(CR) 86 TV anime

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

I'd actually love to see that. More "show, don't just tell".

I would say that would be too much in a face. This gives Legion more mystery.

[Frontier]

I assume it's (partially) why they depicted Kaie's death the way they did.

Although it didn't feel as much of a stretch for me that the Legion could be doing something like that since it feels like a Skynet/robot apocalypse thing .

Just add it to the long list of things the Republic screwed themselves over on...

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

I would say that would be too much in a face. This gives Legion more mystery.

It's no longer a mystery when the MC is already explaining to you what's going on with the Legion. All that's lacking from his explanation is a visual presentation which would be preferrable than an exposition dump.

Actually, showing just the scene of Legion using/copying the brains without any verbal explanation will add more mystery than Shin's info-dump.

[HandofFate]

so Legions are just terminators?

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

It's no longer a mystery when the MC is already explaining to you what's going on with the Legion. All that's lacking from his explanation is a visual presentation which would be preferrable than an exposition dump.

Actually, showing just the scene of Legion using/copying the brains without any verbal explanation will add more mystery than Shin's info-dump.

Sometimes you can add mystery by keeping things off screen to heighten tension.

Shin's explanation and the conclusion he gives Lena brings up more questions like what else might the Legion be planning with that increased intelligence, do they have some goals the audience are not aware of, etc.

[Arya]

I guess being told instead of shown it's a narrative choice, so far we do not know much apart from our mains, everything more or less has been narrated by them. So seems consistent to keep showing us what they have seen and telling what they know. I doubt Shin witnessed the harvesting / cloning procedures letting aside the fact they may be less gruesome than we may expect. Just a probe in the body and all.
The story so far is told through them, this leaves room to also them being wrong on what they know. Who knows (as I already said Shin seems one of those MC that are almost always right, like Inaho, so I guess we won't be surprised by him, maybe Lena..)

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Endscape

Sometimes you can add mystery by keeping things off screen to heighten tension.

Yes, sometimes.

Originally Posted by Endscape

Shin's explanation and the conclusion he gives Lena brings up more questions like what else might the Legion be planning with that increased intelligence, do they have some goals the audience are not aware of, etc.

If the goal is to get as much mystery as possible (while still revealing things), my suggestion above still give us roughly the same amount of questions (if not more).

Originally Posted by Arya

I guess being told instead of shown it's a narrative choice, so far we do not know much apart from our mains, everything more or less has been narrated by them. So seems consistent to keep showing us what they have seen and telling what they know. I doubt Shin witnessed the harvesting / cloning procedures letting aside the fact they may be less gruesome than we may expect. Just a probe in the body and all.
The story so far is told through them, this leaves room to also them being wrong on what they know. Who knows (as I already said Shin seems one of those MC that are almost always right, like Inaho, so I guess we won't be surprised by him, maybe Lena..)

*shrugs* Since I really appreciate dialogue-less manga (eg. Gon) and "all-action, dialogue-less" segments in movies (eg. the climactic battle in Predator which was 90% dialogue-less, etc), I couldn't help but hoping that we can get something like that with the Legion once in a while when they revealed the "brain-scan" plot point. Just my preference.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Arya

The story so far is told through them, this leaves room to also them being wrong on what they know. Who knows (as I already said Shin seems one of those MC that are almost always right, like Inaho, so I guess we won't be surprised by him, maybe Lena..)

I don't think it's so much that Shin is always right so much as he and Spearhead, from their perspective on the front lines and with their abilities, have a better perspective and insight into what's going on than Lena would from her position in the Republic (but it's through them that she's learning what's really going on).

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

*shrugs* Since I really appreciate dialogue-less manga (eg. Gon) and "all-action, dialogue-less" segments in movies (eg. the climactic battle in Predator which was 90% dialogue-less, etc), I couldn't help but hoping that we can get something like that with the Legion once in a while when they revealed the "brain-scan" plot point. Just my preference.

I get that, I was just pointing out that this seems to be the narrative approach they choose so far. I too hope they will open up the focus of the story. I'm looking forward to it, they can't go with it for much longer I suppose. Even if I appreciate the close focus.

Originally Posted by Frontier

I don't think it's so much that Shin is always right so much as he and Spearhead, from their perspective on the front lines and with their abilities, have a better perspective and insight into what's going on than Lena would from her position in the Republic (but it's through them that she's learning what's really going on).

Yeah, I know that he has the favorable perspective so to speak. It was more a general feeling about him. (And it wasn't meant as a critic btw).

