![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: World Destruction (anime)
(Holy crap, another update? Can you tell I'm house bound again today? ><)
So just finished watching the anime "World Destruction" and ended with mixed reactions.
First, a breif note on this series:
Simultaneously, Japan released the anime, the manga and the videos game for this story line. Normally one leads to another which leads to another, but the simultaneous release is half the reason I decided to give this one a go. You have to be pretty sure at least SOMETHING is gonna pan out to do all three versions at once and the plot looked interesting, putting a bit of a twist on the standard hero plot.
The basic premise: When this world was built, god included a reset button called the Destruct Code that, when activated, would turn the whole thing back into the sand it came from. This world also has a mix of races: Humans and Beastmen, ranging from girls with cat ears to creatures that are basically anthropomorphic animals. [Worthy to note almost all of that last category are male.]
Also in this world build is that fact that there is a gross inequality in the races. Humans are secondary citizens with most places being highly segregated. There has been wars between humans and beastmen as the humans struggle to be on equal footage with their oppressors. Oddly, most of this is very background despite being central to one of the main characters motivations, probably because things are so very segregated. There are separate towns for humans and beastmen most of the time as well as separate inns and what not. For the most part, the issue is easily skirted by two two human characters donning fake ears and there seems to be an odd number of places where the two societies are peacefully integrated, including a large university town. It's very easy to forget the oppression of the human race outside of specific incidences.
The world build also is 80% pre-industrial. People walk everywhere, there's no real signs of machinery outside of ClockTown which is ALL machinery, complete with robots, but the ships that sail the sand ocean (yes, it's all sand. Thin sand. Somehow...) are all steam punk. There's even a submarine. (Pardon, SANDmarine. -_-) Oh yes, and there are guns. Both pistols and machine guns.
On to the main cast(s)!
The first trio is our main group of Kirie, the fluff, Morte, the woman fighter, and Toppi, the walking teddy bear (from a race called 'chibi bear'.)
Two guesses which one of them is the one who wants to destroy the world. And the first one doesn't count.
So the show starts up with Toppi in a beastman bar waxing poetical about two types of heros. (Toppi is always going on about two types of something to the point of naming near every episode in that fashion.) Then cuts over to Kirie as he works in a restaurant and there's chatter about the World Destruction Committee (WDC) that like all good antagonists, wants to destroy the world. The World Salvation Committee (WSC), in the form of a bunch of storm trooper types shows up and it turns out that the WDC is there, having her lunch.
Yup. The “committee” is one person; a chick with a huge arse fighting blade that's about as long as she is tall.
So anyway, she grabs Kirie as a hostage and threatens to kill him. The WSC is unsure until Kirie's cat ears fall off, reveling him as human. The WSC, made of beatsmen, fires away. Morte makes her escape, and Kirie runs after her.
Back to Toppi in the bar, a human kid comes in looking for help (the bartender barely reacts with a 'Hey. This innit a place for humans, especially kids,” with the same tone and expression of 'Wipe your feet, I just washed the floor.') from the Hero Guild Detective (AKA, Toppi, who has the voice of Tuxedo Kamen, which I find amusing.) who can help save his sister from being a sacrifice.
Now for the most hillarious scene of the episode, we see the Cat Kingdom, where anthro-cats in tail coats and hats the shape of their ears rule the land. Somehow. The king is VAed by the same guy who voices Goury from Slayes. And acts pretty much the same too. If this is how the beastmen who rule over humans are, it really makes one wonder. I mean, they're oversized cats. You could probably punt them 50 yards. How are they convincing humans to give up their kids as sacrifice or face their furry wrath?
[when did this turn in to an episode summery? Ah well.]
So back to the main duo, introductions are vaguely made (in that way that Kirie knows her name from the poster and then intros himself cutely) and we find out that WDC is a name that the WSC made up and that Morte is a bit of a bitch. Later she explains that she wants to destroy the world where beastmen rule over humans and then brings out the holy mcguffin: The Destruct Code. It's a black orb that randomly starts to glow and look like it's full of eyes and tenticals when Kirie goes to touch it cause Oooo shiney. Morte goes off into her monolouge where she looks at the ball as if it were her child and says how she will be the one to destroy the world.
