Magical Girl Raising Project (light novel)
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Amelanduil said: I call bullshit that Swim Swim didn't die from a flashbang at point blank range. Her face would be burnt. Also she'd get permanently blinded and deaf, blood bursting out of her ears. Seriously, these things can maim you. Kill grown-up men, let alone a 7y/o girl. If only the authors had any idea how a flashbang works. In Mahou Shoujo form only others Mahou Shoujo can injury her. If Calamity Mary used that flashbang of course Swim Swim could be died because Calamity Mary's magical ability. |
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Szadek23 said: Zefyris said: I won't argue about detail here, and simply point out a huge difference that cannot be denied and change everything. Akame ga kill ended with two survivors of a battle royale. Mahoiku starts with two survivor of a battle royale. That's a tremendous difference here, but hey, let's continue ignoring that right :)))). You are not makng any sense. Why are you compraing the beginning of a show to end of another? that's you doing that, not me, and I was pointing that it was what you're doing. Mahoiku's prologue is a death game and at the end of the death game there's two survivor. Mahoiku's story is about the survivor of those death game and the choice they make from there, how they change after that, how they adapt, how they live, what do they choose to fight for and how they do it. AGK ends at the end of the battle royale. The whole story is that battle royale. Mahoiku's main story is after the battle royale. So I'm asking again. How are the two even similar? :) |
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| Well, it had a good art, the final fight was interesting enough to me, however the story was boring. If only it had some character development I could have given it a higher score. 6/10. |
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Zefyris said: Szadek23 said: You are not makng any sense. Why are you compraing the beginning of a show to end of another? that's you doing that, not me, and I was pointing that it was what you're doing. Mahoiku's prologue is a death game and at the end of the death game there's two survivor. Mahoiku's story is about the survivor of those death game and the choice they make from there, how they change after that, how they adapt, how they live, what do they choose to fight for and how they do it. AGK ends at the end of the battle royale. The whole story is that battle royale. Mahoiku's main story is after the battle royale. So I'm asking again. How are the two even similar? :) Oh that's what you, I though you were meant Clamberry and Fav with the 2 surviors. Now that I know what you mean: Stop splitting hairs. I'm obviously talking about the anime, because that's all I have seen and you know that. Maybe it doesn't apply to the rest of the series (I will never know, because I'm not going to read the LN) ,but it sure as fuck applies to this anime (aka the prologue of the series). |
| I felt pretty medium on that episode, and overall with the series. A light to medium 5 is my current score, and it will probably stay that way. My biggest complaint about the series overall was the fact that I hardly cared for any of the characters. For instance, Tama who was probably my favorite based on general design and personality, was never really flushed out. She was shy and a bit cowardly as she constantly followed orders, but other than that I basically know nothing about her. Just before she dies we finally got a look into her backstory but man its such a small slice, and I honestly didn't care at that point cause she was about to die. This can be said about most of them honestly, as we only really got to see a small slice of their character when they were in their magical girl forms, and their real personalities and backstories were only touched on, often when they were about to die in order to try and get you to care about them. Didn't work for me, so I just didn't care when someone died. I will say that I enjoyed the week to week wait to see who was going to die next. It was like a bit of morbid curiosity to see how it would all pan out. Although I didn't love the overall ending this episode brought, I didn't hate it either. "Mediocre" is I guess the best word to describe how I felt about the episode and series overall, it just didn't satisfy me though I didn't hate it either. |
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| Meh the whole battle was pretty tense then lackluster ending, I mean call me CRAZY but I wanted Swim Swim to get more beatdowns then stabby stab. but Ripple state was barely bad so o well. Wasnt really convince that the Snow White really achived anything throughout this anime, heck I feel this anime could partly work out without her...Thats how little prensence I thought she had really, sure inspired Alice and Ripple but damn not really enough. Overall It was a okayish anime 7/10 really |
| "You can't spell slaughter without laughter". |
| And finally Swim Swim's dead. RIP. You won't be missed. A decent finale. I enjoyed this show a lot despite losing all the likable and best characters. I'd definitely watch a S2. 9/10. Gotta check out the novel some day. |
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| Wrote my review on it. I thought it was okay... 7/10 enjoyment 6/10 overall. I figured Ripple and Snow White would be the ones to live because the front cover said it all and the initial pairings of two... But dang I really did not enjoy this THAT much. I've never seen a magical girl anime like it though so I was curious to see what it would end like. Swim Swim definitely had some screws loose. Needed to die tbh. But after that she just stabbed Fav and that was it? the end? gg? seriously? lame. |
3xTrippleDec 17, 2016 4:44 PM
| Dat score jump. Decent enough conclusion. The back and forth transitions at the beginning were a little annoying but as a whole this show was just ok. |
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Pythie's first appearance (based on the LN) is right after the land of magic allows Snow White and Ripple to become magical girls. In the anime they showed 2 scenes towards the end. One was Snow White "acting outside of her district". In between this 1st scene and the 2nd scene where Snow and Ripple spar and discuss their ideals is when Pythie could/(should have acc. to the LN timeline) have made a cameo. Hope this answered your question : -) |
I couldn't think of anything cool to put here.  |
CaramelleAngel said: Pythie's first appearance (based on the LN) is right after the land of magic allows Snow White and Ripple to become magical girls. In the anime they showed 2 scenes towards the end. One was Snow White "acting outside of her district". In between this 1st scene and the 2nd scene where Snow and Ripple spar and discuss their ideals is when Pythie could/(should have acc. to the LN timeline) have made a cameo. Hope this answered your question : -) Pretty much. I think I understand now. Thank you. |
