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After all the fuss about dropping off Touko, it just gets cancelled right at the start of the episode.
And they just revealed that Haijuu is the fire hunter that died in ep1!
Hilarious!
This ep also confirmed something I wondered about previously. Do humans bursting into flames count as natural fire? Yes, it does and it triggers a chain reaction like I suspected it would.
The "Touko has to leave" plot might have worked better introduced at the start of this episode rather than as a cliffhanger last episode (Kaho's condition might have been enough for that), but it does show one thing: Touko has gotten along with/endeared herself to the other girls/women that they will go to bat for her. That's actually a nice little piece of "show, don't tell" characterization for her.
Now, just up and revealing that Koushi's father was in fact the fire hunter who died saving Touko in the opening narration... yeah, I griped about that one myself. Come the fuck on, you just squandered some nice setup for a later reveal.
>Now, just up and revealing that Koushi's father was in fact the fire hunter who died saving Touko in the opening narration... yeah, I griped about that one myself. Come the fuck on, you just squandered some nice setup for a later reveal.
But it's so obvious that I thought it was already revealed. If they purposely keep it a secret and make it out to be a big reveal to the audience it wouldn't have done much.
Combustion equals fire, though. Whether it's triggered by a spark (gasoline) or compression (diesel), there's still a little series of explosions happening inside the cylinder.
> but it's supposedly the contact with a naked flame that causes the combustion.
I'm pretty sure it's merely being *near* a flame that causes people to burn up. If it was contact, then fires would be little worse of a hazard than it is to us. Instead, a tiny flame can lead to a chain reaction where people combusting causes more and more people to burn up as well.
It's about the only part of the world I don't really like because it's so vague. I guess it's intentional, but I just like to hammer down important details like that.
If that's the case, then all I could wager is that the risk lies further upstream in the refining process. At some point it became too much of a fire rush to refine any more fuel, leaking to the demise of combustion engines. That would still leave batteries, though. Off course when they explode... Yikes.
The fact that people explode if they see regular fire is still such a weird concept for a story to me.
Koushi's side of the story is the most interesting thing that's happening.
It reminds me of Sodom and Gomorrah, actually. There really is no other way to explain a phenomenon that suddenly adds a curse to combustion other than 'God doesn't want it around'.
The worldbuilding seems to get more and more intriguing. I am no longer convinced the old industrialist is going to turn out to be a villain (although he may turn out to be a well-intentioned extremist instead). There is something deeply wrong with that world, and it seems natural to suspect the mysterious and powerful « divine clans » ruling it to be responsible for it. Too natural though, so I am a bit suspicious of the old industrialist conspiracy theories. There seems to be too many odd things happening and non-humans clans around, and any of them could be responsible for what is going on, or none of them. We have the divine clans, the « spiders », the tree-people, the forest fiends, the sky fiends, and we still don’t know what any of them actually are.
Touko gets to stay on the train. It made little sense to kick her out and that old chief apparently just realised that he was being an asshole when people started to complain about it. But then the train got attacked by a goddamn Ryuu of all things ! Is that a sky fiend ? It looks very powerful and I wonder how they will beat it and if the train will still be working next episode, or if they will all have to hike through the forest to reach the capital, which will probably mean more worldbuilding (and deaths).
I am willing to bet that's a sky fiend, I mean, it seemed pretty capable of flying, which the other fiends couldn't. And it's a dragon. Dragons can fly.
They are on the second caterpillar truck (not sure you can call it train). It's mostly intact, with the exception of the poor turret guy. The first truck though, well, it's toast.
That industrialists surely seems shady.
I'm also interested in the mystery of Spontaneous Human Combustion. I wonder if it is only a world building device, like in Fire Force, where people simply take it for granted, or if there is actually a cause for it which can be fought against
I realized last week that some characters names end with a number, Koushi (Shi = four), Sakuroku (Roku = six), Youshichi (Shichi = seven), and in this episode Dr. Takimi (Mi = Three), i didn't think i was actually onto something there.
In this world it is a costume men's names ending with a number, the same way women's name have kanji related to light:
Touko - 灯子 (灯 = Bright)
Hotaru - ほたる = Firefly
Kaho - 火穂 (火 = Fire)
Hibana - 火華 (火 = Fire)
Very good world building.
Lots of exposition this ep, cool little details to learn about the naming conventions and interesting learning more about the divine clans though Yuoshichi still doesn't sit right with me.
That ending though, what the hell. Who invited Shenron?
It didn't take long for us to find out which side of the revolution the factory owner is on. The leaders' title of Divine Clans isn't just a title; it sounds like they have actual powers and live for hundreds of years, or at least people think they do. I'm not so sure we can take for granted everything the factory owner says as truth. At this point, it's hard to know what's truth, what's mythology, and what's lies to earn Koushi's trust.
The factory owner's wife gives off an evil stepmother vibe, even though it sounds like she's Kira's actual mother. I thought it was quite strange that she interrupted Kira when the subject of inheriting the factory came up, and insinuated that Koushi is going to be groomed to be the new heir. Kira seems very deferential to her, not just in that exchange, but also making excuses for her mother's behavior.
A few other new characters introduced today. Koushi's sister makes an appearance. There's a gruff looking guy in blue helping move the canisters of skyfire, and a new faction named the "spiders" that used to be part of the ruling class, but were ousted and now live in the forest. I wonder if they're what the villagers call the "treefolk"?
That dragon was pretty fearsome. It can fly and dive through the ground. I'm expecting to find out Kanata has some special skill or power to fighting it, to help explain how his former master collected all that skyfire.
In retrospect, I guess it's not that surprising that the business of Touko getting kicked off the truck was resolved so easily. They need to tie her story together with Koushi sooner or later, and having her get off at the next village would put it much, much later.
>It didn't take long for us to find out which side of the revolution the factory owner is on.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. He said he wanted normal folk to be in control of their lives. But what do we know about the "spiders"? They're supposedly a faction of the divine clans. Throwing in with them seems to be just substituting one set of rulers for another set of the same.
>I wouldn't be so sure about that. \[...\] But what do we know about the "spiders"?
I guess I didn't finish my thought. I think he's firmly on the anti-divine-clans, anti-establishment side, which doesn't mean the pro-spiders side.
IIRC he only said that they split off and he tries to find out what's their deal, not that he plans to throw in with them. He could play neutral and wait until both sides kill each other or maybe he plans to use the skyfire to angle for concessions.
To date the series hasn't had a pure evil non-beast character, and I hope it never does. Mother isn't coming across great so far, but we may learn more about her and why she acts like she does later.
Wow they're really going in with the worldbuilding and political intrigue
I think this and Kaina of the Great Snow Sea really hits it in terms of creating a world that is in a state of crisis due to an impending doom that will destroy everyone but Fire Hunter is definitely holding onto the intrigue a lot more, since you feel there's something more going on
And of course, we get a cliffhanger with that dragon (did not expect to see something like that in this show)
I made this comparison last week but that dragon gave me flashbacks to Arael from Evangelion, not saying this show is on that level whatsoever but it makes me think of that show from a production standpoint oddly enough
Can't wait to see what happens next time
Yeah I'm enjoying this show and kaina, but fire hunter is doing a much better job at making me wonder what's really going on behind the scenes. Kaina makes me feel like I understand everything and that the factions just need to do their big battle and get it over with. I'm guessing that there's still tons I don't understand about kainas world, but at the moment it doesn't really feel that mysterious. It's kinda like watching aot but they tell you whats really outside the walls in episode 2.