B plot takes over for most of the rest of the episode, delivering some lolz and resulting with Morte having to rescue Kirie from being a sacrifice to the Audri 2, the tentical plant monster that the cat critters worship for some reason. In the middle of the battle, the storm troopers show up again and Toppi makes his entrance to save the girl (who Kirie was replacing) and thus getting mistakenly identified as part of the WDC. We find out that Morte has no idea how to USE the destruct code and that it's never glowed before like it does when Kirie holds it again at the end of the episode. When he hands it over to Morte, it goes black again. Toppi reluctantly joins the group since he's already been IDed as a member.
After the ep you also get a preview for the videogame, which looks pretty FF ish.
So, summing up the characters!
Morte: Hard ass bitch-type with a temper who wants to destroy the world.
Kirie: Cute blond fluff who seems to be the eyes of the audience and most likely the character you play as in the videogame.
Toppi: Hero-complexed little bear who looks downright comical but can still kick ass.
Next ep introduces more human type members of the WSC:
Naja: Half beastman, half human, silver fox. Cool headed and sly, prefers diplomacy and very nice on the eyes. Yes, his character design was the deciding factor why I watched the show. I am shameless. :)
And Ria, who is from the dragon race. As traditional contrast to her partner, she's insanely hot headed and prone to violence, reaching for her guns in a hot second. When she gets really pissed, she pulls out dragon form (ALA Breath of Fire) and has at it mele style. She vaguely gets a crush on Kirei in the “trapped in anelevator submarine” episode and REALLY hates Morte, probably due to how similar they are in temper.
We also get to meet another reoccurring character: Agan. He has a transport ship and, like Mr. Mole, Yamanagi-san and Lowly Worm, is just everywhere. He's kinda a Dios Ex Machina that way. I think he shows up every third ep. Doesn't do much but give the cast a ride and do some plot-devicing, but he's always around somewhere.
So the show progresses very episodic in nature. The Destruct Code apparently has been leading Morte on a path the winds through the world going from Spring (Cherry Bloom town) to Summer (Charity Hospital) to Fall (University of Integration) to Winter, where the plot FINALY kicks in. Actualy no, there's a side trip between Fall and Winter to pick up the plot in Clock Town. While the episodes in themselves aren't bad, they're a bit flat. The characters themselves carry them. Mostly Kirei and Morte, cause, well.. Toppi's boring. Past his one character episode, he really doesn't do much. He's just another party member. In the actual game, he probably wouldn't even be a regular party member since it looks like from the previews that you can have Ria in your party and she's the powerhouse. Range AND Mele? How can you go wrong? :))
Mild spoilers past this point, BTW. ... if anyone's still reading. ^^;
So skipping through the episodes, you get some backstory, you find out that Morte's younger brother died after joining up with the resistance group that's fighting against the beastmen. When you get to see the flashback when he actually died (rather than the flashback of his funeral which you see near every other episode) you kinda wonder how the resistance accomplished anything when they seemed to be using bow and arrows against machine guns, even though they have barrels of gunpowder, that get to explode. They're either really dumb or the writers just didn't think things through. Or both. Anyway!
Toppi's mini backstory is done in ep 3ish and kinda.. dull. He wants to be a hero. Kay. Whatever. Kirie doesn't really get a backstory until the veeery last episode, though you get hints dropped along the way that there's something up with the boy.
The series is only 13 episodes and while everything wraps up in the last one (rather dramatically, I may add) it leaves a kind of cheated feeling because all the plot was in the last 3-4 eps. Mostly the very last, exposition heavy one. It really could have been done so much better.
The writing itself was kinda haphazard, and honestly, I think this might have worked better as a movie. Forget the plot of the week deal and let's have at the story! But still worth watching, I think. I'd show it at club if it played right on the crappy player we have. But I don't think I'd buy it if it ever got licensed. Tis more a 'watch it when its on TV' type of show.
