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「襲撃・ESPガールズ」 (Shuugeki Esupu Gaaruzu)
“Attack, ESP Girls”
A rough adaptation gets worse. I’m losing hope.
Worst. Father. Ever.
I thought a certain butler had the worst parents, but the Professor takes the cake. Not only is he a horrible human being, a delusional, mass-murdering terrorist, but he’s actively driving his own daughter down the path of evil in his own misguided and ultimately doomed attempt to remake society through violence. I’m sorry, how often does this work out well for everyone? I could pull out the history books, but I hardly have to. It’s not working well enough in plenty of places in our world today.
Yet what he has done to Minami is worse. Those boys – okay, not great. You can argue it was in self-defense, though the response was perhaps disproportunate when she could have just teleported away. (Though she got her powers three seconds earlier, so who knows if she realized that.) But to convince her that she’s no longer human, and to blame that completely on her… A father is supposed to protect, guide, and nurture his children, not send them down the path of darkness!
I have seen many contemptible villains, but this manages to surpass most of them. He’s the only one who’s an inhuman monster, and I will enjoy seeing him go down.
Rinka is Dead
Killing off characters is tricky. Killing off important characters is even trickier. But killing off the main protagonist is trickiest of all, because we tend to not believe they’ll really go through with it. Rare is the story that will let its protagonist remain dead, whether through Superhero-style resurrections or by never showing the body (trope!). Rinka’s “death” was the worst of all possible worlds. I wouldn’t have believed it normally, but here I knew she wasn’t actually dead because of that damn first episode! So I was still thinking “How are they going to make it so she’s not actually dead?”, but without that little sliver of worry that maybe they wouldn’t. Without that, there was no power in her apparent demise.
Just Kill Her Already!
Then they didn’t even let her stay “dead” for two minutes! GAH! I’m tired of these idiot villains who won’t finish the job. If they’re going to make an example – and do I need to drag out the history books and show how often the bloody-head-on-a-spike tactic works in the long-term? – then just do it! Seriously, when will these idiot villains learn? If you have your enemy in your clutches, kill them! Don’t bask in it! It reminds me of a line from one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, which I’m going to reproduce here because I love it so much:
If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat.
They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”
But they didn’t even have the decency to finish the job when it appeared they had. Letting Kyoutarou live I can understand. Minami isn’t a monster yet. Letting Peggy live I can understand as well. That shark thing will probably go to something else if Peggy dies, so they want to keep it under their control. But Rinka? I love Rinka. I don’t want to see her die. She’s the best part of this shoddy adaptation. But I can’t take villains seriously when they don’t follow through.
Blame the Victim
People blaming Rinka for the attack on the school is atrocious. It’s like blaming a rape victim for being raped. It is not her fault. No part of it is her fault. It’s the terrorist’s fault. It’s the criminal’s fault. Yes, if she wasn’t there some particular people would have lived, but they would have attacked her somewhere else. It is not her fault, and this Esper Detainment Force asshole blaming it on her makes me damn near lose it with this .
It’s a difficult trick to stack the odds against a protagonist properly. It feels like all you have to do is ladle on the misfortune and stack everything against them, right? Wrong. There’s a line which, if crossed, turns tension into apathy. When so much is against the protagonists that it seems too unfair, like this world isn’t even worth saving, instead of being thrilling, it becomes disgusting. Where that line is depends on the person, but the Tokyo ESP anime crossed it for me here. When the villains attack you personally, and the people you tried to protect not only take you and everyone you love into custody, but blame you for this tragedy? Fuck it.
Here’s an example. Take the Lord of the Rings movies. (Spoiler alert, if you somehow haven’t seen them.) Denethor’s madness (which was only in the movies, if I remember correctly) worked because there were still many people fighting on the side of good. The protagonist’s desperation worked because there were still people who had hope for a better tomorrow, still people they were fighting for. Frodo’s journey was much more bleak, but because there was still that hope for a better tomorrow, we yearned for the light to come again. When the very people you’re trying to protect turn against you… Ugh.
Look, it can work. The X-men have made it work many times. But they have these great powers and steadfast allies, whereas the protagonists here are like the X-men C Team, B Team at tops. Everything feels so unfair, and while the knowledge that Kobushi, Ayumu, and the others are out there saves it for me, I’m awfully close to the line.
