Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「LET iT END」 by SiM
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「The Miserables」
What’s the chivalrous response when someone’s murdering murderers?
One of the disadvantages of aging is that questions like the one I pose above, and which this episode posed to us, are ones I’ve thought about before. (Also, being a massive nerd in several ways helps too.) This is something I’ve actually considered. So what is the chivalrous—or as we might put it, the moral—act? Kaiser is right, vengeance will only breed more hatred, though it’s understandable why Azazel (Morita Masakazu) would balk at being the one who forgives the other side when it’s him and his people who have been on the short end of the stick most recently—it’s far more palatable to let the grudge die after you’ve at least bloodied the nose of your enemy. As for the central question, the moral thing would be to punish both the murderer and the other murderers—though, since Azazel already killed them, the ship has sailed on one of those. Going further, if injustice is met with injustice, the just thing is to punish both perpetrators, and then fix the underlying injustice that spawned the sad state of affairs, preventing it from arising again. That, though, is far easier said than done, since Kaiser lacks the clout to change the system—and stands to lose what he has, now that his association with the rag demon has been discovered/assumed.
Moral quandaries aside, the part of this episode I most enjoyed was probably the dragon village. I feel like there are many ways the writers could have taken Nina, and having her be oblivious about the dragon shifting is one of them, but it would have been a dumb decision. A village full of shapeshifting dragons, though, is cool. It opens up the world, and it makes me want to go there! Or at least, if it gets imperiled I’m going to be emotionally behind the protagonists saving it, because it looks idyllic, Nina is from there, and also cute shapeshifting dragon children. Awww!
Next would probably be the holy child, Mugaro. An alliance between a demon and an angel is surprising, but also not, given how turned upside down the world has become. It’s the kind of surprising where, after a moment’s consideration, you nod your head and say yes, that’s natural given everything I’ve seen. It also represented a good way to reveal that aspect of Mugaro’s character while bailing Azazel out of the corner he/Kaiser had gotten him into. I approve.
I also really liked the OP and ED, though the OP has a worrying lack of Favaro, and Nina spends enough of the sequence naked for it to seem strange. Let her wear some damn clothes, jeez. The ED is my favorite of the two, it’s both cute and charming in a way that makes me like Nina and her little animal-ish pals all the more.
My main qualms are the continued lack of Favaro, and by extension, the relative lack of charisma of the leads we’re making due with. I know Nina isn’t hitting the mark with some people, but I like her a lot more than screamy Azazel. Kaiser is pretty good in my book, he’s just not as joyful as Favaro was and Nina is sometimes / could be. Fortunately we still have Rita (Sawashiro Miyuki), who is always a treat and always very much herself. So far, that’s the biggest flaw, along with a lack of clear narrative direction—that’s a risk when the point of view characters are split up so much early on. None of these are irredeemable flaws, just areas of wonk which need improving.
I’ll probably blog one more episode of this, and then I’ll decide if I want to cover it. More next week.
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ED Sequence
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ED: 「拝啓グッバイさようなら」 (Haikei Goodbye Sayounara) by DAOKO
Preview
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End Card
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Let her wear some damn clothes, jeez.
Even if she covers her parts in Dragon Scales.. Yes, like the last Dragon Maid anime
But i do beg you pardon Stilts. I do not think it reasonable that Kaiser was this blind all this time. he saw the Gladiator fights, and sure much more. So, he was shocked about to find out the truth? or more the horror struck in what way they turn these demons?
Kaiser surly knows how they play with the demons, and perhaps with the Angels (all dead? where is Jean der Arc? burned as a Witch?). Did he saw this entire time the other way?
So the innocent of Kaiser is not really well done. Sure for Nina it works out, she is a Kid. Kaiser is from Season 1 and no Kind anymore. He should also knew about this “old men and his duck” carriage. it is just a matter of time, until he remembers them again
You’d be surprised what privilege does. Yes, he has to know about the slaves and the gladiators, but many people have lived with injustices that they knew they didn’t have the power to abolish. (Ex: A number of the American Founding Fathers abhorred slavery, but they recognized the political realities enough to grit and bear with it when they were setting up the nation.)
Torture, though—that’s a whole other level of evil, that will fly in the face of even someone who’s determinedly buried their heads in the sand. That’s what happened there.
