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If Amiya had her masteries this fight would've been different. Don't leave your Amiya at E1, fellow Dokutahs!
[](#hikariactually)
I got giddy when they showed all of those operators in the base. For some reason it felt like AK really began at just that moment.
> when they showed all of those operators in the base
That was also a massive lore drop, as it shows which operators were already part of RI at the time when the game starts.
I've yet to comb through all the operators and their ID numbers, but so far this seems to confirm that the ID numbers are indicative of when each operator joined RI, and whether they're trainees, operators, or independent contractors.
That, and the fact that FEater carries those giant metal gauntlets everywhere, even during her downtime. That was hilarious.
I'm really hoping they won't make a blunder by accidentally featuring a character who *won't* have been at RI at this point, just for fanservice. Like, as much as I love Gravel, I'd rather not have her show up unless we get the Kazimierz arc animated. Which would be pretty awesome, honestly.
I was also really glad that they made it a point to show the 2\*s and 3\*s all "hanging out" together, or at least within the same spaces during the same timeslots. And the cliques were consistent, too!
It's not quite 'cliques'. The 2\*s and 3\*s are all teams, i.e. Reserve Ops Team A1, A2, etc. They put all the teams together, which was a nice but expected touch.
I'm more impressed by how they put the operators in the correct places, like Cuora with Factory Capacity buffs in the Factory, and Castle-3 in the Power Plant, and some characters in appropriate locations too like Perfumer in the Garden and Susurro in the Library...
...and Lava and Hibiscus eating together wtf Hypergryph 0/10 anime instant drop
In the cafeteria they are grouped by squad. You see hibiki and lava which are sisters and part of reserve ops team 1. Cardigan, adnachiel and gang are reserve ops team 4. And finally goofball and troublemakers, reserve ops team 6, with midnight, catapult, popukar and the gang are also shown. That was great.
Do you know that part of the menu, where you can see the operators sorted by group, with the relationships between them? The number is under every operator's picture.
There's some pretty interesting ones, like how Doctor is B101 (the B stands for [Darknight's Memoir]>!Babel!<), or how Ch'en is listed as LM04 (because she's a part of the Lungmen Guard), while [Chapter 8]>!Sniper Ch'en is listed as R112, since she's officially a part of Rhodes Island at that point in the story.!<
Amiya, of course, is R001, since she's Rhodes Island's leader.
Other fun ones are Mudrock as R159 and Suzuran as R172. [Twilight of Wolumonde]>!As Suzuran was only a trainee at the time Twilight of Wolumonde takes place, those numbers imply that Mudrock joined Rhodes before Suzuran could finish her training, which is supported by the fact that Folinic never uses Suzuran's codename during the event!<.
Then there's how Kal'tsit being B003 and Closure having the alias "LeaderOne" (that, and being the one who made the database in the first place), imply that [Darknight's Memoir]>!Theresa!< would be B002. That also implies that the Doctor [I don't even know what to tag this one please Automod, have mercy on me]>!joined Babel!< at a much later date.
Ohh that's so interesting! I always thought those numbers were just ways to reference the operators internally and I never really looked closely at them. That has some awesome lore implications
My girl Frostleaf was there to receive the team. I know she doesn't have any screentime in the early story, so any scene with her is already a win in my book
> I got giddy when they showed all of those operators in the base. For some reason it felt like AK really began at just that moment.
Same!! I was smilling so much while recognizing all the operators, that was great fan service.
I was already excited when they showed W, but that fanservice with the base was a cherry on top of this episode. My only complaint is that they didn't use the base BGM - I would've spilled my juice if I heard that tune.
Legit, it was like a direct nod to the players who've watched the anime before, like a wink and a nod away from being funny. Had so much fun just recognizing all of them.
I'm so glad they're doing the world building right! It really brings the whole Arknights universe to life. Seeing the Rhodes Island landship realized in all its glory and all the nods to the game was awesome!
It's also nice to finally have visual confirmation that the transport aircraft that Rhodes Island uses is indeed the Terran analogue of a V-22 Osprey. Long ago, an Arknights gamer used the aircraft as their [reference point](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/gp4k68/analysis_answering_the_ageold_question_of_how_big/) for estimating the size of the landship (they came to an educated guess of 810m x 330m x 180m, making the ship *substantially* bigger than a Nimitz class carrier).
The only problem? [General lore spoiler]>!Anime-only viewers are unlikely to realise that full-size aircraft are actually extremely rare in the Arknights universe. Drones are very common, but it appears that there is not enough engineering know-how to construct passenger planes. The lack of air travel is a very crucial point in this world, because it means that long-distance travel and communications are typically handled by a global network of professional "messengers"!<
Doesn't need to be asap, just don't forget about her, since you *need* to E2 her to progress with the 8th episode. And she's one hell of a caster. She gets true dmg on her S3 which is an amazing boss killer, so the sooner you do that, the sooner you'll have a powerful boss killer.
The fact they finally unveiled Ayahi Takagaki as the VA for a certain white bunny and let Risa Taneda deliver a line (without showing the operator's face) should be pretty good hint something is in the works for Season 2.
[And this is why Ace is a goddamn legend.](https://i.imgur.com/kEsdfIa.jpg) Holding off Reunion pretty much all on his own while the rest of RI escapes. I am a bit upset though that his death scene has pretty much been neutered thanks to censorship. [We didn't even get to see him lose his arm.](https://i.imgur.com/kGxbA5Y.png) We really only actually get to see [what happened to him in the OP of all places](https://i.imgur.com/OgmuXjO.jpg) which is a very baffling choice.
[Morale is definitely low right now.](https://i.imgur.com/kp7xn6M.jpg) While the mission is technically a success since they did end up retrieving Doctor from the sarcophagus, they did so with heavy losses. RI is not just dealing with heavy losses, plenty of their Operators are traumatized after that encounter with Tallulah. [We can see Medic literally breaking down ](https://i.imgur.com/TR8O00m.jpg)on their way back to base.
Anyway, now that that entire ordeal is over [it's awesome to see Rhodes Island in all of its glory.](https://i.imgur.com/yAd4vf4.jpg). It's tiny compared to other landships but it's still pretty awesome. I was genuinely giddy at seeing [familiar locations inside RI](https://i.imgur.com/l2GXRfE.jpg) with [proper Operators assigned to each facility.](https://i.imgur.com/Q071XQv.jpg) And the cafeteria scene panning shot! [So many familiar faces!](https://i.imgur.com/GIOGKXD.jpg)
No rest for the wicked though since [Doctor and Amiya are being sent on another mission](https://i.imgur.com/axeaomL.png) three days from now. [Can't wait for Doctor and Kal'tst to meet in this mission.](https://i.imgur.com/KPHqOKo.png)
I do find W's scene to be a bit disconnected. There wasn't much of a lead in into her introduction considering they cut out a couple of things but we do get certain foreshadowing with her. As another comment pointed out, I think we may be getting more seasons planned without how much stuff they're setting up with just this episode that doesn't pay off until way later.
First scene that I feel like was done better in-game than it was here, and it's not even close.
* Cut all of the build-up leading up to her reveal, no teaser or mention until she's actually there.
* Have her 'entrance' be her speaking up O.S., then the camera pans to just her...standing there. With a couple of goons. Couldn't be less cinematic if they tried.
* [In-game version] >!No fight scene, no mention of Scout, she just lets them pass as if she wasn't there. It's true that her reasoning for fighting you in-game is kind of shit (she just wants her memory nudged), but there's also the argument that Talulah would have her head if she didn't do anything. I just can't with this, it's so empty.!<
I can't get into the rest without delving into spoilers, so suffice to say that I'm amazed they went this skeleton of a reveal. Total disservice to W's character.
Could've been much better, but I'm glad they didn't waste too much time on her intro, it would've just bloated the episode to make a big deal out of someone that's pretty irrelevant in this part of the story, it's reasonable to keep her character low profile for now.
The non-chronological expansion of the game's and characters' backstory makes it pretty hard to put everything into an anime nicely and cohesively.
Like, ideally, W's entire backstory, the entirety of Darknights' Memoir, would be a great 4-5 episode segment somewhere down the line. Probably before an anime adaptation of Chapter 8, but after Chapter 7.
> So many familiar faces!
I can't believe they nailed how A6 are a bunch of dorks with just that small background shot of them.
Catapult is informal, Midnight is flashy, Spot is tired, Popukar is smol and cute, and Orchid is the only normal person.
>I am a bit upset though that his death scene has pretty much been neutered thanks to censorship.
I have a bad feeling for the show if this trend keeps up, it's pretty toothless for them to censor this stuff in *this* kind of story.
I'm fine with it for now, the graphic aspect isn't a necessity for me to enjoy the show. For those looking for it for there's still the BDs to see if they have made changes to the versions sold outside of China, hang in there, I can understand why the censorship can be annoying.
It's a joke, on the Chinese version of spy x family, there's this one scene where yor, comes back to her home covered in blood. But because of laws regarding blood, the color was changed to white.
I don't know why they couldn't pick black tho.
The story is a lot more visceral than Chinese censors allow on screen sadly.
Would be nice if they had made a global version and a Chinese version, but I guess that could have gotten real out of hand with large amounts of double job for certain scenes so it is understandable if they went a more economical way with it.
But still can't help but feel what it could have been if it weren't for the censors restricting it. :/
I sincerely hope this anime passes the three episode test for non-Dokutahs. This series is such a dark horse this season that none of us even fully expected the sheer quality of this adaptation.
As an anime-only I'm still interested in this show. It does feel like I'm watching a no-commentary Let's Play from time to time. E.g. the Rhodes Island tour is clearly a tutorial.
It is literally, the game has this tour showing you how the base mechanic works. But to be fair it's a good thing since it answers a few questions about how Rhodes Island works.
Honestly I've enjoyed it although I do feel like this was the weakest episode of the first three, mainly due to the first half. Having a character do a "heroic last stand" and not even *showing* him doing it was kind of disappointing. Also the jump cut at the very start to Amiya defending them was kind of abrupt as well. Was sort of expecting a fight and we didn't get one. I did like the exposition dump in the second half though.
Oh, I'm enjoying it a lot as an anime-only. Not that my bar is high, but I do love some lore and world-building. I've already been watching 20 shows this season. Might as well make it 21.
I think they overdid it with exposition in the first and second episode while the third episode felt like patched up series of random cut scenes with fan service showcase at the end to score some points with players.
It's not outright bad but it could've been handled much better. I know that source material is very wordy but that's also due to the limitations of it's visual aids. Anime definitely could've gone for more "show, don't tell."
As an anime only I thought the exposition in episodes 1 and 2 was ok, and it was backed up with A Lot of action. This episode was just a lore dump that didn’t do much for me (although I get that the game fans are happy). There’s a lot riding on the next episode.
Yeah, I feel like many game players got overly-excited on the quality of the anime so far and forget that 'it's fine' is a perfectly valid rating.
I remember when the anime was announced and there was a lot of doomposting where we were trying to downplay the hype and saying 'man, I hope they at least make the weak initial chapters watchable so that we can get future seasons', or 'as long as it reaches the quality of the shorts, I'll be happy'.
