Ice OVA

[Thingle]

nah. makoto hasn't got anything out yet.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I hope it's permitted for me to say that I have been looking lots of places for the raw and haven't even found that. So perhaps no group has a raw to work on yet.

[chrno]

I guess no one has seen anything yet. I've been checking as well and I haven't seen any raws. Oh well. Hopefully it won't be too long.

[Thingle]

Oh man, just when the end of the world device was activated.... geez.

[Kaoru Chujo]

At last! Ep3 has shown up. Thank you, anonymous benefactors.

Spoiler for ep3:

What a weird show -- but I like it. The end of the world device appears to be more an enormous monster than anything else. The dying Queen Kisaragi casts Yuki into a pool that sends her directly to the heart of the thing, which towers over the twin towers. Hitomi, along with Mint and Murasaki, fly off to rescue her (and incidentally save the world). Mint and Murasaki die, our heroine succeeds -- and is killed. Later, Yuki commits suicide by Ice, and then both she and Hitomi are together as children...somewhere, and we can see that they will be reborn. The end.

Lots of faults, but lots of points for sheer invention and weirdness, in plot, characters, and visuals.

[Kazu-kun]

Wow! Even with subs I don't think I'll be able to understand this . BTW...

Spoiler:

I hope Hitomi will not be reborn as a man (one of those kids seemed too manly so...) That would crush all my Yuri fantasies with this couple lol.

EDIT: I was wondering about the ending theme... Is there a single or album containing that song?

[HunterRequiem]

Spoiler for episode 3:

Well, all said and done, I still don't really get what the hell happened in the end. The series is definitely up top for character killing (up there with Sokou no Strain). While I thoughoughly enjoyed it for its sci-fi action and reletively tame shoujo-ai, its was slightly hard to follow. I presume this is mostly because it was so short. And the mech designs. After seeing the first mech design, I decided not to complain about it, but I've at least got to say its another instance of completely ignoring what you'd actually want a combat machine to look like. oh well.

[Zippicus]

This was a pretty decent show. I didn't care much for the ending though since they left so much up in the air.

Spoiler for A couple things that bugged me:

1. Ok so we're looking at your classic post apocalyptic dying world, which is fine since it makes for some good sci-fi. The thing I didn't like is we don't really know if what is left of humanity is saved or not. I mean the immediate threat was taken care of and there was some potential with the ICE but it was never made clear.

2. All the characters I like died I seriously hate it when they feel the need to do that.

So we're left with a story that everyone I like died, and we're pretty much in the same situation that we started the story with. It didn't really seem like there was a point to the whole story but rather just a glimpse into a screwed up world. Now I'm all depressed. This OVA has left me in despair.

This is a prime candidate for a "make your own ending" show since the one they left us with was "bleh"

[toxic_trance]

Hmm..an OVA which I would love to see a series of coming. Although it felt rushed..I think for a 3 episode OVA it did quite a good job. Making a small story and delivering it in 3 episodes is quite a remarkable feat according to me.

From what I say, I guess Yuki and Hitomi move on to their dream world. Why Yuki uses ICE still escapes me...especially after Hitomi tried so hard to save her. And mostly, I a guessing that Hitomi 1985 is the golden colored female???? or am i wrong???

Most importantly..how does she get pregnant???

[grey_moon]

Originally Posted by chrno

And what's with licking Yuki's eyeball? Most people would blink. Unless her eyes aren't real either. Oye.

Probably jelly fish monster's way of showing her dominance over Yuki. You can beat/brainwash the most basic instincts out of someone

I actually quite liked the show. I would have preferred it to be 26 episodes exploring the explicit yuri love love fun between Hitomi and Yuki with Satsuki flying off into violent rages (to be arse pounded by Hitomi), but I guess I can't have everything

[taelrak]

Oh I don't know. I rather like post-apocalyptic movies where the writers don't feel any obligation to make a "happy" ending (e.g. Saikano).

Wasn't too impressed with the action in ICE, but I loved how they jumped from point to point and didn't try to make the plot too realistic, and of course, the rather abstract ending.

In a way, I wouldn't want to see an anime of this, simply because by adding more content to it, they'll make it so much more mundane and down-to-earth, that you lose the feeling and the essence of it. Same thing with the whole romance/jealousy thing - having it up in the air is nice, but if you try to pin it down more with an actual anime, it loses a lot of the effect.

It's like trying to define boundaries in an impressionist painting. It's great by virtue of not being concrete. Less is more!

[Cyprene]

Shinsen, and by Shinsen I mean me, is working on this.
But since so few people like it, it's hard to muster up the energy to do it.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Cyprene

But since so few people like it, it's hard to muster up the energy to do it.

I think there are quite a lot of people who like this series... It's just that we had to wait so much between each episode, that it's hard to keep the enthusiasm up. Anwayway, please keep subbing this; I'm really looking forward to Shinsen HQ release.

[toxic_trance]

Vote 2 for Shinsen ^_^ .. I have my reservations..but I like this Show...Hoping it gets its own anime too

[Lesca]

Originally Posted by Cyprene

Shinsen, and by Shinsen I mean me, is working on this.
But since so few people like it, it's hard to muster up the energy to do it.