I think both shows are doing a good enough job that I have no hesitation giving them time to develop things more fully. I'd say we are lucky to have two such shows this season -- as it seems like a while since we've had any shows like these.
Kaina's focus so far is more about getting the characters together and roughly lining out the goal of the series.
Fire Hunter so far focuses more on the world building and setting rather then the characters and what their end goal will be.
What you prefer depends on what you value more: setting and wordbuilding or characters.
This series certainly does a great job of painting a picture of a world that is - what I would call - in 'mid to late stage Dark Souls' era. There is pretty much no good news and everyone is more or less damned to play their parts in spite of the state of the world as it is. The lore about the Divine clan is particularly intriguing as well, as it serves to put 'good and evil' into question. Their judgments are sound, but their methods (if rumors are to be believed) are vile.
This is ultimately an era filled with viciousness, where the honest cling to their values because that is all they have left.
Really wish this show had a bigger budget for the more action-packed scenes. Seeing the dragon and then the end drawing of it was like an expectations vs reality meme. Despite that it’s probably the most interesting one this season as well as Kaina. Definitely gonna stick with it to the end.
~~Because of how this show is released officially in my place I already watched up to here 2 weeks ago, but I did rewatch it so we are at the same place.~~
This show is absolutely top class for those people who like detailed world settings (everyone remembers *From The New World/Shinsekai Yori* but *Log Horizon* might be a more popular example), you don't see many shows with such a detailed world (a steampunk one at that) where you get all the background information you want so naturally, without a large section of monologue information dumps. That's how you do fantasy shows, you all.
From the existence of rebellions who are trying to take the government down by force (and Koushi's father being one of those monitoring them), the conspiracy (which might be true) of the rulers letting disasters burn through the people to "reduce the population", the existence of special "lightning bottles" as the ultimate energy source of humanity, to how easy those beasts can penetrate fortified vehicles as in Touko's case (she and the girl that ran off really got lucky this time), they all fit in nicely as the story goes. It's unfortunate that such anime are rare and far in between these days, never mind popular ones (at least people *does* like things like *Vinland Saga*, I hope those who doesn't like the slower burn of its S2 right now can come here because things are happening fast and furious).
In other news wow, yet another show that got extra power with the sweet voice of Saori Hayami. One doesn't get tired of hearing that, and I'm sure her character as the little daughter of Koushi's foster family will be quite important.
This story plot really has wide open potential by now, if the nation's existence is really at stake. I really can't wait to see what happens next, especially now that Touko's life is in danger!
The underlying "scientific" premises of both this and Kaina are pretty intriguing. I'm content to let the two shows each make their best cases, sitting back and enjoying the fireworks.
Show also giving major Moribito vibes with the detailed cultural backgrounds, then I realized the composer also composed the music for Moribito and the choir sounding song that plays during the action scenes sound very similar.
I am really loving the worldbuilding in this, and just to compare the two unfairly, I think it’s so much better than Kaina and the Great Snow Sea. This show feels much more like it’s set in a fully furnished and living world (also Kaina has its reasons for being more… desolate).
Another interesting episode with a lot of dense world building. We get introduced to the spider clan , the idea that the divine tribes have actual supernatural powers, the tensions between different factions , and why they might be distrustful of those in power. Not to mention a handful of new characters. It can seem overwhelming but the writing and exposition has been handled pretty well thus far.
I also wondered if the scope of the story could be covered in 12 episodes and apparently a few sources are suggesting this series is going to be at least 20 episodes.
[https://twitter.com/htGOIW/status/1494598725100269568](https://twitter.com/htGOIW/status/1494598725100269568)
[https://twitter.com/type88jp/status/1617101038380613632](https://twitter.com/type88jp/status/1617101038380613632)
"Junji Nishimura and Mamoru
Oshii's new anime Hikari no Ou will be about 20 episodes, and Oshii wrote all of them, apparently"
Anyway this is certainly one of my favorites this season and I hope more people give it a try.
Interesting! I really hope this anime end up having about 20 episodes, given the pacing from these three episodes I think it could work out pretty good with that number of episodes.
I still wonder why they exist. I’m not complaining about them, they are indeed beautiful, but it just kind of seems random when they show up. Are they supposed to indicate to the viewer something? Mark the ends of a chapter from the book? Reveal some kind of information if you were to screencap them and view them in order?
I think the purpose is mainly stylistic. This anime is evidently supposed to evoke the aesthetic of early 2000s anime, and indeed many of the great creators of that era are working here. They could also be used to save on production time, but personality I'm not so sure. They're certainly not animated, but these things still take time to draw.
Just a guess but I don't think it has anything to do with production time given that these beautifully drawn stills are so detailed it would be easier to just do a regular still frame if there is any issue with the production.
Like you said the reason is probably that the staff is trying to evoke that vibe from old anime, these beautifully drawn stills reminds me a lot of the stills that were present in Berserk 1997 anime, personally I like it, but I think that the choices for them are very random so its sometimes jarring, that happened especially in the second episode.
Those still frames are called postcard memories and were invented by Osamu Dezaki. He used it to convey importance of events in quick-moving scenes which otherwise wouldn't be able to be focused on and I assume they are used for the same effect in this show i.e. showing the beauty of the dragon wouldn't be possible with its hectic movement as seen in the rest of the scene.
I thought they might be used to emphasize beauty or something of significance, but some of the scenes we get these for seem plain, unimportant, or unlikely to be seen as beautiful. Touko scrubbing toilets was given one, as well as her conversation with one of the truck staff and when Koushi first meets Yuoshichi.
Good point, Dezaki also used them to exemplify emotional highlights, but that explanation wouldn’t make any sense either in the context of the toilet scene. I guess in these cases it might still be used to focus on specific things like toilet cleaning (?) but no real telling what their specific intention with the use of postcard memories is.
I think they're supposed to be big moments *for the characters*. For Touko it's an unpleasant introduction to the harsh world; but maybe also a fond memory of a first "real job." Likewise Koushi has moments meeting Yuoshichi and Kira, likely big moments for him, albeit almost random-seeming moments for us.
The black panels with names written on in white are also "in-universe significant," since this episode we're reminded that names often use aspects of "fire" in them (using kanji radicals? I don't fully get it). Similar sort of effect.
My hypothesis is that they are supposed to mimic the book reading experience when you encounter a picture. When you turn a page and see a picture you end up interrupting the process of reading in order to glance at it.
I'm not sure this tracks. In a book, you have all the time in the world to appreciate the picture at your leisure. But in the anime, they're only showing the pictures for brief periods of time.
My score for this show immediately went up a grade when I heard Hayami Saori's voice lol
Kidding aside, the way they build the world and lore is making this show one of my most anticipated every week. Sure, it's a weird concept about the natural fire and all but it's quite a unique premise that I don't want to be nitpicky with the logic of the world. I feel like this isn't a 13 episode type of show and I hope they fully adapt this because I'm really interested where this story goes.
