Ajin: Demi-Human

[MFauli]

http://i.imgur.com/OSIbCDH.jpg


Ajin are humans that cannot die. Seventeen years ago, they first appeared on a battlefield in Africa. From then on, more of their kind are discovered within the human society. Their rarity in appearance means that, for experimental purposes, the government will generously reward anyone who captures one. In the present day, for what a certain high school student expects to be a typical summer holiday, his life is about to turn unexpected...

Wtf, first two episodes are out already! I only keep track of HorribleSubs, ugh. Havent yet watched it, but this was my most looked forward to anime of the season. I doubt that it´ll be as great as Boku dake ga inai Machi, but Im still curious. Will comment later.

[MFauli]

episode 2 is out
--------------------

It´s interesting to watch, that´s for sure. I´m glad Kaito exists, ´cause the hero himself is a bit plain.

I wonder if that shadow creature is his ability or if it´s some sort of spirit that´s taken the hero as a vessel to preside in. So far I´d go with that it is a manifestation of his subsconsciousness, carrying out his will. That´s what the "I want to pee"-scene at the end imo hints at. But then again we have this flashback scene with his sister, where it looks as if the shadow creature approaches the hero from the outside and just then joins him. Weird.

And on a sidenote: Aww, pure wannabe-rapists didnt get to bang the hot school girl :(

[David75]

I'm waiting for underwater. I guess I won't be able to follow the thread due to spoilers as they will lag behind speedsubs.

But for your information, they release in HEVC, main10 profile, with high bitrate average. That's why the image looked so clean even in speedy/detailed/low light scenes. There are 20mbits/s spikes in the intro.
That's great, because that means it's almost as good as an high quality raw, without the weight.
And my mid-highend 2008 processor deals with it easily.

As for my impressions of ep1, they are in the season start thread.

[MFauli]

episode 3 is out
----------------------

Nobody but David and me watching this? It´s easily contender for the #2 of this season (undisputed #1 is Boku dake ga inai Machi, contending #2 is Dimension W).

The only thing really hurting this anime is the wooden animation style, that´s definitely a bit worse than Knights of Shidonia. It sucks, because the story is interesting and the friendship between the hero and his human friend is exciting to follow. On one hand, you have this rather timid, but immortal hero, on the other hand, you have this brave friend, that is in constant danger of truly dying.

Concept-wise, I feel like this is a more mature version of Tokyo Ghoul, going deeper into the psychological effects of these events, rather than focusing on stereotypical anime-emo-angst full of nonsensical battles.

The two things I´m looking forward to: The hero getting in contact with that old man, who I assume is a experienced ajin himself. And finding out about Kaito´s continued position in this story. Right now he´s in danger of becoming the typical trigger-sacrifice, so that the hero "awakens" in whatever way. Since I like Kaito, I hope I´m wrong here.

[shinta|hikari]

Been watching this earlier than you guys because of the raws.

I have no frigging idea why they used 3D art for this.

When cute cop girl died, I thought, "No way they're gonna kill such a cute girl. She's gonna getup and fight back with her own shadow clone. If she doesn't revive, props to the author for guts." Then they confirmed all that in the preview. Who the hell was stupid enough to ruin such an awesome cliffhanger like that?

[David75]

I like some scenes and atmospheres... And then some others truly feel awful because of the totally unnatural poses and attitudes.
3D does a great job for everything cars and setting. Nice lighting too most of the time.
But it's just painful to watch 3D people.
I think the tool gets very nice, in some scenes like in Sidonia it does marvels, but the art directors really need to work those everyday life scenes...

As for the scenario, well I'm not sure the ghost fighters/killers are a good idea. Because they justify the fear people have towards demi-humans. And now we know it's possible to control them.
I'd rather have demi-humans without those entities, but I'm not the writer, so I just have to shut up and watch, or drop the show.

As for the preview, well I hate previews for a good reason and that is one of the worst example in a good while.
Even if we had a feeling she and her superior are demi-humans, their ghost being controlled by their 'mint tabs', it's still silly to spoil a cliffhanger that much I agree.

