Silent Möbius Episode 26 Discussion

What did you think of this episode?

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Mar 12, 2018 7:17 AM

syncrogazer

Offline

Mar 2016

2038

THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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This series had some flaws, but I don't think anything that happened was wasted or purposeless. Everything that we were shown managed to be connected to something or other, and it all built up to the ending, even though it wasn't really a story ending, more of a thematic one. It was moe as fuck as well. Somehow or another they managed to smuggle some really cute characters and interactions into this anime. Overall had a great experience, even though I kind of wanted to see some episodic policing.

syncrogazerJul 14, 2019 3:38 PM

Aug 11, 2019 5:42 PM

glassknuckles

Offline

Aug 2015

984

The finale to Silent Mobius isn't bad; it's actually pretty good. The concluding episode is pretty strong, especially by working the uniquely female aspect of creating life into the human need for legacy.

So, Katsumi's heel turn was demonic possession. Ok, I guess that explains why it seemed pretty out out of character. If any character should cheat death, it would of course be Kiddy. "We have the technology, we can rebuild her...."

Silent Mobius is probably the oldest chuuni anime I know. The name itself is highly chuuni, and I only realized this now after watching it again in 2019 after having seen it for the first time as a novice anime watcher. The chuuni factor is evident in the "Western" names for Caucasians (Kiddy Phenil, Lebia Maverick, Gigelf Liquer, Rally Cheyenne-ok this one is actually pretty cool; Ralph Bombers and Robert De Vice actually sound kinda legitimate), and hafu (Katsumi Liquer). The spell casting invokes nearly every deity whether or not it makes sense to say "Amen" after invoking Cthulu. This is max chuuni It also blends together so many awesome things I like into into one thing, like Blade Runner, sexy policewomen, women with magic powers because they're women, cyberpunk, occult, Shinto priestesses. We're reaching late 20th century chuuni levels that shouldn't be possible.

However, the shortcomings throughout the show become apparent at the end too. One of these is the fact that Lebia's robot friends are somehow a part of her daily conscious existence due to her cybernetic implants or whatever in true Willy Gibson fashion. The problem is that the significance of these bots is not really explained even in the one episode dedicated to Lebia; Dewey doesn't even appear more than once prior to all this. The world appeals to me by doing a good job depicting post-apocalyptic ruins and doing some good atmosphere building in a couple of episodes (Brake In, Kagome Kagome, Tokyo Antique, Back of a Coin) but in general the world is underdeveloped. The Megadynes only appear in episodes involving Kiddy; their existence is only for the purpose of tormenting Kiddy. They're never referenced in any other context, such as walking around or doing menial labor. For comparison, Ghost in the Shell had the A.I. Ladies in Section 9 headquarters, for example; this is something that would have integrated Kiddy's story-lines better into the Silent Mobius setting.

There is a bad tendency to rely on unnatural expository dialogue between characters. Nami and Lebia are underused; same with Rally, who only appears at critical plot moments that involve her. Mana that takes over Rally's day to day management that she did in the manga (and thus erodes Rally's screen presence), yet Mana doesn't get much explanation of her background at all. Ultimately, I think Silent Mobius suffers from an inability to do the entirety of its cast justice, as well as a fairly inept direction for action in a lot of episodes. I doubt the production committee shafted Silent Mobius in the budget department at inception since it was originally slotted for 52 episodes.

Obviously, Silent Mobius would never have the budget of yet another teenage boy-helmed mecha anime (seems kinda sad that generic testosterone fueled boys would be more of a sure bet than sexy adult women), but it seems to me that contemporary 1998 anime The Devil Lady compensated with atmosphere, vigorous dialogue, and mood, while Bubblegum Crisis 2040 had cogent ideas though often limp action (but at least looked better than Silent Mobius, from what I remember). The designs of Lucifer Hawk are usually pretty lame, especially the ubiquitous mantra rays. I hate those lame manta rays lol. Bubblegum Crisis 2040's Mad Boomers could look more frightening at times. The TV anime could've tried harder to evoke the same dark atmosphere as that evoked by the Silent Mobius featurettes. Instead, the same campy pipe organ synth tune that I consider a kind of musical joke was used in each episode.

