My UserPage - CaptainKenshiro (up834361)

I very recently got to finish the YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga after two years and I’m glad for that, for it is always good to consume another version of NieR: Automata, or well, a part of it. This is based on the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play from 2014, so it actually predates the videogame in question, and it ran from 2020 to 2024, so it even predates the episodes of the anime that showed the same events. I gotta say it is actually the best version of it that I have consumed until now, partly thanks to its duration.

It is short, with less than twenty chapters, yet that is still better than the limited runtime of the stage play, only episodes 6 of the first season and 5 of the second dedicated to it like in the anime, or just the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation logs without even some cutscenes like in the videogame.

Just like in the animated series, Anemone is replaced with Lily for some reason, but without the latter’s role from the anime, her character arc and thus justification for that change remains incomplete, not that you would mind it though if you didn’t play the videogame.

Anyways, this is going to be rather short as I’m not going over the whole details of this world, something that I already did while reviewing the anime, androids fights for humanity against robots, in a far dystopian future, and this story is about an android squad storming a robot server, at first.

The reality turns out to be that what seemed to be a reconnaissance mission of a simple base, is actually a suicide mission about taking down a major enemy headquarter that’s about to deal a huge strike on humanity. Essentially, a way to portray that soldiers are sometimes (if not often) lied by their superiors on what their missions are really about, and that they’re seen as disposable forces and sacrificial pawns of sorts, further reflected on the mission being an experiment, to see the androids’ durability and behaviour during it, so they can improve on later models, and the robots even let them get far to satisfy their curiosity in turn. All of which was fairly known if you consumed its chronological sequel, the main game, or really another version of the same events.

And as you can expect from something of this franchise, the stakes are high and characters are going to face far larger and stronger armies of enemies, thus they ARE going to die, in rather tragic ways.

What makes this version better than the other ones besides its length, is focusing a lot more on its cast, both the android squadron sent from space, and the one inhabiting Earth. Every girl has either backdrops, introspection, interesting dynamics among the others, or maybe all at once. Even some, I guess, prototype Operators, with actual names in here, doubt the commands and are replaced because of it. There are even some flashback scenes showing interactions between Number 2 and the YoRHa commander, so the former’s feelings of being betrayed and actions on the other media are bigger, if they had any continuation.

Which is the main issue of this manga, the fact that it’s clearly only a small part of a bigger story, leaving stuff of its setting without much exploration and even less of a conclusion.

Also, although the characters are explored, they have different interactions with the others, their insecurities and abilities are shown, and each one has at least runtime dedicated to them, it is not uncommon for they to die shortly after being fleshed out, thus remaining underdeveloped and without a catharsis, kinda expected from such a tragic plot. They don’t even get their flowers-based names like in the anime, though maybe that’s an anime only thing, so I’d let it slide.

The only character that feels that gets proper development and a slight sense of catharsis would be the main one, and even those feel rather rushed or incomplete because, again, this is just a part of a much bigger story. Also she gets a sudden power increase near the end of the manga as if it was a fighting shounen. Even the narrative ends with a cliffhanger after a crucial point in the mission, followed just by one or two pages of the protagonist in the far future.

The manga was drawn by the same artist of stuff like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, a battle school romcom, and Zombieland Saga, an idol comedy, not the kind of author I would expect to draw a tragic sci-fi war drama, but the artist did fine. Maybe not as raw as I would prefer the art style or brutal as I would prefer the action to be, but still well drawn, good backgrounds too, and the effects can be very interesting, darkening the whole looks at times, and the machinery for the machine life forms and the fights can be very detailed when it needs to be. The action scenes have good sequences and composition, though not that impressive, especially when it comes to movement. The girls look pretty, as you would expect from this Megumu Soramichi, given his other works, but not that different one from another, and you don’t really notice their android details in their joints or other stuff that much, probably excused by being early models, I guess.

So as a whole, this is a fast paced, good looking, well drawn, and overall polished sci-fi war drama with a somewhat interesting topic, high stakes, permanent deaths, and multiple perspectives and characters that are looked into, so I’d say it’s a very good manga as a whole, even if it misses the extra steps on characterization and a strong narrative closure.

