![]() It's not Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead or anything, but a great deal of the story is told indirectly, and it expects you to be able to put pieces together for yourself. The series also gets accused of being dumb, but I'm just going to say it straight: anyone who thinks so is dumb. I'm not sure it qualifies as edge when it's never pointless. ![]() The writing is pretty tight across the board, with no meandering as the girls mix trying to be normal with desperate fighting, their experiences in the field feeding back into their daily life and vice versa. The series gets accused of edginess a lot, but it's no more bloody than say, Claymore, and every such scene has a purpose behind it. Tense action scenes that only improve as the story rolls on, a pair of entertaining leads, a cast of fun supporting characters, magical girl tropes used to underline points the author is trying to make coated in military paint, and Fukami's usual thematic storytelling methods are all rolled up into a unique package that sells itself enthusiastically, if a little clumsily at times. ![]() Then there’s the transitions between these moments and the moments that fall completely flat, and the end result is a mixed viewing experience to say the least.How would magical girls fight in real life? Kinda like this. There are definitely character moments where you really feel the writer just got inside the head of the character and conveyed them perfectly and there are action sequences that very nicely put together. Some things and some scenes Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka gets spot on. The problem is, Spec-Ops can’t really handle Asuka’s emotional journey, plus delving into the emotional status of the other magical girls, look into the impact of tragedy on Asuka’s human friends, and deal with the reignited war as well as the various politics between worlds in the 12 episodes it has and it doesn’t actually balance these elements particularly well.ĭon’t get me wrong. The enemy are goofy looking but incredibly deadly and the juxtaposition really adds to the tragic feeling this series seems to be going for. The enemy? Creatures called Disas who take the form of walking plush toys and yet are incredibly nasty and hard to take down. Instead, after establishing this premise the anime immediately feels the need to disrupt Asuka’s life again by having the enemy return and attack Japan. You know, if the series had focused on that point and actually looked at her ongoing struggle and transition this would have been a much better story. No, this is not how you deal with matters as a civilian Asuka. Obviously things aren’t all sunshine and roses for her and she’s very much suffering from PTSD and struggling to make the adjustment back to civilian life. ![]() Asuka’s family were tortured and killed, her friends died, and she fought in a war when she was a very young girl. For once we see the toll on young girls of being thrust into such difficult and dark situations. We are following Asuka, who has chosen to return to a ‘normal’ life though she’s carrying around a lot of emotional baggage from her time as a magical girl. The series begins with the end of a magical war and then our surviving magical girls go their own ways. Fortunately, Spec-Ops takes a different approach and in theory it has a fairly solid idea. Even before Madoka they existed and after Madoka they flourished giving us a range of hit and miss stories of deranged magical girls fighting each other for various contrived purposes. ![]() If ever a title deserved the dubious honour of being celebrated for its concept but questioned about its execution, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is definitely one of the top contenders. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |