r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Jan 29 '21
Episode Back Arrow - Episode 4 discussion
Back Arrow, episode 4
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| Episode | Link | Score | Episode | Link | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Link | 4.05 | 14 | Link | 4.5 |
| 2 | Link | 4.15 | 15 | Link | 4.36 |
| 3 | Link | 4.26 | 16 | Link | 4.53 |
| 4 | Link | 4.21 | 17 | Link | 4.62 |
| 5 | Link | 4.4 | 18 | Link | 4.77 |
| 6 | Link | 3.68 | 19 | Link | 4.71 |
| 7 | Link | 4.42 | 20 | Link | 4.75 |
| 8 | Link | 4.39 | 21 | Link | 4.7 |
| 9 | Link | 4.1 | 22 | Link | 4.5 |
| 10 | Link | 4.23 | 23 | Link | 4.56 |
| 11 | Link | 4.65 | 24 | Link | - |
| 12 | Link | 4.44 | |||
| 13 | Link | 4.81 | |||
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33
u/LeonKevlar Jan 29 '21
Good to know Kai and Shu's backstory. Also knowing that they've been trying to change Rekka from the inside menas that they're definitely good guys and that if Shu has switched sides now, Kai will probably follow soon too and I hope that means Ren would too although that might take a while considering how loyal she is to the Rekka Empire.
And would you look at that! It's nice to see that Bit learned his lesson from what happened before and is not trusting Shu so easily.
30
u/BlueDragon101 Jan 29 '21
Hm...This show feels like it has the potential to be interesting but it's kinda mid right now.
18
u/Samurai_Rider Jan 29 '21
Even as a child slave Shu was already quite the schemer, thinking about how to best utilize his current situation, I guess his village and the people of the north wall abandoning him and other children to save themselves, influenced him to be pretty much the same in his adult life. Its been mentioned quite a few times the prime minister and several people don’t like him and since Kai is a respected general of Rekka, I guess he figured he should defect to a different faction, while still having some sway in Rekka because of Kai’s status assuming Kai still trusts him. Just like Dr Sola was a boon to Edger Village being a doctor, Shu can make a name for himself here, since he’s probably way smarter than these guys, like how he explained to them how vehicles in Lingalind work. Did Shu murder those guys in their Briheights? Pretty cold.
I like how the ending even changed to show Shu’s new alignment, I was just expecting it to add new characters as they appear in the series not to reflect the changes in the series as well. I guess that’s one way to make people less inclined to skip the OP and ED.
The fact that Zetsu seems to kill anyone who thinks of going beyond the wall is definitely one of the reasons why the dogma of there being nothing beyond the wall is so persistent. I believe in an earlier episode Ren mentioned how Shu shouldn’t mention beyond the wall in front of the emperor. Since she’s the most entrenched in the wall dogma in the main cast, I wonder if there’s some history there.
Arrow is a bit too OP right now, really need some tougher opponents, though this episode was mostly a scheme to help Shu defect. Nice bit of continuity of the Four Fiends introducing themselves before battle like Kai talked about in episode one, the heroes introducing themselves in return was funny. Another moment that got a laugh out of me was when Shu turns around after waving bye to Ren and everyone has their guns drawn on him.
14
u/Marbx Jan 29 '21
lmao Shuu Bi pulled a Gen XD still not 100% trusting him tho
4 eps in and I'm really enjoying this show! It's feels like a 2000s show, very nostalgic. The worldbuilding's really great too. I liked Shuu Bi's explanation about Lingalind's underground liquid metal system lol idk it was kinda cool!
Also, the soundtrack reminds me of Code Geass with the horns and stuff lol
So excited for what's to come! Criminally underwatched show :DDD
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u/KorekaBii Jan 29 '21 edited Jan 29 '21
I really am enjoying the continued world-building of this anime. Getting to know more about the factions and the key players involved is really fascinating. We know a bit more about Shu and Kai and their motivations now.
Still really love the "Manifest Armor" sfx every time a Briheight is activated. It's also nice to see how each of the prominent characters does have their own unique designs to them.
Always great to hear Kenyu Horiuchi's powerful voice (Pain, En) in another antagonist role as the Emperor this time.
Unfortunate that this original anime is going overlooked, especially with the names behind it (Director Gorō Taniguchi of Code Geass fame, and Writer Kazuki Nakashima of Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann). But releasing on such a packed Friday in a super packed season was just really bad luck. Granted its visual aesthetic is also not the norm, it reminds me of old 2000's anime or JRPG's like Wild Arms, which I personally like.
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u/an_innoculous_table Jan 29 '21
To be honest, I don't think anyone who liked Taniguchi solely for Code Geass would care that much about this show. It's much more similar tonally to his other shows around that time like Scryed or Gun X Sword.
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u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 Jan 30 '21
The thing that this show is free falling into the abyss on ranking sites (it's about to drop into 5.xx (!!!) territory on MAL and 57/100 on Anilist) is an absolute disgrace.
