Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Tokyo 24th Ward
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Spider3PO
 Posts: 19 |
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A fair review. I enjoyed ep 1 & 2. But with 3, that tornado was left field. I didn't like that twist.
They had already started foreshadowing two different groups as being shady. And neither of them played into being at the heart of the crisis this week. Not even the group that tried to cheat. It's as if the showrunner thought a unexpected plot twist was more important then putting in the work via foreshadowing to make it a meaningful payoff. Just to subvert expectations on what the crisis was going to be. It bugs me. Unless there was some clue I missed in 2 & 3 to suggest a natural disaster was coming this episode? Cause I don't remember anything like that. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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Was there some sort of clue that their chaos detecting machine is actually a chaos creating machine? I don't know, everywhere? This is an A++ series for me but I don't even know where to begin in explaining how great I think it is...
Yes, you picked up on the Trolley one and the show pointed it out but the second chaos point was centered around... political ideals of all things, the Libertarian versus the Liberal. Survival of the fittest versus protecting the weak. "Taking the third option" in the Trolley problem is par for the course but it's a lot more nuanced when it comes to politics built into your blood. It's not "working together" though, it should be working parallel. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11580 |
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Well, Lupin III already gave us a "Gun of Jigen" in episode 8 last month, so it wouldn't be surprising for the idea to show up here too. 
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Spider3PO
Posts: 19 |
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Episode 4: Corrects the ship, so to speak. The foreshadowing sets up the next crisis (as it spoiler[bleepin] should). Rather then coming out of left field with the tornado the last episode and killing off a semi-important support character. But I'm sure there's still time for the next episode to mess that up. Thanks episode 3 for planting that seed of doubt in me. Anyways...
Someone pointed out that the Hazard Cast machine maybe a macguffin that creates these chaotic scenarios. It's possible. But I've got a different theory involving Carneades. The big bad Carneades is going to be a Moriarty like figure in this, exploiting Hazard Cast. With the Tornado, he likely prevented the radar from doing it's job. Rather then create a tornado with unknown tech. With this new crisis involving the ship, I'm just going to wait and see before diving too deep into how this could connect to Carneades, Hazard Cast, and Asumi. Random notes: - Ran continues to baffle me. In episode 2, he's dunking bread crusts into an energy drink (gross). - In this episode, Ran is like "screw physics" while his skateboard remains magically glued to his feet as he swings through the air like Tarzan in the Concrete Jungle. - So Drug D is basically PCP (Angel Dust)? To close, this series is pretty good. It's a B- for me so far. Maybe it can become an A+ in the future. We'll see. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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I went into this series with one simple fact: Red, blue and green are a spectrum and these reviews that keep trying to break this analogue set up into digital descriptions is frustrating. The problems are broken down into binary, yes, but the solution should be more of a spectrum. To paraphrase what Mari aid about RBG: Everything can handle everything. But what about the individual colors?
"Shu's in the middle." Yes"... and that makes him central good." No, that should make him True Neutral. Looking at Red we have Chaotic Good and at green, it's lawful evil. Koki's an unapologetic fascist, can we come out and admit that? He's also a Libertarian but I feel that would kicking him while he's down already. But why is Shu the superhero and not Ran? Something something responsibility, something power right? With great responsibility comes great power... and somebody went out of their way to make it into a superhero series. So Shu has to be the hero with hour of power because he's the responsible one. That leaves Ran, who's interestingly no Robin Hood. He's self involved, he's particular, he's selective. Token Evil Teammate, the Heart and to top it off, the Lovable Rogue. No, I'm missing something about Ran because that should be heroic but something about Ran isn't, just like Koki by himself isn't a hero... Red should be hero, Blue should be lancer, hmm... Is it really that simple? That Ran isn't dependable? ... and even the teamings are balanced; Ran has a group of Individuals he represents more than leads, Koki has no power over those SERG agents or the woman who's tied to, well, that but he does seem to lead them when the time comes to lead them. Take this next problem... and review on it please. Shu is not going to be the one to decides who lives and who dies like Ran or Koki, the chaotic and evil people. He's going to save all of them because it's the right thing to do. And I probably could keep going about this series as I do love it but not for what it's saying but what it says when it's not saying anything meaningful. So you'll see your politics reinforced because they're your politics and you can pick apart ones you disagree with because they're not. Also... leaving this for last: the 24 ward is a manufactured place so all problems plaguing it are also manufactured, that's the point. The plot. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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Red was going to activate the bomb but Kunai talked him out of it with his dying words.
So like this... but the part that came after it which negates it. These reviews are awful. |
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Spider3PO
Posts: 19 |
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Typically I comment on an episode, but I think we should examine the "reviewer" this time around. As politely as possible. Cause there's some overthinking in there (eps 4 & 5), like Tokyo 24th Ward is supposed to be Shakespere when the level of writing is closer to Die Hard.
I don't know what you were expecting when a story arc is typically only an hour long (two episodes). They were never going to go deep into the division of classes. If that's what you were expecting. The first episode should have clued you in on how "deep" this show was going to be.
I would say specializes in simplified moral dilemmas that have to be solved in an hour of runtime. Maybe if this was Netflix, they could dedicate a season to a trolley dilemma. To really get to the heart of the issues the story may have brought up that led to the dilemma. But I imagine much of the audience would check out. Few showrunners could pull that off.
Do we though? Is the Captain of the ship in on it? The ship staff? The entertainment? Some of the plus ones invited to this? You're telling me they're all in on the shady deals? That just by being on the ship with shady people that it would be fine if the ship blew up? Okay, if you say so.
Yeah, I never expected that. Again, it should have been clear early on that this show was never going to be that deep or dramatic. |
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LastSilmaril
Posts: 1 |
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This wasn’t my read at all. Given how much time is spent on the background of the supposed antagonist here, I was basically crushed when he was killed, though ofc not everyone on that boat was in any sense guilty. We aren’t meant to uncritically laud either the cops or the black-and-white thinking of Koki more generally here. Honestly, the amazing thing is that Ran and Koki can get along at all given their outlooks are so disparate, but it looks like this might be the thing that actually drives a wedge (which, good). Other than that, I didn’t love that Shu is kind of useless in this ep, but at the same time, I kind of like that action-man can’t just fix everything, too.
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tasukete
Posts: 19 |
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Time to be pedantic! (Once an editor, always an editor. Sorry.)
It's easy to mix up purposely and purposefully. One trick is to think about their opposites, which are quite different: purposely means "on purpose," so it's the opposite of "by accident" or "unintentionally." purposefully means "full of purpose," so it's the opposite of "pointlessly" or "aimlessly." |
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njprogfan
 Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 1217 Location: A River Named Toms |
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Here we go, another "young girl floating in tube" anime. As soon as they showed that lair, I just knew...
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11580 |
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Spider3PO called it way back in the Preview Guide thread, so congrats to them.
Every week I'm ready to drop this, but then I don't and now we're half way through I'll probably stick with it (unless someone tells me it's slated for 24 or a split cour, in which case I'm out right now). This show sure is lucky it doesn't air on the weekend, or I wouldn't have bothered with it. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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I always thought the Chaos Cast machine was being powered by the "power of Forsaken child" so I didn't mention it... because I don't think that's where Azumi's mind is, where her identity is. I thought in a series trying to point out binary choices in an analogue world would have Azumi both alive, really alive, and 100% dead.... and then the series took a further step I didn't expect.
"The system is called KANAE and its receptacle is BRAIN." My reaction was not and I mean not "OMG, that is Azumi." This isn't that kind of series; Ran's a coward, Koki's a fascist because they are what they look like as this is not a nuanced or subtle series. So if they give you Azumi's body but call her by her mother's name, it's time to ask yourself "What's in the Brain Box?!" |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11580 |
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I couldn't even understand what the trolley problem was this week, and even after seeing it played out, it seemed to be either a problem with no solution (other than, you know, not leave your cranes unsecured while load bearing in the first place), or not a who-do-you-save problem at all. As it was presented, lightning would strike the cranes making them fall and lightning would strike the only person who could prevent them from falling. So save the person from the lightning and then they can stop the cranes? Where's the difficult choice?
I think my brain is just too clogged with general crap to function any more, so no one need waste their time explaining something that's obvious to the average viewer. I probably won't be able to understand that either, and it's not like I'm losing sleep over this.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11580 |
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The review pretty much summed up my feelings on Ep. 9 when it ended. My first thought was, "Um, didn't we already know all this before?" I guess the origin of the stupid name "0th" was kinda new, but I hadn't been wondering about that at all before now.
Sadly, my main takeaway from this was wondering how he got cut on the right side of his face when the broken car window was on his left. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11580 |
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:chef's kiss: That line alone made finishing this worth it. As for the series? Meh. The van chase was nice. ¡Sí se puede! Daisuke! Aaand it's over. I'm glad. |
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