When So Much Is Bad, The Little Things Look Worse
I prefer to damn with faint praise rather than lambaste; it’s the RC way, and it’s the kind of blogging I prefer to read. What good are haters? But the sad fact is that the more that goes wrong in this adaptation, the worse it makes everything else seem. Things I would brush off at other times – Kobushi-chan breaking through the window, for instance – annoy me now. Why wasn’t she shredded up? And I would let that pass other times, but after watching Wolverine Papa leap from the sixth story and land running, without even having him use his powers to justify it I…ugh. I remember saying about Hataraku Maou-sama and No Game No Life that if you do most everything right, I will gladly give you a pass on the rare mistakes. Tokyo ESP hasn’t earned that, so the little things annoy.
Looking Ahead
It’s been clear for a while now that Tokyo ESP is a failed adaptation. It has done one thing well, though – I want to read the manga. I don’t usually have time to read much manga, but Rinka is such a great character I want to see her story told properly! Maybe I’ll make that my treat after the anime is done.
Note: Next week’s post will likely be delayed. I’m going to be out of the country, and while I’ll try to jump on this ASAP, the post could appear as late as next Sunday. I apologize for any delay. Check my Twitter for updates.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Villains attack Rinka’s school, don’t bother to finish her, & then people blame RINKA for the attack. Failed adaptation gets worse #東京ESP 09
Random thoughts:
- The fight between Rinka and the punching girls was lame. It was a curb-stomp (trope!), but it lacked any power behind it because the pacing and animation was so shoddy. The animation was shoddy throughout the episode, though.
- The title was “Attack, ESP Girls”. There was one guy too, you know. No respect. Or wait, does that mean he’s really a–!? Ugh. Now that idea is in my head.
Check out my blog about storytelling and the novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: Vacation, & a taste of what’s to come, Life or death, Just plain fun, and Don’t have enough time.
Preview
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God she hasn’t improve yet.
WOOOOOW! They Fucked up this part SO HARD. SO. FUCKING. HARD.
This was supposed to be THE EPISODE. OMFG.
The girls that were punching her were her friends (I know its extreemely hard to tell since this adaptation pretty much skips all that)
Also They fucked up the Villains/Minami’s story/motivation which is really good in the manga, but they just shoehorn one part here and didn’t even . . .ugh gah this is terribad.
This with the shitty animation. Is just too terrible to behold.
Oh and the Villains backstory is REALLY good, and pretty much turns him from the stupid Villain you hate (and a horrible father) to someone you can RELATE TO. . .GAH so bad,
Yes I know they didn’t show his whole backstory but the way it was done in the manga was just a MILLION times better.
Stilts if I were you I’d instead Blog the MANGA of this show IN PLACE OF the Shitty anime adaptation. You’ll love it to death.
This adaptation is just an insult to the Original creator. and INSULT.
So tired of watching our main hero got her butt kicked. I’ll pass on the Manga if she’s a punching bag like this!
I’m still enjoying this show somehow… The stupid villains get on my nerves. Rinka’s powers so inconsistent. I understand she cant go through living things but she had multiple chances to phase through the building while she was getting her butt kicked. It’s like the show wants her powers to work when it suits the story or something.
Entertaining show for me but not a masterpiece sadly…
All the stupid little things they did to the training arc are starting to unravel the rest of the story… Also so many anime-original filler villains. Why XEBEC, why?
This episode would have made a great couple of episodes in a better paced show without all the chopping. All the pieces were here for a well-timed cliffhanger and lead up to the climax (conveniently spoiled in the first episode of course). Even the Rinka blaming and thought process of the Professor would have worked if elaborated upon instead of stripped down to their bare bones and inserted halfheartedly into the show. If anything the presence of all these half baked ideas makes ESP that much more disappointing knowing how good it could have been if provided the room to breathe.
Not even the manly manliness of Wolverine Papa can save the trainwreck that ESP has sadly become.
And this, my fellow commentators, is precisely why you should always go into a XEBEC series with low expectations. You’ll almost certainly come out disappointed.