[shinta|hikari]

That's a nonsensical way of discriminating against Ajins though. It's like saying people with military training should be jailed because they are a danger to normal civilians who cannot defend against them should they decide to attack. There are also Ajin cops, so the analogy is more accurate than you think. Power =! Immorality.

[MFauli]

just for the future: It´d be nice not to talk about the preview in here. This is a story-heavy anime and it kinda ruins it when people spoil what´s coming. :/ Ofc you can keep talking about it, then I´ll have to leave though.

[shinta|hikari]

I'll just mark it with a preview tag. It's not like I want to spoil people.

[David75]

That's a nonsensical way of discriminating against Ajins though. It's like saying people with military training should be jailed because they are a danger to normal civilians who cannot defend against them should they decide to attack. There are also Ajin cops, so the analogy is more accurate than you think. Power =! Immorality.
I agree. But we get to see that irrationnal behaviour all the time. So this time I'd rather have had something more subtle. But that's not the road taken...

As for previews, they are not spoilers technically. Just that this time, the material itself was spoilers... I'll try to be careful next time

[MFauli]

episode 4 is out
-------------------

Hm. Tbh, this is a bit too close to Tokyo Ghoul at the moment. A bit less emo hero, choppier animation. And that old guy ajin is a complete look-alike of the old guy in TG, too.
And I hate how every scene that one guy is swallowing his pills. We got it. He has to take them for whatever reasons. Now shut up.

Had to laugh when Nagai was wandering the street, almost dying from thirst, because apparently the motorbike ran out of gas. Well, Kai isn´t an ajin ... and he´s got a lot longer to walk. Guess he´ll die from thirst :P

[MFauli]

episode 5 is out
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oh god oh god oh god!

ok, fuck this bs, this is now officially the least realistic, least believable anime out there. No matter how much you want to stay "good", when these bastards go after your teeth with an electric drill with the only goal to inflict "as much pain as possible", you KILL THEM. Fucks sake! Oh my god, I´m only halfway through the episode, but my teeth hurt from just watching that. Fuck fuck fuck.

Edit: Yeah, that old guy is super freaking cool. Using his ajin powers in a reasonable way, without any flash special moves. And I guess Nagai is a "failure" because of his whiny nature.

[shinta|hikari]

Nagai is a failure because he didn't come to hate humanity even after the torture.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I just caught up on this.
Really enjoying it so far, even though a bit of the CG is questionable.

Very curious about Hatman's motives. He wants to build a squad of ajin to fight against humanity or something? He seems to have overestimated his ability to twist Nagai to his whims.

I've never been a huge fan of the "government does evil experiments" plot. It could have been interesting if they realized that horrible experiments on the people with superpowers is a bad idea. Why not just make friends?
If ajin were treated like celebrities, then you wouldn't even have this stupid manhunt business, and more of them would come forward.

[shinta|hikari]

You severely overestimate humans if you think that is possible. Humans treat fellow humans like shit just because they are a little different. Treating an immortal being that can pawn them with shadow clones well is a practical impossibility, especially because the Ajins are an extreme minority.

If they number in the thousands, then that's another story.

Then again, Ajins would just eliminate the human race if that were the case.

[David75]

Contrary to Fauli, I think the torture added a new path to the story. I'm not a fan of the idea, but it does mesh well with the show so far. And yes, the reactions you got are what the director/scenarist are after.
As for the experiments, well they do not even know about black matter ghosts yet.
If they knew about it, they would freak out even more than they do now....

[MFauli]

Well, sure it opened a new story path - I just don´t think anybody could have his teeth shredded to bits via drill and NOT hate at least those individual human beings. Actually, I´d doubt that any human being would even let it get this far if he/she had the ability to stop it. It´s just too much pain. Most of us know how much pain teeth can produce, and that´s with just a regular problem. Now imagine a drill shattering your teeth into raw bits. No, you cannot even imagine that, because it is unimaginable.