Luke72 said: Ending was alright. I am happy with the 2 survived, but what happens next is very unclear. Wouldn't it make sense for Snow White to become a master and make sure that the next game doesn't kill people? Unless of course their refusal to co-operate means that this game wouldn't take place again, meaning no one would have to join a new magical girl death game. We don't know. Well, in the anime they said that other test operators chose to run their tests differently, like measuring good deeds or fighting monsters. Fav and Cranberry were as far as the anime's standards, the only test facilitators to use such gruesome methods. They were also the only two (according to this adaptation) to use the method of a social game as a cover up as well, so this one was one of a kind. Following that logic, bc fav and cranberry are gone, that test is done to. In this adaptation they are left just to continue stopping awful events on bigger or smaller scales. That's just the animes "logic" tho, I agree there was a lot of ambiguity towards the ending. KatanaBR said: I have a question. If Snow White destroyed her magical phone, she can turn back to her normal form? Haha, I never thought about that but now that you point that out, that seems like a plot hole. The presentation of that scene was a little messy to begin with. Also, @Zefyris definitely not trying to argue/cut in but in this adaptation there is really no indication of any character development that will happen to girls like Snow White or even Ripple. Until the past week, in which I read the LN myself, I would have had no idea that this arc was a set up/foundational arc. Again, not trying to argue but maybe you should give some people a pass here, because to the people who haven't read the LN, arc 1 is the beginning and end of the magical girl project story line. I've read up to the aces so I know about the basic direction the plotline is going. There is legit nothing in this anime that suggests that arc 1 isn't the end of this story. |
1290349450394aDec 17, 2016 5:14 PM
I couldn't think of anything cool to put here. |
| And it's over. The magical girl battle royale is over. Kinda surprised on how ruthless Ripple was in this battle. She even grabbed her cut off arm and splashed blood all over Swim Swim's eyes. Then a flashbang that Ripple took from Calamity Mary's corpse knocks Swim Swim out followed by a few stabs from a katana. A little disappointing way for the main antagonist to go down but I'm still happy with the result. RIP Swim Swim...you psychopathic grade school girl. 3/5- Felt a bit rushed, the final battle wasn't that good but it was better than I expected. Unfortunately, I don't like Ripple much though she has grown on me and this show made Snow White very unlikable. Having these two being the last girls standing puts a sour taste in my mouth. The only upsides on this finale is Fav is gone and Snow White is training to become a more physical magic girl. 7/10- For the series. The concept showed a lot of promise while all the magical girls designs were interesting with Ruler's outfit being my favorite. Having any Nano songs in the anime makes me instantly like the OP/ED and in this case, the ED for the show is awesome. Though some deaths were legitimately shocking(Pucelle, Nana, Speed), the majority of the other girls deaths were poorly written due to the lack of screen time and character building they received. This series was doomed to live up to expectations due to having an extremely large cast (16) with only 12 episodes. Because of that, you can't feel emotionally invested to any of the magical girls when they die. |
TehSnawnDec 17, 2016 5:23 PM
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| It was very satisfying when Ripple killed Swim Swim. It was savage of her when she used the blood from her arm to blind Swim Swim, then proceeded to stab her multiple times. I was also happy when Ripple took out Fav. He helped out take out the magical girls. Now it's just Ripple and Snow White. The ending was okay. As for the series in general, I didn't like how the deaths were anti-climactic. The fights were nice at least. An okay show overall. 5/10 |
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| To be honest, I really love this series and it was really interesting and shocking at times, but wow that fucking ending was so rushed and bad. I'm really hoping for a season 2 because yeah this didn't even feel like an ending... |
DoppidopsDec 17, 2016 5:54 PM
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| The best way to describe this is "a deafening silence after the bang that was the previous episode". While it does feel anticlimactic, it is suited to the tone of the series. SwimSwim got a rather mundane death. The one thing i would have done differently here as far as writing the conclusion, is for Snow White to accept becoming the Master of the raising project, and take charge. From then on out, finding things the make her unbeatable, like immortality elixirs and so on, holding the position of Master for eternity, keeping the project to a positive and mutually nurturing raising system. As long as she remained in power, nobody else would be able to promote any bloodbaths. @CaramelleAngel With this, Ripple only destroyed Fav's terminal (unless the magical world stuff was a misdirect and Fav only existed within the master terminal), Fav or someone like Fav could come again in the future. Unfortunately the latter part of the episode just consisted of Snow White going back to what she was always doing, however moderately tougher than before. So they all died just to make Snow White less of a weakling? Edit: I read something i shouldn't have. It seems the anime just ended on a positive note. This story writer has a grim imagination, damn. But ya, this anime has destroyed my soul on numerous occasions. Ripped my heart out and beaten it with a gnarled stick, until it's nothing but mush... Then this ending came around and did it again in a different way. I was hoping for a climactic conclusion, and all we got was a bitter mundane silence. This anime could have been top-notch genius, had they given backstories and reason to like/love the characters for like a whole cour before shit hitting the fan. The emotional investment would have been much higher. Amelanduil said: She was blown out of magical-girl form because knocked unconscious, meaning the injuries revert (unless dead). Just like how Ripple had both arms again when she lost her transform. Cranberry's explosive discharge was far more potent that a pathetic little flash-bang, she caused a tiny nuclear flare via resonance cascade; SwimSwim was only KO'd.I call bullshit that Swim Swim didn't die from a flashbang at point blank range. Her face would be burnt. Also she'd get permanently blinded and deaf, blood bursting out of her ears. Seriously, these things can maim you. Kill grown-up men, let alone a 7y/o girl. |
