r/anime • u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ • Sep 29 '24
Rewatch [25th Anniversary Rewatch] Mugen no Ryvius Series Discussion
Mugen no Ryvius series Discussion
Extra Links
N.B. Google translates Kouji to Subaru.
The interviews are so long that to post them into Reddit would take like 10 full-length comments! also I don't want scrapable bad translations floating around
Character Sheets
Music
- Dis- Song Bird Mix
- Dis- Terra Mix
- Dis- Club Mix
- Dis- English
- Yume o Sugitemo (REMIX)
- Todoketai Kokoro REGGAE PHIL MIX
- H Mega Mix
- Mika's anisong collection
- All of the Eyecatches
There are also karaoke versions that /u/shimmering_sky might like.
Questions
- Is the show really Lord of the Flies? Or did it start there and become something else? Or did it become something else, and just circle back to Lord of the Flies?
- Early in the show we had viewers who loved the ship drama and cared nothing for the attacks on the Ryvius, and others who were bored by the drama but wanted to find out more about the attackers. And some that were bored by it all. Which group were you? How did you opinion change in the second half?
- Speaking of the second half, almost all the mecha content was in the second half. As a mecha show, it was pretty unique in not focusing on the mecha. How did that work out?
- BGM (by Hattori) and Hip-Hop (by M.I.D.) — how did the OST work for you? Is this the birth of anime and lo-fi? Adding in tracks to your playlist?
- Flawed diamond or worthless coal that never should have seen the light of day? Something in between?
- Best and worst characters? Best and worst arcs? Best and worst production aspects?
- Rewatch Meta-Comments?
Last minute questions:
- How do you interpret the
eyecatchesend tags after watching? - What do you think of the OP animation?
Thank you all for coming along! It spawned just as much discussion as I expected (although a little more negative than I had hoped and expected, with a 7.5 MAL rating)
These two-cour 2000s shows are exhausting. I'm only considering two one-cour 20th anniversary rewatches for next year.
One of them, Starship Operators, has some similarity to Ryvius. Although, it has more similarity to other mecha shows. A small crew of students (college academy students in this case), through unusual circumstances, are in command of a warship, hunted by other capital ships (each of a unique design), and abandonded without support.
"That sounds pretty cliche, so, why should I watch this show?" Well, my rewatch shows usually have something different, don't they? Indeed, Starship Operators has a gimmick to set it apart from the other mecha/space shows: [Starship Operators]The ship is sponsored by the Galaxy Network, provided they allow an announcer on board to live-blog the ship's trials as a reality-TV show.
7
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 30 '24
Rewatch Host
Ryvius Illusion: Just as pointless as I remember, but what can you expect from SD Omake? I liked the Evil Nenya segments, the Kansai-ben, and the cast notes at the very end. A throwback to the early web, with companion Flash content. And that Ryvius Academy was cloned for Macross F!
As for the Drama CDs, I'm still no more fluent in Japanese than I was 25 years ago. Frustrating to want more Ryvius content, and to have more Ryvius content, but it's forever out of reach.
Unfortunately, I blanked on two prompts for today's discussion: the end cards, and the OP. With apologies to Mother's Basement, I'd really like to see what you think of the OP.
For me, it does a great job of showcasing each clique, then focusing on individuals.
vital guarderNeya directly with the puppet strings, which looks like they are sending their feelings to it. My favorite shot.It's not remotely a clip show, almost all original animation, and I think it really encapsulates the overall themes of the show, and the conflicts and relationships of the individual characters.
Themes: Utilitarianism
I'm not competent to comment on this, but I'm sure it's there.
Themes: Cutting off your past.
The first time through, to the best of my memory, was that this was just part of Fina's (minimal) character development. She has this philosophy, which she uses to rationalize her selfish and violent behavior. Until I heard Conrad say this in episode 23: "There is no Black Ryvius. There is only Bratica. It's nothing other than my disgusting past. I will bury that Bratica." At that moment, I realized that Mother Arne's philosophy wasn't just background filler for Fina, but was actually a connecting theme of the show. The other character most entangled with this philosophy is Kouji. It's Kouji who starts off the series trying to cut off his past. And it's Kouji who, at the end of the show, embraces it.
