Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR
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flamemasterelan
Posts: 497 |
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I'm not watching this yet, since I'm hoping for a dub (how was this not already announced, these are all returning actors in the Texas region). But I just want to say, the biggest missed opportunity is not calling this show just "Yohane!"
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Nagatoka_Morito
Posts: 50 |
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So full disclosure: I had always felt that Sunshine was the sophomore slump of the Love Live franchise's anime productions. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, but a lot of the time it felt to me as though the characters were being held back by both slavish reverence of SIP and seemingly a lack of idea of what to do with a lot of the cast beyond slotting them into their archetypes.
So while I was always going to watch this (primarily to see if my poor You would actually be done some justice this time), I wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of Yohane in the lead role. She was one of my least favorite characters in Sunshine proper, an oftentimes one-note buttmonkey who came off to me as more obnoxious than anything else. Imagine my surprise then that I'm rather loving her as the main character, primarily because in just four episodes she's been allowed to grow beyond her shtick while still demonstrably remaining herself. I'm also really loving the other cast members thus far, though they obviously haven't gotten as much spotlight as Yohane (it is her show after all). In particular, I had always found Chika to be bland and Mari cloying. Here however, I'm genuinely invested in where Mari's subplot goes and Chika being part of a sister sentai is a perfect outlet for the character's energy. |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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I basically live and breathe Love Live, so believe me, it really pains me to say that… I just can’t get the appeal of this show, at all. I don’t know if it’s just because Sunshine is my least favorite season - Nagatoka_Morito basically summed up my exact feelings about it above - but even then, I still have my favorite Aqours characters that I should be absolutely giddy to see on screen again. I don’t know, I think it’s just a little too different from Love Live to scratch that itch while the actual plot of the show is this fantasy/sci-fi mix that feels a little too “anything goes” to stand on its own. But everyone else seems to really like it, and I’ve even seen non Love Live fans that are enjoying the randomness of it, so… I don’t know, maybe it’s just a show that really wasn’t made for me.
At least it’s a good excuse to release a ton of Aqours bangers. |
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RobbiRobb
 Posts: 56 |
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I have to admit, I do have to echo some of the feelings the others shared here. I do enjoy Love Live in general and while I think Sunshine was one of the weaker installements of the franchise, I still think it was a solid show. But when I heard of the initial announcement of Sunshine in the Mirror, I was skeptical and honestly, that feeling still hasn't gone away.
My biggest gripe with the show so far is that its world building really doesn't work. The first episode showed us a modern Tokyo and a somewhat modern Numazu that both have some fantasy aspects to them. And yet it feels nothing like an actual fantasy show. Sure, the main characters are all dressed in a way you'd know from a fantasy anime, supernatural things happen and most importantly, there is a speaking dog/wolf/whatever Lailaps is. But that's about it. Every other person in this show ist just a normal person. Nothing about them screams fantasy. Or Supernatural. Or Sci-fi. The main characters just feel so much out of place in their own story. Additionally it all feels so aimless. Yeah, Yohane is looking for something only she can do, which I guess can be counted as a plot and admittedly, it's not as bad as it sounds, but so far it has just been all over the place, stuff is just happening and it feels like it's weird for the sake of being weird. We know that something is off with the area, so I guess this will all be tied in to that at some point. But until then it's just a weird assortment of stuff. Honestly not really sure what to make of it all. But for the most part, I'm not really enjoying the show itself, just seeing characters I like on screen again. |
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Florete
Posts: 383 |
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I've tried Love Live multiple times but was never able to really *get into* it, so I'm coming at this mostly as a total newcomer. So far it's...okay. If this were a busier season for me I probably would have dropped it by now, but episode 4 with the cannon and the bit with Lailaps at the end is keeping me going for the time being.
