Concrete Revolutio

Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

This Kamen Rider Kiva-like past and present switching is going to get old fast if they keep it up. Anyway, second episode is slightly better than the first, but still not sure about this show. If the third episode is still like this then I might have to drop it.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 2:

This was better than the first episode, but that's only because it would have been very difficult to be much worse.

I really hate how this series jumps between timelines because there's no reason for it at all. This isn't a mystery series and there was no thematic reason for events to be shown out of order. The episode would have had exactly the same impact if events had been shown chronologically. This series is just using the gimmick as a stylistic thing, but the execution is just plain annoying. The first episode sucked, but at least it had the excuse of showing events out of order because it wanted to end on the twist that Pink haired guy had left the organization and leave the question of why he left for later episodes. The second episode doing it was just annoying.

The ghost is a pretty fuckin' annoying character and this episode wastes so much time with exposition that his interactions with bug girl were limited to two brief scenes, which makes the ending feel unearned. The only reason to even believe that these two were friends was because in their second scene together she showed up asking to be his friend.

Yeah, she can't forgive the guy that committed genocide against her entire race because they said they were friends that one time. It's not like the guy committed an unforgivable act or anything by unleashing that virus. Even if he didn't understand what he was doing, she's still well within her rights to hate him and want to see him dead. It's hard to even say that he didn't understand what he was doing though because he knew it was a virus, the only reason he felt bad about it was because it hurt someone he had met twice. Although, how she planned on killing a ghost is mystery to me.

I was pretty amused by her reason for leaving as well. No, she could forgive him for the whole genocide thing, but she couldn't hang out with him because he was forever a child. It's also got nothing to do with her being a giant bug person and coming from a completely different time and world. It's just because she'd be embarrassed hanging around a small child.

The episode itself is pretty generic stuff, completely with some bullshit moral at the end delivered in a confusing monologue by the pink haired guy.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 2
When Nightcrawler does it, it's endearing. When this series does it, it's irritating as all get-out.
At least it didn't happen too often this time.

And another translation oddity. I've noticed that many texts translate お化け / obake as "ghost" since there's no real English equivalent, but it's still somewhat misleading. Obake are usually shape-shifting beings, as evidenced by Blondie's powers and how everyone keeps referring to him as one. Yuurei / 幽霊 are more analogous to ghosts since they're usually spirits of the deceased. I guess rendering 妖怪 / Youkai as "monster/s" is a little better, but still... :@_@:

That's some strong bug spray. Might need some of that at my place. :laugh:

"I had meant to attack you all too. Even if your goal was just, your means was not of a superhuman of justice." ... what the heck did I just read. Even in Japanese, that's one messy sentence. :seriously:

Wow. Her reason for not being friends with Fuurota was not because he was instrumental to the destruction of her race, but because she's freaked out by him looking like a kid? She's like, "Yeah, you may have wiped out everyone I ever knew and loved, but we can't be friends. I'm all grown up and you're not and that's just weird, so bye"? Okay. Whatever.

And the moral of the story is... stay ignorant! Don't grow up! Learning that the world isn't all smiles and black-and-white thinking is too much hassle for the people around you to deal with. :megusta:
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

3:

This show is still getting better fortunately, albeit in increments but it's something. The whole "jumping timelines" I feel isn't as bad a gimmick once you realize the whole point of it is just contrast how things are with how they were. That and it gives closure to the storyline of the episode whilst hinting at the bigger picture. Still pretty jumbled and can catch you off guard though.

July Year 41- Kikko joins the bureau
AugustYear 41 - Fuurouta joins the bureau
February Year 42- Detective Shiba meets Meiko

Big gap. Shit goes down presumably during these years

April Year 46 - Kikko confronts as he defects from the superhuman bureau
February Year 47 - Jirou merges the two android and attacks the Detective Raito
August Year 48 - Fuurouta encounters Campe and Jirou again

There does seem to be a cohesive whole in the works here at least. It's like the scripwriters just want us to see the past and future of these characters but leave the present as a big ? on purpose. This of course means that the characters are only really interesting for the questions the presentation raises about them. The only reason to be interested in Jiro so far is to see what happened during the big gap that made him into the guy we see in the future timeline. Take that mystery box away and he's boring as hell.

