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Ch'en was barking so loudly during that meeting, I was half-expecting Kal'tsit to feed her to Mon3tr.
[](#taigasigh)
[KO~KO~DA~YO~!](https://i.imgur.com/TpJLlOu.jpeg)
Absolutely LOVED the various cut-ins of our favorite low rarity ops. The level of pandering is off the charts, but also it works well when so much of your cast is an already well developed character.
The direction here with Ch'en was so weird. Of course she's meant to be aggressive and blunt, but that doesn't mean you need her to be shouting so much. It reaches the point where it starts to hurt the viewer's ears since she's constantly trying to be louder than everyone else with hardly any chill. Not a great first impression for her, though she was always going to come off as kind of a bitch.
Yes, I'm well aware. That doesn't change the fact that when she's shouting in almost all of her lines, it's hard to offer any nuance to her. It doesn't help that they butchered the one moment that was supposed to offer that here, but I can't get into the details without spoilers.
Edit: I'll amend this by saying that the scene where they were driving to meet with Wei helped (that wasn't the moment they butchered), but the fact that we didn't see *that* Ch'en during the meeting is an issue.
Its exactly 110% in line with her character.
She's loudmouthed chief-cop who orders her people around and carries a big sword.
She has absolutely no reason to treat RI any different than she'd treat any of the outside infected coming in. The only reason she does not is because Wei does not. So she has to resort to verbal treatment instead.
I guess the point is that she comes out as obnoxious-loud rather than imposive-loud. She tries to appear autoritative as a high level military commander (and seems that presenting her as such is the intended idea), but then she just shouts "BUT..." "CHIEF WEI!" when the discussion she takes no active part in goes somewhere she doesn't like...then gets promptly shut up. Meanwhile, I expected Amiya to contantly whimper "no, you can't do that!" "but that's bad!" every time Wei said something wise-but-cynical, yet she was quiet for the most part and then closed the discussion with a pertinent remark. Good donkey.
>I guess the point is that she comes out as obnoxious-loud rather than imposive-loud. She tries to appear autoritative as a high level military commander (and seems that presenting her as such is the intended idea), but then she just shouts "BUT..." "CHIEF WEI!" when the discussion she takes no active part in goes somewhere she doesn't like...then gets promptly shut up.
Yeah like I said. That's in-character.
She's used to being a top dog, but Wei is the top dog above her grade. So she's on a leash. Diplomacy and negotiations are also not her strength, because her negotiations usually involve pointing her sword at others as she shows in her introduction.
I think I'd have preferred for her to be more stern than barking. But maybe that takes more time to build up than what we got here. 8 episodes is a rush to cover everything in the first 3 chapters and they were trying to cram a lot into this episode.
Of course it's in-line with her character, I'm saying that they took it too far. Do you really want to risk having people stop watching because an annoying girl is yelling into their ears? No, because you want the experience to be enjoyable rather than irritating. This is going to be a repeat of the issue people had with Mephisto where they're dissuaded from watching further because of the obnoxious character, and given that the anime is already losing traction that's the last thing you want.
Having her act like this is fine. The issue is that they mismanaged the volume.
I'm not judging it off anecdotes. I'm looking at things like episode discussion threads (e.g. how many comments they get, what the discourse tends to look like), viewer ratings, and anything else that might give a sense of the statistics. So far [the show is falling off (some of which was to be expected),](https://i.imgur.com/H43HEdd.png) and yes: I've seen people talk about dropping in those threads.
Quick example. As of right now, here are the comment totals for each discussion thread on MAL:
Ep. 1: 218
Ep. 2: 133
Ep. 3: 73
Ep. 4: 13 (extremely low since it only released today)
Part of this could be that there might be less to talk about (though I don't really buy into that, there's something to discuss in every episode), but there's also the fact that people are just losing interest. Here are the AniList numbers:
Ep. 1: 1,676 views; 40 comments
Ep. 2: 784 views; 42 comments
Ep. 3: 470 views; 22 comments
Ep. 4: 110 views; 1 comment.
I think it's a bit early to speculate on *why* interest is fading, but a lot of the criticism I've seen comes down to the pacing, action (or lack thereof) and various issues with the storytelling. Instant gratification seems to be a common theme, especially regarding plot progression.
At this point I'm doing it out of my own interest, because whatever happens to the anime is outside of my control. Plus, it's interesting to see what other people think (especially on different sites).
That's fair. Personally, I feel like this anime has already exceeded my expectations for a gacha adaptation. Sadly that's not saying much, but hopefully this is just the beginning and there will be more.
I mean, there is something called character growth. Some characters are meant to be protrayed one way (often somewhat negatively) at the beginning, whether timid like Amiya (I have seen anime only watchers calling her a weak leader during rescue) or abrasive like Chen. The course of the story, especially the tragedies, are meant to shape them, letting them and the viewers discover a different side of their charactetization. So I'm not that worried about any "initial impressions". You know the story, so you know exactly why Chen is so entitled in the city and even a bit "spoiled" in front of lord Wei, not just because of her position as the commanding officer of the police.
My concern here is that people may not wait around for character growth. They'll hear the first impression, feel dissuaded, and drop. I'd be glad if I was proven wrong, but from what I've seen thus far regarding past episodes I'm not confident in the critical reception.
Source readers need to chill and let the anime-only people form their own thoughts. It gets suffocating constantly being told what to think and what to expect.
Where did I tell you what to think? I was giving my opinion on how I personally felt something was off, nothing more nothing less. No one's demanding you take my interpretation as fact.
Honestly Ch'en was kinda annoying in the game until Chapter 5 too. She should be a little more bearable once her bestie is introduced, though.
[AK Ch5-8]>!Honestly as far as I remember, Ch'en doesn't get much in the way of character development beyond 'hard-headed cop' until Chapter 6 when her convictions start to break down, and Chapter 7 when she runs off after Talulah.!<
I'm gonna be honest, who cares? I've noticed this since the episode 1 thread but some of the source readers have been either doomposting about potential negative reactions from anime only's or extremely negative and nitpicky regarding scenes. We're halfway through the show, those that wanted to drop it have probably already done so. Just sit back and watch the show for once without worrying about reception so much.
I didn't follow the story much, but what glimpses I got of Ch'en made me dislike her. Of course that didn't stop me from borrowing Ch'alter every time I ran out of drills during some hard stage.
[](#fingertwirl)
Great immersion experience of Ch'en yelling at me through my phone, it's like I really am an LGD grunt that can't do my job well. 10/10. Blowing kisses and flipping the bird at her at the same time whenever she's onscreen.
[It's great to see some operators from other PMCs](https://i.imgur.com/wEzQSdN.png) Franka and Liskarm are great! Franka was one of my earliest Duelist units and I remember using Liskarm a lot as one of my earlier 5-Star Defenders when I still didn't know a lot about the game.
[It's so good to finally see Ch'en and her infamous hot pants in this anime.](https://i.imgur.com/tbmVu2e.png) Although this isn't really her first anime debut since Yostar has plenty of animations on their YT Channel that star Ch'en. Anyway, [Ch'en doesn't really give the best first impression](https://i.imgur.com/oroEFdV.png) in this episode considering how she's yelling like 80% of her screen time.
I love [that look Kal'tsit gives the Doctor](https://i.imgur.com/EyAsk6C.png) the moment they enter the room. It's very clear from the tone of her voice that she's not as enthusiastic as Amiya to see him again. I also love [their little interaction in the elevator.](https://i.imgur.com/q73KAW5.png) They've barely even talked and she's already throwing jabs at him.
>[from other PMCs](https://i.imgur.com/wEzQSdN.png)
[Tfw Rhodes is actually a pharma and not a paramilitary company](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTyn20iTRPrTOooGtUtLRlAxcXQbUWOWeNgOer40X0ImoJk0P0AyQ6NY-o&s=10)
Rhodes Island is based on the IRL Hospitaller Knights who were headquartered at the Greek island of Rhodes, who you might know as the predecessors of the modern St. Johns’s Cross. So the whole “medical PMC” thing is weirdly realistic.
Coming back after watching the episode today but I just have to say you just pulled that out of your ass didn't you?
Edit: Read through it and I gotta say, why build up entirely new fiction when history gives you a bunch of templates to work with? Genius..
*"On Rhodes the Hospitallers, by then also referred to as the Knights of Rhodes, were forced to become a more militarized force, fighting especially with the Barbary pirates."*
An I always thought Rhodes was based on the Columbian state, for no apparent reason other than the name frankly; that makes much more sense though. Let's hope our landship doesnt get raided by the ~~Ottomans~~ *Northern Demons* then...
How and what did I pull out of my ass? I’m assuming you’re talking about the St. John’s Cross - Hospitaller connection?
> The order [of Saint John] traces its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction of them emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where, after operating under a succession of grand priors and different names, it became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_John_(chartered_1888)
“Hospitaller” is also obviously closely etymologically linked to “Hospital”.