8/10

Este es un producto argentino por lo que amerita una reseña en su idioma natal.

Al fin, después de tantos proyectos truncados a medio camino, hay una serie basada en El Eternauta, la mítica historieta de ciencia ficción argentina,y digo basada en porque como adaptación presenta muchos cambios y una actualización moderna con respecto al original, con sus pros y sus contras.

Si bien el material original al final del día es decente, hay que considerar que lo es principalmente para su época, y que tiene cosas que han envejecido de manera desfavorable, siendo la principal de ellas la exposición. La misma no solo cuenta a lujo de detalle todo lo que los personajes piensan a través de diálogos o pensamientos, sin dejar nada a la interpretación del lector y a la fuerza del dibujo, sino que incluía mucha narración metida de por medio, y recapitulaciones debido a que su publicación inicial era en forma de historietas de diario en vez del libro que hoy es tan conocido.

Otro aspecto que no envejeció muy bien es lo meta que es que su propio autor fuera un personaje presente en la historia que al final de la misma decide publicarla a modo de advertencia al público, en una forma de sugerir su posición política respecto a quiénes son los invasores, si se tiene en cuenta el contexto de publicación de la historieta, algo aún más evidente cuando salió la segunda parte, la cual se rumorea que ni siquiera llegó a ser terminada por el mismo Oesterheld.

Pero bueno, dejando a un lado mi opinión sobre el original, he de decir que esta serie es una especie de salto en producción para una ficción de mi país, combinando prostéticos, efectos prácticos, filmación en locaciones reales al aire libre durante la relativamente reciente pandemia, y mucho CGI tanto para los fondos como para los efectos especiales, que se ven bien, pero nada del otro mundo, menos en los tiempos que corren. También hubo polémica por el uso de inteligencia artificial para la serie, cosa que no detecté así que no sé si fue usada durante la filmación o para algún factor externo como la promoción o algo por el estilo.

En cuanto a la ambientación, los efectos de sonido están buenos, nada maravillosos ni súper inmersivos pero cumplen y más que bien. Quisiera decir lo mismo del resto de factores que suelo agrupar en esta categoría pero, aunque decente, la actuación en la serie sigue los estándares más monótonos casi teatrales e influenciados en su momento por el realismo italiano de una producción argentina, por lo que es su apartado más flojo, sobre todo para un público acostumbrado a consumir productos internacionales.

La música, al igual que las tantísimas referencias visuales en los fondos, está impregnada de un colorido local que a los argentinos nos deleita y cuya inclusión en nuestras producciones nos caracteriza, pero me pregunto hasta qué grado pueden interpelar y convencer a extranjeros. Es decir, algunas canciones de la banda sonora encajan líricamente con lo que sucede en escena, pero no tanto musicalmente, y otras claramente están insertadas más por una cuestión identitaria que narrativa. Hasta esto se perdió en cierto sentido en algún momento, ya que en el último episodio usaron una canción en inglés (Let It Snow de Sinatra) para complementar la “nieve” del escenario…cuando ese elemento ya casi no tenía peso en la trama. Aún así voy a acotar que el uso de la música en esta serie es mejor que en Arcane.

En cuanto a la narrativa, la serie claramente fue pensada para incluir algunos aspectos sociales históricos y/o actuales de Argentina a la par que la trama, gente en reclamo por el suministro de luz, venezolanos que trabajan como reparto para locales principalmente de comida, discusiones de consorcio por cuestiones edilicias, quiero creer que en parte debido al éxito del Encargado, cierto nivel de bullying y bromas escolares aunque sin llegar ni de cerca al nivel de obras internacionales a la hora de mostrar el tema, población china en Argentina, muy presente desde hace mucho, parejas separadas, familiares con relaciones no muy buenas, etc.