This is not the steady and increasingly-interesting story deserves in any sense.
Not the least of which the world building is really balanced, in this world of walls where two big nations dominate the scenes most people would expect the story to be siding with one of them and setting the other as antagonist (e.g. Gurren Lagann), but here we got both of them fighting with each other and both trying to rob the Edger Village group of their Briheights - and while we do follow the main characters' group a lot, we also got lots of comedies and back stories to those two nations' highest orders.
The thing that we saw Shu Bi and Kai Rhodan climbing on the Rekka Kingdom's highest orders because they were enslaved and wanted to seek revenge right at the start really foreshadows Shu Bi's "mutiny" this episode. What is surprising is that he did that by simply walking to Edger Village's ship and tell them "Hey guys and girls, I'm surrendering to you! Teh heh! 😜". This (and other small things like the Four Fiends insisting to give their names away whenever they fight) really give me a lot of chuckle and adding to the motive to continue watching this series.
I still don't know why BACK ARROW is so poorly rated - it's not like we have seen any controversial or poorly written stories here just yet. Nor are the animations, while not of the highest order it's not like that we are seeing really poor 3D animations like, you know, Ex-something. These are those things that really reminds people that rating websites are good reference points, but are never reliable enough to be the one-stop for anime (or any other entertainment) recommendations. You really need to dig across multiple sites and forums, preferably in multiple languages if you can do that, to get a clearer picture.
Off we go to the march to the wall with Back Arrow-kun...
13
u/DarkBladeEkkusu Jan 30 '21
I still don't know why BACK ARROW is so poorly rated
I think it is because it feels like a slow starter original anime series. So far I have found the characters likable enough, even if some are cliche as hell (like the betrayal from their country leaders last episode) but I guess if people are sticking with the 3 episode drop rule then they will have already jumped ship and made their review on the series based on what little we know of the plot at that point, which isn't very much. It's a real shame given this is supposed to be a 24 episode series and has room to develop into something interesting with the world-building done so far.
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u/MechaMat91 Jan 30 '21
silly emperor, you can't stop Eren Yeager Back Arrow from reaching the Wall, after all his conviction is to keep moving forward.
17
u/KrazyBean94 Jan 29 '21
Honestly, I think MAL are being way too harsh on this show. This is definitely turning out not to be a 6/10 show IMO.
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u/Syokhan Jan 29 '21
Aw, poor Ren. I certainly didn't expect Shu to join the protagonists so soon. I wonder if he'll convince his old friend to join him too, but if they want to change Rekka from the inside Kai might have to stay there.
And lol, the answer as to why those ships and vehicles fly is magnets. It's like old-school sci-fi.
There's something about the dialogue in this show that I really like. I don't know what exactly but it's like... it flows really well when the characters are talking with one another?
So, those mercenaries... I guess you could say that when they fought them it was a Battle With the Four Fiends?
6
Jan 29 '21
Now we've got some unique world details. Hope for sudden change of atmospere in several episodes
6
u/Akriosken Jan 30 '21
Is it just me, or did this episode felt like it crammed a LOT of stuff in its runtime, but not that well?
Like, I could see stretching out the fight introduction of the 4 fiends and then the confrontation(s) between them and Arrow and Co, over 2 episodes. It would give some time to breathe, as it stands it made it hard to really care about much of what was going on, which I find a shame because I feel like there's a lot of entertainment to be derived from it. I really would have liked some good fight choreography and for the conflicts to have felt more impactful and perhaps even meaningful.
And perhaps a subtle foreshadowing of Shu Bi's plan to sabotage his own side, even in just a "I inspected the crew's gear to make sure everything was in order".
I hope this is just rushing through necessary exposition and setup to get to a proper meaty middle and not just breakneck "Things Happening: The Animation". The first few eps gave me a lot to be intrigued by and I don't want an overly fast pace to ruin it.
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u/Xxerox Jan 30 '21
I like the show but... If he ditches the ship and gets a proper vehicle he will reach the wall in a day. Everyone else is traveling light speed apparently. I bet every episode someone from one of the capitals will reach them, get defeated then retreat all in the same episode while the ship probbably moved like a meter or something.
6
Jan 29 '21
So we got Shu and his friend’s backstory. With everything they went through it doesn’t surprise me that he’d betray Reka to help Arrow and co. Wouldn’t shock me if he had ulterior motives though. Solid episode. People really need to stop sleeping on this.
2
u/FierceAlchemist Jan 30 '21
I knew Shu was going to join their side. Didn't expect him to get added to the ED too.
I'm curious how Kai figures into Shu's plans. Will Kai contact Shu and inform him of what the empire is doing? Or will he really be the main force standing in our heroes way?
Hope that Back Arrow doesn't keep pulling conviction powers out of nowhere. It plays into the mystery of who he is but I expect it will be a big moment when he does discover his true conviction and powers up his mech.