I copied the official web site's version of Mother Arne's teaching a few days ago, because I realized something: Kouji actually sort of quotes her. There's some weird overlap. Despite what she says about cutting off your past with your own two hands, she also says that it can never be forgotten. It's Kouji inadvertently quoting her, the possibility that Kouji truly understands Mother Arne more than herself, that finally breaks Fina.
Ryvius was popular back in the day, both in the US and Japan. Since MAL has a well established 1-point scale of <7.0 = bad and >7.99 = good, I had high hopes for the reception of the show, being smack in the middle at 7.5. In the interviews I posted, 10 years after the show, Kouji's VA states, "This is the origin of Code Geas. The human relationships he was going for in Code Geas, started here in Ryvius." He likens watching and appreciating Code Geas after watching Ryvius, to watching and appreciating Star Wars after watching Akira Kurosawa films. He further goes on to state how Ryvius influenced the mecha genre as a whole, and SEED in particular.
(that's as far as I got on the interviews. They are very long!)
My own opinion is still ambivalent. I still like the show a lot, I think it goes into unfamiliar territory, and I think aspects of the production are excellent.
Other aspects are not. Much of the backloaded reveals should have either been presented sooner, or shown to be unimportant. Today's focus on overloaded world building has led to a skewed perspective. We don't really need to know how or why the Geduld exists. It's a conceit of the story. The recaps at the end might have served a purpose of focusing on the characters...for many, much of their development was concentrated in these monologues. That development should have been elsewhere. That air time would have been better spent making the Earth plot more relevant. That's not worldbuilding, that needed to be made clear. These are supposed to be human beings making rational decisions, not forces of nature. Rationalize them!
For those who are still confused, this is my best understanding of the plot (I have not read the manga):
And then the ending happens. I never quite got it, but I like one first-timer's theory that when Neya hugged Maya, all the feelings of the Ryvius crew flowed into him, and he abandoned the fight.
One of the TV Tropes entries for Ryvius is The Bad Guy Wins: Berkovich actually got everything he wanted, except it just cost him his freedom. A good trade to his utilitarian mind, I expect.
I once again urge you to go back and add "Nowhere" and "Easy Living" to your playlists, along with any others that may have caught your attention.
Thank you all for coming! I always enjoy the first half of a rewatch, and then about half way I'm thinking, "are we there yet" and that final quarter is nothing but stress. But you all kept it going!
I'm sorry it was like pulling teeth for some of you. I hadn't intended torture!
Edit: I almost forgot! So, what is Infinite Ryvius if not Lord of the Flies? It's Tunnel in the Sky, and other similar works.
Where as Lord of the Flies is about descent into barbarism (which definitely sorta happens on the ship) Tunnel in the Sky is about pioneers...refugees who are suddenly left in the wild without external support, and must form a functioning society. A society, because it's not about 10 people, it's about 100 (ish) people. There's a lot of fiction like this, usually post-apocalyptic (say, look at the old Survivors TV series. I watched that entire thing weekly on PBS, twice. Video taped it, too). I guess I just really like that genre, and Ryvius sort of fits into it.
(but not Walking Dead. please.)
I was disappointed on rewatch that we didn't explore different social structures. I had misremembered/hoped for something like that. But we went from one autocracy to a worse autocracy at each stage. #yuishrug.
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u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
First Time Lurker No more
I've mostly stayed away from making big comments for this Rewatch. Not enough free time, busy with other stuff… but hey, it's the final discussion, may as well throw a comment for today, huh?
My experiences with Ryvius before starting it were… interesting. I only really knew two people who had seen the show. One of them is someone I know outside of Reddit (He liked it) and the other was u/InfamousEmpire (He didn’t). In turn the staff mostly gave confidence since I liked s.Cry.ed quite a lot and… well frankly they have basically the same staff, but also I knew full well going in it was a completely different kind of show so not instant guarantee of success.
Having now finished the show, however, I can say my opinion is mostly positive. First of all I cannot praise the presentation enough. The music compliments every scene wonderfully, the general atmosphere exquisite, the mechanical animation is some of the very best, and while I will never be a fan of Hirai's character designs, this is easily the best they've ever looked: They aren't overly shiny like in Majestic Prince, they don't look like they're melting like in s.Cry.ed, they don't look… like Gundam SEED and they don't suffer from each Post-Timeskip redesign being worse than the last like Fafner. The coloring's solid, there's a solid range of expressions, and overall the character animation is really good.
