Forum - View topicREVIEW: Rose Guns Days Season One GN 1
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zeo1fan
Posts: 1016 |
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What's the World War II part of Higurashi? I'm confused.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1035 |
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If you're afraid that RGD goes a nationalistic route, don't worry. If anything, many would argue it does the opposite (though I would say it treats all sides relatively equally).
Also, fair warning. While the Season 1 manga is mostly fine (and is even a slight improvement in a couple of areas), the Season 2 and 3 manga cut out a lot of important scenes from the VN necessary for the development of characters and later plot developments, also leading to shoddy pacing, as well as asspulls that should've had proper setup. Not many RGD characters reach the level of depth that WtC characters do, but they're mostly still enjoyable. Either way, the RGD manga as a whole is not a great substitute for the original, unlike Higurashi and Umineko. I'm dreading the day the Higanbana manga is brought over, as that's nothing more than cheap, edgy, emotionally manipulative schlock, truly awful compared to the VN. What's the point of making a VN that already feels nihilistic at points even darker? It just comes across as silly and forced. |
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Mr. Dent
 Posts: 78 |
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Aw, it's a shame this got such a negative review, but I guess that's the problem with giving the series such a slow start. The actual plot of Season One isn't even introduced until halfway through the second volume, if I remember, so I'm not surprised the reviewer wasn't impressed. However, verily, I will defend Rose Guns Days with all my might! I honestly prefer it to Higurashi, by far. (Though Umineko is my favorite.)
I won't deny that Rose Guns Days has a nationalistic tone to it, but I don't think that it's intention is to say that Japan was in the right, and, in fact, it's repeatedly stated that what's happened to them is entirely their fault for trying at conquest to begin with. Not only that, but the soldiers aren't portrayed as noble, nor are they tragic. They're simply people who enlisted in something greater than they realized. None of them come back unscathed, but some work to redeem themselves and others never come to terms with life off the battlefield. I wouldn't say the story is about the undeniable sanctity of Japan's heritage, but rather buckling down and pulling up your bootstraps to redeem your culture from the horrors you voluntarily plunged it into. Not to mention, it's nationalism isn't xenophobic- In fact, Season One's villain is a Nationalist Terrorist gang. As for the gender politics, I found them very interesting and delicately handled- Like usual, Ryukishi writes his women as well, if not better than his men, but many of my favorite characters in Season One are men, but Amanda and Rose are stand out favorites of mine.[/quote] |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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While the war itself wasn't in Higurashi, I felt like it had a big impact on Takano's backstory, and the discovery of spoiler[Hinamizawa Syndrome] in the first place. @ThatGuyWhoLikesThings Thanks - that's good to know. I was actually hoping for the Lysistrata route...  Maybe I will give it another volume, then.
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Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2350 |
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I know rose guns days premise can look problematic but it honestly is not at least in the hyper nationalistic sense you are talking about. I have finished all of the first two seasons of rose guns days visual novel and I can promise you that it blames japan way to much to be nationalistic.
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Venus_Angel9
 Posts: 55 |
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I tried the visual novel (I don't play visual novels, I was just trying to get into it), and I found it intriguing, but to be honest, I was bored, and haven´t continued because of it. Does it get better?
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1035 |
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Pretty much everyone will tell you that RGD is a slow, if interesting, burn until near the end of Season 2, with some action here and there to prevent things from being too...maybe not "boring" per se, perhaps just not particularly exciting. It's mostly buildup and the establishment of character relationships and narrative points. Seasons 3 and 4 are a nonstop rollercoaster and it's incredibly thrilling. |
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Tanteikingdomkey
Posts: 2350 |
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I would say that you should give it the whole first season (chapters 1-7 of the visual novel). quite a few people said they found chapters 1-5 on the whole somewhat boring. I can promise you that chapters 6 and 7 Absolutely make those chapters worth it. |
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Venus_Angel9
Posts: 55 |
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O.K. I'll do that then. I don't mind slow burns, It's just that I'd heard good things about it and was wondering if it was just hype or something on my part preventing me from enjoying it. I did like the characters and the setting is interesting though, so I'll try again. Thanks! |
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Etrien
 Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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As someone who holds Umineko (the visual novel) as one of his favorite fictional works across any medium, but has yet to actually read Rose Guns Days (in any form), I definitely had the same reaction and apprehension when the RGD visual novel's synopsis first came out. After all, right-wing nationalism has a very strong following in the Japanese otaku crowd and it feels like I can't go a day or two without encountering it - so I'm not particularly surprised when it pops up. Saddened, but not surprised. But then after reflecting on it for a while, I started second guessing that likelihood for this story simply due to how he wrote Umineko (and to a lesser degree, Higurashi), which made tremendous efforts to explore and humanize its very flawed cast - ultimately depicting many of its previously "terrible people" very sympathetic and understandable. Not only did the level of empathy displayed in his previous writings seem at odds with the nationalistic vibes of RGD, but his two biggest prior works (Higurashi and Umineko) were both largely about subverting their initial appearances. So I really couldn't rule out that, despite the nationalistic vibe, it could just as well ultimately go in the other direction as a subversion of that very thing. I don't really want to read the other comments in detail, because I know full well from the Umineko threads that there's always someone that doesn't know how to not spoiler (  ), and RGD is still very much a story I plan on reading. But, I still wanted to throw my thoughts in here. A quick skim over the other posts seems to give me hope I might be on the right track though.
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einhorn303
 Posts: 1180 |
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IMHO the point at which Rose Guns Days gets really good is roughly halfway through the first season, after Caleb is introduced. After that though, it's a ride of pure awesome.
I find it funny that people can find RGD nationalistic when the VN rants on endlessly about how short-sighted, selfish, weak, etc the Japanese people are. |
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