GenesisAriaDec 17, 2016 6:15 PM
❀桜舞う空〜 Cute is Power. 🔗CosmoGenesis Project “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” “A truth seeker has no patience for BS.” I seek only to improve myself and others. |
| Well this ending was...I feel kind of empty but then again it's only the beginning if you consider what the LN readers have said through the thread. I feel like I'd want more of this show but then again I feel like I'm just satisfied with what I got. I'd be very surprised if this series got a season 2 imo. So unless anyone knows how the sales are for this series, I personally wouldn't expect a second season at all. As for the LN, I'm not really sure if I'd want to dive into them. In a way I'm curious to see what comes next but then again I am just like...eh it was entertaining to an extent. So yep 6 to 7 out of 10 overall. |
| Don't believe the hype. |
| 8/10 thats a good anime. |
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GenesisAria said: Not sure if this part was directed at me but that's def a possible direction this anime could have gone, albeit that 1) would have made it a HUGE deviation from source material causing some fans to probably be angry, and 2) very much like Madoka as Madoka gave her life to stop the cycle (from what I remember, it's been years).The one thing i would have done differently here as far as writing the conclusion, is for Snow White to accept becoming the Master of the raising project, and take charge. From then on out, finding things the make her unbeatable, like immortality elixirs and so on, holding the position of Master for eternity, keeping the project to a positive and mutually nurturing raising system. As long as she remained in power, nobody else would be able to promote any bloodbaths. @CaramelleAngel GenesisAria said: With this, Ripple only destroyed Fav's terminal (unless the magical world stuff was a misdirect and Fav only existed within the master terminal), Fav or someone like Fav could come again in the future. Very true, in fact this idea is explored in the later arcs. I guess my point before was from the adaptations logic the suspension/end of this particular project allowed Snow and Ripple to be released from the death match. The anime does not explore any other possibilities nor does it try to create any uncertainty. Therefore from just the anime alone you would be led to think that they all "lived happily ever after" lmfao. Any questions that anyone else could have are just ignored by the narrative. Ambiguity was a poor choice of words, I apologize : -) but this is what i meant. GenesisAria said: Unfortunately the latter part of the episode just consisted of Snow White going back to what she was always doing, however moderately tougher than before. So they all died just to make Snow White less of a weakling? Edit: I read something i shouldn't have. It seems the anime just ended on a positive note. This story writer has a grim imagination, damn. By the animes logic (viewing it as a separate entity from the LN), yea you hit the note there. Basically everyone died to create 2 "strong" magical girls and provide entertainment for Fav and death matches for Cranberry. I've been trying to articulate just what exhausted me about the anime, but I think it's the fact that this bloodbath is just for nothing other than entertainment. I'm also not only tired of gratuitous and cheap violence that's everywhere these days but the older I get the more I'm disturbed by it haha, so I also just might not be in the demographic for a work like this. If you are really a fan of this concept i'd recommend trying to read up more on it. I'm still playing devils advocate with the LN as I still have problems with it, however if anything, it's been able to provide me with something I'd call at least interesting. I usually like to give adaptations passes as they don't have to be the source material but I think this adaptation really made all the wrong moves with the wealth of storyline they could have explored. But a lot of LN adaptations seem to be commercials for the LN (as in trying to drive up LN sales) so if it prompts people to go read the LN I guess the anime did it's job, right? lol |
1290349450394aDec 17, 2016 6:31 PM
I couldn't think of anything cool to put here. |
| Quite bittersweet ending, unlike any other Dark Magical Girl anime, nice one tho Still, out of all things I've seen in this anime, Cranberry's death was the most surprising and unpredictable. That scene got me This wouldn't get a sequel likely, but since Yuuki Yuuna got one, maybe someday..... |
 (っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥ |
| This is far away the worst Mahou Shoujo I ever watched. They used the Mahou Shoujo with a lame excuse to serve as a reason to the stupid gore fanservice. *sigh* At least Ripple stayed alive. 4-5/10 |
TechOtakuDec 17, 2016 6:50 PM
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| I feel like Snow Write is the anime's Jar Jar Binks. Simply useless. |
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| Well, overall it was fine. At best i can give it 6/10 since i've been pretty entertained for a good chunk of the series even with its flaws Snow white was easily one of the most useless and annoying mc in 2016 tho |
DatRandomDudeDec 17, 2016 6:55 PM
STOP SLEEPING ON ODD TAXI |
CaramelleAngel said: Well i'm more than just a little familiar with what it means to die, or be a killer; i've been up and down psychopath alley, and understand enough about insane psychology to pass as a criminal investigator. This particular series disturbed me in more ways than one.I'm also not only tired of gratuitous and cheap violence that's everywhere these days but the older I get the more I'm disturbed by it haha, so I also just might not be in the demographic for a work like this. This particular anime didn't do what others have done before, like Akame ga Kill, or various slashers. Take for example that scene where Calamity Mary is fucking murdering random civilians in cold blood just to make Top Speed come back and fight her. That was not cool. So not cool, to the level of disturbing i'm amazed is allowed on television. If there's one thing this series fucking nailed, it's the psychopathy. SwimSwim was the personification of pure psychopathy, and virtually every other character was psychopathic to some extent, if not completely retarded like the angel twins. Do not mistake this to be just another random slasher, because the way the actual deaths