(CR) Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin (Alderamin on the Sky)

[AB079]

Leaving aside the character design issue where everyone has the same face with no difference, the series itself as a story and how this is being developed really catched me.

Ikta is a really good character, I can understand what is going on in his mind and why on some situations he acts so reckless like that one where he stopped the pricess to keep saying things about ikta. Yatori on the other hand... just looks like a robot with no feelings and reactions to anything and the only part where we can see a change was in the end of the episode, obviously the designs don't help to change this.

Anyway, this is going in the right direction and for me is a must watch, maybe I'll start reading the LN too.

[Tenzen12]

Well she show a lot of affection to Ikta sure it's not "I want marry him and have three childrens" kind, but it's there regardless.

[felix]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Well she show a lot of affection to Ikta sure it's not "I want marry him and have three childrens" kind, but it's there regardless.

It felt more like she's "family" type of relationship.

Or like she's his "best friend for life" but not girlfriend. It's a bit odd, but I like it.

[Harry Dresden]

Originally Posted by Applehell

I can get not liking them personally, but you have no real basis say they don't fit the settling. We don't know much about this world to begin with and mixmash cultures at this point. The existance of them and this being a war drama are not muturally exclusive. The spirits aren't portrayed like a throwaway elements either.

I am not talking setting in sense of lore. I am talking setting in sense of of the narrative sting that the story is framed around.

The show seems to want to tell a story of war and politics, from what I gathered in first two episodes.
The spirits in that sense feel like something out of a different LN.

Its a minor gripe but every time the show is showing them it takes me out of the story and makes me continuously repeat "this is a war story and you are talking to a pokemon with a cute voice".

Its the same problem as with Puck in Berserk for me.

[RDNexus]

Well, if you were to read the Manga like I've been doing, you'd probably start thinking otherwise regarding the spirits.
Oh well, since complaining to no end seems to be your only forte...

[felix]

No spoiler discussion please.

[RDNexus]

Rest assured, my choice of words were in account of that.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by AB079

Yatori on the other hand... just looks like a robot with no feelings and reactions to anything and the only part where we can see a change was in the end of the episode, ob

Then I'm afraid you missed all her reactions. The look on her face she had when Chamille talked about Ikta's mother, and the way she waited so long before stopping him clearly shows how much conflicted and sad for him she was. And when the emperor announced their nomination, she didn't rejoice (even though it was a high honour from her point of view, as pointed out afterwards by Ikta) but instead immediately turned her eyes in Ikuta's direction. Which means that the first thing she thought about wasn't her own benefit, but Ikuta's feeling about being forced to join military.
Once again at the end, rather than enjoying her promotion, she came to talk to Ikuta.
She's also really caring for her other companion, with the way she boosted Torway's morale and avoided him to lose confidence after his initial failure.


Talk about a robot with no feeling. In front of the Emperor, she is, in fact, the only person who thought about someone else before thinking about himself/herself.

[Tong]

This is a bad one for a number of reasons, but I'll mention something quite jarring in this episode.
Ok for an anime thats, presumably, about tactics and military strategies it leaves, like, ALOT to be desired. This might be because of a bad adaptation, but even then we can't ignore this first "battle".

1- Ikta is sitting there while 2 soldiers interrogate him. After that they let their guard down and get distracted, Ikta uses this opportunity to grab their rifles with one hand (!!!!!!).
Ok, one second, despite being a completely dumb and reckless manuever (and he's presumably going to be one of the greatest generals ever known!), lets take a look at how this happens. Pay attention to the distance between the soldiers and Ikta.

Spoiler for Images:

As you all can see clearly, it's a pretty reasonable distance! For Ikta to grab their rifles(!!!!) he would need to travel a fair distance... and for that he would need to: 1- Magically extend his arms at incredible speeds without moving, 2- Stand up, get in closer to grab the rifles (!!!!).
2 would be too slow and since we're talking about 3 trained soldiers vs 1 guy, they would probably notice it and Ikta would get shot down, end of story. 1 is more plausible all things considered, it would even explain why trained soldiers stood there shocked!

But since Ikta apparently lacks the power to extend his arms, like Dhalsim, then... what exactly happened? I can only attribute this to bad directing, there's nothing else to this scene.

For an anime that is going to be about military tactics and strategies, this a huge turn-off to be honest. And we're talking about a very simple and far from elaborate combat scene.
For me it's obvious where this anime is headed from now on.

I hope no one gets the wrong idea about this!

[Kuroageha]

^
Not a bait I swear! xD
______



That aside, poor soldiers they were doing their job and then an elektra complex boy causes her death.
At least he paid some respects yo them after the deal.

And the princess got ahead of himself and rubbed Ikta the wrong way..

[Darthtabby]

Unlike the last episode which spent something like a quarter of its run time in a ship's cabin, this one actually did feel too fast paced. Or at least like it felt like it was jumping around a lot.

Its a good thing there was that scene with Ikta paying his respects to the soldiers, because between his behaviour last episode and what he did to them after he convinced them he was a refugee who they seemed ready to help he was getting pretty dislikeable. (Anyone feel he might have been happier had he just gone with them? The Republic seems like it might be more to his liking than this shitty Empire.) Of course, he then had to go and have a fit in front of that general later in the episode.

Actually likeability seems to be an issue with this cast in general. Some of the barely developed minor characters are all right I guess, but the gleeful, so proud of herself way Chamille talked about the personal information she'd dug up about Ikta was pretty off putting -it seemed kind of taunting, actually. I'm not finding the redhead overly likeable either.

