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| Someone sue that cat for flashing his balls! So now the episode revealed Eleina’s past—her birthplace, the cult, and a potential connection Skinner might be hiding there. This cult thinks the outside world is full of filth and sinners, and that people out there are brainwashed. Can’t believe how hypocritical they are, worshipping an AI as their god—an AI that was created by and based on a human from the outside world. Eleina and Leland had a little bonding time when she opened up about her life in the cult. Her old friend Hanna turned out to be a backstabber, jealous and hateful that Eleina left while she stayed behind. But at least she redeemed herself in the end—unlike Eleina’s mother, who practically never cared and even smiled as her daughter was about to be burned. You can’t even call her psycho when everyone there was ready to burn themselves too. That AI Naga though—thinking it’s right to kill its own followers just to qualify as a god by toying with human lives? That’s just insane. And now imagine the mindset of Skinner, considering the AI was modeled after his brain. |
XArceusXMay 11, 4:05 PM
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| They really dropped the whole Kool-Aid incident lore in this episode lol |
| Those people in that cult are crazy Poor Elaine |
| Watanabe has never been afraid to tackle mature topics, but fuck, a cult and attempted mass suicide has to be one of the darker ones. It’s definitely nice to get an Eleina episode following the hack-off last week. Growing up in an AI cult, it’s no wonder she’s so talented, but it’s also deeply saddening to see the lack of any sort of parental love in her life. Lazarus are literally the first real family she’s had. Again Watanabe paying homage to American pop culture with today’s episode title “Heaven is a place on Earth”, a reference to Belinda Carlisle’s banger from back in the day. Title and reality couldn’t be further from the truth in this episode though. The Naga cult is the stuff of nightmares man. I don’t understand the thought process behind anyone that joins a group like this. Been saying for weeks we needed a Lazarus/Your Forma collab. Now that we know Naga was an AI modelled after human neural networks, it would definitely be a good collab given recent developments in Your forma lol. Honestly feel awful for the MIT professor who threw his life away to worship a man made creation. Like if Naga is god and humanity created it, surely that would put humanity over god logically lol, but alas, mental illness. Good thing Eleina and Leland were able to break through to Hannah to get her to help and for the most part, everyone turned out fine. Eleina cuddling with Christine at the end is so sweet 😢 . All she’s wanted this whole time is that maternal connection and her mom was just busy being a zealot. Learned a lot about Eleina(best girl rn) and got closer to finding skinner now that we have the memory files. Hopefully Christine backstory next! |
Marinate1016May 11, 1:31 PM
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| This episode proves that even in case they fail to find the cure humanity is not at risk :D as there're still some cults or just someone simply against vaccines & similar stuff. It's funny that kind of ppl would survive :D |
| Wasn't feeling this episode at all; the gang just went in and did their business at the end with no interaction from the FBI. I guess they got some data out of it? We got some Eleina backstory; I wonder how she went from technology bereft to superhacker in just a short time. Who knows, maybe Skinner is her dad..... |
| "Genki is Life, Genki is Love" |
| Dam man, being completely honest, this episode kinda sucked lol. I always felt the serious parts of previous episodes were the weakest, but this one exemplifies that to a tea. Basically a full episode focused on drama and discussion and it is truly some of the most surface level commentary i have seen in a while, and i dont even think it does great in developing our characters either. Elaina hardly has any real development the whole episode. She goes there, gets sad, they try to get data, fail, gets sad, sleeps with christine, gets happy. Besides we knowing about her backstory, there really aint anything here. Hell even her feeling better with christine although somewhat of a sweet scene doesnt even show that much of their relationship, as any other woman other than christine could have done the exact same thing, it just doesnt tell us anything about them besides the usual "kindness" i guess? Also the whole thing with elaines friend is also so random. She has like... 2 maybe 3 lines in the whole entire episode, and we are supposed to feel/understand her in the cell scene? Im sorry but it just doesnt work like that. I could maybe have seen this episode working, because the overall premise honestly aint bad, but man the execution was not it at all. |
| A genius-level AI with a desire for power and control. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? Interesting concept at least having a cult centered around an AI "singularity god", although it seems cults will never change since all it amounted to was another Jonestown incident... |
| They really need to find Skinner ASAP. Not enjoying the story. Not enjoying this chase. The story is all over the place. One episode they're in Turkey, the next they're staking out a club, and then they're in a random cult the next episode. It feels like they're barely getting anywhere investigation-wise doing these things too. |
