First Impressions / Tokyo ESP

「襲撃・ESPガールズ」 (Shuugeki ESP Gaaruzu)
“Attack ESP Girls”

In case you haven’t heard, Stilts is away this week on a lovely vacation overseas and I’ve been given the privledge to blog Tokyo ESP in his place. I don’t usually blog in his format, but for the sake of consistency, I will give it a try.

Overpowered Rinka… but how?!

I hope everyone is wondering the same question I am because this episode left me so confused as to how Rinka suddenly went from zero to hero. She was literally beat up to a pulp (and died!) two episodes ago and now she’s come back stronger than ever. I don’t think it’s because the villains just miraculously got weaker so that’s a huge fault in the writing that I wish they explained. To the very least, they could’ve made Rinka’s training progress look like it wasn’t all for naught in the previous episodes. I got the impression that Rinka was just far too inferior to the other girls and hence why all was doomed for Tokyo… at least, until this episode. On top of all that, she doesn’t even have her powers back yet! She’s doing all this with her eyes closed and no superhuman powers. That is just insane and I have no other way to describe it.

Silly Pelicans

Just when I thought thinks couldn’t get any weirder, they do. And they get weird with birds. And romance. I would say that it’s totally uncalled for, but I’ve seen my fair share of thinking “out of the box” and talking pelicans that want to fall in love? That’s cool. I can live with that if it’s their way of explaining how Kyoutarou will make his way back to Tokyo. It’s just a shame that he reappeared back into Rinka’s life for only half a day, before he was made completely useless again on some island off the coast of Japan. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like Kyoutarou’s character and his relationship with Rinka is definitely a ship that I’m on, but he feels so uninvolved in the entire second half of the story. I wish he played a more centric role in general.

Coming Back to Episode 1

It took a while, but we finally get back to the cold opening. The story comes full circle and I get a different vibe now that I’ve seen everything that has led up to this moment. In the first episode, you see a bunch of people wreaking havoc and killing innocents, but you still have this hope that someone will save them. This time around, I don’t feel that same hope towards Rinka as I once did; not to say that she’ll lose, but I’m not excited to see her fight. Maybe that’s because I know she’s powerless and the Professor is actually incredibly dangerous, but I think it’s simply that the story leading up to this point has lost a lot of its hype. I was so anxious to find out what led to the cold opening, and now that it’s revealed, everything is just mediocre. The background story for the villains wasn’t one that I particularly liked so I neither empathize nor sympathize them and Rinka has just been beat around a lot until this episode. Unfortunate for Tokyo ESP because I had a lot of high expectations for it even after watching the first episode. I guess it’s just hard to condense everything into a one-cour show.

Finale Next Week

Next week, I would expect to see a few things in our finale and probably all predictable from other viewers. The fight between Rinka and Minami will be the most interesting one for me because I’m genuinely curious how that will turn out. The other event would be Peggy’s involvement now that Kuroi, Edoyama and Oozora have saved him. I wonder if he’s just going to go around eating everyone’s abilities – especially the Professor’s. That would be too easy, but that’s still better than a cliffhanger or leaving plot holes everywhere in the show. I don’t think Tokyo ESP needs anymore issues for people to poke at so I will take the ending for whatever it’s worth. I just hope that somehow Kyoutarou’s reappearance will actually mean something and maybe we’ll finally get to see some Rinka x Kyoutarou reunion.

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: #TokyoESP finally comes full circle but uh… How did Rinka suddenly become so kickass without her powers? O.o and mind reading birds? Sure.

Random thoughts:

  • Since when could Roshi walk again?! Wow, rehabilitation works fast.
  • Seeing Edoyama and Oozora work as a combat duo was a good way to break away from the rest of the episode. I like this ship as well!
  • So many secondary characters get neglected in this show even though they actually do stuff. It’s a shame that they’re not given the proper time to develop or connect with the audience.