You’re not wrong about Kaiser’s hypocrisy. It’s just not necessarily a mistake. That’s a very human thing to do.
Well, in this case its the horror of abusing this young females demons, to preserve fetus here. So i do not need to write down, what they have done with them
Seems like the “shock” of this in Drifters was a starting point
But in episode one he saw the black market slavery men, now he see sexual abuse.. what will be next to finally open his eyes?
But i must admit, though stuff so far, and thats why i give them credits for.
Love the show, but for the life of me I can’t figure what kind of thinking was taking place when that song was picked for the opening…
Be interesting to see where this goes. After the first season it’s a bit difficult to feel much sympathy for the demons. Especially with Azazel leading the resistance. Pretty sure he was doing to the humans what the humans are now doing to the demons.
Another “Eh, I don’t know here” show. Nina’s still not working for me – at least not well enough (don’t hate her). I will say that this time I don’t recall any oddly drawn facial moments (I don’t mean “reaction faces”) like with Ep. 01 (maybe tighter production for Ep. 02?). There’s “baka-adorable/likeable” and then there’s just… baka. I get she from some isolated dragon village (I assume dragons in human form for reasons rather than humans that can transform into dragons), but still, she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Also, still not a fan of the *blush!* with any attractive male -> increased heart rate(?) -> almost or does transform into a dragon mechanic.
Frankly, to me Kaiser can be a bit dull/oblivious at times. Given two gladiator scenes, all the slavery, whipping/abuse, etc. is it really that shocking to him what he discovered (not visually, but that such abuse could occur)? Yeah, dude, a lot of humans are or have become total ass****. Not sure why that’s a surprise given the general situation around you.
I do agree with Stilts that Azazel (you were right Stilts) isn’t the best either, but at least he’s showing some intellect and knows what’s going on. A lot of yelling, but you can understand his frustration. Don’t remember him from S1, but was he not pretty powerful? Seems like he would be a bit more powerful here. IDK, maybe it’s the magic green stones/”forbidden magic” (anime better explain that at some point).
— “My main qualms are the continued lack of Favaro…”
This just reinforces my impression of S1 which is that S1 was very much Favaro driven. Not entirely and not literally for every viewer, but in large part a very high correlation between how much you liked Favaro and how much you liked the show. Take him out and how good is S1? Having Rita helps this season IMO (also liked her in S1), but she can’t carry the show alone. IMO neither Kaiser nor Azazel are up to the task, and see above regarding my thoughts on Nina. Also, what I personally liked about S1 early on was the fun, bounty-hunter adventures which this doesn’t seem to have at all. Yeah, there’s some bounty-hunting with “Rag Demon”, but in general, S2 to me seems trying to be more serious despite some YMMV Nina antics. Maybe it works (there is some interesting aspect to the plot), but I have some doubts.
Again, I can understand if fans of S1 like this better than I, but while I’ll give this one more shot, it’s looking like a drop.
See comment above on Kaiser’s hypocrisy. I don’t think that’s a mistake. It’s a song that’s played throughout human history many, many times.
The green stones are definitely blocking magic to some degree. That was clear from the events so far, even if they reason/mechanic is not.
The fun bounty hunter adventures really were what I loved before, which are what made me like Favaro and Kaiser enough that their hero turn—especially from reluctant Favaro—worked. It’s the same as seeing the scruffy nerf-herder Han Solo come save the day—you know they (esp Favaro) didn’t have to, that it played against his stated character, so it was even cooler to see ’em do it. I’m not sure this will work as well without that dynamic.
I’ll be annoyed if I missed blogging the first season and then now, when I get a second chance, the second season isn’t up to the task. Annoyed, but if that’s how it goes, that’s how it goes. Least I got HeroAca.
@Stilts: I see your point about Kaiser, and it is murky. Still, given the general situation, the period setting (pretty medieval), etc. he should be aware of thing such as torture. Now he may not like it/participate and he may try to bury his head in the sand, but he’s also a knight who was put in charge of the Rag Demon hunt so it’s not like he’s some noble in a castle blissfully unaware eating tarts or whatnot. Kaiser may not be “knee deep” in it, but he’s got his toes wet. That’s my take on it.
