"Is the Ocean Burning?" Simulwatch II: Real Drive.

[Professor Irony]

Shall we kick this one off?

(tl;dr - try to watch ep1 by the end of today. Good luck )

Real Drive or RD Sennou Chousashitsu is a 26 episode Production I.G. sci-fi series from 2008, created by Masamune Shirow.

Set in a future dominated by a massive, Ghost in the Shell-style information network dubbed the 'Meta-Real' (or just, "the metal"), the show opens with a scientific research team, lead by Kushima, performing some experiments out at sea.



Things go somewhat awry and their diver is badly wounded by a mysterious shockwave from down below, just as he begins to experience weird visions down there.



The action then moves to a care home, where one of Kushima's staff tries to goad an elderly man into joining their team. Unfortunately, he hasn't bargained on the man's android servant.



With Kushima's lackey sent packing, however, it's time for Holon the android to go for maintenance and she's appointed a temporary replacement - the hideously cheerful young student, Minamo. She doesn't like math or green peppers.



Facepalm. So, with a setup presently best described as Last of the Summer Wired, we begin this curious tale of cyber diving. What did the experiments have to do with the information network? Why do people keep seeing visions of the ocean burning? Does Kushima have a hidden agenda and, for that matter, is he an android too? WATCH AND SEE.

I should say straight off, this one isn't the most action packed of series, but it does seem like a sound bit of speculative science fiction, so I'm hoping it'll be a relaxing show for summer that still has some substance to it.

As before, the viewing schedule will be one episode each day, preferably with all spoilers for the day's episode tagged until midnight - i.e. today, saturday, is episode one, so no untagged spoilage before 00.00 sunday.

 

[MercenaryRaiden]

I'm quite glad this is what was picked. I tried to get into it when it originally aired but that was around the time I became ridiculously busy so I couldn't. First impressions coming up:

It very much feels like a Masamune Shirow show. The universe in this feels like it's been thought out well and that we have yet to learn it's full secrets. So far it seems like there has been some kind of catastrophy and that it could very well be happening again.

It's very interesting that Haru, who dived at the beginning, has aged over the 50(?) years and yet Kushima seems to be quite young and healthy looking. I think that him being an android could very well be the reason.

The animation is very nice and it was extremely fluid during the mini fight scene between Souta and Holon.

Anyways it feels like it should provoke some discussion as it goes on. I'm interested to see where it goes as right now I havn't the foggiest! Also I think the ocean is burning.

 

[Professor Irony]

Yeah, I think Shirow's hand is much in evidence, particularly in the setting. At first I thought it was vaguely post-apocalyptic, in the sense that much of the world was now underwater, but I'm not sure if that's actually the case - it's none too clear as yet.

Elder Haru being the young diver at the start came as kind of a shock to me though. With the lack of any obvious change in the setting and Kushima still looking young, I thought at first maybe the elderly man was his father. I did wonder if Kushima might be a cyborg rather than a straight-up android, but I dunno. He certainly didn't seem unduly bothered about getting his arm mangled back in 2012.

I'm still pretty baffled as to what the plot may be too, but I think something's beginning to emerge in the second episode (maybe ? :?).

 

[ilmaestro]

MercenaryRaiden, my friend! Great to see you posting again.

On topic, excellent timing for starting the thread, I've been super busy the past week or so, but I'll be able to watch a couple or three eps either tomorrow night or Monday to catch up.

 

[Professor Irony]

Excellent - glad to have you onboard, man.

 

[Mutsumi]

So it is more than just girls eating ice cream then?

 

[MercenaryRaiden]

MercenaryRaiden, my friend! Great to see you posting again.

Yup! I really wanted to get back into watching anime again so I thought I'd jump in the deep end (Bad pun not intended) and it might have something to do with the fact that the Idolm@ster anime started airing... Can't wait for you, and others, to get stuck in as well

My ep 2 post might be delayed a bit. Impulse bought a new graphics card and power supply but am now met with boot problems.

 

[Professor Irony]

Episode 2 - "The Girl"

I quite like the narrative overlap with the episode 1 - putting the two together makes it feel more coherent somehow. Some interesting shots of the meta-real in action too.

Plot wise, I got a curiously Steven Spielberg-ish vibe from the latter part of the episode. 'Young girl and elderly man team up to save the day' seems like his kind of thing. Still no obvious clue as to where the story is going, but the little post-credit scene makes me think we might get some bigger clues in ep3.