 

Preview

45 Comments

      2. Well, i understand you WHY. But do i need to bend to this Down-votes? Do i need to change the way how i am, to look nice for everyone? I am a Voice in the Storm of equality, unity Waves of Water. I am the Rock, that do not bend to the Water. I am how i am

        I am some Lighthouse

        Yeah, it sounds now high and mighty of me. But just see this as Metaphors. I am not everybody Mr.Nice. I dont hide my Truth behind sweet Lies and talking. I came direct to the point

        Like it or live with it. I am not a Racist. Live and let live, thats my Engine

        Just a glimpse of my piece of mind, what i think of Down-voter Trolls

        Germanguy
        Reply

      3. that is very…over dramatic. You know, most likely people downvoted him because he just straight up asked for thumbs up (like I did). I know he’s new, but it really does just call unneeded attention for yourself if you ask for votes unless you’re doing a comment that has to do with an actual poll.

        SDFGS
        Reply

      4. Example:

        I am new in this City, can you help me in finding the Station?

        Would your answer be “Shut the fuck up!, use your Navi for God’s sake. Are you Dumb?”

        I was just being nice like “Sorry, i do not know the Way to the Station”

        For me this Vote things here is just some way to hide your reason, why you do not like him. Today you can just hide behind 1 click with the mouse. No the decency to explain why. Or we got lazy. Perhaps i am a old school geezer and are used to explain yes or no not hiding behind at only 1 mouse click

        Germanguy
        Reply

      6. >] “For me this Vote things here is just some way to hide your reason, why you do not like him. Today you can just hide behind 1 click with the mouse. No the decency to explain why. Or we got lazy. Perhaps i am a old school geezer and are used to explain yes or no not hiding behind at only 1 mouse click.”

        Certainly, you’re free to have whatever kind of an opinion about the like/dislike function you want, though with all respect, you’re going to have a hell of a time convincing anyone when you seem to be taking it rather personally. It really just sounds like you’re whining and trying to blow off steam (and the overdramatization and cursing didn’t help you much either).

        Regardless, you do raise a valid point in that people should try and make more of an effort to tell people – at least when it’s not glaringly obvious, mind you – why they dislike a person’s posts. That said, I’ll happily tell you that the reason I disliked you was because you seem to be taking something otherwise inconsequential and turning it into an issue when, IMHO, it really isn’t.

        Some people that you’ll, in all likelihood, never meet and/or deal with in your entire life decided that they were going to give you a thumbs down on a post that you’ll probably forget soon enough anyways? Really, who gives a damn? I’ve given plenty of thumbs down in my time here (and gotten them in return, to be sure), and I scarcely remember even one of them in any kind of detail. Seriously, do you think anyone else is going to be much different? They’re not.

        It’s a minor thing, insignificant and inconsequential by any stretch of the imagination. Don’t worry about it and just let it go.

        And to prove it, you can go ahead and dislike this post right now. You’ll forget about it soon enough and so will I, I assure you.

        Ryan Ashfyre
        Reply

      8. Imo, I feel like the downvoting on this site is abused somewhat. and I say this in comparison to other sites I frequent, ones where the downvotes show up as well (or used to).

        Also I think people misuse or misunderstand the purpose of the downvote. Just because you disagree with something or someone doesn’t mean you’re supposed to downvote it. sure, that’s entirely your prerogative, but some of the things that get downvoted on here are just plain silly. Or when sometimes someone has something valid to say and it’s downvoted, and in a way, that’s a poor reflection on some of the people who frequent this site, and I mean that those people don’t know how to react properly to varying opinions, so they downvote. they don’t/can’t do that in real life, right, so why here? don’t you want to act civilly online if you do so in real life? and something like that goes beyond this site, it’s more of an internet behavioral question. of course, assholes are assholes anywhere, but this isn’t directed towards them.

        I think anytime I point something like that out, or I pose something to think about, I get downvoted, so the question is, who’s really taking it personally? it just seems like it may stem from ignorance if the post in question is actually thought out and articulate. there’s disagreeing and then there’s simply a lack of comprehension. as they say, fear breeds ignorance.

