clifton38 - 2016-03-16 22:46:48

Prelude

 

Muv-Luv is a franchise wellknown amongst westerners as “the best” visual novel ever made, and has asurprisingly big fan base. But most don’t know that theVisual Novel franchise is actually based on a Light Novel series, which no onehas probably read outside of those who read Chinese translated books orJapanese…The reason why everyone likedthe whole game was because it takes itself seriously and the characters haveactual motifs for their actions, not feeling like dolls that can be playedaround with.

And thus, it became what it istoday, but I’m not here reviewing the Visual Novel, but the animated adaptionof the side Light Novel.

Review Part: IntroPresentation

 

Total Eclipse is set in the year 2001 where humanity is on the verge of extinction due to encountering an unkown species, which later are named to The Beings of Extra Terrestrial origin which is Adversary of human race or shortly put (BETA).
The first character to die halfway in the first episode with the phrase “eh?” which she states after acharacter blatantly warns her 5 seconds earlier that she should watch out. 
And you’re support to be like“OH NO! WHY?!” or the scene where her friend tells her “Shoot me!” but shemisses every single shot with her dying in vain, crying like a baby, whichafterwards she gets saved by plot convenience to extend her role in the story,pretty bold if you ask me. 

Review Part: Characters

The characters in TotalEclipse are a mix of all types of anime
stereotypes sexualized to the point ofno return. Of course, there are a fewexceptions. But the main dish just feels uneasy on the eyes or distracting tofocus on the story or character motives, because you’ll be starting at theirhuge melons or the weird spandex suit. The characters themselves arebarely memorable as well. We have the MC being that arrogantpro who can’t do anything because he hasn’t mastered the ways of JapaneseTactical Surface Fighter, as different countries build them based on differentuses. Americans brute force, Russians Maneuverability and power, Japanesemostly Maneuverability so it can jump around like Mario.

The rest of the cast arethere to help him change his view on how he should use them. As they prettymuch can’t afford to lose trust between themselves. Seriously, the characterswere so forgettable except one or two that I’ll end up missing them entirely.VG is a notable character who cracks/does perverse jokes but has an attitudewhich actually hits the soft spot.

 Especially his Dub actor, he did anoutstanding job to portray him. Bridges is your Eren Jaeger who has no personalityor reason at all except being there causing drama or dumb plot-twists that willmake you raise a brow or scratch your head. Takamura is the main femalelead that is a literal tsundere, nothing much to note on her, throughout thecourse of the story she doesn’t change. And no, her relationship with theBridges doesn’t go anywhere. Cryska and her sister arepretty much the equivalent of little sister loves MC, elder one doesn’t buteventually falls in love. Yes folks, it’s a love quadrangle. She’s an emotionlesskiller who turns into a yandere because plot called it. There are of course. Muchmore characters, but I hardly remember what they wanted to do or their motivesin the show, which leaves a very poor example of the show.

 

Review Part: Storytelling& ArcsThe story telling is led by a predictable outcomes and unconving reactions to be taken seriously. It constantly changes to unrelated topics about the show and its characters.First it’s a training drama about surviving the beta attack and helpinghumanity in further developing TSFs to improve their chance of survival then all of a sudden we go to aBeach arc about how the MC is treated as shit because he’s Half-Japanese I meanseriously? Oh and it gets better. Another few training sessionscome in, but focus mostly their back stories which is good,but when the story does nothing so you can remember these characters you just don't want to care either way. The pacing changes from fast to slow at random, throughoutthe first 5 episodes where they build on relationships with characters andtheir motives they change to drama about going to the girls hot spring then allof a sudden into a the-military-does-not-respect-us-civilians drama. The whole testing pilot thingliterally stays true for only ¼ of the series and no more. Presenting multipleplot holes and nonsensical reasonings which of course mean nothing in the longrun, because it ends up being a shonen-style storytelling where the power ofbelieving will make the day bright again. Technically after the arcscould’ve been made way better by expanding on the series for more than 26episodes and actually do something with its themes and characters and not endup in just another forgettable cash-in.