I wish I was wrong about that, really I do; and it’s not as if XEBEC isn’t capable when they put their minds to it. I remember enjoying their work on Buso Renkin quite vividly, and they certainly drew me in with the first few episodes of RIN – Daughters of Mnemosyne before it dove off a cliff into the unspeakable depths of anime hell along with School Days and Boku no Pico.
That, in a nutshell, is their fatal flaw. They do well enough with openings and introductions, but it’s in the follow through and conclusions where they just make you want to facepalm and wonder if they’re even honestly trying anymore.
They did it with Break Blade (the movie series, mind you. Did anyone actually bother checking out the TV remake?), Pandora Hearts, MM!, and don’t even get me started on what they did with Fafner.
-sigh-
One thing I will credit them for however. They’ve inspired me to find the time to go back and check out the original manga.
The problem with XEBEC for me is I know they’re shit, I’ve seen them be shit often enough to expect this…but sometimes they do juuuuust well enough that I’m like “Maybe they can be okay now…” and WHAM. Nope.
Guh.
You inspired me to look up what other shows Xebec has done, and yep, they suck.
But I did enjoy Stellvia and Occult School (if that counts). And Break Blade had promise, too bad they did a TV-rehash instead of fixing it.
From the sounds of things this adaptation has certainly made some questionable decisions, but are you sure some of the issues with this series (particularly the problems with the motivations and goals of the major antagonists) didn’t come from the source material?
@Darthtabby: The anime is certainly not doing the source material any favors, but as you note, some of the issues some viewers have are per source (i.e. villain motivations, etc. Rinka “dying”, etc.)
I think there are two main problems with the adaptation. First, the stuff the anime is adding (e.g. Kyōtarō’s first kidnapping in previous episodes, and the thugs teleported to train tracks this EP). IMO the anime-only additions don’t contribute anything beneficial to the story and waste time that could have been better used to retain cut source material. As I mentioned before, I think one of the strengths of the manga is the development of Rinka’s and Kyōtarō’s relationship. A lot of that has been cut out, and that’s not the only thing. There’s also just random stuff added. For example, the anime added a couple of extra “espers” including some in the group that attacked the school) for… “reasons”. What does adding a couple of literally miscellaneous “evil” espers do for the story – especially considering a common complaint seems to be that the villains lack sufficient depth of character?
Second, the presentation in general is just off. I still maintain that the spoilerific opening was a bad idea. I wonder how many anime-only viewers are thinking “When are we going to get to the Japanese Diet attack shown in EP 01?” rather than focusing on what’s going on in each episode. Actually, I also wonder whether some anime-only viewers feel duped by a very action packed start. The pacing is choppy – the story doesn’t flow as well as it should. In short, I think the manga is better than this, and thus the anime adaptation is not a good one. How much better is the manga? Like anything else YMMV. I suggest you give the manga a try. Reading up to volume 04, chapter 17 should be safe (that coincides with the end of last EP).
I’m sure some of the problems were present in the manga–which daikama confirms–but a lot of these things aren’t new. And that’s fine. But when you’re clearly recombining elements from other stories, and what’s more stories I recognize, you can only get away with it and tell a good story if the execution is very good. The praise for the Tokyo ESP manga is high enough from enough people I respect, and I see enough shards of brilliance beneath the mistakes, that I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt that it’s all done better in the manga.
These motivations, tropes, and plot lines can work, if done well. XEBEC just ain’t doing that.
If this was a 2 cour series, now would be about to time to drop it for good. But with only 3 episodes to go, that would feel kind of a waste.
Agreed on small mistakes being more significant when important bits are done badly.
I heard a rumor that the author of the manga is making a public complaint to the animation group for butchering his story, can anyone confirm or disprove this?
@Stilts: “Rinka’s “death” was the worst of all possible worlds. I wouldn’t have believed it normally, but here I knew she wasn’t actually dead because of that damn first episode!