[Kakurin]

Most of today's episode is anime-original, respectively covering things that were only mentioned in passing in the LN. But it fit in very well and the direction and use of symbolisms quite strong.

[Frontier]

I wasn't expecting to see Shin as a kid, which was both adorable and sad at the same time, nor that in the cold snow he'd find his brother's corpse with its head ripped off. Talk about what will traumatize you .

Look at Spearhead going to a Cherry Blossom viewing like they're in a normal anime! It was really sweet to see them coming together and having happy times, even knowing how dire and dangerous it is for them (and what they will inevitably lose). It's not about wallowing in the darkness of your circumstances but enjoying the light while you can .

Were Daiya and Anju like the team couple everyone knew deserved to be together and kept pushing to happen despite how awkward Daiya is? I mean, they were really cute, especially when Daiya dances with her or when he flirts with her before combat. Of course, that just makes it all the more tragic when Daiya dies with Anju being in his last thoughts and Anju having to carry on after him .

So Spearhead knew about Lena from rumors of a rich girl who, for some strange reason, was a Handler and got their pig princess illustration ready to before she was even assigned to them. I mean, they weren't necessarily wrong about her big boobs and having a bit of a (well-meaning) savior-complex, but it's kind of interesting to see what they thought of her from rumors versus how they see her now .

They really had to rub it in with seeing Kujo and Kaie again, and getting to know them even better with the source of Kaie's personal sign and Kujo saying he wants to meet Lena when we know he dies right before she shows up....jeez it's sad .

Shin genuinely seems to enjoy his comrades' company and wants them to be happy, even if he's destined to lose them and carry on their names while driven by his resolve to find his brother and carrying on his personal mark...a memory spurred on by his brother apparently having tried to kill him out of resentment. Jeez, this is getting twisted .

So, yeah, the sortie against the Legion in this episode...does not go well. Daiya gets bombed by some really creepy human drone things and Lecca ends up shooting herself rather than get captured by the Legion. It's not a happy life, being an Eighty-Six .

Lena is hesitant to sortie again, but even if Shin told her not to, she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she turned away and didn't do as much as she could, even if it only means bearing witness to the people Spearhead loses and Shin having to kill his comrade's so they don't get Legion-ized. It's not pretty, but it's all she can do .

I find it kind of sweet that Lena has her own illustrations for each member of Spearhead and she collects their pictures when they die, kind of like what Shin does when he carves their name .

Uh...happy birthday Lena? Not really a time for celebrating, even if she can appreciate Annette's intentions. Also, seems like even Annette realizes there's no good men their age left in the Republic .

Yeah, probably a good idea Lena doesn't tell anyone higher up about what Shin can do .

Lena tries to get authorization to use the mortars to back up the Eighty-Six, but even when she frames it around something useful towards the Republic, she just can't get approval to help them in any significant way. There's just no real incentive for the Republic to help "drones," and now they're getting sent into an obvious trap .

Lena and Shin share a personal nightly talk where Lena talks about how Shin and his brother are alike with fondness, remembering a brother that Shin might not because it's colored by what happened to them, and then Lena's left a blushing mess when she tells Shin how important these conversations between the two of them are to her. How forward of you, Major Milize .

[X207]

got around to seeing ep5 and 6, thats a big thing to dump on me but using the dead brains to control the machines solves the question of people directly piloting the the legion machines. AI and recovered brains do the grunt work. i wonder if Shin's brother may be one of the undamaged heads that was recovered that is hiding in district 1.

i wouldnt be surprised if the white/silver government might have a mole or is covertly engineering a war to stay in power to keep non silver people oppressed. though given the "resupply" of legion its safe to assume the silver secret war plan has escaped their control if they did indeed set off this war.

[Kanon]

Now I'm even more curious about Shin's backstory. His brother died cursing him, and even tried to kill him at some point (we had already gotten a glimpse of that).

Lena getting super embarrassed over the most casual things when it comes to romance is pretty ridiculous. Just how sheltered was she?

Daiya and that other girl died... yeah, okay.

[sierra117]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Now I'm even more curious about Shin's backstory. His brother died cursing him, and even tried to kill him at some point (we had already gotten a glimpse of that).

Lena getting super embarrassed over the most casual things when it comes to romance is pretty ridiculous. Just how sheltered was she?

Daiya and that other girl died... yeah, okay.

Well, her family was formerly a noble, so she obviously growing up mostly as a sheltered ojou-sama, plus her surroundings was exactly an ideal environment to foster romantic stuffs, especially when she fully aware that how f*cked up her country is and how all of the opposite sexes in her generation are all retarded and brain-dead idiots

[Frontier]

I mean, Kaie already pointed out how she's an obvious virgin .

