Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「RE-ILLUSION」by Yuka Iguchi
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「試着と購入」 (Shichaku to Kounyuu)
“Fittings and Purchases”
Episode Impressions
There was substantial focus on Lefiya’s concern for Ais’ wellbeing alongside her subsequent interactions with Ais. Even though we can’t describe Lefiya as being powerful, she earnestly attempts to provide emotional support for Ais – cheering her up when she’s feeling down or spoiling her with gifts from time to time. Thanking Lefiya in turn at the end of the episode is testimony to the fact that Ais truly appreciates her efforts. My cynical thoughts imply Ais particularly appreciates Lefiya’s use as a meatshield against Loki’s lustful advances. Hightailing and abandoning Lefiya definitely makes my provisional list for the Top 10 Anime Betrayals Spring 2017. You can see the guilt etched into Ais’ eyes.
Though some people might have warmed up to Lefiya this episode considering she was nothing but kind-hearted and caring, I can imagine that the vast majority of viewers are probably annoyed at having such a wishy washy character take the spotlight from Ais. We did get some moments though. For example seeing Ais’ stats being evaluated allowed us to discover Ais’ worries about hitting her perceived skill ceiling. It’s frightening to work your guts off at something and slowly see less and less progress as time goes on.
To wrap off my impressions, Tione’s hardcore bartering was fun to watch, but the highlight was when the girls go to shop for clothes. Seeing Ais try on various outfits including the boob ribbon was satisfying to say the least. Incidentally, I was especially pleased about Hestia’s cameo appearance.
Concluding Thoughts
I felt that the Bete’s lines were poorly written when he was taunting Ais during the Loki Familia’s celebrations. In my opinion, the conflict he created through his abrasiveness felt forced and only served to outline how Ais’ feelings of obligation towards Bell are relatively unsubstantiated.
This connects with another point I would like to make, that not being able to hear Ais voice her own thoughts severely diminishes her role in Sword Oratoria’s anime adaptation. Ais might not be talkative, but that does not mean we should not be privy to any of her internal thought processes or monologues. Her personal actions and reactions don’t tell us enough. Instead, all of Ais’ problems are reviewed through Lefiya’s perspective which JC Staff are relying on far too much. For a series that is supposed to be about developing Ais’ character, Sword Oratoria’s anime adaptation is doing quite a poor job in attempting to find a balance in portraying the characterisation of Ais.
The Sword Oratoria anime adaptation lacks the charm of the original Danmachi, which really should not be the case considering the quality of the source material. But it is not too late, as the potential to succeed is still there. At this point, I’m overwhelmingly concerned by the abnormal focus on Lefiya. Not to blame the poor girl herself because she is a very nice character who has done nothing wrong. This strange obsession with Lefiya should start to subside and a payoff is probably going to happen next episode. If not, then any remaining hope I had for a decent adaption of Sword Oratoria will pretty much be gone.
Post Credits
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The Hestia cameo being the best part is pretty telling.
Railgun was pretty exciting while this is boring me to tears so far.
I’ll be pissed if this is the last Danmachi anime instead of giving us a 2nd season.
Hmmm… the Hestia cameo was good, especially with Tiona’s indignant reaction, but I think I still preferred seeing Ais try on all manners of clothing. Boing!
Well to be fair, Ais was pretty uninteresting in the regular anime until she started interacting with Bell more. Mysterious but uninteresting. Now we get to see some of the mystery which should make it all the more interesting when she starts to change. At least that’s what I’m hoping for.
Yeah I have no idea why they are focusing so much on Lefiya instead of Ais. They skipped a lot of Ais’s inner thoughts which actually give us more insight on her.
I also noticed a lot of people wishing that Bell was more in Sword Oratoria when he isnt similarly how people wish Touma was more in Railgun when he isnt.
I think the studio’s trying to use Lefiya as a surrogate character to explore Ais’s personality – I’m guessing Ais’s inner thoughts were expressed as inner monologues which would’ve required constant voiceovers by Ais’s inner self throughout the anime if they wanted to be literally faithful to the source.
As someone who hasn’t read the books yet, what sort of personality does Ais have? Is she like a sheep in wolf’s clothing – sweet and gentle inside, but looks stoic and fearsome outside due to problems expressing herself?
Here’s the manga version of Ais during Bete’s drunk rant, instead of just sitting there with a tiny frown she is actually thing about stuff.
Zaiden Edit: Formatted HTML of Link
They’ve already been willing to give us inner monologues for Lefiya, why not for Ais? They don’t lack the willingness to show the thoughts of a character. They apparently would just rather do it for Lefiya than for Ais.