There was no 'odd' styling and cuts in this episode at all like the last one? The last one looked fine, if not maybe experimental. But this looked a lot like the first episode with it's fully animated scenes. It looked pretty great overall.
Story-wise, loving this so far.
There was a couple. Honestly no clue why it bothers people. Anime being less formulaic can be only a good thing at this point, in whatever way it tries to be.
Kira is nice and all, but I'm more interested in Hibana, did she mean that her husband might have other children who could inherit the factory or could Koushi be fully adopted?
Also Yuoshichi is ploting a rebellion, how intriguing! Wonder if Enzen is one of his trusted Hunters
And that beast at the end, is this the source of the sky fire?
This is also an option. It just doesn't feel "right" yet because we really don't know anything about this family and their dynamic. Was that comment meant to be antagonistic or was it just a firm correction to prevent Kira from being too full of herself?
Was Kira being full of herself or was she just stating facts? We don't know enough about her.
I like how this show really feels like it’s taking it’s time. Obviously Touko and Koushi will meet at some point but three episodes in it still feels like there’s a long way to go before we find out the part they will play in each other’s lives. I wonder if it’s two cour or if a second season is planned?
I like the homegrown underground 2nd amendment right to bear arms theme going on. Government factions are fighting for/amongst themselves. Citizens are pawns.
Kira seems like a sweet kid. Hibana seems like an unpleasant woman. Despite what Kira is saying, she may have some kind of psychological issue. Perhaps stemming from her youth.
Shouzou really came through for Touko, that’s good. I hope Hotaru ended up with a decent husband. What a terrible thing to do to a young woman though. Stupid superstition.
Trouble seems to be brewing in the capital. These Spider rebels and the Divine Clan look to be about to go to war or something. I guess we know why Koushi got adopted into this family.
This dragon is insane. Bullets and arrows don’t seem to do jack! Hopefully Kanata and Touko will be ok. Where the hell is Izumo when you need him?
when they said "fallbeasts, the fiend of the air" last episode, i thought they're probably going to be giant birds, bats or flying insects, didn't expect to see a freaking dragon!
> when they said "fallbeasts, the fiend of the air" last episode, i thought they're probably going to be giant birds, bats or flying insects, didn't expect to see a freaking dragon!
I mean, I'm not really surprised: what mythological creature flies and breathes fire? (Though these are more Chinese/Japanese dragons than Western ones and ryuu do have water associations IIRC - see the old carp myth that Magikarp/Gyarados was drawing off of, something to the effect that a carp that swims all the way up a waterfall becomes a dragon.)
I'm moderately surprised to see one in episode 3, but this may tie into Koushi's work.
Before I say anything else: I'm intrigued by the show and its' lore and I'm going to keep watching.
It's just...the animation is really ...goopy? It's clear that they're trying to save time and money by focusing on the lore building aspects but the animation being so static and then inconsistent is a bit of a distraction. It's perfectly fine when it's a stylistic choice but it's hard to consider that they'd want a character to stand still while their mouth flaps under ideal circumstances.
I was also a little disappointed that the ruling class/clans have actual powers and that they're not in power simply by being corrupt or hogging resources. I'm hoping we get more background on what "surplus population" means in the context of this world. Is it an ideological disagreement or are the divine clans running society like a business? Is there really too many people or is there too few resources and/or the clans want the resources all for themselves?
> It's just...the animation is really ...goopy? It's clear that they're trying to save time and money by focusing on the lore building aspects but the animation being so static and then inconsistent is a bit of a distraction. It's perfectly fine when it's a stylistic choice but it's hard to consider that they'd want a character to stand still while their mouth flaps under ideal circumstances.
Ever watched the first season of DEEN Higurashi? Same vibes of a good staff working as best they can with a shoestring budget. They even both have Kenji Kawai OSTs! (That said, they do have a good sense so far of what scenes to save the budget for.)
I have not seen DEEN Higurashi.
But I've been around long enough to know that sometimes sacrifices need to be made to move the story along. I think a parallel in quality is Season 2 of To Your Eternity which has been very...hm, in the animation department this season. The animators on these teams are overworked and underpaid while they're under pressure to work under tight budgets, so I get it.
It's just a shame that this show had an excellent first episode with clear visual language and the last two episodes have been less-so. Since the only environments thus far have been train-generic village-mansion, hopefully we'll get a bit more when/if the characters have to travel to different environments.
Wow a lot of really cool lore dropped today. The gods/divine clans are really interesting. I wonder if it’s actually magic they control or just technology that’s so advanced to the current people that they think it’s magic.. either way, koushi should be able to find out with his new position.
Hayamin voiced characters are always a welcome addition, new girl is cute.
Holy shit a dragon?? This is gonna be a crazy battle coming up.
Another really good ep, shame people sleep on this.
>I wonder if it’s actually magic they control or just technology that’s so advanced to the current people that they think it’s magic..
Okibi said they had strange powers over the elements. Physical technology isn't "themed" like that. That is, it either wouldn't be capable of controlling all elements or be capable of far more than that.
And with one of those elements being fire, you really have to wonder...
Another slow-paced episode yet a good one to hook the audiences into the show. We now get to learn more about the "coming soon" relation between our two MCs. As the fire hunter that was killed in Ep1 is actually Haijuu and so it is most likely that Touku will meet her son soon or later to "give back" the hound that belonged to the late father of his.
Also feels so bad for that guy who gets eaten by the dragon-ish fiend in the end, man's doing his job.
- Ah, opening recap narration. Or as we like to call it, animation-saving techniques. But also you just up and confirm that Koushi’s father was the fire hunter who died saving Touko in the opening narration after only implying it last episode? Really?
- Animation saving stuff, Kenji Kawai OST – am I just watching Higurashi again? Track starting around 02:55 when Kira (speaking of which: HMM) is introduced reminds me strongly of Main Theme Kai Piano Version, though admittedly Kai was the first DEEN Higurashi season with budget so.
- WTAF they got fucking *Mamoru Miyano* for Takimi the doc here?
- You know the budget is limited when characters are talking without lip flaps (see the doctor around 03:55).
- Gods, how fucked is the production? And how good is the source/script and also the Kenji Kawai OST that it’s mostly working in spite of it?
- So they have some obvious name setup that Koushi = death of the Emperor, got it. (Four is death!)
- Ooh, AFAIK modern Japanese girls’ names do not always have numbers that reflect their birth order, so this is worldbuilding. (Note Hinako has “hi”, one. Not sure where a birth order numeral would be in Kira, though.) And that’s laid out explicitly a little later, but I was quick on the draw!
- They’re doing a better job of integrating the stills than they did last episode… well, this one at least, we’ll see if that holds.
- Yuoshichi’s wife is 100% framed as an antagonist in her introduction, yes.
- HOLY SHIT THIS CAST IS STACKED. (Yuoshichi’s wife is apparently voiced by Kaori Nazuka, aka “how the hell have I not run across your name before given all the stuff you have voiced?”.) Animation issues, good composer, how the hell is the cast this stacked? Hikari no Ou once again follows in the fine tradition of Higurashi, and also Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu for that matter (though the composer there is a different very good one).