| Lazarus does Midsommar this episode. A whole episode spent somewhere because Skinner once had a photo of himself taken there. Next week, we stake out Skinner's local gym before looking for him in the grocery store near his house. They are taking a long time to move this story along. Or maybe, there isn't much of one to move along? |
| A message to warn us about AI... E6:8/10 |
| if you hated this episode/chapter, just watch/read something else... IG (https://www.instagram.com/otakuweek?igsh=em5kY3Q4NTVtNXlh) Discord (https://discord.gg/vbZrk64uH7) |
| An Eleina and Leland duo plot is a nice idea. The target of the episode being an AI Skinner is highly surprising. Way to subvert saving that plotline for a sequel season down the line! After seeing what Skinner did and what AI Skinner did. I think this guy really hates humanity to his core! |
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| A new clue, and new failed!!! An IA is the "good" of a sect!!! kekeke |
| Talk about rushing an episode and a plot wow, they tried to compress a complex story and argument like this in a 24 minutes, the episode felt quite bad tbh |
| oh man, that was a stinker. sad to see the falloff after great few first episodes |
| uh oh! |
| Eleina sleeping with Christine in the same bed was so cute. I now ship Eleina together with Christine! |
| Back at it again with the ship teasing. This time it’s yuri queerbait. You can tell this anime is begging for fan engagement. “Wink, nudge—Twitter, TikTok, if you want to make some edits and fan art~” Lol. |
SwagsOnBMay 11, 6:51 AM
| God, why does this feel like a filler episode? Chasing a cult based on a photo with Skinner and presenting surface level ideas about AIs and cults makes me wonder which kind of dead end we are going to witness in the next episode. |
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| what in the midsommar |
| My favorite part of each episode so far was the opening scene. The surreal, beautiful animation accompanied by the ethereal music showcasing each of the main cast monologues on the effect of Hapuna on the world — something the series failed in showing. Seeing it gone definitely lowers any remaining expectations I have for the series. Skinner's character was already morally dubious, but then from this episode it seems he just has a huge god complex. Wouldn't be surprised if all the good acts he's done were motivated by that. |
| I was hoping for some romance, and the burning part was rushed, wish we could see them almost get burned alive lol. |
 Behold of my awesomeness~ controversial and/or sensitive topics likely devolve into the same repetitive, derogatory, abusive, and harassing comments can no longer be posted. But my feels. |
| This was a great episode. We got to see Elaine’s past with the cult and it was overall really sad. Also tying into the future setting given the AI god “Naga”. I hope the best for Elaine’s friend who she left when she escaped the Commune. Maybe she will show up later but I doubt it. Also I’m relieved we didn’t have the same old ending of “no progress” or “starting from zero”. It seems that we’ll be making progress for the future episodes. |
| If I had to choose between One Piece and a girlfriend...I think I'll go with One Piece |
Cielord said: My favorite part of each episode so far was the opening scene. The surreal, beautiful animation accompanied by the ethereal music showcasing each of the main cast monologues on the effect of Hapuna on the world — something the series failed in showing. Seeing it gone definitely lowers any remaining expectations I have for the series. Skinner's character was already morally dubious, but then from this episode it seems he just has a huge god complex. Wouldn't be surprised if all the good acts he's done were motivated by that. Tbf, iirc each of those beginnings were narrated by a different member of Lazarus. And now they’re all done so what reason would you have for that beginning scene? |
| If I had to choose between One Piece and a girlfriend...I think I'll go with One Piece |
Marinate1016 said: Eleina backstory let’s goo! Fitting follow up to last episode’s hack-off battle. Given we’re about halfway through the show, we were due for one for her and we still need the rest of the cast fleshed out as well. I’d imagine that takes us to about episode 9 then we really focus on getting Skinner. Would you say that episode 3 was dedicated to Axel bc Jill and the lore expansion? Also one of my favorite parts of this anime is that every member of Lazarus has something to bring to the table. |
| If I had to choose between One Piece and a girlfriend...I think I'll go with One Piece |
| Eleina's sect "family" is too creepy especially how they're all worshiping an IA based on Skinner's brain, no surprise she wanted to leave it lol, Elaina and Leland almost got burned to death by the worshippers good thing they got saved by this Anna girl, she carried the episode... of course they didn't find Skinner though. |
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| I appreciate the episode showcasing some of Elaine's backstory/upbringing but my god the subtitles where I watched the episode were awful. I really had to do a lot of filling in the blanks on my own to get the gist of what they were saying. Also, this episode reinforced how legitimately scary cults can be. That type of mass brainwashing just always blows my mind. |
| People on MAL refuse to actually enjoy watching anime. Your taste in anime isn't a personality trait. Take me back to the days before MAL became infested with Twitter's favorite buzzwords. |
