(L) Summertime Render

[grecefar]

a supernatural murder mystery with time travel loop... we only needed the isekai with game elements and then we got everything in one. (well it does have the persona 3 headshot, so let's see).

nice chapter, it was interesting.

[stray]

Hmm, I found an English placeholder for the series on DuckDuckGo -- https://www.disneyplus.com/series/su...g/3AHbeFV7Lqvn

[Last Sinner]

As I've read some of the manga, I saved ep1 for when I was in the mood to give my full attention to this.

They nailed this opening episode. And a key part of it is that it gradually feeds you information - specifically while other things are happening. It doesn't waste time, it gets to the point. The pain of the characters mourning is very potent and you get a sense of why it hits them that hard. There are moments where you look back and wonder what is going on given what happens minutes later, because it briefly did something to give you pause to. The episode builds up gradually, slowly letting it seeping in that something is very wrong. Then when it blasts you away, you have next to no time to react and you're craving for an answer as to what the hell just happened but that final minute denies you that while giving a crucial reveal. It's brilliant in that regard. Something is at stake immediately and is worth being invested in. And with people I want to see more of.

Visually, I was very impressed with how this came across from manga to anime. The nature scenes, the cooking, the everyday life - it's so vivid. That moment where the shrimp are being fried was stellar. That precise tone of plant life. That sparkle in characters' eyes with the specific colour tones used.

The OP is a belter. Seriously, I rarely listen to OP/EDs anymore, but this one just has that cool, earnest element to it that I won't tire of. Later in the episode, tension music came in at the right times. I liked the fact it didn't try to saturate the entire episode in music. It had a time and place. Liked the VA acting - appreciated the different dialect/slang. Can definitely go the distance hearing them voice it.

So they covered the mega chapter within a full episode. The chapters thereafter get a lot shorter but they need to cover around 6 chapters per episode to remain on pace. Which I think they can do.

Easy retain. And it's good to see people enjoying it too.

[Wandering Soul]

I got to give it to the Shinpei, he got a handle of the situation pretty quickly and came up with a plan to catch a shadow in the act.

I have my doubts Ushio was killed be the shadows. So far the shadow's MO seem to be to kill the person and replace them while getting rid of the body. Not only us Ushio's body still there, but she wasn't replaced. Unless she was some sort of special case, it doesn't match up

[Ragashingo]

Episode 2

Maybe she was replaced... but then drowned? Can a Shadow drown?

The one thing I don't like about this is the opening. All those squares kinda leave nothing to see. Maybe it'll make sense eventually but I kinda think it's too abstract and cluttered for its own good.

Wait a second:

Spoiler:

Remember the flash photo at the funeral?! Nobody had a camera there. There was a Shadow in that room... duplicating someone!

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep2:

A dream about your friend pushing on a blonde girl's breasts and then waking up and diving into some lady's breasts
Now that's foreshadowing
...Except for some reason, the stupid guy saved and now he can't enjoy her breasts every time he dies. If you could enjoy her breasts every time you died, then sure, not so bad after all.

On a more serious note, so this isn't as much of a mystery as some kinda sci-fi thing? It was kinda funny, since I was watching clips of "The Thing" and its prequel today
Although the whole "taking over everyone" thing resembles the Body Snatchers series more
So... anime Body Snatchers, with a good spice of boobs and panties (and a tanned girl)! I like the sound of that.

[EroKing]

Shots fired.

[Guardian Enzo]

I want to be offended, but, well...

[Kanon]

Just as great as the first episode. I liked how Mio's panties turned out to be a minor plot point, they were the thing that first convinced Shinpei he was reliving July 22nd.

He was killed earlier this time yet he went back to a later point, after getting off the boat. So it's not a "getting sent back X hours" kind of deal. Hard to figure out the rules with just two jumps. And yep, his eyes are related to it. It seemed to me there was an even bigger contrast between the two in this episode.

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

Wait a second:

Spoiler:

Remember the flash photo at the funeral?! Nobody had a camera there. There was a Shadow in that room... duplicating someone!

Big breasted lady seems to think the shadow is the little girl, so it might have been her. I personally think she's a red herring. And the one copied was definitely Shinpei, there are two hints: in episode one, someone asked him what he was doing in the morning and Shinpei was confused since he didn't leave the house. In this episode, when Shadow cop asked Shadow Mio if she was going to copy him too, she replied "no, he's already...". So Junpei was copied during the funeral.

I'm loving this show. It's my favorite type of story, time travel with a lot of mystery.

Originally Posted by EroKing

Shots fired.

I lol'd hard.

[stray]

America, fuck yeah! -- though I'm definitely glad I'm a dual citizen.

Production value is still really high. I'm hopeful Disney jail gets figured out soon.

[bladeofdarkness1]

Originally Posted by stray

America, fuck yeah! -- though I'm definitely glad I'm a dual citizen.

Production value is still really high. I'm hopeful Disney jail gets figured out soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rloNvQ0diwE

[grecefar]

I thought it was already hard with a dopplenganger taking the place of anyone but now it not only can copy perfectly the body, voice and personality but it can multiply itself and it's not just one.

