| @23feanor @inim @whiteflame55 @filifjonkan @RandomFriday @Antalk @jdvz @JokerVentura @KainiusTheGreat @ruckes @kekekeKaj @OrlahEhontas Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin (2010) - February 2023 Group Watch Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin (2010) (Rainbow, 2010), MAL 8.48/10, anidb 8.12/10, IMDB 8.3/10. Group watch will be starting Saturday, January 31st 2023.  |
 |
| Looking forward to it! |
 |
| Episode 1 It's an intriguing choice to start the anime with our main characters hooded. A group of 6 young guys (late teens) boards a bus and we immediately get a strong view of how outside society views them (not well) before they're thrust into a facility that will treat them to hell. Subjected to an... invasive medical inspection by a doctor with ulterior motives that likely go beyond just stripping them of their resolve, this is their introduction to what is called a reform school, but is more of a juvenile detention center. They're housed with an adult (unclear why he's here) who shows little interest in them and beats all of them to a pulp, but when push comes to shove and an abusive guard steps in, Sakuragi steps up to defend them and all 6 refuse to beat him when told to do so. It's pretty clear from the get-go that Sakuragi will be a mentor to these 6. We only get brief glimpses this episode of what they've been through before this, but these guys have seen war to some degree and experienced other traumas that led them here. Perhaps more telling are their behaviors in this episode. The blue-eyed Joe is quick to proffer a cigarette that he managed to smuggle in exchange for his life, and his history of, as they put it, "intergender relationships" suggests a mentality that quid pro quo is his means of survival. He's the first to ask Sakuragi his name, and thus the first to start developing a bond with him. He's also the one to pick up a stuffed animal on board the bus and try to give it back to a young girl, who later throws it in his face. The expressiveness of his eyes tells the story: he's kind, and emotionally vulnerable. By contrast, Mario asks Sakuragi to kill him, suggesting that he sees very little value in his life. He's likely tried to wall himself off from others, and he's the only one who rejects Sakuragi's interactions, showing a disdain for authorities. Sakuragi is resourceful and extremely careful. Notably, despite his impressive fighting skills, he doesn't try to resist the guard in any way, suggesting that he's aware that resistance will only get him worse. Despite his earlier standoffish nature, he offers everyone a puff of the cigarette and asks their names, even showing a bit of empathy for what they've been through, which is enough to break through Mario's façade. That's how be comes "Bro" to them. We haven't gotten much from the rest yet. Mansaku cleaned the blood off of Sakuragi, which suggests he can be caring. Maeda is small, but scrappy, jumping into the fight by biting onto Sakuragi's arm. Tadayoshi seems more like the bruiser of the group, and Ryuuji comes off as more of a planner, waiting until everyone's taken a strike at Sakuragi before trying to attack with an improvised weapon. It's an intriguing core cast, with lots of opportunities to explore how they think and bounce them off each other. Seems like this one will be paced rather deliberately, which I appreciate. We'll see how it goes. |
|
| Episode 1 The show starts up with a hooded group of six delinquents (Mario, Cabbage, Soldier, Turtle, Uncovered, and Joe ) is transported into prison-like reform school in a public bus. A first characterization scene is done with a little girl's doll, whom one of the prisoners returns to her just to be accused of stealing and the doll being thrown away eventually. Society hates their guts. The counter shot is on his big, mellow blue eyes seen through the hood. This is creating cognitive dissonance, because this aren't the eyes of a hardened criminal. Their arrival scene takes place in heavy rain. The group has a humilating rectal exam by two-faced prison doctor and boss Dr. Sasaki and his sadistic henchman Ishihara. Like everybody else, their character design is rather rather expressionistic. Ishihara has a frog mouth and reptile traits, Sasaki is fat and has age spots. Both have "sadistic villain" tattooed on their foreheads, not. The gang is then put into a cell, where an older inmate named Sakuragi reads a book. He's portrayed as a hardened guy with a heart of gold, rough but just and empathic. The delinquent's crimes are presented by the omniscient narrator (female voice in German dub). A fist fight with Sakuragi is started by Mario, a struggle for rank. Ishihara comes into the cell and beats up Sakuragi with his baton. He asks the boys to fininish the unconscious Sakuragi up, but they refuse. When the guard is gone, everybody shares a cigarette and the 6+1 young delinquents bond. At that moment the rain stops and bright sunshine falls trough the window, the color scheme changes. This is visual story telling of course, the very episode title is "After the Rain" and works towards this symbolic moment. Overall, the show has a very cinematic look and feel. Camera movement, color design, totals and zooms, angles and so on are far above usual anime quality. This can be explained looking at director https://myanimelist.net/people/10223/Hiroshi_Koujina who worked mostly as animation director (as compared to regular director he focused on visuals) for HxH (2011), Hajime no Ippo and Area 88. All of them high end, serious animations of darker shounen themes. I also found it interesting that Rainbow's setting is practically the same as Ashite no Joe's - juvenile delinquents fighting in a 1950s reform-school. This tells me the setting is somewhat realistic, those shitholes must have existed and society must have been this hateful towards young criminals. This is a good start, high production values, visual story telling and cinematic direction - some important marks are checked. Let's see how the writing and the characters turn out to be, so far we haven't seen much of them beyond rather stereotypical villans and "power of friendship" among outcasts. |
| |
| Episode 1. You guys covered all the main points including character names and types, setting (society hates them, unfair world as they're all on the end of terrible treatment for teenagers which put them in juvenile jail), good production values. So I'll just add some peripheral thoughts I had. First off was the fact we begin the show with a honey voiced narrator (in Japanese version anyway as no English dub) reminiscing about how 7 people met as kids/teenagers 50 years ago whilst the camera pans over a carving on a tree. This tells us the events we're about to witness have already happened, and they all survive, and maybe get a happy-ish ending, or is it just the tale of how they survived the hell of juvie (juvie is a nickname for a juvenile detention facility here, not sure if you guys have the same term) that brought this group together as friends for life. I was thinking on other prison based tv shows and films, or arcs in shows, and there aren't many that stand out. Prison is such a sterile environment that you need top class writing and characters to make it interesting. Prison can lend itself to sitcoms quite well, thinking of the UK show Porridge here. The ones that spring to mind are both classics, the Prison Break tv series and ofc the iconic film Shawshank Redemption. So far the setting and characters look like they could have something here worth watching. Also like the heavy rock OST. Finally the disconnect between the smooth honey sound voice of the narrator and the content of her narration is disquieting. |
23feanorJan 31, 2023 6:53 AM
 |
| Episode 2 We learn a bit about Joe's past, which involved him being at an orphanage with his sister where he was sexually abused. One of the few things that is keeping him going is the chance to see his sister again, but the head of the orphanage comes to see him (turns out she wasn't a broker in his abuse, she was the one committing it, as a flashback helpfully and... queasily informs us) and tells him that his sister Meg is being adopted into a foster home. This seems to break him - he likely will never be able to find her again. Unlike him, Maeda doesn't have family, but nonetheless empathizes with his story. He concocts a spur-of-the-moment plan to feign a snake bite that would draw the guards' attention (the others play along), giving Joe a chance to escape. He escapes and manages to stay on the lam for a while. Meanwhile, the others are beaten and tossed into solitary. It's here that we learn about Maeda's history - he also had a family with an abusive father, a presumably neglectful mother, and a younger sister. He ran away from home alone, and apparently home was either Hiroshima or Nagasaki because his timing meant that he escaped a nuclear explosion. At the orphanage, Meg is being adopted by... just about the creepiest dude imaginable. Can't imagine why she's not happy about that, but the orphanage director sure is as she's thumbing through a wad of cash. Turns out that she's about as sadistic as it gets, having tipped off the police that Joe would be on his way. Joe calls her out for her abuses in front of the police, and she physically assaults him with a vase. Meg barely stops her from killing him, but then does something arguably worse: she rejects him, and makes clear that it's her choice to submit to this abuse, severing his connections to her. It's clear that she's trying to do this for his sake, since she knows that he will chase her otherwise and endure more pain from it, but it also cuts the legs out from under Joe, who now has lost his sole connection to someone he cares for. |
|
| Episode 2. That was some hard to watch, depressing, sadistic misery porn, twisting and turning the knife. It's almost easier for people and characters to go through a tough ordeal themselves than to know that same ordeal is happening to a loved one. But here Joe's little sister Meg knows what's coming and is prepared, she may be scared and upset as we see her screaming into a teddy bear before leaving with her new rapist foster father, but she still willingly leaves as she has no other choice. I do hope she stabs him in his sleep, robs him and runs away. We see signs of the bonds between the group growing, even Uncovered, who all help Joe escape and end up being beaten and confined for their trouble. I'm sure that's not the last horrific back story. |
|