Una diferencia clave de la serie respecto a la obra original es darle una razón personal más fuerte al protagonista, Juan Salvo, para involucrarse en el conflicto. En la historieta lo hacía básicamente porque es el personaje principal, en la serie para buscar a sus seres queridos que están allá afuera en riesgo de entrar en contacto con la “nieve” tóxica. Su hija es adolescente en esta versión porque todos los personajes fueron considerablemente avejentados, lo cual tiene sentido porque francamente casi nadie de la edad que los personajes tenían en el cómic tendría hoy en día el nivel de experiencia de vida, educación, pragmaticidad y el afán de coleccionar antigüedades como los que el elenco necesita para hacer avanzar la trama.

Otro cambio importante es ahondar más en los personajes secundarios, mostrar lo que Favalli y el grupo hacen y viven en la casa y el barrio a la par de las salidas de Salvo, divisiones en el grupo, reagrupaciones, desarrollo de distintos tipos de relaciones entre algunos de los personajes, un rol importante para Favalli hacia el final de la temporada, un papel para Elena y Ana, las esposas de los dos tipos más importantes de la historia, algo de lo que carecían completamente en la versión original, y una creciente relevancia para Lucas y Omar, entre otras cosas.

Con eso dicho, no quiere vender al reparto más de lo que amerita, ya que salvo por dos personajes, destacan más como herramientas argumentales que por sus presencias, personalidades, trasfondos o desarrollos, los cuales son más bien básicos, insinuados, repentinos sin mucho enfoque, o directamente inexistentes, debido también en parte a la falta de un cierre para la historia y serie.

Otras cosas que le destaco a la tira en comparación con la original es ahondar más en la sensación de paranoia y desesperación inicial de la población. Eso ya se mostraba en cierto punto en la historieta, pero con mayor frialdad y crudeza, al mostrar a alguien volviéndose loco dentro de un grupo y siendo asesinado por el mismo para evitar mayores riesgos para el resto. En esta versión el protagonista se cruza con casi un edificio entero que quiere robarle primero y matarlo después, y un vagón de tren repleto de gente desesperada por el hambre y la sed y a la que luego vemos como cadáveres. A eso hay que sumarle todas las demás personas y animales a las que vemos morir o muertas por la “nieve” tóxica, y lo aterradoras que resultan la efectividad e inmediatez de su efecto.

Algo en lo que la serie se enfoca mucho y a lo que da mucha importancia es el tema de la cooperación, el trabajo y supervivencia colectivos, y la idea de que nadie se salva solo y se debe trabajar en sociedad, retratado en el grupo principal, otro que sobrevive a la par en una iglesia y con cierta delegación de tareas, un tercero que se organiza como un ejército, más tarde en el trabajo en conjunto de la población junto a los militares frente a los enemigos extraterrestres, incluso los alocados y violentos del edificio, planifican y actúan, justamente, en conjunto.

Otro tema importante aunque con un espacio de tiempo en pantalla menor es el sentimiento nacionalista y patriota, reflejado en la asosiación entre pueblo y ejército para recuperar conecciones y comunicaciones y enfrentar al enemigo invasor.

Y finalmente, como el mismo campo electromagnético terrestre es afectado en la serie, y por lo tanto también lo es todo lo electrónico y digital, hay una recuperación de la importancia de lo analógico y de antaño, identificados en algunas líneas de guión, siendo la más conocida y recordada, “lo viejo funciona, Juan”. Además, mediante el rol de Favalli en la tira, se rescata la importancia de la educación en profesiones como ingeniería o mecánica.

Estos temas presentes en la serie son de alguna forma el equivalente moderno a la expresión sociopolítica del original, aunque dirigidos hacia otro lado y actualizados para los tiempos que corren. En tiempos de crisis de representación, política, social y económica del país, y de individualismo, de entrega del país y territorios nacionales, y demérito de las ciencias y la educación terciaria y universitaria públicas, y de uso desmedido y dependencia de electrodomésticos y demás artículos y herramientas digitales, las temáticas abordadas en la serie son más que destacables.

Una última cosa positiva a destacar de esta versión es que Juan Salvo sea un veterano de Malvinas, una acertada actualización al personaje original y acorde al presente de la serie, una pizca adicional de identidad local para el producto, y una dimensión simbólica adicional a la nieve de la serie, la cual le da a las visiones del protagonista el componente adicional de ser un conductor de estrés postraumático, además de funcionar como herramienta argumental ligada a las memorias del personaje principal y sus viajes en el tiempo, elemento que la serie retiene de la obra original.