Btw. it really is remarkable how similiar this anime is to Tokyo Ghoul. Down to the whole torture scene. But Ajin is still infinitely better, more subdue, still more believable.

[Harima Kenji]

Just picking up on this series, but I'm wondering what fansub I should go for. I assume the series is done now, so the quality subbers have had plenty of time to catch up. I've seen too many v3 of some of the episodes to trust in the quality of the subs (v4 of the deadfish episode 1 still had the ED karaoke out of sinc..)

[David75]

Underwater was fine, I mean after sometime you get used to fill in the blanks, or understand what you need to.
And it's not like détails matter that much in that show.

[MFauli]

Binged the last 5 episodes. Will there be a second season?

Anyway, I will say this: The plot had the right balance of realism and sympathy. Its groundedness in reality wasn´t as off-putting as for Terror in Resonance. But it also was far from the ridiculous anime-stereotypism of Tokyo Ghoul. What hurts this anime, ultimately, is the horrendous cgi-animation. WHY? Not only did it ruin certain finer animations (omg, the lauhing animation of that boy towards the end!), it also was so low frame. Like playing a video game at 15 frames per second. Wtf.

Still, we got an interesting first season and I´d love to see more.

Most importantly: This anime might just have the most awsome old guy-character of all times. Usually, old men in anime are boring "wise guys" or they´re arrogant, overconfident idiots. Not Satou-san. He was old, but his attitude was that of a young man. His planning was great, and his fighting abilities fantastic. And his "Do you know why I play video games on highest difficulty? ´Cause it´s more fun that way!" line was super nice :D

[Munsu]

Yes, there'll be a second season:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-05-02/ajin-tv-anime-gets-2nd-season-in-october/.101709

Will start watching this series soon.

[Munsu]

Well, managed to watch the first 5 episodes and honestly I'm loving this series... shame that it seems that not many people watched this show in this forum.

That Old Man fight was incredibly awesome, one of the best action sequences I've ever seen to tell the truth.

Hope to finish the series tonight.

[shinta|hikari]

It's great if it weren't for the CGI crap. That was like the worst decision ever made in the anime industry last season. If this had normal art, it would've been on par with Parasyte.

[MFauli]

Since you´re mentioning it: WHY did some anime decide to use CGI? Is it cheaper? As much as I love Knights of Sidonia, it would have been so much better with fluid animation :/

[shinta|hikari]

Well duh.

[David75]

Like in Sidonia, CGI ruins 99% of body language, body movements feel awkard.
But CGI works very well for immersion, as the environnement gets more depth and feels more realistic, and it works very well for action. It's no wonder Sidonia and Ajin get benefits in that department. But both had great background music.
I was sold on the show because of the very first scene that had a very nice impact and atmosphere. Same as Sidonia's first scene.


I'm fairly optimistic about it. For now it's far from perfect, but I'm pretty sure in time CGI can get rid of most of these troubles.
Also, creativity will probably allow for better ways of using it as any other tool offered to artists



Now for slice of life highschool anime, CGI clearly isn't best choice, for now :D

[shinta|hikari]

I don't like this style of CGI anywhere, even mecha combat. Watch Orphans and tell me you disagree.

[David75]

I'm just saying I liked some scenes/atmospheres in both shows thanks to CGI.
And I understand you hate it and there's nothing good about it for you.

[MFauli]

I´m not against CGI per se. But then I don´t get why facial expressions are so bad here. I´m playing Tales of Zestiria or Digimon: Cyber Sleuth, and everything´s great, smooth, organic. Then I watch Ajin and it´s a mess.

[shinta|hikari]

I'm just saying I liked some scenes/atmospheres in both shows thanks to CGI.
And I understand you hate it and there's nothing good about it for you.

Just curious, why did you restate our last posts?

The Orphans comment was specifically aimed at mecha CGI.

[Munsu]

I've made my peace with CGI in general, started really with Green Lantern: The Animated Series which I didn't want to give a chance, the Berserk movies, and more importantly with Kingdom which I really had to force my way into tolerating (awesome series as it is). Not saying that this is where CGI began being used predominantly, but just the series that I began to make my peace with it. Most recently with God Eater.

