Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Share the light」by Run Girls, Run!
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「少女の世界が変わるとき」 (Shoujo no Sekai ga kawaru toki)
“When the Girl’s World Changes”
You know I was never imagining Assassins Pride to be a show worthy of paying a good deal of attention to this season. Sure it’s not bad in the slightest—and frankly well-structured and decently animated compared to come fellow light novel brethren—but the way it’s adapting its source material and choosing what to feature is going to be a debate for weeks to come. After all, with apparent cuts this deep something has to give—even while I cannot deny it’s slowly warming to me.
While I’m an anime only viewer tuning into Assassins Pride, it doesn’t take much to see the show is trimming quite a bit from its overall story. Just take Melida’s awakening this week. The rapid shift in the girl’s combat prowess and sudden display of more complex abilities shows a lot of training occurring behind the scenes, and indeed the show chopped all of this to instead feature the results exclusively. Blood, sweat, tears, and tender loving mentor moments? Not in this rapid dash forward (well, barring some tender loving affections—cannot pass up that opportunity after all), though the real question is how much it actually affects thing. Plenty of series fans are disappointed by the adaptation choices at work for good reason, but coming into this blind I’m not sure yet if it’s entirely a bad thing. Melida’s change may have been swift and rapid, her defeat of Nerva bordering on deliberately fabricated (hard seeing it to be anything but), yet the pacing and development of these events never really seem off-putting. Quick? Yes, but incomprehensible? Not in the slightest. So far at least Assassins Pride has done a good job of cutting appropriate material versus actual narratives and expositions helping tie everything together. There’s no guarantees this will keep up as we get into the meat and potatoes (and that will be where the test truly begins), but currently the show is doing a fine job of threading the story needle.
As for where the story is heading I don’t think there’ll be too many surprises. Not hard seeing Melida’s father and his company as problems waiting to happen for example, particularly when you factor in the known rumour mill behind the girl and her sudden mana appearance. I imagine quite a few shrewd individuals will be able to piece two and two together, especially when her magic class is finally made public, and when that happens the fireworks will begin in earnest. Then there’s the matter of our apparent “main” antagonists (until the real ones make their appearance) who naturally are tight with the Halloween spookies just itching for some greater explanation. Assassins Pride has quite a bit of material and relationships to utilize and feature, with the only question being how far along the garden path it’ll get before this season is through.
It’s anyone’s guess just where we go from here, but you can bet the ride is going to be wild.
ED Sequence
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Preview
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Nerva has a better looking and more interesting character deign than our FMC. Our FMC can’t look anymore generic, plain and borring as anymore than that.
This adaptation is just doing a terrible job of characterizing her. She shows so much emotion and range in the manga.
Like for real she doesn’t get her powers for 3 chapters in the manga. All chapters being close to 50 pages…
@TitanAnteus The issue is the anime only has 12 episodes to tell its story. That and some JP-fluent LN readers believe the anime is aiming to cover Show Spoiler ▼
As TitanAnteus mentions I think the issue is largely down to the choice of adaptation material. Melida is far more developed in the light novels, which leads me to suspect the writers are aiming for a specific ending while trying to retain her character flavour. There’s enough here to understand what she’s about, but the complexity and uniqueness is definitely lost so far.
Manga version of Assassin’s Pride keeps the worldbuilding details and character interactions/subtleties the anime left out. Highly recommend it if you want more detailed content.
LN readers say the manga is still only halfway through Vol 2 though.
Wow. 10 or 11 ish manga chapters in 2 episode… While they didnt missed out on the “best parts” that melida beatup of her “bully” is pleasurable to watch but I kinda feel if they keep going at this rate they will miss out variety of important details. Reading the translated original novel or the manga will definitely help those who watch this and felt like they missed something
Even for me the amount being cut is starting to be concerning. The show has done a good job so far in retaining logical development, but when the conflicts start flaring up I’m doubtful it’ll be able to keep up what we’ve received so far.
