(CR) Gen'ei o Kakeru Taiyo -Il sole penetra le illusioni-

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Kimidori

watched this because I played Persona 3, which have tarot just like this and did some read-up on tarot after playing it.

I feel all character personality fit their card but Seira (Star), IMO she would fit Justice or Strength or maybe even The Chariot better.

http://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card...r-arcana/star/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sta...d)#Description

The Star arcana is typically shown with a woman pouring water from two vials: one into the pond, and one into the land. Typical interpretations have the water pouring into the pond to mean nurturing the subconscious, while pouring water onto the land means naturing the real and practical, suggesting a balance of both where the person is at harmony with herself. She knows where she belongs and knows where she wants to go with her life.

More than likely, Seira's ice powers are supposed to be frozen water, with her tarot being inverted to show that she has deep issues and isn't really clear on how to improve or solve them... though I'm just making a leap of faith that the artist did design the characters with the tarot in mind and didn't just design elemental magical girls with the tarot motif tacked on later.


Either way, it more or less suggests that Seira is being unfriendly solely because of personal problems that will be addressed in her own character arc in a later episode.

The reason why I'm not happy with that is because depending on how it will be handled, it can be a generic development where after Seira gets her problems solved, she will be more or less just "the girl who is on Akari's team" with no individuality or personal motivation driving her to fight left, other than the lukewarm "I need to help the people who helped me because that's what I learned from my character arc!" justification.

[MisaoFan]

Spoiler for Episode 5:

A much more lighthearted character-specific episode centered on Ginka. She's an outgoing, cheerful daughter of a convenience store president and has a penchant for delicious food. Unfortunately, there's someone else that give her a sign of happiness, and when he's possessed by a Daemonia, she doesn't have any chance but to kill him off despite the fact that she does not want to lose someone precious in her own mind. Money is the main motto of her family, and we suddenly discover that the mysterious silver-haired boy, who was implied to be the antagonist since his first appearance last week, had a ability to use a wide range of disguisment, like how he's able to transform into a glamorous woman during the party, and the little girl that gives the salaryman some sort of despair is likely another disguise of his. Problems are solved for Ginka, but it seems like Luna feels something strange when looking at Akari talking to someone else alone, but we'll see next episode, which was apparently Seira's own turn of character episodes.

[Deltaray]

So we have Loli and Shota who are same person, I'm internally confused.

[J the Drafter]

I'm still planning to watch this show, but it is starting to disappoint me. I was willing to give it a chance because I hoped that it would explore the hearts of the main characters. This episode was a fair try, but the show seems to have trouble making ideas evident through it's portrayal of events. It's telling instead of showing, in other words. We're told about how Ginka's uncle was nice to her and her dad. While the flashbacks do a very small bit of showing, the episode didn't come close to building Ginka and Honda's connection up to the point where I felt sad at Honda's death. I didn't feel bad for Ginka either, a situation not improved by Ginka's non-reaction at the end of the episode. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with Ginka putting on a mellow public face, but if Ginka isn't portrayed as affected by taking Honda's life, why should I take it for granted that Ginka is saddened by it? And if Ginka really is at peace with killing her uncle, then what was the point of this episode in the first place?

Korval, over at Wiki Tropes, expressed the idea that in stories, the logical ramifications of actions or events should be acknowledged. I'm going to use an example from "Legend of Korra". When Korra sees some gang members causing trouble she promptly heads over to fight them. Korra sends the gangsters packing, but does some damage to the area of the city she was fighting in. The police show up at the tail end of the fight, and along with arresting the gangsters, they haul Korra off too--since she destroyed public property. Korra acted recklessly and paid for it. Korval actually commented on this plot thread, and he praised the writers for acknowledging the consequences of Korra's vigilantism. In episode 5 of "Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou" Ginka loses someone who's been a very important figure in her life, and yet by all indications this event will have zero impact on heir outlook or behavior. It's too early to say for certain, of course. The authors may very well be setting up a future plotline. But every indication the show has given us is that the loss of Ginka's uncle holds no long-term consequence.

Not only is it poor story-telling to not consider the consequences of events, it also cuts off an opportunity to exploring or develop the characters of Ginka and those around her.

Edit: I could have done better in typing this up. Ginka did act worried about Honda and she was relieved when his business recovered, so there was a bit more showing than I mentioned up top. It still wasn't enough to make me care that Honda died, or that Ginka was the one who killed him. Thinking about it, the point of the episode may have been to find a good reason to make Ginka take Akari's hand and open herself to the Daeamonic voices. One thing the show has done so far is lay down plot threads, after all.