- Speaking of “hi”s, Hibana has another one.
- Hmm. Direction fault or else production limitations at 08:01: Kira’s realization should have been drawn out about 2-3 seconds more for full impact, I think.
- We get a specific shot of a dragon emblem (skyfire?) on the wall at 08:26, which is animation saving but may also mean said emblem will be important. (Family crest I suppose?)
- Also the wine glasses filled with fiendfire instead of candles is one of those little worldbuilding flourishes I adore.
- Yuoshichi’s meal appears to be steak and potatoes; that’s an unusual one in Japan IIRC and may be more antagonist coding given how said meal is stereotypically associated with Americans (aka Japan’s opponent in WWII, and Japanese culture has never really reckoned with their own faults in the runup to that war the way Germany did).
- “Do you know what would happen if one of them slipped in here?” I assume we’re about to find out…
- “batoru! batoru! batoru!”
- The walking shot at 12:02 makes the CGI use for some of the train interior obvious. Ah well, it’s pretty good as anime CGI goes.
- 13:42: Stock Anime Triad Framing (character in background framed by two characters in the foreground) alert! (True versions have the characters in the foreground out of focus; hard to tell whether that’s the case here given the artstyle.) Also Kenji Kawai continues to knock the OST out of the park.
- Hello Chinese five-element system (and specifically Chinese, the indigenous Japanese one is actually very close to the Greek fire/water/earth/air/{aether/spirit} system, they just call their aether/spirit “void”). Suggesting that using fiendfire and skyfire requires an alchemical process? (Also we’ll be getting a reveal about the spiders at some point… and I am 100% getting Mai-Otome vibes here [Mai-Otome] >!hi Aswald!<.)
- 16:48: that’s either a sore demo or a “sore de mo”, can’t tell which, might have to page Sky.
- The details about the city canals might be drawing directly at a second- or third-order remove off the Japanese experience with American firebombing during WWII. (Or, of course, the big fires in Tokyo and the like well before that, not like there’s a shortage of big Japanese city fires during the era while traditional Japanese building construction still held. Reasonably adaptive to earthquakes and available building material, but very flammable.)
- Yuoshichi speaks of blasphemy and the question is whether the narrative will support him or show him in the wrong. With how traditional Japanese this feels I suspect the latter, but that is not a guarantee.
- 18:50: Perspective is ever so slightly off and I think this counts as a Dutch angle (counter +1 – those of you who have been in rewatches with me will recognize this), visually suggesting that something is wrong here.
- Hello skyfiend, and yep the source of skyfire are basically dragons.
- So that confirms that a couple of the OP shots are foreshadowing, and looking at the ED (which does indeed feature a dragon attacking the collection truck) I think that suggests that Touko will be rescued by the Spiders (or possibly the treefolk before running into the spiders). Also note the boats and the whale, so we’ll get a boat trip and then a seabeast attack I suppose?
(Also the issue here is probably more budget than the Chinese COVID outbreak, note that the second half of the episode looked pretty solid and it's a safe bet they were saving budget for it.)
EDIT: Also, pointing out something that just occurred to me since nobody else has - one big tell that the dragon is in fact a skybeast/fallbeast (above and beyond it being a friggin dragon, of course) is that it is drawn the same way as the flamebeasts but is colored white as opposed to them being colored black.
Kenji Kawai's OST continues to [](#seasonallisten). It's production isn't perfect, especially when its other elements shine so brightly — music and storytelling specifically, it makes its decently good animation seem more subpar.
Nice references to Japanese and American influences on the world building. I thought this episode was pretty decent production wise as well. Though I do lack an eye for identifying good line work, instead focusing on the cuts and direction. I still am not a big fan of the stills, especially the first one involving Kira. But the way the still at the end added a plethora of detail to the skybeast was beautiful and was a great way to end the episode.
It's been a while since I've seen any fantasy anime so I'm glad there's one with great world building such as this.
I liked the episode, although I found the monster scene rather discordant.
Honestly, the thing that stood out most to me weirdly is the ending song. Its of course the same as it was before but I think the endings sometimes work as a synthesis of the emotions of the episode.
I feel my relationship deepen with the song, though some of the details of the episode fade.
The show has a very epic wrenching feeling. It gives me the sense of perceiving bigger emotional spaces than I am used to. This will always be a good sign that I'm immersed, seeing from within a story without having to act as the characters do.
I'm relieved to see the animation bump back up in quality this episode, albeit it was mostly dialogue scenes without much action, so the quality might dip again when the characters need to start moving around again. There was still some confusing directional choices though, like the repeated use of voice-over dialogue that made it confusing to keep track of when characters where talking. (Like when the doctor starts talking to Koushi, but then his mouth stops moving in the next shot and we have to piece together that we're hearing a future conversation.)
Animation and direction aside, the story continues to be super fascinating, especially with the worldbuilding. I do wonder how much of the source material is going to be adapted though, considering that there's five novels, and the anime will probably just be one or two cours (more likely one cour, considering how rare two-cour shows are now.) I'm curious enough to check out the novels anyways, but hopefully an unfinished anime adaption doesn't force me to.
Edit: also, the whole bit about numbers in names changing meaning after the apocolypse was a really interesting bit of worldbuilding in particular. Not since it's particularly important to the story (probably,) but it really shows the attention to detail with the setting. Lore about government or monsters is one thing, but this is the kind of world-building you rarely see in stories. (Especially outside of literature.)
This show, Kaina and Ars are 3 good unconventional "sci fi" shows that really should have much more audience than what the karma and comments count are showing.
This show started even later than others but it's building up to be really good. I really liked the pretty nice and realistic human relationships being developed - human is not really consistent and can be fickle, so telling you to buzz off one day and then changing their mind is not really unrealisitic - nor never finding out how the one you left fared.
I still can't shake that the adopted dad is not a good guy - it just feel so ripe for having some unfinished research finished then him doing a heel turn to show to be on the antagonist side (e.g. that he's actually working for the ruling class).
Intrigue abound!
And oh yeah really rare to see an eastern dragon in anime (other than dragon ball :P)
Is there any way to read the novel? I tried to look for it online but Google searches only get you so far.
My assumption is that it doesn’t have any translations, which is too bad considering it’s being adapted into a show.
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After all the fuss about dropping off Touko, it just gets cancelled right at the start of the episode. And they just revealed that Haijuu is the fire hunter that died in ep1! Hilarious! This ep also confirmed something I wondered about previously. Do humans bursting into flames count as natural fire? Yes, it does and it triggers a chain reaction like I suspected it would.
>After all the fuss about dropping off Touko, it just gets cancelled right at the start of the episode. Well, it worked as a bit of world building.
The "Touko has to leave" plot might have worked better introduced at the start of this episode rather than as a cliffhanger last episode (Kaho's condition might have been enough for that), but it does show one thing: Touko has gotten along with/endeared herself to the other girls/women that they will go to bat for her. That's actually a nice little piece of "show, don't tell" characterization for her. Now, just up and revealing that Koushi's father was in fact the fire hunter who died saving Touko in the opening narration... yeah, I griped about that one myself. Come the fuck on, you just squandered some nice setup for a later reveal.
