Forum Settings
Forums
New
What did you think of this episode?
DO NOT discuss the source material beyond this episode. If you want to discuss future events or theories, please use separate threads.
DO NOT ask where to watch/download this episode or give links to copyrighted, non-fair use material.
DO NOT troll/bait/harass/abuse other users for liking or disliking the series/characters.
DO read the Anime Discussion Rules and Site & Forum Guidelines.
Oct 30, 2020 3:37 AM
#1

Offline
Jul 2017
13348
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
Well, this film is definitely better than the TV version, I'll give it that, but as a series, this should've stayed in the old glory days.

Disclaimer: This film incorporates some known background from the TV version, but you don't need to go out of the way to watch it.

The annoying detective Sonia Summers is back at it again, while a timeskip has Bem become totally human (though his traits remain similar and past memories lingering), and Bela and Belo having remained the same ever since the post-events of the TV content. In the end, she's the same useless pawn sacrifice that's done nothing to redeem her character, but give or take, her performance here is a lot more rounded with base.

Another evil corporation with the re-creation of humanoid monsters, that's the only deal with this film, just like the anime but without the tiresome padding, and Dr. Recycle's back with his new formation to force Bem back to his old self.

Eventually, it's the trio fighting against evil once again (well mostly Dr. Recycle and his infatuation with Bem), but the formula is one and the same, to which I find it MEH, however this is expectant of the anime that did the same before.

At least Production I.G did a decent job, unlike the unknown LandQ Studios that did the TV version with an absconding drab job.

This is only for the 3 of you who watched the TV series.
KANLen09Oct 30, 2020 5:09 AM
Oct 30, 2020 4:08 AM
#2

Offline
Mar 2010
13615
This movie was good but I didn't like how it ended :(. Sonia looks really different from previous series, she looks younger to me. This movie really showed how important Sonia is to Bem, so the ending did make sense. Even his wife has the same hair and eye color as her. His children also had the same hair and eye color as Belo/Bela. His fake wife having to die kinda sucked :(

The bad guys were nasty tho, playing Bem's like that. Burgress was weak sauce lol. The Count character looked pretty nice, sad that he dies in the end. I liked him better then the Recycle guy.

I'm glad we got some update regarding Bela's 'boyfriend', I wished we got more though. I am really sad of the end. Bem had to sacrifice himself for Sonia and Sonia had to almost die so Bem can upgrade/defeat the count :(.
Oct 30, 2020 1:05 PM
#3

Offline
Jan 2019
65
Fine movie but the ending sucks. I guess we will not see more Bem like... never.
Oct 30, 2020 1:32 PM
#4

Offline
Mar 2010
277
I enjoyed this more than the series overall, which was great because I genuinely thought the series had potential and had wanted to like it a lot more.

Also the ending song rocks.
Oct 30, 2020 8:56 PM
#5

Offline
Aug 2018
807
An amazing two-third brought down by bogus ending.It explored a lot of interesting concepts which the TV series failed to but the ending boils down to who's the strongest.
Nov 1, 2020 10:40 PM
#6
Offline
Jul 2014
114
The references to the first series where really good (i mean, the original serie from 1968); also, i think this is the first time in the franchise that we know something about how Bem, Bera and Bero were born, that's really cool. The animation was a little inconsistent, but the last fight was gorgeous.
Nov 2, 2020 4:52 PM
#7
Offline
Jul 2018
564612
Wow. That was nice. After watching the anime, I thought the anime was meh okay. I had mixed feelings about it. Maybe 60% bad and 40% good. Or worse than that. But this movie wrapped everything up nicely. I liked it a lot. Now everything feels complete and good. I wish that they would have just made the anime longer instead of separating it into both an anime and a movie, but there was probably a reason behind it. PS - There are a few seconds of movie left after the credits, LOL.
Nov 7, 2020 5:29 AM
#8
Offline
Jul 2016
9
The open-end the TV version left behind is nicely closed by the movie. I enjoyed watching it. Good direction and animation. It's sad seeing the life you've been living being a lie but at the same time Bem learned a little about what it means to become a human and live a peaceful life. His dream becoming real, even if that meant losing his life, is kinda sad and beautiful. Finally, I am glad to see Bela and Belo doing fine even after all that and that Pete survived. I am kinda surprised he stayed calm the whole time lol
MadaonaNov 7, 2020 5:35 AM
Nov 11, 2020 1:36 PM
#9

Offline
Dec 2010
659
Wow, I didn't know what to think of the movie until halfway in but by the end I loved it. Not quite happy with the bittersweet ending since I'd have liked for Bem, Belo and Bela to stay together but it was still a good movie. Production I.G really showed us some very awesome sakuga fight scenes toward the end but I was honestly more fascinated by the facial expressions.
Even though I'd like to see more of the trio (and Sonia) fighting some crime I think this is the end of this iteration of the Youkai Ningen series. In the unlikely event of a sequel I'll definitely be on board but until then I'm glad I watched it.
Nov 12, 2020 10:56 AM
Offline
May 2014
111
Yeah the ending sucked but I loved the whole part about brainwashed Bem in the town, reminds me of either a movie or a game with the same idea but I forgot, maybe an episode from black mirror.
Nov 12, 2020 9:24 PM
Offline
Apr 2018
2
-Hentai said:
Yeah the ending sucked but I loved the whole part about brainwashed Bem in the town, reminds me of either a movie or a game with the same idea but I forgot, maybe an episode from black mirror.


reminded me a bit of the truman show
Nov 27, 2020 7:49 AM

Offline
Feb 2017
2639
Wish TV series looked at least a little like this one. The movie had really animation, as expected.
The movie it self was good and fun but I really don't know what to make of that ending. I assume they can make Bem come back if they decide to make a continuation.
Dec 28, 2020 1:48 AM