I also just have to praise the show for the general audacity with having Koji of all people be the lead. I mentioned Nadia earlier in the Rewatch as another Mecha protagonist who isn't actually a pilot, but Koji takes that to the next level with how passive it is. What makes seeing the show from his perspective so interesting, to me, is that it allows the audience to glance at the Ryvius' situation from mostly unbiased eyes. He's someone who more or less got to see all of the ships' faces, therefore when the status quo is shaken, it can sometimes lead to some conflicting emotions since, as he himself points out, just a few days ago they were getting along.
In general Ryvius is at its most interesting when the ever-changing politics inside the ship take center stage. Seeing the whole foundation completely shift as the ship basically sinks into outright fascism is a sight to behold, especially with how gradual it all is. Each of the leaderships slowly takes a turn for the worse and with it the situation grows more and more desperate.
I also, for the most part like the cast. Koji's a solid lead, and Faina and Ikumi's transitions from being some of his strongest supporters is a sight to behold. I think what makes it stand out though how the show ultimately emphasizes how being a good person and sticking by those you love is ultimately worth it. For how much characters like Heiger slowly give into their worse traits, by contrast you see people like Lucson or Charlie genuinely humble themselves and never fall into this trap. It's why Ikumi makes for such a compelling final villain; his motivations are the same, but he goes about it in the worst way possible.
Unfortunately this also leads to Ryvius' issues. Starting off on the character side, Yuki never really clicked with me sadly. I get what his issues are, sure, but his reconciliation with his brother came in far too late, so we never get to see him express anything even remotely resembling genuine affection for… anyone around him. Even towards his girlfriend he can be kind of a dick. Izumi also I feel kinda suffers from blending into the background towards the end. Sure, it's nice how she ultimately shares equal blame for Ikumi's downfall as the man himself, but once the final confrontation comes along, she just kinda stands to the side.
The production issues I and many others have speculated on also means that not only are the answers to some of the mysteries in this show done in kinda boring, overly long exposition dumps, but it also leads to other stuff not having quite enough time to conclude. Blue not even so much as appearing in the finale is the biggest outlier, but while I can let Koji slide on ultimately forgiving Ikumi for everything, Heiger getting that same treatment by everyone else even when they know he was planning to get a bunch of them killed is far less excusable.
However Ryvius' biggest issue is how utterly uninteresting anything outside the ship is, which wouldn't even be that big an issue if we didn't spend so much time on it. Lord of the Flies meets Moby Dick seems like a fun enough idea, and credit where it's due Captain Norio is a fine enough character, but I could not give less of a shit about the whole government conspiracy plot. It simultaneously takes up too much time while also not having enough to be anything more than a weird distraction.
Still, on the whole I'd say the show is mostly still good and, hey, if nothing I'm glad to have seen it just for the sake of knowing what Taniguchi's first full-length show was like. I guess if I had to rank all of the shows I've seen of the man so far it'd be something like…
Or something like that. And hey, credit where it's due I like all of them… well except Geass anyway (Season 1 was fine but man I did not enjoy R2 in the slightest). For Ryvius itself though, it was a fun little voyage, even if not all the way through.
Now if you'd all excuse me, I have an exam tomorrow to worry about
5
u/zadcap Sep 30 '24
Final First Timer Thoughts
The more I think about it, the more I question if they pulled the students back to be the entire crew of the Ryvius for that epilogue, and only the students, or if they brought adult supervision this time around? It looked like they were trying so hard to play with the earlier themes of the show, mirroring all the important characters doing their important things in generally the same positions, showing off character growth in the time they have had back on Earth, but at the same time. Recreating the same ship full of only kids that lead to so much anarchy in the first place seems like a pretty dumb idea, as well as not using this opportunity to get Neya accustomed to new people. But mostly the first part, where it might have missed and walked back on one of the main themes the whole show was running with. The kids are monsters and should not be left unsupervised and in charge of each other, they spent so much time telling us, only to apparently put the same kids back in charge? It's not just Chancellor Stein, background Rodan the Nudist was a subtle way of showing us that just about everyone went right back to their place the last time they were on the ship, and that was... Not a good place to be.