| I assumed the head lady of Lazarus was assigned the task to find Skinner by the government, but seeing as she's wary of the FBI, it seems kinda unlikely. So I wonder now who exactly she reports to. Does the fact that they haven't yet found Skinner have something to do with it? Maybe I am looking in the wrong direction, but it seems at least worth asking. |
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| I I thought, for once, the episode would be pretty decent. The beginning was very promising, but they managed to make it bland as always - except now without even a good action sequence. Eleina and Leland got themselves inside the compound for what reason? Just to look at faces? Why didn’t they do any surveying beforehand? Why characters gather critical information only after the duo infiltrates the cult? Why do they have zero preparation except for a single smoke bomb? The "revelation" that Naga was created using Skinner’s brain as a template should’ve given them more reason to infiltrate strategically. “They are not children, they are Lazarus.” Excuse me? Lazarus is a bunch of randos gathered together a couple of days ago, with questionable skills and zero field or teamwork experience. Also, how old is Eleina? She says she grew up in this commune. All the members are completely disconnected from the digital world. How old was Eleina when she ran away? How did she even become a top hacker? How does Naga’s character connect to Skinner’s? Oh, wait - there is no Naga in this episode (except for one line that makes everything even worse). The show just talks about it without showing anything. They could’ve delved deeper into how the commune operated while worshiping AI, but no - it’s just a generic doomsday cult. |
| X |
| Just wanted to point out first that the place where I watched this episode had HORRIBLE subs this time around, so when I ended the episode I had to rewatch some parts with the dub, so I could unserstand them better (and thankfully I did, because some things make much more sense now). So this situation might have taken some joy of watching the episode. Either way, I think it's getting really tiring these episodes where a whole bunch of nothing is happening to progress the episode. They don't explain where Doug found out about the Truth Tower (We are all left to guess he just found it randomly while seaching something about Skinner). Talking about Doug, only with this episode I realized we already had his monologue in the 1st episode. I was finding it weird how we got Axel's one before his, so that clears it out. But I did rewatched it, and his doesn't say a lot about him, just gives the prelude to what's happening int he anime, so yeah :/ So apparentaly we aren't getting more monologues whatsoever, which honestly just makes the problem worse, since they were one of the few instances where we got info of the characters, but whatever. In this episode they make Eleina and Leland enter that cult, and try to find Skinner. Surprise, surprise, Skinner isn't there. This cult was actually where Eleina was raised. It's interesting they decided to finally give some content to the backstory of the characters. But I feel like this episode fails us so much on that. We get to know more about the place Eleina was raised in, and even meet her mother and her friend, but other than "her mother cares more about their "God" than her own daughter", we didn't get much honestly. I feel like this setting (and the whole tower was really cool) had potential, but it was approached in a really superficial way ("look, here they think y'all are getting brainwashed by the outside"), and honestly, left so many things about Eleina unanswered, that makes you wonder why did they even made Eleina be part of this. If you're not going to explore it, why bother? We don't know how Eleina left, what she did after, anything... How did she even become such a good hacker if she wasn't even able to hack for most of her life? But a win is a win, and we got some info about Eleina. I would also like to think we got to see a bit more of Christine, since we saw her getting worried for Eleina and Leland, and acting more like a motherly figure to them. Now, Doug and Axel were just there I guess. Leland seems to have taken the experience hardly, especially at the end with Hannah's feelings towards the situation, but I'm not sure if that will have any impact. So basically this "God" was an AI, that was basically a artificial brain, with the mission of being a "God", but with no sense of empathy whatsoever, which just makes it a psychopath, and why it just decided to burn all the followers in the end. I feel like the anime wanted to make some reflections about what it means to be a "God", but I don't think it executed that well. The episode felt rushed in my opinion. This setting had potential, and we could have gotten more backstory from the characters, more development and more time to explore this philosophical ideas. This "arc" could have easily be devided into 2 episodes. We are at episode 6 of 13, and we only have 17 days left. Considering by the end of episode 1 we had 29 days left, it seems the anime is really going for the end to be just them all dying. Don't forget we are almost halfway through this, and we still got pratically nothing from this anime. There anime that don't really tell us much about what's happening, but start showing something is happening behind the scenes, or we are just not understanding much of it (like Serial Experiments Lain), but you can see that there's more happening than what is shown, you know? In this case, I feel like they aren't showing anything, nor is it really happening anything. I'm starting to become disappointed with this anime. I had high hopes for it, but at this point, not even the vibes it gives are saving it (but I have to say this might be due to the problem I had with the subs I mentioned earlier). To think the anime I would like to watch the most season at this point is "The Dinner Table Detective" is something that wasn't on my books. |