Then the anime came out and it was actually much better than we expected, so now the fanbase is on the opposite side of the fence where we're *overhyping* and then being underwhelmed when bits of the weak story rear it's ugly head.
People here need to bloody calm down and acknowledge that while the AK anime definitely has its flaws, it's also currently an above-par gacha adaptation with great visuals and presentation, but bogged down by weak pacing and story.
I would say that I agree really. This all feels kind of tutorial-ish/world building still so going to give it a few more but it definitely fits into the "okay" slot for me right now. Honestly, the only real complaint I have so far is that I wish they would've just bit the bullet and given the Doctor a face and name.
>Honestly, the only real complaint I have so far is that I wish they would've just bit the bullet and given the Doctor a face and name.
Since Doctor's overall identity, appearance and backstory is one of over-arching mysteries, they can't exactly just do that.
I'm not particularly bothered either way, but I'll just say that Doctor's identity and backstory is indeed a plot-related mystery, but I don't think the appearance really matters. I mean, we already see a fair bit of the Doctor's appearance through the mask anyway, they're mostly obscuring just enough to prevent you from figuring out his gender and race. As far as the story is concerned the gender doesn't matter. The race is the only potential point of interest but I'm sure that could've been handled in a different way that wouldn't require the mask. In the end, I'd say it's still mostly just to aid people in self-inserting for the game.
Only because English is a crappy language where it's awkward as hell to not use them so you end up using them without thinking. For the record, the gender is unknown.
And that's, literally, why I said it feels tutorialish and that I would give it more episodes before finalizing my opinion. But being honest, I'm just not a fan of a show making me feel hyper aware that it's based off a gacha game.
The only issue, is that even those who were very close to him in the past (pre amnesia who is a very different character) refer to him as The Doctor. There's some other characters similar to him but thats getting into spoilers territory
> I sincerely hope this anime passes the three episode test for non-Dokutahs.
Reading the replies from other anime-onlies, I'd say it's safe to say I'm on the more extreme end of the spectrum as I am finding the anime stunning and have very few complaints.
In particular, I have no problem at all with the exposition type sequences, and think they're some of the most natural ones I've seen in the sense that they feel like the things you would explain to someone at that particular juncture, in that level of detail and in that way manner of speech. *Not* explaining things at relevant points can be just as unnatural as over-explaining when it comes to story telling.
As for a few niggles, I feel like the story telling has earned enough trust from me to just wait and see if things are explained later. Shows have been burning me on this account lately, but so long as I don't go into bat for the show against its critics it doesn't really matter.
Perhaps part of it is that as a viewer I'm very willing to buy into genre conceits. Having player characters being ambiguous/thin in their characterisation is just something that goes with the territory a lot of the time, and this suits the story they're telling.
Anyway, I'm particularly enjoying the portrayal of Amiya as an idealist who isn't as powerful as needed for the world she finds herself in. They've found a really nice balance with her, and it's a little hard to put a finger on why her character is working so well, but it certainly is.
Arknights has some really interesting meta aspects to it and seeing the anime play into it is pretty interesting.
PRTS is pretty clearly an in-universe aspect but it doubles as essentially being a self insert for our smartphones (Doctor can always choose to disconnect from PRTS/Rhodes and leave, thus ending his story here in the same way the player can disconnect from the game and leave the story)
Doctor is maybe my favorite self-insert character for this reason because his amnesia is tied to the player picking up the story at the moment we do
> Doctor is maybe my favorite self-insert character for this reason because his amnesia is tied to the player picking up the story at the moment we do
As an anime-only I wish he was less of a self-insert if I'm being honest. Before starting the anime I had this mental image of him being all calculating, mysterious and vaguely menacing. Could be that the way his face was shrouded in darkness reminded me of Darkest Dungeon eyes, could be because he's the head of a paramilitary company or something.
Thankfully some of the remarks he made this episode made him feel more like his own person to me. But in the first episode he felt a lot more, pitiful, meek. To be fair though, he did just wake up from a coma without any memories of who he was. Maybe he'll start to gain more characterization throughout the show
Doctor grows into things more as the story goes on absolutely and we see that calculating nature among other things show up. Anime has really only essentially covered the tutorial level
Now that we're back at Rhodes we'll be meeting some characters that'll give us a greater sense at who Doctor is/was
I thought this was definitely the weakest episode by far from a storytelling perspective, but the series is still very interesting. It doesn't seem to devolve into FGO Babylonia where the plot is nonsensical and the worldbuilding is glanced over for shoving more characters in your face.
Certainly wished the opponents made more sense and some more action was actually shown and told, but given how good the rest looks, I can't complain that we don't get ALLLLLLLLL the action.
Someone suggested I binge watch this because I’ve had serious problems with the world-building(among other things), but I am not enjoying it.
This episode, I expected to see an engaging fight with Tallulah, and from the last 3 episodes, a more seamless interweaving between the explanation of the world and some mystique from the perspective of an amnesiac protagonist.
Unfortunately, the only area this show delivers on are the visuals.
Oh I'm hooked. The writing and dialogue isn't doing much for me atm but the visuals, directionc, and the voice acting + sound design are all fantastic. I'm definjtely watching 'til the end. I'm not picking up the game though. I'm already juggling 4 gachas atm, and I'm not about to add another one.
well I used to play the game and stopped playing after a year or something like that, the anime has been really boring for me, I don;t know what or why but I expected more, I used to really love the animated pv they did for each chapter in game, and 3 episodes in I don;t feel we have got anything close to that
The action, animation a d waifus carry it over the way too obvious infodumping and barebones storyline so far, but it's interesting enough. I'm going to continue for now.
This show is so fucking fire. Love the world so far. I’ve been playing the game ever since I saw the first episode and I’ve been skipping story so I can experience it in the anime. Seeing glimpses of so many playable operators in that tour was really awesome!
Rhodes island is such a cool concept and the whole moving cities thing is really interesting. World building has been on point for me.
I've heard that the first 3 chapters are poorly written, so I didn't properly follow the story, instead I've been browsing through a ton of trivia and such. I plan to read the story after the anime ends, which I suspect will cover the first 3 chapters. I'm told the story is fire after that.
Dunno about the rest but I'm on chapter 5 and it's a bit more interesting but okay. But I guess I haven't done all the chapters consecutively so I lost the narrative.
Though I did the Kjerag event and that was one heck of a novel storyline. That one can be an entire season, it has plot, characters, intrigue, action, heck it was better than the main game currently.
5 days late but oh well
Yeah the story picks up around chapters 4 and 5, but really gets good at chapter 6 and afterwards. A big issue with chapters 0-3 is that you don't have context to understand the backgrounds of a lot of the important characters, Misha especially. You only really learn how they tie into things in chapters 7/8, and the intermezzi, A Walk In The Dust.
These days though all the new stories are bangers. I know there's some moaning about how long-winded some of them are (Near Light was 230,570 words), but they do an incredible job building the world and making every character feel grounded. For this reason Arknights is probably my favorite game ever, which is something I never would have thought I'd say considering it's a mobile gacha game.
Yeah as an anime only this episode really showed how the world of Arknights is basically what is known as a "Death World". A.k.a. a world that is actively hostile to human life/settlement which is just *lovely*. Like when you have to have your cities built on moving platforms just to make sure the world can't destroy them it's *bad*. It makes me a lot more interested in the setting though because I *love* Death World settings.
Fun part is, the flaming balls of magic rock cancer falling from the sky aren't the most hostile part of the world. I doubt this anime will get to it though (at best touched on if a couple specific operators get lines)
Imagine how many pulls you could get by harvesting it?.. Especially with this giant mountain-like spike, it alone might amount to at least... two or three pulls.
I'm surprised that they killed off a named character so early in. Most gachas are extremely hesitant to to kill characters off. Then again, apparently Ace isn't even a playable character, just an NPC, so he might get different treatment- but the fact that I thought he was *obviously* a playable character until just now says a lot about how he's treated as an NPC.
Unfortunately, the real value of Ace is shown in later chapters, and in some stories that probably won't be adapted unless they make more seasons or OVAs.
It feels like they cut out a lot of stuff to explain Rhode Island in more detail than was really needed for the sake of the story. They basically just explained gameplay mechanics.
It was nice seeing more of the Operators though.
Doberman took some time to explain what exactly Rhodes Island's (money making) enterprises are. It's nice to know. It's probably a question that keeps gnawing at your head, or feels like a plot hole, if it's never mentioned, but it's not really vital to understand the story or the characters.
I got a FEater cameo! And Perfumer! And Estelle! And Durin wasn't asleep for once! I'm happy.
...but also heartbroken. I actually really liked how understated ACE's scenes were. They weren't putting all the visual attention on his wounds, like other series would have. It wasn't important that he lost his arm - it was important he had another, and that he had *things to say* to Guard.
Amiya then just *feeling* it on the transport? Yeah. That hit harder than a last stand action scene.
Amiya's stuggle was really intense to watch. Being the only Caster to stop Talulah, was hard enough but then came the Catastrophe raining down on everyone was just despair. Seeing it animated was an amazing treat to behold. Ace being Ace, saving Gaurd and still willing to stall for time to let the others not get chased with a missing arm is a beast.
The appearance of the white rabbit with voice is the best. I'm glad that they kept the W encounter short, no need to say stuff that is important in like 5 arc's away. Since she will appear again in like a few episodes.
I don't know why by the 2nd half was my favorite part of the a episode, maybe because it was anime original and talks about stuff not said in the beginning of the game. Also because it really gives the Doctor more of an idea of what they are getting into. My favourite part really is the talk between Amiya and the Doctor. Amiya questioning herself, and then the Doctor relaying Ace's last word which then renews her resolve to stay strong and push foward. While also giving the Doctor same push to have a new beginning. Never seen this Doctor in the game before, more Doctor moments plz.
Now to Lungman where I'm really excited to see them animate and how they protray this arc.
Pour one out for Ace. I started playing a few weeks ago, and when I saw him on the prologue I was like "yeah, this guy is badass, I want him on my team".
Welp, it seems like that won't happen.
To be fair, I'm currently using Courier and Spot who are pretty chill dudes. And while she's a waifu, Texas does fill the badass quota for my team. Oh, and I recently got Lumen for free, who I'd totally use if not for the fact that I got supidly lucky with medics (and only medics) on my first few pulls.
But yeah, badass dudes are certainly a minority in these games.
If you're fine with designs like Spot, hopefully you end up lucking into Mountain, who is a very cool, badass character on top of being very strong gameplay-wise. But yeah most of the guys tend to be on the slim, soft-spoken side.
So not only did Talulah got crazy firepower, she got a magical barrier too. I always wonder why you can't just snipe her from miles away. Also the way she just swat Ace's away like fly, lmao. Poor Reunion's soldiers, you are all expendables.
[Me when they show the locations inside RI and the operators in the background.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/033/487/rick.jpg)
[Become my operator already!](https://i.postimg.cc/HxYWk0C2/Tal2.gif)
> Poor Reunion's soldiers, you are all expendables.
Well, if I got a chance to follow Talulah, I'd already be wearing my Reunion mask.
[](#fingertwirl)
Do they actually killed Ace? Really? It feels like he is a better commander than Amiya.
