Shingeki No Kyojin 4 & 5 – He is back

projects have been kicking my ass so i’ll cut to the chase

 

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Eren and his gang concludes his training in the academy – they graduate , ending up at the top 10 and having the privilege to choose which unit they wanted to go in.

Desiring to be at the forefront of titan slaying, Eren unhesitatingly joins the Recon corps — Armin and Mikasa follow suit without hesitation.

Shortly after graduation, they are on break during their duty on the walls of Rose when the Colossal titan appeared once more, causing another hole in the wall and destroying the wall’s armaments.

Easily annihilating the unit on the walls, Eren recovers and attempts to take on the titan – only to find him vanish as  swiftly as he appeared.

The guards regroup and recover from their casualties swiftly as they incoming hordes of Titans will approach the city’s center anytime soon.

 

Mikasa is assigned to the rear elite guard while Eren, Armin and the rest are assigned to the frontlines. Eren recalls vital information to taking down a titan and hopes he succeeds in this endeavor.

 

As soon as they arrive at the outskirts, a couple of abnormal titans appear and easily kills Thomas Wagner and the other members, effectively crippling the unit.

 

Eren comes to the rescue of his squadmates, but ends up becoming another meal for the titans.

 

Armin watches on as he becomes the sole survivor the unit, with an unprecedented sense of guilt and fear overwhelming him.

 

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By now, i think we can safely conclude that Production I.G is one of the best animation studios out there.

Shingeki No Kyojin has kept its visual style and production values consistent so far – leaving viewers craving for more as each week passes.

The Action sequences involving the 3D maneuver gear in episodes 4 and 5 are just exemplary in match-moving and tracking [ terms in visual effects ], though sometimes i feel their speed and relation to the environment is largely off upon scrutiny.

These couple episodes build up another engaging arc in the attack , but has been pretty much random in terms of execution. The colossal titan comes and goes as he pleases and only leaves a menial hole in the wall so that other titans can come in [when he admittedly can destroy the whole structure with a little bit more effort ].

More character development as we see the finer shades of behavior in each character, though they are admittedly overly dramatic sometimes, but hey, it’s humanity’s last bastion and I would know how you would feel [ maybe i don’t ].

Though the main character dying 5 episodes into the series has definitely been a new twist in storytelling and assuming you haven’t been spoiled by the incredibly considerate people who have read the manga, you’d be dying to know what’s next for Eren.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shingeki No Kyojin EP 3 – Rebuilding mankind

Sorry for the late posts, thing have been very busy.

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Eren and gang start their military training at the ripe age of 16. They go through grueling processes to strengthen themselves in order to effectively face the giants [Eoten].

Sasha Braus joins the fray of main characters, with her introduction being particularly full of potatoes.

Eren has everything but the physical ability to balance himself in preparation for the crucial Multiaxial gear that every scouting legion member will have to don. Slightly disheartened, he goes around looking for advice to better himself.

In the process he discovers that many people joined the military only for social status – and makes a few new comrades.

On the day of his final trial, he discovers that his saddle was defective all along, and he managed to balance himself for a moment before falling face-straight into the ground.

And so our group are ready for their arduous journey against the Eoten.

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With the inclusion of none other than ‘Potato Girl’ Sasha Braus, we have Shingeki go on a slightly more relaxed pace – a nice break from all that gore in the first two episodes.

Though for the sake of the narrative, the hilarity of Potato Girl was slightly out of place due to how spontaneous her appearance is – eating potatoes in broad daylight on the parade square. It is a love-hate thing, given how tongue-in-cheek eating potatoes during military training is. I don’t blame you though, Sasha, you’ve definitely made an impression on all of us we will expect more [potato] action from you in the future.

We see that Eren is becoming more and more of a likeable main character as he has displayed traits of a honorable warrior – setting pride and ego aside to do what he has to do. yes, for all we care, he could have gone down that typical ‘egotistical-badass-wannabe’ path and become an archetypal maniac who just wants to kill. Good that he didn’t.

That said, this episode was really entertaining and concluded Eren’s military journey concisely.

Bring on the dazzling multiaxial action!

Cheers

Keerakun

my galleries are growing bigger with each post, heh

 

 

this is actually pretty funny

Madoka Magica: A moral epiphany for many, amongst other things

Now we all know why she cries in the intro - and oh, those pupils really look nice on her for a change.

Where the hell have I been ? It doesn’t matter, but clearly someone has been getting into Puella Madoka Magica !

*CONTAINS SPOILERS* If you have not already watched the show, please do spare 6 hours of your life for it, it’s pretty worth it. 

P.S I am not here to review the ‘shock value’ that people proclaim this series to be so much about, nor am I going to go oh-all-so-fangasmic over how brilliant this show is – nope, I am here to review the morality factor that I think has greatly increased the appeal of the whole series

In the series, the girls were given a rude awakening to the truth behind their Mahou Shoujo transformations and the inevitable cycle of their lives once the contract has been made.