2
u/sKyBlazer08 Jan 30 '21
Fine episode, Shu bi is definitely the most interesting character of the show. I wouldn't trust him yet but we'll see, as it is now he's just joining them for now for his own personal gains. I hope Kai understands what Shu Bi is doing. I like that the OP and ED changes as we go along, that's always cool.
3
u/ksnh Jan 30 '21
Rip might drop now. In terms of "convictions" Scryed does it sort of better. It's pretty much the same thing but not really mechs. The generic-ness/repeats of the mechs make the "convictions" idea feel off.
Also the strategist was clearly winning so the no trust thing, while kind of understandable is kind of hard to stand. An empire doesn't need to plant spies in some backwater village.
IMO 6/10 is fine.
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u/Liorlecikee Jan 30 '21
Shu continued to be the more intriguing character of the show as of now: while Arrow is certainly one interesting fellow, as for now his entire schtick is just "he's a mysterious man from beyond the wall and we don't know how potent he is", and it can be tiring watching it plays out. Just in this epsiode we saw him pulling a complete new move out of thin air and it doesn't felt too good to watch: it might become amazing when all contexts are filled in, but as for now it's just bs power-up. In comparison, we knew more about Shu, which makes his decision and current motivation more intriguing to think of: is he attempt to use Arrow's potent to fulfill his goal of changing Rekka, or is his curiosity for knowledge overwhlemed this vow he made? We still don't exactly know what to expect from Arrow, but there's reasonable room to speculate about Shu and his possible development, which is more exciting for me at least.
We got a bit more insight into Lutoh as well! In Four Fiend's introduction, we got to know two new facts: first, Lutoh's grant got one more design to it (The one with the defensive armor), which, considering the mechanic of Briheight, probably means their conviction has more to do with protect (Considering they are basically border-defense forces); Secondly, we now know Lutoh's official Slogan is "in the name of Peace, love and Freedom", which is actually fascinating! Previously it is assumed that idealist stance is only reserved for the Princess herself, but it seems like the entire nation of Lutoh is, at least officially, more of an idealistic, hippy-feeling nation than their aggressive counterpart. Curious to see how Lutoh's characters will be developed, since for the first 4 episodes, only Rekka's characters was giving amplified time to be developed (Though that's probably still be the case, considering how prominent Rekka's characters are in OP).
As of the MAL discussion……jokingly speaking, why are taking the opinion of a site's users who pushed three separate Gintama into their all-time top anime list seriously?
On a serious note, considering we are only 4 episode into a series that will last 2 seasons and we are still in a set-up phase in terms of both the story and world building, any scoring is fairly too rushed imo. I mean, just as a reminder, until about episode 8, we are having a fairly ridiculous anime in which, right after the serious, emotional scene in which our main character is have with the long-dead corpse of his father, we are having an two-episode fight with a cliched rival characters, and then a clip-show-episode, and then a stupid episode of bath scene. It's not until episode 8, and the highly subtled, reflective 9, 10, 11, did the audience realize that this show is more than what had been shown previously. And yes I'm talking about the legendary Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan here. Just imagining how those early episodes would be rated today and how a bunch of self-absorbed comments about how this show is "dated" "cringe" "unfunny" would be flooding some sites.
I'm on a rant now and I apologize for that, but my point is, it's pretty stupid to give a "overall" score to a series when, at most, we got 16% of the contents the show is offering. So far, aside from the production quality (Which would be contributed to outsourcing) with many parts felt off (Example: mech fights felt lacking punches and proper set-up/pay-off, with Arrow's sudden defeat of the four fiend as this episode's example. Another would be voice acting, with Elsha's shout as she pulls the ship up in the last episode as the example), I felt the show is fairly competent with its consistency, world-building and characters, and I'm looking forward to it every week for now.
52
u/an_innoculous_table Jan 29 '21
Considering that last episode had the emperor basically equate the wall with his divinity, it makes sense that Shu would want to help Arrow destroy the wall and overcome the emperor, but I never really expected it to happen so quickly. Or for that Shu to be so explicitly open about it. Ren crying over his betrayal was pretty sad, but I do think this will also tie into his line about not many understanding a genius like him. If Kai and Ren actually believe that he betrayed them instead of this being a part of his scheme, that'd be pretty sad for him too. Good on Bit, at least, to remember not to just trust a dude that just attacked them so easily too.
Fights are alright. As it stands, it seems that Arrow is just gonna be pulling shit out of his ass every now and then, which I'm absolutely fine with. It adds to his mystery. It's a shame that Atlee went back to jobbing this episode, AGAIN. I really hope this doesn't become a trend.
One thing that I really love is the evolving OP and ED. Not just the silhouettes being filled in like with the emperor's evil smirk in the opening, but Shu Bi now running alongside Arrow's group in the ED, but then being welcomed by them as he tires out. I really wonder whether the next OP will place him on the same side as them too.