One thing that I can't help but wonder is what would have happened if the female android met with her original target. Would they blow up as we were initially told? Or would they become Perfect Cell?
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

I enjoyed episode three more than the first two. Probably because of the Kikaider-like androids.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 3
Yo, where do I sign up to become Ultraman? :love:
At least the jumping around wasn't too bad this time... I kind of liked this episode. It had a bit more depth than the last one, although the "love" thing was a little contrived (but at least somewhat explainable in a quasi-scientific manner).

Although I must admit, the fight animation is really lacking. What in the heck. :@_@:
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

4:

This was the 1st episode to not slap on a flash-forward to post Superhuman bureau Jiro's exploits, but was still hopping around too much for my liking. Thankfully the time-stamps make it easier to follow if you remember what's been happening when. At this point it's pretty safe to assume that it was Jiro who was the "beast" that attacked Tokyo on year 29. I mean, he didn't have those locks on him to stop his "inner demon" from bursting out back then.

The rest of this episode? *shrugs* One scene that struck me as weird was when Emi told Jirou not to do anything to that huge dinosaur that was spitting flames all over the place? Why? Does she have some way of reasoning with said giant dinosaur that was spitting flames all over the place? Oh and the conference between those dudes discussing the use of beasts for military purposes made me chuckle.
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

For the last two episodes this has settled into pretty unremarkable story of the week territory. After the first couple of weeks I was pretty sure this was going to be a terrible trainwreck, but the last couple of episodes have evened out a bit and now we get something pretty dull. The world could be an interesting one with more thought put into it, but I feel more like it's just stuffed in a bunch of unrelated stuff without any thought for cohesion.

I could get past the overstuffed random world if the characters were more interesting, but Jiro is a boring protagonist and the rest of the team don't really get enough screen time to leave an impression.

The episodic stories aren't that great either. The giant monsters this week was probably the most interesting of episodes so far, since it hints at a conspiracy and more overarching plot, while also having a more personal connection to Jiro. However, a stale military conspiracy isn't exactly great fodder. It can still be good if done right, but this series doesn't have the dept or nuance to pull it off. I don't have any faith it can add anything new to make it worth my time.

I'm glad it's settled down with the time skipping though because I'm not interested at all in what it's trying to hide about Jiro and his reasons for leaving, especially after this episode makes it pretty clear he can turn into a kaiju.

I find the artstyle and color palette for this to be pretty obnoxious. I know they're going for a certain style, but to me it is very ugly and unappealing to look at. I think No Game No life pulled off this kind of color scheme with much more style.

Overall though my feelings for the series is one big uninterested meh. I'm glad it has improved from the initial trainwreck though.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 4
Emi's original design was cute, but rather plain. The designs on some of the newer minor characters, however... I really liked the rocket boy. :love:

"That means "big eyes", doesn't it?" Well, it would if you spelled it right! :flip:

I really want to learn more about the blue-eyed technician and what his story is. Jiro's about as exciting as watching paint dry, even with his super-duper power.

That maid lady / housewife / Yamato Nadeshiko must have pheromone powers, everyone be trippin' over themselves. :seriously:

Okay, I've got to admit, the out-of-body conference was pretty cool. Shame the content was boring as heck. Military conspiracies? How original.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 5

I'm not terribly interested in this idiotic future PETA, but it's not like this arc was completely pointless. Yes the story at the center of it was a bit stupid (like how Gagon's owner got himself killed for no reason), but it did at least give the superhuman bureau a chance to show how they're not as heroic as they make themselves out to be. I mean for fuck's sake, even the dudes I thought weren't corrupt we're like "oh let's just blow up this tanker train to kill the symbol of hope for the protesters". This was basically an underhanded P.R war.

