Anime Discussion Thread - Page 2361

First of all, the biggest problem I had with MLA was the pacing. After getting through all of MLE/MLU, I still have to get through half of MLA before any BETA battles. I would've liked SOMETHING with BETA to appear like maybe have an appearance in the coup arc. The entire repeat was really tiresome, even if it was understandable; I'm just glad I didn't have to deal with Class Rep Ayamine drama again. However, since most of it was a "time repeat" I can see how it would be hard to explain any appearance of BETA that way. That aside, I felt like a lot of the dialogue was really drawn out. Takeru seems to love repeating himself and using a million examples to explain why he thinks a certain way. He says pretty much the same stuff in a different way to different characters and it gets really tiresome. I can't say the conversations were meaningless, but they were oftentimes a lot longer than they needed to be to get the point across. This also goes for explaining all the "science." Like, it's fine if you're trying to justify every single thing but in the end, this is all fake lol science so I don't think it's necessary to explain every single detail. And in the end, Yuuko always has to dumb it down for Takeru anyway, so I guess it's just there to make science nerds feel good but as a science nerd, I did not feel good reading a bunch of bs science.

Coup arc was a disappointment because I was expecting BETA but as a political arc, it was interesting. Not so much the action, but the character interaction was quite enjoyable. Such as the American soldiers who have their own opinions but still act in a logical and respectable manner or the Meiya Yuuhi relationship reveal. It provides a solid explanation of how Japanese politics stand in this world without the need for boring lectures. Btw, I like Yuuhi a lot more than Meiya despite them being twins and holding similar beliefs. I think her softer voice really won me over :3 In the end, a good arc but nothing on the level that made me glad to have gotten through the past ~40 hours. I think I’m missing some of my initial reactions but I’ve forgotten them lol.

First BETA battle: more disappointment. I’m totally fine with Takeru literally pissing his pants as it’s his first real encounter but I would’ve liked to see some kind of battle with other Eishi. Marimo death: I’m sorry, I laughed at this part but hear me out. The instant I see nomnom, I realized the entire scene was a giant deathflag staring me in the face that I didn’t recognize. That’s why I laughed. The death itself was sadness ;; as I wasn’t expecting her to die in that manner. However, her second death was predictable as was the reasoning, I guess cause I’ve seen too much stuff with parallel worlds. Sentenal mentioned my dick being blitzed, so Sumika’s scene was also expected but still sad. The PTSD arc as a whole just served to frustrate me with how much Takeru suffering I had to read through. I’m okay with some of it and I know it served to harden his resolve but it felt longer than necessary, maybe cause I was just annoyed at him most of the time.

Sadogashima battle: YES finally, this is what I’ve been waiting for. I have no clue what standard VN animation is like, but the animation really impressed me. The battles were pretty cool and Echo got his own unit :o It was a bit shorter than I would’ve liked (escape felt as long as the battle) but Takeru being a badass was definitely the most enjoyable scene of the VN. The particle cannon of the XG-70 was pretty sweet animation too. Spazer mentioned how all the deaths are pretty obvious, and he was right; I would’ve liked it better if deathflags weren’t shoved down my throat all the time, or at least throw me off with fake ones. Thus, Isumi’s death was too predictable; however, I really liked how she went out as opposed to Kashiwagi who was pretty boring. Isumi was a cool character; I’m sad she only lasted one major battle.

"The" Sumika scene, ruined by Elem as I expected. I figured it was either: Sumika gets slowly eaten by BETA as they tear her flesh into a thousand pieces or endless eight rape. I was certainly missing some details but the latter is accurate enough, though I guess the former must sorta happen at one point too. However, I'd say even despite expecting it, I found it far too disgusting to feel any empathy/sadness/etc. It would've left a much stronger impression on me if Sumika had said in less specific detail what happened but instead I get LOL TENTACLE RAPE PORN. I know it's an eroge and all but still, I find it disgusting more than anything else. Terrible.

Yokohama battle: very, very fun arc due to all the BETA reveals. The usage of diversions, saving laser classes, the intelligence and organization they showed with a clear goal, and the reactor as a transmitter reveal, all of it made for an interesting arc. The way the BETA just overwhelmed the base – partly due to numbers, but really due to tactics, gates not sealing, barriers being breached, the base being overrun as everyone retreats further and further into the base as they despair. Sadogashima may have been more exciting, but Yokohama definitely had the best execution of all the arcs. Incidentally, at the start, I recall complaining to myself that the BETA bodies did not play a role at all and how unrealistic that was. Surprise, they did! They even mention how it may have been a BETA tactic to use corpses as shields from the beginning. Good job with that.

