(L) Venus Versus Virus

[kriez]

people people, somebody help me!! the 2nd time i dl VVV, it still couldn't open!! seriously a virus could not be plaguing the file could it?! *arghx* my dl speed has always been slow so it took me rather long to dl them! yet a 2nd time i could not open VVV ep1!! anybody experiencing the same thing???!

[Sakuya]

Originally Posted by kriez

people people, somebody help me!! the 2nd time i dl VVV, it still couldn't open!! seriously a virus could not be plaguing the file could it?! *arghx* my dl speed has always been slow so it took me rather long to dl them! yet a 2nd time i could not open VVV ep1!! anybody experiencing the same thing???!

Which release did you download? Can you explain more about it "not opening"?

[kriez]

i dl [GNU]'s release.. few moments after clicking the file, it said windows explorer had an error, had to close down. i had tried using windows media player, media player classic and realplayer but the file couldn't open, said an error occured and programme had to shut down. was prompted to 'send error report' or 'don't send'. but at least at the corner of the programme b4 it closes i can see that the ep is 24min09s long, which tallies with the 1 in youtube... took me rather long before i find other groups with VVV at http://tokyotosho.com but there ain't any seeders, and the files are a lot larger! the rest are raw i think...!

[Sakuya]

Hm...what codec do you use? Does this happen currently with other files?

[kriez]

im not so sure about the codec, but im pretty sure my bro dl it cuz me and my sis worship the subbers and i had no similiar problems with other files..!

[Sakuya]

Originally Posted by kriez

im not so sure about the codec, but im pretty sure my bro dl it cuz me and my sis worship the subbers and i had no similiar problems with other files..!

VVV Episode 1 from GNU is encoded with H264 which is different from the norm of XviD or DivX (well, they were the norm). Make sure what codec you used to view video files on your computer. If it's a codec pack such as K-lite Codec Pack, I recommend you uninstall it because I heard it does weird things to your computer. Instead, I recommend CCCP which was created by a fansub group for those who watches fansubs and can play almost any codec that they have out there right now. And I would continue to using Media Player Classic.

Just remember to uninstall all codecs first and do a restart before you install CCCP. Hope this will work.

[kriez]

yar.. media player classic may look boring but it opens all types of files.. checked, mine is K-lite, but im not so sure about uninstalling it though, i guess i have to wait for permission and further advice from my bro, for this is a family computer.. thanks for the CCCP link. if all else fails, i will try it. thanks lots~!!

[Nergol]

Venus Versus Virus Verdict = So-So

Nice-looking. Slick character designs; very trendy. Stock characterizations. Gratuitous Loli sister - also trendy. Interesting enough to keep me reasonably interested, but nothing special.

[Guppy]

Spoiler for ep. 2 and manga comparisons:

This is starting to disappoint. Starting off episode 1 with Sumire already part of Venus Vanguard may have helped hook in the viewers with an action-filled start, but it leaves a gaping hole in Sumire's character development which now has to be filled in.

Unfortunately, the way they've chosen to do it makes Sumire look pathetic. In the manga, we can see her develop the resolve to join Lucia and fight when she realises that the alternative is to spend her life running away. After that, I don't recall ever seeing manga-Sumire backing down in combat - she's inexperienced and not as hardened as Lucia, and it shows, but she plainly has guts and determination. In the manga, it's Sumire who insists on continuing with the trials of her Berserker powers, over Nahashi's objections, and with Lucia's help manages to gain some control over them. Manga-Sumire is a strong character, and we see her rapidly becoming an equal partner to Lucia in her own right.

Watching anime-Sumire clutching her ring for protection, then running around the halls with her gun in plain view of everyone and firing wildly, before finally sinking to her knees in terror, just made me wince.

Oh, and I'm really not seeing what value Lola is adding to the story so far. It'll be interesting to see how she's portrayed in the manga, assuming she appears at some future point.

[Sinestra]

I was playing around in photoshop and did this. thought it was a nice image.

[masama]

The first episode was kind of interesting but the second is a bit dull

Spoiler for Episode 2:

Running around school and shooting the gun and no one noticed anything... oh and not to mention all those screaming
hopefully we see more Lucia in episode 3

[Kaoru Chujo]

For some reason, my interest has followed the opposite trajectory from other people's here. I wasn't hooked by the first episode, but found the second episode more involving. I liked Chihara Minori's voice in ep2, and Lucia's face. The sadness of Sumire gradually realizing she couldn't resume her former life really hit me. Her "wild" character remains a strong point: nice eyes, nice chuckle. The animation is pretty crude in general, but it works.

