"Is the Ocean Burning?" Simulwatch II: Real Drive.
- Thread starter Professor Irony
- Start date
MercenaryRaiden said:
Not a lot I can add to that, really. It is kind of disappointing we didn't get more about Kushima's backstory, but things like this do make him seem increasingly more human.
Dunno about the death flag for Haru though. It does seem like they're probably trying to introduce a little tension to the story, but I suspect the show may be leading up to him merging his consciousness with the ocean and (quite literally) becoming one with nature. Especially after last ep's 2001 shennanigans.
ilmaestro said:
I've let the side down, I couldn't see anything I felt like screencapping in ep11
Half a point though, hmm... By any chance were you thinking of the scene with Yukino and Sayaka's scare-faces?It seems like everyone's having bother keeping up though (I'm no exception), so we could always take a day or two off over the weekend for catch-up time if that helps any.
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MercenaryRaiden
Great Teacher
Professor Irony said:
Yeah it's got to the stage where for the third day in a row i'm only available to watch it at 2am and really tired; not a good combination for a possible explanation ep at any point.
Maybe if we have a break after friday then we'd be "halfway" as the episode is number 13?
Edit: Ugh. I can't even make the above sentance anymore coheriant...
I don't want to stop watching this though. I'm really enjoying doing this and it's certainly helping me get back into a rhythm of watching something at least once a day.
Morning edit: I've gone potty as well. Ep 12 was supposed to be yesterday so TODAY is ep 13. Ignore the halfway suggestion!
MercenaryRaiden
Great Teacher
Episode 12: Morning without Light - Image
I think very early on we have a contender for Prof's screenshot
So Minamo meets someone who was previously blind but now has prosthetic eyes. I guess we can go on the assumption that Kushima has a lot of prosthetics/a prosthetic body too!
Iris is a Metal artist and able to share great visions it seems, with Haru getting a flash back quite early on. At this point I thought in my mind that I quite like it when the show involves the Metal. It uses quite a wide range of colours and vibrance. I know other shows do but for some reason here it felt more prominent in Real Drive like it stood out a bit more.
So Eimi/Iris was able to feel the Earth's Biorhythm. Is this what Minamo demonstrated early on?
I think very early on we have a contender for Prof's screenshot
So Minamo meets someone who was previously blind but now has prosthetic eyes. I guess we can go on the assumption that Kushima has a lot of prosthetics/a prosthetic body too!
Iris is a Metal artist and able to share great visions it seems, with Haru getting a flash back quite early on. At this point I thought in my mind that I quite like it when the show involves the Metal. It uses quite a wide range of colours and vibrance. I know other shows do but for some reason here it felt more prominent in Real Drive like it stood out a bit more.
So Eimi/Iris was able to feel the Earth's Biorhythm. Is this what Minamo demonstrated early on?
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ilmaestro
State Alchemist
I'll be watching eps 11 & 12 today since I'm off work, and also will have time to post my thoughts and some photos. So if we wanted to call today (Thursday) "12", would we all be basically up-to-date?MercenaryRaiden said:Morning edit: I've gone potty as well. Ep 12 was supposed to be yesterday so TODAY is ep 13. Ignore the halfway suggestion!
MercenaryRaiden
Great Teacher
ilmaestro said:I'll be watching eps 11 & 12 today since I'm off work, and also will have time to post my thoughts and some photos. So if we wanted to call today (Thursday) "12", would we all be basically up-to-date?MercenaryRaiden said:Morning edit: I've gone potty as well. Ep 12 was supposed to be yesterday so TODAY is ep 13. Ignore the halfway suggestion!
Pretty much. Today is supposed to be 13 but having us stop at 12 could hopefully encourage vash and Prof to catch up too. I know that I won't have time today for 13 either sadly but I should be able to get myself sorted with a day off
ilmaestro
State Alchemist
And one I can jump on board with entirely. Particularly seedy that it was equated to truly beneficial distributed computing projects by the dude Souta was talking to. The further the show goes, the more I would prefer to follow in Minamo's non-digitized shoes if I ever reached a future like this!Professor Irony said:
Yes, I think this episode absolutely started to get to the core of the issues that have haunted the planet. As MR says, the "chikyuu-ritsu" (how is this being translated in the version you're watching?) that is essentially the soul of the planet seems to be the key to working out exactly what occurred during the past disaster, and probably what might happen again if someone doesn't do something more permanent about it (as Mr. Aoi says, his measures taken in this ep are only a stop-gap).Professor Irony said:
As I mentioned previously, I believe the themes so far have been all centered around cohabitation in the world, and it would make sense to me if it was all directing us towards a theme of cohabitation with the world.