Yes, the green stones are doing something for sure, but what I meant was that I’d like at least some detail on how humans (king really) came to acquire such “forbidden” power. That’s such a game changer for this world after all. Would also be nice if there were some “magic system” rules here to give structure. Don’t need an info dump, but some basics. Early so that may happen yet.
As for S1, fun bounty hunter adventures, it’s a bit of chicken & egg if you get my meaning. Yeah, the adventures were fun, but at least for me, a lot of what made them fun was Favaro – reverse timing of what you wrote: “The fun bounty hunter adventures really were what I loved before, which are what made me like Favaro…” Not all or nothing of course. Favaro won’t make say tax audits a pleasure to watch, but again I think his “Han Solo” rogue type character does make a big impact (in a way also some Tony Stark here – no money, but the rascal, irreverent type). There is the reluctant hero factor, but to me it was mostly just a dynamic, fun, irreverent rogue type and an adult to boot which differentiated him (in a good way) from the more standard ML types.
As for this season, while there is something to be said for the big change (humans on top now, etc.) and grand story, I do wonder how this might have played out if we had a better FL. Not necessarily Favaro clone, but not going for blushy, ditzy rookie, and it was in large part just her romping around on bounty hunts. No grand story, but could be pretty fun. Lastly, yeah, sometimes you get a hit sometimes… not. :/
I am still very much interested in the plot itself, though my interest in the main characters have dwindled slightly. Rita is great as always, throwing that arm casually. I really miss Favaro but am gradually accepting he’s not going to appear much at all. Azazel was in some way not what I expected, but I like that he’s not a good guy, and is actually going around killing those humans cold-bloodedly without remorse. His hotheadedness was sort of interesting.
Kaiser isn’t wrong, imo, but saying that to someone in that situation isn’t going to make anything better. If he was in a position of power he could’ve taken the first step and stopped the demon slavery, showing that it’s not impossible for them to coexist, but it’s too bad he’s just some guy under the (evil) king. Without power it is difficult to cause change, so people can only struggle along and rebel in their own way, as Azazel is doing now. No wonder he really wants Nina to join him.
I think what I want to see from Nina now is for her to do something – anything. Whether or not she is dragged into it or decides to do something for her own reasons. Right now to me she’s sort of just floating around being shy, without being too connected to the story. I hope she’ll have more to think about and do now that she has seen how demons are treated in the present. Would like to see how this innocent girl deals with such a cruel world.
Still having high hopes for this show. Really liked how Mugaro appeared at the end.
That’s a good point on Nina. She’s not really acting at the moment, just reacting. I’d like to see her decide to do something one way or the other. Having one uncertain episode is no biggie, just so long as it doesn’t go on for too long.
Im willing to be patient for our rouge hero to arive. I am very curious about this world building.
Clearly the Angels and Demons are different mortal races not the divine/damed beings of normal mythology. In normally mythology no one ceases to exist even all humans carry on after death. As I wrote last week normally Angles and Damons are part of the after life you find them where humans go after they die. But here they die and go somewhere just like the humans. Sort of the Marvel Movie universe so far where the Asgadians are a alien race not divine cause Marvel chickened out. Marvel comics the Asgardians are gods and you can visit hell, heaven and your dead loved ones, at least the Asgadians do die and go to the afterlife but still can be reached. This is a can if you meet the requirements sort of can for the lists.
I don’t think Marvel chickened out so much as looked at what they had to deal with, realized quite a lot of it was bonkers unless you’d been steeped in decades of mythology, and tweaked it to make it less silly. A lot of comics are damn silly, which is great but also can make for a hard time when doing the shared universe thing they’ve been getting up to.
Good point on the angels and demons being mortal in this show. I hadn’t thought about it in so many words, but they definitely aren’t immortal like they are in Christian mythology.
hmm I might be in the minority here but I actually like Nina, for me its shaping up to be another great season
ep 03:
i am hooked
Quality
Story
Faces that show emotions (real good)
Background
But then this episode just open my eyes, that this Human King here is just an
Show Spoiler ▼
If you read a bit into the Old testament, you will know that even there Angels where not only “peace keepers” under all cost. They punish Humans… Perhaps here they are reaching this point
Sodom and Gomorra
and so on