, and fitting for night he failed from the last victim by her pretty much being Darkness. The threat of doing things received no evil points from her, which kind of gave me a laugh. The after credits also implied that the hero and the villain he was with have gone back to Six's people and joined them. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 7
I don't know what just happened. Is there something wrong with how I have been watching or watched this episode, because this was actually a pretty funny episode. The series kind of got past the main story beat of Six and Alice's secret of their true motive, that at least their friends know, and it kind of is like a weight has been lifted and they could actually do funny jokes. I might even say they are in line with the likes of something like Konosuba, being able to do good character writing that creates funny moments. To start off, there is this random tiger guy that I can't recall being in the show before, he kind of looks cool with a pair of sunglasses and a weird quirk of going "nyaa", which is usually for cat girls. And while he looks aggressive to Six at first, in regards to probably be a demon of the likes they were just fighting, it actually looks like the two of them were dicking around to have fun or look cool, with Six's sword unceremoniously being cut in half. It is a surprise that the tiger guy is really apologetic and Six is freaked out, where we then learn that it is Snow's sword, which we know from her character she would be very upset over, and Six spins a ridiculous tale, that is pretty funny. We then have a pub scene, good fantasy adventure fun, where Alice is willing to start asking the questions of the world they are in. Six learns the food that he is about to eat is orc meat, and in line with recognisable morals that should be relatable to the audience he has a problem with eating an intelligent creature. Rose then volunteers to eat it, because she clearly has no qualms because eating anything is her defining trait, which is good character writing. They then look into other creatures in the world, and Six as mostly a guy is kind of genre savvy about not just sticking around dangerous territory. Six meets a monster, but is then genre savvy again that it too is afraid, and they can be friends, and then Snow kills it because of course she doesn't care, using the sword from earlier in the episode. They are then back at the pub and Six is upset over them eating his new friend, and then Rose with her other defining trait of oblivious lets it slip that Grimm was doing a dark ritual to summon some dark entity. Snow is of course not happy about this because she is a sort of paladin character, while Alice is interested, partially for the mission of learning more, but also as a being of science and technology would find the idea of such fantasy magic to be inconceivable. Grimm then takes Alice and Six to one of her dark rituals, and brings a sacrifice to do it, but Grimm as grim as she is can't actually go all the way to kill the bunny, she tries to get Six to do it, but neither of these supposedly dark characters can do that. Alice on the other hand sees no problems doing so and volunteers, so Grimm goes stronger to use actual "processed" meat she brought because although she wanted to show off how dark she is, she probably thought in the back of her mind she can't pull it off. The meat she brings looks like a snout, probably a callback to the orc meat mentioned earlier. The ritual goes so well that they seem to overshoot ghost and get some greater devil, who is a sexy lady. Six in Kazuma style throws away his genre savviness and is all to quick to make a perverted deal with the demon, but then Alice interrupts and uses her trademark sass to talk down to the apparently powerful demon. The demon does not like her insolence and tries to stop her heart, but does not work on the android to the demon's confusion, which kind of seems well along the lines of the stuff in Konosuba where threats of great pain have no effect on Darkness, and Aqua can just solve things like a powerful curse with ease. Alice pretty much continues to lower the demon to a pitufl mess that can do little for Alice than clean the toilet, and Alice calls the entire thing a farce, to Grimm's dismay with her maybe pet rabbit from now. By the end of the episode we see the tiger man again, who just seems like a fixture now, kind of like the ant person from Kemono Mask that we never get an answer to, and really the guy just makes me think of that show, making intimidating animal men kind of cute. And in style of the usual end episode moments that are kind of a preview we get the people back on earth, but this time it is in the style of like a zoom meeting, which kind of seems like a topical thing from trends of the last two years and can be used as a joke. I complained before about the show kind of being mostly misses with comedy, with me maybe being able to call out a Konosuba reference for something funny, which is kind of low in pointing to a series that is actually funny. But I actually found this episode funny, it was like exactly the sort of stuff I wanted, and I wonder why they could not do more stuff like this up till now. Or was I just missing that it was like this? |
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Twiztidraven
 Posts: 6 |
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I just binged this today and while I’ve not seen Konosuba(it sounds neat), I did enjoy this for what it has been so far. I honestly wasn’t sure if this show was going to find itself or not, but it seems to have an ok balance if you don’t take it too seriously.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
The show never really reached again the high of episode 7 for me, I think that it was some part that when it wasn't really doing story it did better. Like the banter of the group at the very end where they test Grimm with socks. It is a little unfortunate that one of the last jokes of the series was about Tiger man creeping on Russel, a paedophilic joke meant to be a little more because it is gay. It did happen to throw in another Konosuba reference by something being named "chunchunmaru". Konosuba references are funny, but it does feel very much like a crutch, maybe it wanted to be funny, but often most successfully just references something better. Specific problems I have, is like Six being scum, but he is not often a fun piece of scum to watch. With the few exceptions I can think of were when it was clear he was just doing something for evil points, and was way out of his depth for something bad. Such being the case when he was threatening to flash women or more, but then a Darkness styled masochist that showed it was all an act, and then he was stuck with an embarrassing nickname. The second to last episode even had some okay bits when the main characters were playing the part of villain, by waiting for the enemy to go through all the challenges before ambushing them to take it, how Snow, Grimm and Rose were so uncomfortable. Maybe if it just managed to make a better joke after that. I don't know what else to say. It was not on technical merits amazing or awful. I kind of think the setting itself might be something that did not hit the most amazingly, and perhaps if I was more familiar with certain influences it might have been more enjoyable. I think that it could have tightened up jokes a bit, and even if they did want the edgier jokes they could make them land with a bigger pop, but perhaps a lot of the sexual jokes just did not work with me. My rating is going to be Decent (6/10), I did not really lose my time, but sometimes it was not that interesting, and on rare occasions was actually pretty good. |
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