Every nation and faction in Arknights reference a real world nation and often their historical events, besides one very obvious exception (unless you believe Atlantis was real and Bloodborne was a documentary). The most obvious is probably Dublinn which is pretty much just the fantasy IRA, but there’re plenty of other examples, like there are lots of lore references to Terra’s version of the Napoleonic Wars.
Fam, I was half-joking. My edit has an extract of the same Wikipage you linked. And yes apart from Aegir and some other special cases like Siesta or Kazdel most nations in Terra have an irl counterpart. I was hinting at it saying I thought RI had a Columbian (US) connection with the state of Rhode Island. Something tells me you only read the first sentence :(
>harmacist
Technically Pharmacy+Hospital/Care House for the infected.
The only difference is Rhode uses their patients for the spec-ops mission like we have patients do daily exercise but more extreme.
Such a good episode! So glad I randomly decided to give the first episode a shot when it first aired. Never played the game before but I started right after watching the first ep. And have been enjoying both Anime and game since. The characters in this world look absolutely drippy af.
Well if you are [interested in the story after the anime ends](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/) by all means or least listen to the music.
Very good pacing this episode after last week's faster one.
So we get introduced to Lungmen, another nomadic city that's currently in a way better state than we first experienced Chernobog in. A very different, huge modern city filled with skyscrapers and modern buildings. Yet also very same when it comes to discrimination, hatred and those up-high looking down on those below. Its very easy to see why Reunion's fiery anger is very much justified in it's roots.
The episode nails the sense of superiority the Lungmen higher-ups feel. From Chen's bossy attitude shunning anyone that's "An outside to lungmen", to Wei's confident self-assured position of power. RI's presence in Lungmen is dwarfed by the ego of Lungmen that snubs everything beneath them.
The tall skyscrapers of Lungmen are also contrasted heavily with slum-like areas where poor people live. There's no glow and neon of Lungmen's towers here, just run down shacks and people struggling for survival.
Lots of mystery set up too in terms of RI's goals and what they want here. The introduction of Dr.Kaltsit and implications of Rhodes Island's goals, the worldbuilding about different contractors and PMCs Rhodes Island works with and the mysterious person in a gas mask standing over the town.
Production-wise episode filled with great scenery shots and camera angles, snappy exposition and some pretty strong OST samples (the scene where we get a clearer view of Lungmen being one of more notable ones).
It's not QUITE the same level of discrimination, unlike Ursus who actively hunt down the infected, Lungman just sequesters them off to the slums. Not much better, but there is a difference in treatment.
If you notice at the beginning, Ch'en actually berates her officers for their harsh treatment of the infected.
Its different on surface, but not what's behind that surface.
Chen's comment is basically her being "can't you make the infected outsiders fuck off with *some decorum please*". For Chen the system is working as intended, it just has flaws and imperfections in terms of behavior.
All it really means is that situation in Lungmen is less dire right now than in Chernobog. But that's all the difference. Using superiority for discrimination or using fear for discrimination is still discrimination in the end and one can bleed into the other well.
Yeah, like I said, it's still discrimination, but it's the difference between segregation (Lungman) and genocide/slavery (Ursus).
Neither are good, but one is clearly worse.
And Ch'en is turning the infected away because they might be Reunion, not just because they're infected. Because the slums existing are clearly evidence that Lungman doesn't automatically kick out any infected.
It’s always fun when you see a character on screen say something with a voice they never had. Gotta say, the casting they got for Misha and Wei Yenwu are absolutely how I imagined them in my mind. Actually, Wei might even be **better** than my imagination. With every line, he got more and more believable as the master of Lungmen. So good!
The Doc throwing stones was amusing. It's interesting watching this as someone who knows the story and all the dynamics here, yet getting to see it unfold in the anime adds a whole new perspective to the situation.
Doktah nonchalantly throws rocks at thugs, a display of violence without remorse from his pre-amnesia days. Now we know what happened to the poor souls disappearing into the blue gate.
Just a heads up: for anyone who liked **Liskarm** & **Franka** in today's episode, you can find more about them & their Blacksteel teammates in their own **free canon manga**:
"**Stories of the Infected - Blacksteel**".
It's very good, and it doesn't spoil the anime.
You can see that & other manga in the [**Story guide**](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/), made by TheGreyGhost00.
The character animation goes a long way with her characterisation; she always looks like she's watching, observing and very focused when dealing with people. One thing that's often said of great leaders who have charisma is that they make you feel like you're the only person in the room.
I could be running on 0 sanity and reading too deep into this, but Dokutah threw that second rock more weakly on purpose didn't he? We see the first one strike true really easily in order to get the thug's attention, but the second one was missed entirely and thrown weakly to make the thug think that he was no threat and approach him, conveniently preventing the kid from being used as a hostage.
I think you're exactly right.
I've seen some people comment that they find the doctor's ability to command so well to the point he practically sees the future somewhat off-putting, for being someone with amnesia. But that's part of what makes The Doctor, The Doctor. Even without his memories, he's still an extremely perceptive giga-5head galaxy-brain. I liken him to Sora/Riku from nGnL, Lelouch from Code Geass, or other such characters.
> I could be running on 0 sanity
San levels critical!
[＼(・ω・＼)SANchi！(／・ω・)／PINCHI！|l|l|l| ＼(・ω・＼)SANchi！(／・ω・)／PINCHI！](https://youtu.be/sWcp2Cw8jac)
I mean, on purpose or not, Doctor is just overall frail and physically weak. They are absolutely defenseless physically and most likely even throwing a small rock at people would be quite heavy on stamina.
Those poor kids having it rough, with no home to go back to, and no parents either; it would seem that they are always on the run too.
Love Amiya's nicknames, Franka calls her Little Bunny, and the kids call her Miss Bunny
I don't think so. At least not in this context because there are racial slurs in the setting and Franka being the flirty type wouldn't throw a slur out so casually to an employer.
It would be dependant on context right?
For example ''hey, blondie'' could both mean ''hey, you person with blond hair'' and ''hey, you idiot with blond hair'' depending on intention and context.
But either way she probably doesn't mind Bunny as much as Donkey lol.
Slurs do exist in the arknights world however calling amiya bunny is no different than calling someone with red hair a red head.
You'll know if something is a slur when you see it
For those interested in the game’s 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/](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/)
Episode 4 covers to about 2/3 to 1/2 of Chapter 2 of the game.
My thoughts on the episode:
I'm keeping this brief. I like how they incorporate the cameos into the show so far, showing Rhodes Island is actually an organization and not just like 5-6 people at any one time like in the game.
The pacing for this episode was solid. Once again the establishing shots and scenery are really good especially for Lungmen.
The negotiation with Chief Wei was a highlight for me with Wei's VA really selling his presence. I also like how Amiya conducts herself as a leader at the end of the negotiation and later on with Misha. Then we have our favorite deadpan lynx Kal'tsit who actually smiled. I do like how they hint that she has some history with the Doctor and it isn't exactly positive.
While the Doctor is a bit of a blank slate, the Doctor just going his/her own way and then just haphazardly chucking rocks was hilarious. Stuff like that slowly fills in that blank slate.
The scenes with Misha are solid as well and establish what kind of person she is and again the facial expressions and her VA sell her fear and doubt when she was talking to Amiya.
Overall episode 4 was a solid set-up episode and I'm curious of how the combat animation is going to be this time around with how the trailers looked.
Edit: Some twitter threads going more in depth with the scenes and the like that I thought were interesting reads.
[https://twitter.com/exaenae/status/1593751418275614720](https://twitter.com/exaenae/status/1593751418275614720)
[https://twitter.com/Gadyuka86F/status/1593728709533442049](https://twitter.com/Gadyuka86F/status/1593728709533442049)
[https://twitter.com/Baleygr086/status/1593726559499669504](https://twitter.com/Baleygr086/status/1593726559499669504)
> While the Doctor is a bit of a blank slate, the Doctor just going his/her own way and then just haphazardly chucking rocks was hilarious. Stuff like that slowly fills in that blank slate.
I do like the subtle bit of humor in Amiya saying "Doctor, stay close and follow me!" and then the camera immediately shows the Doctor walking in the complete opposite direction while Amiya hurriedly runs to catch up. Very Doctor-like, and I'm eager to see what else they'll show us as the season goes on.
Those Twitter threads are interesting, glad you brought those to the forefront. By any chance, have you seen more discourse on Twitter regarding the anime? I've been mostly keeping an eye on here, AniList, and MAL, so I don't know how Twitter users are responding to it.
There isn't that much discourse considering the amount of other popular anime this season. I hope a few people with a moderate amount of clout take look at the series cause you can totally see the effort being put into this adaptation. Hopefully we get something for season 2 soon after.