This Anime is try hard to be an visual brother of SAO.. But well
On how mana transfer works:
Show Spoiler ▼
– The successful transfer has created a whole new slew of problems for Kufa to cover up. He’s already tricked the client and disobeyed direct orders from his boss. Any irregularity could potentially be traced back to them. If they’re found out, its off with their heads.
On mana inheritance:
– Show Spoiler ▼
Nerva sure channeled her inner Vegeta a lot during that fight. I mean shooting up into the air surrounded by her aura and firing her “Garrick Hammer” downwards…. Not to mention the rage.
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
I get the feeling somehow that unleashing an attack that can leave a crater big enough to hide a small car in upon a girl who has apparently run out of mana is going to result in rather more than a trip to the school nurse.
Anyway, I wasn’t too keen on the first episode but now it looks as though it might have some potential so I guess I’ll keep with it for now. I might check out the manga too.
OK, I checked the manga and my opinion of this anime has dropped drastically. It’s just much too superficial an adaptation (not to mention the missing fanservice). So basically one more episode and if it doesn’t shape up I’m sticking with the manga.
Considering how perfectly flat most of these girls are I don’t know how far we could even get in terms of traditional fan service 😛
The paceing in this is just nuts. A couple of times I wasn’t sure if the next scene was something happening or a hypothetical fantasy the character was having.
I ended up catching up on the manga yesterday. This show has done a really good job at bringing me in but this episode had so many moments where a simple explanation would have made up for things
Welcome to the world of chopped and rushed XD
So it seems I was mistaken in my estimation of this series going in.
I was under the impression this was going to be a dark and gritty show about assassins, but apparently it’s actually more like Sailor Moon Crystal and is a show for young girls about overcoming and having your handsome older knight to come save you.
Sorry, but this may not be for me, even though ironically I was actually a fan of the aforementioned Sailor Moon Crystal.
I think you’re still mistaken – the handsome older knight didn’t come to save Melida, he came to kill her. Realising that when the job is done he’ll almost certainly get killed himself, he’s now played a trick on her and on his employer which is still likely to get them both killed if he’s found out. Which still sounds pretty dark to me.
As Angelus mentions this won’t be as light as Sailor Moon/Cardcaptors. These two episodes have been similar in feel to those series, but this story will break for the darkness when the opportunity presents itself. It’s simply a matter of setting things up.
That may sound dark when written that way, which is what initially drew me in from the series’ description, but in actual execution, the series has not been dark or adult at all; really coming off as more cliche and intended for young girls than older audiences ie the sailor moon reference, which don’t let that draw you astray, as I picked the crystal version for a reason, not to mock this series but more to understand the general feel I was getting from it. The crystal version had a lot of reference to death too, but I wouldn’t refer to it as “dark” for example.
As for the changes that may end up coming, maybe it’s a result of adaptation, but I’m really not invested in these characters, and they just come off as bland and without personality to me. Maybe I’ve just seen these same characters done to many others times and/or done better. As such, I’m just not interested in watching more in hopes that things improve with not being invested in what happens to them. I’ve got too many other potential series on deck for that.
No offense intended if this is your cup of tea, and you are invested in them though. I don’t hate the series. I’m just not longer interested in watching more.
Side note: Not to feel like I’m layering on here, but, as this thought just came to mind, that opening really doesn’t help with the whole “dark series” feel, if that’s really what original source material goes for. Watching that was when I first started getting the “magical girl” vibes. Admittedly, that could be just an adaptation fail by the anime creators.
I will admit, that I actually thought the op was quite catchy, but it certainly doesn’t help the series from feeling immature though.
@hjerry2000
No worries, having different tastes is half the fun! I think the issue for this one will be the material cut, because there is already a lot of things missing from the overall picture which would’ve helped better ground it stylistically. If it keeps up you’re likely right we’re looking at something akin to Crystal, but personally I’m too much of an optimist right now to think it’ll veer that way. Like you I was expecting something gritty and not having that in some capacity would be disappointing.