[Triple_R]

I have mixed feelings about Episode 5.

I think in some respects, it's very well-written. The plot is tight, and this episode is the sort of narrative that probably looks really good in script format. In other words, they gave Ginka a nice backstory, and it was very neat how her personal relationships tied into the main conflict of this episode. I also felt that the climax of the action scene was very well-handled.

That being said, I see where J the Drafter is coming from. I suppose it could just be that Ginka is made of much sterner stuff than what we've been led to believe, but it's almost a bit eerie how calm and how all-smiles she is while chatting with Akari at the end of the episode. Also, in general, it feels like the girls are maybe a bit too calm and relaxed about all of this? They've really settled into their roles. Even Akari seems to have come to terms with killing these people. She just wants to make the point of listening to them before the execution/assassination happens.

Now, it's certainly possible that this is all leading somewhere. Perhaps these girls are just putting on brave faces and one day they'll emotionally snap like nobody's business. There's also the fact that while having these girls angsting and crying all the time might be more realistic, it also probably wouldn't be the most enjoyable of viewing experiences. It may get old after awhile.

Still, it's hard to see where this show is going with all of this. It almost seems to be justifying it, really. It seems to be saying that sad as this all is, it's for the best, and Akari is just going to keep going along with it. Which I suppose is a bold message in some ways, but it's also one that would render the differences between Akari and Seira kind of moot. I mean, it's kind of like people arguing humane execution vs. harsh execution when the larger and probably more interesting topic is capital punishment itself.

OTOH, Luna's approach towards Akari is pretty interesting to me, and I think it holds real potential. Luna is clearly growing very attached to Akari, and I think that Luna might have been feeling some jealousy at the end of this episode when she saw Akari talking with Ginka. I wouldn't be surprised if Luna has a yuri crush on Akari, and given the way this show handles things, that could play out in a pretty compelling and serious way.

[Dark Wing]

For what it’s worth, I think the show is continuing to do a solid job on the negative spin of the role of a ‘magical girl’ with it being more of a curse or burden than anything else.

However I feel the main problem with the series is that it lacks a clear balance like one minute it's all light and cheerful the next we have straight up despair with little time for transition between these moments.

Also we haven't really gotten the direction on who we should really be cheering for on the one hand we have the organization the girls are working for which we are shown not to be completely on the level yet are clearly protecting humanity while the Daemonia organization has been shown to be nothing but your usual corrupting evil with no reason given for their actions yet.

[Diveman]

Ok it's been a while since I've been posting in the forums but I'm back now.

Now this anime, I think I'll go on about the good and bad stuff of the first 5 episodes: (of course SPOILERS)

The good:

Interesting setting based on Tarot cards (always an interesting concept IF worked out correctly). The characters are all very different which is a good thing and we have been getting small glimpses of who is really behind all this. This villian has potential to become something good.

Also each girl's powers are pretty "ok" for a magical girl standart and the are fit for the girls' personality, like the long axe for the energetic Ginka or the Ice arrows for the cool Seira.

The story so far has been pretty good, showing us that people now die for real instead of just being saved from the card's control and not only that but they also get erased from existence and everyone's memory, that's a pretty good idea since we can pretty much assume we'll have more deaths in the following episodes.

The bad

Now things get a bit more complicated here: Again, the story is not actually bad and it's a really interesting setting, but the WAY the story is told has not been handled well. First I feel that they spent too many episodes (2 actually) in just giving Akari her resolve to fight, they could have done it in 1 or 1 and a half, but just doing 2 episodes dedicated that in a 12/13 (can't remember) episode anime doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Another thing that bothered me, was episode 5 in which Ginka had to kill her uncle, again, really good idea but I feel like that could have been worked much better than how they did it (as J mentioned). To me as soon as they mentioned "Honda-san who has money issues" I immediatly said "ok this guy is done whoever he is..." and I was right. A much better situation would have been mentioning Honda's money issues, just to find that it was actually Ginka's dad who did the contract with Daemonia, so after all his cheerful stuff we were shown, Ginka would have to kill her dad etc, or maybe even leave everything as it is but make Honda kill Ginka's dad as planned, that way Ginka would be debating if to hate Honda or feel sorry for him which would have definitely leave a scar in her mind and probably would affect her or create another plot for the future. And the way Ginka was like "it's ok, I'll continue" at the end was definitely weird and out of place in my opinion; I'm not saying she should cry and mourn for days like Akari, but at least show a sign of a change of heart in some way.