Just not going to let the CGI get in my way of following a series I'm interested in regardless how much I hate it.

[shinta|hikari]

Just not going to let the CGI get in my way of following a series I'm interested in regardless how much I hate it.

This. I hate it, but it's not reason enough to drop a good story. I actually didn't hate God Eater's cgi as much. It looked like a hybrid between 2d and 3d. And then there was the underboob.

[Munsu]

OK, I'm done with the first season and this anime has been quite awesome. Yes, plenty of head scratchers, but from a character, atmosphere, story idea, and action it has been top notch.

Kei and Satou are both really good characters. I have a soft spot for main "good" characters who have sociopathic tendencies in the mold of Dexter and John Cleaver. Not that he's around lusting for blood, but he's generally unfeeling and does what he feels is necessary for himself and damn the consequences for others (with few exceptions).

Satou well he's fucking nuts and his action sequences one of the best I've ever seen, the episode 5 one was incredibly and there was another beauty on episode 12.

I'm on the fence with Shimomura, I really like her, but she's still caged... want to see some more pro-activity from her in the second season. And, female Ajins have been lacking as it is...

A bit bummed out that Kei didn't figure much in the last handful of episodes as he wasn't factored into the main action, but it served to illustrate a lot of where his personality lies.

Anyways, as I mentioned before there is indeed a second season coming October and can't wait to see more of it.

Everyone here should give it a shot.

[MFauli]

Btw, season 2 has started, you cucks! (not meant as an insult)

Episode 5 is out
--------------------

This show continues to have the BEST villain ever. An old dude, behaving like a young shounen-hero, playing handheld games all the time, but being on the side of evil. It is so refreshing to witness. And he´s successful, too. If he was on the heroes´ side, he´d easily be the main character.

The story continues in interesting ways. I suspected that the blond woman would be an ajin, too. Although I wonder how her guy keeps her in check, considering he treats her like shit.

Now I´m just curious, how they can top the "I squash the building where my target´s inside by crashing a bigger building into it, while riding on the latter!" :D


PS: I offcially ship Shimomura + Nakano. Love it when younger guys manage to "get" the hot, older woman ;P

[David75]

Episode 6 is out.



It's really too bad that show isn't discussed in here. Is it really because of the 3D ?
Because the soundtrack, atmosphere, camera movements, scenes, scenario are all so good and pleasing that even the annoyances I mentionned in the past have no impact anymore. It's becoming so good that even the minor faults become a signature to the show. And most of the time. It's really growing on me. I enjoy that show a lot.

Minor gripe with this episode was how easy they got the info were Tosaki-san was held captive. I understand they need to script everything to keep a good rythm, but that was a little too much.

I hope some of you could forget about the visual shortcomings and enjoy that show.

[Munsu]

Which sub of season 2 did you guys watch? Don't see anyone I'm familiar with.

[David75]

I read speedsubs from Ajin2.com at the time. Sorry I can't help you.

[Munsu]

I'm up to episode 10 of season 2, hope to finish the rest tonight.

And I just love this series, although it took a hit in the last episode, I love the main character's personality and Sato is simply awesome. I always had Johan from Monster right up there with my favorite villains, but Sato is right up there if not above him. Great initiative, sadistic, and just plain badass.

I wish more of you watched this series.

[MFauli]

Well, as you can read in this thread, I fully agree in regards to Satou. One of the best, most enjoyable villains ever. I hope we get another season.

[Munsu]

Well, as you can read in this thread, I fully agree in regards to Satou. One of the best, most enjoyable villains ever. I hope we get another season.

His VA does an amazing job as well.

Anyways, just finished it. Thumbs up all around, with little to complain about in all honesty. I hope we indeed get a third season. Is this considered a Netflix original or just have streaming rights? Maybe they can put some pressure.

That aside, any idea what Chapter of the manga the anime left off? Might be interested in continuing there if nothing else.