| Episode 3 After a couple of weeks in solitary, Joe is let back into the cell with the others, feeling despondent. Sakuragi is quick to try and comfort him, while Ryuuji is disparaging of their actions, the former more focused on the opportunity they provided (better to give Joe a chance at happiness than to relegate him to despair) while the latter focuses on the lack of results. They need to cling onto any hope they have in this place. Joe resolves to become a singer, giving himself a new goal, something that will give him the opportunity to mature and become famous enough for Meg to find him later in life. Meanwhile, the guard rather ominously is talking to himself about a 2 month deadline. He also targets Ryuuji as the obvious skeptic in the group, telling him that Sakuragi is in here because he killed his parents in an effort to sow division. This leads to another beating of Sakuragi, who has a long history of resisting this guard. Among the group, though, there's a crisis of trust with Sakuragi, with Ryuuji outright rejecting any possibility due to a family history that, surprise surprise, involved him having his trust broken by his mother, who got them food for sexual favors (yep, this is becoming a trend). Notably, Sakuragi didn't try to explain himself to even the rest of the group that is in his corner, instead following Ryuuji to the library. There, when it's discovered that he was hiding weed in a book, the guard offers to push the blame onto Sakuragi in his place and, when push comes to shove, Ryuuji does. Before it can be acted upon, though, a raging fire torches the library resulting from a lit joint that Ryuuji threw out the window in haste. This leads to the most twisted thing the guard has done yet: he throws the key to their cell out the window, meaning that if the fire spreads to Sakuragi's cell, he can't get out. Under threat, Ryuuji is told to keep quiet about this, though Sakuragi was already out on his way to the library. That still leaves everyone else in that cell. Sakuragi rushes in to save them, despite everything, because he still sees them as his friends. This shakes Ryuuji's worldview, which has been self-focused. |
|
| Episode 2 Two backstories of child abuse, violence and even death. Joe and his little sister lived in an orphanage, where he was sexually abused by the administrator lady as a toy boy. She visits him in juvie (convenient word, thx) just to lure him into a sadistic trap. He learns his imouto will be "adopted" soon, and with the help of the boys escapes to rescue her. But Mrs. Sadism has police waiting for him already. Worse, his sister chooses to reject him and his help to save him from being punished even harder than he already will be. She gives in to her fate, being sold as a de-facto sex slave. The other story is about Turtle and his little sister, who dies along with the rest of his family in WW2's nuclear bombing of Japan. His family also had a violent father and a neglecting mother. This backstory made him helping Joe to escape, if not pushing hi into it. This is all contrasted with bro bonding. The boys train boxing together, and act as a team to help Joe escape. And they all take the solitary confinement and beating after it. A band of brothers now. Overall, the show takes itself very seriously, there's not even a faint attempt of comic relief. Another continuing feature is how expressionistic ugly, fat and sadistic the villains (basically all adults) are. A little less may have been more here, so much misery porn in just 20 minutes doesn't allow a lot of feels. I get it all their lifes are hell, but I don't really feel it. |
| |
| @inim I agree with you, so far the show has been too hard on the misery porn without letting us build up a connection to the characters so hasn't hit hard, just hard to watch. @whiteflame55 see you've started Gundam Origin tv series. I've got the alternate OVA version in my ptw list (an @inim recommendation, thank you good sir) and have been thinking of picking it up sometime soon whilst Gundam series is still fresh in my mind, and because Char was one of the few chars I really liked from the tv show but felt we didn't get to see enough of him. This is why I like the mal signature on peoples' forum signature, it reminds me of series I have yet to watch and brings them to the forefront of my mind. Episode 3. The guard Ishihara tries to turn Uncovered (and with him the rest of the group) against Sakuragi telling him that Sakuragi killed his parents. If this is true, and not sure it is, then guessing there's a story behind it and he had reasons (abusive parents). It's clear that Ishihara is scared of Sakuragi and my guess is that Sakuragi is due to be released in 2 months and Ishihara knows that retribution will find him swiftly once Sakuragi is released. Sakuragi makes reference to something Ishihara did, or someone he killed most likely, maybe this is linked to the death of Sakuragi's parents, or maybe it's an inmate friend of Sakuragi's that Ishihara killed with his sadistic behaviour. Either way, he wants Sakuragi dead and when a fire breaks out he 'loses' the key to the cell hoping that Sakuragi will die in the fire. Sakuragi makes it out but the rest of the group are trapped in their cell. Sakuragi decides to act and save them. The backstory for Uncovered and why he's so untrusting felt weak. Yes his mum having to sell her body for some food must have been traumatic, but losing all faith in humanity and other people seems a bit extreme a reaction. Maybe there's more to his story. So far the show seems to be laying the doom and gloom on a bit thick with Sakuragi this cool saviour. |
|
| @inim I'm with you as well. I like some strong pathos in my anime, but this one feels like it's trying to wring a lot from these characters too early. Would be nice to spend more time with them without just being bogged down in the despair of it all. @23feanor Yeah, I thought it was about time I included the MAL signature myself for exactly that reason. I just started the Gundam Origin series yesterday and so far it looks pretty excellent. I do plan to post a set of reviews when I finish it, and yes, Char was a very intriguing character even with so little screen time. Episode 4 I'm going to switch over to nicknames. Yep, 4 episodes in and we've already got a threat that looks like it could end the lives of most of our group with the expectation that they'll survive this due to Bro's heroics. Of course, without the key, there's little chance he can manage it, so Uncovered searches for the key. He finds it, but the guard (Ishihara) finds him just as he does. Finding out that Bro went in after them, he tells him to get rid of the key, threatening to tell everyone that Uncovered caused the fire if he doesn't give it up. He even uses a twisted version of the famous line from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - "I believe in you, you just need to believe in me." By this point, though, Uncovered has acknowledged that these are his first friends and that he trusts them. He takes a vicious beating to hang onto it, a selflessness that he has never displayed before. Bro actually appears to be making progress before a piece of rubble falls from the ceiling on top of him, crushing his leg. He still believes that Uncovered will bring the key, and he does. They escape, working together to free Bro before they leave, and Ishihara gets punched in the face for good measure. Waking up in an infirmary bed, Bro is injured but fine. And now it's time for his inevitably tragic backstory. His older brothers died in the war and his father had been held as a POW in Siberia for years, and was deeply scarred by the experience. After an argument where Bro told his father off, his father broke down and killed himself. Bro blames himself for his death. We get a nice nakama moment where everyone supports Bro, Bro stops Uncovered from revealing that he started the fire, we find out everyone donated blood (some of which may have been used for Bro - very One Piece of them), and they bring bananas that they found on the floor. But, ominously, the doctor looms over the scene. Nice to see an episode that's a little more uplifting, but... apparently Bro's "leav[ing] for the streets" after this? Is he being released, and if so, why did Ishihara want him dead so badly? It was also never clear why Bro was in here in the first place, since the death of his father wasn't caused by him. Maybe that's a mistranslation and he'll continue on, would be weird to write him out at this point. |
|
| I forgot to mention yday that when they said 'weed' I don't think they were talking about cannabis, but tobacco, as I've known more than a couple old timers refer to normal tobacco as weed (as iirc the tobacco plant is technically a variety of weed). Episode 4. So Uncovered finds some courage and saves the guys but not before Bro gets injured. Interesting fact i learnt recently, there is no word in Japanese for 'brother', only one for little brother (otouto) and ani/aniki/an-chan for older brother (same with little sister and older sister, imouto and onee-chan). I think Sakuragi has some dirt on Ishihara and the doctor, maybe they went too far in their abuse of a former inmate and friend of his causing their death, and Sakurago vowed vengeance for his lost comrade. So Ishihara is now desperately trying to engineer his death before his release date. We learn Sakuragi's backstory, a bit forced, he suddenly starts spouting his personal history to a nurse, but ok. The back story was more moving than either of the others we've heard so far. It's a hard one, you can imagine that even if Sakuragi hadn't said anything his dad would have likely been dead soon anyway, but no way to know that. @whiteflame55 when you said the One Piece blood transfusion my thought went to when Sanji lost all the blood because of the sexy mermaids and Chopper has to run about trying to find donors, absolutely bloody ridiculous, nearly dying from a nosebleed due to overstimulation from close contact with attractive women. Sometimes One Piece gets overly silly and this was one of those occasions. I'm really enjoying the electric guitar OST, not so much the OP or ED though. |
|
| @23feanor Thanks for the clarification of the term "weed," didn't know that. As for One Piece, yeah, that scene is a bit much. I know it's supposed to be a gag series in part, but that arc generally rubbed me the wrong way for how it dramatically shifted tones. Episode 5 We start off the episode pretty happy, so clearly we're going to end on a note of despair. Calling it here. Bro gets released early from the infirmary, apparently because he wanted to be and the doctor in charge (who is clearly corrupt) allowed it. He's working behind the scenes with Ishihara to get Bro killed before he's released from detention, which is happening in about a month. Our central group is thriving under a new officer in charge who appears far kinder than Ishihara, but Ishihara won't be under house arrest for much longer. Still, everyone enjoys the calm while it's happening, and takes a moment to carve their dreams into a tree (which we've seen in the OP). The narrator refers to them as "canaries," which immediately brought to mind the "canary in the coal mine," though that felt a bit off. They're symbols of happiness, but as the narrator says, they are caged, symbolic of both their physical circumstances and likely some emotional constraints that trauma has caused them. Bro gets moved to a release holding cell away from his friends, which already houses 4 dudes who look about his age and are overtly hostile. The new officer is put in his place before he can do anything about it, and the guys in the cell beat Bro within an inch of his life. It becomes clear over the course of the episode that @23feanor was right - the doctor Sasaki and Ishihara are trying to bury knowledge that Bro has about them. Despite the beatings, though, Bro is unbreakable. Mario investigates by grilling the guys in Bro's cell (doesn't seem too smart), which only serves to rile him up and leads to him punching one of the guys. Soldier correctly deduces that that will have consequences for Bro, so Mario offers for Bro's abusers to punch Mario in his place. After a beating, they break his right hand, hindering his chances at becoming a boxer. Telling this to Bro sets him off, and after weeks of taking beatings, Bro starts dishing them out, which is likely to lead to greater punishments for him. |