At this point there's not really much to root for in this show. Still not interested in any of the characters, so making them a bit jerkier doesn't really help much. Hell I can't remember any of their names besides Kikko Jiro and Emi. Some cool ideas I guess, but not enough humanity has been injected into the characters on both sides. For what it's worth the last few minutes were pretty damn beautiful.
So far the show has made it's way into "decent" territory. I can't say I'm confident it'll go beyond that , but there are character arcs, enough twists on the superhuman formula to give it some sense of identity.
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 5
Alright, let's wrap up this two-parter that seemed pretty well resolved last episode!
Wow Hiroyuki, way to be a little shit.

Well, I guess that's one way to break up a student rally...

I kind of like the idea of paralleling current Japanese sentiments regarding America's use of Okinawa, but that's about it. When they were alluding to it (and attempting a little world building) in the beginning of the episode, it felt more like they were senselessly throwing around place names.

So the Tiger and Bunny Reject has future vision as well as time-stopping abilities? Sweet! I want to know more, though.

Mmm, I love the smell of a good PR battle in the morning. Nothing like making a fake adversary to stir the masses!

I really don't think I've ever seen such a lack of cohesion in an anime series in my life. It's like the writers threw every single last one of their thematic ideas in without really bothering to check if they clashed or contradicted. The "questioning who the real beasts are" tosh only tends to sit well in Jiro's case (and even then it's still weird), the "government's making fake enemies" thing did not resolve cleanly (or, at least the reaction to the MegaGon VS Jiro battle from the peanut gallery made it seem that way)... and what of the timeline-jumping "Jiro leaves because stuff and turns into a jerkwad"?

I figure this is all paving way for an overarching theme about the horrors of systematic corruption, but at this stage I really couldn't care less if the entire cast were profiting unfairly off the suffering of others. They're giving a lot of focus on the unlikable Jiro (because he's part-beast and it makes for easy navel-gazing about ~"the definition of humanity"~), when they really should be making the world he inhabits make a little more sense and giving the characters around him a bit more leg-room in the personality and backstory department.

Although, apparently it's full of historical and pop-cultural references (especially if you substitute CS's dates for dates in the Showa period), so that's a plus. :laugh:
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 6:

Well the theme of seemingly righteous acts being undermined by suspicious ulterior motives once again rears its head here in the form superhuman suppressant candies. There a few things I found rather strange about this ep. One being how Don was easily willing to sell his principles just to stay afloat, yet decides to go against his bosses when they offer him a huge deal to shut the mouths of him and his bandmates. Maybe the burden of guilt from achieving success like that would be too much? I guess that's probably it. Also they didn't too disturbed when one of their bandmates sacrificed his life to help them. Not really liking how all the "corrupt" people in this series are being portrayed as shallow boogeymen though. The only reason Don figured out the truth is because he happened to listen in on his bosses explaining their evil plot to each other (says a lot about the exposition issues this show has too on occasion).

Jiro is also now confirmed to be compiling his own anti-superhuman bureau gang now. We'll see where that goes later I guess. Nice to see he isn't a complete edgelord now that he's defected against his former gang. Just goes to show that it really is more of an ideological issue he has with the bureau then a personal one. I've had more than enough Sasuke Uchiha in my life.

Still not sure what to make of this anime. I sure as hell can't say I like it, but it always holds my attention nonetheless.
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Episode 7:

Wow, an episode with hardly any time leaps for once. Pretty blunt in regards to it's theme on the blurred definition of good and evil. I guess that makes sense with a central character as simplistic as Astro Gir- er.....Earth-chan who can only see justice and injustices as simple and childisn binaries, since she says lying is always bad without trying to understand why people would do it, or how it might be better to lie sometimes. It's not just Earth-chan looking for easy answers, there are also her sheepish followers to drive home the idea of charisma and authority defining what's right and wrong. An idea like that is pretty important in a show about two flawed sides trying to drum up support for themselves whilst brushing all their dirty secrets under the rug. So does that mean Jiro needs what Earth-chan means as a symbol more then her worth as a robot? I imagine so.