So just finished watching the anime "World Destruction" and ended with mixed reactions.
First, a breif note on this series:
Simultaneously, Japan released the anime, the manga and the videos game for this story line. Normally one leads to another which leads to another, but the simultaneous release is half the reason I decided to give this one a go. You have to be pretty sure at least SOMETHING is gonna pan out to do all three versions at once and the plot looked interesting, putting a bit of a twist on the standard hero plot.
The basic premise: When this world was built, god included a reset button called the Destruct Code that, when activated, would turn the whole thing back into the sand it came from. This world also has a mix of races: Humans and Beastmen, ranging from girls with cat ears to creatures that are basically anthropomorphic animals. [Worthy to note almost all of that last category are male.]
Also in this world build is that fact that there is a gross inequality in the races. Humans are secondary citizens with most places being highly segregated. There has been wars between humans and beastmen as the humans struggle to be on equal footage with their oppressors. Oddly, most of this is very background despite being central to one of the main characters motivations, probably because things are so very segregated. There are separate towns for humans and beastmen most of the time as well as separate inns and what not. For the most part, the issue is easily skirted by two two human characters donning fake ears and there seems to be an odd number of places where the two societies are peacefully integrated, including a large university town. It's very easy to forget the oppression of the human race outside of specific incidences.
The world build also is 80% pre-industrial. People walk everywhere, there's no real signs of machinery outside of ClockTown which is ALL machinery, complete with robots, but the ships that sail the sand ocean (yes, it's all sand. Thin sand. Somehow...) are all steam punk. There's even a submarine. (Pardon, SANDmarine. -_-) Oh yes, and there are guns. Both pistols and machine guns.
On to the main cast(s)!
The first trio is our main group of Kirie, the fluff, Morte, the woman fighter, and Toppi, the walking teddy bear (from a race called 'chibi bear'.)
Two guesses which one of them is the one who wants to destroy the world. And the first one doesn't count.
So the show starts up with Toppi in a beastman bar waxing poetical about two types of heros. (Toppi is always going on about two types of something to the point of naming near every episode in that fashion.) Then cuts over to Kirie as he works in a restaurant and there's chatter about the World Destruction Committee (WDC) that like all good antagonists, wants to destroy the world. The World Salvation Committee (WSC), in the form of a bunch of storm trooper types shows up and it turns out that the WDC is there, having her lunch.
Yup. The “committee” is one person; a chick with a huge arse fighting blade that's about as long as she is tall.
So anyway, she grabs Kirie as a hostage and threatens to kill him. The WSC is unsure until Kirie's cat ears fall off, reveling him as human. The WSC, made of beatsmen, fires away. Morte makes her escape, and Kirie runs after her.
Back to Toppi in the bar, a human kid comes in looking for help (the bartender barely reacts with a 'Hey. This innit a place for humans, especially kids,” with the same tone and expression of 'Wipe your feet, I just washed the floor.') from the Hero Guild Detective (AKA, Toppi, who has the voice of Tuxedo Kamen, which I find amusing.) who can help save his sister from being a sacrifice.
Now for the most hillarious scene of the episode, we see the Cat Kingdom, where anthro-cats in tail coats and hats the shape of their ears rule the land. Somehow. The king is VAed by the same guy who voices Goury from Slayes. And acts pretty much the same too. If this is how the beastmen who rule over humans are, it really makes one wonder. I mean, they're oversized cats. You could probably punt them 50 yards. How are they convincing humans to give up their kids as sacrifice or face their furry wrath?
[when did this turn in to an episode summery? Ah well.]
So back to the main duo, introductions are vaguely made (in that way that Kirie knows her name from the poster and then intros himself cutely) and we find out that WDC is a name that the WSC made up and that Morte is a bit of a bitch. Later she explains that she wants to destroy the world where beastmen rule over humans and then brings out the holy mcguffin: The Destruct Code. It's a black orb that randomly starts to glow and look like it's full of eyes and tenticals when Kirie goes to touch it cause Oooo shiney. Morte goes off into her monolouge where she looks at the ball as if it were her child and says how she will be the one to destroy the world.