For me though, the most interesting thing in this episode was probably the little tablet computer Minamo carried about with her. The other people seemed able to send her information by holding up their hand like a 'target' seems like an amusing extention of what we're now starting to see with the iPhone.



The fact that they didn't seem to be able to swap information directly though makes me wonder if there's either a similar divide of cyberised and non-cyberised people to what we saw in GitS, or if there are far more android characters than just Holon and (maybe) Kushima.

So it is more than just girls eating ice cream then?

Yeah, nutrition-nerd Souta sees to that.

 

[Vashdaman]

Ok I've just wached the first two episodes.

Well it does certainly seem quite Shirow esque in many its ideas, and of course the abundance of underage panty shots and camera angles that seem like they could have been filmed by a lecherous old man, oh and the Secretary Generals huge babylonians....nice.

So far some of it is quite interesting, but a lot of it is still too vague for me to get a grip on. For example we're just about able to work out that the "Metal" is a (terribly named) sort of information cyber network, but they haven't really explained yet what it does or why it was made, or why Haru can dive into it.
No doubt we will be filled in later, but as of now theres a bit too much techno babble I can't quite follow being thrown around.

Also Minami is currently too sickly sweet and devoid of any charm (not including her panties and hatred of green peppers of course), I'm hoping (but not expecting) she gets more interesting as the show progresses.

 

[MercenaryRaiden]

Episode 2:

So from the beginning 10 mins it seems like it's a Minamo centered episode. Slightly suprised it didn't carry on from the end of episode 1 but I do like how we're getting some backstory though. I guess that Souta is a relative in some fashion (cousin/brother? Might have missed that part.) She doesn't seem to realise though that Haru is the diver in the pics she was shown as a kid. Could be an interesting backstory there. And what happend to the substation?

Minamo herself is quite interesting. With, what i've taken as, an ability to "hear things" on the wind I was wondering she was some form of android. But seeing flashbacks to her as a kid makes me seriously doubt that.

The Metal stuff was interesting; it does look like some kind of network that links a lot of stuff together. Haru looking like his younger self is an interesting one. Has his physical body aged rapidly or is he able to appear like that?

An alright episode that helps us along a bit but doesn't exactly explain much! The bit after the credits was interesting though and should set up episode 3 nicely...

 

[Vashdaman]

I think time just passed I don't think Haru's body aged super fast.

As for Minami, yeah that bit you mentioned could turn out to be something interesting if they develop it. But as of right now if you take that scene away she's pretty standard and boring. Although she does have roller skates in her shoes so I guess that sort of compensates.

 

[MercenaryRaiden]

As for Minami, yeah that bit you mentioned could turn out to be something interesting if they develop it. But as of right now if you take that scene away she's pretty standard and boring. Although she does have roller skates in her shoes so I guess that sort of compensates.

Mmm that's true. I was actually quite suprised at how athletic she seemed, although as has been mentioned there were a few gratuitous undergarment shots that seemed rather evident in that segment


Episode 3:

So the cause of the power substation was similar to what Haru experienced 50 years ago. I wonder if it was what caused that catastrophy that's being hinted at as well. The blue flame seems to be important as well.

Haru was able to connect via cyber telepathy so I wonder if Minamo's "ability" in episode 2 is similar?

And then there was lots of Minamo and girls eating ice cream. Very interesting looking ice cream. I'll stick to Ben and Jerrys thank you very much!

Also what was up with the "safety and relief" part? I don't know if I seemed to miss it but there didn't some much point to it other than a pep talk...?

And after the credits - A mysterious man walks towards the office with mysterious music; Foreshaddowing perhaps.

 

[Professor Irony]

I'll write some more for episode 3 tomorrow - need to get to bed...

Other than the odd moment here and there, I haven't actually found the series too bad for fanservice so far - that completely gratuitous shot of Minamo in the ED sequence is probably the worst offender. The Secretary General is hilarious though, presumably 'provocative positions' must have been part of her job description. Also, was that Souta in her room?

Interesting that we should see Haru as he is now when he was diving the real this time - I wondered if the image of his younger self was an avatar (like Chroma in GitS), but there seems to be more to it than that.

 

[Vashdaman]

Hmm, I enjoyed ep 3 slightly more than the first two. The world is slowly being revealed ever so slightly more and there was considerably less panty shots, I even thought Minami is seeming more likable to me, although I do still hope they spend time developing her more. Yeah that "safety and relief" bit was complete fluff though, its like someone telling a joke with no punchline.

