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Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Revenger
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tintor2
 Posts: 2177 |
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Gotta say, I was scared as heck about the first episode as I found rushed how Kurima's backstory was told alongside the Revengers' intro. The fact that his fiance kills herself and the studio shows maybe to graphically might scare more viewers. While the ending theme by Maaya Sakamoto is charming, the transition between the chaotic story and the calm ending was a bit jarring.
However, when the second episode was released I was relieved with how Kurima's depression was shown more rather than drop it in episode 1. I'm not entirely sure about how he simply chooses the values of the Revengers (I mean he doesn't seem that convinced unlike how Akane got into the law when bonding with Kogami in the second episode). I was also afraid the portrayal of women but they chose a really realsitic setting considering this appears to be 1850. Finally, I was kinda bought by Kurima in the third episode when he starts warming up to his new allies. He is stoic but rather than being nearly emotionless he has a tendency to smile when bonding or when playing with his parnter about if he can share their same house. Gory as heck but that relationship is still nice. It helped differentiate Kurima from Kogami (the two look nearly identical visually). Still, the director seem to have been told by Nitroplus to make the series like a visual novel or otome game to be more specific due to the use of fanservice in the male character (the doctor's clothes explode for some reason in the second episode). I doubt this series will be one of Urobuchi's hits but at least it seems enjoyable to me. |
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Sobe
 Posts: 886 |
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If they wanted to show how selfish the main character is at heart, they nailed it through and through with the entire first episode. Throughout the entire first episode, I was hoping the main character would get to take responsibility for his foolishness. I was thoroughly disappointed until the final scene. They had me worried for a bit he was going to get to take the easy way out after what he had done.
It's only fair the main character has to live with the shame for being an idiot after what he has done. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2177 |
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I think an actual Revenger says that line straigth when talking to the MC which resulted in silent treatment. Don't remember who said it though. Maybe the kid or the dude with the cards. |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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That's supposed to be gold leaves (official info says so as well). This just goes to show how rote and unimaginative the show's direction is. Really, so far that's my main problem with the show, that it clearly has an ambition of being a stylish action flick with a swagger, and the actual visuals are... well, not holding up. And not necessarily because of the budget, but simply because the visual direction is not up to the task. Like, it doesn't even go for the full terror of showing someone being suffocated by a gold leaf, the sheet sticking into the person's nostrils and mouth cavity and suffocating them that way, it's just like the victim kind of getting a gold mask. That aside, watching the show I keep getting Ayakashi ayashi vibes, and I find myself wishing, after each episode, that Ayakashi ayashi had more luck. It had such a great concept, such great visuals (really, a show from 2006 and it's running circles around Revengers as far as visuals go), such a good main character, but it was obvious from day one that it just didn't have a mainstream appeal. :/ I really would have loved to see it running its full course and not getting axed after two cours, although Bones will have my forever respect for actually giving it a proper ending and closure, compressed as it was, with the OVAs. Anyway, back to Revengers, three episodes in I'm wondering about two things: 1. Is the show taking itself seriously, or is it going for some "wink, it's OK to laugh" moments every now and then? Because it's so awfully serious, and then it does things like the hilarious weapons, Yuuen's way of killing and the whole ridiculous ritual he does when he finished off his targets, the doc's general character design and his clothes exploding, Raizou's scream charge... and I could go on and on. But it does all that with completely straight face, and I'm not sure if I'm laughing with the show or laughing at it. 2. Why on earth did they translate "Deus" as, er, "Deus" in episode two? Like... sure, this is not our Real World, but clearly they're a bunch of Catholics, and "Deus" is what those used to call God before in the Meiji period the Catholic Church localized it. Yuuen even refers to Mary as "Santa Maria" so that really should have tipped the translator off... |
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JaffaOrange
 Posts: 254 |
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I'm of the mind that you're not meant to take the show seriously until you re. Which I'm perfectly fine with. It's not out of line with Urobuchi's other works (I'm thinking Thunderbolt Fantasy for the closest comparison). And if a tonally consistent but dourer show meant we no longer have shirt-busting pirate doctor archer and hanafuda ninja then the world is all the poorer for it.
Honestly, the idea that the squad is quibbling over their smaller cut after a job while also using diamond-laced string and consuming goldleaf and a XXL shirt after every kill just makes me chuckle. At least samurai boy doesn't need a new katana after every job. |
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 255 Location: Philippines |
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I'm sure I'm not supposed to take this too seriously, but I've always wondered... how do they clean up after the gold leaf assassinations? Surely scraps of gold remain on the scene and on the murdered bodies' faces, so... considering Usui's front-facing business is
a craft known for making use of gold dust and gold leaf, wouldn't that put him under suspicion? Does he clean up the bodies (isn't that troublesome?) or get rid of the corpses somehow? Or maybe the deaths are not investigated? Or is it because there are tons of gold craft artisans in Nagasaki? Since we've seen the gold leaf in action since episode 1, these questions keep running in my head every single time, and is one of my minor complaints about the show in general. |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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^I'd been wondering about the same thing while watching this episode.