I thought it was pretty good, it's not everyones taste when you comparing it to stuff that's been on recently but it's worth the effort for sure ^^

[chrno]

Originally Posted by grey_moon

Probably jelly fish monster's way of showing her dominance over Yuki. You can beat/brainwash the most basic instincts out of someone

I actually quite liked the show. I would have preferred it to be 26 episodes exploring the explicit yuri love love fun between Hitomi and Yuki with Satsuki flying off into violent rages (to be arse pounded by Hitomi), but I guess I can't have everything

Licking someone's eyeball to show dominance? I gotta try that.

Ok, I watched the end and all I can say is that "what happened?" I'm sort of confused. I guess this is the figure out your own ending.

I DL'd it last night and watched it before going to bed. I mean I was hyped we waited so long. Yet I didn't feel like, WTF. Or this sucks! I felt there was something that needed to be said or realized in it's ending. Then I thought about the year 2012. Isn't that the year the world was said to end in 'Nostradamus' predictions? Notice that most of the shows that have came out have been trying to tell a message? But all aside, it's a first project and it was good. I will buy this if it ever gets picked up.

Now the question is will "yuri" fans like it? And will they not be too insulted by it?

But I will say, that 'Hitomi' kicks all major ass. And who looks better standing in the face of destruction while close to death. I thought it was so f***ing cool! Don't interrupt me when I'm getting ready to kill your ass!! But I wish there was more to the relationship deal between 'Yuki'. But maybe you don't need all that. To have it's own meaning. The first episodes were pretty fun. I would have liked to have seen a TV series on this. They call it the 'Ice Project'. I wonder if this will be ongoing or was that it.

[Amy-sama]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who blinked through the ending.

Calling it an opened ending is a understatement. The last bit of animation was the most confusing to me.

I'm just curious if the "older" Hitomi will change things now that she knows what the future holds? Strange days indeed!.....

[iceblu3710]

Ok their is a serious lacking of discussion on what the true ending is here so I will post my thoughts and pleeeese post yours as me and three friends are almost in a monkey knife fight over it.

Ok blond gets hit with a van and is in the hospital in a coma, while in a coma she occupies the mind of her future self and watches how the future could play out, falls in love with nazil yuki and treasures her broach before dyeing. After the captin dies the blond returns to her own body, when her brother gives her yuki's broach she remembers the future. Now after shes all healed up at the hospital shes overlooking tokyo in its distruction and all signs point to the future she saw while in a coma is coming true and shes face with the choice of what to do to avoid that outcome.

The problems with the above is: The captin wasnt pregnant, if yuki gives her the broach in the future how does the blond have it before the accident in the past. If it was a true trip to the future and the broach was carried back if effected the present to avoid a paradox and the blond also became pregnant. If thats true maybee the girl who is talking about being in the whom while tokyo dies is the blonds daughter. so that would make the the 2nd last scene with that girl and they boy come true but why does he have the broach now. Also why is that same girl who was in the whom talking in the first ova.

Where do these two damn kids fit into the timeline for pete sake, if they would have left them out it would have been a simple to understand ending instead of one to piss us off.

Anyone care to take a stab?

[Cyprene]

Thanks to all those who put in a good word for the show, it's inspired me to get off my butt and finish it.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Cyprene

Thanks to all those who put in a good word for the show, it's inspired me to get off my butt and finish it.

I have to say thank you for doing this. I think many of us are appreciative of getting the chance to understand more of this wonderful OVA.

Overall thoughts: This reminds me of another OVA I had watched a while back, called Interlude. This was by far more violent though, but the feeling is very similar.

I think the wtf ending is mostly interpreted as a way to get the viewer to think about what they just saw. It would be nice to have a nice tidy explanation to everything but something you'll find in sci-fi is that endings don't always work like that.

Spoiler for stuff:

As far as overall story, I think it's a good story with an obvious point. Where it bogs down is in direction, and again I hate to point out the ending. Where did the baby come from after Yuki used ICE? How exactly was Hitomi related to the woman in the past? How is it you can make a end of the world story featuring nothing but women and not have lots of awesome Yuri action?!

One thing that really struck me as cool was the older animation style. While the newer animation is often bright, clean, and well animated, sometimes it feels a bit sterile compared to older anime. I think the look really suited the story. The music also had an older feel too, although it was a little underused.

I have many questions regarding the ending besides what I mentioned above but really that all comes down to speculation. A few come to mind for discussion sake -

Spoiler for more questions:

Is the Hitomi of the past the same as the one of the future?
Why did Yuki use the ICE?
You have to assume the baby at the end is male, if you are an optimist. But the scream certainly didn't help ease worries especially since you can't see more than the hand.
What is the significance of Hitomi seeing the future? Is it so she can change it?
Is the idea supposed to be that Yuki and Hitomi are linked through time? Or that time is an illusion somehow?
I don't get the point of the ICE. Is it some kind of genetic reconfiguration device?

Ugh. Cool show but the brain needs time to sort things out after things like this.