That's basically what's wrong with the show ATM, they are trying too hard to do many things and they're not doing any of them correctly. Last week in episode 4 we were introduced to that painter girl who ended up killing her rival and it's implied she used her blood to do the painting, but then that only works as a "shock" but we don't really get to understand why or given a bit more of background information about her. Same with Akari's cousin, just NOW we got another small bit of what was she like before she contracted Daemonia, but now she's dead so, it doesn't really matter.

So I feel this show is trying desperately to show us "shocking" moments or "drama" to entertain us, and it is no different from the current Horror movie trend which ends up dwelling in "torture porn" rather than what Horror really is supposed to be like.

Bottom line:

I'm gonna keep watching this, it's only 5 episodes so far, but they better step their game up in the following episodes or we're gonna have a huge mess and rushed story telling/developments.

[Auxilism]

I think that Ginka went through a change during the fight. Before this, she was just playing a defensive/supportive role with shields to block attacks and water to douse the fire. When she knew that she would not be able to save her uncle, she became offensive.

Spoiler:

She then proceeded to slash her way through while screaming without talking about money or something. For her battle style to change to the polar opposite, even for one battle, something in her could have snapped.

From what I can tell, that scene happened at night and the next scene of her cooking happened in the morning or afternoon. There's a gap in time that was not shown. However, in episode 2 we see how the girls act after a battle. Seira remembers the bloody body and started to scrub herself vigorously.

Spoiler:

She continues, "It never gets easier, no matter how many times..." to which Ginka responds,

Spoiler:

This shows that when they calm down after the battle, the impact of what they've done hits them.

Ginka could have broken down during the time gap that was not shown; fall to her knees in the shower, cry herself to sleep etc and recovered when she woke up. I do agree that showing a little of it would have made the episode better. However, she does get a little broody at the end.

Spoiler:

Although she will continue to fight, I don't see her personality staying completely the same from the image above. Maybe she will remain the same on the outside but finally show her despair more openly at the final battle.

Originally Posted by Diveman

Last week in episode 4 we were introduced to that painter girl who ended up killing her rival and it's implied she used her blood to do the painting, but then that only works as a "shock" but we don't really get to understand why or given a bit more of background information about her.

In my opinion, it was clear why the artist succumbed to the Daemonia. She kept working hard at her painting but lost every time. Not because the person put in more effort or was a natural at it, because she had money and connections. It's like taking steroids to win at sports, you succeed not due to your own strength. I don't know what your attitude was at school, but it's something a hard-worker can see more easily. If that sounds insulting, I apologise but I don't know how else to express myself.

To be beaten by someone who studied more is fine, to be bested by a genius is a little worst but still acceptable. However, losing because the teacher is bias is a low blow. I won't say it's a good reason to turn evil but it's understandable, at least to me.

On another topic, here's a free signature.

[Diveman]

Don't worry about it Darkhalo haha.

I'm just really hoping that in the next 2 or 3 episodes we get something else that advanced the plot, rather than dedcate episodes to each girl which (IMO) should be done only when an anime gets like 24 episodes.

[orion]

I don't see a problem not snapping. They're in a "kill or be killed" environment. Those other girls have prob been mindwiped and counseled to the point that they won't "snap". And if they did, there own organization might kill them.

That uncle was trying to murder her father. At that point, to me it's "Sorry uncle, dad comes first. Time to die." No remorse from me for it either.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by orion

That uncle was trying to murder her father. At that point, to me it's "Sorry uncle, dad comes first. Time to die." No remorse from me for it either.

That is precisely the problem.

Supposedly we should care for Honda and that this is a difficult, heartwrenching sacrifice Ginka had to make, but at the end of the day Ginka is still more or less the same as before and her life hasn't really changed much at all from the experience.

For something that was supposed to be a tragedy, it had too much of a "monster of the week" vibe to it.

[Diveman]

That's why I said, Ginka killing her dad would have been a much better and unexpected twist. Is like they aren't even trying.

[MisaoFan]

Spoiler for Episode 6:

I am very attracted by Seira's character. She appears to be cold, but since her strict handling of justice is mostly caused by her own view of Daemonia because of the death of her childhood friend, she visits her other friends occasionally, only to find out that one of them is possessed by a Daemonia. Akari tries to make Seira up her mind by changing her view of Daemonia, and she did by killing her friend. She really feels horrible for being too cold to anyone, and it definitively made an impact to me, the fact that her friends use a star-shaped hairclip is a coincidential symbol. While I haven't made my favorite character of this show yet, she could become one in the end. Wonder what will happen in the next episode.