Offline
Oct 2010
20636
I liked the TV series more, the whole belm thing was too over-the-top, why so many experiments on a youkai ningen? the animation was superb, the fights was great but I just didn't connect with it. Bittersweet ending.
I rated the series 7 and this one will get a 6
Jan 4, 2021 8:23 AM

Offline
Jun 2017
3346
I liked the TV series but HOLY SHIT, this movie was fire! Seems extremely underrated on here. If anything it's an amazing origin story for how Sonia became a "monster". I really liked her development here but it sucks she ultimately died of her own stupidity and Bem is "gone" because of it. :(

The trio won't be the same anymore for sure. We also got teased with a possible sequel but having the crazy doctor for the third time will be old if they go that route.
Jan 11, 2021 10:33 AM

Offline
Jan 2019
636
The first 2/3 were good but then everything started to go too fast after Emma's death. If I could change anything, it would be:

• Instead of putting Belo against a random youkai ningen at the end, I would've made him fight against Burgess. After all Burgess had a rushed and unsatisfying death.

• Belo vs Burgess and Bela vs Greta should've been a lot longer and more elaborated. After all those two were on the Count's team and therefore deserved more exploration and better deaths imo.

• Regarding Draco, I would've given him a better death than just making him appear at the last moment to get beheaded for no real reason in a "ah yeah, we forgot about this guy" fashion. I would've even make him the final giant youkai ningen if a sequel was available, cause that would let Manstoll escape.

• Dr. Recycle, once again, didn't do anything. I would've given a closure to his character, maybe even kill him, considering there isn't a sequel and his character is kinda one-dimensional. He's just there cause he's quirky.

• What was the deal with everyone on that block, including Amelia and Matthew? Throughout the movie I thought they were robots due to their repeating actions. But in the end we don't know what the fuck they were or why they acted like that.

• The fake youkai ningen Sonia? What's with that? It literally didn't affected the plot at all. Hell, Bem killing her barely got affected!

• Now this is a stretch, but if we got an answer of what happened to Bela's stalker friend after the TV series, the same treatment with Daryl, Belo's arcade friends and the little girl Bela gave to Sonoa would've been nice.

• Bela and Belo barely got any screentime. We don't know how they discovered where Bem was at the building, and in the end we don't know what's exactly Belo's future. Yeah, Bela will stay as a waitress, but what about Belo? Sonia said he'll fight for humanity but fighting what exactly?

• Finally, Bem's sacrifice was okayish, but not the reason why he did it. He has to die just because Sonia was stupid enough to run towards the giant monster? Too forced imo.

Everything before Emma's death was ok though. I liked how they set up the nice suburbs and Bem's human life and how he later started to realize everything felt off.

6/10 for me. Better than the series but it still suffers from it's overall bad writing.
Jan 31, 2021 4:10 PM
Anime Moderator
Offline
May 2018
763
I honestly liked the TV series a lot more than most but there were a lot of issues with it (pacing and animation stuck out the most for me). I expected the movie to have the same issues but I was blown away with how much I actually liked it!

It's held back by the fact that it has to tie up stuff from the TV show that wasn't fully developed (like Vega, they seriously just mentioned her once and then nothing?) but most of the rest is fine. We didn't get to see a lot of Bela or Belo but honestly they got enough screen time in the series that it was fine we focused more on Bem this time.

Not sure what else to say about this aside from the fact that I wish the main series was better so that the movie would be able to be fantastic.
Feb 6, 2021 8:55 AM

Offline
Jun 2013
516
I liked the movie. It showed a more human side of Bem rather than him just fighting. But there is no explanation as to how he ended up being tricked so easily considering he was the most intelligent of the trio. Still even for a short time he at least got to live his dream of being a normal human. It's just sad he had to die in the end after finding someone like Sonia who truly accepted him. I am still wondering what happened to Dr. Recycle.
Apr 3, 2021 12:25 PM
Offline
Apr 2015
11
I wonder why they didn't show his body? Where did he disappear to? Maybe, just maybe ...
I don't want him dead :(
The ending also had a weird mood. Like his death had no real impact on the characters ... and that scene after the credits which was supposed to be funny. This movie sure was a little messy.
Jul 8, 2021 3:32 AM

Offline
Jul 2015
9959
1:05:09 I really couldn't concentrate here with mah man Burgess having nothing down below there, even a little bit of censoring would have worked wonders.
Seems like Sonia still isn't the brightest for waltzing into the HQ without a plan. Decent movie (bit better than the series) with the confrontation against the humanoid monster creator and fullfilling their dream of living the human life (sort of).

Oct 15, 2021 10:06 PM

Offline
Dec 2016
1394
The movie was better than the anime. Though the movie ending wasn't satisfactory. If only Sonia wasn't dumb enough to run toward that gigantic centipede monster. Sonia could've lived forever with Bem if she hadn't done that stupidity. But I guess a shock was necessary for Bem to evolve into that form to defeat that monster.

So, Bem is now inside Sonia living as a human. He got his dream come true.

Overall 8/10
Mar 6, 2023 7:45 AM
Offline
Jun 2013
10
Seriously, is Sonia only a plot device to trigger BEM's boosted powers?

Is there a trope name for this?
Update: Found a candidate: Traumatic Superpower Awakening
badbob001Mar 6, 2023 8:01 AM

More topics from this board

» Did the movie get a dub?

badbob001 - Jul 21, 2022

4 by Kreshre »»
Mar 31, 9:37 AM

» New Teaser

_Weeb__Sensei_ - Sep 21, 2020

1 by Duygum »»
Oct 1, 2020 2:45 PM

» More info.

tsubasalover - Jun 29, 2020

4 by Thedoc_tv »»
Sep 3, 2020 5:53 PM
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login