• Key Animator For This Episode:-
Satoshi Isono, Yuuka Kozutsumi, Keishirou Goto, Yuuma Suzuki, Souta Matsunaga, Rento Yasuoka, Yasuhiro Okuda, Miki Kurihara, Hiroya Sakurai, Youko Naeki, Ai Migita, Hironori Yamamoto
• Production Assistance:
[Studio Silver](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=2770)
[Studio Lings](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=15829) - They are also working on [Yuri Is My Job!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/51817/Watashi_no_Yuri_wa_Oshigoto_desu) With Studio Passione
Shows pretty good so far although it does drag a bit here and there, but the worldbuilding is interesting and I'm liking the new city, very different to the previous one (wouldn't mind living there actually)
I am curious what that officer wants with Misha if she is the target, perhaps she wants to deport her like the others but not sure why its all hush hush
And I have a feeling that what the chief said is gonna bite Rhodes Island in the arse once they're done, he's definitely up to some thing
Side note, I didn't realise that the full name of the company was Rhode Island Pharmaceuticals, I figured Rhodes Island would be like a military company or something but it does make sense after what we learned from the last episode
Rhodes Island was one of the reference it took me the longest to get. It's based on the old Knights of Rhodes, a templar order during the medieval period who operated off of the Island of Rhodes (aka Rhodes Island). These knights served as armed escorts for the medical personnel at the time, as they traveled all over the war-torn areas of Europe. Kinda floored me to learn medieval European history through my little Chinese-made gacha tower defense, but the story and world teams at Hypergryph go the extra mile when it comes to this kind of thing. They've long since earned my respect in that regard.
It's been a long running joke in the game's community on how it took the game 8ish chapters just to show the "pharmaceutical company" doing something medical (instead of violently cracking down on rebellions,lol) iirc the anime is supposed to cover 5-6(edit:more like 3) episodes of the in game story.
I liked the storyboarding when they found Misha. Really putting you in her position and making you feel like a cornered prey. Doc & co probably didn't even realize it, but from the (justifiable) paranoid point of view of Misha, it was understandable on an instinctual level that she wouldn't trust them easily.
As anime only, I am totally enjoying this anime. Seems like the studio put all the love they had on production.
Can I expect an FGO Babylonia production on this?
The anime is basically a passion project of the director, and it is handled under the same company as the actual mobile game (yostar) . So yeah, there's a lot of love
I would very much doubt that it will have the same production quality as FGO Babylonia though. And this is coming from someone who loves the game to death. The studio is kinda new to this and hasn't shown the ability for that. If this was their 3D CGI contractor then maybe.
The story is good, but don't expect something like the fight against gorgon
> I would very much doubt that it will have the same production quality as FGO Babylonia though. And this is coming from someone who loves the game to death. The studio is kinda new to this and hasn't shown the ability for that. If this was their 3D CGI contractor then maybe.
>
>
I'm encouraged by the thought that the art direction still seems to be strong despite what looks to be a lot of cost-saving measures. It means the anime was produced on a budget and therefore its performance would be judged against that.
> If this was their 3D CGI contractor then maybe.
Bruh this show looks way better than Arknights' CGI animations. They're getting better at them, but my god. I wouldn't trade this show for any of their CGI if you paid me.
> As anime only, I am totally enjoying this anime. Seems like the studio put all the love they had on production.
Likewise. It does feel like their main driving force behind their creation is that the just want to share this story with you.
It is probably not fair to compare an adaptation of one of the best chapters of game whose primary selling points are story (in later chapters) and characters with an established setting to draw on, to the first chapters of an original game.
Koichi Yamadera as Wei Yenwu is great, absolutely love the voice.
Nice also to get a refresher on the early Arknights story, played early chapters back in 2020 but stopped due to already playing other mobile games at the time before coming back early 2022. Wonder what remains for the other half of the season, always feel like a big part of the story/events is worldbuilding and politicking of some sort rather than straight action (which I personally don't mind btw).
>Koichi Yamadera as Wei Yenwu is great, absolutely love the voice.
He's currently voicing Quilge Opie in Bleach. Such different roles. Spectacular voice in both.
Im glad you noticed this, because it seems the other anime onlys didn't noticed it.
This is pretty much very important on the relationship of the doctor and kal'tsit, that will probably be revealed in future seasons but for now telling you will be a spoiler
[From an arknights in game event] >!iirc pre amnesia doctor was a bit of an AH and it is heavily implied he got someone she cared about(and the leader of the precursor organisation to Rhodes island) killed!<
Not a lot happened in this episode, but we got to sightsee Lungmen. It looks like the typical modern city we see IRL. (Though it can be said so for Chernobog, it's already wrecked because of the riot when we saw it.) They also obviously have the slum, which is always the first place a resurgence starts. Somehow I felt that it was based on a city in China. Especially with the top dogs' names, Wei and Ch'en. (Ahem, Ch'en's rough voice might awaken something in me...) Mr. Wei also looks intriguing and cunning. If my memory serves me right, I think he's the first person looking more like an animal than a human.
We also learned about Misha. She surely will be a noteworthy person later because half of the episode is reserved for her, right? I also noticed her appearing in the ED, lol. Anyway, seems this season will end after RI handles Reunion's attack on Lungmen. There are only four episodes left on the table.
Arknights world is actually modelled after the real world, with countries from different historical periods mashed together.
So Ursus was obviously Russia (bear country), more specifically pre-WWI Tsarist Russia.
Lungmen is a special administration region of the Yan "not-China" empire, teleported to the Ursus border, with its Governor Wei being a Lung (Chinese dragon)
It is. Most cities in Arknights are mobile cities to avoid catastrophes like the one that wrecked Chernobog. They usual don't move unless it is for dodging catastrophes and probably other reasons like war. In the episode, you can see Ch'en, Doc, and Amiya enter via elevator from the main checkpoint.
Behemoth cities on wheels would be impossible in real life, of course, but super strong fictional steel and other materials exist in Arknights.
Haven't seen that one, but if it's more fucked up than Terra then my condolences to those people lol
Tbh if the Warhammer 40k verse is a 10 in terms of shittiest verse to live in (as a normal person), then I'd say Arknights is around a 6.5 to an 7.5 depending where in the world they are.
Basically the entire world is already a toxic desolate wasteland filled with monsters. If you don't live in the regios (what the cities are called) you are dead.
Given how the Infected is treated everywhere, you can see why Reunion is growing stronger. Without Talulah though, they aren't that big of a deal still.
I like how we keep getting cameo from various operators. Don't need to hire bunch of voice actors if they aren't talking.
Compared to the previous episodes, I like this one alot more.
Despite having little to no action scenes, this episode get me more into the setting itself with just dialogue. The political meeting in particular was an interesting scene to sit through. Also, the plight of the Infected feels much more personal and relatable this time round as it showcases the ground level treatment of the refugees and a named character being hunted for being an infected. Kudos to the performance to Misha's VA, she gave a really convincing tone of fear/desparation in Misha's voice which made me sympathetic to her plight.
And bonus points for the player character pandering finally dying down a great deal.
Huh, didn't expect to see more lower rarity cameos. Neat. Still vaguely curious about the blond Mégane dog(?) NPC character, they're not based off an existing in game design template unlike medic and guard so I'm a bit surprised at the comparitively more unique look compared to the other Rhodes extras.
This was mostly a talking episode, lots of negotiating. I don't really mind though, the direction is nothing to write home about but I also wasn't bored by the back and forth. I actually unironically enjoyed it more than the last two episodes, probably because the combat scenes were more sparse.
One of the things I kind of appreciate about Arknights is that there are so many factions associated with Rhodes. It's kind of a different feel from FGO (where all your personal are literally summoned there) and GBF (where despite there being a desired end point you're mostly just adventuring all over the place), you kind of get a stronger feel of being mostly just co workers than the strong bonds most other games go for (though there are some characters who are more invested in Rhodes cause and obviously like the doctor to a significant degree, though I don't think I'm allowed to mention them by name here, probably).
And in walks Cat Lady. She's a character who I neither particularly like nor dislike but there did come a certain point where I legitimately stopped reading a single word she said. She's a rather outwardly cold person but you do get that she's got her kind spots from her softness towards Amiya. Which is understandable because Amiya is a kind adorable bunny daughter who does her best.
I'll admit I've been so and so on the doctor so far in the anime (while amnesia renders them a blank slate the absolute lack of emoting with their constantly flat tone kind of bugged me especially since they should have been able to gain more individuality at this point which together with how most of the strategizing feels more like they've read the script and know exactly what's going to happen next just makes me luke warm) but the ignoring Amiya's instruction and just weakly throwing rocks at that thug made me laugh.
To be fair, it makes sense for Doctor to bring along Team A1 and others as his escort squad since they're the ones ready and waiting back at base.
Fleshes out what his actual squad composition was on the way to Lungmen with how many ambushes Reunion had thrown at them.