Ahora bien, con todas las cosas lindas que dije de El Eternauta, también hay que decir que hay bastantes momentos de vida cotidiana que están solo para relajar el argumento, la historia, el tono, el tiempo, el ritmo, los personajes. Por lo demás no aportan mucho o directamente nada y no es como que el elenco sea más explorado o desarrollado a través de ellos. También he de decir que la comedia presente en la serie es bastante mala y juvenil, e incluso es referenciada en una escena que se supone sea dramática y trágica. Y ya que hago referencia a esa escena, hay cosas que son extrañas y no son del todo explicadas, como la repentina locura de Lucas en ese momento, aunque tampoco me parece mal dejar cosas a interpretación del público, justamente algo que realmente no hacía la historieta. Y bueno, obviamente la historia todavía no está terminada, y me preocupa el uso de viajes en el tiempo como herramienta argumental a futuro, eso casi siempre es un problema porque o vuelve a la resolución de los eventos conveniente, o prácticamente obliga a los personajes a ser necesariamente reactivos frente al argumento, pocas veces proactivos.

Por ahora, El Eternauta mezcla decentemente una esencia argentina con una premisa y temas importantes, interesantes y universales, y es un progreso en cuanto a una producción salida de Argentina, así como una mejora en caracterización respecto a la obra original. Con eso dicho, la ambientación y el ritmo presentan problemas, hay comedia y escenas que no suman nada, los personajes son más herramientas argumentales que otra cosa, y la historia todavía no está terminada. Considero que merece un 6/10 por ahora, con esperanzas de que mejore en su segunda temporada.

Note: This will cover both seasons

I barely remember coming across this series by accident by looking through some list, and what a pleasant surprise it was from its premise alone. Workers from a certain company get their brains surgically separated while at work, supposedly to let them work at ease and without the stress from outside, yeah, as if that doesn’t sound like a bad idea from the get go. Well, as we will find out later, the actual people that registered from outside in the first place have several reasons to work there, loneliness, depression after losing their partner, looking for someone, lack of better options or for propagandistic purposes, to promote the process as a good thing.

Although the script is good, what really surprised me was the directing, and even more so Ben Stiller being one of the directors. Although the setting is limited to the office and a house, the characters look like normal people in suits, and the CGI used in the series is not that good, the show manages to look good thanks to a polished production and well made backgrounds, alongside constant use of dynamic camera movements, cameras on rails to follow the characters yet not looking blurry at any moment, sometimes mirror angles, lots of closeups to highlight key details that either show off the good acting or make stand out elements that will be relevant to the plot at some point, fastly interchanged quick cuts to switch from the two people sharing the same body and their perspectives, to the point that the series appeared to be fantasy during the first episode, and so on. Even the weird goo-like CGI is excused when it is revealed to be the remnant memory of black paintings done by the character who was seemingly having hallucinations caused by stress and fatigue.

Since Severance is a mystery show, it needs to have a suspenseful soundtrack, and it sure does, sometimes the music can be quite haunting on top of stressful, and the sound effects are pretty immersive. The acting is one of the best things in the series, both for the creepy looking characters with their fake smiles or their dead looks in their eyes, and the cast that technically plays two different characters depending if they are inside or outside the company, managing two different personalities and sometimes even looks very well, with the highlights being the scenes when one of them changes to the other.

As you would expect from the premise, we see characters wanting to leave, desiring to find out about their lives outside, feeling confined in their workplace and without an actual life, as they clearly are, people from outside pointing out the dehumanizing aspect of the process, and even someone who could leave trying to connect with the main character to explain something to him, and suffering the constant switch ups in his head, both on a mental and a physical level, and even people falling in love with different people outside and inside the building, and the expected consequences when finding out than someone they like inside might already be married outside.

At the same time, the series is clearly a bit of a dark satire of corporativism and office work. People are isolated from everything outside, they barely know about other departments in the same building and what they do, even less so about what they are working for at the end of it all, and they are filled with small self help rewards and places and have to do some cringy team activities for more affinity and building a healthy workplace or something, while in this setting they also get some would they be true or not facts about their outside versions to calm them and make them feel that they are doing fine, I guess.

