Forum - View topicREVIEW: Blast of Tempest episodes 1-12
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Definitely one of the series I found pleasing this season. Although a bit dialogue heavy, I found it quite entertaining. Anyways, the second half resumes next week so can't wait for it
Pretty solid review also. I do enjoy the music aspect of it though. |
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DRWii
 Posts: 642 |
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I can definitely see why some (probably most) would be annoyed by them, but I actually really liked those last four episodes. It was just so much fun watching the characters constantly out-scheme/out-smart each other, plus the spoiler[time paradox] element was cool.
Also, a minor typo: Michiru Ishima is actually Michiru Oshima. |
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Keichitsu0305
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I wasn't sure what to make of Blast of Tempest at first. I thought it was going to be an average shounen adventure that would end with the two main males to fighting each other. Glad I was proven wrong around episode 5. But they are still probably going to fight each other since they aren't "friends" just "partners with a mutual interest".
There's a scene where Mahiro comments on how he falls for her despite not having big boobs. It's not only a reflection of his brash nature but also the power of Aika's sensuality among the two main males. Personally, I find it refreshing to see such a intelligent female character who also display such an air of dominance without coming off as a "manipulative witch". While I enjoy Yoshiro, especially during the spoiler[time paradox] episodes, Aika comes off as a very memorable character. Which is why I agree with the theory that spoiler[she could be connected with the mage of the Tree of Exodus.] I'm thoroughly enjoying this series so I'm looking forward to part two with spoiler[Hakaze off the island].
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3013 |
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Pretty much agree with everything Theron said, with the slight exception in that I wasn't as bothered by the slow pace of the last four episodes. It did get a bit tedious, though, but the only episode that really annoyed me with this was episode 10.
Happy to see a more positive review of this, though, after Bamboo's very negative reaction to it over in The Stream. Despite the hiccup near the end, I've really enjoyed the show and am excited to see where it goes. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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It saddens me that Theron thinks the first half of this show is exactly as good as the second half of Sword Art Online.
Yes, watching Samon, Yoshino and Mahiro talk for five bloody episodes on that one muddy slope is rather irritating, but the mind games and the plot twists and the sheer weight of what will happen if the wrong side (which we are no longer even sure of) prevails is quite engrossing. Also, the tension that is generated as we know that Mahiro will inevitably find out whom his sister's boyfriend was makes for excellent drama; how can Yoshino get out of this without being killed by a jealous Mahiro in the process? And what of Aika, who seems to be the key to everything that is going on? It's fascinating to see if she features even more than she already has into the plot (I believe she may indeed bespoiler[ the agent of the Tree of Exodus,; basically Hakaze's opposite number).] There's just so much going on - almost too much, but the show by and large keeps things in check - and so much at stake that I cannot help but feel invested. And I highly enjoy seeing intelligent characters talk intelligently amongst themselves, even if the plot is dragging while they do so. Even Mahiro - the least intelligent of the main cast - has shown that he is not an idiot, making insightful observations and never losing focus on what his goal is and how he can achieve it. And Samon; he may be a "drama queen" but he isn't a fool and he isn't evil either. It seems sad to say this but antagonists who aren't simply evil villains are rare and I find a complicated, well-intentioned guy like Samon to be a breath of fresh air. Last edited by dtm42 on Sat Jan 05, 2013 2:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1082 Location: Texas |
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I am enjoying Blast of Tempest far more than I expected and I was not at all bored by the last few episodes because the dialog was so good with the scheming and magickal theory being bounced around between characters.
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Etrien
 Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Man, everyone keeps saying entirely different things about this show! It's great, it's terrible. It's clever, it's a mess. It's intelligent, it's pretentious. I just don't know what to think!
 I mean, what am I supposed to do - actually watch the show?