I wouldn't even be surprised if Shin is the most she's talked to a guy one-on-one that's not family.

[frubam]

Poor Daiya.... feels bad that Anju had to lose someone special to her. I do like the realistic depiction of death in this series. No large fanfares or gungho antics, just like driving into a wall, you're here one moment, gone the next. No time to truly mourn in the heat of battle. Makes it hurt a lot more though .

Ooof... that Kaie moment kinda hit me. Esp since it was a Kaie/Shin moment. I thought she was just teasing Kurena back in ep 3, but maybe she was half-serious. They do strike a nice balance, but unfortunately, it will never be.

The more this series goes on, the more it feels like this whole situation was engineered by the Alba to kill off the 86. Unfortunately for the Alba, its gonna backfire on them hard, esp since its like they are actively trying to kill their strongest squadron.

Also was interesting that the same image Lena saw in episode 5 when she was being hesitant to use the Para-RAID after the battle was the same color/face that Shin saw in his dreams this episode. The voice was different for Lena, but you can see the frame of Rei's glasses(that what it looks like to me anyways). Not sure she got that from Shin's dreams, or perhaps something/somewhere else.

Originally Posted by Frontier

I mean, Kaie already pointed out how she's an obvious virgin .

I wouldn't even be surprised if Shin is the most she's talked to a guy one-on-one that's not family.

She is more than just a sheltered girl. She has such lewd thoughts . Like, I saw it; in ep 5 how she looked at the couple on the staircase. She was imagining herself and Shin in that moment. Also that image is her imagination of what Shin looks like, as evidenced in this episode.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by frubam

Ooof... that Kaie moment kinda hit me. Esp since it was a Kaie/Shin moment. I thought she was just teasing Kurena back in ep 3, but maybe she was half-serious. They do strike a nice balance, but unfortunately, it will never be.

Maybe if this had been a different kind of series...

The more this series goes on, the more it feels like this whole situation was engineered by the Alba to kill off the 86. Unfortunately for the Alba, its gonna backfire on them hard, esp since its like they are actively trying to kill their strongest squadron.

And they don't know the Legion have overcome the one handicap they were counting on .

Also was interesting that the same image Lena saw in episode 5 when she was being hesitant to use the Para-RAID after the battle was the same color/face that Shin saw in his dreams this episode. The voice was different for Lena, but you can see the frame of Rei's glasses(that what it looks like to me anyways). Not sure she got that from Shin's dreams, or perhaps something/somewhere else.

I think in the context of Lena's scene it was supposed to be Kaie after Lena heard her voice from the Para-RAID.

She is more than just a sheltered girl. She has such lewd thoughts . Like, I saw it; in ep 5 how she looked at the couple on the staircase. She was imagining herself and Shin in that moment. Also that image is her imagination of what Shin looks like, as evidenced in this episode.

It's always the isolated rich girls unused to the opposite sex who are the most horny .

[Gerard07]

Seen the episode, we saw a bit of the past of the squad, and it hurts that 2 characters died, it seems that you really do not have to become very fond of the characters, in short, to wait for the next chapter
Question: I am thinking of reading the novel, from where should I start reading it if I am up to date with the anime?.

[sierra117]

Originally Posted by Gerard07

Seen the episode, we saw a bit of the past of the squad, and it hurts that 2 characters died, it seems that you really do not have to become very fond of the characters, in short, to wait for the next chapter
Question: I am thinking of reading the novel, from where should I start reading it if I am up to date with the anime?.

Just start from volume 1, the anime was just half way through that volume

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

It's sad that we lost Daiya (don't really care about the girl) but we already established that the 86 are expendable and can die anytime since episode 1. Thus, this episode feels superfluous to me. But at least it has some action in it. Can't wait to see the Spearhead do the suicidal mission next episode. This show really needs to move the plot forward a bit quicker now that it starts to repeat the "Spearhead is like Fast & Furious family" & "anyone can die anytime"-message. We get it already. Get on with the big plot, please.

Also, I feel like this show tries too hard to put in "anime-ism" in this war-torn alternate world setting. From the terrible peeping trope, the general highschool-ish interaction among the Spearhead members, the "picnic under the sakura trees"-trope in this episode, and the easily-blushing dere princess archetype (and god knows what other tropes that will be in future episodes). Not that it's wrong to have them but with this kind of setting, it'd be more refreshing to break away from anime-tropes as much as you can to make yourself stand out among other shows. At least Full Metal Panic! used all the tropes as parody or self-aware jokes.