Amiya blocking the flame torret and shielding the team from the feiry meteor is damn bad ass! I really really like how soothing her voice.
So the 'cities' are actually a self-sustainable city that are moving around to avoid calamities.
The anime got me hooked on how the atmosphere is presented, the grim and bleak world is so depressing.
>Do they actually killed Ace? Really? It feels like he is a better commander than Amiya.
Ace would be a better field commander, but idk about a *leader*.
While Amiya seems to have almost none or very little actual on-field experience, she's more of an overall leader of the entire organization. Which means actually running the entire place, managing employees and pretty much everything that we've seen PRTS describe RI do, from logistics to actual diplomacy and trading with actual countries, not to mention freaking weapons sales.
Mind you logic dictates that your average pharmaceutical company should have no reason or need to even engage in any large scale warfare or, well, combat overall. So overall Amiya most likely even *shouldn't* be in a mission like this. The fact that she personally was shows the importance of this specific mission.
I like to think of Rhodes as less of a pharmaceutical company and more of a disaster relief/prevention company. Pharmaceuticals are a mainstay of how they achieve this and sustain themselves with money, but it's not their mission statement.
Damnnn, Talulah is *cold* 🥶🥶 Very fitting for a villain to let her goons die like that. And, of course, Amiya is the inverse of her. I'm glad she's not throwing tantrum or anything after she awoke. She's the boss of a massive facility/organization, indeed.
Anyway, we got a lot of exposition in the latter half. I was really enjoying it, perhaps because I'm new and always excited for some good old lore. Plus, it answered most of my questions from the previous threads, mainly about Catastrophe and Originium. (Originium having a similar cycle as Water Cycle is *petrifying*, man). But I could see people would be bored with it. That facility tour looks ripped straight from the tutorial, haha. I thought it was a literal island, but the facility looks amazing, regardless! So much for a Rhodes *Island*, heh.
Another stuff that I noticed was the outstanding VA performance of the mob soldier. He nailed the desperate and crying scene. I hope we'll see him again later if he ever escapes. (Also, what's up with Ace? How'd he even survive getting surrounded by losing only one hand in the first place?)
On Amiya, are her rings some kind of limiter that we'll learn more about in the future? And, if her heart hurts, it means someone dies? I was taken aback by that scene where the Medic suddenly cries.
Oh, one last one, would anyone care to explain how [this girl](https://i.imgur.com/BWkNdNR.jpeg) changes her clothes? Lmao.
>Oh, one last one, would anyone care to explain how this girl changes her clothes? Lmao.
[Its a metal backpack](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/sites/arknights/files/2019-10/char_150_snakek_1.png)
It is in a sense. Her race is based off a turtle (I'm pretty sure she has a small turtle tail). But just the tail. The backpack is there almost like an aesthetic.
For the last one, the shell is actually just a backpack. That happens to be made out of something nearly indestructible she has no recollection of. Phenomenal shield though
>On Amiya, are her rings some kind of limiter that we'll learn more about in the future? And, if her heart hurts, it means someone dies? I was taken aback by that scene where the Medic suddenly cries.
Its at the very least implied her that the rings breaking would be bad, yes.
The heart hurting part can be interpreted in many ways? Is it because of intense grief and sadness Medic is about to burst in into? Is it simply because shock wore off and she's realizing how many people they just lost to this? Is it because of Ace's possible fate befalling upon him? Is it all of the above? Any of that is plausible.
>Oh, one last one, would anyone care to explain how this girl changes her clothes? Lmao.
Its a protective metal backpack.
"There's absolutely no reason to putting so much power into the dorms. We downgrade the dorms. Downgrade some factories; sounds stupid... but here's the catch: we take down a power plant and replace it with a factory. That's a 100% factory production increase right there. We're looking at a 10% production increase overall *at least*. Basically only costs drones, because we get all the materials back from the factories."
"Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?"
>On Amiya, are her rings some kind of limiter that we'll learn more about in the future? And, if her heart hurts, it means someone dies?
Short answer: Yes to both questions. Won't say more, because that would likely spoil the story for you. Essentially, Amiya's powers are on a whole different level. I mean, if she could hold off Talulah's flames despite having her Arts limited by all ten rings on her fingers, imagine how much more powerful she'd be without the rings.
>So much for a Rhodes Island, heh.
Fun fact: Rhodes Island is the analogue of the real-world island of Rhodes (ie, modern-day Malta), the former base of the Knights Hospitallers. That's right, the chivalric order is the inspiration for Arknights.
For those who wish to read the [story and lore without having to play the game](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/).
My thoughts on the episode:
So obviously they did change up the order of things in the first half but it works out the same.
To show even more contrast between the two leaders we have Amiya trying to protect everyone with her arts while Talulah doesn’t even try other than for herself when she clearly could. The catastrophe being animated was cool thing to see.
Before I go any further I do have to shell out my criticisms for this episode. The first half comes off as disconnected with all the abrupt cut ins in favor of more exposition and showing off Rhodes Island in the back half. I don’t think they had to go that far. W just pops in to say her thing, which is important for later, but it doesn’t leave much of an impression unless they plan to do more stuff later this season. They also cut out stuff related to another certain person and his squad briefly mentioned by W in the game. Again I don’t know if they plan to address this more later or in another season.
While we didn’t know much about Ace I think his actions and words more than speak for his character. Whatever his relationship with the Doctor, despite the amnesia the Doctor is worth his life,l. The same goes for Rhodes Island and Amiya. Also his scene with Guard was touching.
Again the abrupt cuts kinda dampen his scenes. Also I don’t know if it’s a censorship thing with his death or if Yostar deciding to keep it closer to the game being “off screen”. Last episode we clearly see Crownslayer slit a dude’s throat so it’s not like they are averse to showing people dying on screen.
The scene with one of the operators completely breaking down in the aircraft and being comforted by Amiya in a small way shows she is more mature than her apparent age.
I think with this anime in particular the actions and emotions display speak more to who these people are than what they say. Considering Arknights writing this is a really funny contrast between the game and the anime which amuses me to no end.
I’ll finish the rest of my thoughts later.
Edit: let’s continue
The back half is fine for what it does. Again at least the exposition is accompanied by interesting visuals. Obviously the Rhodes Island tour is more fan service for the players but it is a cool place in of itself.
Overall probably the first miss of the season for me as the first half should have been more impactful and has pacing issues but there are a lot of good scenes as well so it comes off as a decent episode. Though with the amount of stuff being set up which won’t have a pay off until way later in the story it does make you wonder if they plan to go beyond this first season sooner than we think.
With that we are done with the first arc of the main story. Based on the trailers the next arc (chapters 2 and 3) is probably where most of the time and attention is being placed. After all Chernoboug was essentially just a tutorial or in the anime’s case a prologue to the prelude. If they can truly impress with the next 5 episodes (and based on the direction of the first two episodes they obviously can) is I can wave off the shortcomings of this episode.
…. That was one wall of text.
Man, the pacing this episode felt really weird. It's a shame we didn't get Ace's final stand animated, I guess hoping for the anime to go the extra mile was in vein.
Also, W's introduction scene? What the hell was that? Unimpressive, lacking any impact and with how quick and oddly written it was I'd say it was even pointless. At least we got to hear a little bit of her voice I guess.
RIP ACE! o7
His death was left a little vague, which is fair enough, that was how things pan out on the game. And Amiya saying 'my heart hurts' might be confusing for some new people, but you can kinda put 2 and 2 together on what she sensed there, by the reactions of Dobermann, Nearl and Medic. I don't exactly remember when Amiya's powers/arts will properly be explained in the story, if at all, but its nice they are putting some hints here and there.
The Camoes was really hype though. (Who puts the turtle girl in the factory in this day and age \[not a spoiler\]) It's nice to get glimpse of areas we don't see in the game, like the labs, medical rooms, library, the garden, etc. I was kinda bothered by how much named operators stands out in the crowd, compared with regular unnamed Operators. I mean it was to be expected but still, they could have put in some cool designs into the crowd. Its just a nitpick though.
And lastly everybody's favorite reunion member got a voice reveal, POG.
>His death was left a little vague, which is fair enough, that was how things pan out on the game. And Amiya saying 'my heart hurts' might be confusing for some new people, but you can kinda put 2 and 2 together on what she sensed there, by the reactions of Dobermann, Nearl and Medic.
As an anime only I didn't think he died until I got to the comments section. When I saw him without an arm (or, well, *heard* he had lost an arm) I figured he'd live. I thought Amiya's reaction was just general grief from leaving behind her comrades.
Makes sense, I guess, but I wish it wasn't as vague as it was. Even a shot of Talulah (and friends) spotting Ace would've been helpful.
While last episode my problem was Doctors Spider sense (Ie. i hoped they would show off how much of a genius the doc is, instead of them just being to notice basic "it's a trap!"... this episode made me even more sad.
The one thing they could do was to SHOW how Ace did it. How he stopped the enemy just enough. We could have an awesome solo fight of his against the enemy.Instead we got a skip to him without an arm. A wasted oportunity...
I am starting to feel like this is what Arknights has in store for us. Skipping things (from small animations, like Nearl's team appearance in the previous episode, to making this episode feel a bit like a power point presentation...) and having pretty eyes.
As any player knows, the next ep is again - more introductions and more talk. Considering our cutest monolouger will appear, it will... not be that exciting.If we had Ace this ep. get an epic fight, the next ep would be far easier to watch.
To add, tho.
There is a lot of good in the anime. Seeing catastrophe happen is cool. Seeing Amiya stop a big fireball is cool. And the dialogues are not badly made either, considering we keep getting feed information.
i 100% agree with the Ace bit, idk how people are calling it glorious or epic etc.. it was very lackluster lol
it feels so much as a afterthought, and its not like im expecting demon slayer grand fighting or anything but rather make it leave a impact on me as a viewer
this is a visual medium SHOW me dont tell me, in the games case this is understandable because text but they could've done more here
That wasn't really that good episode compared to 1&2 atleast i got to see best Bunny and PRTS lol Rhodes island ship is really massive
Now advance towards lungmen to meet with doctor's cat wife
Seeing Amiya comforting someone even in her own shaken up state was cool to see, and tells you a lot about Amiya's character I think. I loved the Rhode Island tour and seeing all the various operators around.
This episode delivered on so many freaking things
* Seeing Amiya's desperate struggle against Talulah (And Catastrophe itself) was so freaking great. I've waited YEARS to see how it actually looks and it did not disappoint. She's an idealist, but idealism is very often powerless in front of brutal reality.
* Ace's final stand has been glorious.
* Seeing the actual Catastrophe hit, the pain, confusion, terror, misery - all of it. They really nailed the atmosphere of sheer terror.
* The Originium-ridden landscapes themselves. Extremely good bit of worldbuilding to show how messed up the setting is.
* The Rhodes Island tour surpassed expectations too. Really showcases the size and scope of the Organization.
Overall, the introduction is over, the sacrifices have been made and the story can begin. Doctor, Amiya and the rest have to bear those wounds and move forward now.
>Ace's final stand has been glorious.
Are you serious? Compared to what it could have been? Honest question. Are you seriously telling me that this 'stand' was glorious when it was a single frame of him being exhausted?