|
| Episode 5. Sakurago gets out of hospital early and moves back to cell 2-6 with his mates. Ishihara and the doctor concoct a new plan to silence him before his release in a month, arranging for him to be moved cells so their prisoner henchmen can beat Sakuragi to death. This doesn't work and Sakurago stoically takes the beatings and punishment dealt out by the guys. That is until Mario gets involved and takes a beating from the guys in cell 1-8, asking in return for them to leave Sakuragi alone. They bash his hand in and this sets Sakuragi off. So far I'm not really enjoying this show. Too much cruel graphic violence with no real point, other than to prove how cruel life can be for these lads. Sakuragi is kind of cool, but the show hasn't had enough time for us to develop more than a passing interest in any of these characters so far. |
|
| Episode 3-5 I'd describe this as "Sakuragi's release arc". The base setting is that he'll be released in three months, and wasn't broken by the sadism and inhumanity of the the reform school. While the first two episodes could leave the impression that warden Ishihara is a bad apple, there's now a scene where he clearly conspires with Dr. Sasaki about murdering Sakuragi. In preparation of another arc, we also learn Dr. Sasaki is into boys and has his eye on blue eyed Joe. In a first assassination plot, Ishihara throws away a key required to open the cell he believes Sakuragi is in during a raging fire of the cell block. It turns out not Sakuragi is trapped there, but the rest of the boys. Sakuragi risks his life to rescue them, with the help of Uncovered. Uncovered is distrusting and not able to bond with people due to childhood issues (mom was forced into prostitution). This is first exploited by a manipulative lie by Ishihara, but then Uncovered regrets and changes sides. Eventually all boys are rescued but a seriously injured Sakuragi is hospitalized for 8 weeks. This event leads to ever closer bonding of the boys, and to what's a little false happy end. This is culminating in the scene where they all carve their hopes and dreams for the future into the tree we saw as an opener in episode one. Happy moments in the sun. Ishihara was suspended over his shady role during the fire, but with the help of Dr. Sasaki is coming back soon. During his hiatus, another warden is incharge and it's clear that not everybody is a psychopathic sadist, he treats the boys all right. Enter the second (ongoing in episode 5) attempt to break and/or murder Sakuragi. He's transferred into another block and a cell with hand-picked sadists working for Ishihara. They beat up Sakuragi every evening for his four remaining weeks, in the hope to kill him. The doctor and Ishihara have to be cautious because they may get under scrutiny and their sadist games may blow up. Thus the indirect approach now. Sakuragi sees trough the plan and doesn't defend himself, spoiling everybody's sadist fun. As a result, the block 8 guys provoke Mario into a brief fight. They then lie to Sakuragi about the outcome (we permanently damaged his hand) and now he reacts and loses his restraint. Next episode will have the details. Overall, I agree with @23feanor that the show is all bleak with no comedic relief, too fast a pacing to care about that torrent of misery, and that some backstories are quite shallow. Do you think you want to continue? For me, I have a de-facto no-drop policy and all my badge and challenge stuff requires to plan my watches weeks ahead, so I'll finish. But we could end the group watch and switch to another show, if it's really so bad. Which it in my opinion is not, the show is all right even if it's far too heavy handed so far. But maybe they manage to improve that. |
| |
| Yeah, I'll admit, the show hasn't been working for me so far. Seems just like a downward spiral so far, though as @inim said, it might get better. For now, I'm willing to continue with it, if only to see where it goes from here. Episode 6 Bro's confrontation with his cellmates turns potentially deadly, but those guys really underestimated him. They refuse to say that he's the one who beat them up - another One Piece line: "Nothing... happened." After this moment of using sheer brutality to defy the odds, of course, we have to go back to Joe, who is now being courted by the doctor. He knows that he can use Bro's friends to make him break the rules. It starts with forcing them to remain bowed to him in the rain, which leads to him grabbing Ishihara's wrist to prevent a beating, getting him solitary confinement. It's here that we finally get a peek into what Bro knows that has both the doctor and Ishihara so concerned. Bro was brought here because he injured someone and had a friend with him at the time. Looks like the dude was sexually abused... seriously, there's misery porn and then there's this show. He straight up commits suicide after being told that he'll have to keep enduring this without getting out early. He left a note behind, so Bro knows what happened. Their new guard, Kumagai, who has largely just been physically put in his place this whole time, discovers the plot to have Bro killed. Still, it's the group that does something about it, with Turtle managing to escape (after receiving a beating) and get Bro a large rice ball made from their own food. |
|
| Episode 6 The murder attempts make sense now, with backstory to for Sakuragi. Two years ago Dr. Sasaki abused his cell mate under the false claim that would give him an earlier release. Ishihara was already covering everything up and supplied the dirty work for the Doctor. Sakuragi's cellmate then commits suicide, but leaves a note and now Sakuragi has something in the hand against the Doc and his thug. That's why they so desperately want to kill him while they still can, because they fear outside the reform school he'll accuse them publicly. They continue to play it indirectly and torture the boys while Sakuragi has to watch, this time with a "long standing in the rain in a stress position". Guantanamo didn't invent anything new it seems. The plan succeeds and Sakuragi intervenes, just to end up in solitary confinement. There he is deprived of food and water, they literally want to starve him to death. The plan with the brutes of block 8 had failed previously, when Sakuragi beat them all and on top made them lie about it. The scene is as close as this show came to (black) comedy so far. Sakuragi slowly turns into a revolutionary leader. The boys take manage to smuggle food to him, even when that means they get beaten and punished themselves. The new guard Kumagai also notices the brutality, questions it and starts to ask questions. He's beaten by Ishihara as well, but of course he's in a stronger position than an inmate. I feel he'll play a role soon, and probably pay for it dearly. Overall, I'm slowly getting used to it all. Behind the misery and torture porn, there's a rather decent mystery, and it's told fairly smart. We have a smooth mixing of timelines, POV narration where a scene is put into another light later, and other advanced narrative techniques. So I looked into the original creator and script writer. The original manga is by George Abe, who worked for Yakuza all his life just to turn into a somewhat famous author and mangaka later. So I guess the violence isn't that unrealistic, as is the insider knowledge about the 1950s reform schools. Abe was in hs 20s then and may well have first hand knowledge. And as said eariler, Ashite no Joe's first 1/3 has a fairly similar reform school shithole of violence setting, albeit there it's played more comedic. |
inimFeb 4, 2023 10:50 AM
| |
| Episode 6. So we learn the secret that Sakurago knows about Ishihara and the doctor, they drove his cell mate to commit suicide. The new guard Kumagai seems a nice guy, only decent guard we've seen. Ishihara and the doc decide to starve Sakuragi out in a last ditch effort to kill and silence him. The 2-6 cell mates rally round and bring him a rice ball to keep him going, well done lads. I do like the OST and visual aesthetics, especially those still frames. But the torture and humiliation porn just sours the experience for me. Interesting about the author thanks @inim |
|
| Episode 7 The doctor and his Ishihara drop the gloves, if they ever wore some by murdering the friendly guard Kumagai. Dr. Sasaki overhears a scene in which Kumagai tells the nurse and the boys that Bro is safe because he took over to secretly smuggle food and water into his cell. He also understands how the doctor and his fellow guard conspire against Bro, but he doesn't know why. The nurse also is getting informed and involved into the conspiracy. Within days after this, Kumagai dies in a drunk driving car accident. Nobody of course believes that it's an accident, and Ishihara is beaten by the doctor for murdering so heavy handedly. Also: it's established that the nurse has a crush on Bro. Enter plan D to kill Bro, who only has 6 days left - not enough to starve anymore. Courtesy of his medical knowledge, Dr. Sasaki resorts to a method with a constant stream of water from a hose. He explains that within days if not hours this causes death by hypothermia. And unlike Ishihara's laymen methods leaves no trace a coroner could identify as murder. Learning about Kumagai's death, the boys decide to act immediately. They somehow feel that every hour counts, and they have no time to protect themselves with a cautious plan anymore. Uncovered, the smartest guy becuse he wears glasses, drafts a master plan. The episode ends with the boys leaving for a full frontal assault with the goal to save Bro's life at all cost. Overall, the improvements I hoped for start to materialize. While the world is still any bit as bleak, the introductory backstories are done and we get into action thriller territory. One MAL review nails the fundamental problem of the show fairly well. It's a shounen cast and story (power of friendship) set in a seinen world of pain and misery. And there's the cognitive dissonance between the hyper-motivated boys and the (down to medical detail and inferior motives like rape) more realistic villains. Using stereotypes like "he's smart as one can see from the glasses", the constant "healing was expected to take 8 weeks but the power of my will made it 4 weeks" and so on otoh is shounen fare. Nevertheless, I'm tempted to watch the next episode immediately meanwhile. Whatever they are bad it, it's not cliffhangers. |