Yep. Spoiler episode is spoilerific. FWIW, I took Rinka’s “death” as simply a method to “un-esper” Rinka for future plot development. So it’s either that or Peggy goes alien shark… collector thing on her and eats the fish. TBH, what bothered me as much, maybe more, was the stupid “Esper Police”. “We’re here to arrest you for being an esper!” “But I’m not an esper anymore and I can prove it!” “… Fine! You arrested for once being an esper!” *sigh* Poor girl is no longer an esper and, oh yeah, was just beaten to death – literally. Let her stay in the damn hospital for a while.
—“GAH! I’m tired of these idiot villains who won’t finish the job.”
True, but nothing new for an almost countless number of fictional works. The 007 series is pretty much based upon stupid, gloating villains. The Evil Overlord list has over 200 entries about that stuff (#6 particularly pertinent to the discussion), and who knows how many tropes have been created on this topic. At any rate, I do see your point and would also add I’m tired of seeing stupid police/law enforcement.
With all due respect to Mr. Pratchett, I don’t see much benefit to the “evil man” (or woman) if I end up dying all the same (usually with a lot more pain and suffering). Literally millions have died “at the hands” (literally or by order) of evil people throughout history. At least a “good man” (or woman) might actually listen to me if I’m innocent of whatever crime I’m accused of committing. The issue is stupid vs. not stupid rather than “good vs. evil”.
— There’s a line which, if crossed, turns tension into apathy. When so much is against the protagonists that it seems too unfair, like this world isn’t even worth saving, instead of being thrilling, it becomes disgusting.
I get where your going with this, but given spoilerific EP 01, you do know that things must turn around for the protagonist to some extent for what we saw to occur. Also, when compared to say Akame ga Kill or Black Bullet, to me the Tokyo ESP world doesn’t reach the point of “not worth saving”. YMMV on that. Lastly, your comment reminds me of what happens when authors start killing off characters left and right. At least for me, there’s also line which when crossed makes me lose all interest. Why should I become attached or even care about a character if there’s a high probability of them dying, or worse, all the characters I liked are killed off? As you say, “fuck it”. Feel free to kill off all the rest of as well because I literally couldn’t care less at that point.
P.S. Kind of surprised you didn’t go on a “mind control sucks” rant. 😛
@Mind Control, All I could think of was “Hey, Why are they Ripping off Code Geass? . . .man I’d rather watch that trainwreck over this X1000 right now.”
I’ve ranted about mind control enough that I didn’t even have it in me. But yeah, mind control $@%&*.
The point behind Mr. Pratchett’s quote (which of course makes more sense in context, but I thought it stood well enough on its own) is that you want to be in the power of the evil man because it gives you a greater chance to get away. Yes, if you end up dead who cares (the torture aside), but it’s more of a “What happens when a good man is at the mercy of an evil man” vs “What happens when an evil man is at the mercy of a good man”. And yeah, many good men would take the evil dude into custody. It’s the lack of gloating that’s the point. Don’t get all pedantic on me 😛
And on the apathy point, Black Bullet did indeed approach this line at times, and yes, the spoilerific Ep1 actually helped save me from complete apathy. I don’t get that from Akame ga Kill because, no matter how bad the world, the protagonists are still powerful and they still have friends. There’s still people they’re fighting for, even if it’s mainly each other. That keeps me attached to it, no matter how crappy the world.
I’m a fan of Terry Pratchett’s work he is one of my favorite authors. Loved Disc World 🙂
You have to keep in mind the context of the novels too. They are written with a good sense of humor. He was probably talking in General terms. Think bout Dragonball Z for instance. Notice how the bad guy likes to monologue forever even though he is reducing his tactical advantage by giving away all of his secrets. But this is a method writer’s love to give explanations. I was just thinking Accel World suffers from this too a little [spoiler]See last episode[/spoiler]. Terry was most likely making fun of the average fictional work out there that does that because in most of Terry’s works a lot of his villains are pretty ruthless and will take you out fast actually
Whats with Nippon, and blame all Deaths on one person, because she was there?
Sorry, i took the left way this time, not the right way. And now because of that all in the School got killed, because it was my fault!!.. I am not a Human being anymore…
That was the greatest Bullshit i ever saw.
