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「真正面突破(コンフリクト)」 (Masshoumen toppa (konfurikuto))
“Conflict”
You know, the more I watch Clockwork the stranger the show becomes. In a sense it’s dichotomous. On the one hand it’s your perfect light novel caricature with cookie cutter characters, wish fulfillment interactions, and arguably simplistic takes on politics and intrigue. Yet on occasion the show puts forth some surprising ideas, indicating the potential for something greater, if leaving space to elaborate upon it.
The caricature this week of course was going full throttle, with Naoto as usual being the primary source. Yeah Marie had her tsundere moments again—succinctly held in check by Halter—but I think marriage offers and imouto fetishes outweigh those paltry transgressions. Although the marriage joke admittedly fits Naoto’s personality and sleeve-wearing fetishes to a tee, I felt it was slightly out of place given the overall atmosphere. Proclamations of love yes, slobbering over RyuZU’s clockwork goodness sure, but breaking out the nuptials? Coming on a little too strong there. No denying the hilarity of RyuZU revealing her little sister, however, the fallout from that had my sides hurting. Who knew all it took to convince a dweeb into reckless action was the promise of sisterly double teaming. Hate Naoto all you want, but the boy certainly sticks with his priorities. Did I mention the harem hints with Marie too?
Where Clockwork got me this time around though was in the world building. While not much as before, it was significantly more than previously revealed. All that time talk and discussion of the differences between real and imaginary? Completely factual, at least in the sense of having a mathematical foundation. Lorentz (not Lawrence, silly subbers) transformation is important for shifts between reference frames, while Minkowski space(time)—given the name—should be self-explanatory. Even orthogonality has a purpose, although if we want to get technical its effects would depend on how time is treated (i.e. as linear or waveform). Basically no superficial light novel technobabble here boys and girls, this story actually has scientific teeth. Particularly intriguing too are some of the character reveals. Halter is now confirmed cyborg—explaining his strength—and the questions concerning Naoto’s super special hearing powers are gaining traction. If RyuZU’s powers have some sort of logic and Halter isn’t the Terminator just because, then Naoto definitely has an explanation waiting in the wings. No idea what it could be, but dimensional theory is a sure bet now.
While some promising signs are starting to appear and the fun is set to grow with another RyuZU in AnchoR, I don’t know whether I’ll continue blogging Clockwork. There’s a lot of good shows this season, and no guarantee Clockwork can make good on the hints dropping thus far. Yeah the show could easily prove wrong—it’s happened before—but my blogging heart is already claimed. I’ll definitely be following this one through to the end though, and an end post is certainly not out the question. After all, it’s just too damn hard turning my nose up at sci fi.
Preview
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Character designs by Shino, illustrator of the Kamisama ga Inai Nichiyoubi LNs.
All it takes is a cute robo imouto to spring into action
Do you know advanced physics or mathematics? Not everybody would know about Lorentz transformations.
Not as much as I’d like unfortunately 😛
I have plenty of physics/math learning, although beyond some personal study I never ventured far into general relativity. My math knowledge is largely constrained to engineering these days.
I hope that you continue reviewing that show. It’s the only one that interested me this season. 🙁
At the minimum I’m still mulling it over, have to see if real life will let me slot in another show 😛
It’s not an imouto fetish IMO, just more clockwork/gear fetish, considering how smitten he is with RyuZU.
I caught the “Lawrence” translation error as well, though I just know the term and not the actual math behind it. ^^;;
Well, if you are going to look for the Lorentz transformation, I hope that you loved Mathematics a lot. XDD
Oh it’s definitely a gear-related fetish, although the way it came up had me think there was more to it.
And as Kinai states, unless you have a fetish for mental pain I’d stay far away from such math ideas, general relativity is enough to encourage self immolation a lot of the time lol
I adored RyuZU being made to nod to show how much she loves Naoto, lol.
I dunno, this little path into Ar Tonelico is not quit fitting here.. Sure there are many similarities, even the music is similar, but here it is gears and in Ar Tonelico the “master” dive into her mind to understand her more and to forge more deeper bonds…
also, after watched the preview i get a gist what will happen…
Show Spoiler ▼
I have liked your reviews.
As someone who can live without the screen caps I just like the commentary the most.
Interesting real science when the everything is a gear is stupid so far. Gears do certain tasks and are unneeded for the rest.
Although all the gears reminds me of some of the fact mechanical minds that were being demonstrated in Edgar Allan Poe’s time that he wrote about.
Edgar Allan Poe back when you could actually invent a genre which he did with the detective story, even came up with the two man team idea that Sherlock Holmes has. That the award every year for best detective story the Edgar.
Steampunk has never been a genre for realism I find, it’s all about the aesthetics and romanticism of the era–gears are only there for appearance. Hell I can think of only a few series even trying to ground steampunk in logic.
yes, like the name suggesting Steampunk… Steam = pressure
So they need something alike batteries and that would be pressure steam tanks.. imagine they would need them
If Steampunk should work, then they need a better solution for their “batteries” problem or this little things can create that much PSI (Pressure)
in Short:
Steampunk has an Steam Pressure problem to move all things
My advise:
Don’t think about that and enjoy the ride.
error fake mechanical minds.
great! so goo