inimFeb 5, 2023 4:12 AM
| |
| Episode 7 Going to take a break from giving summaries and just give thoughts this time. I'll admit, there's something to this series that keeps me going in spite of all the misery. Maybe it's the do-or-die attitude of Bro or the comradery of our characters despite all the odds, but it keeps it from feeling too retched. There's a sense throughout that they will succeed despite all the odds, and while it's still a rough ride getting there, the promise of something beautiful on the horizon makes it work. @inim's comparison to Ashita no Joe is a good one, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is Kaiji, which was similarly minimal on comedy and heavy on despair at various points, even if this series doesn't have many of that series' strengths. Still, there's a sense of momentum now, and with a literal deadline coming up, there's more to root for as our characters attempt to save Bro any way they can. As for Kumagai, the more this character tries to get involved, the more obvious it becomes that he's going to get either will be removed or blackmailed into falling in line (ends up being the former, but it could have been either one). The kinder the character, the more obvious their fall. It is shocking that the nurse, Setsuko, at this facility is so utterly clueless about what's going on, considering that Kumagai has been here for a short period and already has almost all the information as to what's going on. Now that she's aware, it becomes another instance of knowing that this character will try to help, only to be removed from the playing field somehow. Still, kind of her to offer to pick up Bro when he gets out, even if that seems unlikely to happen, since the doctor is fully aware that she knows too much now. Hell, they all know too much now, so everyone has a target on their backs. Much as they seem aware that there are risks to them taking action, such as being sent to an actual prison, it honestly seems preferable to where they are now. The hose method is a pretty ingenious, if still absolutely horrifying, way of rubbing out Bro. In general, the doctor is far more insidious than Ishihara, using more indirect methods that are difficult to trace back to him. He's a scalpel and Ishihara's a club. They probably wouldn't still be working together if they didn't have common cause. And yeah, this episode's cliffhanger is something else. Excited to see the next one and see Uncovered's plan take shape. @inim I've struggled to explain what it is that isn't working in this series, but I think you and the writer of that review are right about the dissonance. I think part of what made Kaiji work was that it didn't really feature a shonen cast, even though the world had a similar vibe. It still works some of the time, but it just feels wrong. |
|
| @inim I think you've captured my reservations well with that mal review, a shounen cast in a seinen setting. Also the way the narrator talks is disquieting, with phrases like "canaries trapped in a cage", "fighting for dreams that will never be realised", all with this soft spoken honey tongued way. Even if I'm uncomfortable with a show it doesn't mean I won't get something rewarding out of the experience, which is why I like picking up any suggestions for our group watches. Episode 7. I thought the nurse would get feelings for Sakuragi at some point, also thought that Kumagai would get tangled with Ishihara and the doctor if he stood up for Sakuragi, although wasn't expecting his demise and exit to be quite so brutal and quick. I didn't appreciate that the doctor is the director of the facility, I thought he was the senior (or only) doctor on site, separate to the hospital. So the doctor is effectively the warden of the place and can run things as he likes, to a degree. I've got a feeling that the nurse, Setsuko, has a target painted on her back now that the doctor knows she is aware about his targeting Sakuragi. The water hose idea was devilishly cruel. What is the plan, and will Bro be alive when the 2-6 cell mates make their move to rescue him. First episode I liked. I do wonder where the story will go next, if, and when Bro gets freed alive. Will they all get moved to juvenile prison (not sure what the difference is between juvenile prison and the place they are currently detained, which I thought was a juvenile prison/detention facility) and have new guards and worries, or will the show take us outside the prison setting like Prison Break S2? |
|
| Episode 8 I initially thought it was good that they didn't tell us the whole plan up front so that there's some chance of its success. Then they told us part of it. And now we know it's at least partially doomed. Never liked that trope. Also, we get a bit of an homage to the Shawshank Redemption in their statement that they'll all meet up by the tree they carved their dreams into after they're out. There's a lot of ick in this episode initially, but then we get some actual catharsis as Joe strangles the doctor, leaving him tied up naked. Dude had it coming, but I can't imagine that things are going to go well for them after this - any victory they achieve will be pyrrhic. Beating up Ishihara and leaving him in the cell is another nice bit of catharsis, as is the later beating he takes after stabbing Bro. Of course, it all goes to hell after the doctor is discovered and Ishihara wakes up. Didn't expect Uncovered to act as a sacrifice in order to cause a blackout. Also, I like that the symbolic act of having Bro leave through the front gates as though he's being released actively facilitates their efforts, as the doctor assumes they'll go out the back. But we also get the usual trope of someone sacrificing themselves for every inch they gain during their escape, which is fine, but feels a bit heavy handed, leaving just Mario, Turtle, Joe and Bro, who have no plan for what to do now that they're out. Honestly, I was surprised this worked at all, let alone that so many of them escaped. Pretty dynamic shift for the series, not sure if we'll ever see the boys they left behind again, might just have to follow this group wherever they go. |
|
| Episode 8. So the plan works but not without some of the gang making sacrifices to save Bro's life. Uncovered, Soldier and Cabbage don't make it out, Bro is also stabbed by Ishihara at the end once they're out. This was the sort of episode I would expect at the end of a series, when we've built a connection to our characters and the catharsis from seeing them make it out, and some of them making the ultimate sacrifice would have been worth it. As it's only ep 8 it was good to see them get Bro out, otherwise he would likely have died, but wasn't quite the crescendo moment I was anticipating. I have no idea where the show will go next with the group split up, will the guys on the outside try to rescue those still locked up? I was thinking about cognitive dissonance (story/characters/aesthetic and setting) and what a difficult vibe it is to pull off. Made in Abyss is one of the only examples that I can think of that really pulls it off. |
|
| Episode 9 After some thought about it, the kind of shift that's going on here is actually pretty similar to what happened in The Promised Neverland, only that happened a good deal later and after a much more interesting game of cat and mouse. Still, the sense that these 4 are beginning a new chapter in relative freedom with the nurse to help them could be a nice change of pace. Conveniently, the nurse also has a building that is way out in the countryside where they can stay without being caught. We get a bit of exposition that Uncovered and the others won't be going to juvenile prison because they didn't kill anyone, though they're being subjected to beatings, isolation and interrogation. There's a sense that they've become stronger through this, though their misbegotten belief that it's just going to be a rough year is pretty quickly dashed by Ishihara, who's out for blood. But then we get an interesting twist. Joe returns to the compound and, rather than submitting to them to save his friends, uses the leverage that he and the others have evidence that the death of Bro's old friend was caused by the doctor and Ishihara. Yay for blackmail! Meanwhile, Mario gets a chance to box for some money to keep them afloat because they don't want to rely on the nurse... even though things are fine as is... guess they feel guilty, but that seems like a massive risk, even giving away where they came from. At minimum, it's a substantial risk to Mario's physical health, especially with his broken right hand. With no real explanation of why they're doing this in the first place and, given that they're facing men who are likely quite a bit older, Mario steps into the ring and... promptly gets destroyed. The woman who recruited them prevents him from getting absolutely annihilated before they lose and leave. There's a promise that he'll come back and win, but now this just seems like a pride thing and, again, seems rather pointless. So now we're turning into a boxing anime. Not what I was expecting and it feels like a weak direction for the series. Not sure why we're doing this when there's nothing but pride on the line. |
|
| Episode 9. So Setsuko comes through and hides the escapees in a secluded farmhouse. Joe returns to the disciplinary school (that's supposed to be a school, wtf, i thought it was the juvenile prison!) and blackmails Ishihara and Sasaki with the suicide note from Bro's old cell mate in order to get Cabbage, Soldier and Uncovered released from solitary and safe for the moment. As @whiteflame55 points out, the show then takes a bit of a strange turn, Mario is coaxed into boxing against the American GI's at a local army base. He gets his ass handed to him as he still can't use his right hand. They only get home thanks to a new character called Lily, a beauty who hooks up with senior American soldiers for an easy life. Some resentment and hostility towards the Americans coming through strong in her exchanges "you call yourself men, I'm sick of seeing the Japanese lose to the Americans". Got a feeling we're going to see more of Lily. Will Bro start boxing once he's fully recovered? I have no idea where the shows going next. |
|
