×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul


Goto page Previous    Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:32 pm Reply with quote
Zeino wrote:
So.... Anyone want to bet if Gabriella is giving the final episode an F?

And it turns out she was very disappointed but not as harsh as she could be. Still we agree on the basically fundamental premise to never want to think about the this legitimate waste of a good franchise again. It is dead to me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
MakiharaMeiko



Joined: 06 Mar 2017
Posts: 82
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:29 pm Reply with quote
If Kaisar wouldn't die it would be better for me. I hate he has to die for nothing, only for stupid shipping. He was affraid of zombies and then he turns into one? That killed me. I've been crying since then, I'm serious (he was my fav character and he deserved better, in my opinion).

The show started amazing, and I was hopping this to be an awesome show. Then Mugaro died. I hate it because it was for nothing, but I though "well, I can continue", but then we found Charioce's plan and I was sooooo confused... because: why did he attack heaven with that power of him? Only for... hate? He's stupid? Without angels and demons, Bahamut can't be stopped, he has to know it and then... he did so stupid and incomprensible things that I got confused.

When Kaisar died I hoped that Bahamut and Charioce would die too, giving his death a meaning, but NO. Bahamut still alive, Charioce and Nina have their happy ending and no one except for Rita cryed for Kaiser. Neither Azazel or Jeanne who killed him or Favaro!! And doing it worst their make him a zombie. Ok.

I quit. I'll never ever again see nothing that has a "Shingeki no Bahamut" in their tittle, not even Manaria. I'm so mad, so disappointed and SO SAD that I can't... I wish I'll never starting this show...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeverConvex
Subscriber



Joined: 08 Jun 2013
Posts: 2249
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Pierrot. wrote:
@NeverConvex

I think you mean Lucifer because Satan is a completely different character in Rage of Bahamut's universe. In season 1 he sacrificed himself along with Zeus to seal Bahamut.


Ah, yes, thanks. I meant Lucifer.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
#854626



Joined: 04 Apr 2016
Posts: 171
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 7:32 pm Reply with quote
it could have been alot worse. alot of the descisions the characters made werent smart choices but i believe they were in character, but yes, some things could have been done better.

i am mad that favaro or kaiser never brought up with azazel the fact he killed there parents. it would be a blow in the face to how "innocent" he thinks he is and how evil humans are. im also really mad at favaros reaction to kaiser's death. there should have been so much tears and sobbing. they were basically brothers. i get that he feels guilty about amira and ninas message cheered him up, but he should have been 3 times as upset about kaiser.

and that whole ending where favaro says he'll be back, well, we could just pretend thats just what favaro thinks. he said that at the end of the last series. i feel, though it was forced, charoice really comes out as a "gray hero". even if he didn't stop bahamut once and for all, he truly thought he was and he truly thought he did. and nina is just a overly romantic teenage girl who thinks with her heart instead of her brain. i almost think she's a 4th wall break trying to encourage girls away from getting so attached to the bad boy type.

the whole last 4 episodes where very sloppy but if anything i feel the writer was trying really hard to keep everything together. remember this is mostly an anime original. there just personifying online trading cards. it takes alot of talent with how limited the anime industry it is to make anime orignals. i give the series an overall rating of maybe 8.75 out of 10. the characters dont feel tropy and unoriginal, the artstyle is great, its reilgious fantasy world feels rather well, but yes, things got out of hand with the characters in the last half id say. they were going all over the place.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Lorain



Joined: 30 Sep 2017
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 7:40 pm Reply with quote
Really enjoyed the series. Only gripe at the end of it all is that they may as well have played the second opening for the final battle. The opening animation would have made the final battle look a lot more epic.

As for Charioce, I thought that he was a sound characters and conducted himself as I would expect someone in his position. Why didn't he stop demon slavery? Because he needed the support of his people, and he needed one unified idea that every human could agree on. And no matter the degree, majority of humans believed that demons deserved their comeuppance. It also allowed him to continue on with his plan without worry of open rebellion or civil war. We've heard of stories where people united over a common foe, this time they were united over a common hatred. It's unsightly yes, but it was a strong point of perpetual unification. Something that Charioce needed in order to successfully complete Dromos without interruption.

Why didn't Charioce tell anyone else about his plan? Well, "I'm gonna resurrect the singular most dangerous entity that existence has ever known. It will probably blow up a few cities and kill a lot of your family. But bear with me, I have an idea on how to kill it". If this was a democracy, he probably just lost a lot of election points there. Basically, there would be open rebellion and Charioce wouldn't be able to move freely which is completely counter-productive to his goals.