B plot takes over for most of the rest of the episode, delivering some lolz and resulting with Morte having to rescue Kirie from being a sacrifice to the Audri 2, the tentical plant monster that the cat critters worship for some reason. In the middle of the battle, the storm troopers show up again and Toppi makes his entrance to save the girl (who Kirie was replacing) and thus getting mistakenly identified as part of the WDC. We find out that Morte has no idea how to USE the destruct code and that it's never glowed before like it does when Kirie holds it again at the end of the episode. When he hands it over to Morte, it goes black again. Toppi reluctantly joins the group since he's already been IDed as a member.
After the ep you also get a preview for the videogame, which looks pretty FF ish.
So, summing up the characters!
Morte: Hard ass bitch-type with a temper who wants to destroy the world.
Kirie: Cute blond fluff who seems to be the eyes of the audience and most likely the character you play as in the videogame.
Toppi: Hero-complexed little bear who looks downright comical but can still kick ass.
Next ep introduces more human type members of the WSC:
Naja: Half beastman, half human, silver fox. Cool headed and sly, prefers diplomacy and very nice on the eyes. Yes, his character design was the deciding factor why I watched the show. I am shameless. :)
And Ria, who is from the dragon race. As traditional contrast to her partner, she's insanely hot headed and prone to violence, reaching for her guns in a hot second. When she gets really pissed, she pulls out dragon form (ALA Breath of Fire) and has at it mele style. She vaguely gets a crush on Kirei in the “trapped in an
We also get to meet another reoccurring character: Agan. He has a transport ship and, like Mr. Mole, Yamanagi-san and Lowly Worm, is just everywhere. He's kinda a Dios Ex Machina that way. I think he shows up every third ep. Doesn't do much but give the cast a ride and do some plot-devicing, but he's always around somewhere.
So the show progresses very episodic in nature. The Destruct Code apparently has been leading Morte on a path the winds through the world going from Spring (Cherry Bloom town) to Summer (Charity Hospital) to Fall (University of Integration) to Winter, where the plot FINALY kicks in. Actualy no, there's a side trip between Fall and Winter to pick up the plot in Clock Town. While the episodes in themselves aren't bad, they're a bit flat. The characters themselves carry them. Mostly Kirei and Morte, cause, well.. Toppi's boring. Past his one character episode, he really doesn't do much. He's just another party member. In the actual game, he probably wouldn't even be a regular party member since it looks like from the previews that you can have Ria in your party and she's the powerhouse. Range AND Mele? How can you go wrong? :))
Mild spoilers past this point, BTW. ... if anyone's still reading. ^^;
So skipping through the episodes, you get some backstory, you find out that Morte's younger brother died after joining up with the resistance group that's fighting against the beastmen. When you get to see the flashback when he actually died (rather than the flashback of his funeral which you see near every other episode) you kinda wonder how the resistance accomplished anything when they seemed to be using bow and arrows against machine guns, even though they have barrels of gunpowder, that get to explode. They're either really dumb or the writers just didn't think things through. Or both. Anyway!
Toppi's mini backstory is done in ep 3ish and kinda.. dull. He wants to be a hero. Kay. Whatever. Kirie doesn't really get a backstory until the veeery last episode, though you get hints dropped along the way that there's something up with the boy.
The series is only 13 episodes and while everything wraps up in the last one (rather dramatically, I may add) it leaves a kind of cheated feeling because all the plot was in the last 3-4 eps. Mostly the very last, exposition heavy one. It really could have been done so much better.
The writing itself was kinda haphazard, and honestly, I think this might have worked better as a movie. Forget the plot of the week deal and let's have at the story! But still worth watching, I think. I'd show it at club if it played right on the crappy player we have. But I don't think I'd buy it if it ever got licensed. Tis more a 'watch it when its on TV' type of show.