| Episode 10 Inevitably, Ishihara and the doctor find out where they're hiding because the nurse isn't particularly careful about it. Mario trains for a rematch, which looks like it will happen around the time that Ishihara storms their hideout. Guessing there'll be a hostage situation where Ishihara uses the nurse to try to kill Bro, though... did he just drive by the bus they're taking to the American military base with a shit eating grin on his face? Why? If literally any of them had been looking out the window at that time, they would have seen him and at least been concerned that he might have figured them out. Dumb move. Soldier enlists, no surprise there. Turtle has taken to selling cigarettes on the black market which gets him in trouble and gets taken in by the police (again, unclear why he's doing this - it hasn't been established that the nurse was struggling to feed or house them, so this seemed like an incredibly unnecessary risk). We find out that Ishihara tipped off the police to do this, which is a nice way for him to do something skeevy, but it feels unnecessarily indirect. And yeah, it provides an opportunity for Turtle to tip off Bro and Mario that Ishihara knows where they are. I guess it's nice that both the villains and heroes are fond of unnecessary risks, but... why? Also, Ishihara's a drug addict now. Turns out to be a drug called Philopon, which is basically crystal meth. Doctor's still being more subversive, having searched their hideout and not found the note, he hands Ishihara a gun to, apparently, just kill Bro with and end all this. Ah, but they save the most interesting twist for the end. The doctor goes to the police, reporting Ishihara for both his addiction to the drug, saying he's in league with the escapees, and that he's selling black market guns from the US army. He has been setting up Ishihara this whole time to take the fall. So now we're all Hajime no Ippo with a side of criminal intrigue. Spicy. Better direction than I was expecting coming off of last episode, but still not clear on how this will go. |
|
| Episode 8 Prison break time. Uncovered's plan is executed, starting with Joe seducing Dr. Sasaki. He stops shortly before the actual act and strangles the doctor, while talking about erotic asphyxiation. This is really an 16 year old in 1955 Japan, Mr. writer? Anyway, the doc is bagged and packed and by that out of the game for a while. Joe returns with the key ring for the whole prison. Brute force key cracking obviously takes some time not only for hackers. After the group overwhelms two lone front door guards, the trial and error with the keys takes too long. Also their sloppy lockdown backfires and one of the guard can blow the whistle. All hell breaks loose now, all out alert and all lights on. Reinforcement to arrive any minute. Enter a number of heroic self sacrifices. Uncovered did it a while ago, now Cabbage and Soldier voluntarily pick fights to buy time. In soldier's case I didn't fully understand why he styed back inside when he broke the key to lock the door. Too short a pair of arms? Anyway, the remaining group of four manages to escape, the gate is locked, and they have bought sufficient time. Joe, Mario, Bro and Turtle escaped. Overall a more transitional, action driven episode. The plot line is split into two. The good news is that I start to develop emotions for the cast, the self sacrifices hurt. They are certainly bound for fun time with Ishihara for the rest of their time. |
| |
| Episode 10. Ishihara and Sasaki make their move once they locate the hideout at Setsuko's. One thing that really annoyed me this episode and that was the chat between Bro and Setsuko, a fairly pivotal relationship for them both and the story, yet the camera cuts out when they go inside to 'be alone', leaving it very open as to what kind of relationship they have. Bro seems to talk about her as if she's his girlfriend, even marrying her, and the narrator mentions love is the main thing keeping him going, but we don't really know. Are they just chatting, spending time in bed, cuddling, we don't know. The show is happy to show Ishihara jacking up and young boys being raped but gets coy about showing what happens behind closed doors with Bro and Setsuko because................. It's not that I want to see a salacious scene, I'm kind of interested to see whether they are actually a couple, as it's not very clear at all whether they hold love in their hearts for each other, but haven't really expressed it, or whether behind closed doors they are happily in love and doing all the normal things couples do? When Bro and Setsuko started chatting on the porch they seemed a bit awkward leading me to think they haven't gotten formal and close yet, but then Bro talks like she's his girlfriend in a later scene to Mario even mentioning a possible marriage, making me think something did happen, but why not show it? Didn't know about Philipon so thanks @whiteflame55. I knew they used amphetamine and cocaine during the war but didn't know about the use of crystal meth, nasty stuff. Poor Turtle gets caught and Soldier enlists. Some of the stuff the narrator says is really daft "will the god of the delinquents smile on these fugitives", this show tries too hard sometimes like Durarara. |
23feanorFeb 9, 2023 3:13 AM
|
| @23feanor I had the same thought about that line from the narrator. It’d be funny if this series wasn’t so self-serious. Episode 11 I found this episode frustrating. It’s the big confrontations for both Bro and Mario, the former important because it’s presumably his finale with Ishihara and the latter because… he’s got a boxing match to win. Seriously, does anyone get why they’re hyping this up so much? It feels so weightless compared with everything else going on, and they just haven’t done enough to establish the need for Japanese pride against the Americans. As for Bro and Ishihara… the former just baffles me. You know who Ishihara is and that he’s capable of committing every single brutality he wishes to get his way. He even seems to know he’ll come with a gun, but nope, let’s just wander into the rain and face him at range in the hopes that you can close the distance in time. Then let’s give him the only piece of evidence available that proves his guilt. I’d get that as a way to get Ishihara to give up on Bro, but… isn’t that Joe and gang’s only leverage to stop him from abusing them? Don’t apologize to your dead friend, apologize to them. It’s especially silly because Bro physically dominates him. So, knowing that he’s a desperate drug addict with a hard on for killing Bro, Bro walks away, almost getting run over by Ishihara on his motorcycle (guess Ishihara decided for that brief moment that he suddenly didn’t want him dead?), then getting a weak sob story before allowing Ishihara in stabbing range. I can’t fathom why he made these choices. Also, turns out the doctor was actually going to the police to make up a story about Bro, not Ishihara, despite the fact that the dude clearly has not been on Philipon (as opposed to Ishihara who has) and botj of their prints would be on the gun (probably washed off by the rain), so there’s no evidence against Bro. I guess the police will shoot him before they find that out. Oh, and there’s one scene in the middle here for no reason showing Soldier leaving for the army. Not sure why it was there. |
|
| Episode 11. Oh dear, that was a bit of a train wreck. You've got the American Lt talking about Sakuragi's kamikaze eyes, huge red flag at the beginning of the episode. The anti American sentiment in this show is quite apparent, the Japanese are the underdogs, symbolised by Mario fighting in the ring against tough odds. Then we have the confrontation with Ishihara and Sakurag. Not sure what to say, it was so over dramatic and terrible. All show Sakuragi has done everything to protect his 2-6 cell mates and now Setsuko (when he's recovering at the hideout he says to Setsuko "don't worry I won't die, I have to protect my friends and you"). Yet he does everything humanly possible in the confrontation with Ishihara to get himself killed, and even gives up the suicide note. So now it looks like he's going to die and his friends and Setsuko have no leverage against Sasaki and Ishihara. It's such a dumb shounen protag move that I'd expect from someone like Luffy. Mario lands a good punch but the GI gets back up. Looks towards the end that he uses his right hand and lands another good punch but will it be enough to KO his opponent? Personally this is worse than Durarara in terms of trying to be overly cool and dramatic and failing miserably. The narrator comes out with the cheesiest lines said in a serious tone that just doesn't work for me. If the show carries on like this it may end up with my lowest ever score for a completed show. Lets hope the next arc improves. |
|
| @23feanor yeah, it sounds like we agree on a lot of what's frustrating about this series. I think @inim 's earlier post about shonen characters just not fitting in this world is becoming more and more true as we continue. I find it impossible to understand how Bro would logically make the choices he made in the last episode, or why if he actually treasured the other people in his life, he'd risk it all on a revenge gambit that practically invited Ishihara to kill him and tear up the note. There's a dissonance in this series that makes it difficult to appreciate how things are progressing. Episode 12 Honestly, the way this works out, it's almost like Bro really just wanted to die. He walks straight ahead with knife in hand despite being told in both English and Japanese that dropping it would get him much needed medical care. There were so many death flags before this scene that we all knew how it would eventually play out, but this is sincerely the dumbest path to death I've seen a lead character take in... almost anything. I know we're supposed to be in tears as he thinks about all his friends and the nurse he's leaving behind, but dude, you had so many easy ways to survive this, and the only degree of sadness involved is how his choices will harm everyone else. And so the victorious Mario (presumably with a hand that is now broken beyond repair because of that sick right punch he used in the fight) goes to the tree and laments that they will never all be able to meet there. It's not tragic; it's absurd. And... time skip. We move forward a year and everyone else is meeting at the tree, all looking a little more grown up (Mario wears one white glove on his right hand, so he's channeling his inner Michael Jackson). It's clarified that Mario literally told no one else about how Bro died, which means they spent the last year completely out of contact, so... I guess the time skip makes sense because nothing of consequence happened? And now the whole group is out to kill Ishihara and the doctor, because of course they are. At least they all seem to be gainfully employed beyond Turtle, who is still running black market cigarettes. Oh, and wouldn't you know it, the doctor is running for mayor. He'd probably make a great politician, what with the duplicitousness, scheming and cover-ups. Our group finds opportunities to come after both of them. Mario goes to see the nurse who just slaps him and gives him a bullet that was taken from Bro's corpse before sending him on his way, not apparently trying to stop him. At least their plans aren't just "kill 'em," at least so far. Most of the group goes to intimidate the doctor. Mario doesn't have time for that shit and goes to Ishihara alone with a knife. Ishihara is clearly delirious, thinking that Bro has come to kill him and inviting him to do it. Not sure what Mario's waiting for, but that's where we end. So, if I've got the path right, we went from even more abusive Prison School to O Brother Where Art Thou? to Hajime no Ippo and now we're in Kill Bill. Where to next? |