As for redemption arc, I don't think Charioce ever needed one. He was never a good guy and ultimately, he still isn't. But he isn't evil either. He followed his mission to the end and succeeded. Charioce is just Charioce. It's rare to see a character that actually sticks to their guns to the bitter end. Although I guess it isn't entirely bitter but being blind does not sound sweet either. Props to the man for not letting even love get in the way.

Why wasn't Charioce punished for his deeds? He killed Bahamut. Let that sink in, he killed, the titular beast. He literally killed the show. He nearly single-handedly stopped the apocalypse. Why was he still King? Well, who else would lead? Not exactly many candidates and now with Bahamut gone, he can focus his full effort into reparations. Does that mean he's forgiven? No. But at the least many would not see a need to overthrow him. Maybe once the factions have recovered, then maybe they will be at each others throats.

Overall, I think Charioce was a solid character. He had a goal from the first episode, and he followed it all the way through.

As for Nina being in love with Charioce despite his deeds. Love is irrational. There is no rule that you must love a good guy. Or that you must love a guy that does good things. Fortunately for Nina is that Charioce turned out to not be evil. If he was though, well she probably would've ate him. Probably still will *wink* *wink*.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Virgin Soul. I hope they do another series but I think it's time they start with a completely new cast of characters. MAPPA has a lot of material they could work with.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:43 pm Reply with quote
My relationship with this series is odd. I wasn't a particularly great fan of the original, but I liked it well enough. This second season started with a lot of promise and some good ideas, so once again it was set up to be a show that I wasn't hugely a fan of, but liked all the same. Then it seemed to take catastrophic nose dive in the abyss.

If I had to summarize, it is as if they suddenly lost all contact with the director/writer of the series partway through, and were left only with a partial screenplay with the character names all left blank, and tried to blindly piece it all together. Charioce's reasoning is half-backed and lacks common sense. I will partially forgive Nina's character, because it is readily apparent that they meant her to be a "savior" type character - the girl who soothes even the bad-guy's corrupt heart. As sour at refrain as it may be, it's not uncommon in real life to have women fawn over really terrible and reprehensible guy, while thinking the world of them despite their depraved nature. For that measure, there are even men like Charioce who would think their shameless grab at glory for themselves is justified by the result. To that end, had Bahamut actually stayed dead, there may have been some slight redeeming quality to that Machiavellian way of thinking. Kaiser and the one guy's want to be chivalrous and a "true" knight fit well with their characters, but they seemed to lack even basic intelligence to take any precautions, be wary of anyone, defend themselves...Mugaro's death was the height of stupidity, because he was set up as a central player, and taken out of the story before the climax. I could say the same of Jeanne and Mr. Rag Knight. What role, really, did they have at the end? I'm really asking, because there doesn't seem to be one, unless we're to believe that killing Kasier and standing there doing nothing as Charioce literally walks right by them, as some manner of meaningful role.

I mentioned it in some other forum yesterday, but the ending really felt like the writers realized how badly they botched the story, and just set things up so that they could get one more bite at the apple, another attempt at a sequel, by saying Bahamut still lives, Favarro still lives, so we'll forget everything that happened with VS and try again, like none of it ever happened. The fact that they tacked in on after the credits really makes it feel like some last-minute add-on. Otherwise, it makes almost zero sense that after pointlessly killing massive numbers of people to keep a secret that didn't really need to be kept, and firing their seemingly supposed to be powered up ancient magic cannon thing, only for it to put Bahamut back into the ether and not sealed, is the ultimate insult to an already very demeaning story.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 2:36 am Reply with quote
So they gave us zombie!Kaisar at the very least, but since he seemed to be less sentinent than his severed hand, i'm not sure how i feel about it...

As for the rest of the ep., i'm pretty much with Gabriella. Charioce remained a non-character right to the end and we are simply supposed to believe that he's worth saving over the rest of the world (that part actually made me throw up in my mouth a little) because Nina thinks so. He pseudo-kills Bahamut becomes the hero king, gets the girl and all is apparently forgiven because he lost his eyesight in the process. Hasn't the poor guy suffered enough?! Rolling Eyes Every other character and their motives and everything that happened before simply don't matter anymore because nothing's supposed to get in the way of the fairytale ending.

Well, if anyone's ever crazy enough to give these people money for a 3rd season, i'd probably still watch it out of sheer morbid curiosity.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Don Perron



Joined: 26 Mar 2016
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 9:33 am Reply with quote
Lorain wrote:
Really enjoyed the series. Only gripe at the end of it all is that they may as well have played the second opening for the final battle. The opening animation would have made the final battle look a lot more epic.

