Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Red Criminal」by (THE ORAL CIGARETTES)
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「緋色の超脳力」(Hiiro no Chō Nōryoku)
“Scarlet Psionics”
Scarlet Nexus, a new anime based on a video game of the same name, where otherworld entities attack the common world, and Scarlet Guardians are the last line of defense between them and humanity. Knowing me, I was instantly interested in the hooks Scarlet Nexus is using to lure us into its story. What are the other worldlings and where do they come from? From what I gathered, there seems to be a sort of aurora-like tear in the sky that mantles the atmosphere with soft neon purple colors. What exactly are the red strings that so subtle were hinted at during the episode? And what exactly are the depths of the psionics power’s the Scarlet Guardians use to fight the bad guys. Otherworld-ings fall from the sky in capsules like earth pods, and the military tries to give the Guardians an advantage by playing Missle Command on them.
Sumeragi Yuito (Enoki Junya) is a new cadet with a mysterious back story to one of the other Guardians. He also has red strings on his hair. Randall Kasane (Seto Asami) is also part of the guardians and seemingly saved Yuito when he was young. Some weird time dilation things are going from what I’m gathering, how could Kasane have saved Yuito when he was small if they saw each other also as children during a formal party. As I got to watch the second episode with the pre-air, I have a little bit more context on this part of the story. But worry, not I will discuss in more detail until next week.
Yuito’s best friend, and also the comic relief of the show, Karman Nagi (Uchida Yuuma) is not a total disappointment as he can save Randall Naomi (Nishi Asuka) from impending doom using his psionic wind powers. There are more characters, but they were introduced so randomly and haphazardly I had little time to remember their names.
There are several psionic powers here, ranging from telekinesis to being able to use lighting and wind to your advantage. It seems like they took a turn towards bringing elemental powers to the influence of the mind. Some are quite common in these types of stories, while other powers are a little bit more unique. For example Naomi’s power of being able to see a couple of seconds into the future (Xenoblade much?). I’m sure we are going to be seeing more of how these powers work, and the depth’s they can bring to the battles with the creatures from the other world.
Speaking of those creatures, the enemy design is certainly out there. In this episode, we got to see what I’m dubbing as the flower chicken lady, a weird tentacle slime thing, and another lady with protruding mushrooms? And other such weird creatures and monsters. It was interesting seeing what creatures they can bring to the table. And I’m expecting monsters to just get weirder from here on out.
Apart from that, every single monster was CGI, (I’m not expecting that to change), but nevertheless, another thing to note with the CGI. When the characters change into their form with their mask. They are also CGI. So I can’t help but wonder if the production team gave the actual models from the game? Since the video game already has an anime aesthetic, an animated show is a perfect fit. But I’m not getting my hopes up because already it feels like it has a very low budget. It’s not bad, it’s just that shortcuts are inevitable, but we’ll see how bad it gets around the 7 or 8 episode mark. Can Scarlet Nexus keep up the monster of the week’s newness by throwing modern and exciting things our way? Slowly revealing its story, and involving us more and more into its lore? I certainly hope so, as even if sometimes the animation falters, the action scenes are enough to keep me watching. Even if it fully changes into CGI, I don’t mind it.
I liked the music in this episode, and the floating sci-fi UI is fun to look at, as it seems everyone in this world has one of those. While those that aren’t Guardian’s have a blue look to them, and the Scarlet Guardians are red. The outfits as well fall into this color, with their uniforms looking fly with a red and black aesthetic. A fun way to differentiate them from normal folk.
Overall the action here is enough to keep me hooked, and continue to watch every week, let’s just hope it continues this way because shows like this die or live based on how far they can take their concept. But since it’s based on a video game, I wonder where is it going to go, and will it be able to surprise us with its world, lore, and story.
I’m an ever optimist, so here’s hoping it can!
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Fire」by (Yamato (.S))
Preview
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Searching info about the game the consensus tends to be that the game play is good but the story is meh at best. It seems that the suits in charge have the same idea, because they are not worried about spoiling the whole plot with an anime series that airs practically a week after the release of the game.
It’s not bad but it’s very…illustrative…with a linear narrative more worried about showing the designs and a hint of the systems in play in the game than to do something interesting. It has this very action game style in which you can basically anticipate everything that’s going to happen or the role of each character at a first glance. That’s because they are (quite cool) window dressing for the actual game play were most of the energies of the developers are focused. It would be ungenerous to call it an over sized commercial but it doesn’t feel like a series capable of standing on its own or to be substitute for other shounen adaptations currently on hiatus.
Overall the first two episodes convinced me to drop the anime and to give a try to the game. Mission accomplished i guess.
I’ve seen some official reviews saying they liked the story and character development, although they did complain the enemy units weren’t dynamic enough for their liking, and the levels looked rather drab and repetitively designed.
Honestly it made me want to buy the game too xD
My lord. Did they release the anime at the same time the game was released!?
Miracles of marketing. I started playing the game and i found a side quest that needs codes in background elements of the anime. Anyway, the cg use the same assets of the game but it obviously moves at 24fps instead of 60, with the result that the combat in the game looks better than the action scenes of the anime by a large margin.
And the codes are in each episode, meaning you need to watch the anime to the end to get all the codes to solve the quest.
https://imgur.com/a/7VFVMsi
According to gameplayers, the 1st episode roughly adapts the early 2 game levels but with some differences, like certain scene omissions/additions/some abilities can be used earlier/etc.
Gamewise, you start off playing either as either Yuito or Kasane (although you can switch between them in New Game +) after completing both campaigns. Each campaign has its own special plot reveals and goals, but both will intersect at times and finally join up together into 1 set ending.
Although recommended that you play the game 1st (since the anime runs a risk of being rushed), the good news is the anime has more movements during interaction scenes (the game’s cutscenes consist of voiced-over still frames of characters, like a visual novel).
If they could, they can deliver some “Cutscenes Animation” DLC Pack. But if free or for money, is their decision
They can then take or being inspired from the Anime. If the Game and Anime is well received.
The repeated enemy designs and cutscenes scream the game was done on a budget but other than that I’m having a blast with the game so far. The only thing that bugs me with the cutscenes is when it’s “action cutscenes” done with the still frames. The quick swapping of the frames can screw with me a bit and I wish they were done normally. But for story points I have no issue with it.
I’ll be holding off on the anime though until I’m done with the game as I don’t want spoilers and from what I’ve heard all optional stuff can be completed post game so I’ll worry about the side quest that requires watching the anime afterwards.
Yeah, the first episode didn’t instill a lot of confidence. It looked so average. I’m much more intersted in the game, and I guess that’s how it should be considering that it’s the main work.