[AB079]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

Then I'm afraid you missed all her reactions. The look on her face she had when Chamille talked about Ikta's mother, and the way she waited so long before stopping him clearly shows how much conflicted and sad for him she was. And when the emperor announced their nomination, she didn't rejoice (even though it was a high honour from her point of view, as pointed out afterwards by Ikta) but instead immediately turned her eyes in Ikuta's direction. Which means that the first thing she thought about wasn't her own benefit, but Ikuta's feeling about being forced to join military.
Once again at the end, rather than enjoying her promotion, she came to talk to Ikuta.
She's also really caring for her other companion, with the way she boosted Torway's morale and avoided him to lose confidence after his initial failure.


Talk about a robot with no feeling. In front of the Emperor, she is, in fact, the only person who thought about someone else before thinking about himself/herself.

In the narrative of the story you can see that, but as a body language the adaptation is failing, in part thanks for those designs where the only emotions you can get are eyes more opened or closed. I'm not talking about the whole picture here because I cleary pointed in my previous post my only issue are the designs and how is that affecting the way the characters show their emotions.

This being said, and again, as I stated in my previous post anyone can understand what is going on just by those little details in the narrative (you just mentioned some of them and I think you did that as someone who read the source more than just a viewer) but at least for me Yatori is acting like that while the one showing a lot of emotions is Itka, even the princess is showing more than her. Maybe is her character, maybe are the designs but this is my point of view as someone who don't know anything more than the reference from other people and some spoilers here and there about the source, even tho I'm still waiting to see more about her because I have the feel that she's going to change this gradually.

[Benigmatica]

Episode 2:
Well, this series has become interesting after the second episode regarding Ikta Solork and his parents having their lives end miserably. But since he became an Imperial Knights, it means that Ikta won't have an ordinary life I suppose!

Meanwhile, it looks like both Katjvarna Empire and the Kioka Republic shared the same god Alderamin, which Ikta respects the enemy who have died at the hands of Yatorishino Igsem.

[Tormenk]

Direction and story is good, I'm sold on Alderamin.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Tormenk

Direction and story is good, I'm sold on Alderamin.

Pretty much my impression after gulping down the first couple of episodes. Everyone else can complain about the minute details like animation-errors and sameface (really?) etc etc, but this series is good at the core level. It feels like Arslan Senki but with a less perfect MC who is smart and not dense or innocent around females, but lazy and prone to get carried away by his emotions and can be a bit violent sometimes. It also helps that this series avoids the trope of "future/promised king/queen" as MC (so far).

So yes, this series is a keeper for me for this season and will remain as so unless it dropped the ball and becomes too awful to continue.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Its a good thing there was that scene with Ikta paying his respects to the soldiers, because between his behaviour last episode and what he did to them after he convinced them he was a refugee who they seemed ready to help he was getting pretty dislikeable. (Anyone feel he might have been happier had he just gone with them? The Republic seems like it might be more to his liking than this shitty Empire.) Of course, he then had to go and have a fit in front of that general later in the episode.

Putting aside Yatori who spent most time dedicatedly supporting other characters be it Ikta, Camile or Torway, how exactly Ikta being frustrated about country sacrificing good man for sake maintaining good front make him less likeable?

[Haak]

I'm still not entirely sold on this show, especially with the characterization and the way it martyrizes the MC, but if they can tone that down and focus more on the other characters from now on then it might be good. Again, the story does have a lot of promise and it's still not doing anything fatally wrong so I want to see where it can go.

[Rokumonsen]

Well, it appears Ikta has some beef with the Empire, and hates everything connected to the military.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by Tong

This is a bad one for a number of reasons, but I'll mention something quite jarring in this episode.
Ok for an anime thats, presumably, about tactics and military strategies it leaves, like, ALOT to be desired. This might be because of a bad adaptation, but even then we can't ignore this first "battle".

1- Ikta is sitting there while 2 soldiers interrogate him. After that they let their guard down and get distracted, Ikta uses this opportunity to grab their rifles with one hand (!!!!!!).
Ok, one second, despite being a completely dumb and reckless manuever (and he's presumably going to be one of the greatest generals ever known!), lets take a look at how this happens. Pay attention to the distance between the soldiers and Ikta.

Spoiler for Images:

As you all can see clearly, it's a pretty reasonable distance! For Ikta to grab their rifles(!!!!) he would need to travel a fair distance... and for that he would need to: 1- Magically extend his arms at incredible speeds without moving, 2- Stand up, get in closer to grab the rifles (!!!!).
2 would be too slow and since we're talking about 3 trained soldiers vs 1 guy, they would probably notice it and Ikta would get shot down, end of story. 1 is more plausible all things considered, it would even explain why trained soldiers stood there shocked!

But since Ikta apparently lacks the power to extend his arms, like Dhalsim, then... what exactly happened? I can only attribute this to bad directing, there's nothing else to this scene.

For an anime that is going to be about military tactics and strategies, this a huge turn-off to be honest. And we're talking about a very simple and far from elaborate combat scene.
For me it's obvious where this anime is headed from now on.

I hope no one gets the wrong idea about this!

The first half of the first volume isn't about military tactics. You can't really have that as long as Ikta isn't part of the military. It's done now. So we're moving that way. The real deal will start with the next arc (from episode 6 afaik) but you'll already get a bit with the second half (episode 3-5). A bit, tho.
So don't judge the military level with what you got in the first two episodes, that's not what is important. Also, characters not being well placed on screen is something that is often corrected in BD versions.

[RDNexus]

So these 2 episodes were only, like, half of Vol01. I read the Manga but my memory isn't much good