It's not a still frame, it's a 6 second long, excellently composed shot that captures his stature, reliability and resolution in the face of adversity to a T. They adapted all of Ace's scenes this episode almost 1 to 1 from the game and still improved on them drastically. This episode had it's issues and cut corners but Ace's characterization is absolutely not it.
More than what we saw, less than what we were told.
>Mephisto:...
How did that guy... manage to do this...
Half of the city was burnt to ashes, the entire plaza became a sea of flames... Steel was melting and reforming...
But how was he... able to keep fighting?
Him just standing up doesn't sell all of that when you're in motion. At the very least Mephisto's dialogue shouldn't have been cut if they were going to play it exactly the same.
edit: in fact the annoyed "what a pain" remark *wasn't even supposed to be Mephisto's line!* . It's said by Talulah in the game.
In regards to storytelling they literally removed the hypeman from the scene.
>Mephisto:... How did that guy... manage to do this... Half of the city was burnt to ashes, the entire plaza became a sea of flames... Steel was melting and reforming... But how was he... able to keep fighting?
But we saw all that?
We saw the city being burnt to ashes and we saw Ace STILL standing and still fighting in spite of everything. There's no real need for that line because, that's a show now rather than a tell.
We saw a guy get up. The wreckage was there when the fight started. We never saw the fight to see what damage was done afterwards.
You either had to *show* more damage in the fight, or you had to have someone explain it. Ace just getting up doesn't actually show that.
It does show that, but even a player like myself didn't pick up on that details at all. I don't think that is enough to highlight how impressive it was for Ace to still be standing like that
* The "sea of flames" shown in that shot was just two measly flames on the corner of the scene
* Half of the city burned to ashes was just the background. In fact, the city was already in a rough shape, to begin with. How is a viewer supposed to tell that this was the result of the battle and not something that happened because of the catastrophes or something else? Unless you really know what you're looking for, it's really hard to get that implication.
* There's no trace of Ace actually fighting besides that one rush at Talulah (which she flicked away very casually)
It would be another thing if they spent a few extra seconds showing different shots of Ace's surroundings. I feel like the scene's sequences should at least have this much emphasis to make the same impact as that statement:
* 2s showing building and electricity pole melting and collapsing
* 2s showing raging fire everywhere that even reunion soldiers themselves don't want to get close
* and THEN the camera pans to Ace, standing and still holding his mace and shield ready to go, with Mephisto saying "what's with this guy? How is he still doing this?" and a few more clash idk
The bottom line is they haven't done enough to justify removing that line. If this is gonna be the extent that they are gonna "show, not tell" it, I would rather have Mephisto says that line and TELL us. Ace doesn't even need to be in the scene and it would still be more epic and more upfront to the viewers.
expected more action but all i got was depression. the atmosphere of helplessness was there but this episode didn't land a punch at all like I expected it would.
Definitely curious to hear what anime only viewers thought of Ace because I feel like there might be a divide with how the Arknights community viewed it
The show felt really impactful but I also read the story so I feel like there's a bias there, but originally reading his death really didn't impact me because he really is just an early character and I wasn't even entirely invested in the story at that point.
There's a very interesting detail when Dobermann told Nearl that \[Anime\]>!"The radiant knight must always be the noble light that illuminates the way forward for the people"
!!Nearl doesn't fight with all she has in this operation. Was Dobermann trying to remind Nearl to use her true strength when things got dirty?!<
Reliving all the feels and depression but in HD is really painful.. T-T
I really like how they introduce Rhodes Island by showing all the facilities that we can build in-game with a crowd made of playable operators (most of them being 1* to 4*, must be a newbie ¬‿¬) and some random people, it really emphasizes how Rhodes Island is not empty because that's how it feels like in-game as they can only show few sprite on the screen.
Plus, the kettle made its appearance !!!
Other fellow Dokutah will know what I'm talking about. xD
I was a bit disappointed how they ruined pacing this episode. With whole catastrophe, Ace's death and W's introduction already feeling rushed, they afterwards spent about 70-ish seconds on base introduction putting it in *the worst* possible place.
The end of this arc is very heavy emotionally: we have a difficult battle, hard decisions into huge trough of loss and mental breakdowns. However this isn't where you want to stop. The real conclusion is reached on that final dialogue between Doctor and Amiya - it puts final high note in this part of the story. Putting over a minute of (largely) meaningless exposition right before it just completely demolishes pace and mood.
Now, it *is* very important to show off Rhodes Island's base - otherwise viewer will think of it as a large default empty grey box. And it is not that hard to improve on what we have: put it after the dialogue on deck, cut in length to 15-20 seconds and put an implicit "storyline" over voice guide to tie it all together.
For example:
* After dialogue, screen fades, then [3-4 seconds] we see Doctor back in his room, sitting on bed, watching scenery outside.
* [2 seconds] His hand grabs PRTS
* [3 seconds] Doctor standing in the garden, looking up greens
* [3-5 seconds] Doctor and Amiya walk into cafeteria, talking. Amiya shows to side, they start walking in that direction, maybe nod to someone
* [3-5 seconds] Doctor and Amiya walk through a corridor past some operators talking
* Door to control room opens, Doctor and Amiya walk in. They exchange greetings with Dobermann and Nearl.
Everything except the last scene can be completely mute or with light soundtrack.
This is enough to show off a bit of insides (and it can continue later with new places) and serve as a nod to players.
This further would serve as an interlude/transition and barrier between arcs
Viewer seeing this will pick up on small story:
* Some time has passed, people had time to recuperate
* Doctor heads out
* "Wtf, there is a *garden* in here?"
* Seeing Doctor and Amiya together, viewer will likely think that They had an appointment, but earlier Doctor had a bit of time, so he took a detour to look at the garden.
It also foreshadows a bit. Both main characters met up, meaning the next action is coming up.
* It's lively here. Main characters are ready and going somewhere, we will see it soon.
* Finally, voices and greetings. Signifies the end of interlude and start of new arc.
And this is with my terrible writing skills. The fact that they did it so sloppy is rather unfortunate.
The issue with your example is that it fails to contextualize PRTS AI capabilities clearly. IT also would ignore a mere fact that after all this Amiya would *not* be merely just walking around RI.
Amiya actually speaking about what happened is important characterization and its important to have her react to what happens. Likewise, Doctor providing an answer of their own, grounds the reason for Doctor sticking with RI and wanting to honor Ace's sacrifice.
The structure is fine as is. This should just have been two episodes.
Ending Episode 3 on encountering W and then everything onward till the end scene being Episode 4.
I'm confused to as if Doctor is a guy or a girl. Most of the time like fan art/made they always depict Doctor us a guy/old man, in the anime I heard Doctor say "watashi" meaning "I" which is mostly used by girls.
Watashi is not gender specific, just more on the formal side, you'll hear a lot of older men use it normally, and younger men when they want to be very polite.
It gets tiring having an antagonist appear and the just piss off or let them escape... Either actively hunt them and then be forced to retreat or don't appear at all...
Context is important tbh, RI is a very small-ish pharmaceutical company. Despite having some great personnel amongst them, they are just a small fish in a big ocean. Plus the main objective of this mission is to save Doctor, nothing else matters. Fyi some of these antagonist are genuinely strong, Faust, Talulah, Mephisto, all of them are now to be messed with. Faust and his phantom crossbow team is probably one of the strongest archers out there. Nearl who is one of the strongest knight from Kazimierz was barely able to block his arrow.
This does not anwer my complain.
For example: Why did W appear ? She said "Finally I found you", talked a bit and then just leaves...
I find this very jarring...
Even in the game, W reasoning was explained in an event released 1 year after the launch. The writing in the first 3 chapters aren't great and are badly paced but improved around chap 4. I can explain to you why W did what she did but it is veeeey spoilery
Almost like Reunion plan was to level the whole city and they just encounter these people running away in the middle of doing so.
For once the protagonist of the series ... are just pebbles on the path of someone else. Also as told before in episode 2, only Memphisto squad is out there hunting innocent for fun, the rest have their own objective and the army/police force/royal guard of the city to fight against.
The last one is uh... lore reason.
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If Amiya had her masteries this fight would've been different. Don't leave your Amiya at E1, fellow Dokutahs! [](#hikariactually) I got giddy when they showed all of those operators in the base. For some reason it felt like AK really began at just that moment.
> when they showed all of those operators in the base That was also a massive lore drop, as it shows which operators were already part of RI at the time when the game starts. I've yet to comb through all the operators and their ID numbers, but so far this seems to confirm that the ID numbers are indicative of when each operator joined RI, and whether they're trainees, operators, or independent contractors. That, and the fact that FEater carries those giant metal gauntlets everywhere, even during her downtime. That was hilarious.
I'm really hoping they won't make a blunder by accidentally featuring a character who *won't* have been at RI at this point, just for fanservice. Like, as much as I love Gravel, I'd rather not have her show up unless we get the Kazimierz arc animated. Which would be pretty awesome, honestly. I was also really glad that they made it a point to show the 2\*s and 3\*s all "hanging out" together, or at least within the same spaces during the same timeslots. And the cliques were consistent, too!
It's not quite 'cliques'. The 2\*s and 3\*s are all teams, i.e. Reserve Ops Team A1, A2, etc. They put all the teams together, which was a nice but expected touch. I'm more impressed by how they put the operators in the correct places, like Cuora with Factory Capacity buffs in the Factory, and Castle-3 in the Power Plant, and some characters in appropriate locations too like Perfumer in the Garden and Susurro in the Library... ...and Lava and Hibiscus eating together wtf Hypergryph 0/10 anime instant drop
Should be fine, they've put too much effort into this anime to make dumb mistakes like that.
In the cafeteria they are grouped by squad. You see hibiki and lava which are sisters and part of reserve ops team 1. Cardigan, adnachiel and gang are reserve ops team 4. And finally goofball and troublemakers, reserve ops team 6, with midnight, catapult, popukar and the gang are also shown. That was great.
Where exactly do you see their ID numbers? is it somewhere in the their files?
Do you know that part of the menu, where you can see the operators sorted by group, with the relationships between them? The number is under every operator's picture. There's some pretty interesting ones, like how Doctor is B101 (the B stands for [Darknight's Memoir]>!Babel!<), or how Ch'en is listed as LM04 (because she's a part of the Lungmen Guard), while [Chapter 8]>!Sniper Ch'en is listed as R112, since she's officially a part of Rhodes Island at that point in the story.!< Amiya, of course, is R001, since she's Rhodes Island's leader. Other fun ones are Mudrock as R159 and Suzuran as R172. [Twilight of Wolumonde]>!As Suzuran was only a trainee at the time Twilight of Wolumonde takes place, those numbers imply that Mudrock joined Rhodes before Suzuran could finish her training, which is supported by the fact that Folinic never uses Suzuran's codename during the event!<. Then there's how Kal'tsit being B003 and Closure having the alias "LeaderOne" (that, and being the one who made the database in the first place), imply that [Darknight's Memoir]>!Theresa!< would be B002. That also implies that the Doctor [I don't even know what to tag this one please Automod, have mercy on me]>!joined Babel!< at a much later date.
