I'm way behind on posts here and I'm sorry. I've been very apathetic the last few days, and it hasn't been helped by the fact that I found the latest episodes of my three series to all be uninspired.

Gate is screaming through the story at supersonic speed, and they're leaving out important points. Itami's late night conversation with the King was cut to the bone, to the point where it almost felt like the King had been briefed by Yanagida to help convince Itami to go after the dragon. And at the rate they're burning through it all, the dragon will be dead by the end of ep 6, quite possibly even sooner, and they'll outrun the manga three episodes after that. (Manga chapters only come out once a month.)

Musaigen no Phantom World is busy laying out plot exposition at a merry rate. I'm sure it's going to make sense later (no, I'm not sure, actually) but at this point it feels like X-files, with them shooting all kinds of plot points at the wall in hopes that some of them will stick. Mai's figure can't carry the show forever; eventually they're going to have to start telling a story.

Luck and Logic is doing character building, but it's really pretty perfunctory. Ep 3 was about the alienation, and then dis-alienation, of Tamaki, who had previously been commander of the team but lost that job to Our Hero at the end of ep 2. At the beginning of ep 3 she was sullen and by the end of ep 3 she was fine again. A new demon just showed up named Lucifer (and his power is over 8000), and it's at least 5:1 that he's going to become Orga's partner. They're trying too hard to avoid making Yoshichika into a Marty Stu and they've turned him into a dork instead.

And I'm so apathetic that I couldn't even find any fan art to post. Sorry; maybe I'm starting to hibernate for the winter.

UPDATE: By the way, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Musaigen no Phantom World is a brain in a bottle story. None of what we're seeing is real; all of it is simulated.

There was another anime series a few years ago like that. I didn't watch it and I can't remember the name, except that I think it began with Y or Z.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 04:12 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 If I understood correctly elsewhere, GATE anime is being based off of the light novel, while the manga off of the web novel, *and* the anime and manga are trying to be their own thing.

Posted by: Jaked at January 24, 2016 08:56 PM (oq31B)

2

I really can't disprove that even though they're tracking pretty closely. I assume the original web novels and the current light novels track closely as well.

The only problem with the theory is that the anime is more abbreviated than the manga, but that could just be adaptation decay in the anime.

But the abbreviation they made to the scene with the king was too much; it approaches incoherence.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 24, 2016 09:02 PM (+rSRq)

3 Also, the anime completely omitted a major scene which took something like 3 manga chapters: Yao getting arrested, Lelei acting as translator, Yao vindicated, Lelei getting Yao into General Hazama's office, Hazama rejecting Yao's request for help, Yao sitting in the restaurant sobbing, Lelei buying her some St. John's Wort tea, Hazama's staff officers sitting nearby talking about how to defeat the dragon.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 24, 2016 09:05 PM (+rSRq)

4 On Musaigen, potential, massive spoilers:

I've seen rumors that LN 2 completely upends it, and that LN1, which is all that's being adapted in the anime, is in the MC's head.

But that was more of the "I know someone that read" it chatter and I've not seen anyone that's read the LN say that directly.  But if true, you've really seen & read a lot of Sci-Fi.  

Posted by: sqa at January 25, 2016 01:15 AM (vcsZ3)

5

...the anime completely omitted a major scene which took something like 3 manga chapters:

What you describe in the spoiler tag is the first half of episode 12. IIRC that was the episode that was delayed for some reason, but only for a few days, so if one was going to the most recent episode it might have been missed. 


Interestingly, it's Myutie who provides the get out of jail card. I also just noticed that Rory was in the background in that scene which is the third time we see her with Myutie (in all cases the two seem to be working together patrolling the city) Given Myutie's origin it would make sense that she might be a follower of Emloy. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at January 25, 2016 05:22 AM (AaBUm)

6 Also regarding the General's answer to Yao in ep 12: That's what Yanagida's offer to Itami so darned sketchy. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at January 25, 2016 05:25 AM (AaBUm)

7 Er...That's WHY Yanagida's offer was so sketchy. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at January 25, 2016 05:38 AM (AaBUm)

8 Brickmuppet, you're right. I had forgotten about that.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 25, 2016 09:52 AM (+rSRq)

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