 

Review Part: Productionvalues and music

Animation 

Oh boy, here is the thingwhere it made me want the show to have been done by Sunrise and not Satelight. For a war drama that focusesmostly on robot fighting, the robot themselves are Computer-Generated meaningthat half of the animation just dies, which not to say that it had anyspectacular animation to begin with. So the drop in quality isquite high regardless of what you’rewatching…The PowerPointpresentation walking or running animation is distracting, so to save budgetthey mostly sit around doing nothing and talk for an eternity, even the enemiesare CG it really fell flat here, there was nothing redeemable about it. 

Character Designs 

The character designs are onenote and pretty basic, you have short hair mid length hair short hairdifferences. One note backgrounds, and semi-post apocalyptic landscape here andthere. Nothing special really, they didn’t even try improving the alreadyexisting designs or backgrounds.

 

 

Music and usage

Themusic is mostly forgettable, but fits the scenario pretty well. Consideringmost of the times nothing specific happens, and the overall action scenes arelittle. There was one insert song by Granrodeo which was a good insert songthat played twice. And one at the end of ep 4, the rest is either reenactedfrom the VN ost mixed with anime original, and it’s pretty poorly used. The 4action scenes that actually played those 2 insert songs was nice to listen towhile the fight was going in the background but in the end, it fell off therope and went straight down the lake.

Conclusion:
Inconclusion it’s a below average production that really has nothing for you tobother wasting your time with, I have a dim recollection of the charactersexactly 7 days after I finished it. Of course, it may only be worth it if youwant to break it down

ophelia62 - 2015-11-08 11:16:44

J'ai vu une review assez trash que je n'ai pas osé lire en entier mais je vais faire la mienne et je vais la faire en français car flemme. (Faudrait une version français de ce site un jour.)

Le déroulement, dans la globalité, l'anime se déroule bien, on se fait pas trop chier sauf aux premiers épisode. Les scénariste on pris un gros risque mais ce risque était finalement bien pensé car il nous donne de informations essentielles sur l'un des personnages principaux (Yui) et ça permet de ne pas avoir de flash back à la Naruto (15 minutes de flash back, 5 minutes d'épisode) au contraire, quand ça la concerne ont a juste les partie intéressante du premier épisode (parfois c'est quelques secondes) et le reste se déroule. Heureusement, ils n'ont pas fait un épisode dédié par personnage mais à la fin on sait qui est qui.

L'animation, je l'ai trouvé relativement bien réalisé, ils n'ont pas hésité à mettre de sang, ils n'ont pas non plus hésité à mettre des détails sur ceux qui se font tuer (yeux par exemple). Pour le reste on sent très peu l'action du moteur 3D (y'a que la flotte ou parfois les terrains sinueux). En ce qui concerne les personnages, peut-être que certains vont qualifier ça de fan service, moi personnellement à ce niveau je m'en fou un peu puis-ce que les hommes sont soumis au même traitement : Latex et parties du corps qui prennent bizarrement plus de volume (pectoraux/seins selon le sexe). D'ailleurs, surprenant, on a du avoir grossièrement qu'un seul épisode (ou une partie) en mode Fan Service de base (maillot de bain / source chaude) mais là c'était grosse surprise car en dehors de cet épisode c'était très sérieux et on nous a balancé deux scène (dont une imaginé) assez olé olé.

Le son, j'aurais peut être du brancher ma chaîne Hi-Fi dès le début mais pas grave. Cette partie est relativement bien travaillée donc j'ai pas grand chose à dire :p

Les personnages, le chara-design est relativement classique néanmoins ça ne rend pas les personnage inintéressant, après le gros classique du personnage aimant (qui attire toute les gonzesse si je puis-dire), c'est un peu dommage. Personnellement, celle qui va jusqu'à qualifier Yuuya comme son mari je l'aurait bien effacé du casting mais c'était malheureusement nécessaire au développement des Scarlet Twins...

Pour résumer, j'ai bien aimé l'anime, il se fini un peu à la IS mais ne se déroule pas exactement comme IS (y'a pas d'abus sévères sur le Fan Service) donc wala, je mets une note de 8 mais je suis plutôt bon public :D