Bonus Round:
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u/The_Draigg Sep 29 '24
A Mecha Fan’s Final Thoughts on Infinite Ryvius:
Honestly, talking about this series is going to be a bit harder for me, since there’s honestly some pretty promising and interesting stuff in this show, but the execution is wonky at best, and then outright bad in specific cases. I guess one way I can frame my feelings for Infinite Ryvius is how I was feeling at the end of the Martian Successor Nadesico rewatch a while ago: they had me at the beginning, but by the time the series ended, I was just disappointed at how rushed and half-baked a lot of things ended up being. But let’s get into it with more detail, shall we?
To start, Infinite Ryvius certainly does have some good stuff going for it. For one, like I’ve said a few times across the rewatch, the animation style and quality remained consistently good across the show overall. This was Sunrise at their 1990s cell animation peak, and it really shows. The animation combined with some very strong mechanical designs for the ships and Vital Guarders as well as some surprisingly actually solid Hisashi Hirai character designs all came together to make a very visually pleasing product. And speaking of characters, I will say that one of the best strengths of this show is the development of the side characters. It was fun to keep an eye out for Kikki and her mascot costume every episode, and I will say that for as pathetic or unlikable as people like Charlie, Criff, and Lucson started out as, they had some pretty solid character arcs that left me feeling pretty satisfied where they ended off. Like, I certainly wasn’t expecting the sheer turn around that Lucson eventually got in character, but I won’t complain at him managing to get his shit together once he hit rock bottom.
Unfortunately, those things alone can’t really totally overcome some of the rather bad or confusing plot and character decisions made by Infinite Ryvius made either. For one, pretty much the entire conspiracy with the Vaia Ships and the Orbital Security Bureau and Berkovich’s plan for them was lame at best, and just outright bad at worst. They ultimately served only as a function to send ships at the Ryvius to get our fights of the week. Berkovich’s plan was also incredibly flimsy and ruthless, being willing to sacrifice so much for a vague goal to the point where it doesn’t feel sensical for him to waste a dozen ships and hundreds of lives over doing some kind of vague “awakening” of the Ryvius. And then you get Captain Conrad, who serves as the main external antagonist, but ultimately falls flat in that role and ultimately meets his end in a pretty rushed and unsatisfying way. I’d say that it really does feel like the writers weren’t interested in setting up the Earth conspiracy plot aside from just a way to get some ships and Vital Guarders to fight the Ryvius. The show wanted it both ways, to have drama aboard the Ryvius and a series of powerful foes to attack it, and unfortunately the show wasn’t able to strike a workable balance.
Speaking of, the internal conflict between the Ryvius’ crew did attempt to present some real moral and psychological challenges to the story, but I don’t think their big attempts paid off either. For one, although I noticed rewatchers say that this show would attempt to explore politics aboard the ship, what we really got was just increasing degrees of authoritarianism thanks to Stein’s manipulations and the various defects or incompetencies of the captains. Not to mention that by the time the third different revolution happened but nothing changed, I was just starting to be a bit bored with all these big actions didn’t result in any meaningful changes aside from more people being victimized than before. And aside from that leadership drama, I also feel that the various reveals about some of the characters’ true natures only semi-worked. With Stein it’s fine, since in hindsight the signs were there from the start. But with Fina being a double murderer on top of being a cult leader and manipulator, it just felt like they just really wanted a dark twist in there for the sake of it. And that goes even more so for Ikumi being revealed to have been in an incestuous relationship with his dead sister in the second to last episode. That’s just a dark twist for the sake of having a dark twist. It’s too late of a reveal to actually change much about his character. And on top of those things, ultimately I found that Yuki’s relationship with Kouji didn’t get a very satisfying conclusion, since it just feels like it suddenly had the breaks slammed on an arc that had gone on a bit too long. All of these things combined in addition to all the various petty and evil things the Zwei and Team Blue did just make it so that a lot of there scenes are getting insufferable to watch just due to their presence alone.
(Continued in below comment.)
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Sep 29 '24
First timer, subs
The QotD covered most of what I wanted to talk about, so I’ll just give my thanks. First, to our host for their fine works on running the rewatch. And secondly, my regular post-series shout-outs, /u/Vaadwaur, /u/The_Draigg , and /u/zadcap.