I thought perhaps it was Holon, but now I'm thinking maybe it was both.MercenaryRaiden said:
Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought ELIZA explained it as an Alice in Wonderland reference, since he wanted to play chess with her.Professor Irony said:
And wow, Minamo kicked some virtual ass in this ep! Although I could have saved them some time and told them it would be her turn to save the day. ^^; She really does share something special with Haru - not only being able to voice a few partial words to him when that had been portrayed as impossible, but even finding him in the first place seemed to be a great surprise, at least to ELIZA.
This was a really fun episode, I thought.
Ahaha, I actually was, so I suppose you deserve the other half of the point!Professor Irony said:
For ep 9, I want to claim the point because I thought "hmm, Prof hasn't used a pic of Minamo's headset smileys at all yet", but I didn't really guess at one in particular.
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ilmaestro
State Alchemist
When the show was released to DVD in Japan, there was a nice set of collectors edition boxes released alongside the regular singles. Every three months they released a boxset containing the next three discs that were going to come out, in special packaging and with two booklets (a release strategy that a few other series tried out in Japan four-five years ago, but it doesn't seem to have caught on). Here are some shots of the first set:
Box front
Box side
Booklets covers
Disc 1 cover
Disc 1 interior
Disc 2 cover
Disc 3 cover
Booklet sample 1
Booklet sample 2
Short story excerpt
Storyboard example 1
Storyboard example 2
Design works example 1
Design works example 2
There was also a drama CD packaged in with disc 3 which I have never listened to, so I might take a look at that and the short story once we are done with the series.
Box front
Box side
Booklets covers
Disc 1 cover
Disc 1 interior
Disc 2 cover
Disc 3 cover
Booklet sample 1
Booklet sample 2
Short story excerpt
Storyboard example 1
Storyboard example 2
Design works example 1
Design works example 2
There was also a drama CD packaged in with disc 3 which I have never listened to, so I might take a look at that and the short story once we are done with the series.
A break would be good, just so I can catch up, I've been behind since day 1, lol, bout 4 episodes behind at the moment, I've been so busy trying to catch up that I haven't written any of my thoughts, and seeing as the amount of episodes covered is quite large (and most people probably don't want to tread on old ground when discussing episodes), I'll probably just talk about the design of the series as a whole for now.MercenaryRaiden said:ilmaestro said:I'll be watching eps 11 & 12 today since I'm off work, and also will have time to post my thoughts and some photos. So if we wanted to call today (Thursday) "12", would we all be basically up-to-date?MercenaryRaiden said:Morning edit: I've gone potty as well. Ep 12 was supposed to be yesterday so TODAY is ep 13. Ignore the halfway suggestion!
Pretty much. Today is supposed to be 13 but having us stop at 12 could hopefully encourage vash and Prof to catch up too. I know that I won't have time today for 13 either sadly but I should be able to get myself sorted with a day off
I felt that the series started off quite... uneventful in my opinion, it just didn't grip me until about episode 4, by then I felt that the series was really in it's stride and I had, at the very least, gotten used to the artstyle (why does Minamo have her lips defined while everyone else doesn't? It seems weird and it clashes with the rest of her design in my opinion), the music however, is really good, especially that John Williams-esque theme that keeps returning throughout the episodes (for those who don't know who John Williams is, he composed the Flying Theme from ET), it is one of the show's greatest strengths so far, it is much stronger than the average Anime soundtrack. The setting, is unlike anything I've seen in a Sci-Fi show as far as my memory stretches, but reminds me of some of the locales from Final Fantasy X for some reason, and it's greatest strength (at least for the moment) is the lack of backstory regarding RD's world, I vaguely recall something about the human population overgrowing or something like that, but that is only said briefly.