We also see the antagonists logically watching over the protagonists, prohibiting them from leaving the office, retrieving chips from brains of people that were going through a reintegration process to basically unify their brains once again. But I also have to point out how they let important people without constant watch and harm themselves, and how weird it is for them to let them be nearby people that know their outside selves, why would you risk your whole system like that? Eventually we get an explanation and repercussions, but you would think there would be countermeasures beforehand or quickly implemented after the fact, and also the chip retrieving scenes can be a bit weird, as definitely are the other departments that are found throughout the season, and what the heck was that ritual room and scene even about?

As the second season begins, we see the antagonists reforming the office, logically separating the team but uniting it once again for the sake of completing the project at large, new work conditions and places for the sake of preventing the finale of the first season to happen again, with even stop motion videos, also proving how powerful and untouchable the company really is, and the new floor boss supposedly checking on the mental wellbeing on the workers, while simultaneously dividing them from the inside.

Unlike the first season, we get more shots and scenes and events and story on the outside, exploring the time between the two seasons, the team besides the protagonist getting fired and trying to redo their outside lives before coming back in, and even suffering discrimination for going through the severance process while trying to find new jobs. Also now the team is divided for good after a certain event, and the new floor boss is reprimanded for letting things escalate to that level, which is more logical than how things were happening in the first season.

For the psychological side, we see the protagonist suffering from the same confusing episodes of memories switching as the character from the first season did, and even the same physical consequences, which raises the tension after we have seen what happened to the other guy.

There’s also an almost whole flashback episode to explain the situation of one of the main couples and how they got to the chronological beginning of the story, recontextualizing the plot, their motives and their interactions up until that point, exploring new themes, and a much needed look into what the company intends to do with this process, even if that ended up raising more questions as well. We also finally get to know the origins and the beginning of the severance and how the company has been affecting entire towns for who knows how much time with almost even religious arguments and followers.

There’s even a bit of an existential aspect in the season, as both sides of the protagonist confront themselves near the end and the inside points out that the outside basically asks for him to give up on the little everything he has in his life, even he himself as a whole, for the sake of the person who created him and only decided to reach him in times of need, and isn’t he right about all that? Easily one of the best moments of the series.

The atmosphere is as good as it was in the first season, if not better, and the production went up a notch with more general shots, more variety in settings and backgrounds, more dynamic movements with even more action scenes, and no more weird looking CGI. Unfortunately the directing wasn’t as varied and interesting as it was in the first season, and the pacing is quite slow in the beginning, and quite fast near the end, making some events feel convenient and hurried as a result, thus this entry is not as entertaining and well written as the one before it.

And I have to point out the weak points in the story. Why is the cabin not being monitored at all? Why is the company letting such a valuable woman go her way with such ease with all the potential risk she means for them? Why even have outside activities at all, with, again, all the potential risk that that means for the workers and even a very important person for the company amongst them? Why is the security in this company so bad that it is basically composed of just one guy? Would the plan of the protagonists even work against such a huge and powerful company?

And there are things that just feel weird for the sake of being weird, the whole backstory about the creator of the company, the whole goat department, their outfits, some lines of dialogues feeling cryptic or weirdly written just for the sake of sounding mysterious, the whole thing that are doing with the Cold Harbor file and all, like why? Because corporations are weird and evil?

And I have to say that a good portion of the focus on this season is dedicated to slice of life and romantic moments that are not as interesting as the psychological, sociological and philosophical aspects of the premise and concept.

I hope the third season gives an actual closure to the characters, resolves the loose ends about what this corporation even does and how it does it, they actually take actual measures about all the mess at the end of the second season, I hope for the series to stop having weird for the sake of being weird moments and scenes, and show the consequences once it is known outside what happened on the inside.

Basically I want the series to end on the next entry, because otherwise the show would overextend its welcome, drag itself unnecessarily just for the heck of it, and eventually decline in quality as a result. I rate the first season with an 8/10 and the second with a 7, thus a 7.5 for the whole thing for now.