The big downside to having nearly every show air on the same day in a season like this is that if you’re away for the weekend you suddenly have an incredible backlog. It’s gonna take me a while to catch up to everything here.
In any case, Total Eclipse showed its true colours in this episode with what I presume to be the main cast. And if I have to be honest, I’m not that impressed by them. A lot of them feel flat and stereotypical, and in particular that Italian Playboy and that Nepalese tsundere are annoying to watch. Apart from that this episode was chock full of one-liners that had a similar problem as Jormungand, in that everyone was just trying to out-snark each other. . The chemistry between these people seems very forced.
On top of that, what makes me wonder is that all these people lost their homes and their country. How can all of them be so cheerful? How can the big angsty flashback be about something as simple as a minor pilot’s quarrel. I’m thinking about swapping this with Tari Tari or Moyashimon if this is what we’re going to get for the rest of this series.
Rating: (Disappointing)
Then I hope you swap to Moyashimon…
Really enjoying that one…
love that show
I’m sorry, would you rather have a main cast where everyone is insufferbly depressing? I hope not.
Yep, the series is pure porn for any mecha fans who could care less about the characters. So I suggest you drop this now and blog moyashimon instead. Fuck tari tari.
Though to be fair. This is the TRUE first episode, albeit, a terrible one. Things might pick up after 3-4…
>jormungand
>problems
choose one.
I really agree with your review. I was actually really excited for this after I watched the first two episodes, but yes this episode was completely and utterly disappointing. It was dull and I didn’t really understand the relationships between the characters and the jokes/laughter really weren’t funny. Not even slightly. However, I really hope the next episode picks it up a bit-and by ‘a bit’ I mean a lot.
Actually, this episode has made me drop this show. I agree with psgels 111110% and the stupid insult at the end was the facepalm/inducing straw that made me feel that this is wasting my time. just a cheap cheap cheap way of trying to put conflict ESPECIAL:LY after the first two episodes had shown us. Dropped.
Well I am under the impression that they are gonna die, so the stereotypical characters never bothered me that much
I don’t know, but this episode is far from disappointing, I guess it’s more like “enjoyable” in my opinion. Seriously, this episode is just for introduction of the new characters, nothing more and nothing less. Perhaps wait for 1 or 2 more episodes, because I am sure things are building up within a few episodes. And I think Total Eclipse would show its true color at least in the last 3 or 4 episodes, not at the beginning (remember this is an introductory episode, while the first two formed the prologue).
I don’t think this episode was awful. Average I say. Frankly this was the kind of quality I originally expected from this show. People are getting the mistaken impression that fans of Muv-luv alternative are hyping this show. But that’s incorrect. We are hyping the Visual novel. I say most of us want this show to be good but in the end it is just a spin off story of a better story. Even then I have heard about Total eclipse being disappointing and I read the first chapters of the manga and wasn’t impressed.
The first two anime original episodes are going to give people the wrong impression of this series. BETA are likely to never appear again and this series will take place on this base far from the war zone. But well like I said before, I am just in this for the animated TSFs.
“BETA are likely to never appear again and this series will take place on this base far from the war zone.”
too bad, the BETA fights were the best part.
seconded. the 2 prev episodes really got me hooked. if no more BETA like you say I just might bump in from time to time. *Sighs*
“BETA are likely to never appear again”
No, they appear at least twice more in major engagements, a couple of times in simulation, and who knows we may even get some more flashbacks for other characters where they appear.
I found it pretty boring, I kept waiting for it to get better and it didn’t. The first two episodes were great but I don’t get the connection between the girl main and where she is now. I’ll give it a few more shows to see if it picks up.