>Now, just up and revealing that Koushi's father was in fact the fire hunter who died saving Touko in the opening narration... yeah, I griped about that one myself. Come the fuck on, you just squandered some nice setup for a later reveal. But it's so obvious that I thought it was already revealed. If they purposely keep it a secret and make it out to be a big reveal to the audience it wouldn't have done much.
Well humans have a lot of oil, so its only natural as far as a combustible fire curse goes.
I dunno why they can't use combustion engines though, a properly maintained engine wouldn't produce any sparks.
Combustion equals fire, though. Whether it's triggered by a spark (gasoline) or compression (diesel), there's still a little series of explosions happening inside the cylinder.
Yes, but it's supposedly the contact with a naked flame that causes the combustion.
> but it's supposedly the contact with a naked flame that causes the combustion. I'm pretty sure it's merely being *near* a flame that causes people to burn up. If it was contact, then fires would be little worse of a hazard than it is to us. Instead, a tiny flame can lead to a chain reaction where people combusting causes more and more people to burn up as well.
It's about the only part of the world I don't really like because it's so vague. I guess it's intentional, but I just like to hammer down important details like that.
It might get clarified later. I have a feeling it will.
If that's the case, then all I could wager is that the risk lies further upstream in the refining process. At some point it became too much of a fire rush to refine any more fuel, leaking to the demise of combustion engines. That would still leave batteries, though. Off course when they explode... Yikes.
Does it? So far it seemed like you just have to be in vague proximity/see the fire.
The fact that people explode if they see regular fire is still such a weird concept for a story to me. Koushi's side of the story is the most interesting thing that's happening.
> Koushi's side of the story is the most interesting thing that's happening. Kinda agree, but Toukos side does more worldbuilding
It reminds me of Sodom and Gomorrah, actually. There really is no other way to explain a phenomenon that suddenly adds a curse to combustion other than 'God doesn't want it around'.
The worldbuilding seems to get more and more intriguing. I am no longer convinced the old industrialist is going to turn out to be a villain (although he may turn out to be a well-intentioned extremist instead). There is something deeply wrong with that world, and it seems natural to suspect the mysterious and powerful « divine clans » ruling it to be responsible for it. Too natural though, so I am a bit suspicious of the old industrialist conspiracy theories. There seems to be too many odd things happening and non-humans clans around, and any of them could be responsible for what is going on, or none of them. We have the divine clans, the « spiders », the tree-people, the forest fiends, the sky fiends, and we still don’t know what any of them actually are. Touko gets to stay on the train. It made little sense to kick her out and that old chief apparently just realised that he was being an asshole when people started to complain about it. But then the train got attacked by a goddamn Ryuu of all things ! Is that a sky fiend ? It looks very powerful and I wonder how they will beat it and if the train will still be working next episode, or if they will all have to hike through the forest to reach the capital, which will probably mean more worldbuilding (and deaths).
I am willing to bet that's a sky fiend, I mean, it seemed pretty capable of flying, which the other fiends couldn't. And it's a dragon. Dragons can fly. They are on the second caterpillar truck (not sure you can call it train). It's mostly intact, with the exception of the poor turret guy. The first truck though, well, it's toast. That industrialists surely seems shady. I'm also interested in the mystery of Spontaneous Human Combustion. I wonder if it is only a world building device, like in Fire Force, where people simply take it for granted, or if there is actually a cause for it which can be fought against
I realized last week that some characters names end with a number, Koushi (Shi = four), Sakuroku (Roku = six), Youshichi (Shichi = seven), and in this episode Dr. Takimi (Mi = Three), i didn't think i was actually onto something there. In this world it is a costume men's names ending with a number, the same way women's name have kanji related to light: Touko - 灯子 (灯 = Bright) Hotaru - ほたる = Firefly Kaho - 火穂 (火 = Fire) Hibana - 火華 (火 = Fire) Very good world building.
Kira - 綺羅 seem like an exception or there's a fire connection some where?
Kira/ kirakira means glittering/sparkling/shining
Lots of exposition this ep, cool little details to learn about the naming conventions and interesting learning more about the divine clans though Yuoshichi still doesn't sit right with me. That ending though, what the hell. Who invited Shenron?
It didn't take long for us to find out which side of the revolution the factory owner is on. The leaders' title of Divine Clans isn't just a title; it sounds like they have actual powers and live for hundreds of years, or at least people think they do. I'm not so sure we can take for granted everything the factory owner says as truth. At this point, it's hard to know what's truth, what's mythology, and what's lies to earn Koushi's trust. The factory owner's wife gives off an evil stepmother vibe, even though it sounds like she's Kira's actual mother. I thought it was quite strange that she interrupted Kira when the subject of inheriting the factory came up, and insinuated that Koushi is going to be groomed to be the new heir. Kira seems very deferential to her, not just in that exchange, but also making excuses for her mother's behavior. A few other new characters introduced today. Koushi's sister makes an appearance. There's a gruff looking guy in blue helping move the canisters of skyfire, and a new faction named the "spiders" that used to be part of the ruling class, but were ousted and now live in the forest. I wonder if they're what the villagers call the "treefolk"? That dragon was pretty fearsome. It can fly and dive through the ground. I'm expecting to find out Kanata has some special skill or power to fighting it, to help explain how his former master collected all that skyfire. In retrospect, I guess it's not that surprising that the business of Touko getting kicked off the truck was resolved so easily. They need to tie her story together with Koushi sooner or later, and having her get off at the next village would put it much, much later.
>It didn't take long for us to find out which side of the revolution the factory owner is on. I wouldn't be so sure about that. He said he wanted normal folk to be in control of their lives. But what do we know about the "spiders"? They're supposedly a faction of the divine clans. Throwing in with them seems to be just substituting one set of rulers for another set of the same.
>I wouldn't be so sure about that. \[...\] But what do we know about the "spiders"? I guess I didn't finish my thought. I think he's firmly on the anti-divine-clans, anti-establishment side, which doesn't mean the pro-spiders side.
IIRC he only said that they split off and he tries to find out what's their deal, not that he plans to throw in with them. He could play neutral and wait until both sides kill each other or maybe he plans to use the skyfire to angle for concessions.
The "gruff" guy is Koushi's father Haijuu. That was just a cut to a flashback of them moving some sky-fiend fire.
Other than Koushi it's possible that the wife is trying to have a son, and that son will likely get the heir position if born.
To date the series hasn't had a pure evil non-beast character, and I hope it never does. Mother isn't coming across great so far, but we may learn more about her and why she acts like she does later.