Blame White Girl for all the Deaths on School, because Bad ESPlers got there to kill her. And even this Special Police dont made any affords to help the Good guys, no for them all ESPlers are inhuman and need to get locked away. Thats the old racialism all over again. Looks like it lies deep in Nippon’s society
But i was right, they attacked the school so the White Girls bf would see her death, to fall into despair
i wanted to write in my Appetizer, that we know she will survive and regain her Powers. Because we saw her in Episode 2 fighting against ESPlers… So this Dead impact was useless
But then in my appetizers i dont use spoilers
and i bet, that this memories of Minami first kill is a implanted fake memories from her father, to turn her to his side (take care of the red light in this scene) It is like her father is possessed of a Monster.. We see, that his left Face is real. Also this little red scratch we saw earlier, is a illusion too
No, that what the “Yakuza” daddy said, was my idea too. They also had prepared it on secret. As if they knew, it will come. As if someone bigger is pulling the strings behind Minami’s Father
Well, this episode shaken my resolve very hard to continue to watch
Mr. Script writer-san. Just copying US Superheros storyline is not all you need. You must also understand the soul of the storyline. but looks like you mistook it here
Yeah, this episode…wasn’t good.
You see, there’s a certain line for me when I’m watching a flawed work – the snark line. As long as it’s above that line, I can still take the show seriously to a certain degree and enjoy it that way. When it dips below it, however, I basically start MST-ing this show, pointing out every flaw with glee. It’s a sign that this show has lost me, and with this episode, Tokyo ESP has sadly finally crossed it.
Because where do you begin? The Professor’s shoddy motivation and complete lack of a cohesive plan? Rinka’s failed ‘death’ scene and the shoddy animation in the fights before it? The stupid actions of our protagonists (there’s ways to push off your mindcontrolled friends without severely hurting them, Rinka, so feel free to save yourself) leading to cheap tragedy (Rinka dad, if you could take their guns with your power, why didn’t you do it before you got shot?). The lame villains not being much better in the smarts department? Besides, not a single one has reservations in attacking a freaking school? Were they born as terrorists or something? And finally, the utterly stupid and aggravating victim blaming?! Bullshit! I sincerely got angry at the show at that point, gah.
I suppose there’s only three episodes left now, so I might as well stick with it until the end…but I doubt it can redeem itself now. Yet another failed adaptation for the pile. I expected more of this show, but alas.
Stilts…. Did you possibly gain precognition from the glowing fish? You do remember last week’s “Psycho style shower scene” right?
Wow…. Im suddenly glad that I never went past 5 minutes of episode 1…. Im already frustrated with how Xebec is handling Argevollen, if I added Tokyo ESP into the equation, i would have probably dropped the only flop anime that I can watch when I have too much spare time.
Gee after all that training lol. Poor Rinka,that was quite the beat down.
Yeah why did we waste all these episodes on training if we just going to get beatdown left and right? Usually when shows spend time on training the hero, it is to help them overcome their obstacles. In this show we burned a lot of time getting trained only to beatup one flunkie at the amusement park. After that it was just business as usual, Rinka getting served again
Should we even discuss the adaptation kidnapping Kyoutaro, letting him go for one day, and then kidnapping him again?
I’m not even going to touch the rest of this. Rinka’s death was a powerful scene in the manga, even though we had to know it wouldn’t stick: just when things had finally started to seem like they were looking up for her, her entire world came crashing down. What happened to Minami was terrible, and the fact that the Professor used it to twist her to his cause when she was emotionally a wreck from being nearly raped and then killing those guys in self-defense was reprehesnsible, but it sounds like they’ve reworded his speech to make it even worse (I haven’t watched this episode yet. I don’t think I’m going to). The victim blaming… it happens but… well, you’ll just have to read it.
This, all of this, is the beginning of what TVTropes would describe as Rinka’s Darkest Hour. There is a lot of emotion involved, from the connection you should have been building up with Rinka and these characters over the course of this story (a connection I rather doubt the anime has allowed you to build, with all the characterization it’s cut). It makes everything that happens during these chapters, and what follows, all the more powerful.
I had high hopes for this series, but this is a trainwreck. I’m Afraid Tokyo Ghoul is gonna go the same way. These 1 cour seasons of manga are only gonna be rushed adaptions and thats not good for the stories being told. I hate original anime endings as well. The anime industry don’t care about story or art, it’s all about selling for the source material and merchandise. Good thing is that I look forward to reading ESP in manga format cause I heard it’s better.