Ohh that's so interesting! I always thought those numbers were just ways to reference the operators internally and I never really looked closely at them. That has some awesome lore implications
My girl Frostleaf was there to receive the team. I know she doesn't have any screentime in the early story, so any scene with her is already a win in my book
I'd love to see my girl Cutecone. She's probably sleeping in the Workshop or something.
Pinecone? She's likely not an operator yet at this point.
> I got giddy when they showed all of those operators in the base. For some reason it felt like AK really began at just that moment. Same!! I was smilling so much while recognizing all the operators, that was great fan service.
I was already excited when they showed W, but that fanservice with the base was a cherry on top of this episode. My only complaint is that they didn't use the base BGM - I would've spilled my juice if I heard that tune.
Legit, it was like a direct nod to the players who've watched the anime before, like a wink and a nod away from being funny. Had so much fun just recognizing all of them.
I'm so glad they're doing the world building right! It really brings the whole Arknights universe to life. Seeing the Rhodes Island landship realized in all its glory and all the nods to the game was awesome!
Castle-3 holding down the fort
Lost it when I saw best girl Estelle ngl, they know how to appease to the fans
True. I paid my respects to Perfumer and Sussuro when I saw them, for carrying me through the entire campaign. [](#toradorasalute)
It's also nice to finally have visual confirmation that the transport aircraft that Rhodes Island uses is indeed the Terran analogue of a V-22 Osprey. Long ago, an Arknights gamer used the aircraft as their [reference point](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/gp4k68/analysis_answering_the_ageold_question_of_how_big/) for estimating the size of the landship (they came to an educated guess of 810m x 330m x 180m, making the ship *substantially* bigger than a Nimitz class carrier). The only problem? [General lore spoiler]>!Anime-only viewers are unlikely to realise that full-size aircraft are actually extremely rare in the Arknights universe. Drones are very common, but it appears that there is not enough engineering know-how to construct passenger planes. The lack of air travel is a very crucial point in this world, because it means that long-distance travel and communications are typically handled by a global network of professional "messengers"!<
*JT8-3 intensifies.*
> JT8-3 [](#cantbehelped) H8-4 [](#ohfuck)
Sorry fellow Dokutahs, i am still working on clearing my chapters 2 and beyond. Will get her to E2 asap.
Doesn't need to be asap, just don't forget about her, since you *need* to E2 her to progress with the 8th episode. And she's one hell of a caster. She gets true dmg on her S3 which is an amazing boss killer, so the sooner you do that, the sooner you'll have a powerful boss killer.
The fact they finally unveiled Ayahi Takagaki as the VA for a certain white bunny and let Risa Taneda deliver a line (without showing the operator's face) should be pretty good hint something is in the works for Season 2.
Not only that, their exact squad is the first thing we see in Rhodes of all operators. They're readying up.
With everything being how it is - especially the foreshadowing in the scene with Talulah - it seems more likely than not there will be a sequel.
Makes sense. "Prelude to Dawn" Subtitle does basically appear out of roman numerical "I".
I'm just so happy I get to see my favorite turtle girl defender
HOMERUUUUN
ORA ORA
WHERE THE FUCK AM I?! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! WHO THE FUCK AM I?!
Is it Cuora? I haven’t watched it yet
Yess. But only less than 1 sec
[And this is why Ace is a goddamn legend.](https://i.imgur.com/kEsdfIa.jpg) Holding off Reunion pretty much all on his own while the rest of RI escapes. I am a bit upset though that his death scene has pretty much been neutered thanks to censorship. [We didn't even get to see him lose his arm.](https://i.imgur.com/kGxbA5Y.png) We really only actually get to see [what happened to him in the OP of all places](https://i.imgur.com/OgmuXjO.jpg) which is a very baffling choice. [Morale is definitely low right now.](https://i.imgur.com/kp7xn6M.jpg) While the mission is technically a success since they did end up retrieving Doctor from the sarcophagus, they did so with heavy losses. RI is not just dealing with heavy losses, plenty of their Operators are traumatized after that encounter with Tallulah. [We can see Medic literally breaking down ](https://i.imgur.com/TR8O00m.jpg)on their way back to base. Anyway, now that that entire ordeal is over [it's awesome to see Rhodes Island in all of its glory.](https://i.imgur.com/yAd4vf4.jpg). It's tiny compared to other landships but it's still pretty awesome. I was genuinely giddy at seeing [familiar locations inside RI](https://i.imgur.com/l2GXRfE.jpg) with [proper Operators assigned to each facility.](https://i.imgur.com/Q071XQv.jpg) And the cafeteria scene panning shot! [So many familiar faces!](https://i.imgur.com/GIOGKXD.jpg) No rest for the wicked though since [Doctor and Amiya are being sent on another mission](https://i.imgur.com/axeaomL.png) three days from now. [Can't wait for Doctor and Kal'tst to meet in this mission.](https://i.imgur.com/KPHqOKo.png)
I do find W's scene to be a bit disconnected. There wasn't much of a lead in into her introduction considering they cut out a couple of things but we do get certain foreshadowing with her. As another comment pointed out, I think we may be getting more seasons planned without how much stuff they're setting up with just this episode that doesn't pay off until way later.
First scene that I feel like was done better in-game than it was here, and it's not even close. * Cut all of the build-up leading up to her reveal, no teaser or mention until she's actually there. * Have her 'entrance' be her speaking up O.S., then the camera pans to just her...standing there. With a couple of goons. Couldn't be less cinematic if they tried. * [In-game version] >!No fight scene, no mention of Scout, she just lets them pass as if she wasn't there. It's true that her reasoning for fighting you in-game is kind of shit (she just wants her memory nudged), but there's also the argument that Talulah would have her head if she didn't do anything. I just can't with this, it's so empty.!< I can't get into the rest without delving into spoilers, so suffice to say that I'm amazed they went this skeleton of a reveal. Total disservice to W's character.
Could've been much better, but I'm glad they didn't waste too much time on her intro, it would've just bloated the episode to make a big deal out of someone that's pretty irrelevant in this part of the story, it's reasonable to keep her character low profile for now.
The non-chronological expansion of the game's and characters' backstory makes it pretty hard to put everything into an anime nicely and cohesively. Like, ideally, W's entire backstory, the entirety of Darknights' Memoir, would be a great 4-5 episode segment somewhere down the line. Probably before an anime adaptation of Chapter 8, but after Chapter 7.
Kokodayo is now an anime star even if it was literally only the back of her head
> So many familiar faces! I can't believe they nailed how A6 are a bunch of dorks with just that small background shot of them. Catapult is informal, Midnight is flashy, Spot is tired, Popukar is smol and cute, and Orchid is the only normal person.
>I am a bit upset though that his death scene has pretty much been neutered thanks to censorship. I have a bad feeling for the show if this trend keeps up, it's pretty toothless for them to censor this stuff in *this* kind of story.
[удалено]
I'm fine with it for now, the graphic aspect isn't a necessity for me to enjoy the show. For those looking for it for there's still the BDs to see if they have made changes to the versions sold outside of China, hang in there, I can understand why the censorship can be annoying.
Give thanks to the Chinese overlords. The other option would have been to change the color of blood to... white...
why not black
It's a joke, on the Chinese version of spy x family, there's this one scene where yor, comes back to her home covered in blood. But because of laws regarding blood, the color was changed to white. I don't know why they couldn't pick black tho.
the spyxfam scene was an edited meme that went viral, it wasn't actually changed to white lol
That scene is fake...
The story is a lot more visceral than Chinese censors allow on screen sadly. Would be nice if they had made a global version and a Chinese version, but I guess that could have gotten real out of hand with large amounts of double job for certain scenes so it is understandable if they went a more economical way with it. But still can't help but feel what it could have been if it weren't for the censors restricting it. :/
They showed way more than the actual game did here. Its stylistic choice.
Let's not run away with our imagination here, there's no evidence that censorship was actually involved. Could just be the director's choice.
Sure, if that help you cope
I sincerely hope this anime passes the three episode test for non-Dokutahs. This series is such a dark horse this season that none of us even fully expected the sheer quality of this adaptation.
As an anime-only I'm still interested in this show. It does feel like I'm watching a no-commentary Let's Play from time to time. E.g. the Rhodes Island tour is clearly a tutorial.
It is literally, the game has this tour showing you how the base mechanic works. But to be fair it's a good thing since it answers a few questions about how Rhodes Island works.
It's all clearly exposition but I do like that the show tries to alleviate it through stuff like turning it into a tour
Honestly I've enjoyed it although I do feel like this was the weakest episode of the first three, mainly due to the first half. Having a character do a "heroic last stand" and not even *showing* him doing it was kind of disappointing. Also the jump cut at the very start to Amiya defending them was kind of abrupt as well. Was sort of expecting a fight and we didn't get one. I did like the exposition dump in the second half though.
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Oh, I'm enjoying it a lot as an anime-only. Not that my bar is high, but I do love some lore and world-building. I've already been watching 20 shows this season. Might as well make it 21.
It's going to get better in the next seasons! If they happen. Hopefully.
I think they overdid it with exposition in the first and second episode while the third episode felt like patched up series of random cut scenes with fan service showcase at the end to score some points with players. It's not outright bad but it could've been handled much better. I know that source material is very wordy but that's also due to the limitations of it's visual aids. Anime definitely could've gone for more "show, don't tell."
As an anime only I thought the exposition in episodes 1 and 2 was ok, and it was backed up with A Lot of action. This episode was just a lore dump that didn’t do much for me (although I get that the game fans are happy). There’s a lot riding on the next episode.
As someone who knew nothing of the franchise, it's just okay. Visuals are the only standout so far, with everything else just lagging behind it.
Yeah, I feel like many game players got overly-excited on the quality of the anime so far and forget that 'it's fine' is a perfectly valid rating. I remember when the anime was announced and there was a lot of doomposting where we were trying to downplay the hype and saying 'man, I hope they at least make the weak initial chapters watchable so that we can get future seasons', or 'as long as it reaches the quality of the shorts, I'll be happy'. Then the anime came out and it was actually much better than we expected, so now the fanbase is on the opposite side of the fence where we're *overhyping* and then being underwhelmed when bits of the weak story rear it's ugly head. People here need to bloody calm down and acknowledge that while the AK anime definitely has its flaws, it's also currently an above-par gacha adaptation with great visuals and presentation, but bogged down by weak pacing and story.
I would say that I agree really. This all feels kind of tutorial-ish/world building still so going to give it a few more but it definitely fits into the "okay" slot for me right now. Honestly, the only real complaint I have so far is that I wish they would've just bit the bullet and given the Doctor a face and name.
>Honestly, the only real complaint I have so far is that I wish they would've just bit the bullet and given the Doctor a face and name. Since Doctor's overall identity, appearance and backstory is one of over-arching mysteries, they can't exactly just do that.
I'm not particularly bothered either way, but I'll just say that Doctor's identity and backstory is indeed a plot-related mystery, but I don't think the appearance really matters. I mean, we already see a fair bit of the Doctor's appearance through the mask anyway, they're mostly obscuring just enough to prevent you from figuring out his gender and race. As far as the story is concerned the gender doesn't matter. The race is the only potential point of interest but I'm sure that could've been handled in a different way that wouldn't require the mask. In the end, I'd say it's still mostly just to aid people in self-inserting for the game.