I think it’s still an introductory episode. They’re far behind the front-lines (for now?). Almost all the pilots there are kids – especially that Nepalese girl, although there’s something odd about her battle mania. I’m not sure if any of them have seen any real action against the BETA yet. Their training antics give me the impression that they’ve only been up against fellow human targets. The standard training that is absolutely useless in the face of the real BETA. Also explains why Yui, who’s actually experienced, isn’t part of the flight from the beginning. AFAIK the US hasn’t been attacked by the BETA at this point and Yuuya is just a gifted test pilot. I’m expecting a lot more coming-of-age character development, possibly a few of them suddenly getting splattered to give the rest a slap in the face of reality before getting sent of on a suicide mission or something. I suspect the creators are counting on more impact to the characters’ eventual gory deaths if the audience is given the opportunity to form an attachment to them first so I’d say they won’t be splattered for a few more episodes at least.
It’s really not that bad. Sure some stereotypes are thrown in there, but I bet that’ll fade quite soon. Now if it continues like this for 3-4 more episodes, then you ought to be worried..
Uhmmmm, I also has little disapointed about eclise, But is not that bad, The like the main girl, At least she know how, they are figthing. Also she is very dispointed about the other´s soldiers, they are like playing I see why she is so angry about them.
Nah, she is a bitch for not wanting them to have fun.
They are not front-line soldiers and have no reason to be as serious as she is now.
But is a really beautyfull bitch indeed. You cant blame her for that actitude, she passed througth a mortal and terrorific experiencie, lost all her friends, meaby family in the process. I like that serious type XD. O well I dont know why but i like her.
Please forgime for the double post but psgels you are going to blog Sword art online?. For me is the best anime of this season. Not only for the quality animation, the history and development will be also awesome.
This episode at the least was enjoyable, the job of this episode was to introduce the cast and let us get to know a little about their own personality traits. In my opinion it did just what it set out to do.
Also, I’m a little disappointed that you think everyone has to be all sad and depressed in this world. Sure the world they’re in isn’t in the best shape but being gloomy and emo about it doesn’t help out the situation. Many of these people were born into world that was already half taken over by the BETA. So war, fighting and death is probably natural to most now.
Yeah, what Regicide said. You can see they were sad when sad things happened, but mentally healthy humans tend to get over things, rather than moping around their whole lives.
The fictional stereotype of the person who focuses their whole life on getting revenge is the exception rather than the rule, and an annoying stereotype at that.
After all, our main characters do still have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. They have their physical needs being met, and they have relatively stable employment, at least while they’re still alive. Despite the overall state of the world, they’re personally in a much better situation than most people are today, due to today’s concentration of wealth among the rich and none being left for the poor..
Okay, I’ll stop there, I’m getting off topic. Point of my post being, it’s not unnatural to act normally in a situation like that.
I hope it gets better, apparently Muv Luv:Alternative’s animation plan is contingent on how well Total Eclipse does
Truth be told, I think they shouldn’t even bother to do an Alternative adaptation if they’re not confident of doing it well. It’s too big a challenge, and covers genres that kind of conflict each other. Fans of one aren’t really going to like the other aspect of it but the story won’t be quite right unless both are covered. And it’s so super long, with multiple major arcs.
You weren’t impressed with the main cast – and neither was Yui, our protagonist in the first two episodes!
We watched the new cast from her perspective: as a bunch of kids who have NO IDEA of the hell they’re getting into. You’ll notice, the kids may be snarking like this is a game, but Yui certainly isn’t.
Bridges, meanwhile, is from the US – relatively untouched by the Beta threat so far. So his cavalier attitude is understandable. The Nepalese girl seems to be focusing her grief into being as irritating as possible. The Swede and Italian just seem confident in their abilities and are ready and willing to serve.
We hope going forward Yui continues to play a role and eventually pilot a mecha once more. The green pilots could certainly use some of her hard-earned wisdom and resulting stoicism.
That wasn’t the big angsty flashback. That was just a quick moment establishing that his wingmates had problems with him because of his attitude.
It’s a shame. A waste, really, that you never gave this a chance. Story and character developments went quite well, as was the animation quality and battles. To put it simply – personally, I don’t drop a book or manga so quickly after reading just one or two chapters. As a leader, you wouldn’t say someone on your team sucks after just watching him play a match or two doing stuff that doesn’t suit your preferences.
Yes, I know this is long overdue and there probably won’t be anyone reading this, but I think you should still give it a try if you have the time.