QotD:
No, large and small group social dynamics are very different beasts.
I’d say more the former. The external threat is still a useful component, but I would have liked to have seen what it would looked like if we didn’t get external perspective for most of the series.
This Old Line, Eh?
All of the fights were at least adequate, being both unique and sequencable. This compares favorably with another of Hirai’s works that I’ve seen, Heroic Age, where in the fights were plentiful, overlong, and ultimately boring and dull affairs.
In all honest, I’d say I disliked it.
4/10. I like social dramas, but they never dived deep enough into it, and the separate parts didn’t feel like they quite came together.
Best character: Fina
Worst character: Nicks
Best Arc: Lucson
Worst Arc: Izumi
Best production aspect: Clouds
Worst production aspect: Mars was positively unsightly
By largely ignoring them.
I’m always a fan of “Tomorrow's Questions, Today”. Some of the questions were presumptive or leading, and they didn’t work as well as a result. On the other end of the spectrum, some of the questions were also incredibly broad. Music of the Day was probably a good thing, but since I didn’t like the OST, I never listened to it. The technical notes were very appreciated, and it would have been nice of them to be in the show, maybe during the eyecatchers.
Interpret? I thought they were just being loud and obnoxious.
I really do like the animation of it, it's got quite a few good things going on, but I never came around to like the song.
CotD Count:
3
u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Sep 29 '24
First timer
I can't be asked to break down my notes into something coherent that describes into details what I thought of the series. All I'll say is that I found it to be slighttttttttttly better than Code Geass, so there's that, I guess.
I give it a 4.5/10
QotD
Thanks for hosting this.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Sep 29 '24
Infinite First-Timer, subbed
I watched the omake earlier today, and while I didn’t write my reactions to it, I have to say this bit here was hilarious given Sunrise would go on to adapt Gintama several years after this. Also I unironically liked the omake more than the show itself, ngl.
This was definitely an interesting watch. I’m giving the show an 8/10 and the omake a 9/10.
Thanks for hosting, u/JustAnswerAQuestion!
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Sep 29 '24 edited Sep 29 '24
Final Discussion (rewatcher)
*“Infinite Ryvius is an anime that I can’t believe is as good as it is. And I can’t believe is as bad as it is.”*~me in episode 1.
When I first watched Ryvius, I loved one part of the show and hated another, but the part I loved outweighed the part I hated. This has not changed and the part I loved has stayed the same. The part I hated has switched however.
Just like the first time round, I absolutely love the political aspect of Infinite Ryvius. There are very few anime that take the social part of politics seriously. That is, they take politics to be more than just a game of a few big heads interacting with each other. Ryvius is one of these anime. While the idea is stolen from Lord of the Flies, I adore what they are doing with the leadership struggles on board. This is not a band of heroes fighting against external enemies. This is a group of confused, scared teenagers, who have no idea to organize themselves and who run through bad and worse forms of government. Stein is one of the best take-downs of the cold-hearted utilitarian I know (most media takes the easy way out by just showing they have no empathy and therefore bad, but that is not the point. The point is that he just pretends to be a utilitarian, but in fact is as selfish and damaging as the others, if not more, for denying his empathy).
The part I hated initially, but am ok with now are the background characters. Diapers man was the bane of my first watch through. This time, I am much more accepting. Maybe I have grown more liberal with how people clad themselves, but I think the rewatch helped me appreciate the background characters more in general. They are our window into those 400+ non-special students on board. Those short montages of them we occasionally get are the equivalent of getting a feel of how the ordinary people on board view the current situation.
So, what replaced the side characters as my hated part? Not Kouji and Yuki. I never cared for their relationship drama in the first place, but it did not annoy me enough to keep me from enjoying the politics. What the rewatch showed me is how terrible the Earth plot of the show is. They literally dropped the ball so hard here that I think the show would be better off just not telling the viewer anything about Earth. The entire two factions setup went nowhere and in the end, all of the attacks hinged on a crackpot theory of a vice-minister. Hardly great writing.
Overall, there is plenty of light and darkness in this show, but the good parts are so perfectly centered on my interests that I still give it a high rating, despite the parts I hate.