        I said something similar in another post, that I think it’s due to the fact there are a lot of young people on this site. I say this as an older person of course, because if I disagree with something, I make a reply post. Something’s gotta be pretty bad for me to downvote it. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I feel it’s more appropriate to post a reply, it’s certainly more helpful, then to downvote. of course, it’s not everyone who’s doing so, most people who reply have lots to say and are civil about it (and depends on the show), and I know this site isn’t like some of the other places I go to where commenters prefer to have long in depth discussions for things like tv shows, so I can’t really hold it to the same standards.

        anyhow, that got a little long, but just some things that’ve been on my mind over the last few days/weeks.

        Impel Down Hippo
        Reply

      9. one last thing about this, is case in point is Germanguy. He gets downvoted a lot, and most of his comments are fine. I can tell he gets a lot of flack because people don’t like him, and that’s just a misuse of the downvote button. There’s nothing wrong to dislike someone, but that’s not what the downvote button is for. If he was saying offensive things, then by all means, but that’s just not the case.

        I can tell the same thing happens with my posts at times, especially when I point stuff like this out, or call people out (not the best way to make friends, huh?). this is just a bad way to express yourself, not to mention it makes the RC community not look so great. again, that’s entirely up to you, but you can’t live your whole lives like this, which is why I made the generalization that a lot of the people on here are probably young (that and statistics of demographics), because downvoting opinions (not offensive ones mind you) or commenters you don’t like just lacks of maturity (ah, the dreaded M word!). I hate using that word too since it’s misused a lot, but here I think it to be more than likely appropriate.

        Impel Down Hippo
        Reply

  5. FYI about a few things:

    — Regarding Rinka’s power-up:

    Short answer = source material cuts. Longer answer = In chapters 21 & 22 of the manga, Rinka continues her training while in Esper prison. The manga actually states that her CPC (“close(?) or cross(?) panda combat”) training was only half completed before the school attack. Part of the Esper prison facilities includes a boxing ring where she spars against pompadour guy among others (eventually panda sensei as well) to the point she can fight multiple opponents with her eyes closed/covered (she’s able to sense opponents’ qi/chi or however it’s spelled).

    — Regarding Esper animals:

    Also cut from the anime (though doing so did make sense) was “extra” chapter 14.5 “A Penguin’s Life” which featured an Esper cat who could stop time. So after reading that, a talking Pelican seeking love isn’t quite so strange. I think.

    — “Since when could Roshi walk again?! Wow, rehabilitation works fast.”

    That’s actually pretty much per source. Ch. 21, page 30, Roshi/Yoshi, just stands up and says: “I should be working on my recovery training now too…” So yeah, I guess “pandas” heal fast or something.

    — “It’s just a shame that he reappeared back into Rinka’s life for only half a day, before he was made completely useless again on some island off the coast of Japan.”

    Yep. Blame anime only change/addition for the first kidnapping. Didn’t happen in the manga. :/ Shame for Rinka x Kyoutarou fans since their date was fun to read.

    Hope the above helps anime-only viewers. As for possible endings next week… no comment. 😀

    daikama
    Reply

    2. Aw, you answered all the things I was going to answer. :/

      Although with esper animals, don’t forget the hydrokinetic hippo from earlier in the manga. I think that one takes the cake.

      That’s actually pretty much per source. Ch. 21, page 30, Roshi/Yoshi, just stands up and says: “I should be working on my recovery training now too…” So yeah, I guess “pandas” heal fast or something.

      …First, why did they change his name? He was Master Yoda in the manga. Roshi wasn’t even mentioned. Second, his was only paralyzed due to a side-effect of the drugs they’d used on him, and he’d been in the prison for months, so there was a fair amount of time for him to recover.

      Wanderer
      Reply

      1. I don’t think they changed the name. Roshi—or rather, roushi(?)—was said to be translated as “Master.” Idk what’s up with the subber/translator, but Master Roshi is redundant, it seems.

        witchhuntress
        Reply

      2. @Wanderer: Regarding panda sensei’s name, IDK why the name was changed (or the fact he’s never removed the costume head piece in the anime IIRC). I can only surmise possible copyright issues, but then again, why is it OK in the manga? So… IDK.

