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「ヤハクィザシュニナ」 (Yahakwizashunina )
“Yaha-kui zaShunina”
There’s actually an episode 00 that came before this one, but I’m still going to treat 01 as the pilot because 1) Less work for me! 2) I think it’s more appropriate this way. Episode 00 was mostly to demonstrate the work ethic and personal philosophy of protagonist Shindou Koujirou (and also to demonstrate casual government corruption), and while I’m sure some folks out there take great interest in the ins-and-outs of government R&D subsidies—seriously, I think that’s what episode 00 was about—I’m sure even less want to listen to me talk about it. So let’s skip it, and do us all a favour.
It’s also very clear that episode 00 is not indicative of the tenor of Seikai Suru Kado in general. There is certainly a break point in episode 00 where you can tell that Seikai Suru Kado is saying, ‘The show starts here!’: it’s when the main characters suddenly become 3D. As in, graphically. That’s right, KADO is CG, but a curious kind of 3D. I hesitate to call it ‘full’ 3DCGI, even though it’s kinda billed that way, because it seems that Toei Animation only made models for the main cast—the folks who are going to move around a lot on camera, I’m guessing—and for more disposable characters, we’re back to 2D. It’s definitely something you’re going to notice, unfortunately, especially if you decide to go watch episode 00, since it’s actually 2D for the most part, until it decides it’s done with that and decides to make its big stylistic shift for the show proper. So, yeah, for the most part I don’t think KADO will look like 00. For the most part, it will look like 01. And for the most part, I don’t think KADO will be about navigating bureaucracy. It will be about the giant alien cube.
That’s what’s going to sell the show right? You didn’t come here to watch bureaucrats chat and arrange meetings. You came here for science-fiction. And while the science part may be done in factories, the fiction is definitely physics defying alien technology. And it’s genuinely fascinating stuff. Science-fiction deals much in hypotheticals, and KADO‘s hypothetical is this: if some giant alien object just drops onto Earth one day, how will we respond? It’s human science versus the genuinely unknown on a much grander scale than what goes on in real life, in labs and computer models. Of course, human science ultimately loses, but the effort itself is interesting. The summer blockbuster alien movies usually just have them invading, and then we shoot them, and then explosions. KADO is more of the Arrival school, presenting aliens as genuinely alien. The response to first contact shouldn’t be, ‘Oh no, alien invasion!’. It should be, ‘What the hell is this?’.
Unfortunately, I think this episode mostly exhausts this angle of KADO, as the mystery cube conveniently decides to open up just as Japan’s options are exhausted. Something humanoid pops out, and it can even communique with us. When something has our shape, and our voice, it’s not really mysterious. At most, it’s exotic, or whatever ‘Yaha-kui zaShunina’ is supposed to be. It has a name, it’s phonetic, and it doesn’t drive mortals mad when spoken. The cube’s master isn’t nearly as cool as the cube itself.
Still, there’ plenty of other interesting avenues that KADO can go down, and it sure has hooked me with an intriguing start. I think we will have to give it another episode to truly grasp what it’s going to be about. Next episode I’m guessing they’re going to show us what had been going on inside the cube while the humans outside were trying to moisturise it. And with that we may find out what the alien cube’s intentions are, and then the plot can truly get rolling.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「永遠のこたえ」 (Eien no Kotae) by HARUCA
Preview
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curious, because there are similar “Hollywood” Alien movies in the past. Lets see what path this anime want to take
also, until know i do not see the “radiation weapon”, yes i mean the Atomic Warhead test…
But i bet, when this Cube begin to move or to attack, then they want to trow the Atom bomb, like in Judgment day” (i think)
correction:
it is “independence Day” not “Judgment day”, also “Section 8” and many others
I just wish they wouldn’t gasp ‘Shindou!’ so much. You all like the guy, I get it, but perhaps you should also spare a thought for other passengers? Anyway, Shindou comes a bit Gary Stu-ish for me. I don’t think his struggle would be interesting to watch, rather I want to see other characters participating more in the negotiations with the white-haired alien (?).
We’ve really got to stop calling every reasonably competent character a gary stu.
Yes let us place Gary Stu back into a description of fan fiction author avatar who is better than canon characters. And actually describe more specifically what you dislike about the character your talking about as Gary Stu has come to mean I dislike it in general and want to use a buzz word. Yes government employees actually can be very competent. Often many are and it system flaws or politicians who gum up the works.
I disagree. I’ve found episode 00 much more interesting than what came after it. It could be just me, but the “ins-and-outs of government R&D subsidies (with casual government corruption)” storyline was far more captivating than all of these gimmicks with the alien cube. And of course, it also didn’t help that instead of Shindou and his buddy we got that ultra annoying “physicist” woman and all the supporting cast was relegated to only gasping “Shindou!” every five minute, aaand that after the zeroth ep the animation went from OK to eye irritating.
This. While I didn’t dislike Episode 01, I firmly believe that an entire series about Shindou’s deals, without any sci-fi elements, would be really interesting. Now, I know that a series like that wouldn’t sell hahaha.
Man, I hated every second of that woman on the screen.
Strictly speaking, Yugo sells
As far as I’m concerned, episode 0 is totally necessary. It introduces us two the main protagonists in their normal lives before the whole alien thing. Also how we even got to the point that episode 1 starts at. Beginning the anime without episode 0 would have confused me to no end. It would have felt like I missed some stuff and I would have been correct.
I agree. Not only did it showcase our main character, but it established a sense of fate for future events. Shindou is meant for something bigger, like 8 km^3 big. IT’s like the beginning of a hero’s journey.
No no, by all means, I encourage everyone to watch it. I just think that, from a coverage point of view 01, with the CG and the alien cube, is the place to start.
I think I’d actually prefer the “normal” bits of episode 00 over the alien/sci-fi stuff over the course of a season. You know, the gang doing bureaucratic negotiations, getting drunk, origami, etc. Had quite a nice vibe to it.
How many of us here thought of “Reboot” after seeing the giant (game) cube coming down from the sky? I wonder if there is any correlation or cross-reference from the story writers’ part. It would be very interesting IF the 90s Canadian computer animation show Reboot was one of the sources of inspiration for this; does anybody want know?
I liked it, overall. Yes, the animation was dire and that female scientist has the most annoying speech ever (seriously, I hope the alien gets just as annoyed and kills her ass), but overall, I liked the setup. Protagonist is interesting enough, same for the side characters (minus brat scientist), not a single highschool student in sight. Nothing spectacular, but decent enough. So far, the only anime this season I’ve decided to follow.
also seems like (based on my experience) that the Passengers of this Airplane will be the “How Humans work, their fear, their joy, their instincts” example for this White hair dude
You could say, they become some sort of living Wikipedia “brains”
Is that a reference to a certain timey-wimey series or am I just seeing things?
I watched and liked the first 85% of ep 00… and then it switched from regular animation to that cgi, and I was ‘kin horrified. It’s not like I’m a hater for CGI, I liked Sidonia no Kishi, but this just crushed me. I didn’t want to drop anything this season but I can’t watch this.
You obviously wern’t watching very carefully bacause it never switched. The whole thing was 3D cg. Pretty well done IMHO
yeap, or they took care to make the borderlines the same size, in 3d and 2d
Biggest surprise for me was me actually liking that genki scientist girl.
Maybe it’s because even though she rambles, she never strays from her point. She’s actually being very direct about things, extremely direct so with an unhealthy does of fascination and excitement because of dealing with the unknown.
tl;dr imo she sends out energy instead of draining it like most genki characters.
Well, I watched it today and the best character is the female assistant
“Could I destroy this one?” XDDD