[Guido]

Episode 02 - Other World

After the fantastic start to the Venus Versus Virus introduced in episode one, the fast dynamics were downplayed in episode two.

The episode felt slow paced to me, and I didn't get to witness Lucia in action . More or less she was on a break, and the spotlight was casted mostly on Sumire.

I feel upset and grumpy with the amateurish rendering for animation quality that was displayed this week. I particularly feel awkward how they drew the characters' noses with two black strokes when the faces are postioned full front to the camera. They look like a bulge to misproportionately divert attention from the eyes.

An advice to the artists, try drawing the nose strokes with faint or fine lines so as not making the size and appearance of the nose noticeable to the eyes of the viewers.

Now that I'm done explaining the flaws I noticed I can turn my attention to the story.

Spoiler:

Sumire's world has changed but is in denial, and she won't listen to Lucia. She thinks of herself as normal girl, but her relative peace is broken by the apperance of a virus.
Unfortunately, her fear gets the better of her, and her day quickly turns to a survival fight. She loses and is cornered whether to become Virus food or switching to her unpleasant alterego.
Not wanting to die Sumire shots herself with the last vaccine bullet, and out comes forth Vaccine Sumire (or VSumire as I will start calling her other self from now on). VSumire in a blink of an eye makes mincemeat of the Virus, but before she goes out to play Lucia steps in to lure her.
VSumire is caged in a force field and has to use her brute power to the ends meet to get out. Sumire wokes up normal and sees that Lucia got slightly razed by her other self.
Sumire gets the gist from this experience, that she no longer belongs in the world of ordinary humans and promises to live-up for the further tests.

I saw the episode in RAW, but I was saved thanks that wrex_japan is blogging this show.

As wrex_japan mentioned in his blog, it's interesting that VSumire and Sumire are attracted to different things, that IMO smelled them beautiful.

Spoiler:

VSumire is attracted to Lucia due that she smells a beautiful scent from her (Lucia). This allusion could may mean that Sumire holds an inherent bond for Lucia that has yet to show up; I GUESS VSumire is plainly straightforward that she desires Lucia, though I would say something inside Lucia.

Maybe that's the thing to help VSumire satiate her overwhelming bloodlust and sense of carnage, and I'm more inclined to assume that what VSumire is attracted to is the light of power radiating from Lucia's cursed eye, and that's the thing she wants.

Sumire, on the other hand, she's more inclined to the smell of relative peaceful beings like that of flowers. An interesting observation that Sumire remarks upon meeting again with the unknown boy is that she noticed his smile was prettier than the scent of the flowers.

To me it means that Sumire is still attached to the last vestiges of her old life, longing to live as an ordinary girl.

Certainly, VSumire goes insane and wreaks havoc on every creature at sight out of pure violence on par with HIchigo, but unlike the latter she's technically unstoppable.

That is because Sumire while conscious she's not strong enough or maybe sins to be too passive enough to contain her vaccine self once it is unleashed. Like Sumire, Ichigo too is conscious during his transformation but takes him time and effort to subdue his Hollow self, yet at the end he's able to revert back by himself whereas Sumire cannot.

The transformation cannot be undone until VSumire exhausts and depletes her brute power. This is a parallel to when the Incredible Hulk reverts back to Bruce Banner only through extreme fatigue and running out of rage.

[Cyz]

But Sumire said that gun she's wielding is a toy in the eyes of the people who can't see the Viruses no? I guess people who see her running with a gun like that would probably go or .

--> Btw, can someone help me find good Lucia pics?

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

For some reason, my interest has followed the opposite trajectory from other people's here. I wasn't hooked by the first episode, but found the second episode more involving. I liked Chihara Minori's voice in ep2, and Lucia's face. The sadness of Sumire gradually realizing she couldn't resume her former life really hit me. Her transformed character remains a strong point. The animation is pretty crude in general, but it works.

I suspect I wouldn't mind as much if I hadn't read the manga first. I really liked the fact that manga-Sumire, although she starts off scared and in over her head, rises gamely to the challenge and gives Venus Vanguard her all. She still has a lot of worries and doubts, but she's determined to keep going and see it all through.

Originally Posted by Guido

That is because Sumire while conscious she's not strong enough or maybe sins to be too passive enough to contain her vaccine self once it is unleashed. Like Sumire, Ichigo too is conscious during his transformation but takes him time and effort to subdue his Hollow self, yet at the end he's able to revert back by himself whereas Sumire cannot.

The transformation cannot be undone until VSumire exhausts and depletes her brute power. This is a parallel to when the Incredible Hulk reverts back to Bruce Banner only through extreme fatigue and running out of rage.