 The others' killing methods are mostly fine, but Yuuen is pretty much leaving his business card at every single scene... Not to mention it's gold, that's got to be too expensive to waste an entire leaf on a single person. Maybe there's a part we never get to see, where he does his thing, then trots back to the dead target and hauls them off to clean the gold off of them.
Then again, there's also the doc with his arrows. We've never seen him or any of the other guys collecting them after use, one just has to wonder how nobody at the city police murder dept. has been noticing people being skewered by gigantic arrows unlikely to be shot from a normal bow by a normal person... Also, while I appreciate the doc's shirt bursting off every time he uses his bow, I really do have to wonder about the wastefulness of the whole thing. There has to be a way to avoid leaving strips of cloth all over the place, also I'm sure those shirts are not cheap. (He could just go around shirtless while assassinating, I certainly wouldn't mind.) Anyway, that aside... I agree that episode 4 was a pretty good one, so far it was the best, or at least the one I enjoyed the most. It's still nothing great, but it was reasonably fun and entertaining, and I very much appreciate Raizou's apparent affinity for drawing cats. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2177 |
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I liked how despite the comedy being subtle, the end had the most overthetop plottwist ever. Kurima might be hard to trust because of the freaking cat drawing.
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Aerdra
Posts: 427 |
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How does the gold leaf assassination work? I assume it's not something the victims can just peel off their faces. But why does it disintegrate afterwards?
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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I assume it's the principle of "don't think too much about it"
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tintor2
Posts: 2177 |
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Didn't expect Urobuchi to specifically touch this subject. Black Butler took forever when compared to this. Gotta say I was a bit disturbed in some parts especially with Mio and the old guy
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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Not Hayami Shou as a clown-faced degenerate!
 Oh my. I rewatched the Zetsuai OVA just the other day, the contrast was just so funny.
Anyway, re: Revengers, I enjoyed this episode but unlike the previous one it felt kind of phoned in... or just not fully realized? It touched on a lot of things but it didn't really get in-depth about most of them, so they didn't have the impact they could have (should have) had. Just an example, the "twist" in the end re: the kids are now back to being destitute. It simply doesn't work - considering that everyone at that circus didn't seem like they were getting paid, getting decent treatment, or even had any real chance to break out? How is being poor but at least free and able to scavenge for food or work better than being a slave who spends most of their time locked up in a cage, is forced to perform as a freak, gets beaten up, may or may not be forced into prostitution, etc. and not only doesn't get paid but barely even gets decent meals, it seems? We were meant to think "oh those kids may have had it hard at the circus but at least they had an opportunity to break out of poverty" but... it sure doesn't seem like that? Sure, Nio did, but it was established that Nio was in a special situation as Douan's favorite. Also, I really, really wish the visuals were better. Not necessarily the animation itself (although this episode had some really wonky moments), but just generally the direction, the framing, the dynamics, etc. Clearly the show wants to look very flashy, but the overall visuals are just so mediocre. Re: Nio's gender identity, btw, I wonder what's going on with that. The official website calls Nio an "androgynous boy", but this episode either had a weird anatomy goof, or apparently they have breasts? (Fairly prominent for someone their age??!) But if those were in fact breasts then why aren't they visible in Nio's normal outfit - where it's obvious that binding is not involved? I really don't understand what the writers wanted to communicate there. Edit: OK, wait, does the character description mean "両性具有" literally, as in not "androgynous" but "intersex"? So he's an intersex boy? But then where do his breasts go in his normal outfit... |
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Netero
Posts: 173 |
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I'm so used to him as Ferdinand in Ascendance of a Bookworm that it was kind of difficult watching him as Doan, especially in the final scenes with Nio.
Presumably bound up in a sarashi. |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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But it's obvious that there's no binding involved. His normal outfit leaves his sides and his entire back visible, there's no sarashi, just bare skin. (Plus he doesn't seem like the type to bother with something like that.) |
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Probablytomorrow
Posts: 165 |
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I don’t know if the question of whether the children were better off imprisoned or free was really the main point of the episode, since Nio admitted it was all just an excuse to kill Doan. I think the episode's focus was on showing how calculating Nio is and how exploitable their revenge system is in general. |
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