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Brandon2149 said: How is Sara speaking Japanese? Isn't she from america and a young child? I don't know how many young kids from america would have learned Japanese fluently. I guess we just have to accept an anime will have everyone speaking in Japanese. Sara can speak Japanese for the same simple reason that so many alien races in the many science fiction series & movies can all speak English. They just do. Universal translators notwithstanding. :D I will say that same question did come to mind for me briefly but I just shrugged and let it go. Suspension of disbelief. |
| Jfc, it just keeps getting worse for Sara, but they pile things on her in a way that doesn't make it seem like they've got a checklist they're running through to make her the most pitiable character out there. Like everything she goes through fits together with the narrative and is believable. But dang, I don't really care if people want to keep a child that resulted from rape or not, but preventing someone from making their own choice about it is pretty bad. The only way I can really justify that scene was that maybe they were implying that he self-aborting was hurting herself too?? Because the doctor did seem to imply that he could take care of that. I'm actually not really sure why they didn't just do that already.;; |
| @Swiggy I thought that peoples were suspecting her to act on impulse (if I can write it so) rather than having really thought about it. |
Rei366 said: I can see that being the case too. The decision actually was pretty impulsive given that there seemed to be another way. But I understand her. She probably felt really hopeless at that point. So many bad things were happening to her.;;@Swiggy I thought that peoples were suspecting her to act on impulse (if I can write it so) rather than having really thought about it. |
| Sure Shu, let her keep the baby of the time she got raped hardcore by soldiers while being 13. That kid will definitely not remind her constantly of her rape. But yeah, keep telling her everything is going to be daijobu when you have the inviciblity plot armor and can fall, be shot and still run everywhere with a blue haired girl you never met and still got attached to |
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| Lots of agitated complaining ahead. This series has so far been really good, but it's cracks are getting very noticeable. Let's just say I'm bracing for an underwhelming conclusion. Well this was an unpleasant episode. And kind of, I don't think boring is the right word, out of order maybe? This feels like it should've already happened if the writers had their heads screwed on correctly. I figured Sara was pregnant, I mean they've done almost nothing with her this whole series. Her entire character consists of "nothing ever goes right, please think this is deep". The problem is that she has no traits besides being lost. That's because the writers never tried to develop her properly. They introduced her early on and then did very little with her, instead shifting the show's focus to the child soldiers. And now that it's almost over they realized "oh shit, this character exists, better cram something in before we run out of episodes!" But I think that's enough of that. She's a woefully bland character, and I have nothing positive to say. That attempted suicide/abortion scene was painful to watch. For someone like myself who's strongly pro-life and has struggled with suicidal thoughts. But, uh... good direction I guess? I've seen endless hate for Shuu, which in my opinion is (somewhat) unwarranted. But I've seen almost nobody do the same for Lala-Ru, an all-around terrible character. But I think I know why. She's barely a character to begin with. You can't criticize her character if she doesn't have one. The only thing you can criticize her for is her lack of character! At least Sara has some personality, it's incredibly simplistic, but it's at least something. Lala-Ru has no personality! She's essentially a prop. All these characters are mediocre at best, and truly awful at worst. As much as I hate him, Hamdo's probably the best character. He's consistent, has personality, and we know what his goals and motivations are. Now, let's move on to the plot. I'm all for peace and shit, but time is ticking down and EVERYONE'S ABOUT TO DIE! Is anyone going to do anything about that? What the fuck is the spy doing? Why is he helping Sara? Does he feel sorry for her? What about everyone else? He was listening to her conversation with soon, does he think she's Lala-Ru? And as someone else mentioned in this discussion, he literally told her the plan and let her escape? Is he brain dead? Maybe there was something in that water back on Hellywood... This series is one of the most bloated I've ever seen. There's so much stuff happening simultaneously that even the writers can't keep track. We're down to two episodes and we still need the obligatory "lowest point" moment, when Hellywood comes and fucks shit up. We have all these characters that have been established, each with their own little plot threads that should ideally be wrapped up. Plus a big conclusion with (hopefully), clever twists. And there's only 40 minutes to do that. The story was moving along at a steady pace when they were still in Hellywood. But as soon as they left things began to crack. After a short Tremors homage episode, they arrived in Zari Bars... and the tone dramatically changed. Plotlines and characters that were set up in Hellywood were abandoned, and new ones were set up in Zari Bars. And there's no way they'll be able to address all of them in two episodes. If they do I'll be so shocked that I'll marathon the Boku no Pico trilogy in one sitting. End of rant. I think this series has a lot of potential, which is why I'm so fired up. It reminds me of Elfen Lied, an anime I really like. But this also seems to have many of the same flaws. Like super undercooked characters, but to an even worse degree. I hope the final two episodes are good, I'd love to give this a 9 and be on my merry way. But I'm starting to get a little nervous. 😓 I'm hoping for a happy ending to all this, but I know that's probably wishful thinking. |
| The pacing for this series is absolutely bizarre. They should have started with the slice of life farming community and then slowly worked their way up towards the utter brutality we saw in episode 3-6. It's so painfully obvious that these cute characters all all about to die hopelessly so all this cutesy stuff has felt pretty pointless. |