The problem is that you can’t really understand Ais just by seeing what she shows on the surface. One of her biggest problems is that she can’t show what she is thinking or feeling. We need to hear what she is thinking in order to understand her.
For the first thought, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s simply as little as the thinking of “moe sells more”.
For the second thought, probably because Bell was able to actually get more genuine reactions out of Ais rather than being a bit more forced like they are here solely to validate Lefiya.
Thing in, the focus shifting away from Touman was used productively in Railgun to develop Misaka’s character. In Sword Oratoria, it certainly isn’t. So I don’t blame people for wanting more appearances from Bell.
Skipping Ais’ inner thoughts was severely detrimental, and I don’t really understand what kind of game JC Staff are trying to play here. The only agenda to be had is in using Lefiya as a surrogate figure to explore Ais’ personality, as zztop so eloquently put it. Maybe Ais’ voice actress is so busy they can’t give her too many lines. Saori Oonishi is also in Saekano S2 as Eriri, Eromanga Sensei as Muramasa, and Clockwork Planet as Marie.
Speaking of which, I find it funny how Ais’s sounds like ISIS. LOL. Wish they stuck with Aizu. It’s how I was familiar with her name from reading the original LN translations.
https://randomc.net/image/Dungeon%20ni%20Deai%20o%20Motomeru%20no%20wa%20Machigatte%20Iru%20Darouka%20Gaiden%20Sword%20Oratoria/Dungeon%20ni%20Deai%20o%20Motomeru%20no%20wa%20Machigatte%20Iru%20Darouka%20Gaiden%20Sword%20Oratoria%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
I remember how the fandom completely fell for Hestia’s costume when Danmachi first came out. So many fanarts parodied the infamous blue ribbon, with Gundams, cars, shopping bags, the Kantai Collection girls etc. all modelling the dress.
And the male Hestia cosplays, so much ironic eye cancer:
Example 1
Example 2
Zaiden Edit: Link HTML Format
Have to say I’d count myself amongst that fandom. Nisemonogatari’s toothbrush scene paled to Hestia’s version, which was complete with the boob ribbon imho!
The focus on Lefiya has me really bummed. I figured this would be Ais’s story from her point of view… and instead she’s practically a secondary character in the Lefiya show.
This is almost like if they’d done Railgun from Uiharu’s POV.
All they’ve really done is take the premise from the original series of Bell as lame male MC trying to grow/impress Ais and replaced him with a female alternate.
That is one issue with the show I’ve been thinking about. With Railgun, Misaka was at least fleshed out along with the other girls even when we were following Saten & Uiharu’s perspective. Sword Oratoria hasn’t given that to Ais just yet, and my worry is that if Lefiya’s POV is the only one that we follow, then we learned just as much about Ais as we did in Danmachi S1 in her own spinoff.
0-2 for Sword Oratoria, just because they’re using Lefiya as if she were a proxy of Bell for Ais. It’s redundant, as Ais right now has same role as in DanMachi (aka being a decorative poster) SO is 1 ep away from being the first series to be massively dropped in general
I think Lefiya is more than just a proxy of Bell, in terms of providing an exploration of Ais’ personality. However, Lefiya doesn’t possess the redeemable character traits Bell has that makes him so likeable in spite of his flaws.
I am interested in this arc and after reading this review I am even more interested. The world of “Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka?” is expanding by means of character growth.
Hestia, her making a cameo keeps fans reminded that they are watching a “Danmachi” Anime. Showing Hestia’s brief involvement with Ais’s group could possibly allude to Bell’s future involvement; maybe under worse circumstances. If that does happen it would be reminiscent of when Touma helped Biri biri (Misaka Mikoto) in “Toaru Kagaku no Rērugan S” fighting Accelerator (Teenage squabble) and then disappeared after that…thinking about it and writing this out I think I can take this possibility or leave it—now I’m wishy washy. (o_o )
I look forward in who Ais is fighting for. Bell fought for Ais in “Danmachi”, and we see glimpse of Ais doing the same in that Anime I hope the director will elaborate on who empowers Ais to wake up every morning and so what she does if the Manga hasn’t done so already.
Thanks renasayers. Even I’m not seeing anything in my review that is making Sword Oratoria look any more interesting X’D
I agree that showing Hestia is meant to remind the viewers that Sword Oratoria runs in parallel with Danmachi’s first season. I can accept it if they give Bell some insert time without taking over the story. That is to say use him effectively like a platform to develop Ais’ character.