|
| Episode 12. I was drinking with our neighbours till late and feel terrible today so going to keep this short. The way Bro died carried on the terrible writing off from last episode, but, after that i thought it improved. It almost feels like the whole show up until now was to give a basis for a revenge arc following Bro's death. Maybe a decent revenge arc against Sasaki, using a decent plan cooked up by Uncovered, might just redeem this show. Setsuko's char design is pretty damn cute and reminds me of Mikasa from Attack on Titan. The lovely still pics keep coming with that incredible brushwork texture such as the tree with the rainbow in the background and the final image of Mario rushing in on Ishihara with a wave breaking in the background, both looked stunning. OST has been solid as well. |
|
| Episode 9-10 The escapees (Bro, Turtle, Mario and Joe) hide in a lone house in the countryside, owned by nurse Setsuko's extended family. The two episodes cover many months, and each character develops and kind of takes up a job. Bro is seriously injured and needs time to recover and rehab, he couldn't walk first after the torture. Joe is send back to the reform school as a messenger. He tells Dr. Sasaki and Ishihara about the suicide note Bro's friend left behind, and by this blackmails them. He and the other three now have a fairly normal prison life, the two sadists don't dare to touch them. Turtle starts trading on the black market, mainly with American cigarettes. Soldier leaves prison after he as accepted in the military. Mario has the most development and does the Ashita no Joe, he becomes an underdog boxer. It's interesting to see how boxing is protrayed as Western sport, despised by traditional Japanese. The same holds for the American occupation troops, who organize boxing events and benefit from turtle's black market activity. We also meet an independent box promoter named Lily, a business lady making deals with the Americans. THis probably includes prostitution, and I'm a big fan of those strong and shady characters (e.g. Okon is the same archetype). Mario crushingly loses his first fight. It turns out Bro has boxing skills and he becomes his trainer. Episode 10 ends with the start of Mario's 2nd fight. The bad news is that at the end of episode 10 Ishihara and by extension Dr. Sakuragi locate the escapees. Turtle is ratted out to the local police by Ishihara and arrested. Sakuragi gives a gun to Ishihara, who meanwhile went fully batshit crazy psycho. The doctor helps with that, he addicted him to hard drugs. What stops both of them from killing everybody is the fact that a search couldn't produce the blackmail letter. Nevertheless, the cliffhanger is Ishihara on a motorcycle, headed to the boys' house with kill intent. Overall, the show keeps morphing and meanwhile has elements of boxing / sports drama, suspense thriller, romance (Bro + nurse), post-war history of Japan and more. I much prefer this over the initial misery porn. The writing isn't that bad, because despite the many balls in the air the story is easy to follow, there's tension, and the characters interest me (most of them, sorry Cabbage you lose out). Question: @23feanor repeatedly mentioned the "honey" voice of the narrator. It's funny that there's a German dub version I can watch, also with a sweet female narrator. It's very rare that German dub exists but English doesn't. Or does it? |
| |
| Episode 11 A tale of two battles. Mario in the boxing ring versus an American GI, and Bro versus Ishihara in the pouring rain. Both are told in parallel, and there are cuts and movements which start in the one arc and end in the other. The cinematic direction is back. Mario gets his Japanese ass pounded by the blonde GI, but refuses to give up. It doesn't help that his broken hand is a major handicap. May this be a metaphor on Japan's attitude during WW2? The author, like my own dad, was born in the mid-1930s, joined Yakuza in the 1950s, and wrote the manga this is based on in the 1980s (before the end of the Cold war). The dialog at times goes along the line "beat those Americans at least in the boxing ring, Mario!". For me this is not even close to "anti-American", it's quite realistic for the 1950s and even later. For real anti-Americanism, please watch Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (1984) and Angel Cop (1989). The latter has it (and on top antisemitism) to a degree the subtitles at one point simply don't match the words anymore. Too problematic. As a German I know the very mixed feelings of a country who lost the war and became occupied for decades after that. It's a mixed blessing. First, this helped to get accepted into the Western community, and at the same time still is a foreign occupation. No matter how polite the occupiers are. Otoh, it's cold war and the massive presence of those troops means protection from Russia, or in Japan's case probably more Korea and China who were not precisely their best buddies after the atrocities of WW2. For the Japanese there is one extra Godzilla in the room: they nuked Japan. Twice, and the second time wasn't really necessary militarily. Long story short, it's mixed emotions to be occupied and a little "at least beat them at a small scale" is all too human and not unfriendly. Anyway, Bro gives the (original, as seen on the blood stains) blackmail letter to Ishihara. His theory is that this will put an end to the affair, and protect him and the boys. A logic I can't follow, as already discussed by others. Bro repeatedly plays the melodramatic card, despite the fact he easily could he doesn't knock out, search and disarm the seriously delusional Ishihara. I agree that there's some death wish vibe, a sacrifical lamb attitude he plays consciously or unconsciously. In the end he's served it, stabbed and bleeding to death. In the cliffhanger Dr. Sakuragi arrives with the police. Overall, like the others, I can't buy into Bro's "sacrifice". Makes almost no sense. The boxing arc is not really interesting, I just don't care who wins. |
| |
| Episode 12 Good grief, may it be a little more pretentious with the pathos? This kind of writing is what gives melodrama a bad name. Bro after being stabbed by Ishihara refuses to die. It takes a military firing squad with 30 seconds of continuous fire to take him down. Note he can still look after that, with what I would assume no inner organ left but the head is fine. The writing is extremely heavy handed here, using American MPs is deus ex machina and quite a plot device. What is pretty much confirmed is the death wish of Bro, as he doesn't stop walking. It was completely clear for him how that would end, and he could have prevented it with great ease. The excuse that he may have been shell shocked and not in control may apply, but that doesn't improve the writing either. Next stop Mario, who is build up to be Bro's second coming, visiting nurse Setsuko. She gives him a holy relic of their Lord and Savior Bro: a bullet she took from his dead body. Mario now is in full self-destruct and revenge mode, the high priest of vengeance. There is no reliable narrator who could report from Bro's death scene, but rumor has it that Ishihara stabbed him first. In the real world, there would have been of course a public report on the significant event of a civilian being shot by US troops. At least Uncovered should be smart enough to use that source. Mario faces Ishi, who could need a dentist and a psychological treatment - he's a fully blown drug junky now. They fight with a knife - cliffhanger time. Another time skip and they all meet at the tree, as promised. The schism continues, of of them arrive as a group but Mario is already there, alone. Turtle sees trough his plan to go on a kamikaze mission and stab Ishihara, becoming a murder or even being killed. The five insist to carry out revenge as a team. Also the doctor now runs for a political office, and they want to prevent that at all cost as well. Overall, a lot of pathos and stupid decisions. Maybe to older generation Japanese the whole thing leaves a different impact, given how successful the manga and novels by the author are in Japan. Just like the misery porn in the beginning the Jesus-kun-ification of Bro is over the top, too much. The middle part of season 1 was pretty good though, let's say from the beginning of Bro's water torture to the penultimate episode. Episode 13 is a recap, no new scenes and a straightforward summary of the events so far with Mario as narrator. |
| |
| Episode 13 So after going forward one year, we’re going back two years so that we can get our usual recap episode. I guess it works since we’re at a pretty pivotal point in the series, but… is it just me, or does it feel like this should have happened before the time skip? They barely even touched on Bro’s death, so they could’ve just spent more time there and on the immediate aftermath of the boxing match. I kind of appreciate that Mario only speaks of those events because this is his perspective, though it still feels kind of silly that the inciting incident for everything that happens after the timeskip is basically a footnote in this recap. There’s some light reflection on these events via narration from Mario, but I didn’t see anything new or interesting in this one, though admittedly I skimmed through it. |
|
| @inim no English dub that I could locate Episode 13. I also skimmed through this standard recap. My main takeaway was renewed appreciation for the S1 recap in Kimi no Todoke which used the little old men round Pin sensei's sake cup to give us our recap. Twelve Kingdoms used some interesting narrative techniques for recaps as well. @whiteflame55 I agree, would have made more sense to have this recap before the timeskip. |
23feanorFeb 12, 2023 2:39 AM
|