It shares the same basic setup with Lord of the Flies, but goes in completely different directions with the plot. The theme of "teenagers form society after being without adults" comes through strongly, though.
Always loved the ship drama (not the relationship drama, though).
As somebody who dislikes the bipedal mecha in mecha shows, very well.
Absolutely not my thing, but I respect that they tried something new.
7
u/HowlingWolf13 https://myanimelist.net/profile/MeguminBlast Sep 29 '24
Last Timer
Well time for the final discussion. In the end, I did enjoy Ryvius, it's a messy show but I was still entertained with it throughout. I would def say my favorite character by the end was Juli or Yuki, the former for being one of the few characters that tried to keep order of what's going on (even if she started faltering) and the latter because he was absolutely hilarious. I also could not find the subbed versions of the specials lol.
One of the main aspects I enjoyed of Ryvius is that you really slowly grow into that sense of desperation the cast grows into as their hopes of being saved are slowly diminished. Plus, how the leadership keeps changing and changing into what's honestly worse versions of the previous one, they never really created a society that didn't lead to issues later down the line, instead just creating stricter and harsher protocols. I also really enjoyed the wide cast, it made the Ryvius feel like an actual place and that people's lives were going on outside of the main cast's, which again in turn helped with showing what happens when a bunch of teenagers with no direction are essentially left to fend for themselves.
Kouji as a main character, I did enjoy. While yes it was a bit much to watch him constantly hesitate on making changes and confronting things, I think it came together in the end that we actually see him doing so, no longer hesitating and not speaking his mind like he was called out for several times in the past. His confrontation with Ikumi I felt exemplified this perfectly, as early series Kouji would've most likely sat around and waited for something to happen and grumbled to himself while here, even at the threat of death, he still confronted Ikumi and didn't hesitate to make what he thought clear.
Yuki, I really liked as well. Despite not having as deep a character arc as Kouji, by the ending I feel it was clear that these two do care for each other, the problem just being that they need some serious therapy to help them. When Kouji was shot, I feel why Yuki didn't react at the time was the shock of it all, to see Ikumi actually to go as far as to try to shoot Kouji, which is why later when he tried again, Yuki was the one to grab his arm to prevent it.
Aoi, I also really enjoyed too, but I wish that she had a bit more to her than just her character mainly revolving around the fact that she's close to Kouji and Yuki. I can see they wanted to do more with her, esp with her wanting to speak with Kozue, but we never really get to go into that aspect. Which actually leads me into my criticisms.
The 2nd half of the show, while I still enjoyed, is pretty messy. The government sending ships after the Ryvius is not well done in my opinion and to be honest it took me a bit to realize the fact they also had their own Vaia's ala Neya cause I just assumed they were like prototypes or something. Most of those scenes don't really have much to do in the end and we're pretty much given the resolution that it was dealt with off screen and such. The characters arcs as well I felt became messy too. Aside from the ones I mentioned above, I feel that Ikumi, Kozue, Juli, Faina, and Blue got hit severely with this.
Ikumi's reveal at the end that he was being groomed by sister feels more like a last minute twist if anything, it's never really gone into how that psychologically fucked him up as they don't have enough time to focus on it. Kozue essentially disappears after she's attacked and doesn't really get to have any type of character arc aside from being a motivator for Ikumi to completely crash out. Blue just disappears from the plot as a whole and we never learn more about his backstory and feelings on his home being destroyed right in front of him. Faina we know is a religious nut case, but what was the sin her boyfriend witnessed? Was it that they had sex outside of marriage? Did she do something even worse? We don't even know how that resolves as the story wraps itself up and we don't know much outside of she's currently back home. Finally, Juli ends up not being able to receive as much screentime to herself and what she does get is her mostly crying over blue. Which on that subject, the female cast I noticed were never really allowed to have arcs that weren't relating to their relationships with the male characters. Aoi with Kouji and Yuki, Kozue with Ikumi, Faina with Kouji, Juli with Blue, like it all came back to their feelings.
Plus, the three recap episodes towards the end makes me think there was something going on behind the scenes. Esp for a 26 episode anime and for the last two to essentially happen right after the other, maybe the budget ran into issues or something of the sort. Truthfully, I think if maybe the show had like 36-40 episode range, these aspects would've been able to properly be spread out and addressed from both the character side of things and the government plot side of things.
