Arknights

https://i.imgur.com/RGDFePV.png

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"In the land of Terra, natural disasters of unknown causes have been occurring irregularly in many areas. Therefore, the majority of the people, in order to escape those natural disasters, came to live in mobile cities developed over the years. The Originium left behind at the site of such Catastrophes, has led to the rapid progress of civilization due to their immense energy. But it also brought something else with it — an incurable disease called Oripathy. Because the bodies of those with Oripathy gradually crystalize and become a new source of infection at the time of death, in many countries, the Infected are subject to persecution under regimes of segregation and forced labor. Those who were oppressed by the governments are starting to rebel. Rhodes Island, a pharmaceutical company researching a cure for Oripathy, takes up their arms and starts a conquest trying to save all the people from the disease. "

-Anichart

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2 episodes released so far.
The show, much like the game and the synopsis suggests, is relatively gloomy.
I kinda like that the Doctor's voice is rather gender neutral, at least I believe that's about as far as it can get in that regard. I personally still believe it's more on the female side, but it is what it is.

Animation is so-so, or maybe even good. The art-style on the other hand however is on the weaker side for me because it looks kinda bland, but then again... it fits the story and universe it is in. Who knows, maybe when places change, it's actually going to look more vivid and they use it for contrast. Considering how detailed and clear it is at times and then how blurry it is most of the time.

As for the setting, I really liked the idea of companies taking up arms when the goverment isn't stable enough to prevent it. It's an interesting what-if scenario. It reminds me a little of how Cyberpunk works.
The show, as of right now, doesn't seem to fail at presenting how fucked up the world is they are living in though... even when you consider how "generic" the hooded-bad-guys are in anime and games. The scene in the abandoned "alley clinic" in episode 2 was awesome in my opinion.

This is turning out to be one of the shows where I couldn't care less about what happens to the characters. Not a single one of them has made me like them. I assume the Doctor is the player character and has been reset with amnesia to make the player start from zero. However, in this anime he's consequently totally forgettable and useless because of it. The rabbit ears woman is the annoying hero complex type who wants to save everyone against impossible odds and is totally devastated when it's obviously not possible. It's for a reason that Shirou in FSN has a really low character rating, whereas the girls (and Archer and Lancer) have really high ratings. I can't even like the world (setting) because despite all the (sometimes boring) talk about stuff, nobody said anything about why the world doesn't give a shit about the rampant disease, even though the disease victims are apparently destorying whole cities. It would make more sense if it was a doomsday world, like a zombie apocalypse, where there were no governments anymore, but it's apparently not.

Sudden two-bit let's-destroy-the-world villains appearing hardly made things any better, haha.

I only started watching this because I had seen plenty of fanart, which seemed pretty interesting, but now I'm beginning to suspect this should have stayed as a game and never be adapted into an anime.

But... you are just 2 episodes in, why would you care for anyone at this point already?

I mean, this show might as well be pretty much dung in the end, but everything you just criticized is hardly something that should be criticized 2 episodes in (except for the part of the rabbit girl that is), when the setting you are thrown into is the kind of where you are in the "middle of things happening" and basically in the shoes of "Dr. Doctor"

As for the question about the world-setting... I'm not sure where you are coming from.
To me it's quite obvious that they probably tried but couldn't find a cure and over the years they started discriminating against the infected as they will eventually crystalize and become a source of infection as well. They even mentioned that they have taken the infected into quarantine zones, force labor upon them and leave them to rot. Although that's just that one country doing it like that (as far as we know), which is probably why the infected fight against the goverment.
The world/industry is completely reliant on the crystals causing the infection.
All that has been mentioned in episode 2?

And... the synopsis...

I actually never read the description. I guess it would have been required to understand the show more? I'm not sure if that's good writing, but it is what it is.

I thought the city where things have now been happening is not one huge quarantine zone, just a town. Still, it doesn't really explain the half-assed effort to get the terrorist action under control. Either you do it properly or don't do it at all. Since I thought it's just a town, it looks exceptionally strange the government wouldn't care at all, unless it was such a compromised government it would be no more two days later and the whole country would collapse, more or less. However, if the people of the quarantine zone know that nobody is going to protect them, why did they just die like lambs in the hands of the terrorists, as if they believed the government forces would be there to defend them? Kind of strange the terrorists were killing other infected, instead of recruiting them to boost their ranks.

Why I said that nobody gives a shit is because somehow mysteriously they expect that one amnesiac dude to find the cure. These days finding cures for diseases is typically a billion dollar effort by big corporations with whole teams of researches, often working together with university research groups, or vice versa, with a university research groups studying the issue and then medical companies cooperating to bring it to the masses if a medicine is necessary.

Just to clear some things up - again, this show might be bad in the end, I'm just trying to give it a fair chance.