Deaths/injuries from this arc. Haruka: meh, didn’t really like her character especially due to KGNE so whatever. Akane: hate her due to KGNE why is she not dead? She could have died and it would have changed absolutely nothing about the story except make me happier. Also, hate her character design. Is it just me or is her head abnormally small? Just looking at her made me angry. Kazama: wow most forgettable character in MLA. Munakata: her survival really irked me. Like, her injury was a result of Kazama not dying (rescue attempt into gg) but she did not die so no emotional consequences but she still got shipped off to some hospital. It’s like..they wanted to get rid of all the squad members except the real mains but didn’t want to kill everyone so she’s just kept alive for no real reason. Same can be said of Kazama and Akane; if you bother to keep these characters alive, at least do something with them later on. Hayase: sigh, I saw it coming the moment she got promoted to leader and then a giant repeat of Isumi. I liked her the most of the valkyries and although I have negative memories of her (dat NTR) I still liked her the most in the anime. Incidentally, I liked Isumi and Hayase’s character designs the most except for Sumika (ahoge too good). Like Isumi, I approve of how they handled her death and she was pretty cool from beginning to end, especially with the reactor transmission conclusion.

Finale. It was clichéd. Really clichéd and predictable. However, it makes up for that with really good battles. Ayamine’s battle was very awesome and her CG (featured in Echo’s MLA blog) was, I think, the best CG in the entire VN. It was very badass and her death was the best in the story. (lol class rep dumb, I hate you, you caused me so much pain with lacrosse and MLU stuff and you don’t even get a final battle or anything, just completely overshadowed by Ayamine entering god mode for an instant). Yoroi and Tamase was disappointing compared to that Ayamine scene but there were a bunch of animations of killing BETA and the arrival of the protoss BETA carrier was a nice twist. One complaint I have is they keep referencing numbers like 20k got through or 100k incoming or over 200k are on their way which…is meaningless. Like, once you pass a certain number, it just loses all impact when they’re only 5 TSFs infiltrating the original hive. I would’ve preferred just endless, uncountable BETA, but it’s not a big deal. Moving on to the final final battle.

The primary objective. The superior being. Not as cool looking as I would’ve hoped but that’s fine. It immediately halts Takeru with its tentacles and establishes communication. And then. The perfect argument, as Sentenal says lol. Either way, pretty scary to think the BETA original hives number 10^27 and are but workers for the creator. Is this Starcraft? Are they speaking of the Xel’naga? Either way, enter Meiya and the best production ever. I would’ve liked Meiya to get some kind of badass scene but instead, I just got really top notch production. More talking drama, Meiya gets infested by the zerg tentacles and Sumika uses plot powers to reawaken and supercharge the cannon to decimate the primary objective, then they shoot out as a capsule which becomes a rocket and fly away thanks to the giant vertical shaft. Too anticlimactic for me but the cannon was once again awesome to see.

Epilogue: Sumika cause all the time loops stuff meh, okay, had to be something like that or we get another 20 hours of hunting for the cause. Sumika’s love of Takeru so strong, wish she loved me like that instead. Anyway, as expected, Takeru gets to go back to his own world on Oct 22 and it’ll all happen automatically. Spazer complains that all the character development is erased, which I can agree as a valid complaint. It didn’t bother me that much since I saw it coming and it follows suit with the whole “nobody will remember your heroic actions,” not even Takeru himself. However, the whole extended harem ending was just…dumb. Like, okay, he gets to go back to his own peaceful world but they threw these extra characters in for pure fan service reasons. I would’ve much preferred a Takeru x Sumika ending which not only makes sense, but doesn’t need to send us to Muv-Luv Extra: Extended Harem. Like I said before, I really like Yuuhi so honestly, it sort of worked on me when I saw her, but it doesn’t change how dumb it is. Well, I assume this part wasn’t meant to be taken seriously so whatever, just not how I would like to have ended it. Also, you can watch the finale+epilogue here http://www.justin.tv/kazehydra/b/333377500 since I streamed it.

Overall, I’d say MLA lived up the hype. Best VN ever? Definitely not, in my opinion. It’s the only action-orientated VN I’ve read so I can’t really make direct comparisons. The action was really, really good. The animation was really, really impressive. The characters…well some were really awesome, some were cool, some were annoying, and some were dumb/pointless. Takeru is the only one with impressive development, partly due to the repeat from MLU. Meiya impressed me a lot in MLA but I can’t say I noticed development rather, she was always a smart, logical person from the start. Sumika too cute and wonderful and lovely and dat ahoge. Even 00 unit reproduced her ahoge powers. So good. Too lazy to write about other characters. The plot and reveals is where, well I don’t want to say I have a problem with, but it’s where it’s lacking when it comes to the question of true top tier VNs. MLA is action first, plot second, and personally, I prefer plot over action. It’s not that MLA had a bad plot but just that compared to say, the reveal of Little Busters or Ever17, there was no point where I was like OMG THIS IS AN AMAZING TWIST. I am not criticizing MLA for the lack of this as I don’t expect that from a story of this type (and honestly, it did a better job with those moments than I expected), but this is why I would not rank MLA as high as the aforementioned VNs. Enjoyment level though? Definitely higher, as long as I exclude MLE/MLU. Though that's kinda unfair as it's similar to how LB forces you go through a bunch of boring routes to get to Rin2+refrain.