Reply to VP2003boi
Dam man, being completely honest, this episode kinda sucked lol. I always felt the serious parts of previous episodes were the weakest, but this one exemplifies that to a tea. Basically a full episode focused on drama and discussion and it is truly some of the most surface level commentary i have seen in a while, and i dont even think it does great in developing our characters either. Elaina hardly has any real development the whole episode. She goes there, gets sad, they try to get data, fail, gets sad, sleeps with christine, gets happy. Besides we knowing about her backstory, there really aint anything here. Hell even her feeling better with christine although somewhat of a sweet scene doesnt even show that much of their relationship, as any other woman other than christine could have done the exact same thing, it just doesnt tell us anything about them besides the usual "kindness" i guess? Also the whole thing with elaines friend is also so random. She has like... 2 maybe 3 lines in the whole entire episode, and we are supposed to feel/understand her in the cell scene? Im sorry but it just doesnt work like that.
I could maybe have seen this episode working, because the overall premise honestly aint bad, but man the execution was not it at all.
I could maybe have seen this episode working, because the overall premise honestly aint bad, but man the execution was not it at all.
VP2003boi said: She goes there, gets sad, they try to get data, fail, gets sad, sleeps with christine, gets happy. This summarizes one of my biggest problems with the episode so well! Like, what was the point of them introducing this idea, if they don't even make any effort in showing more of Eleina? Vysarine said: A genius-level AI with a desire for power and control. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? This actually is a really valid question, because I don't think anyone with a bit of knowledge on how AI works would find this remotely a good idea Briekimchi said: Next week, we stake out Skinner's local gym before looking for him in the grocery store near his house. I laughed way too much with this. But I can totally see this happening. bourrasque said: Team Lazarus was formed in the first episode and accomplished nothing for the next 5 episodes. They will not accomplish anything by the end. I don't even understand their beef with the FBI, because they clearly aren't going anywhere, so why not join forces? Like what's the plot behind all of this? They still haven't explain what Lazarus really is. Aren't they like a government thing? But if they were, why would they want to avoid the FBI? Cielord said: My favorite part of each episode so far was the opening scene. The surreal, beautiful animation accompanied by the ethereal music showcasing each of the main cast monologues on the effect of Hapuna on the world — something the series failed in showing. Seeing it gone definitely lowers any remaining expectations I have for the series. Glad to see I wasn't the only one that really appreciated those monologues! They were literally the only space where we got to know our characters better, and understand the effect hapna had on the real world. est-R said: The beginning was very promising, but they managed to make it bland as always - except now without even a good action sequence. Exactly, this episode didn't even have the action scene to save it. est-R said: How does Naga’s character connect to Skinner’s? Oh, wait - there is no Naga in this episode (except for one line that makes everything even worse). The show just talks about it without showing anything. They could’ve delved deeper into how the commune operated while worshiping AI, but no - it’s just a generic doomsday cult. It really is crazy we never got to see the AI talking, until the very end with Axel. We don't even got to know how they managed that cult. |
| This is getting worse by the episode. The fact that they infiltrated the place with the sole intent of finding Skinner, not once stopping to think for a mere second to realize that there's an AI copy of his brain right there which they could reprogram and have it work on the vaccine while they're trying to find the real deal. This show is seriously stupid. I might decide to drop this before next week's episode, we'll see. EDIT: Obviously the AI was destroyed, but it probably wouldn't have been had they fucking went there to seize the thing in the first place. |
DisconnectedUserMay 11, 11:03 AM
Cielord said: @Fukoku Whether there is a reason or not to continue this wasn't my point. Also, it doesn't take a genius to find a way to utilize the opening scenes. Thoughts about Skinner, thoughts about Hapuna, etc... Yeah we should’ve gotten that |
| If I had to choose between One Piece and a girlfriend...I think I'll go with One Piece |
Reply to Hiyajo-san
God, why does this feel like a filler episode? Chasing a cult based on a photo with Skinner and presenting surface level ideas about AIs and cults makes me wonder which kind of dead end we are going to witness in the next episode.