        — “Second, his was only paralyzed due to a side-effect of the drugs they’d used on him, and he’d been in the prison for months, so there was a fair amount of time for him to recover.”

        Fair enough, though why would it take months for the drug to wear off if none of the effects are permanent? If it wore off much earlier, then he pretended to be wheelchair bound because… it was comfy? The issue IMO is that in both the manga and anime, his recovery is abrupt. From supposedly wheelchair bound to simply “OK, enough of that”. Given all the things that go on in the story, not a big deal, but I do think it could have been handled better.

        daikama
        Reply

      3. @Daikama

        You have to remember that Yoda’s pretty old compared to the other espers, even though he might not move like it.

        It’s reasonable to assume that one tranquilliser has enough dosage to knock out a young, healthy person (otherwise you’d need to hit them multiple times). Yoda was hit by several, which would probably be enough to kill an old person (stopping their heart and whatnot).

        That’s why he was temporarily paralysed (which was pretty lucky in a way). And so his rehab was just to regain the strength in his legs that was lost due to sitting in a wheelchair for so long.

        At least, that’s how I think of it. I haven’t read that part in a long time, so I might be a bit off on the details.

        ReverseTales
        Reply

  6. Thanks, Cherrie! I’m actually pissed with this episode. Because they just skipped another important development in the manga that would have explained how Rinka got to learn how to fight with closed eyes. They immediately went to continue ep 1, and it costs them a lot! If ep 1 didn’t happen and they started from the start, that extra time/ep could have shown Rinka’s development before this last fight. Heck, if there are a lot of eps, they could’ve done better at fleshing out the story too.
    This anime is one of the worst adaptations out there, and it’s such a shame because it’s source material could’ve shone as anime. But the writing (or re-writing) of the story for this show is bad. Just really bad. I’ll watch the next ep just to see it through, but it really won’t be satisfactory knowing what I know.

    witchhuntress
    Reply

  7. As for Rinka’s sudden power-up, that’s because when she was first attacked by them at the school she had no idea how her powers worked. Even though she only met them for that one time I’m guessing she she calculated enough of them on how their powers worked. She seems to be more aware of most of her opponents now so its not just them. So she could actually calculate a counter against them. Plus it helps that they weren’t using her “friends”/classmates as puppets against her, because she doesn’t seem to be the type of person who would beat up her friends just to get to them. She had nothing holding her back at this point. Plus the situation itself escalated from last time so of course she would take this more seriously. But as for how she can detect the attack with her eyes closed, that was a part they left out that was in the manga during her training arc. I wouldn’t say her becoming zero-to-hero was pulled out of their @sses since there’s enough information to how she could fight back, issue is that they left out the part on how she was able to detect them with her eyes closed.

    This adaption is unfortunately leaving stuff out left-to-right. So I really hope they don’t reveal to us that there will be a second season because then it’ll be Tokyo Ghoul Syndrome “If you were going to give us a second season then why they hell did you botch the passing/events so much in this season when you could have actually taken it slower?”.

    SDFGS
    Reply

  11. Sigh….i really wish Tokyo ESP was not being produced by the hands of Xebec (or rather the creative staff working on it). I still had hope when i heard they were in charge that things would still be great but man was i wrong. I dont care if the material is changed or flipped or if the staff had made the story their own and told it in a different way; I just want a WELL-TOLD story period; this is not a well told story. If the staff was going to make the story their own, i would have loved if they took the themes of the tokyo esp story and executed it in an exceptional way. It really is a shame that none of that happened at all

    sonicsenryaku
    Reply

  12. ” How did Rinka suddenly become so kickass without her powers? ” – Cherrie

    That bothered me too. I really, really enjoyed this episode though. I’m just a sucker for superheroes. Granted, Rinka was anything but a superhero til this episode. And ironically it occurred after she lost her super powers. They never really handled Rinka’s powers properly for me anyway. Whenever she was losing a fight, we never saw her phase through walls or anything like that too escape. She just stayed there and got beat up. I never could figure out why this occurred. Any Manga readers know why?