[cyth]

Yeah, this show has become a disappointment. Honestly, I expected far more gritty atmosphere, more wretched emotions. In the end, all of it was so cheap. Dropped.

[Shadow5YA]

It's a little difficult to care for Hanae and Minori when they came and went within one episode. It feels like they cheaply tacked on Minori's terminal illness as a plot device to drive Hanae into desperation, but I'm not feeling any of her desperation at all.

The same goes for Seira's hatred of the Daemonia because of Manami's death. We are only given a handful of minutes through flashbacks to see that they were close. Instead of being able to empathize and understand how close they are, it feels like we just have to assume how deeply Seira cares about her.

All in all, it really just feels like another "monster of the week" episode.

[J the Drafter]

Well, this is the first episode I actually liked, even if the two previous posters raised some good points. The time spent on showing Seira's lack of sympathy for the Daemonia in the previous episodes allowed the writers to focus on things coming to a head for her in this one. I cared about Seira's dilemma and felt bad for her, though as Shadow5YA pointed out, Hanae and Minori made practically no impression. I wonder if we'll even see Manami again now that she's served her purpose of explaining why Seira (used to) act so cold. I also wonder what's next for her character arc now that her hatred of Daemonia has been confronted. On the flip side, this gives me hope that the show can improve, though if it's a mere 12-14 episodes long then yikes.

[orion]

I liked this episode too and felt bad for Hanae. Seira's issues got fixed and it's only ep. 6. So we got one more girl to get "fixed" and 5 episodes to get to why this is happening now and fix it or get a second season.

[Triple_R]

It's strange. I liked this episode a lot, but it also leaves me feeling a bit disappointed over the overall direction of the anime.

I've long suspected that Seira's attitude towards the Daemonia was shaped by a backstory like this, so I was ready and eager to see it told. Perhaps because of these suspicions, I found the Seira/Manami backstory much more compelling than Shadow5YA did.

But in fairness to Shadow5YA, he's been proven very right about the Akira/Seira ideological conflict. Akira's overall position ("Yes, the Daemonia must die, but we should hear their final words before we exterminate them") is clearly the one that the anime is supporting, and it looks like Seira will be won over to it if she isn't already.

Ok... but now what? Where can the anime go from here?

Right now, the show does indeed feel like a much-grittier version of a conventional "Monster of the Week" magical girl show. It's PreCure, except when humans get possessed in this show, they get killed along with the monster. So that gives the show a darker feel, but without any additional twists or characters fighting against that status quo, it doesn't feel particularly impacting on the whole. I don't see any real theme or commentary here. It's darker for the sheer sake of being darker.

Akari has completely accepted her role as possessed human exterminator. Is she supposed to show that you can be Light Yagami at night but still a friendly and all-smiles Kaname Madoka at daytime? I'm kind of skeptical of such a thing, to be honest with you.

But oh well, I guess that's our story here. At least the characters are likeable, and the action scenes aren't bad, so it's good entertainment anyway.

[elior]

now the only backstory left for them to show up to us is the story of luna after that we will see how the show will go from there

[asaqe]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

It's strange. I liked this episode a lot, but it also leaves me feeling a bit disappointed over the overall direction of the anime.

I've long suspected that Seira's attitude towards the Daemonia was shaped by a backstory like this, so I was ready and eager to see it told. Perhaps because of these suspicions, I found the Seira/Manami backstory much more compelling than Shadow5YA did.

But in fairness to Shadow5YA, he's been proven very right about the Akira/Seira ideological conflict. Akira's overall position ("Yes, the Daemonia must die, but we should hear their final words before we exterminate them") is clearly the one that the anime is supporting, and it looks like Seira will be won over to it if she isn't already.

Ok... but now what? Where can the anime go from here?

Right now, the show does indeed feel like a much-grittier version of a conventional "Monster of the Week" magical girl show. It's PreCure, except when humans get possessed in this show, they get killed along with the monster. So that gives the show a darker feel, but without any additional twists or characters fighting against that status quo, it doesn't feel particularly impacting on the whole. I don't see any real theme or commentary here. It's darker for the sheer sake of being darker.

Akari has completely accepted her role as possessed human exterminator. Is she supposed to show that you can be Light Yagami at night but still a friendly and all-smiles Kaname Madoka at daytime? I'm kind of skeptical of such a thing, to be honest with you.

But oh well, I guess that's our story here. At least the characters are likeable, and the action scenes aren't bad, so it's good entertainment anyway.

This is not too far from D-Gray Man and the Akuma at all when you think about it. The difference is most of these people are relatively innocent compared to others, we haven't saw a full on evil receive greater evil contract yet.