| Episode 14 Dr. Sasaki is paranoid after being confronted with the threat of exposing his past. The old schemer is still up to his old tricks with someone he probably blackmailed into sex, but the group entraps him. They stick him in a hole on the beach, bury him up to his neck, and wait for high tide. Quite the scheme themselves - the only out is to confess his sins, which he eventually says he will do under duress before waking up in bed as if it was all a dream. Sometime between those two points, he confessed every sins to them and they recorded every moment of it, playing it over the loudspeaker during his last speech before the mayoral race. So, needless to say, he loses the campaign. Mario makes the same choice Bro did, so Ishihara's alive, no surprise there. They try to explain what Bro was thinking before he died, but it really doesn't help with the stupidity of those choices. I get that everyone thinks the world of Bro, but... wow. Also, bit of a nitpick, but Mario's face was absolutely covered in water one moment and then fully dry the next. Ishihara's face was covered with blood and then clean the next. What's up with that? Also, weirdly gruesome for all of them to carry around a bullet from Bro's body. We even get a weird Anohana-esque moment where Bro's spirit appears to be standing by the tree as everyone else walks away. And hey, that seems like a good note to end on. How many episodes are there in this anime, anyway... 26!? I'm honestly baffled and I have no clue where they could go from here. No cliffhangers were left here, no unanswered questions, they were even surmising about their futures. Maybe we'll get another genre shift. Who can say? |
|
| Episode 14. Oh my god, the dumpster fire continues. I was kind of looking forward to a good revenge arc, setting the stage for Sasaki to fall in the final episode and it's all over and done in one episode. My expectations are so low for this show now but yet it keeps on disappointing. More cheesy lines from the narrator, an almost 'cult of Bro' feeling with Mario's eulogy to Bro and keeping the bullets as keepsakes. Taking down Sasaki at the beach was ok, but was expecting something a bit more intricate and clever I suppose. I have no idea where the show will go for another 12 episodes, I didn't care about the characters to begin with, I don't care about them now and don't care what happens to them going forward, it's all been too rushed and tried too hard. My personal feeling about Bro, was that dying was the easy choice and way out, staying alive and looking after Setsuko and his friends, getting a job, having a family etc would have been the hard choice. As you guys have already mentioned it seemed like Bro had a death wish and he's being revered by Setsuko and his cell mates for a really dumb choice. Looking at the preview for next episode it looks like the story may focus on Mario and Setsuko, which may explain why the show glid over the relationship between Setsuko and Bro with just a few offhand comments here and there, as they may intend to have a dramatic second relationship for Setsuko with Bro's second coming, Mario. |
23feanorFeb 13, 2023 3:25 AM
|
| @23feanor Yeah, I have to agree that, after a lot of build-up of the antagonistic relationship between everyone and Sasaki, watching their plan play out felt anticlimactic. It was a bit cathartic, but that's about it. Episode 16 Yep, we're back to some romance elements. At this point, that shouldn't be a hard sell for me since we've had 14 episodes in which to invest ourselves in these characters, but like @23feanor , I just don't care about any of them. Even the scenes with them sitting around just talking just do little or nothing for me. This love story feels just as lifeless (too soon?) as the one with Bro, and it really doesn't help that Mario's effectively becoming just like Bro, which means we should have a similar investment in it as we did with theirs. The show didn't care enough about that relationship to build it up, and though they may do it this time, it's too little too late. The whole thing is made especially silly by the clear reality that Setsuko is being set up with another guy and... yeah, he's probably the better choice. He's almost certainly either going to be a piece of shit or just end up yielding the floor to Mario, and it's clear Setsuko doesn't like him, so it's a given that he'll lose out. A lot of this episode is just fluff meant to establish Mario's feelings and give some intrigue about Setsuko's arranged marriage. There's a brief scene where he beats up a patron at the bar with a bad attitude, showing his mettle despite his boss actively saying not to do it. Unsurprisingly, he gets fired over it. They treat this as a tragedy, with even the narrator lamenting that he's not being thanked for the violence, but... seriously, he said not to do it. The biased narration is just weird. He apologizes later and gets arrested and charged for his escaping from the "school" (still doesn't make sense that they call it that - they even have the nerve to call it "generous"), which... again, should've seen this coming. Laying low should've been his default, but I guess he really is Bro's protégé. So, now we're back to a prison escape show, except it just Mario they're trying to get out now. So now we're going to "silence the prosecutor," which... if they're trying to sound like heroes, they're doing a bad job of it. Maybe this is meant to be anti-hero stuff, but everything they've done before has been targeted at people who were objectively terrible. Now we're just doing whatever it takes to keep our friend from being imprisoned, which is weird because there's now documented evidence that the doctor in charge of them during their time there was sexually and physically abusive, causing the deaths of two other people. You'd think that that would make for a pretty convincing defense at a court hearing. Of course, the prosecutor ends up being a piece of shit who is just out to get him because he believes in his own unique brand of "justice," so now it's fine to silence him, I guess. Yeah, I don't really |
|
| Episode 15. I have no clue where this plot with Setsuko and Mario is going. I don't think Setsuko will go against her parents, and probably not for Mario, as he isn't Bro, plus he's bull headed and not very reliable. Why are they trying to bust him out of prison, so he can what, go and tell Setsuko how he feels. She'll say "oh that's nice" and marry the arranged marriage guy anyway to save her parents factory. Setsuko is the only character i think is moderately believable, she's not over the top and doesn't make stupid choices. My cheesy pick from todays episode was when the bartender asked the guys "who are you guys" and like a group of secret superheroes they replied "we're just the cell mates from 2-6", I can smell the cheddar from here. Watching this show proceed is like watching a slow motion car crash with added cheese nachos for a snack. |
|
23feanorMy cheesy pick from todays episode was when the bartender asked the guys "who are you guys" and like a group of secret superheroes they replied "we're just the cell mates from 2-6", I can smell the cheddar from here. I would have promised to automatically bump this whole show up by one point when I review it if the bartender had just looked at them and said "is... is that supposed to mean something?"Watching this show proceed is like watching a slow motion car crash with added cheese nachos for a snack. Also, great summary of the show. Definitely captured it. Episode 16 I'm a little lost. At the end of the last episode, the prosecutor was shown being two-dimensional and having a hard-on for justice. Now, he's actually taking the time to interview Mario and ask for his motivations for his crimes, though rather than ask why he escaped from the "school," he asks about the inciting incident that got him sent there. Strange choice given that what he'd be tried for here is escaping the "school." Also, I don't know about the rest of you, but this feels way too late to be getting into why Mario was initially arrested... or for that matter, why any of them were. That was a subject to cover while they were jailed. But here we are, digging into backstories I've long since stopped caring about. Delaying backstory is fine if it goes from being only partially relevant to highly relevant, but this series is taking the exact opposite approach and trying to claim relevance where there is none. It really doesn't help that Mario's completely unwilling to say anything about his backstory even now, it seems largely for the purpose of protecting the victim of a rape who wants to just put it all behind her. That makes some sense, since if Mario suddenly claimed it, she'd be called in to testify at his hearing. Not sure how you get beyond this. Meanwhile, Soldier and Turtle try to get the "victim" Kogure to sign a document that will say that he was the aggressor, which he was. That leads to another idiotic "punch me a few times" scene, after which Soldier blackmails him by saying that he'll report Kogure to the police for beating him. Decent plan, and it apparently works out. The prosecutor sees right through this, believing it was given under duress (kinda was), though he then proceeds to just tear it up. Dude, pick a lane - are you actually seeking justice or can you just, as George Carlin said, "spot guilty people [snaps fingers] just like that!"? I'll admit, there was one moment in this episode that worked for me. The scene where Uncovered talks to the prosecutor about how he blames people like him for starting the war that destroyed so many lives, including theirs. It's nice to go back to that context of this being after WWII (was almost feeling like we lost the thread entirely). I don't appreciate that this turned into an excuse to finally give the prosecutor context for what happened at the "school," or that he claims it's not real when there are now news stories about, you know, someone who was about to win a mayoral race but was caught admitting to all the crimes Uncovered is talking about... feels like that might be newsworthy. Didn't love the timing of the girl's arrival to tell the story about her rape, felt too coincidental. How they convinced her to tell her story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, either. The power of friendship strikes again, I guess. Seriously, this show cannot decide whether it wants to be shonen or seinin, and it continues to frustrate me. I also don't know why the prosecutor had to give a backstory for a friend in Manchuria, which might have been a good way to reconnect to the war, but instead this gets used for a weird connection to Uncovered's father, which makes his absolute dismissal of Uncovered all the more confounding. Anyway, all of this comes together into a fine that Mario has to pay rather than being subject to prison time, just in time for a happy ending where everyone meets back at the tree and Mario gets his job back. A sloppy episode with a rushed resolution and a frustratingly inconsistent antagonist. Seems like this is what we're doing now: a series of short arcs where something happens and the friends rally to address it. Hope the next one will be more interesting. |
|