As for Charioce, I thought that he was a sound characters and conducted himself as I would expect someone in his position. Why didn't he stop demon slavery? Because he needed the support of his people, and he needed one unified idea that every human could agree on. And no matter the degree, majority of humans believed that demons deserved their comeuppance. It also allowed him to continue on with his plan without worry of open rebellion or civil war. We've heard of stories where people united over a common foe, this time they were united over a common hatred. It's unsightly yes, but it was a strong point of perpetual unification. Something that Charioce needed in order to successfully complete Dromos without interruption.

Why didn't Charioce tell anyone else about his plan? Well, "I'm gonna resurrect the singular most dangerous entity that existence has ever known. It will probably blow up a few cities and kill a lot of your family. But bear with me, I have an idea on how to kill it". If this was a democracy, he probably just lost a lot of election points there. Basically, there would be open rebellion and Charioce wouldn't be able to move freely which is completely counter-productive to his goals.

As for redemption arc, I don't think Charioce ever needed one. He was never a good guy and ultimately, he still isn't. But he isn't evil either. He followed his mission to the end and succeeded. Charioce is just Charioce. It's rare to see a character that actually sticks to their guns to the bitter end. Although I guess it isn't entirely bitter but being blind does not sound sweet either. Props to the man for not letting even love get in the way.

Why wasn't Charioce punished for his deeds? He killed Bahamut. Let that sink in, he killed, the titular beast. He literally killed the show. He nearly single-handedly stopped the apocalypse. Why was he still King? Well, who else would lead? Not exactly many candidates and now with Bahamut gone, he can focus his full effort into reparations. Does that mean he's forgiven? No. But at the least many would not see a need to overthrow him. Maybe once the factions have recovered, then maybe they will be at each others throats.

Overall, I think Charioce was a solid character. He had a goal from the first episode, and he followed it all the way through.

As for Nina being in love with Charioce despite his deeds. Love is irrational. There is no rule that you must love a good guy. Or that you must love a guy that does good things. Fortunately for Nina is that Charioce turned out to not be evil. If he was though, well she probably would've ate him. Probably still will *wink* *wink*.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Virgin Soul. I hope they do another series but I think it's time they start with a completely new cast of characters. MAPPA has a lot of material they could work with.


Now I can say I seen everything. Someone who actually enjoyed Charioce? That would be funny but it's not funny.

If Charioce talked with the leaders of the races about Bahamut none of this would be necessary, if he showed the proofs that it would awake, that his threat was real and that it could be killed, there would be no need of his insane bloodshed. He was the king, he had authority, the other leaders would at least hear him yes.

About his "redemption", the writers thought there was a way to explain his atrocities, insanity and stupidity but there is not, simple like that.

Why wasn't Charioce punished? Because everything he did was literally for NOTHING? Didn't youu see the end? Bahamut is not dead, all his insane bloodshed and atrocities were literally for nothing, NOTHING. But isntead pay for his crimes (that are a lot) he turned a hero for the people.

Solid character? The guy was the most morbid, ridiculous and cliched I seen in recent times.

As for Nina, she became a blind love slave, totally clueless of everything because some random guy paid attention to her. She could be interesting but she is a shame.

All I can say is that this second season literally screw up everything that the series had to offer. A shame, I really enjoyed the first season.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2200
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Merida wrote:

As for the rest of the ep., i'm pretty much with Gabriella. Charioce remained a non-character right to the end and we are simply supposed to believe that he's worth saving over the rest of the world (that part actually made me throw up in my mouth a little) because Nina thinks so. He pseudo-kills Bahamut becomes the hero king, gets the girl and all is apparently forgiven because he lost his eyesight in the process. Hasn't the poor guy suffered enough?! Rolling Eyes Every other character and their motives and everything that happened before simply don't matter anymore because nothing's supposed to get in the way of the fairytale ending.


That is something that is utterly baffling about Charioce; for all the spectacle of him being a genocidal, baby-strangling maniac with a Messiah Complex, he's ultimately boring. The guy has no character, menace, or charisma and because of that it's impossible to care about him. You just want him to go away so the heroes can have someone better to work off of.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
WeNTuS



Joined: 09 Nov 2015
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 2:55 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
^ No doubt. Smile

I'm actually kinda glad Mugaro didn't get rezzed, since bringing back two would've been a bit much. Speaking of which, Rita couldn't find him some new clothes? Smile I trust that with time he'll become more sentient like Rita. Otherwise, that's nightmare fuel.

Looks like Charioce will be ruling more benignly now at least.

