Comments on: Liking Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse? See also…

By: Survive, you shit! | Bateszi Anime Blog

Survive, you shit! | Bateszi Anime Blog — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:47:43 +0000

[...] situation: a world overrun with violent madness. In terms of anime, I’ve often talked up Blue Gender, but there’s also Gantz, Infinite Ryvius and Highschool of the Dead: none of them [...]

By: youthnihil

youthnihil — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:06:11 +0000

And as for Blue Gender: fuck yeah. Loved that series!

By: youthnihil

youthnihil — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:05:32 +0000

As I’m catching with the blog I stumbled across this post and had to cynically smile to myself. The first two episodes were fucking awesome. Even more so compared to my incredibly low expectations. Very subtle sense of tragedy and hopelessness that creeps into the girls’ lives.

As for why there are almost only girls: most of the men got drafted and killed already, at least that’s what I have read elsewhere.

And now, what is up with this show? It’s taken a fast 180 towards bullshit territory. Everything is now contained in this show that they left out in the first 2 eps. The girls are continously exploited for fanservice, and the Japanese girl’s(what’s her name?) character has turned from a potentially great main character into standard issue “military asshole but also secretly in love with that boring dude and actually tsundere or whatever the fuck”. It makes me want to throw up.

By: bateszi

bateszi — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:32:32 +0000

I often wonder about statements like “…and they expect us to care? After only 2 episodes?” The point of a pilot episode(s) would be to grab attention, and this seems to have done to trick. There’s now a sense of “okay, so what’s next?” about Total Eclipse, but if they can maintain the story’s strange attention to detail then we could be seeing something decent here.

Either way, thanks for explaining a little more about Muv Luv’s franchise. Until last week, I had this thing down a generic harem-fest, and now I find it’s this crazy miltary mecha mash. I’m looking forward to its next episode a fair amount! :)

By: bateszi

bateszi — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:20:51 +0000

I’d forgotten about Saikano! I’ve never seen it, but from what I’ve heard, it’s one that I really should watch.

The girls thing… I don’t know either. I guess I’m through the looking glass when I don’t even question this stuff anymore! D:

By: wendeego

wendeego — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:20:47 +0000

Whoops! I guess I meant Satelight, not Sunrise. The two are totally different and I messed them up arrghhhh

Anyway, point still stands. Hopefully the show will improve once they get to the actual novel material, otherwise (most likely) we’re in for a disappointing slog.

By: Peter S

Peter S — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:06:53 +0000

Wendeego has a point. We’re supposed to care about these characters after two episodes? Though I’m relieved to hear that they weren’t part of the original. Apart from the growing dread of the alien invasion (and those humanoid mouths freaked me out), everything else was done very poorly. If we’re getting to the proper story now maybe the storytelling will improve.

By: IKnight

IKnight — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:14:14 +0000

If Sunrise were involved I'd be a lot more optimistic about Total Eclipse.

By: wendeego

wendeego — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:40:39 +0000

Interestingly enough, neither of these episodes actually came from the source material. Both were written by the staff of the anime in order to introduce new viewers to the Muv Luv viewers. Otherwise people might get a bit lost, since this is an adaptation of a spinoff of a sequel after all.

The original Muv Luv took a typical spineless harem protagonist, tossed him into the middle of a battlefield where humanity was losing, and forced him to grow up. You never saw the aliens until about 60% of the end of the story; everything before then was taken up by deliberately unfunny comedy, followed by low-key mecha hijinks, followed by enormous amounts of exposition, followed by politics. So when the aliens came out of the woodwork and completely wrecked the status quo, it was a legitimately shocking moment.

Something tells me that Total Eclipse attempted to replicate this feeling of OH SHIT by starting with a relatively light first episode and following it with a second where everyone dies. The problem with this is that you’re missing that frankly enormous amount of investment that the original Muv Luv put into its characters before things started getting serious. Total Eclipse in comparison throws a bunch of names and faces at you and expects you to care as they’re horrifically slaughtered. Somewhat effective, but probably not the best substitute.

So all in all, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Sunrise starts adapting the “real” story. Will the writing improve, or will the staff let this show down? We’ll just have to see.

By: Hayama

Hayama — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 01:38:38 +0000

Ah, I just finished the first two episodes! This show is insane! I still don’t get why its a bunch of teenage girls fighting these things, but I guess that’s the way that anime goes. I don’t really follow series as they air, but this and Sword Art Online have really attracted my attention this season. Thanks for the recommendation!

Also, if you’re looking for something bleak like this that follows in the same vein, try Saikano. It’s not the best, but it does have some poignant moments and it’s only 13 episodes.