(L) Owari no Seraph

[frubam]

Like many have said, great 1st episode. Watching the kids be used as blood banks was unsettling =02. The moment Akane popped up, it was obvious what was going to happen before the end when he escaped(which we all knew he would). I kinda thought that Mika would betray everyone and become a vamp too though. Nice way to beat the trope =03. Music was amazing!!! Definitely boarding this train, though I'm kinda worried about the shift in tone a school is going to bring. Don't want someone pulling a Kotoura on me =0\.

[zztop]

A plague designed to isolate and kill everyone over the age of 13?
Sounds like something Evil Michael Jackson would've cooked up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYd75q4_le8

[FunnyGuy]

Originally Posted by zztop

A plague designed to isolate and kill everyone over the age of 13?
Sounds like something Evil Michael Jackson would've cooked up.

How you make a virus only kill at an specific age group? maybe sex hormones.....

[larethian]

Going to do prequel summaries in light novel thread next 2 weeks. Note that light novel is prequel only.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Jerseykid

I like anything with vampires

Ditto. I guess it's a sickness, lol. My only worry here is that now we are in the (apparently) non-vampire world, at least for a while, the show will lose the freshness of the setting. The kids used as livestock for their blood, with rows of them hooked up to blood draws was fairly amazing. I've never seen such industrially-organized vampires. I guess the revival of Michaela (as an enemy?) could give us another nice plot hook.

In any case, as aakun4 said, this was a show that ended before I expected it to. I guess it has to do with the way the story was told, but I'm not sure exactly how.

The killing of the other kids happened so fast that it didn't hit me as hard as it could have, but perhaps if it had been emphasized more, the show would have stopped moving.

[erneiz_hyde]

Just watched this. At first glance, I knew Mikaela would either end up dead, or turn to the dark side. Or maybe both and then some, that character archetype just can't take a break
I didn't expect the rest of the kids to die though, least of all Akane. And I certainly didn't expect the Vampire guy to go down with a bullet like that!

Anyway, seems like it's gonna be a solid series. Definitely a keeper.

[Esclair]

Art and animation looked good, but the direction was a bit weak. I don't feel like Wit brought their A-game like they did for Attack on Titan. For AoT they did a really good job creating tension with the scenes, which was somewhat lacking here.

I also wished Wit took a bit more liberties with the last scene where Yuu sees the human world again. It isn't even 30 seconds before the guys in imperial outfits show up and go 'O HAI THAR'. They should have dragged it out a bit to let the scene sink in.

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Ditto. I guess it's a sickness, lol. My only worry here is that now we are in the (apparently) non-vampire world, at least for a while, the show will lose the freshness of the setting.

Hmm ... I must not be infected by this sickness.

Even so, I know what you mean about the freshness of the setting thing - it was similar to the old Ravenloft and Call of Cthulu rpg settings,

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

The kids used as livestock for their blood, with rows of them hooked up to blood draws was fairly amazing. I've never seen such industrially-organized vampires....

I cringed when I saw that industry set up, as you called it, and also cringed when the vampire noble started butchering the children - especially the first chile as it was drained of her blood. Horrible. I really dislike stuff like this.

The black screen, wind whistling and music and the end were pretty good, though.

Ah well.

Dropped for now.

[Iron Maw]

That was pretty solid start. Doesn't excel in any particular area in the setup, but did it's job introducing, the plot, giving the cast some solid characterization without drawing out things out too much for the most.

Originally Posted by Esclair

I also wished Wit took a bit more liberties with the last scene where Yuu sees the human world again. It isn't even 30 seconds before the guys in imperial outfits show up and go 'O HAI THAR'. They should have dragged it out a bit to let the scene sink in.

Yeah, I think an extra couple or so would have helped sell that scene's drama a little more and make Gen's entrance a bit less convenient (yes I know he knew Yuu would be there due some prophecy).

[Solace]

How you make a virus only kill at an specific age group? maybe sex hormones.....

There are already viruses that affect children and adults differently. Chickenpox is a good example of this. Adult chickenpox (more commonly known as Shingles) is waaaaay more severe than when you get it as a child.

It may also not be a "virus" in the traditional sense. We can already create viruses to a small degree, and work is being done to "reprogram" viruses to attack things like cancer cells. With nanomachines, it would be possible to create a virus like machine that could target specific factors of the human body, all the way down to our DNA.

And of course, every vaccine is a human engineered, extremely weakened version of the full viral payload, intentionally designed to trigger an immune response the system can easily overwhelm. Once you have the antibodies in your system, it becomes much easier for the body to recognize and fight a full on viral attack, like the flu.

So it's not really that far into the realm of science fiction that someone could create a virus that targets age or gender.