I'm not sure whether the young Haru is an avatar or not, at first I thought it was but now I'm not so sure, especially when Minami sees him young for a second. Saying that though I really hope this doesn't end up with Haru turning young again (even though the poor guy did miss half his life) and getting with Minami or something. That would be terrible, but I can sort of see it going that way.

Overall, so far its proper cheeseball stuff (I even think I heard the Superman music during the rescue sequence near the end) but its just about entertaining and interesting enough to bother watching.

 

[memorium]

Aaahhh shite, didn't know it would start saturday, I'll catch up ASAP and get back to you guys

 

[MercenaryRaiden]

Interesting that we should see Haru as he is now when he was diving the real this time - I wondered if the image of his younger self was an avatar (like Chroma in GitS), but there seems to be more to it than that.

I'm not sure whether the young Haru is an avatar or not, at first I thought it was but now I'm not so sure, especially when Minami sees him young for a second.

I wonder if it's to do with the (not even sure why i'm spoiler tagging this) under-decoy that was mentioned a few times in ep 3. I'm sure I saw something about spies so it wouldn't be out of place to have *something* that changes the perception of ones image?

Episode 4 - The Atoll of Desire:

With the way Minamo wants to stay with Haru at the start it really does look like they're pushing for those two teaming up to save the world...

An explanation on the Meta-Real! Developed 40 years ago by Kushima, it's a computer system to observe digitized human memories and consciousness. I wonder how this works though and whether people have to consent to it or if it's everyone...

Bob Zhouen seems familiar. I'm sure his face was on the big screen in epsiode 3 when Haru asked to Dive to save the diver, but he himself has had a brain down. Why do I get the feeling that Haru is going to be spending a few episodes in this rescuing consciousnesses?

The episode gave us more about the sort of stuff the Metal is capable of, this time being lust, with another small slice of action. And more mysteriousness after the credits...

 

[Professor Irony]

Aaahhh shite, didn't know it would start saturday, I'll catch up ASAP and get back to you guys

No worries - I think all the relevant parts have been spoilered so far, so feel free to jump in whenever.

Ep4

Oh boy. This is definitely a Shirow series. I thought it dealt with the sleazy aspects of the future society in a fairly mature fashion though. When technology like this comes into play, you can bet sex isn't going to be far behind and their use non-explicit imagery kept everything quite highbrow. Interesting to see the island has a 'red-light district' too, complete with malfunctioning police-droids...

I might actually go as far as to say this was my favourite episode so far - it seemed easy enough to follow and I could quite happily watch a few more one-off adventures with Haru the cyber-detective.

Good to finally get a better explanation of the Meta-Real anyhow. Seems like it might be something along the lines of the collective cyber-brain consciousness in SAC: 2nd Gig to my mind, but I'm only speculating.

And more mysteriousness after the credits...

I'm convinced that was Jagi from FotNS

 

[Vashdaman]

well, we got a slightly clearer explanation of what the real is in episode 4 and how it can be abused to fufill the base desires and sexual fantasies of men, which probably would happen if that technology really existed to be to honest.
I had to laugh when Holon first dropped that "orgasms" line though, that was pretty funny.

Overall it was a slightly interesting episode that was just about enteraining enough again. Its still fairly cheesy, light sci fi stuff but I'm cool with that.

 

[MercenaryRaiden]

Episode 5:

Not really a lot to say about this one! I wasn't quite sure where it was going halfway through because I thought it was going to be a serious episode, but then the parts with Iron Schwatz getting the glasses off of Minamo seemed far too comedic.

Anyways I guess this shows off a bit more of what can be done with the Metal. Someone who was bullied pulled Iron Schwatz's data and transfered it to an android which ran amok. There were some nice action scenes and a bit of character development for Sota and Holon.

 

[Professor Irony]

Its still fairly cheesy, light sci fi stuff but I'm cool with that.

Yeah, I keep wanting to describe the show as 'GitS lite'. I don't think it'll ever reach any great levels of depth or complexity, but it's been sufficiently quirky to hold my interest thus far.

Ep5 - "Sous-Marin"

This episode is silly.





It's like trying to buy an early ADV release from Amazon marketplace.

As MercenaryRaiden said, a reasonably entertaining episode, but nothing too earth shattering. Nice to see Sota isn't completely useless, but the reuse of the OP theme during his fight scene with Not-Jagi did remind me of how much I miss Yoko Kanno's music.

I was a bit disappointed we didn't get to see more of the circumstances leading up to the android going berserk too. It might have been nice to meet the culprit and see some of his story, rather than just have the other characters make an offhand reference to him.