Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Limit」 by LUNA SEA
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「ライド」 (Raido)
“Ride”
Meet Asanaga Shun (Ono Kensho). He’s your average anime high school student, and he likes rocks. Specifically, the shiny ones. His parents may both be academics, but don’t mistake Shun’s interest for scientific curiosity; he just likes shiny rocks because they’re pretty. This is because he is secretly half-magpie; the marbles make him stupid.
Shun’s co-protagonist in Endride is one Emilio Langheim (Masada Toshiki). This one’s the prince of a secluded magical kingdom where everyone conveniently speaks Japanese. His secret is that he’s a failed cross between Hamlet and Macbeth, so he makes a hasty decision to commit regicide based on scullery gossip instead of waiting for the ghost to show up. Too bad he lives in the land of needlessly impractical weaponry, so he bungles twice in quick succession, and is thrown into an equally impractical prison where he awaits bail set to the price of deus ex machina.
Together, Shun and Emilio fight crime! By which I mean furries awaiting a lawsuit from Marvel Comics. They also run around a bit, disappointingly fail to drown, and eventually recruit the nominal mascot character. Also, a miniature dragon thing.
You may think I’m making fun of Endride too much. Let me tell you something straight: you’re absolutely right. The problem is that I can’t actually tell you all that much about the show itself. But I know that you, gentle readers, rely on Random Curiosity to tell you what shady original series like Endride are all about in these introductory posts, and I take that trust very seriously. Which is why I have settled for an acceptable and indistinguishable substitute: making stuff up. No need to thank me. Really, the best any blogger can hope to do right now is to take a punt, because Endride sure isn’t telling us. While many individual events may have happened in this pilot, they do little to give us a grasp of either the plot or the themes. Instead, time is spent mostly introducing characters and throwing jargon around, but not in a way that actually tells us why anything is really happening. This includes the mechanics of the fantasy world; both magical rocks and weapons bursting out of chests like they were aliens are shiny, but without context are also somewhat distracting. It’s actually mostly fine, as worldbuilding is supposed to take time, but a slow pilot like this doesn’t necessarily want to leave too much to speculation, as it also means the mind is wandering. At the moment, I mostly want to compare Endride to Guilty Crown but with the middle man cut out. And like Guilty Crown, there’s absolutely no innuendo here. Nope. None at all.
Sadly, Endride can’t really rely on technical prowess either. The animation has been functional, but on the whole somewhat choppy. One can tell, without squinting too much, that they’ve taken quite a few shortcuts in taxing scenes, by which I mean the brief fights. Endride hides a lot of rough edges behind effects and good old motion lines, which, depending on your level of scrutiny, looks cheap. Combined with the unambitious choreography this leaves these vital action scenes without the kind of life that could really carry Endride. One positive I’ll chalk up to Endride, though, is that it boasts surprisingly detailed art in parts. The designs for both the characters and the over-engineered weapons I’ll leave to subjective taste, but if there’s one thing that Endride does well, it’s the all-important rocks. Even in the backgrounds, somebody’s putting work into texture. When the lighting becomes less dark maybe the world of Endra will turn out to be breathtaking.
Bottom line: will I recommend Endride? Based just on this pilot, I can’t do so unequivocally. There’s just not enough there right now. As it is, it reminds too much of an uninspiring JRPG, and indeed there is one apparently tied to this anime, and it’s a mobile game. Woo. But Endride also seems to be the kind of show that takes its time building up, so it could well be much more than that, considering how little it has actually told us, and that it’s supposed to be two cours. If there was anything at all that hooked you in this pilot, I recommend giving Endride a few more episodes. By then the adventure will probably actually be underway, and then perhaps Endride can make a full case for how it intends to impress.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「go my way」 by 藤巻亮太 (Fujimaki Ryōta)
Preview
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About the weapons appearing out of mid air, I can’t help but see some semblance with the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XV, where weapons just fly out of nowhere, which is pretty cool.
everyone’s forgetting origin of “weapon out of nowhere” thing, FATE series did it first, nobody really noticed.
I’ve never seen FATE.
Weapons appearing from nowhere is something common anime… World Trigger also have them.
They do that so they don’t need to draw the characters carrying weapons all the time.
In FFXV, however, they do that because the game runs at 15 fps, so they have to minimize the amount of assets on screen as much as possible. Hahahaha.