happened (ignoring the conveniently placed backstory death flag), are brutally realistic in their mundanity. And how Cranberry was picked off by a tiny mistake, damn that one got me. There is no proper demographic for snuff series. If you are really a fan of this concept i'd recommend trying to read up more on it. I'm still playing devils advocate with the LN as I still have problems with it, however if anything, it's been able to provide me with something I'd call at least interesting. I usually like to give adaptations passes as they don't have to be the source material but I think this adaptation really made all the wrong moves with the wealth of storyline they could have explored. But a lot of LN adaptations seem to be commercials for the LN (as in trying to drive up LN sales) so if it prompts people to go read the LN I guess the anime did it's job, right? lol I'll probably give it a read, yeah.A friend of mine read it in tandem with the series, so i asked what the fights were like (because i remembered a Tomoyo fight in Clannad - Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de, not having read the core VN yet due to it's length, but was extremely well choreographed, where i could envision the entire altercation with some martial arts background knowledge)... he gave me an example, and i have to say that unfortunately they're really abstract (only defining the results, not the motions). That would be quite the damper on the reading experience for an action series. I would like to see more of what happens later, especially for that spoiler i read that suggests Snow White goes downhill form here. I'm no fan of dark plots generally speaking, but when psychology is played on well, and it's got female characters, i can go with a lot more. |
GenesisAriaDec 17, 2016 7:32 PM
| ❀桜舞う空〜 Cute is Power. 🔗CosmoGenesis Project “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” “A truth seeker has no patience for BS.” I seek only to improve myself and others. |
| Well, it comes to an end. Execution was choppy and I really didn't like the art style-it felt too try-hard. Kind of a fun watch though. 4.5/10 |
| well that's the end of killings every week .. ripple able to kill swim swim |
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| @GenesisAria Well, I might have to slightly disagree with you here. It's true that there are some tragedies that are senseless and without purpose. Your right to bring up Calamity Mary as she really just wasn't a good person, as well Swim Swim who definetly had some issues. However I wouldn't call the peak angles r*tarded, there's nothing about them that really suggest r*tardation so I'm confused as to why you would categorize them as such. I wouldn't go as far as to label them "good moral people" but the older sisters actions especially were ones clearly driven by love for her sister which is why she was pushed to do something as to kill Hardgore Alice so easily. There willingness to kill in the first place suggests that they a)probably didn't take it seriously since it didn't affect them, and b)shows that they themselves aren't very good people/moral compasses aren't very strong. But what does that have to do with clinical mental r*tardation? (since you said you study real cases) If your looking at this anime as a psychological investigator that's fine. Not to get on a soapbox (i've been trying not to this whole time lmfao) but I'm more of a lit major type of girl, so when I watch and read different things I analyze their meaning or try to see if the series met it's intended purpose. (i.e. if a serious show wanted to make a point, did it, or if a comedy wanted to be funny, was it). When I mentioned the word disturbed, I mean it made me upset and disgusted to see little kids murdered, especially in a show that already was systematically killing and then showing a backstory in an effort to make you feel something. It felt cheap, and like I said before I would rather have seen a different arc adapted and this arc covered in a flashback episode, because in the other arcs the deaths didn't feel AS cheap. This source material seems to be aiming to answer the question "what is an ideal magical girl and how do you make one that interacts with more difficult issues than for instance precure", like bringing the magical girl genre into a more adult realm and away from their audience of young children/teens. This adaptation fails to wrestle with this question. As I said before it's not necessary for an adaptation to BE the source material, however to me, this adaptation isn't bringing anything new to the table. Yes, perhaps the deaths are closer to something you might see on investigation discovery but that's all they are- expositions of fairly "realistic" murder. There's really not much else that the adaptation has left to offer, which is why I would put it closer into the category of a slasher film. There's nothing groundbreaking going on with this adaptation and all you really get to witness as an audience member is violence (like a slasher film). When I actually do compare this series to the LN many questions begin to pop up in my mind. Does someone trying to get into this series have to witness every single death to empathize with Ripple and Snow White? To be frank, no. Not every single person in this adaptation matters in the grand scheme of things. Therefore imo if they wanted to explore a different arc, even the second one (which is another death game) only a small portion/explanation is truly necessary to understand snow whites backstory. I think if arc 2 and 3, or 3 and onward were adapted into one 24+ long series and arc 1 and the prolouge were added as flashbacks or character episodes, this story would stand stronger in terms of story telling and actual presentation. Whether or not you still agree with the violence then becomes a separate issue. When you have an actually well written story than you are allowed the room to debate what a series like this means to the genre, or matters of taste, but with a poorly constructed series full of formulaic shots of violence, I think it's much harder to do something like that. Sorry for the long read, I'm long winded lmfao. Those are just my thoughts on the matter w/o doing any major spoilers and getting on an obnoxious soap box. The LN actually gives elements like strategy and does quite a bit of world building, including elements like exploring the politics of the magical realm (to a degree) as well as actually trying to look at a theme and explore it. Because it's unfinished I can't really give any opinions on it (nor is this really the forum to do so lol) but if your interested I'd still give it a read just to see. |
I couldn't think of anything cool to put here. |