I think a low 7 from me considering the good character writing around Katsumi and Kiddy. Yuki probably got the next biggest amount of attention from the writing staff by the end.

glassknucklesAug 13, 2019 1:03 AM

Oct 25, 2019 5:24 PM

Confucius

Offline

May 2010

8122

I still have no clue about the fights and stories, but the nonchalant episodes with the individual characters like Kiddy, Lebia, and I guess Yuki were great. Nami could probably be removed from the show and nothing would happen.

Even when I was in crowd, I was always alone

Oct 29, 2019 5:47 PM

Rod_Russ

Offline

Jun 2013

578

I think they planned a second season.

Jan 12, 2021 6:45 PM

Recynon

Offline

Dec 2019

384

Bubblegum Crisis 2040 sucked in pretty much every category, including its lofty ideas, which are just a repetition of Chiaki Konaka's idea of human evolution. The Devil Lady probably also sucks because it's also written by Konaka, and a quick glance at the Wiki summary shows that it's about... the next stage of human evolution.

If you're talking about Bubblegum Crisis 2033 then there's a comparison with Silent Mobius, because both have an element of fun and character chemistry.

Here's my breakdown of the series:

Character personalities: 0/4. Extremely generic personalities that play their archetypes straight.

Character tone: 3/4. Characters support each other, the tone is a good mix of positive and negative, and there are good character interactions. The boyfriend-girlfriend interactions are mature and natural once the relationships get started. However, the start of the relationships are incredibly thin, mostly because the boyfriends never had any personality to provide the spark for the relationships. Yuki's relationship is the most extreme example of this.

Character depth: 2/4. Most of the characters are given background stories that evoke adequate sympathy in the audience.

Plot: 2/4. Individual character centric episodes are good but ongoing storyline is kind of cheesy.

Thematic depth: 1/4. It wasn't until the end that I realized there was a theme of overcoming grief.

Setting: 1/4. The city wasn't very engrossing even though there were a lot of supernatural and cyberpunk elements hinted at. The lack of budget prevented it from drawing more detailed urban backgrounds.

Visuals: 2/4. Great designs for their outfits but dated rendering and very generic designs for the men. Poor fight sequences.

Music: 3/4. Very strong OP and ED as well as emotionally powerful in-story music.

Overall... I'm feeling generous so 7/10. Normally these scores would make for an 8/10--- a very good series--- but only in theory. In the last spate of episodes the show really dun messed up and wasted its potential.

-Aforementioned lack of personalities for the boyfriends and poor buildup of romantic relationships (relatively minor).

-Lack of integration of episodic backstories--- the problems addressed in the individual character stories were not foreshadowed and their resolution had little impact on the plot or character dynamics (relatively minor).

-Reliance on melodramatic plot devices. Katsumi's angst over her nature and how that conflicts with her desire to be with Roy has little basis literally or figuratively. Clearly Rally Cheyenne and her sister are able to function as human beings for all intents and purposes and Katsumi has never lost control of herself. Thematically speaking Katsumi's internal conflict is not one of battling dark desires or self acceptance. Ok, fine, I'll just assume Katsumi really cares about the stigma of being half Lucifer. But then they use this as a ploy to get Roy in a position to walk a thousand miles for her so they can finally get together, when really she already knew he loved her despite her nature when she had her doubts, so apparently seeing him love her even more erased all her concerns. Same josei tactics as Rose of Versailles. Maybe the point is that a man loves her for who she is and accepts her for all her flaws, but it just comes off as cheesy. Katsumi doesn't actually have any flaws--- it's not like she has a temper like Kiddy, it's not like she has actual mental illness that makes her hard to be with, not like she has trauma that actively interferes with her day to day functioning.

Ok, fine, I'll overlook the melodramatics meant to tug on the heartstrings, but then you kill Roy right after they finally get together to induce a state of grief so that there's an excuse to turn her evil. This creates dramatic tension in the plot but it's cheap. It doesn't actually do anything for her character and doesn't actually affect the plot in the long run. In theory it's about overcoming grief, but it's a reach to have a woman in grief be more susceptible to turning on her close friends and nearly killing them. In the end it's resolved by having Katsumi hurt the ones she loves but this was never part of her character arc--- the reason she stayed away from Roy in the first place was because she didn't want to hurt him, and she had little trouble making friends with her colleagues and trusting them with her life. So it's not even like the brainwashing trope made her realize what she had taken for granted either.

