This episode ends the first major part of this series. Where last week left us off with a very bleak cliff-hanger, this time was not as bleak as allied reinforcements arrived. Instead this episode was chock full of hints of how badly things can go wrong. Since we’re only at episode seven, there is plenty of time for the creators to live up to that.
What really struck me in this episode was how Saki and Satoru had to keep trying to look like gods: if they gave up or showed signs of weakness, they’d immediately lose their advantage in the battle, causing them to get killed off really easily. Then there was the threat of the Hornet colony, which really made a presence of being dangerous this episode. Squealer in particular was really good at only enlarging this feeling with his fidgety acting, on top of nearly betraying them once. Something tells me that we’re going to see more of him.
And then there was that scene in which all those larvae were captured. I mean, there have been many series about war and all, but I can’t recall one showing such a bleak picture, in which basically thousands of babies were taken hostage ON SCREEN, pretty much doomed for slavery for their entire lives. There have been enough series that implied this. But has it ever been shown so clearly?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
I’m enjoying this series as well Psgels. I really think that this series will take a turn in to bloody territory.
Somehow the adults were tipped off over the kid’s knowledge. However some of them regained their powers. Still, the series describes some sort of control over using their powers against other humans.
So. Will we see a battle of the Queerrats vs. the kids who aren’t instantly killed?
Maybe the kids will be able to fight against the adults.
Things are going to get quite dark, and the art and music have stayed amazing.
-RP
the human vs. human thing i don’t think is coming any time soon, considering both death-feedback as well as the revelation in this episode that it is heavily suggested that the queerats dispose of unwanted human psychics. Both of these point towards an altercation between man and ‘beast’ instead.
for me, i feel that this episode, like the last, had horrendous pacing and direction. i’m hopeful they can turn this around with a plot they actually want to tell concisely.
Yeah, I’m also having problems with the pacing. I don’t know if its deliberate and somehow it’s going over my head, or they are just not executing the pacing they want properly.
For example we can fill in the gaps and deduce that the “commander” found out that they are not gods anymore, but decided to help them because Satoru saved his life previously?
That’s why he helped them with the boats? But why did he go and help them in the first place? He could have just ignored them and let them go and he would still be doing them a favor. The way those scenes were paced was rather weird.
The thing is, the first 4 episodes also had a bit of a non-conventional pacing, but it seemed to work for me. We were shown enough to make sense of what happened, and there were gaps were we could fill in the details. What was shown and what wasn’t made sense (for me at least) and had an intriguing result.
In the last couple of episodes I constantly get the feeling that I am forced to make assumptions and fill in the gaps for things that aren’t that interesting to think about and could be given to the viewer easily in a very short time.
the commander doesn’t even bulge when the bombs go off, which probably goes to show he doesn’t give a damn about having his life saved. The reason he doesn’t help them in the first place is because he has no idea what the kids want, instead, our dumbass protagonists say that they’ll come along rather than saying that they want to get out of there. In probability the hawks don’t talk and they simply report whatever is moving in the vicinity which leads the commander to the kids.
there’s really no sign that the commander is evil, so he probably doesn’t give a damn whether or not they’re gods anymore. might as well get the kids out of the warzone, considering it’s pointlessless to do anything bad to them.
Wasn’t it implied that he received orders to dispose of them though? (he asked them to not mention that he helped them to anyone…).
But this proves that there is something wrong with the pacing. We shouldn’t be debating about a plot point like this, it seems so mundane that there should be no confusion about it, it should be something that is crystal clear.
nope, never received any orders to dispose of of them. More like one of the kids became overly superstitious and started to think that the rats would kill them anyways. he asks the kids not to mention it to anyone, because getting involved with the adults would probably be too much of a hassle, or if the adults hear about this, they would probably punish the rats for not telling them about the children.
needs moar Kiroumaru, if anything it was nice to see a rat with who wasn’t a complete coward or violently retarded, and then continues to keep his cool when bombs blow in front of him and the kids go superstitious.
After talking on and off-line about this anime, I can understand why the less attentive viewers have so many problems following the plot, since the series composition is atrocious, like the episode direction since the 5th episode.
Leaving these aside, psgels post reminded me why I still read his blog, even though we our taste are the definition of polar opposites… to the point, very interesting observation about the depiction of war in this episode. Obviously, depending on the background each person has grown up, he might be more or less familiar with the reality of war, but I am amazed that it managed to small extend creep into the novel, and in even the anime… but as every other mature theme from the novel, it is treated very sterilized in the anime, in order to be less controversial 🙁
Let’s hope that by the next episode, things will get better, and less childish 😉