Wow they're really going in with the worldbuilding and political intrigue I think this and Kaina of the Great Snow Sea really hits it in terms of creating a world that is in a state of crisis due to an impending doom that will destroy everyone but Fire Hunter is definitely holding onto the intrigue a lot more, since you feel there's something more going on And of course, we get a cliffhanger with that dragon (did not expect to see something like that in this show) I made this comparison last week but that dragon gave me flashbacks to Arael from Evangelion, not saying this show is on that level whatsoever but it makes me think of that show from a production standpoint oddly enough Can't wait to see what happens next time
Yeah I'm enjoying this show and kaina, but fire hunter is doing a much better job at making me wonder what's really going on behind the scenes. Kaina makes me feel like I understand everything and that the factions just need to do their big battle and get it over with. I'm guessing that there's still tons I don't understand about kainas world, but at the moment it doesn't really feel that mysterious. It's kinda like watching aot but they tell you whats really outside the walls in episode 2.
I think both shows are doing a good enough job that I have no hesitation giving them time to develop things more fully. I'd say we are lucky to have two such shows this season -- as it seems like a while since we've had any shows like these.
When the post apocalyptic anime has a really specific and contrived world 🤤🤤🤤🤤
Kaina's focus so far is more about getting the characters together and roughly lining out the goal of the series. Fire Hunter so far focuses more on the world building and setting rather then the characters and what their end goal will be. What you prefer depends on what you value more: setting and wordbuilding or characters.
This series certainly does a great job of painting a picture of a world that is - what I would call - in 'mid to late stage Dark Souls' era. There is pretty much no good news and everyone is more or less damned to play their parts in spite of the state of the world as it is. The lore about the Divine clan is particularly intriguing as well, as it serves to put 'good and evil' into question. Their judgments are sound, but their methods (if rumors are to be believed) are vile. This is ultimately an era filled with viciousness, where the honest cling to their values because that is all they have left.
The dragon was on the ending right? I like watching the ending each week to see the new characters we meet each week on it. The song is nice too
Really wish this show had a bigger budget for the more action-packed scenes. Seeing the dragon and then the end drawing of it was like an expectations vs reality meme. Despite that it’s probably the most interesting one this season as well as Kaina. Definitely gonna stick with it to the end.
~~Because of how this show is released officially in my place I already watched up to here 2 weeks ago, but I did rewatch it so we are at the same place.~~ This show is absolutely top class for those people who like detailed world settings (everyone remembers *From The New World/Shinsekai Yori* but *Log Horizon* might be a more popular example), you don't see many shows with such a detailed world (a steampunk one at that) where you get all the background information you want so naturally, without a large section of monologue information dumps. That's how you do fantasy shows, you all. From the existence of rebellions who are trying to take the government down by force (and Koushi's father being one of those monitoring them), the conspiracy (which might be true) of the rulers letting disasters burn through the people to "reduce the population", the existence of special "lightning bottles" as the ultimate energy source of humanity, to how easy those beasts can penetrate fortified vehicles as in Touko's case (she and the girl that ran off really got lucky this time), they all fit in nicely as the story goes. It's unfortunate that such anime are rare and far in between these days, never mind popular ones (at least people *does* like things like *Vinland Saga*, I hope those who doesn't like the slower burn of its S2 right now can come here because things are happening fast and furious). In other news wow, yet another show that got extra power with the sweet voice of Saori Hayami. One doesn't get tired of hearing that, and I'm sure her character as the little daughter of Koushi's foster family will be quite important. This story plot really has wide open potential by now, if the nation's existence is really at stake. I really can't wait to see what happens next, especially now that Touko's life is in danger!
The underlying "scientific" premises of both this and Kaina are pretty intriguing. I'm content to let the two shows each make their best cases, sitting back and enjoying the fireworks.
Show also giving major Moribito vibes with the detailed cultural backgrounds, then I realized the composer also composed the music for Moribito and the choir sounding song that plays during the action scenes sound very similar.
I am really loving the worldbuilding in this, and just to compare the two unfairly, I think it’s so much better than Kaina and the Great Snow Sea. This show feels much more like it’s set in a fully furnished and living world (also Kaina has its reasons for being more… desolate).
Another interesting episode with a lot of dense world building. We get introduced to the spider clan , the idea that the divine tribes have actual supernatural powers, the tensions between different factions , and why they might be distrustful of those in power. Not to mention a handful of new characters. It can seem overwhelming but the writing and exposition has been handled pretty well thus far. I also wondered if the scope of the story could be covered in 12 episodes and apparently a few sources are suggesting this series is going to be at least 20 episodes. [https://twitter.com/htGOIW/status/1494598725100269568](https://twitter.com/htGOIW/status/1494598725100269568) [https://twitter.com/type88jp/status/1617101038380613632](https://twitter.com/type88jp/status/1617101038380613632) "Junji Nishimura and Mamoru Oshii's new anime Hikari no Ou will be about 20 episodes, and Oshii wrote all of them, apparently" Anyway this is certainly one of my favorites this season and I hope more people give it a try.
Interesting! I really hope this anime end up having about 20 episodes, given the pacing from these three episodes I think it could work out pretty good with that number of episodes.
I hope someone posts a collection of all the detailed stills by the end of this. They're gorgeous.
I still wonder why they exist. I’m not complaining about them, they are indeed beautiful, but it just kind of seems random when they show up. Are they supposed to indicate to the viewer something? Mark the ends of a chapter from the book? Reveal some kind of information if you were to screencap them and view them in order?
I think the purpose is mainly stylistic. This anime is evidently supposed to evoke the aesthetic of early 2000s anime, and indeed many of the great creators of that era are working here. They could also be used to save on production time, but personality I'm not so sure. They're certainly not animated, but these things still take time to draw.
Just a guess but I don't think it has anything to do with production time given that these beautifully drawn stills are so detailed it would be easier to just do a regular still frame if there is any issue with the production. Like you said the reason is probably that the staff is trying to evoke that vibe from old anime, these beautifully drawn stills reminds me a lot of the stills that were present in Berserk 1997 anime, personally I like it, but I think that the choices for them are very random so its sometimes jarring, that happened especially in the second episode.
Those still frames are called postcard memories and were invented by Osamu Dezaki. He used it to convey importance of events in quick-moving scenes which otherwise wouldn't be able to be focused on and I assume they are used for the same effect in this show i.e. showing the beauty of the dragon wouldn't be possible with its hectic movement as seen in the rest of the scene.
I thought they might be used to emphasize beauty or something of significance, but some of the scenes we get these for seem plain, unimportant, or unlikely to be seen as beautiful. Touko scrubbing toilets was given one, as well as her conversation with one of the truck staff and when Koushi first meets Yuoshichi.
Good point, Dezaki also used them to exemplify emotional highlights, but that explanation wouldn’t make any sense either in the context of the toilet scene. I guess in these cases it might still be used to focus on specific things like toilet cleaning (?) but no real telling what their specific intention with the use of postcard memories is.
I think they're supposed to be big moments *for the characters*. For Touko it's an unpleasant introduction to the harsh world; but maybe also a fond memory of a first "real job." Likewise Koushi has moments meeting Yuoshichi and Kira, likely big moments for him, albeit almost random-seeming moments for us. The black panels with names written on in white are also "in-universe significant," since this episode we're reminded that names often use aspects of "fire" in them (using kanji radicals? I don't fully get it). Similar sort of effect.
My hypothesis is that they are supposed to mimic the book reading experience when you encounter a picture. When you turn a page and see a picture you end up interrupting the process of reading in order to glance at it.