Tokyo Ghoul is still holding everything together though and if there’s a decent chance for a 2nd season which I see several people claiming that there is,it might just reach a good stopping point.
(Hope its not a double post, anyways)
no, ist not gonna happen.I agree with Corey Lucas. The last episode sealed it. They left THE PART OF THE PLOT out – I mean Show Spoiler ▼
Its gonna be anime-original now. A possible second season could not continue the plot of the manga. Well TG disappointed BIG TIME, because of the really good source material. But I think anime-only-viewers can still be somehow satisfied.
This thing however. I have not read the source material, and even I though: Here is a part missing. Not just badly written! But MISSING! And Im even pretty immune against plotholes.
Sometimes you wanne shake those guys and ask them wtf they are thinking. If you have great and popular source material, and just 12 episodes, just stick with the story already! Leave it at a cliff hanger for all I care, at least this way we can hope for a second season.
Now we can only hope for another study to redo the whole first season! Oh, but leave the OP for TG please. For Tokyo ESP another one please:P
Wow this writer is just so consistently obnoxious in how he presents his opinions and ideas it kind of reminds me of why I don’t read this site as much as I used to. Not a fan of Stilts approach to episodic blogging or how he’s always shouting down others in the podcasts when they try to talk and just giving off this completely belligerent attitude and personality. He always just seems to chose the most popular series too to get the most commentaries and seemingly feed what appears to be a rather overbearing personality. Really makes me miss the days when Divine and Omni were the major contributors to RC and just kept it simple and focused on the shows themselves rather than these tangents and what looks like an every increasing dose of /a culture. IMO the blog has really gone downhill quite significantly in terms of quality of writing, overall participation of commentators and just overall vibe since then. Just too much egotism, “personality” and not enough actual getting down to the point which is what used to separate RC from the general blogosphere for me. Stilts talks about the RC way in this article, well I feel like there’s obviously a clear difference in what that is defined as compared to the prior decade where it used to mean something completely different.
Oh well times change and so do the people that write for these things, just a shame really.
@John
For the risk of being banned (yeah Don’t really care about that) I say this:
GO Fuck yourself.
No one is forcing you to read this and like it. To each his/her own. Everyone has his/her own style of writing, voice, and etc., and if expression should be limited to what is highly acceptable conduct and attitude for only a few, the world can go hang. I’d say, if you don’t like what is written, try to write what you’d like to see written. ^^
I wasn’t aware I came across as belligerent or that I shouted people down in podcasts. Hadn’t gotten any complaints from the writers themselves. I’ll be sure to watch for that in the future.
For the rest, I honestly don’t know what /a culture is. All I can say is that Divine is happy with the way the site is going right now, which is why he’s still leaving most things up to us. He’s back blogging a few shows if you want to read his writing again though.
Hope you find a writer you like to read, even if it’s not me.
P.S. I won’t deny that I like to blog popular shows – I like to respond to comments, obviously! – but look at most of the big ones I’ve done. You’ll find they’re usually fantasy shows. That’s the real reason I blog them. Fantasy just happens to be popular in anime.
Why are the “fights” so bad… every time somebody punches somebody else it feels like it’s in super slow motion and there’s no weight behind anything. They might as well be playing with pillows.
It has done one thing well, though – I want to read the manga. I don’t usually have time to read much manga, but Rinka is such a great character I want to see her story told properly!
Hehe,you definitely should Stilts! I rarely read manga either(although I have my moments when I just blaze through them) but I’ve really grown to like Rinka and the constant feeling that “maybe there’s something here” along with claims from the manga readers that there really is got me to read it – even though just partially. It has a really nice art style too. Can’t wait to pick it up again when the anime end’s.