Anyway, so this whole scenario, this whole thing with Roy, was to set up a cheap plot device. Brainwashing is a lazy way to create dramatic tension by forcing one character to turn against another character and then have his friends turn him back through power of love/friendship, without actually having to devise good reasons for characters to separate themselves from their friends due to internal flaws.

-Rally's sister's motivation felt incredibly cartoonish because her whole backstory was undercooked and it seemed like a rushed attempt at more melodrama, especially since Rally herself barely had any presence.

-The villain's whole plan to manipulate the emotions of the characters like puppets on a stage just made the whole thing incredibly cheesy. "I shall let these two sisters tearfully reunite so I can stab them while they're embracing! I shall kill this woman's boyfriend so I can turn her to the darkside with this mind controlling sword!"

-Yuki's boyfriend suffered another death just for the melodrama. It revealed one of those cheap emotional devices that lend to easy tears but this had little impact in the grand scheme of things. I suppose it was about Yuki finally accepting her powers and letting go of the past, but the series never built up this internal conflict for her. It made it seem like her conflict was her loneliness which she solved by being with the AMP crew and getting with Tooru. It especially doesn't make sense when you think about how much her powers could've helped her beloved friends in times of need.

-The last episode revealed so much potential for the series. The groundwork was there for this series to be a powerful, heartfelt story about women overcoming grief and loneliness in order to walk forward together, especially given the backstories of Katsumi, Kiddy, Yuki, and Rally. Unfortunately, it never capitalized on it, favoring more showy melodramatics. The cast had great chemistry, but perhaps the series was too eager to have them all hugs and smiles, or too afraid to have longer periods of disunity to better build up the trust between the women. Also, the theme of rebuilding should have been echoed more strongly in the general setting and the people living in it because I never got the sense of people's everyday lives. They could've incorporated some of this by portraying how the incident affected the lives of the crew members and their living conditions in their individual episodes, which would have really enhanced the gloomy atmosphere of post-apocalyptic life, contrasting it with the mirth of the AMP members when they find each other.

Overall, a mixed bag with a lot of missed opportunities. But hey, the music is great and we got some good moments out of it.

RecynonJan 12, 2021 6:51 PM

Jan 22, 2022 11:32 PM

Konani

Offline

Apr 2009

1200

well, this was... an anime, i guess.
-most episodes up until 18 or so felt like character-introduction type of episodes, or made of a mostly disjointed narrative that told short, individual stories about each character of the anime, but utterly failed to make most seem relative to any greater kind of narrative.

the last 8-or so episodes finally had something happen slightly more in sequence, but overall the series felt like you cold easily miss a couple of episodes here and there and wouldn't have missed much either way.

a lot of the world lacked explanation, and the series finishes off with what feels like a hint at another season. -no other season was made.

i probably would have enjoyed this anime much more if there had been an overarching narrative and a red thread that tied the episodes together. as it is, the anime felt very lacking of a clear direction and most things happening felt random or out of place and unimportant for the whole "monsters are invading and this lady is the key to open the door between theirs and our world"
most of the series was episodes about the individual female cast and little else until the final few.

TL;DR:
not great, not even good. lacking of coherent linear storyline and keeps bouncing between attempting and overarching narrative and just episodic stories focusing on each female character.
the final 8-or so episodes were okay since they finally settled for a storyline to follow, but far too late and everything before them was just a random mess of episodes.

I like to comment Episodes as i Watch them.

Apr 19, 2022 1:21 PM

Fronzel

Offline

Jun 2010

1862

What good posts for the final episode thread of such a mediocre (or less) show.

Mar 8, 2023 7:54 AM

Destroyer31

Des31

Offline

Oct 2020

314

It would be better without that romance cringe plot

See All Discussions

Poll: » Silent Möbius Episode 15 Discussion Confucius - Jun 19, 2019	3	by Destroyer31 »» Mar 8, 2023 5:27 AM
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Silent Möbius Episode 26 Discussion

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