Also some pretty weird "foreshadowing this week regarding who Kikko is. Should've been more deftly handled then just having two characters essentially spill the beans in the opening scene on something they both likely already knew, but if it means there's more to Kikko then just being a naive bubbly chick in love with Jiro then it might be worth it.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

8:

>Starts by introducing another character central to this week's episode
>Moral ambiguity ensues
>Blunt explanation of themes of the episode
>Ends on a cliffhanger that raises more questions to be ignored next week
Pretty standard Concrete Revolutio this week. A bit predictable with the twists too, but that probably says more about my perceptiveness as a viewer than anything else. Still some interesting stuff. Still some interesting stuff to chew on nonetheless. Even with all the information regarding Rainbow Knight this week, we still don't know what 's really going on under that helmet. What did he need those kids for? What did he need ransom money for? Sure he may have claimed that taking them was for their safety as superhumans, but Daitetsu seemed to get by just fine without him. Maybe it was for the same cause Jiro's striving for? Yeah that's probably it.
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

9:

This was the 1st episode to even try to go into detail regarding Jiro's disillusionment with the Superhuman Bureau. I don't feel like verifying details, but I imagine it was set somewhere between Jiro leaving the Bureau, and before he began to move forward with his exploits as a red-scarved anti-hero. He feels he needs to stand for what he believed the Bureau was for, and that means the unconditional protection of "superhumans". I didn't really get much of anything else out of this episode, especially considering that we'll probably never see the immortal Morino clan again. I will say one more thing about this episode in particular though, I'm guessing by how that young immortal boy was introduced, that they were around since, or before the beginning of life on earth as we know it, and thus has a better understanding of how it all started. Idk, when we're dealing with beings like these, nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

If there's anything I want to see from the show now is to make the moral conflict a bit less one-sided. I get that the Bureau is far from perfect but I want a bit more insight into, and a reason to care more about those who still stick with it anyway. With a grey conflict I'd like both sides to actually have pros and cons.

Also RIP Optimus Prime. This looks like the 1st death he's had that'll actually stick.
 
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Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

10:

That was a pretty bizarre take on time-travel. Not sure if you can really make an argument for this not making sense as no one can really know how time-travel would work until one of us actually does it. With time travel stories, all you really need is some consistent logic (even if said logic is made up) with how everything works and I think it worked here. Ryouma was right in how large paradoxes will be overlooked even if altered, so the idea to turn his very existence into a paradox (by having him make an invaluable contribution to the field of time travel) to prevent him from vanishing is pretty clever. The whole metaphor comparing history not to some writing on paper that can be erased and rewritten, but with stacks of paper that can only have somewhat different layers added on is pretty apt.

So it turns our one of the characters with the least focus has the most story behind him. It's something one could probably make an interesting film out of, about a dude hunting down his mistake of a former self, who in turn is hunting down others. Thematically speaking I didn't see much to chew on here but these were still some pretty interesting and fresh musings on a tired sci-fi concept.

Also, based off of that ending, are we to believe that it's humanity (not the superhumans) that go extinct? Interested in seeing how that ties into Jiro's rebellion.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

11:
Another episode dealing with the clash of "justices", this time with some "what is human?" on the side. In the preview section, Claude said it best with how the pursuit of justice sometimes means interfering with someone else's idea of the term. Claude himself seems a little bratty and uncomprimising with his idea of justice to tell the truth since he doesn't seem to consider that superhumans like the ones on the submarines may have known what they were doing, the dangers of it, and yet still made the choice to go ahead with it. He thinks that superhumans should be able to make decisions over their own destiny, yet wants to deny that if it means supporting the people he hates, which is a contradiction of course. He also has this bizarre definition of what a superhuman is by saying that in order to qualify, one has to be virtuous and think of others before himself. It's a real chuuni way of thinking about superhumans since he expects them all to have the character of comic book heroes.

Regarding his identity, I'm 99% sure that brown haired kid in that photo with Doc and Jiro is him. That does raise the question of how bpth he and Kikko are well acquainted though, since that photo looks as if it was taken before she joined the bureau.
 
Re: Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

12:
Only posting this for completion's sake since I fell behind a bit here. More thoughts later
 
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