| Swim Swim is finally dead.....Yes! The show really pissed me off with the deaths (at least Ripple survived ^^) but ovrall it was very entertaining and i liked a lot. The end card was great :) |
| I liked the anime a lot. I enjoyed it more than i thought i would so 8/10 from me. The anime had some flaws that anyone could see and i think a lot of the deaths were not impactful enough. Like Ruler's death...they didn't even show the whole thing, i thought Swim Swim at some point would have a flashback showing the whole thing, but nope. I guess they didn't have enough time to make that scene. Overall the anime was quite fun for me. |
I despise woke people. |
CaramelleAngel said: Mary and SwimSwim were both psychopaths. SwimSwim was a clever child who didn't know any better, and Mary was tainted by circumstance. The definition for psychopathy is inhibited sympathy, empathy, morality, and emotions.@GenesisAria Well, I might have to slightly disagree with you here. It's true that there are some tragedies that are senseless and without purpose. Your right to bring up Calamity Mary as she really just wasn't a good person, as well Swim Swim who definetly had some issues. La Pucelle, Ripple and Top Speed were the only normal people there... Even Winterprison and Sister Nana had a strange servant complex and preacher(sister) complex (who promptly committed suicide without her partner). Nemu was an escapist. Ruler an obvious god complex. Tama was dumb and had negative confidence. Magicaloid was a sociopathic con-artist. Hardgore Alice was a sociopath as well (trying to understand her mother by personifying her death with her power). However I wouldn't call the peak angles r*tarded, there's nothing about them that really suggest r*tardation so I'm confused as to why you would categorize them as such. I wouldn't go as far as to label them "good moral people" but the older sisters actions especially were ones clearly driven by love for her sister which is why she was pushed to do something as to kill Hardgore Alice so easily. There willingness to kill in the first place suggests that they a)probably didn't take it seriously since it didn't affect them, and b)shows that they themselves aren't very good people/moral compasses aren't very strong. But what does that have to do with clinical mental r*tardation? (since you said you study real cases) GenesisAria said: Zefyris said: Aside from the fact that they're completely infantile, their schemes are dim witted, and they're incompetent in every way. Their intelligence doesn't really best that of Tama (who's mostly just lacking self-confidence). Their mental processes are purely 1-dimensional deduction, and the moment situations change they practically forget what happened before... They have not shown any ability to process anything beyond the given circumstances, meaning they can't analyze probabilities, possibilities, or ask important questions. They are retarded.Explain why they're retarded. They're childish, which is completely different. I didn't specifically state i study real cases. Also, there's no real need to censor your words, it's redundant. I study all kinds of aspects in fiction, not just psychology. But the important thing to realize, is that without psychology, there is no fiction. And without good psychology (or fluke psychology) there is no impactful fiction. I do a lot of literary analysis on a philosophical level and so on, after all, i have plans to make a groundbreaking fiction of my own. Above all else, a work of art must be true to itself; something that is merely true to it's consumers is more a product than an art. It felt cheap, and like I said before I would rather have seen a different arc adapted and this arc covered in a flashback episode, because in the other arcs the deaths didn't feel AS cheap. From a strictly technical perspective, i can see how you feel that. I mostly tuned out the fact that the backstories were blatant death flags, bat writing on their part, but that's fine, because they kept consistent with it. However, when you look at the physical altercations themselves, the deaths were anything BUT cheap. They were depicted in a way that was extremely harsh reality. Like in real life: when you shoot someone with a gun they just flop over as if their legs stopped working, no dramatic emotions, no epic recoil, nothing. The fact that they were so mundane (resultant of simple mistakes), is their impact. Refer to my previous comment about an alternative to the cheesed flashback timing:but that's all they are- expositions of fairly "realistic" murder. There's really not much else that the adaptation has left to offer, which is why I would put it closer into the category of a slasher film. There's nothing groundbreaking going on with this adaptation and all you really get to witness as an audience member is violence (like a slasher film). It's not like a slasher film though, because those usually just make people out to be cannon fodder for gore cringe. This anime was borderline snuff film, as you were seeing it through the eyes of the killers. Some cases were straight up murder, others were extremely unfortunate altercations, like any scenario, once you kill someone, the dominoes fall, someone retaliates from that death, and someone retaliates to the retaliation etc. Truly a series of unfortunate events. The anime depiction was almost like seeing something a psychopath made, it's fascinating really. Just because they don't add dramatic emotional context to every death, doesn't make them shallow, like in a slasher.Not every single person in this adaptation matters in the grand scheme of things. How so? I mean unless you missed stuff, they all played into eachother - like how Nemu made SwimSwim what she is by suggesting she could be a princess herself. Though i guess Winterprison and Sister Nana didn't really affect much.Don't worry about the long-windedness, you're talking to someone who studies practically everything i come across (especially the meta of it), and a scientist. I've seen plenty of anime, and they never really handle realistic-yet-impactful deaths very well. They're usually either barely cared about, are cheesy/classic movie style, or are emotional things which they really go into. As far as witnessing every death, personally, i rather have the full details of circumstance, than be left out of the loop, or have elements just skipped over. That said, a friend told me how La Pucelle's death was not shown (would explain why he had the most anime-like death) and rather just announced later... I can say that probably would have allowed more empathy for Snow White... Speaking of Snow White, i dunno about the LN, but in the anime, she came off as sociopathic herself (by that i mean semi-inhibited emotions). Her emotional reactions were rather vague/weak, and she was easily distracted from her own morality. She was also quick to jump to Hardgore Alice (and put La Pucelle largely behind her) because she seemed beneficial to her self-preservation. From the sound of her future in the LN, that gets more realized, but that's the impression i had. What's your take on that? Edit: Overall, in my experience with japanese writing (in anime, and from indirect references in manga/vn/ln's), is that they tend to really excel at concept, but fall short on the actual details and presentation - anime is really improving on directing in recent years though. Over time writers like these will come to understand their mistakes, and less writers will make them unintentionally. But yeah, the strangest part for me was how into it i got. I've never actually rooted for character deaths before those angel twins and SwimSwim. Quote of mine from episode 11: Again, really understanding what death means in the sense of their future extinguished, it's disturbing for someone who's done the 'dance with the devil' before. It actually promotes homicidal thinking in a way. |