The cast of characters isn't as dynamic as I would hope, Minamo seems to fall into the typical high school girl archetype that is all too common in Anime, Souta I feel is quite flat emotionally, but that would be more due to his profession, I would like to see him become mroe human later on, Haru is quite an unlikely protagonist, but that is his strength, Kushima is a character that I can see as becoming a bit malicious towards the endof the series, but knowing that this show has thrown at me so far I could be wrong, it would be cool to see a bit more of his background as we progress further and see more of his past relationship with Haru, plus why the hell he hasn't aged.
Yeah, I think a break is probably the way to go here. Shall we go for 13 as monday's episode (as in, try to watch before 00.00 tuesday)? Having a break around the halfway mark might be a good idea to keep in mind for future simulwatch-type threads as well.
Ah, that's the name I was groping for. It's definitely a departure from the usual ost fare and I would have preferred a bit more of that rather than reusing the OP theme as fight music.
Hmm, at first I couldn't place it, but now that you mention it, the characters keep referring to the 'earth's biorhythm' in the Ureshii-Saizen subs - I'm guessing that must be it. I'll be sure to pay more attention to what's being said in the Japanese next time it comes up.
You're right about the Alice in Wonderland business in ep10 as well - I think I just couldn't unsee Shinku from Rozen Maiden...
Wow, that is a really nice set. The storyboards are interesting, but I particularly like seeing the line-drawing designs for the environments. They remind me of the old days when Shirow drew actual manga.
One day, I will write a song about him entitled, "You used to be my hero, now you just draw porn".
On that note:
Episode 12
It's juvenile, it's out of context, but it had to be this one
I enjoyed this episode though, it raised some interesting points about the use of technology to overcome disability and the effect this can have on the disabled person.
I think what interested me the most though was when Haru saw Eimi's consciousness represented as that sort of viscous substance in the water. It looked so close to what attacked him in episode one that I think it's probably the strongest proof thus far of the show leading us towards the earth being self-aware. It would raise the question, however, of why Haru should be the one who was attacked, when he was apparently one of the few able to sense and possibly communicate with it.
I think that's looking very likely now.
memorium said:
Ah, that's the name I was groping for. It's definitely a departure from the usual ost fare and I would have preferred a bit more of that rather than reusing the OP theme as fight music.
ilmaestro said:
Hmm, at first I couldn't place it, but now that you mention it, the characters keep referring to the 'earth's biorhythm' in the Ureshii-Saizen subs - I'm guessing that must be it. I'll be sure to pay more attention to what's being said in the Japanese next time it comes up.
You're right about the Alice in Wonderland business in ep10 as well - I think I just couldn't unsee Shinku from Rozen Maiden...
ilmaestro said:
Wow, that is a really nice set. The storyboards are interesting, but I particularly like seeing the line-drawing designs for the environments. They remind me of the old days when Shirow drew actual manga.
One day, I will write a song about him entitled, "You used to be my hero, now you just draw porn".
On that note:
Episode 12
It's juvenile, it's out of context, but it had to be this one
I enjoyed this episode though, it raised some interesting points about the use of technology to overcome disability and the effect this can have on the disabled person.
I think what interested me the most though was when Haru saw Eimi's consciousness represented as that sort of viscous substance in the water. It looked so close to what attacked him in episode one that I think it's probably the strongest proof thus far of the show leading us towards the earth being self-aware. It would raise the question, however, of why Haru should be the one who was attacked, when he was apparently one of the few able to sense and possibly communicate with it.
MercenaryRaiden said:
I think that's looking very likely now.
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MercenaryRaiden
Great Teacher
Ilm your post reminds me of why i'm glad I very rarely import. Another excellent looking set of stuff that must have cost a pretty penny (however i'm weighing up the Idolmaster Anime first set as it comes with Idolmaster 2 for ps3. So so so tempted ;_; )
It's nice to see your thoughts anyway memorium and I agree with your thoughts on the characters. Pretty similar to how I feel about them. I think you've also hit on a point that I felt quite strongly in recent episodes. I assume the episodes are going to go down a typical route we'd see in other anime but then the second half always seems to curve ball that into something I wasn't expecting.