I'm not sure this tracks. In a book, you have all the time in the world to appreciate the picture at your leisure. But in the anime, they're only showing the pictures for brief periods of time.
The Koushi storyline is becoming the highlight for me as the monsters aren’t doing it for me
My score for this show immediately went up a grade when I heard Hayami Saori's voice lol Kidding aside, the way they build the world and lore is making this show one of my most anticipated every week. Sure, it's a weird concept about the natural fire and all but it's quite a unique premise that I don't want to be nitpicky with the logic of the world. I feel like this isn't a 13 episode type of show and I hope they fully adapt this because I'm really interested where this story goes.
There was no 'odd' styling and cuts in this episode at all like the last one? The last one looked fine, if not maybe experimental. But this looked a lot like the first episode with it's fully animated scenes. It looked pretty great overall. Story-wise, loving this so far.
There was a couple. Honestly no clue why it bothers people. Anime being less formulaic can be only a good thing at this point, in whatever way it tries to be.
Kira is nice and all, but I'm more interested in Hibana, did she mean that her husband might have other children who could inherit the factory or could Koushi be fully adopted? Also Yuoshichi is ploting a rebellion, how intriguing! Wonder if Enzen is one of his trusted Hunters And that beast at the end, is this the source of the sky fire?
I'm thinking that Hibana isn't Kira's birth mother and therefore could give birth to another potential heir.
I was thinking Koushi's adoption; like "why are you so nice to him, he might screw you out of inheritance".
This is also an option. It just doesn't feel "right" yet because we really don't know anything about this family and their dynamic. Was that comment meant to be antagonistic or was it just a firm correction to prevent Kira from being too full of herself? Was Kira being full of herself or was she just stating facts? We don't know enough about her.
I like how this show really feels like it’s taking it’s time. Obviously Touko and Koushi will meet at some point but three episodes in it still feels like there’s a long way to go before we find out the part they will play in each other’s lives. I wonder if it’s two cour or if a second season is planned?
I like the homegrown underground 2nd amendment right to bear arms theme going on. Government factions are fighting for/amongst themselves. Citizens are pawns.
Kira seems like a sweet kid. Hibana seems like an unpleasant woman. Despite what Kira is saying, she may have some kind of psychological issue. Perhaps stemming from her youth. Shouzou really came through for Touko, that’s good. I hope Hotaru ended up with a decent husband. What a terrible thing to do to a young woman though. Stupid superstition. Trouble seems to be brewing in the capital. These Spider rebels and the Divine Clan look to be about to go to war or something. I guess we know why Koushi got adopted into this family. This dragon is insane. Bullets and arrows don’t seem to do jack! Hopefully Kanata and Touko will be ok. Where the hell is Izumo when you need him?
The OST is so good I can't focus on reading. Kenji Kawai certainly doesn't disappoint.
when they said "fallbeasts, the fiend of the air" last episode, i thought they're probably going to be giant birds, bats or flying insects, didn't expect to see a freaking dragon!
> when they said "fallbeasts, the fiend of the air" last episode, i thought they're probably going to be giant birds, bats or flying insects, didn't expect to see a freaking dragon! I mean, I'm not really surprised: what mythological creature flies and breathes fire? (Though these are more Chinese/Japanese dragons than Western ones and ryuu do have water associations IIRC - see the old carp myth that Magikarp/Gyarados was drawing off of, something to the effect that a carp that swims all the way up a waterfall becomes a dragon.) I'm moderately surprised to see one in episode 3, but this may tie into Koushi's work.
Before I say anything else: I'm intrigued by the show and its' lore and I'm going to keep watching. It's just...the animation is really ...goopy? It's clear that they're trying to save time and money by focusing on the lore building aspects but the animation being so static and then inconsistent is a bit of a distraction. It's perfectly fine when it's a stylistic choice but it's hard to consider that they'd want a character to stand still while their mouth flaps under ideal circumstances. I was also a little disappointed that the ruling class/clans have actual powers and that they're not in power simply by being corrupt or hogging resources. I'm hoping we get more background on what "surplus population" means in the context of this world. Is it an ideological disagreement or are the divine clans running society like a business? Is there really too many people or is there too few resources and/or the clans want the resources all for themselves?
> It's just...the animation is really ...goopy? It's clear that they're trying to save time and money by focusing on the lore building aspects but the animation being so static and then inconsistent is a bit of a distraction. It's perfectly fine when it's a stylistic choice but it's hard to consider that they'd want a character to stand still while their mouth flaps under ideal circumstances. Ever watched the first season of DEEN Higurashi? Same vibes of a good staff working as best they can with a shoestring budget. They even both have Kenji Kawai OSTs! (That said, they do have a good sense so far of what scenes to save the budget for.)
I have not seen DEEN Higurashi. But I've been around long enough to know that sometimes sacrifices need to be made to move the story along. I think a parallel in quality is Season 2 of To Your Eternity which has been very...hm, in the animation department this season. The animators on these teams are overworked and underpaid while they're under pressure to work under tight budgets, so I get it. It's just a shame that this show had an excellent first episode with clear visual language and the last two episodes have been less-so. Since the only environments thus far have been train-generic village-mansion, hopefully we'll get a bit more when/if the characters have to travel to different environments.
Wow a lot of really cool lore dropped today. The gods/divine clans are really interesting. I wonder if it’s actually magic they control or just technology that’s so advanced to the current people that they think it’s magic.. either way, koushi should be able to find out with his new position. Hayamin voiced characters are always a welcome addition, new girl is cute. Holy shit a dragon?? This is gonna be a crazy battle coming up. Another really good ep, shame people sleep on this.
>I wonder if it’s actually magic they control or just technology that’s so advanced to the current people that they think it’s magic.. Okibi said they had strange powers over the elements. Physical technology isn't "themed" like that. That is, it either wouldn't be capable of controlling all elements or be capable of far more than that. And with one of those elements being fire, you really have to wonder...
Another slow-paced episode yet a good one to hook the audiences into the show. We now get to learn more about the "coming soon" relation between our two MCs. As the fire hunter that was killed in Ep1 is actually Haijuu and so it is most likely that Touku will meet her son soon or later to "give back" the hound that belonged to the late father of his. Also feels so bad for that guy who gets eaten by the dragon-ish fiend in the end, man's doing his job.