This episode was okay, but it was pretty generic material. I’m going to guess that Emilio and Shun are actually related (probably brothers or cousins) as if you look close, Emilio has the dagger with the dragon symbol on it, and Shun has an bracelet with the exact same red dragon on it. Also, there’s the fact that they share the reversed hair and eye colors of each other (Shun has reddish-brown hair and navy blue eyes, and Emilio have the same, but flipped.)
It gives me Comet Lucifer vibes, and that’s not a good thing.
I mean like hey, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE GEMS AND SHINY ROCKS, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, there’s something about this show that just kinda, I dunno- seems a little dull? No pun intended.
So what about it Passerby? Are ya’ ready ‘tuh take the hit for me– for US!? Hhhhhhrrrrrrnnnng? Go on Passerby, dive down there n’ give it a go old buddy, you know you want it! #inb4JulesVerne
We’re still in the intro-phase of the season, where we just try to give everyone a first taste of the anime crop before we decide what to cover in the long term. But I don’t see myself, personally, picking up Endride, unless the next episode or two somehow manage to shake the earth with quality. But again, I don’t see it happening.
Hey waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiit a minute… Doesn’t the soldier’s design look strikingly similar to FFXV’s soldier-goons? https://randomc.net/image/Endride/Endride%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
Don’t all disposable uniformed, mask-wearing soldiers look the same?
Also “Weapons bursting out of chests” If they did it stylishly like Utena…. well this would be a different show. lol
Guilty Crown? Nawh, there’s an ever better similarity: Comet Lucifer. Nonsensical story based around shiny rocks and involving main characters flatter than the chest of a preteen girl. Also if the guy in the preview doesn’t look like Don Mon then I’m not trying hard enough. Also guaranteed we will get a plot revolving around saving the planet at some point. Don’t forget those Guin Saga allusions with the lion man too.
Considering Endride has two seasons god only knows how this will ultimately pan out, but there is enough here to encourage sticking around for a few episodes more. I’m curious to see how strong the world building is because this type of show lives or dies by it.
Comet Lucifer is a dangerous comparison to make. So I very deliberately didn’t. Endride is hardly that bad. We’ve only had one episode!
(I suppose Guilty Crown bombed too, but at least it was sort of pretty while doing it.)
Good. Judging by the promo art I thought this would be one of those gay anime made to please women that are boring and cheesy as hell… It seems to be your regular generic fantasy anime… Well, it’s nothing special, but it’s not bad.
I’m genuinely unsure whether you’re being positive, negative, or just homophobic.
Boys Love is a poplular genre among females in Japan. So I think you should read his post litereally and that means André is simply not a fan of those stories. Calling BL gay and aimed at pleasing women is fairly accurate after all and not an insult.
Wooooow, Passerby, I love your reviews and your writing style. But this sentence right there..wow…
Gay/BL anime are pretty much all made to please women’s taste, so they’re actually as shoujo as you can get, with all the cheesy romance, super hot unrealistic hot guys and melodrama that you see in the typical shoujo anime.
And that’s something men don’t like to see. For example, all the shoujo anime I like, such as Card Captor Sakura, Lovely Complex, Itazura na Kiss, Nozaki-kun, aishiteruze baby and Ouran High School, are not your typical shoujo… They are more like regular romantic comedy anime. Many of them I didn’t even know were shoujo until I saw the art from their manga versions. So that kind of shoujo I can enjoy.
But those super shoujos with hardcore drama or with hot guys with shining smiles everywhere… That I can’t watch. And most gay anime are like that. They’re like your typical shoujo…
If gay anime were made for gay audiences, I’m pretty sure they would very different from what they are now.
I don’t intend to dig too deep into this, because we are wandering into the great sea of anecdote, but 1) ‘gay anime’ must be an awfully poor descriptor and 2) You listed Card Captor Sakura, which is CLAMP. CLAMP. I hope the point is self-evident.
An anime with gay people in may not be a “gay anime” because that’s not main the point of them. However, those are super rare… Maybe Gravitation. Gravitation is nice, it’s a good romance story, the fact the romance is between men is secondary. Gravitation is just “anime”.
But most of these “gay anime” are actually “gay anime”, because the whole gimmick in them is showing hot gay dudes. Hell, they even have a name for it: boys love / yaoi. And they are popular not because gay people like it, but because Japanese women, for some reason, do… There’s a version of it with lesbian characters, yuri. Again, it’s not men or lesbians who like it, it’s straight Japanese women… Probably because it’s all full of typical shoujo chicles.