Prof: I think 13 as mondays ep would be great. I can easily be back up to speed with the weekend off. We could even say our thoughts up to this point as well (I might do that tomorrow.)
Nooooo! I thought you were going to go for slow-mo Minamo face
It's nice to see your thoughts anyway memorium and I agree with your thoughts on the characters. Pretty similar to how I feel about them. I think you've also hit on a point that I felt quite strongly in recent episodes. I assume the episodes are going to go down a typical route we'd see in other anime but then the second half always seems to curve ball that into something I wasn't expecting.
Prof: I think 13 as mondays ep would be great. I can easily be back up to speed with the weekend off. We could even say our thoughts up to this point as well (I might do that tomorrow.)
Nooooo! I thought you were going to go for slow-mo Minamo face
MercenaryRaiden said:Nooooo! I thought you were going to go for slow-mo Minamo face
Close! I very, very nearly went for that one...
ilmaestro
State Alchemist
Now that you mention it, I can't entirely disagree! There were a fair few island/sea elements to a lot of FFX's setting, although I really like the way Real Drive folds the setting into the story so well.memorium said:
Yep, this is fine by me. After watching the preview for ep 12 it looks like a potentially important episode for sea/Metal related stuff, so I'm gonna save that for the weekend and then watch 13 on Monday.Professor Irony said:
Yep, that's definitely it. Also see my comment about ep 11 just below.Professor Irony said:
The interesting thing about this episode title that had me thinking it might have been (or might prove to be) a fairly important one - thematically, if not narratively - is that "Just Intonation" is "junsei-ritsu" in Japanese (note the similarity to "chikyuu-ritsu"). I think this episode was used in a way to expand on that term, since it is pretty much jargon made up for this show. In the same way that "junsei-ritsu" is (here we will expose my lack of musical understanding) essentially about harmonious balance between notes at certain frequencies, I think this episode is confirming for us that "chikyuu-ritsu" is a harmonious balance that we need to be in with the Earth, rather than something emanating solely from the Earth itself.MercenaryRaiden said:
That is an excellent summation, I think. I really enjoyed the pace of the episode, and it didn't try to throw anything too trite at you.MercenaryRaiden said:
And damn, as I mentioned, was the preview the most intriguing one yet or what!
My guess for the screencap was a pic of Minamo when she was "listening" to Holon's diatribe about Just Intonation, but I actually think this was probably a fair ep to not take a screencap from!
Actually, it was surprisingly cheap! 16k yen RRP per set, so with Amazon's ~25% preorder discount 4k yen per disc is a "great price", even for a two-cour show with two eps per disc.MercenaryRaiden said:
Unfortunately, it came out in Novemeber 2008... I don't think anyone who has any dealing with Japan needs reminding of what was happening to the exchange rate around that time. ^^;
Also, you should definitely join me in buying the iM@S set with the PS3 game.
ilmaestro
State Alchemist
I thought it was going to be Minamo's face while she was looking for the pendant in the sea towards the start.MercenaryRaiden said:Episode 12: Morning without Light - Image
I think very early on we have a contender for Prof's screenshot
And wow, what a beautiful and in some ways melancholic episode. I feel like I should do some more reading up on Shirow right now, because this felt like it surely had some very personal messages behind it.
I've cut out the middle bit of your post to leave these two ideas together... this was the one thing that I didn't think was expanded on at all in the episode, not even remarked on by the Minamo or maybe Souta.
We are given clear illustration of the mental issues that came with Eimi's transplant, never mind the physical issues that Kushima himself alluded to, but no-one thinks to wonder what Kushima must have gone through (or still be going through) as a result of his likely full-body prostheses. I wonder if that will link back in to the heart of the storyline surrounding the Earth's Biorhythm at some stage.
On top of that, we have the parallels spelled out for us by Minamo between her non-digitized brain and Eimi's blindness. If artificially giving Eimi back her sight had that large an effect on her affinity with the Metal, are they implying that humanity has actually cut off its natural connection to the Earth (Minamo and her "raw" brain) by trying to leap artifically ahead of its evolution ("forced entry" to the Metal via digitized brains).