Spoiler for manga:

This state of affairs hasn't lasted that long in the manga. After Sumire finishes with the controlled vaccine trials in volume 2 she manages to get a handle on her Berserker mode. After that she's able to use its power in a controlled way, although it costs her an obvious effort to do so.

[Guido]

Just now I was struck with an epiphany and which would make sense as the plot gets thicker.

Spoiler:

The Virus one way or another are going to evolve into a more intellectual and lethal strain than the standard ones that the Venus Vanguard has to clean up.

Which means they'll develop immunity against the current vaccine formula that Lucia loads in the bullets. That will be time for Souichiro to get into the lab and develop a new vaccine, as well as getting more ammo and weapons, and to even change commonly tactic patterns to fight them.

I'm even more certain that over time Sumire's transformations will get more violent and vicious. There's a probability that Vaccine Sumire will also develop immunity as well as to the durability and lasting time to remain in berserk state longer.

I BELIEVE that just like HIchigo, Vaccine Sumire will start popping out under the worst of times or in a bad timing on her own. I think this would be an evolution to the transformation, an unexpected side-effect on Sumire to lose control every time she's under pressure or at the brink of death rather than to shoot herself with the vaccine to let out her murderous alterego.
I will be looking forward when this change happens.

My hypothesis for the prologue shown at the start of the series is that Sumire will get control of the transformation and maybe, just maybe both egos will be cojoined into a single awareness in the same body.
That is a new Sumire in hold with the Vaccine Sumire's killer instincts for fight and survival, but at the same time imposing the rationality and temperance of the old-fashioned Sumire.

[kriez]

well.. we often see lotsa overused plots and VVV seems just like another. was rather interested in this series and introduced it to my brother but immediately he linked it to D. Gray-mamn, which, is rather true~
all of them exterminates demons/akumas/viruses/bakemono, and Sumire here is a little like Allen, who is in a way cursed, since Sumire has double personalities, while Lucia is like Allen too, cursed. oh hell, cursed in the same way, both possesses a special eye huh.. the plots get recycled over and over again..

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by Cyz

But Sumire said that gun she's wielding is a toy in the eyes of the people who can't see the Viruses no? I guess people who see her running with a gun like that would probably go or .

naw most normal people would just ignore such a thing by thinking that sumire is off her nut

and yea i can link VvV with D gray man as well ~ akuma = virus and sumire = exorcist ~ the point made by guido about sumire's berserk status evolving is kinda like how allen's weapon evolves...

[kriez]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

naw most normal people would just ignore such a thing by thinking that sumire is off her nut

and yea i can link VvV with D gray man as well ~ akuma = virus and sumire = exorcist ~ the point made by guido about sumire's berserk status evolving is kinda like how allen's weapon evolves...

yar loh!! i heard d. gray-man's manga is nice, but have not read it so i cant really comment on the anime adaptation but they seriously need to come up with newer types of demons, power, and characters!!

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

naw most normal people would just ignore such a thing by thinking that sumire is off her nut

and yea i can link VvV with D gray man as well ~ akuma = virus and sumire = exorcist ~ the point made by guido about sumire's berserk status evolving is kinda like how allen's weapon evolves...

As I have seen twice each of the two episodes, I'm realizing little things that I overlooked the first time watching through them.

From the opening footage and animation frames there are established Utena motifs.

The gunfights and shootouts carry over influences from Noir and lesser Chrno Crusade.
I mean unlike Chrno Crusade the shootings do not show amazing lighting effects because of powerful spells loaded in the bullets. The bullets that Lucia uses are loaded with an anti-body or vaccine agent to neutralize Viruses. She simply finds her way, shoots the ugly monsters, and is game won without using too much drama on visual effects.

Also the few persecutions or hide-and-seek chases that I have seen in VVV involve guns much in a similar manner to Noir.

Next we have the obvious comparisons to D.Gray-man: Lucia's cursed eye to identify viruses; I think more of the Viruses an inherent biological agents but fitted with supernatural capabilities, and there has to be a manufacturer who or which is developing and unleashing them upon the mainstream population.

As well like Chrno Crusade and D.Gray-man, VVV has its own foreboding and supernatural apocalypse though the menace looks to me more supernatural-biological.

Last, I just got that feeling that the animation style, rendering, and design reminds a great deal of Shakugan no Shana. This is because in VVV the characters are drawn with such a fashion that makes it noticeable for the viewers to focus on their stylized faces and eyes, and more so since the protagonists are lolis and/or underaged teenagers. For SnS is the same too, a great deal of animation detail is focused upon the character's faces, particularly the eyes, and not to mention that the protagonist is also a prepubescent loli.