Are you unfortable because of the word gay? It’s a word… gay… There’s not wrong with that word.
And saying “CLAMP” doesn’t mean anything to me. CLAMP… Yeah, and?
Yeah, better stop this here. Debating arbitrary definitions is never fruitful.
Huh… Now if I were gay, would I read yaoi? Hmm, I don’t think I would. Now what would Samu think if he read yaoi? Probably disappointed.
Yeah, calling sth “gay” doesn’t have negative connotations at all. (facepalm)
Honestly, the fact that it ISN’T a BL anime ended up being the disappointment to me. I’ve got my fill of generic fantasy anime for the next five lifetimes, but the number of new BL shows that specifically cater to the female audience is still very low. Particularly *decent-looking, decently animated shows that actually have something more than a shoestring budget.*
A friend asked a while ago why I’ve dialed back on the anime watching and pick up only one, maybe two shows a season, if that. The answer is that it’s no longer giving me what I’m interested in. Fanservice aimed at men (well, mostly teenage boys, judging by the fanservice in question) just leaves me bored, other shows fall too much into the generic without compensating for it and the dearth of josei titles just annoys me. Honestly, I’d love more yaoi *and* yuri aimed at women, but I’m not holding my breath.
Lol, if you want gay anime that is not cliche then try almost gay anime. Specifically Sports anime, Kuroku no Basket literally almost got cancelled for being too gay. Haruka and Makoto almost kiss in Free!, which by they way has Major fanservice for girl. Like speedos every where. If you want a really good actually gay shouen-ai try No.6. It’s literally the best gay anime I’ve seen, post apocalypse, they kiss twice,death romance ect.
Also if you want more cannon gay characters with original plot, watch Ranpo Kitan
The protagonist is a trap, and the best friend is soo gay for him.It has an interesting plot, and is horror/mystery/thriller.
Last but not least is literally my OTP for life and that is the anime Owari no Seraph or Seraph of the End
Story centers around Mikaela and Yuuchirou who are orphans in a post apocalyptic world where vampires have killed all the adults though a virus, and they children are imprisoned in the vampire city to be used as livestock. Through circumstances they get sparated while tying to escape . Basically the whole show is about them trying to save each other,so they can be together again. It is very gay, like kinky gay. They dont actually kiss,but just watch out for ep10 of season 2. It is literally the climax of the entire anime. I can’t give spoilers, but they do get pretty intimate. And it’s not the tipical cliche shouen-ai or yaoi. You can actually tell they have a very deep bond,and have a more realistic type of relationship.
“He’s your average anime high school student, and he likes rocks. Specifically, the shiny ones.”
Damn, I was hoping Stilts would do this series because this would have been the perfect time for the first impression to detour into a PTSD induced Comet Lucifer flashback.
Oh, hello Miyamori-san! Character designer running out of ideas and drawing fellow staffers, ka na?
I thought Stilts was the one who wrote the review lol. Ironically Passerby’s review seems more entertaining than the anime itself.
No, I think Endride would be too much for Stilts’ Comet Lucifer PTSD. We can’t let him near this show.
*takes a deep breath*
*screams silently and never stops*
*Pats Stilts on the back*
I didn’t think CL was that bad, but I’m still hoping that Endride ends up like Buddy Complex instead.
*-ends up being like Buddy Complex instead.
The anime softened Watsuki Nobuhiro & Hagiwara Kazushi’s designs for the anime, esp. Watsuki’s – Shun’s design is more angular with spikier, shorter hair.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-01-27/rurouni-kenshin-and-bastard-creators-design-alternate-world-fantasy-anime-endride/.98027
I thought this episode was pretty lame, to be honest, and it’s the first non-sequel show I’m ditching this season. There just isn’t enough here; de characters are dull and unlikeable, the world is uninspired and the whole ‘weapons from chests’ angle just looks so ridiculous I can’t focus on anything else with a non-snarky mind. The fact that it’s a lazy adaptation of a cellphone game isn’t helping either (Shingeki no Bahamut this is not).
Yeah, no doubt this season will get better stuff than this, so I’m not wasting my time with it.
I couldn’t finish it. It was too dull and the art was very generic. I figured it’d either be really great or pretty lame with the plot it had.