(L+CR) Cross Ange

[ookamigirl]

Lots of very "conveniently" dressed girls..
Girls operating some interesting looking mechas.
The weird variation of Lacrosse was inventive.
Whole Norma thing was so cruel..
It was fun to see how it backfired on the Princess.
This has potential, but feels more like it's for guys.
Gonna skip it.

[Nvis]

How about you stop watching this and stop posting here if you hate it so much?

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Nvis

How about you stop watching this and stop posting here if you hate it so much?

Did I say I hate this series? No. It's fun enough for a guilty-pleasure watching. One can complain about excessive fanservice but the show still have other things to be enjoyed. So let's keep going.

[KleenexGhost]

Anyone think the mother who lost her child is gonna show up again?

[Hiss13]

Well...that was messed up. I'll keep watching but it was definitely messed up. I'll just ignore the blatant copy-overs from SEED and keep watching, being the masochist that I am.

[Faerie]

Well.
Watching this definitely made me wonder what the heck I am doing with my life.

I have no idea how I am supposed to feel about Princess Fllaycus Sashinami, little Nunally, Kira 2.0 or the creepy brocon-prince.... talks about a difficult to like cast. I'm assuming this will get better.
Not to mention the uncomfortable fanservice and that blatantly reused Seed-animation.
It's.... it's not bad, per se... just really, really odd. Cheesy, for sure. I can see this becoming pretty polarising pretty fast.
But considering who the producer is, I can't claim I don't know what I'm getting into with this one.
I'll give this a few episodes, out of curiosity. But man, I really can't tell what I just watched...

[wisteria233]

Just pointing out that Fukuda is only the Unit director in charge of the mechanical and the first opening the actual director for the series is Yoshiharu Ashino, and the head writer is Tatsuto Higuchi (who also did the Mai-Otome manga). Just so we know who the point the finger for the oncoming train wreck.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Just pointing out that Fukuda is only the Unit director in charge of the mechanical and the first opening the actual director for the series is Yoshiharu Ashino, and the head writer is Tatsuto Higuchi (who also did the Mai-Otome manga). Just so we know who the point the finger for the oncoming train wreck.

In a recent interview Fukuda says he has quite a bit of creative control over the project though.

[wisteria233]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

In a recent interview Fukuda says he has quite a bit of creative control over the project though.

I'm only looking at how who is credited for the series, I see some of his mark on this mess, but I also see a whole lot of Higuchi.

[TJR]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

In a recent interview Fukuda says he has quite a bit of creative control over the project though.

Yes, he's credited as the creative producer. This implies higher level involvement in project planning and conception.

[Ryuga]

Well, I like the fantasy setting of this anime. The music is great. Overall, I'm really digging the presentation of Cross Ange.

Ange's racism mixed with her pleasantries rather creeped me out lol, like when she was talking with her mother about purging Normas with a nice smile on her face. It was a bit cheesy that everyone decided to turn on her and things escalated so quickly with her mother getting shot and killed. Julio is incredibly sinister, and it's all but said he plans to continue the bloodline through his sister and himself.

What I didn't like was the excessive fanservice, I found it hindering serious moments, like when before she was about to fight the dragon, the talk with her mother, and the rape. Speaking of that, the rape wasn't necessary at all IMO. At the very least, they didn't need to show her wiggling her butt like that, playing the whole thing for titillation, I found that rather distasteful. Then afterwards, before they showed Ange, we're shown a bunch of the other characters shacked up and showing off more flesh which also ruined the moment for me.

It's almost like the creators didn't have enough faith in their all-female cast, so they decided to crank up the fanservice. Just not needed IMO. Which is a shame 'cause you'd think they wouldn't be able to screw up something as awesome as women/girls piloting mechas, shooting down dragons in a fantasy setting, but so far, I'm not sure this show'll make full use of its setting and premise and instead, rely on random shock value and fanservice.

Despite all that, I'm in it for the long haul. I want to see where this show ends up. Oh yeah, and I laughed when the women whose child was taken away was like "serves you right!", I was on her side for the most part.

[wisteria233]

Originally Posted by Ryuga

Well, I like the fantasy setting of this anime. The music is great. Overall, I'm really digging the presentation of Cross Ange.

Ange's racism mixed with her pleasantries rather creeped me out lol, like when she was talking with her mother about purging Normas with a nice smile on her face. It was a bit cheesy that everyone decided to turn on her and things escalated so quickly with her mother getting shot and killed. Julio is incredibly sinister, and it's all but said he plans to continue the bloodline through his sister and himself.

What I didn't like was the excessive fanservice, I found it hindering serious moments, like when before she was about to fight the dragon, the talk with her mother, and the rape. Speaking of that, the rape wasn't necessary at all IMO. At the very least, they didn't need to show her wiggling her butt like that, playing the whole thing for titillation, I found that rather distasteful. Then afterwards, before they showed Ange, we're showed a bunch of the other characters shacked up and showing off more flesh which also ruined the moment for me.

It's almost like the creators didn't have enough faith in their all-female cast, so they decided to crank up the fanservice. Just not needed IMO. Which is a shame 'cause you'd think they wouldn't be able to screw up something as awesome as women/girls piloting mechas, shooting down dragons in a fantasy setting, but so far, I'm not sure this show'll make full use of its setting and premise and instead, rely on random shock value and fanservice.

Despite all that, I'm in it for the long haul. I want to see where this show ends up. Oh yeah, and I laughed when the women whose child was taken away was like "serves you right!", I was on her side for the most part.

The music is actually really nice. The premise of the series is good enough they really don't need any fanservice.