GenesisAriaDec 17, 2016 8:49 PM
| ❀桜舞う空〜 Cute is Power. 🔗CosmoGenesis Project “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” “A truth seeker has no patience for BS.” I seek only to improve myself and others. |
| For a second there I thought the show was going to end with Snow White going nuts. lol Not the most original work but for some reason I had fun watching it and I guess that this is what matters in the end. 7/10 |
BlancchetDec 17, 2016 8:25 PM
| Overall a satisfying but sad conclusion It did leave me with a bit of hope though 9/10 |
| @GenesisAria Censoring is just a habit of mine lol. I wouldn't disagree that there was something psychologically amiss with many of the characters. Snow White's mental stability is something that is also a topic explored in the LN to a certain extent. I just personally am not the type to throw around the word psychotic lightly which is why I just don't feel comfortable labeling every character as psychotic, except for maybe Swim Swim. In regards to your comment about the peaky angels, I still don't see how that makes them mentally retarded. Yes they are childish, but there are plenty of university students who act like children. That doesn't make them mentally retarded, it just makes them immature. I know plenty of university and college students who still rely on their parents for many things, even if they live away from them, as well as many adults who act childish. Furthermore, although they treated it very much like a game, one the younger twin died, the older twin did begin to take it more seriously, as she saw the consequences once the deaths actually affected someone she gave a shit about. That may mean she's disturbed but it shows she's able to process consequences. She didn't just easily get over her sisters death. Retarded means something very specific to me so, again I don't feel comfortable labeling them as such because I don't think they fit the bill. In regards (again lmfao) to your point about categorization, I still slightly disagree. I will however concede to the point that the deaths aren't on the level of a simple horror slasher film. But in terms of impact, I feel like the way the series ended, the deaths only disturbed and didn't really do much else. In a similar vein the deaths in violent films like slasher films tend to disturb but not do much else in terms of plot. There is something salvageable in the non simplistic nature of each tragedy, however because of the combination of the formulaic presentation and the lack of any real meaning/groundbreaking content it fails to go any higher than just the violence. From what you've been saying your judging the series by the exploration of each death, but personally I'm judging by structurally what it all means in terms of the long view. I think also because I've read the LN, I know the source material isn't really supposed to be just purely a psychological exploration, nor did the anime brand itself as such which is why I haven't and really am not going to judge it by those standards (so from that standpoint we're kind of at an impasse). Also, what I meant by the comment of "not every person matters in the grand scheme of things" is more a reflection on the source material. To carry on to the next arc, I think every other character but Swim Swim, Hardgore Alice, Cranberry, Fav, Top Speed and Sou-chan (in relation to how they affact the MC's Ripple and Snow) could be interchangeable with literally any other character and still serve the plot just fine. Those are the only other characters mentioned in the arcs going forward. Although it's important to understand the death games and who Fav or Cranberry was I'd argue that for an adaptation with only one season, covering a different arc that's not so systematic may have brought better content to the table. Without giving anything away, I just feel like the contents of arc 1 can be condensed into really 1-2 episodes to make way for far more interesting villains than Fav and Cranberry. You could basically say that Snow and Ripple were in their own death match where they lost loved ones they cared about (cue an ep showing the deaths of just those characters. Characters like Nemurin or Sister Nana could have been omitted from an explanation like that or interchanged with a different character that serves the same function and really not change anything. It's not necessary to delve into the psychology of Swim Swim to understand how it affected Ripple and Snow. The LN author actually did this when he recapped another one of cranberry's games. He simply referenced a death, the actions of the relevant characters, and how it made an impact on the plot being covered. It was enough to give depth and context without detracting from the more interesting content being discussed. Maybe this arc had emotional moments, but not delving deep into it in favor of an arc with more interesting plot/substance is in my opinion a better move for a series like this which just wants to get people to read the LN(although 12 ep really can't sum up this book properly, I'll be honest. It wouldn't be great but it would be better). Knowing all this added information brings me extra disinterest to this adaptation, because not only am I left feeling that I watched 12 episodes that really didn't mean anything, but I also know this series could have delivered something way more interesting. I've watched my fair share of poorly formatted animes that still have somehow managed to be enjoyable despite the fact that it was a trainwreck. This didn't do it for me at all. Those are rlly my final thoughts on the matter : -) |
1290349450394aDec 17, 2016 9:05 PM
I couldn't think of anything cool to put here. |
| Was it only me who wanted an ending where the Master position was strong enough to revive everyone except the really bad magical girls? This was an okay ending:/ BUT OMG IM Happy that bitch Swim Swim died, she was so messed up. |