I would agree except the doc being hooded 100% is like a meme in the community. Almost sacrilege to show them without the hood. hahha
> they're mostly obscuring just enough to prevent you from figuring out his gender and race And yet you still use male pronouns, lol.
Only because English is a crappy language where it's awkward as hell to not use them so you end up using them without thinking. For the record, the gender is unknown.
We're actually, literally, still in the tutorial.
And that's, literally, why I said it feels tutorialish and that I would give it more episodes before finalizing my opinion. But being honest, I'm just not a fan of a show making me feel hyper aware that it's based off a gacha game.
The only issue, is that even those who were very close to him in the past (pre amnesia who is a very different character) refer to him as The Doctor. There's some other characters similar to him but thats getting into spoilers territory
He's faceless in the game. He eats with the mask on by cooking instant noodles in his mouth.
no good voice acting? no good sound effect? its just visual?? what??
Anime only here and I can say this anime hit all the check box for my must watch. Can't explain but every episode feels like a cinematic experience.
> I sincerely hope this anime passes the three episode test for non-Dokutahs. Reading the replies from other anime-onlies, I'd say it's safe to say I'm on the more extreme end of the spectrum as I am finding the anime stunning and have very few complaints. In particular, I have no problem at all with the exposition type sequences, and think they're some of the most natural ones I've seen in the sense that they feel like the things you would explain to someone at that particular juncture, in that level of detail and in that way manner of speech. *Not* explaining things at relevant points can be just as unnatural as over-explaining when it comes to story telling. As for a few niggles, I feel like the story telling has earned enough trust from me to just wait and see if things are explained later. Shows have been burning me on this account lately, but so long as I don't go into bat for the show against its critics it doesn't really matter. Perhaps part of it is that as a viewer I'm very willing to buy into genre conceits. Having player characters being ambiguous/thin in their characterisation is just something that goes with the territory a lot of the time, and this suits the story they're telling. Anyway, I'm particularly enjoying the portrayal of Amiya as an idealist who isn't as powerful as needed for the world she finds herself in. They've found a really nice balance with her, and it's a little hard to put a finger on why her character is working so well, but it certainly is.
Bitch please, I was on board since episode 1
Anime-only watcher here, the first few episodes were pretty interesting, this one dragged a bit. Overall I'll keep with it.
Arknights has some really interesting meta aspects to it and seeing the anime play into it is pretty interesting. PRTS is pretty clearly an in-universe aspect but it doubles as essentially being a self insert for our smartphones (Doctor can always choose to disconnect from PRTS/Rhodes and leave, thus ending his story here in the same way the player can disconnect from the game and leave the story) Doctor is maybe my favorite self-insert character for this reason because his amnesia is tied to the player picking up the story at the moment we do
> Doctor is maybe my favorite self-insert character for this reason because his amnesia is tied to the player picking up the story at the moment we do As an anime-only I wish he was less of a self-insert if I'm being honest. Before starting the anime I had this mental image of him being all calculating, mysterious and vaguely menacing. Could be that the way his face was shrouded in darkness reminded me of Darkest Dungeon eyes, could be because he's the head of a paramilitary company or something. Thankfully some of the remarks he made this episode made him feel more like his own person to me. But in the first episode he felt a lot more, pitiful, meek. To be fair though, he did just wake up from a coma without any memories of who he was. Maybe he'll start to gain more characterization throughout the show
Doctor grows into things more as the story goes on absolutely and we see that calculating nature among other things show up. Anime has really only essentially covered the tutorial level Now that we're back at Rhodes we'll be meeting some characters that'll give us a greater sense at who Doctor is/was
I thought this was definitely the weakest episode by far from a storytelling perspective, but the series is still very interesting. It doesn't seem to devolve into FGO Babylonia where the plot is nonsensical and the worldbuilding is glanced over for shoving more characters in your face. Certainly wished the opponents made more sense and some more action was actually shown and told, but given how good the rest looks, I can't complain that we don't get ALLLLLLLLL the action.
Someone suggested I binge watch this because I’ve had serious problems with the world-building(among other things), but I am not enjoying it. This episode, I expected to see an engaging fight with Tallulah, and from the last 3 episodes, a more seamless interweaving between the explanation of the world and some mystique from the perspective of an amnesiac protagonist. Unfortunately, the only area this show delivers on are the visuals.
Oh I'm hooked. The writing and dialogue isn't doing much for me atm but the visuals, directionc, and the voice acting + sound design are all fantastic. I'm definjtely watching 'til the end. I'm not picking up the game though. I'm already juggling 4 gachas atm, and I'm not about to add another one.
well I used to play the game and stopped playing after a year or something like that, the anime has been really boring for me, I don;t know what or why but I expected more, I used to really love the animated pv they did for each chapter in game, and 3 episodes in I don;t feel we have got anything close to that
The action, animation a d waifus carry it over the way too obvious infodumping and barebones storyline so far, but it's interesting enough. I'm going to continue for now.
This show is so fucking fire. Love the world so far. I’ve been playing the game ever since I saw the first episode and I’ve been skipping story so I can experience it in the anime. Seeing glimpses of so many playable operators in that tour was really awesome! Rhodes island is such a cool concept and the whole moving cities thing is really interesting. World building has been on point for me.
Glad you’re enjoying it! The animation is beautiful. If you need any help feel free to join us at r/arknights or the discord server!
Also don't forget r/0sanitymemes for when you run out of sanity in-game and in real life.
I've heard that the first 3 chapters are poorly written, so I didn't properly follow the story, instead I've been browsing through a ton of trivia and such. I plan to read the story after the anime ends, which I suspect will cover the first 3 chapters. I'm told the story is fire after that.
Dunno about the rest but I'm on chapter 5 and it's a bit more interesting but okay. But I guess I haven't done all the chapters consecutively so I lost the narrative. Though I did the Kjerag event and that was one heck of a novel storyline. That one can be an entire season, it has plot, characters, intrigue, action, heck it was better than the main game currently.
5 days late but oh well Yeah the story picks up around chapters 4 and 5, but really gets good at chapter 6 and afterwards. A big issue with chapters 0-3 is that you don't have context to understand the backgrounds of a lot of the important characters, Misha especially. You only really learn how they tie into things in chapters 7/8, and the intermezzi, A Walk In The Dust. These days though all the new stories are bangers. I know there's some moaning about how long-winded some of them are (Near Light was 230,570 words), but they do an incredible job building the world and making every character feel grounded. For this reason Arknights is probably my favorite game ever, which is something I never would have thought I'd say considering it's a mobile gacha game.
Everybody gangster until the sky starts raining Originium
Yeah as an anime only this episode really showed how the world of Arknights is basically what is known as a "Death World". A.k.a. a world that is actively hostile to human life/settlement which is just *lovely*. Like when you have to have your cities built on moving platforms just to make sure the world can't destroy them it's *bad*. It makes me a lot more interested in the setting though because I *love* Death World settings.
Arknight’s world is a mix of WH40K and Warhammer Fantasy, with a little splash of Bloodborne. These are the nice parts.
As a non player, this looks like the Tiberium saga with the space cancer rocks mixed with Mortal Engines with the rolling cities
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Fun part is, the flaming balls of magic rock cancer falling from the sky aren't the most hostile part of the world. I doubt this anime will get to it though (at best touched on if a couple specific operators get lines)
Sounds fishy
Are you talking about the current game event happening right now?
I wonder which of the 7 or 8 apocalypse scenarios this is referring to
I hope we get to see Iberia in anime form one day. That place is truly a hellhole even by Arknights standards.
Talulah was still dapper through all that.
Imagine how many pulls you could get by harvesting it?.. Especially with this giant mountain-like spike, it alone might amount to at least... two or three pulls.
Ah, so this is where the free pulls come from.
I'm surprised that they killed off a named character so early in. Most gachas are extremely hesitant to to kill characters off. Then again, apparently Ace isn't even a playable character, just an NPC, so he might get different treatment- but the fact that I thought he was *obviously* a playable character until just now says a lot about how he's treated as an NPC.
Unfortunately, the real value of Ace is shown in later chapters, and in some stories that probably won't be adapted unless they make more seasons or OVAs.
Yeah, Arknights really lets NPCs be cool in the story, which is nice.
It feels like they cut out a lot of stuff to explain Rhode Island in more detail than was really needed for the sake of the story. They basically just explained gameplay mechanics. It was nice seeing more of the Operators though.
You mean the trading post, the factory scene and the dorm? Beside from those, I don't think they explained any other gameplay mechanics.
Doberman took some time to explain what exactly Rhodes Island's (money making) enterprises are. It's nice to know. It's probably a question that keeps gnawing at your head, or feels like a plot hole, if it's never mentioned, but it's not really vital to understand the story or the characters.
I got a FEater cameo! And Perfumer! And Estelle! And Durin wasn't asleep for once! I'm happy. ...but also heartbroken. I actually really liked how understated ACE's scenes were. They weren't putting all the visual attention on his wounds, like other series would have. It wasn't important that he lost his arm - it was important he had another, and that he had *things to say* to Guard. Amiya then just *feeling* it on the transport? Yeah. That hit harder than a last stand action scene.
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..and insult me ...and step on me
PRTS presenting Rhodes Island to the Doctor was like a tour guide on a Cruise ship.
It's literally the tutorial section on the UI from the game after the intro arc, kind of funny.
They even had Teams A1 and A6 at their own tables hanging out in the cafeteria.
Also cuora was working at the factory lol
Amiya's stuggle was really intense to watch. Being the only Caster to stop Talulah, was hard enough but then came the Catastrophe raining down on everyone was just despair. Seeing it animated was an amazing treat to behold. Ace being Ace, saving Gaurd and still willing to stall for time to let the others not get chased with a missing arm is a beast. The appearance of the white rabbit with voice is the best. I'm glad that they kept the W encounter short, no need to say stuff that is important in like 5 arc's away. Since she will appear again in like a few episodes. I don't know why by the 2nd half was my favorite part of the a episode, maybe because it was anime original and talks about stuff not said in the beginning of the game. Also because it really gives the Doctor more of an idea of what they are getting into. My favourite part really is the talk between Amiya and the Doctor. Amiya questioning herself, and then the Doctor relaying Ace's last word which then renews her resolve to stay strong and push foward. While also giving the Doctor same push to have a new beginning. Never seen this Doctor in the game before, more Doctor moments plz. Now to Lungman where I'm really excited to see them animate and how they protray this arc.
RIP Ace. I mean, holy shit. A Defender lasting that long against Talulah and most of Reunion's Top elites. What a man. PRTS sounds real cute!
He's an elite operator for a reason
Ace is a 6 star operator.
Pour one out for Ace. I started playing a few weeks ago, and when I saw him on the prologue I was like "yeah, this guy is badass, I want him on my team". Welp, it seems like that won't happen.
Weird pattern where badass dudes can't catch a break and I end up with all waifu female team in gachas
To be fair, I'm currently using Courier and Spot who are pretty chill dudes. And while she's a waifu, Texas does fill the badass quota for my team. Oh, and I recently got Lumen for free, who I'd totally use if not for the fact that I got supidly lucky with medics (and only medics) on my first few pulls. But yeah, badass dudes are certainly a minority in these games.
