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“Vampire Attack”The Vampire War Begins: I was quite looking forward to the action that was promised after last week’s episode, but unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Clearly, Owari no Seraph wants to embrace every shonen trope it possibly can – which is not a bad thing in itself. What is disappointing is that it feels like this series has the potential to be so much more. I’m not saying it has to twist every expectation that comes with a shonen action series (like Hunter x Hunter does, for example), but I wish it just tried to be different. The first episode was daring in its art direction and the cinematic flow, but as the months have gone on I’ve come to realise that Owari no Seraph is not the series I want it to be. That’s not necessarily its own fault, but I do wish it stuck with its early potential and proved itself as memorable in an already crowded demographic. That being said, the war with the vampires very much felt like a war. Just like last episode, there were a mixture of well-done and poorly animated moments. Sometimes I had to cringe my through some of the scenes (which I have saved from screencapping), but at least when Owari no Seraph looks good, it does in fact look good. However, Shinoa introducing the super-power pills had me rolling my eyes. This couldn’t have been mentioned earlier? Obviously, there are limits to it, but now our main cast will be somewhat impervious to the attacks from the vampires. If only all the others out there risking their lives got the same special treatment. Another moment that didn’t work for me would have to be when the Moon Demon Company were welcomed by those already on the battlefield. Are we really to believe that these five teenagers are the only respectable fighters out there? Maybe I’m being too harsh on Owari no Seraph, but the more typical and predictable it becomes, the more I find myself irritated by it. Mika’s Drinking Habits: Thankfully, Mika is still the most interesting character of the series, and having some focus on him was a blessing. Mika’s storyline is leagues above the others, because it gives me genuine hope that if everyone else’s was this interesting, then we’d have a fantastic series on our hands. Unfortunately, Mika’s journey is the only one that rises above the tropes, using the setting to its advantage, delivering some emotional moments where Mika has to face the reality of his situation. I like that the vampires don’t just die if they refuse blood, but instead wither from weakness; this means that Mika has to have blood in some form, even if his heart is telling him he must refuse. But he has urges, and his time with the queen’s blood is limited. I feel for the boy, just as I have sympathy for Yuu – I just wish the series was more about those two and wasn’t bogged down by the extras (except Shinoa, she can stay). Overview – What’s Next?: It seems like Mika and Yuu might finally reunite next episode, so if there is to be a moment where things could turn around, that’ll be it. I’m not getting my hopes up too high, but if it means Mika getting more focus, then I may be crossing my fingers for some more of those powerful, reflective moments we’ve come to expect from him. Please, Owari no Seraph, I know you can do it. |
Full-length images: 01, 15, 33.
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Boys love!
Veto. Shipping Yuu x Shinoa real hard.
Honestly Samu, the way you write about this show makes me think its a chore for you to blog this. Its a shounen show so its gonna have it tropes. Deal with it! You cry about so much that makes this show wrong yet you dont notice the fact that it takes time to build its characters. This episode was better than the last and sped up the action and the story on both sides. I dont you should blog this show anymore and give it to someone that respects it for what it is. You’re way too critical and biased
Well, I think it should be pretty obvious from my post that I wasn’t in love with this episode, and just because I didn’t like it as much as others shouldn’t mean I should drop it (and I doubt anyone else would pick it up, so there’s that fact to consider as well). But I wouldn’t say that I find the series a chore to watch or blog, it’s just that some weeks I like what we get more than others. In the first few episodes I was very enthusiastic about the parts of the show that worked for me, and my opinion on those parts hasn’t changed. My disappointment has been with the episodes drifting further from what we saw in the premiere, and more into territory that we’ve seen done before. I don’t hate the show or hate blogging it, and I’ll stick with it until this cour is over, at the very least.
Last week I thought Yuu really shone as a main character, but the girls got short end of the stick. The week before I said that Shinoa was a gem of a female lead, and the vampire action, although good, came second in comparison to her standout moments. Every week Owari no Seraph delivers things that I both like and dislike, and this episode was no exception: I really liked the Mika stuff, but I wasn’t so fond of the inconsistent art in the battle scenes, and the reliance on tired tropes.
Don’t worry about it. I don’t think you’ve been unfair to this series at all. At best, this show has been a solid “OK” but definitely nothing to be pumped up about. I feel like your recaps have been pretty fair to the series. There’s always that guy who is totally drooling from every orifice when their “chosen” shounen series gets animated as well.
i agree with you. fuck this guy
It’s been a while, but welcome back, Mika. Apart from the Mika moments, I’m so underwhelmed by the impact of this episode. For example, the plane loaded with explosives and crashing into the fortress was supposed to be devastating, right? Yet it amounted to nothing much with only a few casualties. I wasn’t so convinced about the mortals against the helicopters.
This episode had some really funky animation, almost Gonzo-tier.
have to say that is some really modern vampire, gunships instead of superpower for vampire ? don’t see that often
Yeah it’s usually the other way around with the humans using the military hardware and vampires using the other stuff.
I agree. The show would be more powerful with less secondary characters. Yu and Mika are the dramatic axis here. Ok, Shinoa has earned her place… and it would draw a stronger parallelism with Krul, who plays a similar role of trickster mentor to Mika.
By the way, I think the awe about the Moon Demon Company is not about our merry band of five teenagers, but about Guren’s whole unit. Most of the soldiers were from a normal divisions with normal (ok, “less magical”) weaponry. Knowing the elites are coming is always good.
Anyone else here think that those military hardware that the vampires had could’ve been used more efficiently?
Reminded me of some RTS games which would send several units to attack your base instead of sending all of them at once.
True. They are supermen, they are used to hiding in the shadows, not to wage war, and that technology is probably what they scraped from the fallen civilization. For them, military hardware must be like toys.
Yes, that’s the word: toys. Those two vampires on the plane looked like they were having fun instead of fighting for their lives.
Ok, i’ll have to disagree about a lot of things, Shinoa introducing the super-power pills actually was quite a good scene, even more so because of her overtly cheerful delivery … and i don’t see it’s wrong she waited to for the time where they needed the pills to present them .. better than just dumping everything in the training scenes from before .. or delivering that exposition while a vampire noble is breathing down their necks … they didn’t expect to fight vampire nobles at all so there was no reason before to present those dangerous pills for no reason.
And again i also disagree about the Moon Demon Company, they are obviously like special forces or commandos compared to the regular troops because of the demon weapons they have .. and no they aren’t the only special unit on the field .. i mean come on, they did introduce the entire commando unit of Guren in this episode but you didn’t mention anything about them .. and it’s pretty obvious they will even play a big role in the next episode.
The only thing i agree with you about is Mika, his side of the story is indeed slightly more interesting than Yuu’s side of the story so far, his dilemma is real and interesting and his relation with the vampire queen is intriguing, that much i can agree on.
Next week seems to bring exciting developents as Yuu and Mika finally cross paths.
Lets see what this episode had:
1)Rambo bow mode
2)Proof that you can resist anything but loli
3)Explosions everywhere
well what s next? 50 caliber machine gun
the crap from arrows wining over black hawk was soo bad
so mika is addict to krul blood(jealousy) and krul is so kind that she gave to him like 6 litrer of her blood
by the way mika walking like a model was too gay
i guess the point of this episode is buy time alone to shinoa&yuu in next episode
You do know those aren’t normal arrows .. they did mention that in the episode, clearly you weren’t paying attention or something, they are magical demonic arrows (a downgraded version of the black-series weapons but still magical) not just a normal arrow which is obviously would be useless against a combat helicopter like that.
yeah they are magic arrow BUT them look the same like a plain arrow T__T maybe if them could add a black aura or something to it, that make them look like a magic arrow
“by the way mika walking like a model was too gay”
Surely it’s not as bad as a guy having bright pink hair?
“our main cast will be somewhat impervious to the attacks from the vampires. If only all the others out there risking their lives got the same special treatment”
Show Spoiler ▼
Of course they will welcome members of elite squad, not everyone can enter the moon demon company if teenagers can enter that squad they must be capable fighter and there is a reason why they have the black demon series.
“our main cast will be somewhat impervious to the attacks from the vampires. If only all the others out there risking their lives got the same special treatment”
The pills are designed to heighten the user’s strength and stamina, not repel enemy attacks. That would be ridiculous, even for this show. Plus the waiting time for the effects to kick in along with risk of using them was already explained.