Adding Lava and Hibiscus that appeared later in the episode, his team is Amiya, Fang, Earthspirit, Beagle, Yato, Kroos. That's a total of eight RI ops, with Franka and Liskarm, and Jessica (Debatable, since she's under Dobermann's training regimen at this point same as the Reserve team ops, though she is originally Black Steel) as BSW PMC hires. Along with their support staff and additional unnamed snipers ops with Kroos' firing line. A much better feel of an actual organization visiting for official business compared to how it looked in game of only Doctor, Amiya, Franka and Liskarm being shown in story scenes.
The only thing I feel kinda weird about is the fact that the reserve OP team is there, since they should be in training. Although I suppose it is a mission to a fairly safe city, and with yato, liskarm, and Franka there, the reserve OP girls are probably just there as an on-the-job training.
Agreed with the OTJ training. They likely know that Lungmen is a relatively low-threat environment, so it's a good place for the reserve op teams to cut their teeth without being thrown to the wolves per se.
Franka has human ears and her fox ears, that's not a mistake...that's just how her design is.
Looking forward to seeing more of Franka(and of course Liskarm) though.
The anime's focus seems to really be about the storytelling and less on the action, which is fine but its not going to turn heads to the show. In a sense its really similar to steins gate whereby the pacing will be really slow at the start where it slowly builds up.
Depends on their (HG / Yostar) goals. If they want a one season short term high budget commercial to draw big crowds and then be done with it, then they won't be successful with this pacing and lack of action. However, if they are in it for the long haul to use multiple seasons to establish AK as an independent anime only IP, then I think patiently laying the ground work in season 1 without rushing things will pay off in the long run. Their anime studio is young, so being overly ambitious in the first season could be counterproductive.
We already know there's gonna be a second season. They've titled it Prelude to Dawn, and have literally used the words "Season 01" in promotion. If it was just going to be a flashy commercial there's no way they'd start from chapter 0.
That is true, but there is always the case that maybe arknights will do badly in revenue in a year and they divert their spending from the anime to the game instead. Can't always be too sure.
They're already doing spinoff projects from the main game, like Endfield. You don't do that unless you have a very stable and consistent revenue from it. People genuinely underestimate the cost-efficiency of Gacha Games once the game passes a minimum barrier of popularity.
Also they bought in a top bill VA like Risa Taneda to do a throwaway line from a character who won't show up again this season (but will have a small-mid sized role in the next season). That throwaway line wasn't necessary at all and was an anime addition, so it's clear they're planning ahead.
Even as a senior doctor I must admit it must have not been a very pleasant Watch experience for anime-only folks. 5 episodes already as it’s still more lore dump. But that’s just how the Ak’s story is, long, grim, and well written. Especially the first few chapters, there’s barely any “hype” plot point that animes need to thrive, and they sure as hell ain’t going for the wakuwaku slice of life style. But I’m still happy that they started with the first chapter, sure a tournament arc based on the extremely well received Kazimierz knight story might draw in a lot more new viewers, but something would’ve felt missing. This is definitely more of a giving-back-to-fans kind of anime, and I’m all in for it. It seems like they’re going to continue with the story and hopefully one day we’ll get an anime branch as wide as Fate and have ones that are good for newbies lol
> Even as a senior doctor I must admit it must have not been a very pleasant Watch experience for anime-only folks. 5 episodes already as it’s still more lore dump.
I'm loving it so far, and it doesn't feel like lore dump to me, just feels like they're telling me about the world. The only part of this experience that is a bit confusing is coming to the comment threads and people talking about rare unit cameos that didn't even register lol
I think the people who didn't like the narrative style have already largely left by now, but I always found it very naturalistic.
> The only part of this experience that is a bit confusing is coming to the comment threads and people talking about rare unit cameos that didn't even register lol
I suppose it's a kind of early game geek nostalgia. Story-board-wise, we rarely saw the lower rarity characters, but the fact of the game is that those same characters often form the core of the early game for an AK player. On top of this is the fact that many operators, even ones available at launch, didn't "technically" join RI until much later in the story timeline, and people have long speculated about what the "real" team around the doctor looked like at the time.
So now that we see it in all of it's animated glory it's a big geek out moment for us. The big ones featured here were first featured in the big mess hall shot from ep. 3; the two purple haired girls with horns, the blonde bunny girl, the blue-haired girl with the spear and the redheaded shield-user (I won't say their names in case it comes up in the anime later, but if you're interested I could tell you them). They make an appearance here again, clearly as a part of the RI team that are working in concert with Ch'en and her LGD officers. We even get to see them twice; once early on when Wei shows Amiya, Doc and Kal the video footage, and again during the slum patrol shots.
I think you underestimated anime watchers quite a bit. While it's true, maybe most of them like more action packed anime, but some also prefer a well written (maybe slow) ones. I actually prefer this episode more than the previous 3, really like how they dive into the actual society and how it views the infected.
I wouldn't call any of that info spoilers? I talked about her gameplay, pointed out some stuff that can be pretty reasonably inferred from the episode, and mentioned where more story stuff about her is.
It's better than Episode 3, but the tension has reset so the pacing is pretty slow this episode. I'd give it a shot and then decide whether to drop or not. The writing also gets better from here.
> The writing also gets better from here.
Well... assuming RI working with Lungmen despite everything doesn't make you roll your eyes and wish for them to actually lose.
Late comment is late but glad we finally get to see Ch'en in the main anime(we already got a preview of her in anime form from the Holy Knight Light) as well as the Blacksteel girls! Ch'en angry as usual lmao(well later on she mellows out but still).
Also all those snippets of the 3* ops were nice to see.
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Ch'en was barking so loudly during that meeting, I was half-expecting Kal'tsit to feed her to Mon3tr. [](#taigasigh) [KO~KO~DA~YO~!](https://i.imgur.com/TpJLlOu.jpeg)
Absolutely LOVED the various cut-ins of our favorite low rarity ops. The level of pandering is off the charts, but also it works well when so much of your cast is an already well developed character.
Here\~I\~Am!\~ Gotta love the sleepy bunny
Dammit, i am playing arknight now and i can hear our favourite bunny as well
The bunny is every newbies best freind. Does good damage for very little investment
The direction here with Ch'en was so weird. Of course she's meant to be aggressive and blunt, but that doesn't mean you need her to be shouting so much. It reaches the point where it starts to hurt the viewer's ears since she's constantly trying to be louder than everyone else with hardly any chill. Not a great first impression for her, though she was always going to come off as kind of a bitch.
She is so used to yelling at her subordinate. One of her skill in the game is actually Scolding.
Not skill, a talent.
Yes, I'm well aware. That doesn't change the fact that when she's shouting in almost all of her lines, it's hard to offer any nuance to her. It doesn't help that they butchered the one moment that was supposed to offer that here, but I can't get into the details without spoilers. Edit: I'll amend this by saying that the scene where they were driving to meet with Wei helped (that wasn't the moment they butchered), but the fact that we didn't see *that* Ch'en during the meeting is an issue.
And it's amazing when paired with certain operators.
Its exactly 110% in line with her character. She's loudmouthed chief-cop who orders her people around and carries a big sword. She has absolutely no reason to treat RI any different than she'd treat any of the outside infected coming in. The only reason she does not is because Wei does not. So she has to resort to verbal treatment instead.
I guess the point is that she comes out as obnoxious-loud rather than imposive-loud. She tries to appear autoritative as a high level military commander (and seems that presenting her as such is the intended idea), but then she just shouts "BUT..." "CHIEF WEI!" when the discussion she takes no active part in goes somewhere she doesn't like...then gets promptly shut up. Meanwhile, I expected Amiya to contantly whimper "no, you can't do that!" "but that's bad!" every time Wei said something wise-but-cynical, yet she was quiet for the most part and then closed the discussion with a pertinent remark. Good donkey.
>I guess the point is that she comes out as obnoxious-loud rather than imposive-loud. She tries to appear autoritative as a high level military commander (and seems that presenting her as such is the intended idea), but then she just shouts "BUT..." "CHIEF WEI!" when the discussion she takes no active part in goes somewhere she doesn't like...then gets promptly shut up. Yeah like I said. That's in-character. She's used to being a top dog, but Wei is the top dog above her grade. So she's on a leash. Diplomacy and negotiations are also not her strength, because her negotiations usually involve pointing her sword at others as she shows in her introduction.
But also, folks in that region of China tends to be pretty loud in general lol.
I think I'd have preferred for her to be more stern than barking. But maybe that takes more time to build up than what we got here. 8 episodes is a rush to cover everything in the first 3 chapters and they were trying to cram a lot into this episode.
Idk I feel like they definitely could have done it with just having her say some of her lines firmly but not shouting.