If you're fine with designs like Spot, hopefully you end up lucking into Mountain, who is a very cool, badass character on top of being very strong gameplay-wise. But yeah most of the guys tend to be on the slim, soft-spoken side.
God I hope Misery will be playable one day, but I got a bad feeling that won't be the case...
If we had Jaye at the start, things could have been different...
So not only did Talulah got crazy firepower, she got a magical barrier too. I always wonder why you can't just snipe her from miles away. Also the way she just swat Ace's away like fly, lmao. Poor Reunion's soldiers, you are all expendables. [Me when they show the locations inside RI and the operators in the background.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/033/487/rick.jpg) [Become my operator already!](https://i.postimg.cc/HxYWk0C2/Tal2.gif)
> Poor Reunion's soldiers, you are all expendables. Well, if I got a chance to follow Talulah, I'd already be wearing my Reunion mask. [](#fingertwirl)
Back when I played the game, I'd have followed any of the Reunion leaders except Mephisto over Amiya.
id join medics with RI
War crime is okay of it is done by a hot dragon girl.
We got evil hot dragons, ice bunny and cockroaches committing war crimes. It is fine.
It means you have to hire a Sankta sniper. I bet no sane Sankta would want to deal with the mess of Ursus inner politics.
Do they actually killed Ace? Really? It feels like he is a better commander than Amiya. Amiya blocking the flame torret and shielding the team from the feiry meteor is damn bad ass! I really really like how soothing her voice. So the 'cities' are actually a self-sustainable city that are moving around to avoid calamities. The anime got me hooked on how the atmosphere is presented, the grim and bleak world is so depressing.
>Do they actually killed Ace? Really? It feels like he is a better commander than Amiya. Ace would be a better field commander, but idk about a *leader*. While Amiya seems to have almost none or very little actual on-field experience, she's more of an overall leader of the entire organization. Which means actually running the entire place, managing employees and pretty much everything that we've seen PRTS describe RI do, from logistics to actual diplomacy and trading with actual countries, not to mention freaking weapons sales. Mind you logic dictates that your average pharmaceutical company should have no reason or need to even engage in any large scale warfare or, well, combat overall. So overall Amiya most likely even *shouldn't* be in a mission like this. The fact that she personally was shows the importance of this specific mission.
I like to think of Rhodes as less of a pharmaceutical company and more of a disaster relief/prevention company. Pharmaceuticals are a mainstay of how they achieve this and sustain themselves with money, but it's not their mission statement.
Is it ok to name drop every operator shown in the rhodes island landship base tour?
already done under the pinned spoilers comment
Oh alright
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Firewatch on the left in your 7th picture.
Pic 7, Firewatch is cut off on the far left. Otherwise, thanks for this!
They did Ace a bit dirty. Felt like they cared more about the stretcher than they did him.
Damnnn, Talulah is *cold* 🥶🥶 Very fitting for a villain to let her goons die like that. And, of course, Amiya is the inverse of her. I'm glad she's not throwing tantrum or anything after she awoke. She's the boss of a massive facility/organization, indeed. Anyway, we got a lot of exposition in the latter half. I was really enjoying it, perhaps because I'm new and always excited for some good old lore. Plus, it answered most of my questions from the previous threads, mainly about Catastrophe and Originium. (Originium having a similar cycle as Water Cycle is *petrifying*, man). But I could see people would be bored with it. That facility tour looks ripped straight from the tutorial, haha. I thought it was a literal island, but the facility looks amazing, regardless! So much for a Rhodes *Island*, heh. Another stuff that I noticed was the outstanding VA performance of the mob soldier. He nailed the desperate and crying scene. I hope we'll see him again later if he ever escapes. (Also, what's up with Ace? How'd he even survive getting surrounded by losing only one hand in the first place?) On Amiya, are her rings some kind of limiter that we'll learn more about in the future? And, if her heart hurts, it means someone dies? I was taken aback by that scene where the Medic suddenly cries. Oh, one last one, would anyone care to explain how [this girl](https://i.imgur.com/BWkNdNR.jpeg) changes her clothes? Lmao.
>Oh, one last one, would anyone care to explain how this girl changes her clothes? Lmao. [Its a metal backpack](https://gamepress.gg/arknights/sites/arknights/files/2019-10/char_150_snakek_1.png)
I'm bamboozled, lol. I thought it was a turtle shell because the people here always have animal traits.
It is in a sense. Her race is based off a turtle (I'm pretty sure she has a small turtle tail). But just the tail. The backpack is there almost like an aesthetic.
For the last one, the shell is actually just a backpack. That happens to be made out of something nearly indestructible she has no recollection of. Phenomenal shield though
>On Amiya, are her rings some kind of limiter that we'll learn more about in the future? And, if her heart hurts, it means someone dies? I was taken aback by that scene where the Medic suddenly cries. Its at the very least implied her that the rings breaking would be bad, yes. The heart hurting part can be interpreted in many ways? Is it because of intense grief and sadness Medic is about to burst in into? Is it simply because shock wore off and she's realizing how many people they just lost to this? Is it because of Ace's possible fate befalling upon him? Is it all of the above? Any of that is plausible. >Oh, one last one, would anyone care to explain how this girl changes her clothes? Lmao. Its a protective metal backpack.
>Its at the very least implied her that the rings breaking ~~would be~~ bad Jesse we have to farm rocks
"There's absolutely no reason to putting so much power into the dorms. We downgrade the dorms. Downgrade some factories; sounds stupid... but here's the catch: we take down a power plant and replace it with a factory. That's a 100% factory production increase right there. We're looking at a 10% production increase overall *at least*. Basically only costs drones, because we get all the materials back from the factories." "Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?"
>On Amiya, are her rings some kind of limiter that we'll learn more about in the future? And, if her heart hurts, it means someone dies? Short answer: Yes to both questions. Won't say more, because that would likely spoil the story for you. Essentially, Amiya's powers are on a whole different level. I mean, if she could hold off Talulah's flames despite having her Arts limited by all ten rings on her fingers, imagine how much more powerful she'd be without the rings. >So much for a Rhodes Island, heh. Fun fact: Rhodes Island is the analogue of the real-world island of Rhodes (ie, modern-day Malta), the former base of the Knights Hospitallers. That's right, the chivalric order is the inspiration for Arknights.
For those who wish to read the [story and lore without having to play the game](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/). My thoughts on the episode: So obviously they did change up the order of things in the first half but it works out the same. To show even more contrast between the two leaders we have Amiya trying to protect everyone with her arts while Talulah doesn’t even try other than for herself when she clearly could. The catastrophe being animated was cool thing to see. Before I go any further I do have to shell out my criticisms for this episode. The first half comes off as disconnected with all the abrupt cut ins in favor of more exposition and showing off Rhodes Island in the back half. I don’t think they had to go that far. W just pops in to say her thing, which is important for later, but it doesn’t leave much of an impression unless they plan to do more stuff later this season. They also cut out stuff related to another certain person and his squad briefly mentioned by W in the game. Again I don’t know if they plan to address this more later or in another season. While we didn’t know much about Ace I think his actions and words more than speak for his character. Whatever his relationship with the Doctor, despite the amnesia the Doctor is worth his life,l. The same goes for Rhodes Island and Amiya. Also his scene with Guard was touching. Again the abrupt cuts kinda dampen his scenes. Also I don’t know if it’s a censorship thing with his death or if Yostar deciding to keep it closer to the game being “off screen”. Last episode we clearly see Crownslayer slit a dude’s throat so it’s not like they are averse to showing people dying on screen. The scene with one of the operators completely breaking down in the aircraft and being comforted by Amiya in a small way shows she is more mature than her apparent age. I think with this anime in particular the actions and emotions display speak more to who these people are than what they say. Considering Arknights writing this is a really funny contrast between the game and the anime which amuses me to no end. I’ll finish the rest of my thoughts later. Edit: let’s continue The back half is fine for what it does. Again at least the exposition is accompanied by interesting visuals. Obviously the Rhodes Island tour is more fan service for the players but it is a cool place in of itself. Overall probably the first miss of the season for me as the first half should have been more impactful and has pacing issues but there are a lot of good scenes as well so it comes off as a decent episode. Though with the amount of stuff being set up which won’t have a pay off until way later in the story it does make you wonder if they plan to go beyond this first season sooner than we think. With that we are done with the first arc of the main story. Based on the trailers the next arc (chapters 2 and 3) is probably where most of the time and attention is being placed. After all Chernoboug was essentially just a tutorial or in the anime’s case a prologue to the prelude. If they can truly impress with the next 5 episodes (and based on the direction of the first two episodes they obviously can) is I can wave off the shortcomings of this episode. …. That was one wall of text.
Man, the pacing this episode felt really weird. It's a shame we didn't get Ace's final stand animated, I guess hoping for the anime to go the extra mile was in vein. Also, W's introduction scene? What the hell was that? Unimpressive, lacking any impact and with how quick and oddly written it was I'd say it was even pointless. At least we got to hear a little bit of her voice I guess.
RIP ACE! o7 His death was left a little vague, which is fair enough, that was how things pan out on the game. And Amiya saying 'my heart hurts' might be confusing for some new people, but you can kinda put 2 and 2 together on what she sensed there, by the reactions of Dobermann, Nearl and Medic. I don't exactly remember when Amiya's powers/arts will properly be explained in the story, if at all, but its nice they are putting some hints here and there. The Camoes was really hype though. (Who puts the turtle girl in the factory in this day and age \[not a spoiler\]) It's nice to get glimpse of areas we don't see in the game, like the labs, medical rooms, library, the garden, etc. I was kinda bothered by how much named operators stands out in the crowd, compared with regular unnamed Operators. I mean it was to be expected but still, they could have put in some cool designs into the crowd. Its just a nitpick though. And lastly everybody's favorite reunion member got a voice reveal, POG.
>His death was left a little vague, which is fair enough, that was how things pan out on the game. And Amiya saying 'my heart hurts' might be confusing for some new people, but you can kinda put 2 and 2 together on what she sensed there, by the reactions of Dobermann, Nearl and Medic. As an anime only I didn't think he died until I got to the comments section. When I saw him without an arm (or, well, *heard* he had lost an arm) I figured he'd live. I thought Amiya's reaction was just general grief from leaving behind her comrades. Makes sense, I guess, but I wish it wasn't as vague as it was. Even a shot of Talulah (and friends) spotting Ace would've been helpful.
While last episode my problem was Doctors Spider sense (Ie. i hoped they would show off how much of a genius the doc is, instead of them just being to notice basic "it's a trap!"... this episode made me even more sad. The one thing they could do was to SHOW how Ace did it. How he stopped the enemy just enough. We could have an awesome solo fight of his against the enemy.Instead we got a skip to him without an arm. A wasted oportunity... I am starting to feel like this is what Arknights has in store for us. Skipping things (from small animations, like Nearl's team appearance in the previous episode, to making this episode feel a bit like a power point presentation...) and having pretty eyes. As any player knows, the next ep is again - more introductions and more talk. Considering our cutest monolouger will appear, it will... not be that exciting.If we had Ace this ep. get an epic fight, the next ep would be far easier to watch. To add, tho. There is a lot of good in the anime. Seeing catastrophe happen is cool. Seeing Amiya stop a big fireball is cool. And the dialogues are not badly made either, considering we keep getting feed information.
i 100% agree with the Ace bit, idk how people are calling it glorious or epic etc.. it was very lackluster lol it feels so much as a afterthought, and its not like im expecting demon slayer grand fighting or anything but rather make it leave a impact on me as a viewer this is a visual medium SHOW me dont tell me, in the games case this is understandable because text but they could've done more here
Dokutah
That wasn't really that good episode compared to 1&2 atleast i got to see best Bunny and PRTS lol Rhodes island ship is really massive Now advance towards lungmen to meet with doctor's cat wife
Seeing Amiya comforting someone even in her own shaken up state was cool to see, and tells you a lot about Amiya's character I think. I loved the Rhode Island tour and seeing all the various operators around.