Coup: I thought the action in that arc was great. Seeing the Americans vs the Rebels and stuff. Was the first time you actually got combat in the series. I guess if you were expecting BETA fighting, thats one thing, but thats more of a problem with expectations than a problem with the VN imo.

XM3 Trials: The BETA getting loosed at the XM3 Trials wasn't really much of a battle, so I dunno how they could have done it much different. Plus, at that time, the Valkyries weren't even introduced, and all the characters that were introduced weren't armed, so there wasn't really much opportunity to have them fighting, other than Takeru going berserk and attacking the BETA with a paintball gun.

wtf lol, you expected Extra Marimo to get killed, and killed in a way incredibly similar way to her Alternative counterpart? PTSD arc was really depressing, although personally that wasn't a negative. Plus they ended it with JAM Project

Deaths: Earlier you said you wish they threw in some fake death flags, right?

Epilogue: I don't agree with Spazer's complaint. That was Takeru's objective. He literally went through hell, and suffered, trying to fix his world and go back. And then finally he got released from that hell, and got to go back to his happy, peaceful world. Takeru personally saved the world in Alternative, so him getting a happy end like that is fine IMO. Anyway, if you want to read some sequel-side stories that happens after MLA, you can look for the TSFIA translations I've c/p'd into this thread. Most of them happen before MLA, but a group of them happen afterwards, concerning battle against the Korean Hive. Those one also includes surviving Valkyries, and Captain Isumi's sister that was at Sadogashima.

In the tenth episode it shows that big about Himari's past in elementary school. In the "book" after they try to kill the koi fish it shows her leaving school and she says it was her last day at school and everyone looks either angry or embarrassed at her, did she leave because of the koi fish thing or was that because she was sick?

Coup: the battles were fine, yeah. It's more a complaint of pacing in regards to BETA appearance than the arc itself. But yeah, expectations were a part of it.

XM3 Trials: Nah, my complaint wasn't a major issue. It's just at that point I was really disappointed at the lack of BETA so I would've wanted something small but didn't get anything.

2nd Marimo death: not immediately; however, when she was like "I don't need you to walk me home," I expected the death and when I considered the parallel world stuff, I expected the reasoning (die in one world brings about death in another) but not the way she died. That was too messed up. I'd say Marimo death(s) made me the saddest because they were both in situations where she should've been fine. The others use speeches to build up emotional reactions, which are fine and work, but an instant death is more painful to me than a slow build up to the inevitable. Also nomnom

JAM Project was indeed a plus.

I'll get around to reading those side stories eventually.

What was the fucking point of all that? This whole thing is way too "grimdark super serious" for me anymore, it's almost like he's just doing stupid things to try and seem mature and dark. Like, I said nearly that same thing last chapter, and he didn't do anything to make me feel differently, it's just... bleh.

I seriously thought Gantz was the coolest shit ever when they fought the vampires and that long haired dude died.

Her walking home alone was an enormous death flag. I think I actually laughed when they revealed the cause of death.


To be clear, I'm fine with him returning to the MLE world. What I don't like is how he forgets everything. Seeing Takeru revert back to the indecisive, incompetent fuck that he is in MLE just left a really bad taste in my mouth. In my opinion, having him forget everyone's sacrifices is sadder than if he had remembered. Yes, some of his experiences in the other world were traumatic, but through them, Takeru was able to grow and become a better person.

Him going back to the Extra world with all his memories would have just resulted in that drama of what happened when he went back after chomp, minus the causality stuff, I guess. He earned it, being able to get free from those bad memories, suffering, and PTSD.

Gantz did give one great thing in one of its latest chapters. I can now coin the term "room of truth". It is pretty much always bad to try and cover up each and every mystery at one time, while using a means which is never hinted at before. After we see it in Germany, I think that many would have gotten the idea that A) humans were the creators of the gantz ball, and B) godlike humans existed which either created or helped in its creation. Feel free to call me out on this if I'm wrong about something or I missed/forgot about something.
Now, it's just aliens made it, and they're just...explaining.