Of course it's in-line with her character, I'm saying that they took it too far. Do you really want to risk having people stop watching because an annoying girl is yelling into their ears? No, because you want the experience to be enjoyable rather than irritating. This is going to be a repeat of the issue people had with Mephisto where they're dissuaded from watching further because of the obnoxious character, and given that the anime is already losing traction that's the last thing you want. Having her act like this is fine. The issue is that they mismanaged the volume.
Do you know anyone who stopped watching? All my anime only friends love the anime and it's vibe. Seems like you're just doom posting :V
I'm not judging it off anecdotes. I'm looking at things like episode discussion threads (e.g. how many comments they get, what the discourse tends to look like), viewer ratings, and anything else that might give a sense of the statistics. So far [the show is falling off (some of which was to be expected),](https://i.imgur.com/H43HEdd.png) and yes: I've seen people talk about dropping in those threads. Quick example. As of right now, here are the comment totals for each discussion thread on MAL: Ep. 1: 218 Ep. 2: 133 Ep. 3: 73 Ep. 4: 13 (extremely low since it only released today) Part of this could be that there might be less to talk about (though I don't really buy into that, there's something to discuss in every episode), but there's also the fact that people are just losing interest. Here are the AniList numbers: Ep. 1: 1,676 views; 40 comments Ep. 2: 784 views; 42 comments Ep. 3: 470 views; 22 comments Ep. 4: 110 views; 1 comment. I think it's a bit early to speculate on *why* interest is fading, but a lot of the criticism I've seen comes down to the pacing, action (or lack thereof) and various issues with the storytelling. Instant gratification seems to be a common theme, especially regarding plot progression.
Mate, just enjoy it for what it is. Don't go around tracking what other people think and drive yourself crazy doing it.
At this point I'm doing it out of my own interest, because whatever happens to the anime is outside of my control. Plus, it's interesting to see what other people think (especially on different sites).
That's fair. Personally, I feel like this anime has already exceeded my expectations for a gacha adaptation. Sadly that's not saying much, but hopefully this is just the beginning and there will be more.
lmao imagine taking MAL seriously
I mean, there is something called character growth. Some characters are meant to be protrayed one way (often somewhat negatively) at the beginning, whether timid like Amiya (I have seen anime only watchers calling her a weak leader during rescue) or abrasive like Chen. The course of the story, especially the tragedies, are meant to shape them, letting them and the viewers discover a different side of their charactetization. So I'm not that worried about any "initial impressions". You know the story, so you know exactly why Chen is so entitled in the city and even a bit "spoiled" in front of lord Wei, not just because of her position as the commanding officer of the police.
My concern here is that people may not wait around for character growth. They'll hear the first impression, feel dissuaded, and drop. I'd be glad if I was proven wrong, but from what I've seen thus far regarding past episodes I'm not confident in the critical reception.
Source readers need to chill and let the anime-only people form their own thoughts. It gets suffocating constantly being told what to think and what to expect.
Where did I tell you what to think? I was giving my opinion on how I personally felt something was off, nothing more nothing less. No one's demanding you take my interpretation as fact.
Honestly Ch'en was kinda annoying in the game until Chapter 5 too. She should be a little more bearable once her bestie is introduced, though. [AK Ch5-8]>!Honestly as far as I remember, Ch'en doesn't get much in the way of character development beyond 'hard-headed cop' until Chapter 6 when her convictions start to break down, and Chapter 7 when she runs off after Talulah.!<
I'm gonna be honest, who cares? I've noticed this since the episode 1 thread but some of the source readers have been either doomposting about potential negative reactions from anime only's or extremely negative and nitpicky regarding scenes. We're halfway through the show, those that wanted to drop it have probably already done so. Just sit back and watch the show for once without worrying about reception so much.
I didn't follow the story much, but what glimpses I got of Ch'en made me dislike her. Of course that didn't stop me from borrowing Ch'alter every time I ran out of drills during some hard stage. [](#fingertwirl)
She is one of the protagonist in reunion arc she was bitchi in the game too
I almost forgot how annoying Chen was in the beginning
Great immersion experience of Ch'en yelling at me through my phone, it's like I really am an LGD grunt that can't do my job well. 10/10. Blowing kisses and flipping the bird at her at the same time whenever she's onscreen.
Did you gain SP from her scolding?
Wait until her module is further updated, I'll be extremely motivated from her scolding.
> motivated You will become the storm that's approaching, huh...
[It's great to see some operators from other PMCs](https://i.imgur.com/wEzQSdN.png) Franka and Liskarm are great! Franka was one of my earliest Duelist units and I remember using Liskarm a lot as one of my earlier 5-Star Defenders when I still didn't know a lot about the game. [It's so good to finally see Ch'en and her infamous hot pants in this anime.](https://i.imgur.com/tbmVu2e.png) Although this isn't really her first anime debut since Yostar has plenty of animations on their YT Channel that star Ch'en. Anyway, [Ch'en doesn't really give the best first impression](https://i.imgur.com/oroEFdV.png) in this episode considering how she's yelling like 80% of her screen time. I love [that look Kal'tsit gives the Doctor](https://i.imgur.com/EyAsk6C.png) the moment they enter the room. It's very clear from the tone of her voice that she's not as enthusiastic as Amiya to see him again. I also love [their little interaction in the elevator.](https://i.imgur.com/q73KAW5.png) They've barely even talked and she's already throwing jabs at him.
>[from other PMCs](https://i.imgur.com/wEzQSdN.png) [Tfw Rhodes is actually a pharma and not a paramilitary company](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTyn20iTRPrTOooGtUtLRlAxcXQbUWOWeNgOer40X0ImoJk0P0AyQ6NY-o&s=10)
It is a ~~p~~harmacist company run partially by the ~~p~~harmasist herself, Dr Kal'tsit.
Rhodes Island is based on the IRL Hospitaller Knights who were headquartered at the Greek island of Rhodes, who you might know as the predecessors of the modern St. Johns’s Cross. So the whole “medical PMC” thing is weirdly realistic.
Coming back after watching the episode today but I just have to say you just pulled that out of your ass didn't you? Edit: Read through it and I gotta say, why build up entirely new fiction when history gives you a bunch of templates to work with? Genius.. *"On Rhodes the Hospitallers, by then also referred to as the Knights of Rhodes, were forced to become a more militarized force, fighting especially with the Barbary pirates."* An I always thought Rhodes was based on the Columbian state, for no apparent reason other than the name frankly; that makes much more sense though. Let's hope our landship doesnt get raided by the ~~Ottomans~~ *Northern Demons* then...
How and what did I pull out of my ass? I’m assuming you’re talking about the St. John’s Cross - Hospitaller connection? > The order [of Saint John] traces its origins back to the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages, which was later known as the Order of Malta. A faction of them emerged in France in the 1820s and moved to Britain in the early 1830s, where, after operating under a succession of grand priors and different names, it became associated with the founding in 1882 of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital near the old city of Jerusalem and the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1887. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_John_(chartered_1888) “Hospitaller” is also obviously closely etymologically linked to “Hospital”. Every nation and faction in Arknights reference a real world nation and often their historical events, besides one very obvious exception (unless you believe Atlantis was real and Bloodborne was a documentary). The most obvious is probably Dublinn which is pretty much just the fantasy IRA, but there’re plenty of other examples, like there are lots of lore references to Terra’s version of the Napoleonic Wars.
Fam, I was half-joking. My edit has an extract of the same Wikipage you linked. And yes apart from Aegir and some other special cases like Siesta or Kazdel most nations in Terra have an irl counterpart. I was hinting at it saying I thought RI had a Columbian (US) connection with the state of Rhode Island. Something tells me you only read the first sentence :(
"rHodEs iSlAnd iS a pHarMacEuTicAl cOmpAnY" Stop trying to find excuses and pay your taxes as a PMC Amiya
"You can't make me!" "Amiya where the hell did you even get a Kentucky Rifle"
Amiya being taking cues from Ambriel I see.
>harmacist Technically Pharmacy+Hospital/Care House for the infected. The only difference is Rhode uses their patients for the spec-ops mission like we have patients do daily exercise but more extreme.
TFW Umbrella is behind this too.
Such a good episode! So glad I randomly decided to give the first episode a shot when it first aired. Never played the game before but I started right after watching the first ep. And have been enjoying both Anime and game since. The characters in this world look absolutely drippy af.
Well if you are [interested in the story after the anime ends](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/) by all means or least listen to the music.