I personally think the pacing was, umm, “normal”. Even though it seems like a lot was cut, can’t say I can really guess what it was. Though unfortunately it may actually be something that would endear me to Melida. But overall, I can follow the story quite nicely.
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%2021.jpg
Currently these are the more interesting characters for me. Judging from that less than 13s battle, there seems to be a slight difference in their methods. Can’t help but notice Melida’s reaction in that battle.
Am I the only one who thinks this show is too reminiscent of My Hero Academia?
-Girl has no power of her own, but seeing her determination, her mentor shares his power with her —–> Deku and All Might
-Girl has a rival who bullies her but after seeing what she’s capable of, comes to respect her—–> Deku and Katsuki
Similar story beats, none of the same pacing and execution. From the other comments here, it looks to be just the show’s fault.
At least for me yeah haha. This sort of premise is shared between lots of stories (especially shounen), with the difference mostly being in the manner of power sharing and how quickly that rival winds up grudgingly respecting you. It’s a tried and true method for developing and increasing the complexity of protagonists.
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
MC’s own personal kinda-loli.
The squeak when he picked her up ❤
I’m a big, big fan of the original – and that makes me _very_ displeased with the direction of the anime. What the hell are they thinking?
Not only are they cutting out many absolutely critical things from the story (think the awakening gamble of last episode), they are also dropping all the little tidbits which flesh out the characters. It’s turning Kufa into an exceptionally boring Tatsuya clone, by skipping all his self-doubts (he is still torn due to his dereliction of duty to assassinate Melida – he now needs to tread doubly carefully in order not to kill both himself and her) or his exchanges with Melida herself (for example, she was seriously chewing him out not to act like a little kid over his hostile reception of Rosetti). Likewise, Melida herself is diminished to a purely obedient yet scared little kid. In the original, she has got much more spunk.
By now I’m afraid it’s confirmed: The director and direction are B-level at best. If you want the true story (and it is worth it), read the manga or LN.
So I watched (and re-watched) these first two episodes of Assassins Pride. At first watch, I did find the setting of the show interesting despite some questions that popped up. (Why is their world in a state of eternal night? How long has that “giant candelabra” existed? What powers the lights within the cities?)
But then I read the comments saying that a lot of LN content has been skipped in these two episodes, and now I can’t help but think:
“Ah s**t, it’s like the Arifureta anime all over again…” (And on a side note, can you believe that series somehow got a second season? I guess Hajime’s harem also managed to carry the show despite the questionable CG and skipped LN content that would otherwise give hidden depths to the characters. That and the series was also ready with a merchandising deal–specifically, a Nendoroid of Yue. But I digress.)
Anyway…
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
This kind of reminds me of that one scene from SukaSuka (a.k.a.: Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii Desuka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka?).
https://randomc.net/image/Assassins%20Pride/Assassins%20Pride%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
Nerva…how can you be an ojou-sama with drill twintails and not go, “Ohohohoho!” like previous ojou-sama characters I know?
And now, time for some more setting-related questions:
– If their world is in a state of eternal night, what happened to their sun? Did it die out? Or is there some very powerful wide-area magic that is actively blocking it out? (Also, wouldn’t it be freezing cold outside of the “giant candelabra”?)
–
So are Melida, Elise and Nerva the equivalent of Japanese middle-schoolers IRL?OK, so it turns out that Melida, Elise and Nerva would be around 13 to 14 years of age–so yes, they’re the equivalent of RL middle-schoolers. But considering that puberty should already be knocking on their door at those ages, it does beg the question: Has the lack of daylight/sunlight somehow inhibited their bodily growth?– Any explanation why Kufa went from being gentlemanly to standoff-ish toward Rosetti in the span of two episodes? Is it because they’re from rival guilds? (‘Tis a shame, too… I kinda liked the chemistry of those two in episode 1.)
I still wouldn’t mind giving Assassins Pride a chance, though I do hope that the skipped LN content won’t make the anime as drab and boring as last season’s Isekai Cheat Magician.