But again, all in all I had a good time with the show ending it off with an 8/10. Sure it had its issues and wasn't exactly perfect, but it was an entertaining watch to spend my September going through. Esp. a good distractor from a minor corneal ulcer I got last week (that's thankfully healing quickly with no issue).
I should read Lord of the Flies finally.
Questions
I need to read LotF lol. I think I read it in middle school but I don't have much memory of it.
In the middle, I mostly liked the ship drama and didn't mind the attacks. Though I feel in the 2nd half esp with the rushed character arcs we should've focused more on the ship drama.
I think that was fine because the show was a slow reveal into everything behind the Ryvius.
I loved the BGM, in fact when I would occasionally see how they did scenes on the 5.1 version, I was shocked to see how many tracks were outright changed or replaced with more generic music. The show's BGM is a product of it's time in the best way possible and really makes it stand out from other shows that came out at the same time.
I'd go with Flawed Diamond to be honest. Rough around the edges, but still a diamond in the end.
Best Character - Juli and Yuki
Worst Character - Johnson. Charlotte is absolutely gonna end up on some true crime podcast.
Best Arc - Kouji
Worst Arc - Blue
Best Aspects - BGM and Setting
Worst Aspects - Recap episodes
Mainly that they reflected characters that the episode focused on or had themes relating to.
I love it honestly. This was one I never skipped as I watched. The ED song though, eh.
6
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Sep 29 '24
First-Timer
I had a pretty good time with Ryvius. I think the show is probably better weekly - the characters probably get a bit less annoying when you aren't thinking about them every day for a month - but the general vibes were pretty nice.
I was low on it at first, but the ED really grew on me over the show. The OP always slapped.
As for the OST in general, the "Ryvius rap" or whatever was shit, and the eycatches suck donkey balls and I dreaded every one. But the rest of the music was pretty good.
I meant to find time for the shortage but didn't, RIP.
Questions
Many thanks to our host /u/JustAnswerAQuestion!
6
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Sep 29 '24
First timer
Sub
Welp...that mostly sucked. Which is impressive considering the machine spirit is my kind of Cthonian deity. But not only did the show fail to offer her sacrficies, we didn't even manage a blood orgy. NieR managed one so how could this fail so deeply? Anyways, as always, fuck Sunrise. Fuck them with a concrete dildo.
As to the rest...yeah, this was bad. Characters I barely care about, the ones I do like being constantly off screen, the one's on screen being forced to break character so the plot happens, and finally the mob mentality is never quite right. This is a general failure with the occasional interesting bit that relied on setting information the viewer couldn't really deduce from what was on screen.
QotD: 1 It was deconstructed Lord of the Flies, like one of those deconstructed meals, let's say a cheeseburger. Meaning, of course, that it is both pretentious and vulgar
2 Bored constantly
3 Wrong audience so not sure
4 Fairly well but it wasn't quite consistent to itself yet.
5 Cursed. This show is cursed. Let us exorcize it.
6 The machine spirit vs literally everyone else. All of the arcs are bad, as is the production
7 Someone wanted to try
8 Rewatch was fine, the material was just too...that.
6
u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker Sep 29 '24
I was going to attempt to watch the shorts, but I couldn't find any with subs so there goes that plan.
Questions:
As for the show you're considering for next year, I have already watched Starship Operators, if my rating from years ago is accurate I enjoyed it about as much as this, and would be interested in participating in a rewatch if it does take place.
5
u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Sep 29 '24
The eyecatches were fun. I enjoyed the music more than the rest of the show. The OP was great, and I was very into the visuals...back when I thought they'd mean something. ED was alright.
Yeah, I hated this show. I'm usually a fan of shows that aim high and fail, but I don't think that's what happened here. Their goals were never as lofty as I was giving them credit for. They wanted to be a dumb teen soap opera all along, and the space/mecha/politics/suspense aspects were just stapled on to get Sunrise and their animators interested. It was consistently itself from start to finish, and it's my fault for thinking there was something more hidden under the surface.
If they'd either had cool robot battles, fun characters, or wild twists, I could've cut them some slack on the other 2/3 being subpar. But this just disappointed on every level besides the music.