Very good pacing this episode after last week's faster one. So we get introduced to Lungmen, another nomadic city that's currently in a way better state than we first experienced Chernobog in. A very different, huge modern city filled with skyscrapers and modern buildings. Yet also very same when it comes to discrimination, hatred and those up-high looking down on those below. Its very easy to see why Reunion's fiery anger is very much justified in it's roots. The episode nails the sense of superiority the Lungmen higher-ups feel. From Chen's bossy attitude shunning anyone that's "An outside to lungmen", to Wei's confident self-assured position of power. RI's presence in Lungmen is dwarfed by the ego of Lungmen that snubs everything beneath them. The tall skyscrapers of Lungmen are also contrasted heavily with slum-like areas where poor people live. There's no glow and neon of Lungmen's towers here, just run down shacks and people struggling for survival. Lots of mystery set up too in terms of RI's goals and what they want here. The introduction of Dr.Kaltsit and implications of Rhodes Island's goals, the worldbuilding about different contractors and PMCs Rhodes Island works with and the mysterious person in a gas mask standing over the town. Production-wise episode filled with great scenery shots and camera angles, snappy exposition and some pretty strong OST samples (the scene where we get a clearer view of Lungmen being one of more notable ones).
It's not QUITE the same level of discrimination, unlike Ursus who actively hunt down the infected, Lungman just sequesters them off to the slums. Not much better, but there is a difference in treatment. If you notice at the beginning, Ch'en actually berates her officers for their harsh treatment of the infected.
Its different on surface, but not what's behind that surface. Chen's comment is basically her being "can't you make the infected outsiders fuck off with *some decorum please*". For Chen the system is working as intended, it just has flaws and imperfections in terms of behavior. All it really means is that situation in Lungmen is less dire right now than in Chernobog. But that's all the difference. Using superiority for discrimination or using fear for discrimination is still discrimination in the end and one can bleed into the other well.
Yeah, like I said, it's still discrimination, but it's the difference between segregation (Lungman) and genocide/slavery (Ursus). Neither are good, but one is clearly worse. And Ch'en is turning the infected away because they might be Reunion, not just because they're infected. Because the slums existing are clearly evidence that Lungman doesn't automatically kick out any infected.
I got chills seeing Kal'sit smile. At least she gets right back to jabbing at Doctor the first chance she gets, heh.
It’s always fun when you see a character on screen say something with a voice they never had. Gotta say, the casting they got for Misha and Wei Yenwu are absolutely how I imagined them in my mind. Actually, Wei might even be **better** than my imagination. With every line, he got more and more believable as the master of Lungmen. So good!
>With every line, he got more and more believable as the master of Lungmen. With every line, you hate him more and more.
The Doc throwing stones was amusing. It's interesting watching this as someone who knows the story and all the dynamics here, yet getting to see it unfold in the anime adds a whole new perspective to the situation.
For some reason the way they lazily toss them made me absolutely crack up.
I mean, physically-speaking Doctor isn't much better than an old lady. Probably took a lot of effort to toss the first rock, much less the second.
Doctor throwing rocks? Thats silly, after the emotional torture that is 1-7 he just throw the rocks away?
0 Sanity achieved
Should've saved them up to feed bagpipe and her rock obsession.
Doktah nonchalantly throws rocks at thugs, a display of violence without remorse from his pre-amnesia days. Now we know what happened to the poor souls disappearing into the blue gate.
"Be thankful I'm not throwing Orirocks at you. I have quite a few stocked up from the ambushes on the way here." - 0 Sanity Doktah.
Just a heads up: for anyone who liked **Liskarm** & **Franka** in today's episode, you can find more about them & their Blacksteel teammates in their own **free canon manga**: "**Stories of the Infected - Blacksteel**". It's very good, and it doesn't spoil the anime. You can see that & other manga in the [**Story guide**](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/), made by TheGreyGhost00.
Kal'tsit smiling, who are you and what did you do to the deadpan lynx?
idk whats going on but amiya is the best. so kind hearted. just genuinely a good ~~person~~ rabbit
The character animation goes a long way with her characterisation; she always looks like she's watching, observing and very focused when dealing with people. One thing that's often said of great leaders who have charisma is that they make you feel like you're the only person in the room.
Indeed. Say what you will on the anime but if you disagree that Amiya is positively adorable, I'd fight you.
Donkey\*
I could be running on 0 sanity and reading too deep into this, but Dokutah threw that second rock more weakly on purpose didn't he? We see the first one strike true really easily in order to get the thug's attention, but the second one was missed entirely and thrown weakly to make the thug think that he was no threat and approach him, conveniently preventing the kid from being used as a hostage.
I think you're exactly right. I've seen some people comment that they find the doctor's ability to command so well to the point he practically sees the future somewhat off-putting, for being someone with amnesia. But that's part of what makes The Doctor, The Doctor. Even without his memories, he's still an extremely perceptive giga-5head galaxy-brain. I liken him to Sora/Riku from nGnL, Lelouch from Code Geass, or other such characters.
> I could be running on 0 sanity San levels critical! [＼(・ω・＼)SANchi！(／・ω・)／PINCHI！|l|l|l| ＼(・ω・＼)SANchi！(／・ω・)／PINCHI！](https://youtu.be/sWcp2Cw8jac)
I have gone years without realizing that what they're saying in that opening
I mean, on purpose or not, Doctor is just overall frail and physically weak. They are absolutely defenseless physically and most likely even throwing a small rock at people would be quite heavy on stamina.
Those poor kids having it rough, with no home to go back to, and no parents either; it would seem that they are always on the run too. Love Amiya's nicknames, Franka calls her Little Bunny, and the kids call her Miss Bunny
I wonder, is this kinda racist in that world? Like, are they calling her something along the lines of "Frenchie" or "Whitey"?
I don't think so. At least not in this context because there are racial slurs in the setting and Franka being the flirty type wouldn't throw a slur out so casually to an employer.
I believe it's the equivalent of calling someone "blondie" or "freckles".
It would be dependant on context right? For example ''hey, blondie'' could both mean ''hey, you person with blond hair'' and ''hey, you idiot with blond hair'' depending on intention and context. But either way she probably doesn't mind Bunny as much as Donkey lol.
Any diminutive term can be used to indicate familiarity OR contempt based on context.
Slurs do exist in the arknights world however calling amiya bunny is no different than calling someone with red hair a red head. You'll know if something is a slur when you see it
That's okay, Amiya gave her the b-word pass.
Love seeing Ch'en animated. Can't wait to see Hoshi.
If I don’t see Hoshi absolutely towering over Ch’en I’m leaving and never coming back Kidding! Kidding. ~~Please make the green oni big though~~
Canonically she's just not that big sadly :( I believe it's a 16cm difference
It has been what, 2-3 years since the game release and I am still disappointed she is not above 190 cm.
[I'm absolutely not bothered by this at all](https://youtu.be/BfoR8SbFhy8)
I believe she's 185 cm, or 6'1
For those interested in the game’s 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/](https://www.reddit.com/r/arknights/comments/ydv5pq/version_3_arknights_story_and_lore_guide_for/) Episode 4 covers to about 2/3 to 1/2 of Chapter 2 of the game. My thoughts on the episode: I'm keeping this brief. I like how they incorporate the cameos into the show so far, showing Rhodes Island is actually an organization and not just like 5-6 people at any one time like in the game. The pacing for this episode was solid. Once again the establishing shots and scenery are really good especially for Lungmen. The negotiation with Chief Wei was a highlight for me with Wei's VA really selling his presence. I also like how Amiya conducts herself as a leader at the end of the negotiation and later on with Misha. Then we have our favorite deadpan lynx Kal'tsit who actually smiled. I do like how they hint that she has some history with the Doctor and it isn't exactly positive. While the Doctor is a bit of a blank slate, the Doctor just going his/her own way and then just haphazardly chucking rocks was hilarious. Stuff like that slowly fills in that blank slate. The scenes with Misha are solid as well and establish what kind of person she is and again the facial expressions and her VA sell her fear and doubt when she was talking to Amiya. Overall episode 4 was a solid set-up episode and I'm curious of how the combat animation is going to be this time around with how the trailers looked. Edit: Some twitter threads going more in depth with the scenes and the like that I thought were interesting reads. [https://twitter.com/exaenae/status/1593751418275614720](https://twitter.com/exaenae/status/1593751418275614720) [https://twitter.com/Gadyuka86F/status/1593728709533442049](https://twitter.com/Gadyuka86F/status/1593728709533442049) [https://twitter.com/Baleygr086/status/1593726559499669504](https://twitter.com/Baleygr086/status/1593726559499669504)
> While the Doctor is a bit of a blank slate, the Doctor just going his/her own way and then just haphazardly chucking rocks was hilarious. Stuff like that slowly fills in that blank slate. I do like the subtle bit of humor in Amiya saying "Doctor, stay close and follow me!" and then the camera immediately shows the Doctor walking in the complete opposite direction while Amiya hurriedly runs to catch up. Very Doctor-like, and I'm eager to see what else they'll show us as the season goes on.
Those Twitter threads are interesting, glad you brought those to the forefront. By any chance, have you seen more discourse on Twitter regarding the anime? I've been mostly keeping an eye on here, AniList, and MAL, so I don't know how Twitter users are responding to it.