The teaser was once again great, both in terms of setting up a certain atmosphere for the next ep, as well as making me wish I lived beside the sea like that. ^^; I think we should all have learnt by now to not entirely trust the teasers, though.
Hopefully this bump will help make sure everyone is on ep 13 tomorrow!
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MercenaryRaiden
Great Teacher
Yes indeed! Monday brings about Episode 13 -Another Ocean (Intermission)
Poor Haru. You really feel for him trying to get the wasp off of Minamo's face; even though it's such a minor thing.
Well the preview didn't give anything away and what we got was really interesting. Haru's past and a look at the world before the metal. Obviously much like real life is but it's interesting to see the changes in the show. Although at times this episode felt a bit like a slideshow set to, somewhat cheesey, music! The insert song did actually make me laugh a little at first. But still! It was actually a really nice episode, even if it did feel quite fillerish. It was nice to watch Haru's past and even his interactions with Kushima.
What's interesting is that what we saw in episode 1 wasn't his first interaction with the blue flame at the bottom of the ocean (The Earths biorhythem in solid form perhaps?)
Overall a nice episode to dive back into! (....ahaha. Sorry. Won't happen again.)
Poor Haru. You really feel for him trying to get the wasp off of Minamo's face; even though it's such a minor thing.
Well the preview didn't give anything away and what we got was really interesting. Haru's past and a look at the world before the metal. Obviously much like real life is but it's interesting to see the changes in the show. Although at times this episode felt a bit like a slideshow set to, somewhat cheesey, music! The insert song did actually make me laugh a little at first. But still! It was actually a really nice episode, even if it did feel quite fillerish. It was nice to watch Haru's past and even his interactions with Kushima.
What's interesting is that what we saw in episode 1 wasn't his first interaction with the blue flame at the bottom of the ocean (The Earths biorhythem in solid form perhaps?)
Overall a nice episode to dive back into! (....ahaha. Sorry. Won't happen again.)
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MercenaryRaiden said:
Da-boom tish.
Yeah, again not much I can really add to that. I'm surprised they reduced quite so much of Haru's early life down to a montage - it seems to ask far more questions than it answers. Particularly regarding his family's apparent debt to the yakuza. Still, I suppose it gives a good impression of who Haru is while still leaving something to the imagination.
Seeing the ruins Haru's team were diving though, I'm even more curious about what this catastrophe event was. I suppose the obvious guess is that the ice-caps have melted, but the show's really not giving much away. It looks as though there might be quite a significant part of the world underwater, but none of the maps that have appeared on screen thus far seem to show exactly how much. Quite a contrast with the likes of Appleseed and its detailed maps showing bomb-craters and the sudden disappearance of Scotland...
Also, angry fish does not like this.
You ain't findin' Nemo here, diver boy...
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ilmaestro
State Alchemist
Ahahaha, I thought it might be the wasp on Minamo's face, but that is actually the perfect choice! Also from just before there, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a ruined red shrine gate under the water, that we had been shown very briefly during a lots-of-short-quick-flashbacks sequence towards the start of the show? I don't know why that stood out to me, probably because it was the only thing that stood out in the earlier sequence due to its bold color.
Anywho, I really liked that ep 13 seemed to finally be getting down to "the essentials" - some of the stuff that we really need to know. I thought the episode had an extremely Japanese pace to it, just sort of put some ideas out there and don't really hammer out the little details that you can sort-of put together for yourself. That said, I think we will definitely get more of how, why, and what were the longer term results of the sea-related disaster.
I thought the call-back scenes to the first ep (particularly the scene from on the boat's deck) were a very nice touch.
The thing that this ep really hammered home to me, though, was just how remarkable, and remarkably natural, Haru and Minamo's relationship is. Haru is a generally well written character, and again some of his lines were pitch-perfect, simply beautiful writing. But I think, for an ostensibly "obvious" schoolgirl character, Minamo is just so pleasant a character to be around that she adds her fair share to the feel of the show, at the very least.