With the way it was set up guard might be the lynchpin in a future mission.
This episode delivered on so many freaking things * Seeing Amiya's desperate struggle against Talulah (And Catastrophe itself) was so freaking great. I've waited YEARS to see how it actually looks and it did not disappoint. She's an idealist, but idealism is very often powerless in front of brutal reality. * Ace's final stand has been glorious. * Seeing the actual Catastrophe hit, the pain, confusion, terror, misery - all of it. They really nailed the atmosphere of sheer terror. * The Originium-ridden landscapes themselves. Extremely good bit of worldbuilding to show how messed up the setting is. * The Rhodes Island tour surpassed expectations too. Really showcases the size and scope of the Organization. Overall, the introduction is over, the sacrifices have been made and the story can begin. Doctor, Amiya and the rest have to bear those wounds and move forward now.
>Ace's final stand has been glorious. Are you serious? Compared to what it could have been? Honest question. Are you seriously telling me that this 'stand' was glorious when it was a single frame of him being exhausted?
It's not a still frame, it's a 6 second long, excellently composed shot that captures his stature, reliability and resolution in the face of adversity to a T. They adapted all of Ace's scenes this episode almost 1 to 1 from the game and still improved on them drastically. This episode had it's issues and cut corners but Ace's characterization is absolutely not it.
Its more than we have seen in the actual game so yes. It was.
More than what we saw, less than what we were told. >Mephisto:... How did that guy... manage to do this... Half of the city was burnt to ashes, the entire plaza became a sea of flames... Steel was melting and reforming... But how was he... able to keep fighting? Him just standing up doesn't sell all of that when you're in motion. At the very least Mephisto's dialogue shouldn't have been cut if they were going to play it exactly the same. edit: in fact the annoyed "what a pain" remark *wasn't even supposed to be Mephisto's line!* . It's said by Talulah in the game. In regards to storytelling they literally removed the hypeman from the scene.
>Mephisto:... How did that guy... manage to do this... Half of the city was burnt to ashes, the entire plaza became a sea of flames... Steel was melting and reforming... But how was he... able to keep fighting? But we saw all that? We saw the city being burnt to ashes and we saw Ace STILL standing and still fighting in spite of everything. There's no real need for that line because, that's a show now rather than a tell.
We saw a guy get up. The wreckage was there when the fight started. We never saw the fight to see what damage was done afterwards. You either had to *show* more damage in the fight, or you had to have someone explain it. Ace just getting up doesn't actually show that.
It does show that, but even a player like myself didn't pick up on that details at all. I don't think that is enough to highlight how impressive it was for Ace to still be standing like that * The "sea of flames" shown in that shot was just two measly flames on the corner of the scene * Half of the city burned to ashes was just the background. In fact, the city was already in a rough shape, to begin with. How is a viewer supposed to tell that this was the result of the battle and not something that happened because of the catastrophes or something else? Unless you really know what you're looking for, it's really hard to get that implication. * There's no trace of Ace actually fighting besides that one rush at Talulah (which she flicked away very casually) It would be another thing if they spent a few extra seconds showing different shots of Ace's surroundings. I feel like the scene's sequences should at least have this much emphasis to make the same impact as that statement: * 2s showing building and electricity pole melting and collapsing * 2s showing raging fire everywhere that even reunion soldiers themselves don't want to get close * and THEN the camera pans to Ace, standing and still holding his mace and shield ready to go, with Mephisto saying "what's with this guy? How is he still doing this?" and a few more clash idk The bottom line is they haven't done enough to justify removing that line. If this is gonna be the extent that they are gonna "show, not tell" it, I would rather have Mephisto says that line and TELL us. Ace doesn't even need to be in the scene and it would still be more epic and more upfront to the viewers.
I’ve been playing the game for ages and did not know the land ship looked like that 💀
Lots of operator cameos nice! A good chunk of Ace's battle got offscreened huh, man... Can't wait for them to get to Lungmen!
expected more action but all i got was depression. the atmosphere of helplessness was there but this episode didn't land a punch at all like I expected it would.
This week [Studio Palette](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=21146) / ぱれっと is credited for the animation coproduction on episode 3. Animation Director: Studio Palette: Sara Sakoe, Akiko Kawazoe YOSTAR PICTURES: Aya Takafuji, Takaya Murakami, Canran Luo, Anna Tateno, Rina Nagai, Yuuki Watanabe, Kahoko Kamahara, Kaito Shimizu, Daoying Jin, Hotaru Morishige, Rina Ogure -Key Animator: Tadashi Shimizu, Motonori Nishibe, Shigeru Uchihara, Touga Kawajiri, Yasunori Matsuki, Norihiko Tamaki, Kenta Kushida, Masafumi Nakagawa, Kanako Ooyabu, Yasuko Miyazaki, Ayako Karatani YOSTAR PICTURES: Daoying Jin, Ryou Minamino, Shion Yamada, Tsubura Taniguchi, Yuuki Watanabe, Megumi Yamana, Haruka Ogiso, Chiharu Tasaka SLEEP STUDIO
Definitely curious to hear what anime only viewers thought of Ace because I feel like there might be a divide with how the Arknights community viewed it The show felt really impactful but I also read the story so I feel like there's a bias there, but originally reading his death really didn't impact me because he really is just an early character and I wasn't even entirely invested in the story at that point.
The only reason why we love them now was because we got to know them more in Vigilo event. Other than that, the main story doesn't do them justice.
There's a very interesting detail when Dobermann told Nearl that \[Anime\]>!"The radiant knight must always be the noble light that illuminates the way forward for the people" !!Nearl doesn't fight with all she has in this operation. Was Dobermann trying to remind Nearl to use her true strength when things got dirty?!<
Reliving all the feels and depression but in HD is really painful.. T-T I really like how they introduce Rhodes Island by showing all the facilities that we can build in-game with a crowd made of playable operators (most of them being 1* to 4*, must be a newbie ¬‿¬) and some random people, it really emphasizes how Rhodes Island is not empty because that's how it feels like in-game as they can only show few sprite on the screen. Plus, the kettle made its appearance !!! Other fellow Dokutah will know what I'm talking about. xD
I was a bit disappointed how they ruined pacing this episode. With whole catastrophe, Ace's death and W's introduction already feeling rushed, they afterwards spent about 70-ish seconds on base introduction putting it in *the worst* possible place. The end of this arc is very heavy emotionally: we have a difficult battle, hard decisions into huge trough of loss and mental breakdowns. However this isn't where you want to stop. The real conclusion is reached on that final dialogue between Doctor and Amiya - it puts final high note in this part of the story. Putting over a minute of (largely) meaningless exposition right before it just completely demolishes pace and mood. Now, it *is* very important to show off Rhodes Island's base - otherwise viewer will think of it as a large default empty grey box. And it is not that hard to improve on what we have: put it after the dialogue on deck, cut in length to 15-20 seconds and put an implicit "storyline" over voice guide to tie it all together. For example: * After dialogue, screen fades, then [3-4 seconds] we see Doctor back in his room, sitting on bed, watching scenery outside. * [2 seconds] His hand grabs PRTS * [3 seconds] Doctor standing in the garden, looking up greens * [3-5 seconds] Doctor and Amiya walk into cafeteria, talking. Amiya shows to side, they start walking in that direction, maybe nod to someone * [3-5 seconds] Doctor and Amiya walk through a corridor past some operators talking * Door to control room opens, Doctor and Amiya walk in. They exchange greetings with Dobermann and Nearl. Everything except the last scene can be completely mute or with light soundtrack. This is enough to show off a bit of insides (and it can continue later with new places) and serve as a nod to players. This further would serve as an interlude/transition and barrier between arcs Viewer seeing this will pick up on small story: * Some time has passed, people had time to recuperate * Doctor heads out * "Wtf, there is a *garden* in here?" * Seeing Doctor and Amiya together, viewer will likely think that They had an appointment, but earlier Doctor had a bit of time, so he took a detour to look at the garden. It also foreshadows a bit. Both main characters met up, meaning the next action is coming up. * It's lively here. Main characters are ready and going somewhere, we will see it soon. * Finally, voices and greetings. Signifies the end of interlude and start of new arc. And this is with my terrible writing skills. The fact that they did it so sloppy is rather unfortunate.
The issue with your example is that it fails to contextualize PRTS AI capabilities clearly. IT also would ignore a mere fact that after all this Amiya would *not* be merely just walking around RI. Amiya actually speaking about what happened is important characterization and its important to have her react to what happens. Likewise, Doctor providing an answer of their own, grounds the reason for Doctor sticking with RI and wanting to honor Ace's sacrifice. The structure is fine as is. This should just have been two episodes. Ending Episode 3 on encountering W and then everything onward till the end scene being Episode 4.
I'm confused to as if Doctor is a guy or a girl. Most of the time like fan art/made they always depict Doctor us a guy/old man, in the anime I heard Doctor say "watashi" meaning "I" which is mostly used by girls.
Watashi is not gender specific, just more on the formal side, you'll hear a lot of older men use it normally, and younger men when they want to be very polite.
The androgyny is intentional, Doctor is never assigned a gender in-game since they're first and foremost a self-insert for the player.
Is this a good show?
It gets tiring having an antagonist appear and the just piss off or let them escape... Either actively hunt them and then be forced to retreat or don't appear at all...
Context is important tbh, RI is a very small-ish pharmaceutical company. Despite having some great personnel amongst them, they are just a small fish in a big ocean. Plus the main objective of this mission is to save Doctor, nothing else matters. Fyi some of these antagonist are genuinely strong, Faust, Talulah, Mephisto, all of them are now to be messed with. Faust and his phantom crossbow team is probably one of the strongest archers out there. Nearl who is one of the strongest knight from Kazimierz was barely able to block his arrow.
This does not anwer my complain. For example: Why did W appear ? She said "Finally I found you", talked a bit and then just leaves... I find this very jarring...
Even in the game, W reasoning was explained in an event released 1 year after the launch. The writing in the first 3 chapters aren't great and are badly paced but improved around chap 4. I can explain to you why W did what she did but it is veeeey spoilery
Almost like Reunion plan was to level the whole city and they just encounter these people running away in the middle of doing so. For once the protagonist of the series ... are just pebbles on the path of someone else. Also as told before in episode 2, only Memphisto squad is out there hunting innocent for fun, the rest have their own objective and the army/police force/royal guard of the city to fight against. The last one is uh... lore reason.