[Blue-kun]

I was rather surprised with the premiere, maybe because I was expecting the most amazing trainwreck, after those comments by the person who attended the pre-air screenng. Yet, what I got was actually an interesting episode, setting Ange as a character with room for some really nice development in the future, should the show decide to go there.

The whole political backdrop and the brother's coup d'état laid the groundwork for her to potentially follow a revenge path, in order to get back what she lost. However, unlike other shows where you'd usually be able to empathize with the character right away, Ange starts us off as someone who's got her own issues to fight, as just before all of this happened she was part of the problem where the Norma wers concerned. The way she had the rug pulled from under her, it ends up being more than "just" losing status, and allows the writers to explore a lot of different possibilities with her character, which should be pretty important in shaping up what she'll be fighting for in the future -- and what exactly her "revenge" will be about.

To me, at least from this episode, she's not a character I can outright /hate/, but it's obvious she's been kept ignorant of a lot of things about the world so far. Without knowing exactly how and why Norma are a threat to society and seemingly unable to fit in without that light of mana power, that conversation with her mother and her desire to make the Norma disappear actually seemed to be the ideals of someone who meant 'good', even though in a completely idealistic way. Now, more than just losing her family or money, it feels as if Ange really has to build up a new person from scratch, and having to do so alongside other Norma girls is sure to teach to be a good way of learning what exactly's happening in the world, outside of the little cage she'd been kept in for her whole life. Depending on how things go, and assuming revenge does happen, it might also be a form of redemption -- in a TotA-ish way, for those who have played that game, lol.

Plus, I do want to find out more about the whole dragon issue. Why do they exist, where do they come from, how do they tie into this whole setting? If anything weirded me out, in this first episode, is that their existence seems to be somewhat disjointed from the rest of the story presented thus far. You could write an interesting show just with the coup d'état and exilement story, so this whole thing seems like a wild card, and hopefully it'll be related in some way to the other magical elements of the story.

As for the controversial rape scene... well, again, maybe it's because of expectations, but I didn't think it was played for "titillation" as a lot of people do. I certainly wouldn't have thrown in that cut with all the other naked girls in the middle of it, which I agree has very little to do with what was happening and added nothing to it, but Ange's situation was just one of the few terrible experiences she could've had once arriving there. If not rape, it could've been torture or just about whatever, really. The point being made is that she's got to stop the princess act and realize that, right now, she's less than human, and if she doesn't play by the rules, stuff like this will happen, as you're "on your own". I guess it just bugs me that, if it'd been just straight out torture, shock or whatever, I imagine a lot of the reactions would be of pitying her instead of saying they went "too far" and what not.

Now, other than the characters and the story, I was really into the music. I'm a big Nana Mizuki fan, and I also love Akiko Shikata's work, so them working together was always one of the big draws of the series for me. Thankfully, both completely delivered in that front. The celtic-ish insert song written by Shikata and performed by Nana (and Megumi, too, loved that!) was really nice, and the soundtrack as a whole stood out - positively - a lot. In a way, Shikata's use of strings and what not took me back to those old girls with guns Mashimo shows, when Kajiura was, in my opinion, at her very best.

All in all, though, I'm intrigued, if a little worried at the same time, as how they follow this episode up will be pretty important. Still, between the growth of Ange as a character, the potential for that revenge/redemption plot and the overall premise of girls working together to defeat dragons, the show has a lot of themes it can explore, and right now I'm just hoping the staff is able to make the most out of it. For ep1, 7/10.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Ryuga

Ange's racism mixed with her pleasantries rather creeped me out lol, like when she was talking with her mother about purging Normas with a nice smile on her face. It was a bit cheesy that everyone decided to turn on her and things escalated so quickly with her mother getting shot and killed. Julio is incredibly sinister, and it's all but said he plans to continue the bloodline through his sister and himself.

I am not actualy sure if it should be called racism considering it's legaly and culturaly established bias. For people belive that, Normas aren't humans, is metter of fact and people like that mother are just misguided by instincts.
I do play here devil's advocate as Normas discrimmination is clearly wrong, but It's not something Angeline should be blamed for as it's something she can't help but consider to be natural.

It realy make me remember Tom Sawyer who felt serious remorse about "stealing other people property" (helping escepade slave Jim), despite being overaly good person otherwise.

[KleenexGhost]

Ange's mentality is just a result of living in this type of word. It's one of the things I'm hoping the show takes seriously.

[Chosen_Hero]

Saw the first episode and I'm sold on watching this, it seems interesting, I don't mind the fan service, yuri undertones are a plus, etc. That last part didn't really bother me since it was a cavity search (and that's what they do in cavity searches), if she was being raped it would have been a whole different scene.

[Wandering Soul]

Ange's downfall was pretty good but right now I think I am more worried about her sister. All alone and left with her creepy brother who seems to have less than honorable intentions.

Sunrise is doing the same thing they did with Buddy complex. The openings are basically the same as SEED animation wise. I know SEED was popular but really?

Originally Posted by KleenexGhost

Anyone think the mother who lost her child is gonna show up again?

I do. I just got that feeling based on how they kept showing her during the reveal.

[Dahak86]

NSFW

not bad for a start

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[KleenexGhost]

Originally Posted by the one above all

I do. I just got that feeling based on how they kept showing her during the reveal.

I was legitimately surprised that she was involved in more than just that first scene. It didn't effect me that much when I first saw it but that scene with her daughter being taken away was really effective.

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by Dahak86

Images

not bad for a start

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NSFW sign needed!