The question of Ais’ motivation is interesting to say the least, and I hope the anime adaptation gets there faster in terms of covering this aspect of the storyline. Not revealing Ais’ internal thought processes and monologues definitely created a setback here.
In the Sword Oratoria manga Lefiya does get a fair amount of focus. I consider her sort of a secondary protagonist. But Ais is the primary character, and it is her story. The anime has chosen to remove several Ais-focused scenes, and change some others to make them Lefiya-focused instead. Which is not a good thing, because while Lefiya is a significant character, this is not her story. It’s Ais story, in which Lefiya plays a significant part.
I wonder if the director is trying to tell Ai’s story from Lefiya’s point of view? If so it would make some sense as to why the focus is on Leafa,
Again, I haven’t read the LN for this (though I did read a bit more of DanMachi LN). I’ll say this, from the anime and comments, I’m tempted to read Sword Oratoria LN if for the wrong reasons. I’m curious to know what the anime is cutting/altering.
First, SHUT UP LEFIYA!! OK, I feel better now. Seriously though, ONE freaking minute into Ep. 02 and I’m like STFU. We had quite a bit of Lefiya moping & angst last episode. Don’t need more. Not sure about a “very nice character”, but while not hax/op, some (again, she’s level 3 not stuck at level 1 for years) doubt is perfectly fine , and the opposite (i.e. relentless boasting) isn’t good either, yeesh. Feels overwrought to me.
If this is an anime change from the LN, then it was a BAD decision. Lefiya might be a likeable or just even an “OK” character in the LN, but the anime’s presentation makes me not like her. Have to agree with Zaiden here. This isn’t the only issue this adaptation may have, but it’s the biggest one IMO. Again, only Ep. 02 and I’m already tired of Lefiya’s Aiz fantasies, and I’m getting sick of her in general.
I get that Aiz is a quiet, introspective type, but I am wondering more about her internal monologue. Can’t be that the show is against internal monologues in general give how much of that we get from Lefiya. I recall reading in DanMachi how some of Aiz’s internal dialog was beneficial. It wasn’t much – again, too much would be bad IMO, but a little went a long way. So if the anime is just wholesale cutting out Aiz internal dialog, another bad decision – especially if that means more freaking Lefiya.
I don’t mind the lack of Bell, Hestia, etc. We got that in S1. This is a different story from another perspective. The problem IMO is simply adaptation execution. From comments, anime is making bad decisions concerning Lefiya for one thing, and just in general the presentation comes across as “flat”, too by-the-numbers to me. Did the “comedy” work for other viewers, because while I found the moment where Aiz was wearing Hestia’s outfit amusing, that was about it. The 3x Loki fondling Lefiya “jokes” in one episode felt repetitive rather than funny.
I’m still in, but yeah, I think I’m going to read LN vol. 01 when I get a chance. Too curious now to see what the difference is for myself. There seems to be some greater plot going on given the intro, but I guess the anime wants to (very) slowly progress on that front. :/
Hey Daikama.
‘Very nice character’ refers to her being kind-hearted and caring, as opposed to ‘nice, what a great character we’ve got on our hands!’. Lefiya probably feels out of her depth in the Loki Familia. She went from from top of her magic school, to swimming with all these big fish relatively quickly.
I think reducing Ais’ internal monologue compared to the LN would have been a good choice. But to cut it out altogether was pretty foolish. Maybe Ais’ voice actress is so busy they can’t give her too many lines. Saori Oonishi is also in Saekano S2 as Eriri, Eromanga Sensei as Muramasa, and Clockwork Planet as Marie.
I also don’t particularly mind the lack of Bell/Hestia, and agree that the failing factor so far would be in the execution of the adaptation. Gotta agree on finding the humour lukewarm. And I’m not seeing why JC Staff want a slow start. Sword Oratoria only has 12 episodes anyway, might as well trailblaze it.
@Zaiden: Thanks for the reply & clarification about “very nice” for Lefiya. I did take it the other way. She’s definitely a nice, kind person. No question there.
—“She went from from top of her magic school, to swimming with all these big fish relatively quickly.”
I LOL’d at this because in one sentence I got as much understanding about her character as from two episodes!. SMH Anime couldn’t fit that info in last episode? It would have helped. Also magic school? Can we see more about that sort of world-building vs. say dress-up SOL?
As for what you wrote about AIz’s (Ais’? is that official?) internal dialog I agree. You need at least some good portion of that. Not the first time I’ve seen an adaptation cutting all or almost all of a character’s internal dialog and thus screwed up the character. The “why” doesn’t matter to me. Just a bad decision here.