There are so many things I’d like to badmouth about this ep. For one, the villains are so bland that they make me yawn. They are too chatty, which isn’t a big problem, but it’s hard to take them seriously ever. Unlike in the manga where they’re all no-nonsense and just went on with it. For two, awful bgm. The ED is good, if not great, and the OP is passable. But the inserts in this ep is just—meh. I especially feel that beating Rinka scene could have had more impact with better bgm and close-ups and struggles and stronger impact punches. The sound effects seem too soft, and movements are limited. It’s just…meh. Having watched the likes of DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and D.Gray-man (among a few), I certainly think this is the worst losing battle ever. It’s the presentation that is horribly done. Is it Xebec’s fault? The director’s fault? Idk, but other action anime have better fights than this. Like, really, fights that even a girl like me would find moving and beautiful because of the weight and tension and struggle they bring.
Another thing, it’s too silent. They voiced Minami’s thoughts and all, but the rest? It would have been nice to get to hear the thoughts of Azuma and the rest while they’re controlled because it shows struggle too. But no, it’s all…meh.
I want to cry.
No way Rinka is going to stay powerless for long. I bet another goldfish is going to enter her and bring back “White Girl” just in time for the grand finale.
Well… in this case at least, I think it was sort of justified that Rinka survived. I mean, her heart did stop for a few minutes, and the fish-thing did leave her body. So I guess it was reasonable for the villains to think that she’d died?
@Stilts
Glad to see that you want to read the manga. I think you’ll really enjoy it. Will you be writing some review about it?
It’d be nice to, but due to being out of the country I’m going to be behind on EVERYTHING when I get back, so who knows when I’ll get to it. It’s something I’d like to blog right after the anime ends so I can speak to it when people are still interested, but if it’s just a random post out of left field, I don’t know if I will.
It’s possible, but somewhat unlikely. Give it a 30% chance. I’m 95% sure I’ll yakk about it on twitter when I get to it though!
“When so much is against the protagonists that it seems too unfair, like this world isn’t even worth saving, instead of being thrilling, it becomes disgusting.”
Quite succinctly summarizes why I gave up on Berserk long ago (ie: anything after the Eclipse)…sad to see this show go the same route…it seemed like it had potential. TBH, I will likely binge watch the whole thing after the season is over, and perhaps that will make it more palatable.
Um, the Bezerk animated series ended at that spot.
You want to see unfair? Checkout “Attack on Titan” or “Knights of Sidonia”. I love hopeless situations and many other people do too is my assumption. But those shows are well done and from what I gather, faithfully illustrate the source material. Tokyo ESP from what I gather tears it all up to shreds
Can’t help but think that the esper detainment whatever is a bit overkill. I mean, come on. These fish are clearly not picky about the age of whoever they enter (Murasaki, Ayumu for example), so it’s entirely possible there are other, younger child espers around. Are you REALLY going to burst into a little child’s house and drag them away for detainment? The kid is hardly going to understand what’s going on!!! Surely there should be a different way of dealing with it…
I have no idea why this, out of all the rage inducing parts of this episode, angered me the most, but there you go. They’re so, utterly stupid.
On the plus side, now that we’ve been given a bit of insight into how Minami became an esper, the ED song video is making a little sense.
I still think the ED song was done in poor taste. Yeah it makes more sense now I agree with you. But they got her floating around butt naked for some reason. Going to avoid XEBEC with a passion after this show is complete is the plan
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
“I’m starting to think things might get exploitative…”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
“annnd, yep.”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
“Rinka just got nerfed.”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
“but wait, it doesn’t stop there….”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
“…cause then this happened.”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
“but luckily this happened!”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
“and this! love this girl!”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
“but then this! and he doesn’t have a healing factor!!!”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
“and fuck this group right here. terrible characters.”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
“and to hell with these pricks here, but death by tropey exploitation.”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
“and your plan is really shitty.”
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20ESP/Tokyo%20ESP%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
“so just stop the madness!”
I only have one question: will they ever get around to killing Minami? Will she die a painful and horrible death? That would at least be my cartharsis after everything. (No, I’m not trolling, I do want her dead.)
Abusing Rinka – The anime.
Ep 10:
Lol, when i saw the Source of all this. I laugh a little…
it remembered me of some Guy… *Spoiler protection*
Okay, i lean a bit out of the Windows, and say only this:
If you where upset with Ep 09, then Ep 10 will explain it all. It calmed me somehow down. Dont trow ESP because episode 09 out of the Windows, until you saw Episode 10
Trust me