    Rick Anime
    Reply

    1. Up above, Daikama and Co. have explained it pretty well.

      Basically, they discarded the REAL training arc (as opposed to the one already shown, in which Rinka only learns the basics of CPC). Which also included the time it took for Rinka and Yoda to recover from their injuries.

      ReverseTales
      Reply

    1. Haha, I got Dandy vibes from that guy as well.

      As for the rest, as per usual, the show has more holes than Swiss cheese. People who go all ‘but the manga did this different, therefore it sucks’ usually kind of annoy me, but they’re totally in the right here. Even from the viewpoint of someone who’s never read a single page of the manga it’s obvious that this show has been messily chopped to bits. The amount of bad adaptation choices here just baffle me, if I read the comments up above.

      Well, at least the next episode will hopefully have some Rinka asskicking. Seeing the Professor get his smug ass handed to him would be very satisfying. Here’s hoping they don’t manage to find a way to screw that up…

      Dvalinn
      Reply

  15. What i really find id odd, that this Professor has so a wide bunch of Powers, that he can reach just with his Iminagination Skill.

    Teleporting skill as example. How this work? Looks like for the Professor they bend their own rule of 1 skill only pro Char

    Germanguy
    Reply

      1. Well, he teleport away with this Girl, and she asked if this is alright, near the end. He can overwrite Brains, like the futile attempt of the Boy to teleport out. He got everytime back in the room. An illusion, too?

        Germanguy
        Reply

      2. Yes everytime you see the professor teleport it was an illusion. He’s actually somewhere else broadcasting the images to their brains. I wish they would elaborate more on how their powers work. Normally in shows like Dragonball or Hunter X Hunter, you’ll see the heroes/villains take the time to elaborate on their range, limitations, etc to teach the viewer how everything works. It may feel campy or cliche but it really helps clear up confusion

        Rick Anime
        Reply

  16. This was another episode that was supposed to be full of thrill & excitement, yet due to the piss-poor execution it came off as on of the weaker ones. It felt almost cartoonish tbh and also, is it just me or are is the sound severely lacking? I mean,gunshots, explosions, kicks, punches and other powers,etc all seem to lack impact. Maybe it’s a nitpick but along with the lackluster animation, it contributes to making the action scenes less exciting…But IMO, the biggest problem has always been what the anime decided to do with Kyouratou, which as Cherrie said, “he feels so uninvolved in the entire second half of the story. I wish he played a more centric role.” His relationship & interactions with Rinka were something the anime could’ve EASILY gotten right, no matter the lack of time & budged it had and it would’ve been a big + to the show but alas, stupid decisions are stupid.

    All the complaints aside, the fact that I find Rinka so awesome and cheer on her & Kyoutarou makes me still find the show somewhat enjoyable. Oh well, I’ll be free to read the manga after next week anyway where I’ll get all my Rinka & Kyoutarou moments.

    MgMaster
    Reply

  17. I had high hopes for this series after reading the manga.

    Perhaps to high. I dropped it after episode 3 while continuing to read the blog posts here about it and following the the thread on AS.

    Oh well that will teach me to have high hopes again after reading a manga.

    .Mero
    Reply

  18. I feel like the Professor’s powers are confusing. He looks like he can teleport, but it’s just his mind powers, but why does he do that with other people within his own group? Like at the end, is he just projecting what the people around him are saying, even though it seems like they were active in the area they were supposedly not in? Or are they just playing fast and loose with the character? I’d be so confused if I actually cared anymore, which is a shame.

    Impel Down Hippo
    Reply

      1. to save Budget:

        Draw Persons that will talk, with a camera focus outside her Face. So you can use the Voice over, without drawing the Mouth ot the Person.

        it is way better, as a Person not moving the mouth. And no this was not a inner monologue

        okok, i let it be… I try to calm down

        Germanguy
        Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *