Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Nina the Starry Bride
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ab2143
Posts: 762 |
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Yeah, that really annoyed me. I’m going to wait until Thursday (TV broadcast) to see if they announce a second season? |
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zfunk
Posts: 322 |
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Imagine if this was a last episode, what a downer ending.
And can I say Prince Todd or whatever his name is an idiot, what do you have to go blabbing your plan like a cartoon villain? |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18507 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I'm relieved at the reveal of Hikami's real gender, as the otherwise-great English dub (which I've primarily been following) had an obviously-male VA doing a very weak job of sounding effeminate, which left me wondering if I had missed something about Hikami being transgender or a man in disguise.
Otherwise, as an anime-only viewer, I have to agree that this last episode was a hot mess. Felt like they were trying to jam too much in at once. Still, like Rebecca, I'll definitely watch a second season if it's made, as Nina is a sufficiently interesting main character. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 14258 |
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I honestly didn't expect Nina to accidentally get framed for poisoning Sett or the fact that she would end up locked up in another dungeon. First Fortna and now Galgada, she sure ends up in jail a lot. She even ends the season being shipped off to prison!
To think I believed this was the rare Mitsuki Saiga female role, but instead Hikami was a dude the whole time. It's funny that even Nina's fake lady-in-waiting had bigger boobs than she does. I honesty just want to go ahead and praise Minami Tanaka's performance as Nina because she, and Nina's feisty and caring personality, really helped carry the series. Also praise to Nina having some of the best outfits and hairstyles of the season, rivaled only by Yoshino Somei. So the worst punishment you could give Yor is sending him to a prison run by women. I'm starting to really think his aversion to women is deeper than just being gay. Honestly I feel like Anne was the MVP of this episode. Like she's not a ninja bodyguard like Hikami and she doesn't have anywhere near Nina's moxie and yet she put her head on the chopping block to protect Hikami and "Alisha" and was willing to follow her mistress to a prison fortress. Granted neither of them know they've actually been shipped off to the equivalent of a Russian Gulag, but still. Nina does feel like the type who after settling into jail would get along with the guards despite themselves. "So she was just a girl after all" - I mean, come on, in her position can you blame her? Honestly I have a hard time seeing Sett taking at face value that Nina tried to poison him. Not only did she offer him the antidote cookies but he saw her shield him from Hikami. Besides, Sett is in love with her. So my takeaway from that last scene is he knew Toat set this up and so he killed the real perpetrator and will now be on the warpath to everyone who took Nina away from him. Which should also make for an intense confrontation when he and Azure face off again. I really hope they're going to announce a second season because in a season with cliffhanger/unresolved/downer endings, this is a pretty big one.
I think it ties into "Alisha" being so special and prestigious because of her being a Star Priestess which makes her valuable to any nation that has her. Also I think considering how Nina has increasingly found herself in situations she's so out of her depth in, I think it's reasonable that she kind of gets really anxious and nervous while grappling with how little power she actually has to do anything. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2697 |
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That's not to say this show would be automatically appealing to most intelligent women because there are a number of flaws in the plot, etc. For instance, how Nina has avoided execution to this point is almost beyond me... |
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 255 Location: Philippines |
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It might just be me, but I'm not seeing the otome game inspiration, outside of the very surface level one of multiple princes vying for the hand of a princess, because none of the other Galgada princes are presented as serious rivals for her affections. It remains firmly a love triangle between Nina, Azure, and Sett. As for the general appeal of the show, I do find the romance underwhelming because Azure, as has been pointed out, is very underdeveloped. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if most anime-onlies like me would be rooting more for Sett even though it's clear that Nina loves Azure very much. What does keep me invested, is that I would very much like to know the events that led to the very first scene of the anime -- Nina on the verge of getting executed by the man she loves. I can imagine a certain flow of events: Galgada invading Fortna, Nina choosing to protect Sett. Galgada ultimately losing and thus Nina gets arrested for treason or something. But there is a missing component, which is, how does the prophecy about the astral priestess plays into these events? With how much it's teased, I very much doubt Nina replacing Alisha is pure coincidence. Another thing, is Alisha really dead? So yeah... stuff like that keep it just interesting enough for me to want to watch every week. Unfortunately, the anime unsurprisingly dropped the ball and now my only option is to read the manga to find out.  [/i]
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2697 |
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There is the element of trying to understand her own emotional turmoil at liking Sett after approaching him as "making the best of a bad situation" but discovering his sensitive nature and genuine affection for her as an individual while having fallen in love with Azure more as "the person who loved me first" and gave her value while not really knowing him so well. And let's not forget having two strong and attractive men who are aware they are in a romantic competition for her affection willing to risk punishment or other consequences to attain her continued favor and relationship. That she becomes an ersatz princess and the focus of everyone's attention while navigating the politics of two kingdoms and using her position to influence everything to her own ends while suffering minimal negative consequences seems a lot like those games. I also second being disappointed that the story didn't wrap around to explaining the initial story "hook" of the opening scene after so much time. I could have believed Azure could have been in such a position shortly after his discovery of Nina but it is hard to imagine how it could transpire now. You and others have posited very good reasons that the "real" Alishia might not be gone and with the Hikami situation, I could see the former king faking her demise to put some other girl in her place in case the Galgadan royals pulled something to harm her. What I also wonder is what Nina's real backstory might be with those rare blue eyes and whether the former king might know there are other possibly "illegitimate" members of the royal bloodline lurking around... |
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