Hello and welcome to another Three Episode Rule
Today, as promised in one of my threads, I will give my full opinions after three episodes of Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryu no Rando, a Sunrise anime that is one of the more controversial of the fall season among critics.
However, I will admit right here and now that it's a sodding miracle, I actually want to continue watching despite my reaction to the first two episodes.
All right, first the negative.The first two episodes were very dissonant, taking a prison sexploitation tone but with excessive fanservice surrounding the scenes and even having fanservice framing in them. Ange was just unlikeable and whiny with her just constantly trying to get out of her situation despite the fact she is pretty stuck in it. The fanservice itself had no subtlety and felt like a smack in the face with a frying pan with how hard they come on with it.
Now, the third episode actually fixed a good portion of this. First off, the tone was fairly consistent; Ange is going through a guilt trip for what her actions caused, goes into a death seeker state and then decides to fight on since she has nothing left but to live on after the dissolution of the empire. Ange has finally accepted her situation and seems repentant about her actions.
The fanservice has been toned significantly down from full on lesbian scenes to just breasts and asses in the paramail cockpits and while a bit much, it's somewhat excusable since Code Geass did it in a way that still felt like it focused on the character and even with the fanservice, Kallen was still a decently written character.
As for the writing, they managed to make both the sexual assault scene and the superfluous death have some gravitas and while I admit to wishing that they would try something a bit more tactful, it's still a good thing that it's not entirely shock.
I do still have a few issues. One is the side character of Vivian; she is just plain annoying in the few scenes she's in almost like Valvrave's Q-vier but somehow worse. The second is the fact that they try to make Zola out to be a caring captain of her team but the only thing I've seen is sexual harassment and attempted rape so the dissonance is not completely gone but this is more acceptable than the two big scenes in the last episodes.
As usual, the production values are still high with animation, color and sound still on point and the mech designs are well crafted and articulated if a bit derivative of Gundam Seed.
All and all, try to skip the problematic scenes in the first two episodes and we may actually have a stupid but fun show that may ape Gundam Seed in some places.
Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryu no Rando is currently streaming on Crunchyroll [http://www.crunchyroll.com/cross-ange-rondo-of-angel-and-dragon?skip_wall=1] with an age gate in place
Today, as promised in one of my threads, I will give my full opinions after three episodes of Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryu no Rando, a Sunrise anime that is one of the more controversial of the fall season among critics.
However, I will admit right here and now that it's a sodding miracle, I actually want to continue watching despite my reaction to the first two episodes.
All right, first the negative.The first two episodes were very dissonant, taking a prison sexploitation tone but with excessive fanservice surrounding the scenes and even having fanservice framing in them. Ange was just unlikeable and whiny with her just constantly trying to get out of her situation despite the fact she is pretty stuck in it. The fanservice itself had no subtlety and felt like a smack in the face with a frying pan with how hard they come on with it.
Now, the third episode actually fixed a good portion of this. First off, the tone was fairly consistent; Ange is going through a guilt trip for what her actions caused, goes into a death seeker state and then decides to fight on since she has nothing left but to live on after the dissolution of the empire. Ange has finally accepted her situation and seems repentant about her actions.
The fanservice has been toned significantly down from full on lesbian scenes to just breasts and asses in the paramail cockpits and while a bit much, it's somewhat excusable since Code Geass did it in a way that still felt like it focused on the character and even with the fanservice, Kallen was still a decently written character.
As for the writing, they managed to make both the sexual assault scene and the superfluous death have some gravitas and while I admit to wishing that they would try something a bit more tactful, it's still a good thing that it's not entirely shock.
I do still have a few issues. One is the side character of Vivian; she is just plain annoying in the few scenes she's in almost like Valvrave's Q-vier but somehow worse. The second is the fact that they try to make Zola out to be a caring captain of her team but the only thing I've seen is sexual harassment and attempted rape so the dissonance is not completely gone but this is more acceptable than the two big scenes in the last episodes.
As usual, the production values are still high with animation, color and sound still on point and the mech designs are well crafted and articulated if a bit derivative of Gundam Seed.
All and all, try to skip the problematic scenes in the first two episodes and we may actually have a stupid but fun show that may ape Gundam Seed in some places.
Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryu no Rando is currently streaming on Crunchyroll [http://www.crunchyroll.com/cross-ange-rondo-of-angel-and-dragon?skip_wall=1] with an age gate in place