[thundrakkon]

Originally Posted by Irenesharda

Supposedly, from the way Mikaela and Yuu spoke, it seems that vampires say that they will be protected from the virus in that underground city. It's why Yuu brought up the fact that the virus would kill them in a year if they left. It's a good controlling maneuver by the vampires to control the children.

So, if that's true, the children could continue to grow up under their rule and then they would have them breed like cattle and thus have more children and sustain their supply that way.
That's my speculation anyway.

Originally Posted by GDB

Mika explained that they won't die/be killed underground. The implication being that the virus won't spread down there.

Thanks. I guess it is possible to continue to trick the "cattle" into continually providing. However, with the way they kill the children for fun, I wonder how long their supply will last. In addition, once the kids grow up, they might be able to better think for themselves, which then presents a problem of rebellion. I'm sure the vampires wanted children since they were easier to manipulate, but allowing them to grow could back-fire.

[carmolita]

I'm wondering if the vampires are lying about the virus, like perhaps they're using it as an excuse to isolate the children for their primary food source without any commotion from the public or resistance. Because the guys that he ran into in the real world were not affected at all not to mention the guy he tackled is so hot. This is definitely getting interesting. Also I am in love with the ost so far, - Sawano Hiroyuki's music can bring an average anime to whole new level

[bakato]

Originally Posted by carmolita

I'm wondering if the vampires are lying about the virus, like perhaps they're using it as an excuse to isolate the children for their primary food source without any commotion from the public or resistance. Because the guys that he ran into in the real world were not affected at all not to mention the guy he tackled is so hot. This is definitely getting interesting. Also I am in love with the ost so far, - Sawano Hiroyuki's music can bring an average anime to whole new level

They're vampires with superhuman abilities. They don't need an excuse.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

I didn't expect the rest of the kids to die though, least of all Akane. And I certainly didn't expect the Vampire guy to go down with a bullet like that!

I expected some of the kids to die. (While the kids were sneaking around, I said to my husband, "This is not going to end well." ) But I thought Akane would survive. The biggest surprise of the whole episode was that the gunshot brought down the vampire. I simply did not expect that at all. Biggest pleasure was the gorgeous artwork in the background. That was art book quality work there.

[Insaint]

Im still having doubt whether that vampire truely die.
Anyway, the production value really shows top notch quality by the studio...how i hope tokyo ghoul can get such adaptation >.<

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by carmolita

I'm wondering if the vampires are lying about the virus, like perhaps they're using it as an excuse to isolate the children for their primary food source without any commotion from the public or resistance. Because the guys that he ran into in the real world were not affected at all not to mention the guy he tackled is so hot. This is definitely getting interesting. Also I am in love with the ost so far, - Sawano Hiroyuki's music can bring an average anime to whole new level

I don't think they lied about it, what I do think though is that they were the ones who engineered it in the first place, rather than humanity.

For all we know I could even be a magical plague.
Its pretty suspicious that everyone died almost at the same moment.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

I don't know the original work either, but this is the very first episode, I have a feeling that they're going to explain it...

I wish I could share your optimism.

Originally Posted by LKK

I expected some of the kids to die. (While the kids were sneaking around, I said to my husband, "This is not going to end well." ) But I thought Akane would survive. The biggest surprise of the whole episode was that the gunshot brought down the vampire. I simply did not expect that at all. Biggest pleasure was the gorgeous artwork in the background. That was art book quality work there.

I expected Akane to survive too.
As for the gun, well I suspected it would have some sort of effect. Otherwise brining it into the story would have been futile in the first place.

There is also no assurance the noble is actually dead, he might just be out cold for a while.
But yeah a lot of vampire stories have either decapitation or heart-impaling as the only thing working against vampires, so even if the gun actually killed him I would still be fine with it. - Technically caliber and distance could actually splatter the vampire's entire brain.

The only thing I am personally concerend about with this gun is that it seemingly had magic bullets that automatically re-appaered after being shot once .
(Looks like a really old gun you'd have to reload after every shot)

[MgMaster]

Those death flags like skyscrapers about half-way in. Definitely some major Attack on Titan vibes from this, in several ways, except that this show's "Armin" didn't make it.

The pace was a bit fast and I was like "What?" when like 40 seconds in we see everyone dying and everything exploding. Michael Bay would've been proud.

[Mad Pierrot]

I hope this doesn't turn out to be like Blue Exorcist where the first episode was "Holy shit!" and the next ones were about school students who even had to worry about prom.

[Sky Field]

Dropped. Excessive killing for shock value reminds me far too much of Attack on Titan, and the usual shounen cliches do nothing to draw me in. I also rolled my eyes at the narrating done through a megaphone and the 3 appearing out of nowhere in the end.

[MartianMage]

Decent first episode. Not that big of a fan with the style they use for the backgrounds though...

And yeah Yu is so annoying like Eren... he's one of the main reasons why I don't like the manga that much...