Wicker_Senpai93 said: They introduced her early on and then did very little with her, instead shifting the show's focus to the child soldiers. And now that it's almost over they realized "oh shit, this character exists, better cram something in before we run out of episodes!" But I think that's enough of that. She's a woefully bland character That attempted suicide/abortion scene was painful to watch. For someone like myself who's strongly pro-life and has struggled with suicidal thoughts. But, uh... good direction I guess? ... At least Sara has some personality, it's incredibly simplistic, but it's at least something. Lala-Ru has no personality! She's essentially a prop. Perfect post, hard agree especially on the quoted portion. Name one thing about this series that would be different if lala rue was replaced with a frowning basket of laundry. Only disagreement would be about Hamdo, an obnoxious moron who obliterated half his own army and then was surprised that there weren't enough troops. |
simonephone said: Perfect post, hard agree especially on the quoted portion. Name one thing about this series that would be different if lala rue was replaced with a frowning basket of laundry. Lol, you make a good point about Lala-Ru's expressions. One of the great advantages of animated content is that you can do a lot more with the character expressions. But Lala-Ru only ever frowns. I guess it saves the animators some effort? |
Wicker_Senpai93 said: simonephone said: Perfect post, hard agree especially on the quoted portion. Name one thing about this series that would be different if lala rue was replaced with a frowning basket of laundry. Lol, you make a good point about Lala-Ru's expressions. One of the great advantages of animated content is that you can do a lot more with the character expressions. But Lala-Ru only ever frowns. I guess it saves the animators some effort? Right? Why bother writing in a character who wants nothing, feels nothing, doesnt care about anything, and doesn't do anything. Seriously they just could have had shu find the necklace with the water and have that be that. Lala ru did not need to be in the show. Why was shu even trying to rescue her anyways? I get why in the first episode, but after that, after like weeks have passed, shouldn't he just be looking out for himself? Or sara, who he would've had more of a relationship with at that point anyways? He had only seen lala rue once and she barely even spoke to him. Was he supposed to be in love with her? Why?? They should have given them a relationship before the show started in that case because they certainly didnt have any natural chemistry or reason to care about each other. Urgh oh no, once I start picking at this show it just keeps going. It had its moment but I did not like the characters in this show at all. |
ChromephoneJan 18, 2020 8:22 AM
| Very emotionally engaging episode, though I didn't expect to see an abortion holywar on this thread...lol I'll just say that every character has a *reason* to act how they act in terms of the show's internal logic (regardless of whether I consider it right or wrong). That's a sign of good character writing. Honestly people hating on the characters, be it Shu or anybody else, remind me of those who hate Shinji because they dislike his attitude about getting into the robot. P.S. The revelation about Lala-Ru's age gave more meaning to the words that begin every episode. I also realized that I didn't recognize Kazam when he was brought into the village. |
St0rmbladeAug 16, 2020 4:09 AM
| Can't help but think how the part about Sara being pregnant and the villagers discussing whether the baby should be aborted or not was sooo ahead of its time. |
| I understand people having issues with the pro-life undertones here, but I read Shu's confrontation with Sara as more of him wanting to save Sara's life rather than the baby's. Sara wants to die at this point, and Shu doesn't want her to. I don't think Shu is necessarily taking an anti-abortion stance here, I think he wants to convince Sara not to kill herself and views the baby as something Sara can choose to continue living for and is advocating for her to see it that way. Shu is naive and hopelessly optimistic to a fault, and I think that's what makes him an interesting and compelling character. He's constantly looking for hope in a joyless hellworld. Always trying to make lemonade out of lemons. While it can be obnoxious to hear in the wake of horrible tragedy, I do think there's a lot of validity to this philosophy. The world we live in is one filled with cruel injustice, needless suffering, and bleak hopelessness for the future. We all need to find some purpose and meaning for which we can continue on living for. For many (including myself) that is through their children. |
| Not going to go too deep into rape baby "ethics" here, but all Sara was doing in her world was being a normal girl and going to pick her dad up from work. Suddenly she was transported into another world, imprisoned, beaten, raped, and then she now has an unwanted pregnancy (probably from the ogre rapist soldier) on top of that. A victim of circumstances and factors outside of her control, I can see why all that would create nothing but disdain, even for the rape baby. Then the spy soldier that infiltrated Zari Bars is desperately trying to convince her to "run away" with him, like he's trustworthy or not likely to be yet another rapist. Anyone willingly serving Hamdo isn't worth being alone with, especially if you're a female, since we know what happens if you are. The villagers are dumb as rocks. Elamba thinks he can use Lala Ru as a bargaining chip, against Hellywood? That would work if he had a position of comparable power, or was dealing with a leader who was open to negotiations; but Hamdo is neither. He knows himself that Hamdo is a genocidal madman who somehow gained control of a vast flying warship that has enough power to control the region with impunity, so what makes him think he won't just take Lala Ru by force and kill the rest of the villagers for good measure? |
  ｲ乇刀乇乃尺ﾑ乇 ㊎   ㊰☽ Shaded Horizon ☾ |
| Sadly optimism and a good attitude cannot just wipe everything away. Shuu will learn that in time. Lala-Ru feels helplessly empty due to circumstance. She’s lived thousands of years yet she doesn’t understand human concepts other then killing and violence. I hope we get a bit more before the end. The rock scene was intense. |
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