| @Hiyajo-san this whole show is a filler episode in Watanabe's life, where he wants to make The Next Cowboy Bebop but just can't. And I can't understand people who are genuinely enjoying this piece of trash. |
| So Eleina was born into a cult that worships an AI as their god, no wonder she is so good at hacking. Typical cult like behavior in which one person is obsessed with an idea or a philosophy that was taken so far. At least the Lazurus team was able to find some clue that leads them to Skinner before the cult leader decided to burn everything down. Only 17 days left, but those cult members might be the only ones to survive by cutting themselves off from society and not take the Hapuna drug. Poor Leland always getting dragged into dangerous situations. |
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| i think the pacing has totally lost the plot. Like this should have been a movie. It feels like every episode is a monster of the week dead end, which totally wrecks the tension. This had potential but if the only really interesting episodes are the first couple and the finale where they get skinner or dont whats the point? And theres supposed to be a whole 7 other episodes of this? what are we doing man? |
| This episode was just Midsommar. Good movie btw |
| Go check out my latest review: https://myanimelist.net/profile/YeeYeeAss/reviews |
| Pfft, average cultist experience. How did Eleina manage to ascend to hacker-god-level in such environment??? (even basics) In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners for instance, Lucy being a god-level hacker made total sense. Here it makes 0 sense. Or am I missing something? |
PokefanPT said: I don't even understand their beef with the FBI, because they clearly aren't going anywhere, so why not join forces? Like what's the plot behind all of this? They still haven't explain what Lazarus really is. Aren't they like a government thing? But if they were, why would they want to avoid the FBI? Funnies part here is, it's been TWO TIMES already we see FBI arrive on the same spot Lazarus member went to investigate. Lazarus arrives in bunker, BOOM FBI OPEN UP! Lazarus goes to cultist village, BOOM FBI OPEN UP! What's the point of Lazarus if FBI does the same thing?! Lazarus is like 1% faster? |
AddaeAkono said: So Eleina was born into a cult that worships an AI as their god, no wonder she is so good at hacking. Umm, I missed the part how this episode suggests how Eleina became a good hacker. Anime simply doesn't give any info on that. Are they training kids with computers at early age? We simply don't know! Most people we saw don't even use tech at all and phones were confiscated and are seen as tools of misinformation. Maintenance crew does have access to some tech but the majority seem to be simple brainwashed workers and farmers! I mentioned Lucy from Cyberpunk above. If they showed Eleina trained as a kid or something, it'd make sense, but now it makes more sense to believe she learned hacking after running away, but that makes the plot no less dumb. |
| An episode on Redditville. OK, being serious now: I can accept Elaina being a genius hackers if she had contact with technology since her childhood, but it was the complete opposite: No only she would have had to learn computers from zero, she would have to do so on top on having to learn how to live in a society. As for issues in the series, I could really imagine Filmento saying something on the like "Instead of having our protagonists be random people, make it so they were picked BECAUSE they have something that can lead us to Skinner. For instance, make Elaina be picked rather than any other hacker BECAUSE she had connections to the cult.", because in a well-written story, 90% of what they learned over the episodes should've already be known by episode one. Also, am I insane for thinking that this episode serves as a better analogy for being queer than the representation we got in episode three? (One of my biggest gripes, which I've written in my review, is how this show sucks at social commentary, usually just limiting itself to saying "Societal problems... exist" rather than exploring their origin, nature, how it functions, how it's affected by material conditions, how it would be different in the future, etc. No, it just says they exist... then does absolutely nothing with that fact). The whole episode we get to see Elaina with an ever present feeling of discomfort of having to pretend to be someone else to get acceptance from her family. |
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