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King Metal Zel
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I think this part may be very slightly misinterpreted. I want to clarify that the part that follows is true:
Yohane is one of those people who's actually very amazing, and people really REALLY want to work with her, but when she slips back into being childish, it gives the people around her pause. We saw this in the very beginning of the show at the audition, where it's clear that the people auditioning her were thinking about signing Yohane... until she did her little childish spiel and you can see the looks on their faces lose that confidence and she fails. This is the exact same thing that happens with Mari in the quoted scene. Mari is about to place her faith in Yohane... until Yohane starts acting childish again at which point Mari loses that confidence in her and goes back to being aloof. Now you might ask why I'm making this distinction, and it's because I believe this to be what the actual theme of the show is; it's basically stated in what Yohane and Mari talk about immediately after; Numazu's "screaming". Yohane confirms that she and Lailaps both heard said screams (back in episode one) and Mari immediately states that it's likely only heard by animals and children. Note that in the scene where Yohane heard the scream, nearby Hanamaru did not. Because Hanamaru is mentally mature, compared to the still-childish Yohane. Mari's basically stating for the audience that's the issue at play. This show is about Yohane learning to mature, and that being mature entails working with others, not trying to stand above them. In the moments where she works with others rather than just thinking about herself (Episode 3 working with Chika/Dia, Episode 4 with You/Kanan, various nameless townspeople etc.) things actually work out well for her and she's far happier a person. But she's still clinging to that childish nature of hers, and that's really the only thing holding her back. It's a narrative irony; her childish nature wants to stand tall and be an icon people look up to, but if she'd drop her childish nature and learned to work with others in a more mature manner, she'd achieve precisely that. |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1626 |
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I came into this having absolutely no idea this was a Love Live april fools. It was at the end of the episode when some traits of the cast ringed some alarms and I checked to see if it was a gacha tie in... only to see it was Love Live
The setting being basically Japan, down to the signs and train stations, but with a fantasy skin was delightfully stupid. Too bad in regular Numazu there are barely any chances to see any of that over a generic fantasy town. |
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5516 |
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I'm going to put the utter quirkiness of the show's setting aside, and I want to comment it is rather amusing and thoughtful to see Yohane to be the one to help Mari's anxiety. I'm honestly liking these different takes of these characters. It kind of makes me wish something like Idolmaster Xenoglossia happened after the 2011 TV series proper.
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1626 |
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Personally I've been feeling less engaged with this show since they forced the last member to complete the ensemble.
Now that everyone is easily together all the time for no real reason, it feels like each of their individual relationships are more nebulous and instead we're getting a convenient cloud of "everyone gets along" (but still get divided into neat marketable subpackages). Like my favourite part of the musical number was the show suddenly remembered that Yohane shared a special connection with Hanamaru before the show started. That Yohane's chance for development was truncated so suddenly because idol activities take priority also left a bitter taste. As for the MV itself, I'm disappointed. I don't know how Love Live MVs usually look but going back to CGI after several purely 2D animations feels like a defeat. That, plus the bog-standard idol outfits and scene and the sheer cowardice to not let Ruby stay as a tiny wee fairy for these leave Mari's horns as the only indicator that this is the fantasy spin-off instead of the regular show. Guess I'll count my blessings and be glad they didn't find out any plausible or funny (I'll admit that Ruby being able to change size just because IS funny) excuse to remove those horns. |
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King Metal Zel
Posts: 4 |
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"The issue I had, as the viewer, is that I'm more immediately concerned with Lailaps not dying, so it was rather frustrating to see our heroine collapse in on herself for the first half of this episode."
I'm pretty sure Lailaps isn't going to die. I'm 99.9% certain that the very very first scene in the first episode (the bit with Yohane narrating) is a flash-forward, and Lailaps is very much alive. I'm fairly certain that she'll just lose the ability to speak to Yohane. The only other possibility I see is that Lailaps "dies", and Yohane uses her magic to revive her but she can't speak to Yohane directly anymore or something. |
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nyaa
Posts: 156 |
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So now Lailaps goes woof woof instead of talking like a normal (but incredibly huge) dog-big deal. On a different subject I've been trying to find the fantastic closing song from this series to no avail.
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