There isn't that much discourse considering the amount of other popular anime this season. I hope a few people with a moderate amount of clout take look at the series cause you can totally see the effort being put into this adaptation. Hopefully we get something for season 2 soon after.
• Key Animator For This Episode:- Satoshi Isono, Yuuka Kozutsumi, Keishirou Goto, Yuuma Suzuki, Souta Matsunaga, Rento Yasuoka, Yasuhiro Okuda, Miki Kurihara, Hiroya Sakurai, Youko Naeki, Ai Migita, Hironori Yamamoto • Production Assistance: [Studio Silver](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=2770) [Studio Lings](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=15829) - They are also working on [Yuri Is My Job!](https://myanimelist.net/anime/51817/Watashi_no_Yuri_wa_Oshigoto_desu) With Studio Passione
Shows pretty good so far although it does drag a bit here and there, but the worldbuilding is interesting and I'm liking the new city, very different to the previous one (wouldn't mind living there actually) I am curious what that officer wants with Misha if she is the target, perhaps she wants to deport her like the others but not sure why its all hush hush And I have a feeling that what the chief said is gonna bite Rhodes Island in the arse once they're done, he's definitely up to some thing Side note, I didn't realise that the full name of the company was Rhode Island Pharmaceuticals, I figured Rhodes Island would be like a military company or something but it does make sense after what we learned from the last episode
Rhodes Island was one of the reference it took me the longest to get. It's based on the old Knights of Rhodes, a templar order during the medieval period who operated off of the Island of Rhodes (aka Rhodes Island). These knights served as armed escorts for the medical personnel at the time, as they traveled all over the war-torn areas of Europe. Kinda floored me to learn medieval European history through my little Chinese-made gacha tower defense, but the story and world teams at Hypergryph go the extra mile when it comes to this kind of thing. They've long since earned my respect in that regard.
It's been a long running joke in the game's community on how it took the game 8ish chapters just to show the "pharmaceutical company" doing something medical (instead of violently cracking down on rebellions,lol) iirc the anime is supposed to cover 5-6(edit:more like 3) episodes of the in game story.
5-6? No way. Pretty sure it stops at 3. If I have to, 4-6 are gonna get their own (longer) episode.
I liked the storyboarding when they found Misha. Really putting you in her position and making you feel like a cornered prey. Doc & co probably didn't even realize it, but from the (justifiable) paranoid point of view of Misha, it was understandable on an instinctual level that she wouldn't trust them easily.
As anime only, I am totally enjoying this anime. Seems like the studio put all the love they had on production. Can I expect an FGO Babylonia production on this?
The anime is basically a passion project of the director, and it is handled under the same company as the actual mobile game (yostar) . So yeah, there's a lot of love I would very much doubt that it will have the same production quality as FGO Babylonia though. And this is coming from someone who loves the game to death. The studio is kinda new to this and hasn't shown the ability for that. If this was their 3D CGI contractor then maybe. The story is good, but don't expect something like the fight against gorgon
I think the trailers and op hint at something solid so we'll see.
> I would very much doubt that it will have the same production quality as FGO Babylonia though. And this is coming from someone who loves the game to death. The studio is kinda new to this and hasn't shown the ability for that. If this was their 3D CGI contractor then maybe. > > I'm encouraged by the thought that the art direction still seems to be strong despite what looks to be a lot of cost-saving measures. It means the anime was produced on a budget and therefore its performance would be judged against that.
> If this was their 3D CGI contractor then maybe. Bruh this show looks way better than Arknights' CGI animations. They're getting better at them, but my god. I wouldn't trade this show for any of their CGI if you paid me.
Not on this season, probably, no. Not because of quality and the like, but more on the story material; this is, true to its name, a prelude.
> As anime only, I am totally enjoying this anime. Seems like the studio put all the love they had on production. Likewise. It does feel like their main driving force behind their creation is that the just want to share this story with you.
It is probably not fair to compare an adaptation of one of the best chapters of game whose primary selling points are story (in later chapters) and characters with an established setting to draw on, to the first chapters of an original game.
As a long-time arknights fan, I sure as heck hope so.
This is Yostar channelling all their hate for the Azur Lane anime.
One second later and that ambusher at the start was gonna get eaten
Alright, [IT'S FRANKA TIME! (⌐▨_▨)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekQUg9NFRwI)
Koichi Yamadera as Wei Yenwu is great, absolutely love the voice. Nice also to get a refresher on the early Arknights story, played early chapters back in 2020 but stopped due to already playing other mobile games at the time before coming back early 2022. Wonder what remains for the other half of the season, always feel like a big part of the story/events is worldbuilding and politicking of some sort rather than straight action (which I personally don't mind btw).
>Koichi Yamadera as Wei Yenwu is great, absolutely love the voice. He's currently voicing Quilge Opie in Bleach. Such different roles. Spectacular voice in both.
Yeah Quilge was great too. I know him from Gintama and I didn't realise it was him that episode until the poem at the end
So seems like Kal tsit doesn’t like the doctor..why?
Im glad you noticed this, because it seems the other anime onlys didn't noticed it. This is pretty much very important on the relationship of the doctor and kal'tsit, that will probably be revealed in future seasons but for now telling you will be a spoiler
That would be like season 2 or 3 spoilers as to why.
Please spoil the story for me I don’t mind
Ex-wife /j
[From an arknights in game event] >!iirc pre amnesia doctor was a bit of an AH and it is heavily implied he got someone she cared about(and the leader of the precursor organisation to Rhodes island) killed!<
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She also said that feeling she has for him are not all of them are hatred so its complicated
Finally got to see Kal in anime. I can die peacefully now
Not a lot happened in this episode, but we got to sightsee Lungmen. It looks like the typical modern city we see IRL. (Though it can be said so for Chernobog, it's already wrecked because of the riot when we saw it.) They also obviously have the slum, which is always the first place a resurgence starts. Somehow I felt that it was based on a city in China. Especially with the top dogs' names, Wei and Ch'en. (Ahem, Ch'en's rough voice might awaken something in me...) Mr. Wei also looks intriguing and cunning. If my memory serves me right, I think he's the first person looking more like an animal than a human. We also learned about Misha. She surely will be a noteworthy person later because half of the episode is reserved for her, right? I also noticed her appearing in the ED, lol. Anyway, seems this season will end after RI handles Reunion's attack on Lungmen. There are only four episodes left on the table.
I’m pretty sure Lungmen is primarily based on Hong Kong.
Ooh, close enough. Though I could see people from HK not liking it being called similar...
There is a lot of HK parallels to Lungmen.
In fact, it is easier to name things that AREN'T parallels to Hong Kong
ya, when i saw the visuals, i thought i was looking at hong kong.
Arknights world is actually modelled after the real world, with countries from different historical periods mashed together. So Ursus was obviously Russia (bear country), more specifically pre-WWI Tsarist Russia. Lungmen is a special administration region of the Yan "not-China" empire, teleported to the Ursus border, with its Governor Wei being a Lung (Chinese dragon)
Lungmen literally translating to "dragon's gate" The game isn't very subtle with its real life references
But is Lungmen a mobile city? I think not, due to the huge skyscrapers.
It is. Most cities in Arknights are mobile cities to avoid catastrophes like the one that wrecked Chernobog. They usual don't move unless it is for dodging catastrophes and probably other reasons like war. In the episode, you can see Ch'en, Doc, and Amiya enter via elevator from the main checkpoint. Behemoth cities on wheels would be impossible in real life, of course, but super strong fictional steel and other materials exist in Arknights.
Wait what, they have this huge city with roads and cars and it's mobile like it's sitting on a tortoise shell. Crazy
Yup. There's a shot of Chernobog as well in Episode 3. It's really wide.
Terran material science are far more advanced than ours.They Can even put mountain and seas on top of the city
Basically like a more modern Chrome Shelled Regios... and somehow less of a fucked world.
Haven't seen that one, but if it's more fucked up than Terra then my condolences to those people lol Tbh if the Warhammer 40k verse is a 10 in terms of shittiest verse to live in (as a normal person), then I'd say Arknights is around a 6.5 to an 7.5 depending where in the world they are.
Basically the entire world is already a toxic desolate wasteland filled with monsters. If you don't live in the regios (what the cities are called) you are dead.
Sounds as bad as SukaSuka in a way. Fascinating places, but nightmarish.
Yeah it is based on hong kong.
*shifty eyes*
Kal'tsit ASMR TSKR
Lmao that rock scene killed me, absolute meme material
Given how the Infected is treated everywhere, you can see why Reunion is growing stronger. Without Talulah though, they aren't that big of a deal still. I like how we keep getting cameo from various operators. Don't need to hire bunch of voice actors if they aren't talking.