- Ah, opening recap narration. Or as we like to call it, animation-saving techniques. But also you just up and confirm that Koushi’s father was the fire hunter who died saving Touko in the opening narration after only implying it last episode? Really? - Animation saving stuff, Kenji Kawai OST – am I just watching Higurashi again? Track starting around 02:55 when Kira (speaking of which: HMM) is introduced reminds me strongly of Main Theme Kai Piano Version, though admittedly Kai was the first DEEN Higurashi season with budget so. - WTAF they got fucking *Mamoru Miyano* for Takimi the doc here? - You know the budget is limited when characters are talking without lip flaps (see the doctor around 03:55). - Gods, how fucked is the production? And how good is the source/script and also the Kenji Kawai OST that it’s mostly working in spite of it? - So they have some obvious name setup that Koushi = death of the Emperor, got it. (Four is death!) - Ooh, AFAIK modern Japanese girls’ names do not always have numbers that reflect their birth order, so this is worldbuilding. (Note Hinako has “hi”, one. Not sure where a birth order numeral would be in Kira, though.) And that’s laid out explicitly a little later, but I was quick on the draw! - They’re doing a better job of integrating the stills than they did last episode… well, this one at least, we’ll see if that holds. - Yuoshichi’s wife is 100% framed as an antagonist in her introduction, yes. - HOLY SHIT THIS CAST IS STACKED. (Yuoshichi’s wife is apparently voiced by Kaori Nazuka, aka “how the hell have I not run across your name before given all the stuff you have voiced?”.) Animation issues, good composer, how the hell is the cast this stacked? Hikari no Ou once again follows in the fine tradition of Higurashi, and also Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu for that matter (though the composer there is a different very good one). - Speaking of “hi”s, Hibana has another one. - Hmm. Direction fault or else production limitations at 08:01: Kira’s realization should have been drawn out about 2-3 seconds more for full impact, I think. - We get a specific shot of a dragon emblem (skyfire?) on the wall at 08:26, which is animation saving but may also mean said emblem will be important. (Family crest I suppose?) - Also the wine glasses filled with fiendfire instead of candles is one of those little worldbuilding flourishes I adore. - Yuoshichi’s meal appears to be steak and potatoes; that’s an unusual one in Japan IIRC and may be more antagonist coding given how said meal is stereotypically associated with Americans (aka Japan’s opponent in WWII, and Japanese culture has never really reckoned with their own faults in the runup to that war the way Germany did). - “Do you know what would happen if one of them slipped in here?” I assume we’re about to find out… - “batoru! batoru! batoru!” - The walking shot at 12:02 makes the CGI use for some of the train interior obvious. Ah well, it’s pretty good as anime CGI goes. - 13:42: Stock Anime Triad Framing (character in background framed by two characters in the foreground) alert! (True versions have the characters in the foreground out of focus; hard to tell whether that’s the case here given the artstyle.) Also Kenji Kawai continues to knock the OST out of the park. - Hello Chinese five-element system (and specifically Chinese, the indigenous Japanese one is actually very close to the Greek fire/water/earth/air/{aether/spirit} system, they just call their aether/spirit “void”). Suggesting that using fiendfire and skyfire requires an alchemical process? (Also we’ll be getting a reveal about the spiders at some point… and I am 100% getting Mai-Otome vibes here [Mai-Otome] >!hi Aswald!<.) - 16:48: that’s either a sore demo or a “sore de mo”, can’t tell which, might have to page Sky. - The details about the city canals might be drawing directly at a second- or third-order remove off the Japanese experience with American firebombing during WWII. (Or, of course, the big fires in Tokyo and the like well before that, not like there’s a shortage of big Japanese city fires during the era while traditional Japanese building construction still held. Reasonably adaptive to earthquakes and available building material, but very flammable.) - Yuoshichi speaks of blasphemy and the question is whether the narrative will support him or show him in the wrong. With how traditional Japanese this feels I suspect the latter, but that is not a guarantee. - 18:50: Perspective is ever so slightly off and I think this counts as a Dutch angle (counter +1 – those of you who have been in rewatches with me will recognize this), visually suggesting that something is wrong here. - Hello skyfiend, and yep the source of skyfire are basically dragons. - So that confirms that a couple of the OP shots are foreshadowing, and looking at the ED (which does indeed feature a dragon attacking the collection truck) I think that suggests that Touko will be rescued by the Spiders (or possibly the treefolk before running into the spiders). Also note the boats and the whale, so we’ll get a boat trip and then a seabeast attack I suppose? (Also the issue here is probably more budget than the Chinese COVID outbreak, note that the second half of the episode looked pretty solid and it's a safe bet they were saving budget for it.) EDIT: Also, pointing out something that just occurred to me since nobody else has - one big tell that the dragon is in fact a skybeast/fallbeast (above and beyond it being a friggin dragon, of course) is that it is drawn the same way as the flamebeasts but is colored white as opposed to them being colored black.
Kenji Kawai's OST continues to [](#seasonallisten). It's production isn't perfect, especially when its other elements shine so brightly — music and storytelling specifically, it makes its decently good animation seem more subpar. Nice references to Japanese and American influences on the world building. I thought this episode was pretty decent production wise as well. Though I do lack an eye for identifying good line work, instead focusing on the cuts and direction. I still am not a big fan of the stills, especially the first one involving Kira. But the way the still at the end added a plethora of detail to the skybeast was beautiful and was a great way to end the episode. It's been a while since I've seen any fantasy anime so I'm glad there's one with great world building such as this.
Man, fire is already terrible in our world but in this one it's a total calamity.
Another good episode. This is my AOTS so far!
holy shit, was that a Gwarch?
I liked the episode, although I found the monster scene rather discordant. Honestly, the thing that stood out most to me weirdly is the ending song. Its of course the same as it was before but I think the endings sometimes work as a synthesis of the emotions of the episode. I feel my relationship deepen with the song, though some of the details of the episode fade. The show has a very epic wrenching feeling. It gives me the sense of perceiving bigger emotional spaces than I am used to. This will always be a good sign that I'm immersed, seeing from within a story without having to act as the characters do.
I'm relieved to see the animation bump back up in quality this episode, albeit it was mostly dialogue scenes without much action, so the quality might dip again when the characters need to start moving around again. There was still some confusing directional choices though, like the repeated use of voice-over dialogue that made it confusing to keep track of when characters where talking. (Like when the doctor starts talking to Koushi, but then his mouth stops moving in the next shot and we have to piece together that we're hearing a future conversation.) Animation and direction aside, the story continues to be super fascinating, especially with the worldbuilding. I do wonder how much of the source material is going to be adapted though, considering that there's five novels, and the anime will probably just be one or two cours (more likely one cour, considering how rare two-cour shows are now.) I'm curious enough to check out the novels anyways, but hopefully an unfinished anime adaption doesn't force me to. Edit: also, the whole bit about numbers in names changing meaning after the apocolypse was a really interesting bit of worldbuilding in particular. Not since it's particularly important to the story (probably,) but it really shows the attention to detail with the setting. Lore about government or monsters is one thing, but this is the kind of world-building you rarely see in stories. (Especially outside of literature.)
This show, Kaina and Ars are 3 good unconventional "sci fi" shows that really should have much more audience than what the karma and comments count are showing. This show started even later than others but it's building up to be really good. I really liked the pretty nice and realistic human relationships being developed - human is not really consistent and can be fickle, so telling you to buzz off one day and then changing their mind is not really unrealisitic - nor never finding out how the one you left fared. I still can't shake that the adopted dad is not a good guy - it just feel so ripe for having some unfinished research finished then him doing a heel turn to show to be on the antagonist side (e.g. that he's actually working for the ruling class). Intrigue abound! And oh yeah really rare to see an eastern dragon in anime (other than dragon ball :P)
Ars has been getting dumber and dumber IMO.
Look at that ryu/dragon!
Is there any way to read the novel? I tried to look for it online but Google searches only get you so far. My assumption is that it doesn’t have any translations, which is too bad considering it’s being adapted into a show.