| Episode 14 The revenge arc, in which Dr. Sasaki's life is ruined and Ishihara left with a life worse than death, that of an insane drug junky. The style of the first season, which this episode concludes, I'd call manly melodrama and it's written completely over the top. I'm a big fan of that type of cheddar @23feanor, but usually over the top melodrama is the domain of the shoujo genre. Osamu Dezaki is the god emperor of the sub-genre, with heavy hitters such as Oniisama e... (1991), Kasei Yakyoku (1989), and of course Versailles no Bara (1979). Rainbow now takes this style (both visually and story wise), makes everybody a male, and then one more by going all the way to GAR grade machoism. Basically JoJo, just unironically. And the stills with the charcoal effect, that's Dezaki's trademark and signature cut. And yes, he directed Ashite no Joe as well, so the "white ashes" one in Bocchi comes from the same source. Of course the plot is heavy handed, tear jerking, just too much of everything like an overpainted drag queen's face. But I have to admit, the charm of this isn't really unlike those cheesy shoujos. It also fits that the author of Rainbow is an 80s artist (his novels, the manga came in 2002 only), which also were the heydays of the original JoJo and Dezaki's best years. Rainbow is cut from the same cloth, but tailored by a far lesser writer. The direction is far better than the writing here, just saying. Finally, the other elephant in the room is "Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin", the title (literally: The Seven from Compound Two, Cell Six) . Ever heard of a cheesy little movie about petty criminals, ronin and other outcasts growing into a band of brothers over shared selfless deeds? It's title is "Shichinin no Samurai", where shichinin is a counting word with the meaning "seven humans". I rest my cheese. Episode 15-16 Not much to add to @whiteflame55's detailed summaries. Mario is at the center of a 2 episode arc in which his helper syndrome, misguided code of honor and hot temper bring him into deep trouble. The "6-2 boys" save his ass by convincing two strangers to vouch for Mario. I agree the show now could use the pattern and walk trough the ensemble one by one with short arcs like this. But I'm quite sure we'll rather see more heavy genre shifts, the author really excels at those. And the next conflict is already set up, the arranged marriage of nurse Setsuko. It's Mario again who is the arc's protagonist as he was shown to have a romantic love interest into her. The show's poster has him in front, and we had multiple scenes where he's made dead Bro's chosen 2nd coming. So I would think Mario remains at the center, and the ensemble cast does the work. This would again be a similar construct as in 7 Samurai, where Kikuchiyo also is "more equal" than the other boys w/r to story points. |
inimFeb 14, 2023 4:26 PM
| |
| @inim I think you make an interesting point about a sub genre I have no experience of; over the top GAR melodrama, if this is a typical example of manly melodrama, then it's not for me. I haven't watched any of the shoujo shows you mentioned but know what you mean, and tbh I find exaggerated shoujo tropes appealing (thinking of Utena and Penguindrum here, although Penguindrum isn't a shoujo but has many shoujo tropes). I steered clear of Jojo because of the over the top GAR look, but when I got around to watching it, really enjoyed it, but Jojo is tongue in cheek with a healthy does of comedy. The only other over the top GAR show on mal graph I really enjoyed was Black Lagoon, which is played straight, not much outright comedy but witty, and gets the balance right. Rainbow just doesn't work for me, it's too rushed, whiplash genre shifts, and the dissonance between the actions and dialogue of the characters and the cheesy narration is very jarring. I love the still images with the heavy purples and brush stroke effect, plus rock OST is very good. Episode 16. I'm not going to add much except this show sure likes it's rape and forced prostitution, don't think I've seen so much rape and reference to it outside of hentai (you get plenty of brothels in lots of shows, but not explicit rape imagery like Rainbow). So Mario is out now and onto the next mini arc, where my guess is that Setsuko turns him down. |
|
| Episode 17 I’ll keep this brief because there’s not much to cover. I expected us to spend a couple of episodes dragging out this Setsuko/Mario romance arc, but we barely make it to half an episode before it abruptly ends with Setsuko getting married and Mario seeing her off… seriously? It’s another half-baked romance with extremely little reason for existing and it falls apart as fast as it came together. Oh well, at least they had a sex scene, so I guess there was more romantic development than with Bro, even if the reason for this relationship’s existence is virtually nonexistent. The second half of the episode starts Joe’s arc and… yeah, there’s more sexual abuse for him because we started down this rabbit hole and now we have to see it to the grotesque end. Also, we continue on the “every antagonist is a dick” train with Joe getting an opportunity to sing only to be beaten for it and threatened with swallowing mercury, which would destroy his voice. FYI, as far as I know, this is bullshit. He’s likely to suffer more from the melting or broken glass on his lips - it tends to just run through your system unless you have internal bleeding, which he might after that beating, but it shouldn’t affect his voice for long unless he literally breathes it in instead of swallowing it. More on that here: https://www.vinmec.com/en/news/health-news/general-health-check/can-a-broken-thermometer-cause-mercury-poisoning/ |
|
| Episode 17. I thought the first half of this episode was ok, we got the shows first comedic moment when Uncovered runs away from a granny prostitute, then finally goes with a hot looking lady only to 'arrive to early' and apologise. Setsuko does confirm to Mario that she'll marry the arranged fiancée, however, they then proceed to sleep together whilst the narrator gives us some more cheese about how "the blinding love that Setsuko and Mario share will be over in one night, a bright flash like a firework....". Not sure why we got a sex scene with Setsuko and Mario but not one with Bro and Setsuko, maybe the show didn't want her looking too easy? Anyway, Mario gets over it and Setsuko gets married. Was all a bit confusing as Setsuko confesses to Mario she's still not over Bro but then sleeps with Mario and next day marries another guy, difficult times and her parents forced her into the marriage I guess. Joe gets a break covering an absent vocalist and then promptly gets beaten up by the band he's working for as an assistant. Then he gets an offer from an older lady, sexual favours for a chance to make it big. For some reason, to me it always seems worse when a woman gets taken advantage of by a guy, compared to when a guy gets taken advantage of by a woman. If I was Joe, I'd be like hell yeah to the ladies offer, although the orphanage big mama would have been a different story. I forgot about Meg, she's likely pregnant with her adoptive dads kid by now. @whiteflame55 I also thought that sounded like bs with the mercury, i thought maybe the guy was just trying to scare Joe. |
|
| Episode 18 I'm still not the biggest fan of Joe's overall aim. His goal is to become famous so that his sister can find her way to him instead of him having to try and find her. He has no reason to believe that she would or even could seek him out, and generally it feels like a really roundabout way to accomplish his goal. Oh well, whatever keeps him going, it just feels like a weak reason to take this route, specifically. His cold shoulder routine with Turtle is also weird. If the goal is to avoid revealing his relationship with this woman, then I don't know why - Turtle already knows about his past. If his goal is to isolate himself so that he can have the best chance of becoming a star, then I have to ask what he thinks he gains from that isolation. If it's the woman's goal to isolate him from his friends, again, why? There should be a purpose to it, but it's all so opaque. Maybe it's to create some distance between him and his past, but it's not like his record disappears just because he's not hanging out with them anymore. Still, nice of the guys to give him the space to do what he needs to do without knowing what's going on. Anyway, for all the ick, this woman does seem to be earnestly trying to help Joe succeed. The dudes who beat him up last episode are now after his spot in a music festival, but his manager is surprisingly deft at dealing with them despite being threatened with a hidden weapon. Turns out, she has a gang at her back. Finally, a character who seems prepared to deal with this BS, not that it's over yet. In the waning time before the concert (which will land on the anniversary of Bro's death), Turtle gets a ticket and, somewhat surprisingly, Meg decides to attend (guess it worked). Before it can happen, though, the band returns and holds his manager at gunpoint. Seriously, why are they inviting a possible war with a notorious gang just to get into a festival? Is it that important? Joe sends a child to go collect Mario in the hopes that he can address this situation... by punching I guess. The drama in this episode just feels so forced, and whatever the resolution, I doubt it's going to make a lot of sense. |
|
| Episode 18. As soon as I read the beginning of your review @whiteflame55 and the mention of Meg I thought to myself, Meg is going to improbably turn up later this episode and she does. She must have run away from the adoptive father (or become old enough to leave) and is now a hostess/prostitute (the narrator adds that Meg did 'everything she could' to get where she is and then we see her with a gentleman pleading for sex at whatever cost). Joe lands a spot in a concert, but his old band aren't happy and try to hijack his place. Lucky for Joe, his manager is backed by the yakuza, and this frightens them off, but only for a bit as they come back for revenge. Will Mario be able to make it in time to save Joe and his manager and will Joe play before his sister? More melodrama that I don't care about. I did like the OST in this episode. |
|
More topics from this board
Sticky: » Discuss the Series You Just Finished ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )Chelle - Jul 27, 2009 |
2913 |
by OrlahEhontas
»»
7 hours ago |
|
» The Heroic Legend of Arslan (2015) - May 2024 Group Watchwhiteflame55 - May 19 |
46 |
by whiteflame55
»»
11 hours ago |
|
» Secret of Cerulean Sand (2002) ( 1 2 )whiteflame55 - Apr 26 |
72 |
by 23feanor
»»
May 23, 12:50 AM |
|
Sticky: » New Member Introductions ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )Chelle - Oct 3, 2009 |
836 |
by Evans_Born
»»
May 21, 5:09 PM |
|
» Kobato (2009) - April 2024 Group Watch ( 1 2 )23feanor - Apr 2 |
54 |
by filifjonkan
»»
May 6, 7:49 AM |