As for the feel of the show... let's just say I think there are very few that could establish themselves and their world so comfortably as to be able to throw in an episode like this and not have it feel like a drag in the middle of its run.
Anywho, I really liked that ep 13 seemed to finally be getting down to "the essentials" - some of the stuff that we really need to know. I thought the episode had an extremely Japanese pace to it, just sort of put some ideas out there and don't really hammer out the little details that you can sort-of put together for yourself. That said, I think we will definitely get more of how, why, and what were the longer term results of the sea-related disaster.
I thought the call-back scenes to the first ep (particularly the scene from on the boat's deck) were a very nice touch.
The thing that this ep really hammered home to me, though, was just how remarkable, and remarkably natural, Haru and Minamo's relationship is. Haru is a generally well written character, and again some of his lines were pitch-perfect, simply beautiful writing. But I think, for an ostensibly "obvious" schoolgirl character, Minamo is just so pleasant a character to be around that she adds her fair share to the feel of the show, at the very least.
As for the feel of the show... let's just say I think there are very few that could establish themselves and their world so comfortably as to be able to throw in an episode like this and not have it feel like a drag in the middle of its run.
ilmaestro said:
Ah, good call - I completely missed that, but I do remember the gate coming up in Haru's hallucenation back in ep1. While I think it would be perfectly fine if they didn't elaborate any further on Haru's early life, I do suspect we may be due another episode about his younger days later on and perhaps we might get the significance of the shrine gate then.
EP14 - "Wave and Wind (information)"
Clip show time... Actually, I think this is exactly the sort of show that benefits from a recap episode - Minamo's voice over was more enlightening than I'd expected. Had she not explained about "safety and relief" being part of the diver's code, I don't think I'd have twigged that was what she was on about back in the original ep. It was nice to see the Souta/Not-Jagi fight with part of the score playing rather than the OP theme too.
The latter half of the episode was an interesting diversion as well. Their use of live-action footage for the diving scenes was an unexpected choice, but I think it was the right one. Aside from presumably saving on the show's budget, it felt like that conveyed a sense of natural mystery and wonder that might have been hard to achieve with a team otherwise used to working on sci-fi settings.
I'm definitely in agreement about Minamo as a character though. The writers seem to have neatly sidestepped any obvious schoolgirl tropes to make her a genuinely likeable prescence in the show. She hasn't even tried to run with toast in her mouth (yet).
On which note:
"When I grow up, I want to work for Section 9".
I nearly went for "Dive Beans", but Minamo's serious-face reminded me too much of the Major. Perhaps that's where they get the habit of defining her lips from?
The next episode preview is cryptic as ever, but my guess is on something to do with Souta. Or maybe just a cookery show.
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MercenaryRaiden
Great Teacher
I've not gone to sleep yet so it still counts as tuesday for me! I'm not late!
I'm going to stop attempting to know what this show is going to do next. I was literally thinking before the break "Well there's no way they'd do a recap ep..."
Ep 14-
Yeah I've not got a lot more to add to what Profs said. I'm glad the safety and relief thing was somewhat explained.
Next ep preview was interesting. Light hearted music and lots of food. And considering my track record so far i'm going to go with the opposite of my gut. There's going to be a huge tragedy involving the Metal and the Earths Biorhytem clashing and it's going to be the focus for the latter half of the series.
Although in all seriousness out of the last half of the series I'd quite like some exposistion on Holon, Kushima, The Secretary General and possibly Sota. If I got all of that I'd likely be happy with whatever it throws at us
I'm going to stop attempting to know what this show is going to do next. I was literally thinking before the break "Well there's no way they'd do a recap ep..."
Ep 14-
Yeah I've not got a lot more to add to what Profs said. I'm glad the safety and relief thing was somewhat explained.
Next ep preview was interesting. Light hearted music and lots of food. And considering my track record so far i'm going to go with the opposite of my gut. There's going to be a huge tragedy involving the Metal and the Earths Biorhytem clashing and it's going to be the focus for the latter half of the series.
Although in all seriousness out of the last half of the series I'd quite like some exposistion on Holon, Kushima, The Secretary General and possibly Sota. If I got all of that I'd likely be happy with whatever it throws at us