I enjoyed this over all. I think the biggest mistake they made was keeping Charioce's plans a secret from the viewers for so long. He might've garnered more sympathy as a misunderstood despot if we'd known early on what he was after. Once everyone's hatred took root, nothing could turn that around.

::grabs popcorn, settles in for the Rage Against Bahamut to commence::


On reddit discussion threads a lot of people guessed right about Bahamut ressurection so they didn't really need to go open at all.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
WeNTuS



Joined: 09 Nov 2015
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 3:04 pm Reply with quote
{Edit}: You were told to stop the insults towards other users and that people can have a different opinion than your own. You won't be told a third time. ~ Psycho 101
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
grooven



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 1424
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 5:27 pm Reply with quote
This just crashed and burned in the second half. I really believe some anime writer need to learn the basics of writing before actually writing. This reminds me of what a piece of shit Aldnoah.Zero turned out in the end (though this show was way better at the start).

The part at the end was real kick to the face. I really expect a sequel to happen. If it does I hope it's better.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
akamarulover



Joined: 14 Sep 2011
Posts: 40
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 5:58 pm Reply with quote
These reviews were the only things I completely enjoyed about the horrid shitshow that was season 2
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11286
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:02 pm Reply with quote
WeNTuS wrote:
On reddit discussion threads a lot of people guessed right about Bahamut ressurection so they didn't really need to go open at all.

At what point though? I'm talking about early on, like within an episode or two of his first lines of dialog. We didn't even know about the Bahamut Blaster until the second half.

Even if a lot of people guessed it early (and they were guessing, not knowing), most did not, so that's a problem.

#854136 wrote:
If Charioce talked with the leaders of the races about Bahamut none of this would be necessary, if he showed the proofs that it would awake, that his threat was real and that it could be killed, there would be no need of his insane bloodshed. He was the king, he had authority, the other leaders would at least hear him yes.

Yeah, no. The gods didn't want to give up their power over humans, which was one of Charioce's goals, the demons certainly didn't want to be under his thumb, and the humans didn't want to live peacefully with the demons who'd harrassed and murdered them forever.

We can't convince people global warming is real, so our leaders still go blithely on with the "not our problem yet" attitude. People know Bahamut will not stay put, since records show he keeps popping up every millennia or whatever, by which time no human alive will remember why he's so dangerous. But those who remember now certainly wouldn't want him released on the unproven chance that Charioce could put him down for good. No one would've been convinced, or if they had, the gods would've tried to wrest control of the machine, and blood would've still been spilt. None of the factions were interesting in calm negotiations. It's good to be king and all, but kings can be deposed.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Don Perron



Joined: 26 Mar 2016
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 2:46 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Yeah, no. The gods didn't want to give up their power over humans, which was one of Charioce's goals, the demons certainly didn't want to be under his thumb, and the humans didn't want to live peacefully with the demons who'd harrassed and murdered them forever.

We can't convince people global warming is real, so our leaders still go blithely on with the "not our problem yet" attitude. People know Bahamut will not stay put, since records show he keeps popping up every millennia or whatever, by which time no human alive will remember why he's so dangerous. But those who remember now certainly wouldn't want him released on the unproven chance that Charioce could put him down for good. No one would've been convinced, or if they had, the gods would've tried to wrest control of the machine, and blood would've still been spilt. None of the factions were interesting in calm negotiations. It's good to be king and all, but kings can be deposed.


You mean, yeah yes, right? Because that's what actually happened. When they realised Bahamut was the real problem, everyone stopped the bloodshed, collaborated and even pardoned Charioce's crimes. Isn't things like that what people call alliance? Well look, it was something totally viable in the end. Alliance don't mean join hands and sing together, they just need cooperate a bit (or at least don't punch each other's faces for a while) and elimine the threat, which was the common interest that everyone had there and that ironically or not is the most basic thing for the formation of an alliance. The fact that they actually did that in the end shows that could had been possible since from the start if there had been any dialogue or at least one attempt of dialogue. But meh, vainly insane bloodshed for no reason it's most badass in the end.

Gina Szanboti wrote:
At what point though? I'm talking about early on, like within an episode or two of his first lines of dialog. We didn't even know about the Bahamut Blaster until the second half.

Even if a lot of people guessed it early (and they were guessing, not knowing), most did not, so that's a problem.


Well, it's not hard to people guess how bad a bad looking show will get bad. I had lose the hope of this show since from the moment I realised what this was about. Only kept it up because I really liked season one, now I see that I should have stopped precisally because of it...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 21 of 23

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group