Total Eclipse #24 — Glowing With EVIL!

December 23rd, 2012

 

And can only be defeated by hugs!

Impressions:

Those poor BETA. I think the Russians may had blinded them or something because they were just wandering around, not even paying attention to their surrounding at all, probably dazed and confused, while the Scarlets were standing in the middle of them cutting them up. They get ignored for half the season and show up again just for that. Poor, poor, BETA. They deserve so much better than that.

No surprises here in any way otherwise though, at least besides the endcard, which I’d say certainly counts. Everything almost boringly by the numbers. They did do a decent job with the action again this week. I was going to compliment the director for showing a little restraint and not ruining the dramatic atmosphere of Yui/Yuuya’s fight with the Scarlets with an insert song, but then he dropped his sword, prepared for the hug final attack, and the corny lovey dovey insert song finally kicked in to end things. Oh well, at least he’s learning. Slowly but surely. If the show was only 24 episodes longer, maybe by the end of it, he could get it right.

 

Final Thoughts:

Hamstrung by the incompetence of writing and direction. Mostly the writing though. The direction frequently veered towards the excessively cheesy with all the corny insert music overblowing even the smallest training exercise and dramatic poses against sunsets, not to mention wildly swinging moods between bad romance that went nowhere (and with a male in this case barely having more personality than a sea sponge), racism melodrama, roaming bands of racist rapists, and slaughtering screaming incompetent teenagers (which probably counts as a comedy). A little focus or consistency could have probably done a lot of good.

But it was really the writing that did this one in, especially in the later going. It wasn’t great to begin with, but at least it kept the illusion of moving, aside from the island episodes at least. The Russia episodes come to mind that were a lot of bluster and noise (which is generally a good thing), but the crew always managed to somehow find themselves in the same situation as they were at the end of the previous episode. For an entire month. The second half just stopped going anywhere entirely and even when it did, it did so mostly offscreen or through bad exposition, completely dropping plot points along the way. I have absolutely no idea what the point of the aborted tournament, the Chinese, or the Americans even was. All of them could have been removed from the show entirely and pretty much nothing would have been different except maybe they would’ve had to focus on and develop the core characters a little more instead of ignoring them. What a tragedy that would have been. Even the poor BETA got reduced to just being a subject for talking heads and a wall of ablative plot device. Poor, poor BETA.

So, I guess it’s an averagish action show that could’ve used more action, and less terrible romance. There are certainly worse sins, especially this season, but there’s not much here that I can point to and say that it did particularly well, especially after the halfway point which I’m sure is coloring my memories more than a little.

Posted in Muv Luv | 7 Comments »

7 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • RaiKitsune says:

    Muv-Luv is considered the best visual of all time and I never for the life of me have understand why. If anything I suppose it is just that the VN reader is on average rather young and not understanding of what good writing or story actually is.

    • DmonHiro says:

      No, the VN IS brilliant. This anime not only doesn’t do it justice, it doesn’t even follow its plot. It’s some sort of prequel. Sure, it contradicts tons of stuff form the VN, but who cares, right?

      Anyway, try the VN, it’s very good.

      • KaiKen says:

        Having read the Muv-Luv trilogy months before this, I was excited. I leave now, having wasted a good deal of time and utterly disappointed.

        Trinity Soul, Total Eclipse… what great original will receive an awful spinoff next?

  • ZakuAbumi says:

    I guess this will forever be remembered as “The show that made Aroduc grow fond of penis monsters”? That’s also… something.

  • algorithm says:

    Low, very low budget : the anime.

  • The Phantom says:

    I think this was a disaster past episode 5ish or so, I loved first three episodes tough and followed only by inertia.

    Now that this is over I have to say that Swords Art Online was much better with a much more satisfying ending, MAGI was also better but not by much, this was like the third best and not because it was good, I’m just glad that is over and a new season await us.

  • arknoir says:

    Selfish Beta’s had eaten the high schools on invasion of Earth. That’s why the characters and the army setting failed.