Who knows how many are real or fake in the island now.

[ars89]

I wonder if Mio's shadow is the leader or if she works under another since the cop seemed to listen to her orders, unless that's only because he split off of her.

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I want to be offended, but, well...

Same here. Can't be too mad at them for speaking the truth.

[Last Sinner]

The pacing is about what I predicted they needed to remain on pace. If they keep it up, they should be able to cover the source material properly.

Yoko Hikasa, so good to hear from you again...she's virtually walked in from Kirigiri in Danganronpa to this role.

Visual highlights - the bubbles when Shinpei was sinking and the bottom of that water bottle in the final scene of the episode.

Mio is probably the best drawn non-pale character I've seen in a long time, even if it's a tan.

Can't wait to see how people react to the next episode.

[FlareKnight]

There's a lot of elements in here that is tricky to work through. You have entities called shadows, but who knows what exactly they are. Clearly can duplicate people and even evaporate the bodies to conceal the evidence. Although if they can destroy the body so completely I'm surprised the fake Mio even bothers with a knife or gun. Of course I'd also wonder why she took herself hostage before killing her in front of Shinpei. Doesn't seem like that would be necessary.

There's the possible concept that Shinpei is himself a shadow. Whether he was duplicated during the funeral, I'm not sure. Seems hard to imagine since fake Mio was glowing pretty intense when making that duplicate. Even if it was during the day, I think someone glowing like that would be tough. Clearly something happened though. No one was obviously taking pictures.

We've got almost digital effects around the shadows and Shinpei getting that fancy eye which is definitely connected to things. Not sure either about his resurrections since he did come back the second time in a later point. Is there a limit on it? He revives once to the boat, and then to the pier, and it just keeps going from there? Maybe next time he revives on the walk to the funeral and then at the funeral itself? Getting less chances to change things. But maybe it's just random.

And there's just a lot of things to consider. Was that little girl really traumatized or is she a shadow? If she was a shadow then certainly killing Ushio at sea and then pretending to have been saved by her while bringing her body back seems possible. Although if the point is to replace the original then a possible Ushio shadow is doing a really bad job . Hard to say how many of these fakes are around either.

Characters seem pretty fun so far. Shinpei is a solid lead and is handling this insane situation as well as one could. Mio is cute and also doing her best in a tough situation. All the more so since she's got a duplicate of herself out there trying to kill her...with a smile on her face while doing so.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

There's a lot of elements in here that is tricky to work through. You have entities called shadows, but who knows what exactly they are. Clearly can duplicate people and even evaporate the bodies to conceal the evidence. Although if they can destroy the body so completely I'm surprised the fake Mio even bothers with a knife or gun. Of course I'd also wonder why she took herself hostage before killing her in front of Shinpei. Doesn't seem like that would be necessary.

If Shadow Mio is bothering to kill Mio using conventional means, there is obviously a reason. They can probably only make corpses disappear, not living people. And I'm further guessing only the Shadow of that person can make the corpse disappear. Why she took Mio hostage before killing her anyway, I don't know.

[Guardian Enzo]

The wide range of elements that have to work and the challenge of fitting this into two cours is the reason why it was so critical to get a top-notch director. Well, they got maybe the top-notch director in TV anime these days (when he’s not doing movies), which is why I have a high level of confidence this is going to hold together.

[Ragashingo]

Ok... one of the things we have is Ushio is clearly involved in the time loop stuff. It seems highly likely that she bestowed this time loop power on Shinpei at the beginning of the first episode. Everything we know about her so far is she was a normal girl... but one with a Shadow. Where did this time loop power come from? Can you maybe gain powers by killing your Shadow? That could possibly be how we have a time skipping Ushio and what seems to be her body at the funeral... I'm voting for something else happening to her. You don't just gain wonky time travel powers by being strangled by your own Shadow, do you?!

Elsewhere, I saw someone asking about the command structure of the two known Shadows. Why the did police guy obey and give his gun to Mio's Shadow? Maybe there's a "I birthed you so I am your boss" thing going on? Or, could there simply be a hive mind / singular mind thing going on where all the Shadows are one entity that can play the parts of multiple people?

I do think Shinpei appearing on the pier is showing us a limit to the time looping. Meaning, he can't fully Groundhog Day this. If he moves forward by... what... 15 minutes, an hour... each time he dies then pretty soon he'll be past the funeral, past the point where Mio's Shadow kills the police officer, etc. I think we need to see the loop move forward once more to really confirm this, though. But if true, it may become important for him to die as little as possible to keep his options open...

Also, is the back end of the loop affected by how far forward he goes? He lived less in the 2nd loop than in the first but also respawned later (on the pier instead of on the boat). It doesn't seem to be a fixed length loop as that would have caused him to come back on the boat not even near the island yet. But... let's say he lives two weeks this time, will that have an affect on the looping?

[Last Sinner]

Loving the discussion and that people are thinking as well as seeing subtle hints. But there is one no one here has mentioned. It bugged me during these first two episodes and the first few chapters. I'll refrain from mentioning it until the first relatively blatant aspect of it occurs. Someone might see it by then.