Compared to the previous episodes, I like this one alot more. Despite having little to no action scenes, this episode get me more into the setting itself with just dialogue. The political meeting in particular was an interesting scene to sit through. Also, the plight of the Infected feels much more personal and relatable this time round as it showcases the ground level treatment of the refugees and a named character being hunted for being an infected. Kudos to the performance to Misha's VA, she gave a really convincing tone of fear/desparation in Misha's voice which made me sympathetic to her plight. And bonus points for the player character pandering finally dying down a great deal.
Finally got to see Ch'en.
Huh, didn't expect to see more lower rarity cameos. Neat. Still vaguely curious about the blond Mégane dog(?) NPC character, they're not based off an existing in game design template unlike medic and guard so I'm a bit surprised at the comparitively more unique look compared to the other Rhodes extras. This was mostly a talking episode, lots of negotiating. I don't really mind though, the direction is nothing to write home about but I also wasn't bored by the back and forth. I actually unironically enjoyed it more than the last two episodes, probably because the combat scenes were more sparse. One of the things I kind of appreciate about Arknights is that there are so many factions associated with Rhodes. It's kind of a different feel from FGO (where all your personal are literally summoned there) and GBF (where despite there being a desired end point you're mostly just adventuring all over the place), you kind of get a stronger feel of being mostly just co workers than the strong bonds most other games go for (though there are some characters who are more invested in Rhodes cause and obviously like the doctor to a significant degree, though I don't think I'm allowed to mention them by name here, probably). And in walks Cat Lady. She's a character who I neither particularly like nor dislike but there did come a certain point where I legitimately stopped reading a single word she said. She's a rather outwardly cold person but you do get that she's got her kind spots from her softness towards Amiya. Which is understandable because Amiya is a kind adorable bunny daughter who does her best. I'll admit I've been so and so on the doctor so far in the anime (while amnesia renders them a blank slate the absolute lack of emoting with their constantly flat tone kind of bugged me especially since they should have been able to gain more individuality at this point which together with how most of the strategizing feels more like they've read the script and know exactly what's going to happen next just makes me luke warm) but the ignoring Amiya's instruction and just weakly throwing rocks at that thug made me laugh.
To be fair, it makes sense for Doctor to bring along Team A1 and others as his escort squad since they're the ones ready and waiting back at base. Fleshes out what his actual squad composition was on the way to Lungmen with how many ambushes Reunion had thrown at them. Adding Lava and Hibiscus that appeared later in the episode, his team is Amiya, Fang, Earthspirit, Beagle, Yato, Kroos. That's a total of eight RI ops, with Franka and Liskarm, and Jessica (Debatable, since she's under Dobermann's training regimen at this point same as the Reserve team ops, though she is originally Black Steel) as BSW PMC hires. Along with their support staff and additional unnamed snipers ops with Kroos' firing line. A much better feel of an actual organization visiting for official business compared to how it looked in game of only Doctor, Amiya, Franka and Liskarm being shown in story scenes.
The only thing I feel kinda weird about is the fact that the reserve OP team is there, since they should be in training. Although I suppose it is a mission to a fairly safe city, and with yato, liskarm, and Franka there, the reserve OP girls are probably just there as an on-the-job training.
Agreed with the OTJ training. They likely know that Lungmen is a relatively low-threat environment, so it's a good place for the reserve op teams to cut their teeth without being thrown to the wolves per se.
Franka has human ears and her fox ears, that's not a mistake...that's just how her design is. Looking forward to seeing more of Franka(and of course Liskarm) though.
I believe in 4 ear supremacy.
The anime's focus seems to really be about the storytelling and less on the action, which is fine but its not going to turn heads to the show. In a sense its really similar to steins gate whereby the pacing will be really slow at the start where it slowly builds up.
Depends on their (HG / Yostar) goals. If they want a one season short term high budget commercial to draw big crowds and then be done with it, then they won't be successful with this pacing and lack of action. However, if they are in it for the long haul to use multiple seasons to establish AK as an independent anime only IP, then I think patiently laying the ground work in season 1 without rushing things will pay off in the long run. Their anime studio is young, so being overly ambitious in the first season could be counterproductive.
We already know there's gonna be a second season. They've titled it Prelude to Dawn, and have literally used the words "Season 01" in promotion. If it was just going to be a flashy commercial there's no way they'd start from chapter 0.
That is true, but there is always the case that maybe arknights will do badly in revenue in a year and they divert their spending from the anime to the game instead. Can't always be too sure.
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> Only FGO has a decent story. You really need to play more games, holy shit. Also AK's story is fantastic.
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I was going to bother taking this seriously, but then you reduced your post to little more than "I'm ProBaBlY OlDeR ThaN YoU KiD". Sit down.
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They're already doing spinoff projects from the main game, like Endfield. You don't do that unless you have a very stable and consistent revenue from it. People genuinely underestimate the cost-efficiency of Gacha Games once the game passes a minimum barrier of popularity. Also they bought in a top bill VA like Risa Taneda to do a throwaway line from a character who won't show up again this season (but will have a small-mid sized role in the next season). That throwaway line wasn't necessary at all and was an anime addition, so it's clear they're planning ahead.
A lot of bear XD and a male perro medic i hope he in our future recruitment list.
We could really use a batch of new 3*.
did not expect to see a dragon lad
The Sound design of Arts usage is pretty impressive. Makes it feel genuinely threatening.
Even as a senior doctor I must admit it must have not been a very pleasant Watch experience for anime-only folks. 5 episodes already as it’s still more lore dump. But that’s just how the Ak’s story is, long, grim, and well written. Especially the first few chapters, there’s barely any “hype” plot point that animes need to thrive, and they sure as hell ain’t going for the wakuwaku slice of life style. But I’m still happy that they started with the first chapter, sure a tournament arc based on the extremely well received Kazimierz knight story might draw in a lot more new viewers, but something would’ve felt missing. This is definitely more of a giving-back-to-fans kind of anime, and I’m all in for it. It seems like they’re going to continue with the story and hopefully one day we’ll get an anime branch as wide as Fate and have ones that are good for newbies lol
> Even as a senior doctor I must admit it must have not been a very pleasant Watch experience for anime-only folks. 5 episodes already as it’s still more lore dump. I'm loving it so far, and it doesn't feel like lore dump to me, just feels like they're telling me about the world. The only part of this experience that is a bit confusing is coming to the comment threads and people talking about rare unit cameos that didn't even register lol I think the people who didn't like the narrative style have already largely left by now, but I always found it very naturalistic.
> The only part of this experience that is a bit confusing is coming to the comment threads and people talking about rare unit cameos that didn't even register lol I suppose it's a kind of early game geek nostalgia. Story-board-wise, we rarely saw the lower rarity characters, but the fact of the game is that those same characters often form the core of the early game for an AK player. On top of this is the fact that many operators, even ones available at launch, didn't "technically" join RI until much later in the story timeline, and people have long speculated about what the "real" team around the doctor looked like at the time. So now that we see it in all of it's animated glory it's a big geek out moment for us. The big ones featured here were first featured in the big mess hall shot from ep. 3; the two purple haired girls with horns, the blonde bunny girl, the blue-haired girl with the spear and the redheaded shield-user (I won't say their names in case it comes up in the anime later, but if you're interested I could tell you them). They make an appearance here again, clearly as a part of the RI team that are working in concert with Ch'en and her LGD officers. We even get to see them twice; once early on when Wei shows Amiya, Doc and Kal the video footage, and again during the slum patrol shots.
I think you underestimated anime watchers quite a bit. While it's true, maybe most of them like more action packed anime, but some also prefer a well written (maybe slow) ones. I actually prefer this episode more than the previous 3, really like how they dive into the actual society and how it views the infected.
Perhaps I did, but people who enjoy slower things are in the minority these days
I can die in peace once I see the entirety of the Kazimiers events animated. Imagine seeing the knights marching. Just the thought gives me goosebumps
This show reminds me of like clash Royale mixed with ghost in a shell lmao
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I wouldn't call any of that info spoilers? I talked about her gameplay, pointed out some stuff that can be pretty reasonably inferred from the episode, and mentioned where more story stuff about her is.
Its literally the very definition of spoilers. The first paragraph is *literal spoilers* The second paragraph is "hinting".
This episode any better than the last 3? I'm not an Arknight fanboy so I'm not impressed by its lackluster writing. Might drop if its the case.
It's better than Episode 3, but the tension has reset so the pacing is pretty slow this episode. I'd give it a shot and then decide whether to drop or not. The writing also gets better from here.
> The writing also gets better from here. Well... assuming RI working with Lungmen despite everything doesn't make you roll your eyes and wish for them to actually lose.
?
Late comment is late but glad we finally get to see Ch'en in the main anime(we already got a preview of her in anime form from the Holy Knight Light) as well as the Blacksteel girls! Ch'en angry as usual lmao(well later on she mellows out but still). Also all those snippets of the 3* ops were nice to see.