I’d rather they not rush execution, but OTOH, this episode did feel a bit slow. Just more Lefiya melodrama + dress-up SOL on top of it. Some SOL is fine, but to me this was a noticeably inefficient episode. Find a happy medium with the pacing.
Yeah, the comedy is off (albeit comedy is subjective). My guess is part material (the “joke”) and part execution. Frankly, Loki came across as more “comedy silly” than I imagined her from DanMach LN & S1. There’s definitely some of that to her character, but she’s also pretty smart/serious at other times. Character balance felt off here, and spamming the “gropes Lefiya” joke didn’t help. Hell, they could have done a better job with that as a running gag anyway.
Meh. Personally Ep. 02 was worse than Ep. 01 IMO. Not a good sign. Have no clue about the source material for Ep. 03, but anime adaptation needs to step up its game.
I would rather see more of Aiz than Lefiya, but I’ve been having a good time with the show so far. Tiona & Tiana were funny this time around, and Loki was easily the best part of the episode. The Hestia cameo is well appreciated too. I guess the main appeal for me is that it’s nice to follow Loki’s party because they’re very amusing aside from Lefiya and the wolf guy.
The twins were great as always, though I can’t say I’m too fond of Loki’s perverted antics. Loki’s familia is pretty good, and I would definitely like to see more of Aiz than Lefiya. Have to agree with you on not liking Bete very much as a personality, though that means his characterisation is fairly well done to provoke our dislike towards him.
They did rely too much on the boob grab joke, but I thought seeing a more playful Loki who loves to drink was nice compared to Danmachi 1 where the most we saw of her was when she was fighting with Hestia. True, I think Bete is supposed to be obnoxiously terrible so we can have all the more fun seeing Aiz and Bell stomp him.
Seeing the casual and chill side from Loki was nice, now that you’ve pointed it out. In my opinion, these obnoxiously terrible characters should be a win-win scenario regardless. Either its fun to watch them get stomped on or observe their quest for redemption.
Loki trying out Loki’s girls side for awhile. After all in mythology Loki even gave birth, so Loki was a gender swaping god in the source.
Although for some women size every is a real thing, it was for my mom, this trope should only be used when you can make it funny and here they missed. Hey guys comparing sizes has been a thing in some groups.
Yes I know that many critics say avoid internal monologs, but with a non talkative main character you need the monologs unless your depending on a big release of information in the future.
This episode I think was Director buying time in the story to match the Bell story and this episode got treated to much as filler.
Now me the idea of rating individual episodes sometimes misses the mark as the episode might work way better if you were marathoning the story but only time will tell.
This episode has me really dissapointed in this series so far. After episode 1, I was expected it to take the next step, and be a sure fire hit for series for me to follow this season. Instead, I found most of this episode to be just completely droll and boring. It’s really sad as I feel like the content here should be way more interesting than it is. In fact, that’s exactly what I kept thinking all throughout the episode, that this SHOULD be more interesting, but somehow it’s not. I can only chalk it up to direction and staging. They need to get back to what made the original so much fun, and quick, or I’m afraid that I may end up dropping this one, which would be a major bummer.
@hjerry: I thought about the difference between the two as well. The series takes a lot from fantasy RPG games so I started to think about it in those terms. Of course RPG games and players vary a lot, but with some good games, the beginning can be as much fun as later stages. It’s simple – no flashy skills, good weapons or fantastic foes, but there is STRUGGLE (discretion the better part of valor), and there is a definite, quick sense of progression. Your character ramps up fairly quickly – better stats, get skill(s), some decent equipment, etc. Again, progress is made vs. later stages when you grind, grind, grind.
That’s how DanMachi felt to me. Bell starts off at level 1 (NOTE: levels are much different than typical RPG where 99 may be top, but Bell does ramp up fast at least with stats) and goes from there, including building the party. Here, all that is pretty much done which gives DanMachi an advantage IMO. DanMachi also has the advantage of just introducing the series/world as well. This can work, but it’s a different challenge, and yes, adaptation execution is part of the problem.
Lefiya’s in love.
Yeah this is boring me to tears so far. Hestia’s cameo is actually more interesting than anything from the Loki familia.
Never thought of Ais as a really interesting character myself.
I am not surprised that those who see the story in the anime see it forsado is very summarized when they upload the images of chapter 3 anime in the manga and they will be in chapter 8 I recommend that this time you read the manga is losing a lot impact