| I really enjoyed this series~! (people saying I have bad taste in 3... 2... 1...) It goes to my favorites list, even if my favorite girls died.. 10/10, love the ED song, loved the end. |
 |
| eh people keep calling this lame but I loved the series i will be reading the novels if season two isn't made this was better than madoka imo so to each they're own |
CaramelleAngel said: I wasn't throwing it around lightly either. Psychopathy and sociopathy are not absolute terms, they have scales ranging from minor inhibitance to complete inhibitance. Any lack of comprehension for morals, sympathy or empathy is an indication of same.I just personally am not the type to throw around the word psychotic lightly which is why I just don't feel comfortable labeling every character as psychotic, except for maybe Swim Swim. the older twin did begin to take it more seriously, as she saw the consequences once the deaths actually affected someone she gave a shit about. That may mean she's disturbed but it shows she's able to process consequences. She didn't just easily get over her sisters death. Retarded means something very specific to me so, again I don't feel comfortable labeling them as such because I don't think they fit the bill. Retardation means an inhibition of intelligence. They were at an intellectual level of children, so yes they were retarded, for all the reasons i stated. The second one thought she was safe from Cranberry by looking like a rock, but Cranberry is a cymatic(acoustic) type, so optical camouflage was useless... Yet another stupid strategy on their part (nobody with a brain would put their life on the line without investigating their enemy, even if it's for obsessive revenge, you can't take revenge if you die first).I find it odd that you talk about it not being groundbreaking, as if a fiction is expected to be so. You're kind of glossing over the whole arc covered in this series by saying all that about interchangeable characters and so-on. SwimSwim was built up to be one of the best anime villains i've seen in anime for along time. Cranberry was just a vessel/sideshow, she wasn't the real villain. Fleshing out SwimSwim was a very good decision on the writing part. Again, the only villain in anime i know that's better, is the one from Shinsekai Yori. A good villain is one you can hate, but also understand, and can see what made them into what they are (where their ideas originate, as SwimSwim was from Nemu); one that is realistic and can be sympathized with - in this case you'd have to understand psychopathy to understand she just wanted to be a noble person, and her limited knowledge of what it means to be that came from Ruler, all the murders were resultant of not knowing any better, and having no moral compass. An unfortunate misdirected life for an unfortunate soul, and the results unfortunately unforgivable. This anime was definitely not a trainwreck. I've seen loads of trainwrecks, and this wasn't one of them. The forced death flags and post-climax conclusion were the only real issues with this anime on a whole. (ps: i have a bad habit of heavily editing my post, because after-thoughts; if you could see edit count, i'd have many in the double digits) @MoaMahriMatoro I wouldn't call it better than Madoka, it's kind of a different genre really. This anime was definitely more harsh and slapped you in the face with reasonably realistic deaths. Madoka was for a happy ending, this show was made to make you feel empty, because in the end, everyone's dead anyways. |
GenesisAriaDec 17, 2016 10:05 PM
| ❀桜舞う空〜 Cute is Power. 🔗CosmoGenesis Project “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” “A truth seeker has no patience for BS.” I seek only to improve myself and others. |
| from nothing but blood and death this ending felt underwhelming glad swim swim and fav died though but everyone you loved and cared is dead for reals ,without a season 2 if it gets one they really made Snow White useless until the end |
 |
| @GenesisAria I think I agree. I felt it was different to have a more depressing ending like this. This felt like it had more of a phychological feel to it, but maybe that's just me. |
| @MoaMahriMatoro Madoka magica was philosophical/psychological in context, where this is more of a straight unbiased observation of situations consisting of conflicts between people with various psychological issues; most of which are different conjugates of psychopathy. @7jaws7 Snow White is a semi-sociopath, ie with inhibited empathy. She hid away for self-preservation. The 'true mahou shoujo' ideals were just lip-service. That's what she wanted to be, but she was far from doing. She had the potential for being crazy op by being a mind-reader (believe me, i've seen mind-reader exploits in fiction before), but she chose self-preservation over her vague morals. Though, the LN goes far beyond the anime, so there's probably a lot more to find out there (sounds like it goes downhill). |
GenesisAriaDec 17, 2016 10:14 PM
| ❀桜舞う空〜 Cute is Power. 🔗CosmoGenesis Project “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” “A truth seeker has no patience for BS.” I seek only to improve myself and others. |
| @GenesisAria That's true. I think I liked the unbiased point i for view better. This honestly felt like it had more of a mysterious feel to it. I can see how they are both psychopathic though. |
| @GenesisAria This it what I'll say finally, as in my last comments. I didn't mean you were throwing the words around, just personally I don't feel comfortable labeling them with a general word like that because I feel like it's much to complex and not specific. I still don't see the peaky angels as having such a lack of "intelligence" that they are mentally retarded, so we can disagree to agree on that point. Also, Cranberry was a pretty elusive character for most of the series. I don't think the elder sister really knew about cranberry, as much as she just followed the orders of swim swim. She also isn't a very powerful magical girl compared to Cranberry, so she'd really need an amazing plan to beat her. Even Swim Swim who was more of the mastermind in this series could have died, if not for Cranberry making a foolish mistake. I think it's unfair to dock the elder sister like that, any regular joe who's already following an 8 year old in a battle royale is probably going to make a foolish mistake and get into some trouble. In the heat of the moment, mistakes are easily made, especially if you aren't used to combat. To adress the rest of ur comments I'll bring in the more unbiased side of my opinion. I wouldn't label this anime a trainwreck, I just meant there were animes worse than this that I've actually been able to enjoy, this I personally couldn't. The