...Yikes. Well, when you put it that way... |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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No, Theron put it that way. He's the one who thinks that the two are equal, and I do not share that opinion. No way. I personally recommend that you to watch Blast of Tempest because despite its faults it is far, far better than the ALO arc. In Blast of Tempest the characters are way better, the plot is more intricate, and the writing is of actual respectable quality. It say something about how good the mind games and plot twists are when the characters can stand on the side of a hill for literally five episodes and the show is still engrossing and you can still care about what happens next. However, you may want to wait till it is finished so you can marathon it. Just a thought. |
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belvadeer
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I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist taking a jab. XD From what little I've heard of it, I am interested though. |
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Etrien
Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Yeah, I know. But I hadn't realized the correlation between the scores until you pointed it out. The perplexing thing about this show is that it's pretty rare for the sources (I listen to) to be so divided. Opinions on SAO may have been divided, too, but most of the people with tastes similar to mine fell on just one side of that issue (bad). Theron was actually one of the anomalies there, considering that he's been historically one of the reviewers I tend to agree with. But with Blast of Tempest, opinions seem to be pretty divided by people who otherwise often feel similarly about shows. Hence the confusion. I don't follow too many shows at one time, and often even have trouble keeping up with those. Blast of Tempest is on my radar, I'm just hesitating over whether I should add it to my list or not. I might just save it and marathon it in the future if the final reviews are promising. |
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Bluenoser
Posts: 39 |
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I have to emphatically agree with this opinion, Tempest has not only been my favourite series of its season but one of the best things I have seen in anime storytelling in years. While I tend to be fairly eclectic and catholic in my anime tastes I do have a particular soft spot for those which weave complex stories with three dimensional characters and an interesting world creation, and I find Tempest does a very good job of hitting all three of those marks. Even if I get bitterly disappointed by the second half for whatever reasons I will still be very happy with this first half, and I am hopeful enough that the second will be at least decent if not equal or better than the first half given what they have managed to do so far. As dtm42 said in another comment, any anime that can spend five episodes basically doing nothing but dialogue with fairly static scenes and still not only be interesting/watchable but keep you wanting more has some seriously high quality writing/storytelling backing it up. It is also nice to see such wonderfully ambiguous right/wrong good/evil line blurring here done so well, that is not the easiest thing to do despite being a more often true to life/reality way things are, since in many conflicts who is right or wrong, good or evil is so subjective as to be almost meaningless in anything close to resembling an objective description/summation. As well I personally enjoy heavy exposition when it is done well, and this series is a definite example of it being done well in an anime context, combine the music and the visuals and you have a clearly superior piece of entertainment for those that want more than just pandering to the most basic/commonest denominator elements/aspects of human nature. This is a very clever and well executed (at least so far) anime, and it offers excellent nuance within it on multiple levels and aspects. It is well worth the time to watch IMHO. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Hey Bluenoser, good to hear that someone else is enjoying this show as much as I am.
I believe this would be a good course of action, especially if you are having trouble keeping up with the shows you are already following. Besides, in my opinion Blast of Tempest is the sort of show that is better enjoyed when marathoned rather than waiting week-to-week. |
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Panoptican
Posts: 160 |
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I can see why someone would say "Music is too ambitious much of the time, gets bogged down in its last four episodes," but I'm on the other side of the fence.
The music is great most of the time. The show is very dramatic in a kind of stage-play way and the music is also suitably dramatic. I didn't like it in the first episode because it didn't really fit there, but after that it worked for me. I've also really loved the battle of wits/logic in the last few episodes, though I can see why it could be seen as tedious seeing as it mostly takes place in one spot. Episode 9 was probably even my favorite episode of any anime in 2012. It was awesome. |
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Volibear
 Posts: 344 |
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Hmm, I do like this series alot, but i do have some issues as well.
The storytelling is really good, and for the most part it has done it without alot of unnecessary action scenes to gloss over any cracks in the story. And i also like the final 4 or so episodes where there was alot of talking. It, in my opinion, was handled near-perfect. The writer knew all that tedious talk would bog down the story, so we had all of the characters outside of the talk-group occasionally appear to move the story along and break up periods of talking. This made the lack of anything besides talking much easier to handle for the audience. Although, I still feel like the talking went on just a bit too long, it maybe should have ended an episode earlier. But that would also not allow the story to be fleshed out as well, so i don't have as much of a problem with it really. It also wouldn't have set up the second half of the series as well. So, the talking may have been too much, but it should pay off when it starts airing again, it really set up the second half well |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18480 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Just because two series get the same Overall grade doesn't automatically mean that I think the two are equal in all senses. That's what the review content is for, isn't it? Look, if it helps assuage your confusion, think about it this way: SAO got the final grade that it did because it had that level of entertainment value despite all of its perceived problems. (And no, we are not going to discuss that in this thread, so don't even try.) I'm sure you and some others vehemently disagree on that point, but we've well-established that I found the series considerably more satisfying than you guys did, so just roll with that. BoT is getting the final grade that it did based more on qualitative measures; I thought the series was doing quite well (I did seriously consider it for my "Best of the Year" list up through at least episode 9) until that interminable hillside scene started showing that yes, it was interminable and everything else that was going on was just a distraction to keep viewers from being too irritated be the fact that what was mostly going on was four straight episodes of exposition in the same location. All of the cleverness and reversals that were going on may have been entertaining for a while, but concentrating so many of them in one spot, and stretching them out like that, bogged down the storytelling. I found this to be such a big problem that I dropped the Story grade from an A- to a B, and I'm rather surprised that more people aren't lambasting the series for doing that, given how critical people around here normally are about sustained exposition. And no, you can't use the cleverness aspect of it all as a complete defense because, as I noted in the review, that's contributing to the problem. You are, of course, welcome to disagree, but the fact that my letter grade for the series dropped by two notches over the course of the last three episodes shows how tiresome some viewers are going to find that 4-5 episode stall-out to be. |
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