Steven was soliciting feedback on a specific* purchase over at Chizumatic, when I noticed something odd: once again, he’s skipping the rest of The Third: The Girl With the Blue Eye. I’m not complaining, or saying “Steven ought to try…”**
It’s just an observation: if it couldn’t keep his interest, even with its stellar voice cast and characters like Honoka and Bogie, then I was probably right when I said it just didn’t have enough plot. Probably should have been a half-season series; 13 episodes at best.
For anyone else reading this, if this comes out in a bargain thinpack, I’d recommend picking it up. Yes, the narrator is damnned annoying, and Iks is a bland bishie; a walking, talking tofu-pop. But for me, the paydirt was the final face-off between Honoka and Blue Breaker, several episodes before the end of the series. It didn’t go anything at all like I expected.
I’d certainly rate it higher than Gravion. Damn, I’m stuck at the end of DVD 2, and considering adding a “No Mecha” to my heuristic too.
*(Specific, meaning don’t go over there and say “You might want to look at…” And don’t use my blog to do it either. Sturgeon’s Law applies to suggestions too, and he gets cranky when folks don’t understand that.)
**(See the above footnote.)
I have the whole series now. It just never really pulled me in. I got to the end of the second DVD, and just never really felt any great urge to go back to it.
As to Gravion, nobody would ever accuse it of being high quality, but the second part of it is better than the first. That’s when the big revelations start coming out, and the fundamental satiric nature of it become apparent.
Oh, and also because that one’s got the onsen episode.
Ah. Onsen episodes are always for the best. I still feel disappointed that CG’s was a “special DVD extra” that invovled dialog over still shots. Millie groping Shirley in the bath deserved better animation.
The Gravion onsen is FFN for a couple of the bridge bunnies, so that’s not a bad thing.
If you give up on the series, we can trade spoilers. I am somewhat curious about just what the story is with “The Third”, but not really enough to watch it in order to find out.
[spoiler]So far what I’ve got is that Earth was conquered by someone else. The Third (the ones with red eyes) are mutant humans who have been co-opted by the invaders to become the governors of Earth. The deal is that they have to maintain a certain degree of order, and they have to prevent the human race from achieving a technological level which might make them a threat to the invaders.
The Bishie is an inspector sent by the invaders to see how The Third have been doing, and at the end he’s going to decide that they’ve been too harsh. The Third know who he is, and know they can’t mess with him. So part of why he seems so fearless is because he knows he’s in no danger from The Third. The reason he wasn’t afraid of the giant ants is either that he is stronger than he looks, or because he’s naive. Either way, he has no intention of revealing himself until he’s finished his investigation. He wasn’t actively seeking out Honoka; running into her was serendipity, but she seems to be a good data point for his investigation, which is why he spent a lot of time with her.
Honoka is special in that she’s a blue-eyed Third, and because of that she seems to have certain powers that the red-eyes don’t have. But she isn’t ***SPECIAL*** as in “savior of the world” special, let alone “savior of the universe” special; she’s just the primary character in the series.
That’s what I’ve worked out from the first two DVDs.[/spoiler]
Hmmm… maybe I should have done this by email.
Well…. You’re very close. I’ll email it, if someone else doesn’t beat me to it.
[spoiler]What I figure we’ve got is an anime example of the Stanford Experiment. The Third have been getting harsher and harsher in their governance, and somehow the invaders heard about it and decided to check it out.[/spoiler]
I look forward to your email.
Well damn. After FINALLY getting that email out to you, I decided to watch the confrontation between Honoka and Blue Breaker again, only to discover that the end of it is on DVD 6… which I never ordered. Hmph. And after all the above, to find out I’m the one that hasn’t finished the series!
The Rona Fauna arc was too long and slow for me, but the showdown with BB, starting in episode 20, was good.