fact that I found no moment in this anime enjoyable (nor could I find something positive in the heart wrenching moments) is an important factor to my personal experience as well as preference. Rn in my current phase in life I'm not really interested in just purely a work of art that makes you cry or explores violence. I came here in part because I thought I'd have an experience as I did with Big Order which was horrible and awful but also really really amusing. I didn't get that so you have to kind of understand how I'll approach something like this when it comes to the emotions I had involving this. I think I've been coming at this show too much with LN information in my head, your right to point out that she's a far more interesting antagonist than cranberry or fav, a point I kind of missed. Again, personally I didn't come to this anime for the psychological exploration, and therefore it's not really what i'm valuing when I look at a work like this nor is it what I'm judging, so again, an impasse, but a fair one. I shouldn't discount Swim Swim totally as an interesting antagonist, but the ending kind of didn't do much to strengthen the significance of the plot points of this adaptation, if anything it just left the whole thing very weak. I'm definitely glossing over this arc because like I said, I find it the least engaging of the arcs left to offer, however I shouldn't take that view when just discussing the anime so I apologize for that. I guess once my mind is tainted with what I could have had, it becomes very hard to look at what's on the table in front of me. To be quite honest I really don't want to look at what's in front of me like..ever again lmfao. I can acknowledged the wild card that swim swim is however, it's also my opinion that the things brought to the table I don't really value, so I can't come at this with the level of fascination that you have. Structure is very important to me, bad story telling affects how I will rate a piece of fiction. Enjoyability is also a very important element to me, so if that's not there I kind of want there to be something valuable in terms of what the actual #point of the show is- or it's meaning. Kind of like eating a vegetable, sometimes they taste bad but the shit it brings to your body is good for you lmfao. Like I stated before the point of the source material is to explore what it means to create an ideal magical girl. What is the point of the adaptation? That's not something I really know the answer too because of the amalgamation of factors that we've discussed. Because that's not there and it's what I value in fiction that tries to cover more serious topics, I can't appreciate the different realism to the murders or a character like Swim Swim because all she served to do is psychologically scar both Snow and Ripple, all so that they can (according to the anime) go back to doing in essence the same things they were doing at the start, albeit with a harsher view on the world. Assuming there is no se2, an ending like this ruins the story for me, and therefore I struggle to find the value in this. Also I want to make one last point and say, that if the point of this anime was to explore the psychology of a magical girl, I think that it became quite muddled with so many other elements that the only person that was well rendered was Swim Swim. The other characters kind of fell flat for me, so from that standpoint I think- again- structurally it's not well set up to support that point either. Have a nice evening or night or day or w/e lol : -) |
1290349450394aDec 17, 2016 10:28 PM
I couldn't think of anything cool to put here. |
| maybe the series would've done better, anime-wise, if it started from arc 2 - is what i'm getting reading all the responses from those that have actually read the LNs. not sure about y'all, but i think the anime community has gotten very used to the whole "magical girls gone wrong" plotline so that when we do see it, it's not that much of a controversial thing that would define the series - there's a need to get viewers interested if you want LN sales to go up so you need a different spin. now, if this series started off with arc 2 forward with a bad ass magical girl(s), people would probably be more interested in that. if you're trying to market something, as i'm assuming anime is for LNs, you want to present something interesting and then explain it rather than explain something that leads to something interesting - essentially the arc 1 may have done better as flashbacks, references, or a prequel or ova that would've complimented the arc 2 and present arc 2 as your main material, rather than have presented arc 1 as the main material. that being said, this opinion may have alienated the author who would want the material presented in chronological order, but from a marketing perspective it would've more likely led to a better anime success since you're trying to reach a larger audience rather than cater to the already existing fanbase. as it is, the anime by itself seems like it wraps itself up and is only a "magical girl gone wrong" storyline. as a whole, it's unsure if it has significantly motivated viewers to pick up the light novel - we'll have to wait until LN sales after the anime are released. in all though, as a mainly anime watcher, if i wasn't told of the arc 2+ and that the whole anime was a prologue then i would've written this off as just another magical girl gone wrong show. |
| So Snow White found everything out but it was too late. I thought they would kill off Ripple too. Justice has been done. Swim Swim is dead and Fav done and also Cranberry, they got what's coming for them and they deserve it. A bit sad that little child Swim swim died. She was easily corrupted. I guess with Fav gone, the website and app are gone too. From what I read in the LN spoiler. Ripple and Snow where contacted by the Land of Magic and as apology Ripple as given a chance to heal her injuries and Snow White to go back being normal again by erasing her memories and removing her powers. But they both refuse the offer. They left out the epilogue where another Mahou Shoujo appears. One reason could be that they never plan to make a season 2 and left that chance hanging in the air for now. IMO, the ending was alright. Justice was served. The two are doing their usual magical girl stuffs. 8/10. |
| @7jaws7 By hid away, i meant kept a low profile. Again, i never said she had zero morality, just partially inhibited. She was easily distracted from her "disaster relief" of Calamity Marry murdering countless innocents in cold blood. |
| ❀桜舞う空〜 Cute is Power. 🔗CosmoGenesis Project “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” “A truth seeker has no patience for BS.” I seek only to improve myself and others. |
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