–Off-topic–
For the Shinoa fans
http://tinyurl.com/oyaqts8
In regards to the scene where Shinoa explains the purpose of those pills, the explanation was done around the same time as in the manga, so it’s been on pace so far sans the slight changes/additions (that in no way change the point of the scene itself). I won’t get into the manga though since this is the anime, but I thought to point out that it is happening as it should be even if it may seem like it should’ve been talked about earlier. But they are in the middle of a war; there simply won’t be a ‘good’ time to talk about the pills so the transport scene was probably as convenient a time as ever for Shinoa to introduce them.
As far as animation goes, there were notably some hiccups but nothing too bad. Could’ve been better, yes. Though as long as it doesn’t deter from watching the episode, it all works out somehow. We can only hope for smoother animation in the following episodes, right? Overall, this episode wasn’t too bad at all. Guren vs Mika cliffhanger was a nice touch though obviously I wanted it to continue for a bit longer but alas, another week to wait. ^^;
The Seraph LN Vol 1 ends with a chilling description of the novel’s events to unfold:
It was “a story about love, hate, war, murder, lies,and desire…and as [those] desires expanded, it would lead to [the end of the world]…a story about the time before [the end of] humanity: a story about how ugly and desperate humans would become; just before the hammer fell onto the world as the Seraph of the End blows the trumpet of [the Apocalypse]”.
I think this relates heavily to the anime’s current events and what characters have been saying, IMO.
Again, an episode that takes a lot of time to say very little. *sigh* with pacing this atrocious, it’ll be the entire second cour until we get to whatever is supposed to be there.
Hmmm… in comparison… Akatsuki no Yona took 24 episodes just to assemble the main casts. OnS is a bit faster.
I’m probably the only one rooting for the vampires to kill most of the main cast,especially Yuu and the pink hair dude,simply because they are way more tolerable.
Say what you will about the animation for fight scenes, at least there weren’t heavily relying on still shots like a crutch.
Im just hoping that, this is not gonna end up being Yuu vs. Mika a la Naruto vs. Sasuke crap… Please dont do that to us Owari.
Also been wondering about Gurens new hairstyle? Totally random
It’s not going to go like that. Relax…
It’s going to be an extreme case of Yaoi one-upping Bella and Edward of Twilight./sCan’t get enough of Guren’s new hairstyle. Veeeery nice. 😀
Anyone else felt annoyed that Yoichi…
Show Spoiler ▼
Just a technical complaint, it was annoying that the Apaches only fired their 20mm cannon (Yes, 20mm and cannon, just try and block that, the inertia alone would probably crush your bones) through their axis of flight, when the helicopter is a two-seater and the gunner can fire from a wide angle, something like 100 degrees or something.
you know what had me bursting into laughter?? the fact that shinoa explained to the audience that those noble vampires were so strong, they could have killed them in 10 seconds. That being the case, why didnt the vampires just stay to finish the job even if they were being called over. It was only ten seconds. It feels like the writing was trying to make up for the glaring mishap of last ep by giving us more information, but by doing so, it dug itself a bigger hole. There should have been no reason the nobles let the kids live. I understand if maybe, just maybe killing them took 5 mins, but if it would have only took 10 secs then having the nobles suddenly retreat is a perfect example of forced writing.
Vampire nobles are smug supermen who think are so above everyone else that they can do whatever they feel like. In this same episode the queen remarked how boring eternal life can be. Pride and boredom. Those have been their fatal flaws since episode 1.
Remember Ferid Bathory. He could have killed Mika, Yu and all their friends in a matter of seconds. Yet he didn’t, because he wanted to have some fun and toyed with them like children do with their food. It didn’t end well for him.
That worked, it showed how powerful the vampires are, they can play with their prey….. Leave them for later for fun’s sake.
I think it highlighted the differences with Vampires. You know they like torture. Killing for killing sake, is no fun.
Did Krul say that vampires don’t grow? How do they even reproduce? Or is it just her?
Wow what a tedious review. I think the blogger needs to give up on anime.
This anime is SO ENTERTAINING I’m cringing with excitement which each episode.
It’s fantastic SUPER ENTERTAINING anime.
The reason why the pills were revealed now, if they can kill you, and you have to be at a certain level of demon control to be able to take them. I thought that was clear. This blogger is just nitpicking for bollocks.
Shooting with arrows against helicopters piloted by vampires. Oh well. This show could´ve been so good.