A pretty harrowing cycle I must say. A girl meets Kyubey with the pretext of getting a wish, only to be transformed into a Mahou Shoujo upon agreeing to a ‘contract’, sweeping across the world to banish witches who drop Grief Seeds. These girls’ bodies only become a vessel in which the continue their strife, as their true life essence and soul are stored in a physical and palpable Soul Gem. The Grief seeds are then used to purify the taint that the girls accumulate while expending magical energy in their Mahou form, failing which, they will turn into a witch upon reaching full level of taint of the soul gem.

Roughly goes like this:

Young girl: Agreed to contract ? yes, proceed to 1  –>  If not, you are be safe from eternal damnation. No flow over here. 

1) Becomes a Mahou Shoujo while retaining human form, can switch between magical form and human at will – accumulates taint as witches and familiars are fought

2) Died while fighting ? If yes, end of the line for you – both your soul and body is forever desecrated —> If not, proceed to 3

3) Accumulated too much taint? Failed to purify your Soul Gem ? Proceed to 5, If not, proceed to 4

4) No more witches to fight ? Your melancholy takes over you and ultimately corrupts your soul gem. Proceed to 5

5) Becomes a witch, what you originally had to fight. Ironic, is it not?

6) Kills more Mahou Shoujo and wreaks havoc : giving Mahou Shoujo jobs to do

7) Becomes a grief seed if killed , if not 8)

8) Accumulates immense amounts of energy and becomes a powerful entity

9) Witch gets defeated ( or not ) and reverts back to Grief seed to feed the essence of 1)

In the midst of all the processes above, energy is released into the surroundings, so Kyubey really only needs to find girls to supply this endless chain of energy, to counter the deficit proposed by entropy.

but clearly Kyubey’s explanation of entropy is rather messed up and should not be referred to as science to ANYBODY, but I’m not here to mind that – I’m here for the moral side of the whole process.

Seems cruel ? definitely needs a discussion.

Kyubey, an inorganic creature who is a part of the Incubators (preservers of the universe), claims that this is the most viable way to slow down the process of entropy in the universe, as human emotions exothermically emit a lot energy . Interestingly, the energy that keeps the universe going lies within the emotions of the girls that Kyubey are looking to making contract with. Normally, any human would label Kyubey’s ways as ‘cruel’, ‘inhumane’ and ‘sadistic’ as we are sacrificing one of our own. Really? Kyubey does not comprehend the logic in this. We feed on livestock such as cattle, and probably up to millions have bred and died to sustain our population – and yet we feel no remorse for these animals at all ? Who are we to claim that just be being in the higher echelons of both the food chain and the animal kingdom , we are able to do as we please to ones with lesser intellect and ability?

Perhaps that is the point that Kyubey has been trying to convey, but not a single regard was given to emotions – he does not see the point in weeping over a few humans when there are so many all over the surface of the earth. Why consider a few special, the double standard that we all give to a certain section of society ? Why make such a big deal out of a few humans ? Kyubey ponders this in the mindset of a utilitarian, no doubt, but with rationale and a bit of what we call ‘compassion’. Why so? because becoming a Mahou Shoujo requires the consent of the other party- the girl. Without an agreement, no form of contract can be agreed upon and no ‘cruelty’ can ever be done to any party. Kyubey defends the actions of his race by explaining it that way. He does not comprehend the concept of ‘regret’ and ‘betrayal’, for the decision to become a Mahou Shoujo is entirely voluntary, and a pretty incentivized one [ a free wish ] at that.

It still bugs me how there are only a total of 5 girls, though.

So why do some people still call Kyubey evil ? This is the interesting part about the whole series: you can’t really pinpoint to a bad guy. In the eyes of the wise, we consider Kyubey a lawful neutral- one who does not go around enforcing their actions on others, but tends not to take sides in their strife. He is simply trying to keep the universe going, so that future races and lifeforms are able to develop and sustain themselves and a lot of people are saying that this is malicious ? What is so malicious about helping the world at large ?  Does one always overestimate one’s value in this world ?

The ‘one for all’ and ‘all for one’ mindset has kept the world going for some time. Back in the industrialisation era of Stalin and Hitler, millions of workers bit the bullet to work tirelessly in order to build their nation – not without Hitler or Stalin’s authoritative gazes on them 24/7 of course. These leaders probably felt the same way Kyubey felt – securing a future, making sacrifices in the present; no emotions and melodrama, only action. Could it have been done better ? certainly, but apparently I do not have time machine so that I can give a 1930s bitch-slap to the admission officers back at Vienna Institute of the Arts when Hitler was a teen. I do not know how Germans or Russians feel about this, but the past must be put aside as well dwell on the present.

Indeed, humans are always torn apart between decisions. ‘Emotions’ are often the judge of our actions, for we often fail to have an arbiter measure of what is really ‘good’ for us. If Kyubey were to come up one day and tell us that your own family members were required to be turned into magical warriors in order to slow down entropy in the universe, I would probably weep for a while and embrace reality. Call him a devourer if you must, but I know that I have fought a good fight in life, as I will in death.

Call me a contrarian and a trash talker, but know that everyone will have to make sacrifices one day in the lives – and I’ll probably think of Kyubey when that happens.

Stay magical and logical my friends.

Keerakun