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Originally Posted by Kraco

I actually never read the description. I guess it would have been required to understand the show more? I'm not sure if that's good writing, but it is what it is.

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Well, it is most certainly "normal".
If you watched Edgerunners for example you wouldn't go around and ask "Why did the corpos gain so much power? Why is the goverment not able to keep them in check", or "why is there no cure for cyberpsychosis"
Or if you read Brave New World or whatever you don't ask yourself as to why the Goverment has so much power and is drugging and mindwashing the people in the first 2 chapters of the book. You read the description on the back and accept the setting (if you are interested). Additional information is then given throughout the show/book or sometimes not at all because it's not necessary.
Edgerunners for example didn't have to talk about the Corpo Wars at all and I'm not 100% sure atm, but I think they didn't even talk about how the internet as we know it became unusable, even though those were world defining moments. Or at least they didn't bother to do more than just mentioning it - and that was 100% fine.

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I thought the city where things have now been happening is not one huge quarantine zone, just a town.

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When they "zoom in" on the city/"country" map in Episode 1 and 2, for example when Neal (the shield-cat-girl blocking sniper shots) appeared, the description about the town says the following:

"Chernobog once to be just an old nomadic city. However, according to the research Promoted by the Mayor, Count Boris, the city was able to secure abundant energy and rapidly developed.
Chernobog emerged as an industrial city, and it's high productivity made it one of the most important cities in the Ursus Empire."

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Still, it doesn't really explain the half-assed effort to get the terrorist action under control. Either you do it properly or don't do it at all. Since I thought it's just a town, it looks exceptionally strange the government wouldn't care at all, unless it was such a compromised government it would be no more two days later and the whole country would collapse, more or less.

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That's the thing and has also been mentioned. It's basically unbelievable that the Ursus Empire couldn't quell the riots. Either it's because they wanted this to happen or it's because something happened that we don't know yet. The characters in the show actually hint at this and discuss this for a while. As you can see, the Rebellion, which are mosly, or all infected, has some extraordinary powerful individuals with them.
And at this point in time, they told us that "Arts"-Users can feed on their own disease without using catalysts to cast magic.

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However, if the people of the quarantine zone know that nobody is going to protect them, why did they just die like lambs in the hands of the terrorists, as if they believed the government forces would be there to defend them? Kind of strange the terrorists were killing other infected, instead of recruiting them to boost their ranks.

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That too has been hinted at. They recruit those they can, and kill those they can't. Not one of us? Then you are one of them. And well, they didn't show the propaganda for nothing.
And we can see that even inside the Rebellion, the levels of "hatred" for the civilians are on different levels. Some even tried to tell the guy not to kill the 2 cute "kuma-ningens"

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Why I said that nobody gives a shit is because somehow mysteriously they expect that one amnesiac dude to find the cure. These days finding cures for diseases is typically a billion dollar effort by big corporations with whole teams of researches, often working together with university research groups, or vice versa, with a university research groups studying the issue and then medical companies cooperating to bring it to the masses if a medicine is necessary.

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The world isn't "Earth". The synopsis tells you that this disease has been declared incurable, for one reason or another.
Natural disasters (Catastrophes) plight the world. You could basically say the stuff is Tiberium (C&C)- with all the consequences, gains and stigmata. And it's not like they knew Doctor couldn't remember shit before they were in the middle of the mission and already about to rescue him
The world isn't one big place where only humans live and their only trouble are caused by other humans. "Mansplaining" all that would be rather boring, you will probably see/get to know more about it when the mission is over. It would be boring for me to explain it now because in the game it wasn't shown until after the operation either - and it really doesn't have to, some things are part of the mystery and others are hopefully part of the world-building we will yet get to see. For now, some stuff has been hinted at or have been explained via reactions to certain individuals.

Right now, you'd have to ask yourself why the Doctor was waking up in a "hostile" country in some facility of the size of almost a mountain. And this was a "rescue" or "exfiltration" mission for the Rhodes Island team. The target is the Doctor.
What you have seen in the first 5 minutes of the show is so obviously not a hospital. Isn't that already worth thinking about?

Btw, I've played the game when it came out and then some. I think until what the game considered "Episode 6". We are now near the end of what the game considered "Episode 2". Considering there will be some info dumps and talks about what to do next etc. I guess by episode 12 (and the end of this show, most likely?) we will be where I left the game because Genshin Impact released. And oh do I regret leaving Arknights for that game. I'm almost about to pick up Arknights again.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

The world isn't "Earth". The synopsis tells you that this disease has been declared incurable, for one reason or another.

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I guess my mistake was thinking of it too much like Earth, since the town looked so much like any town from Earth. On the other hand, no disease would be declared incurable, especially if it also affected the rich and the powerful. I'd assume it does if the economy is based on Originium. Only when the society has more or less collapsed into anarchy, you might declare it incurable because there's nobody serious left looking for a cure anymore.

Nevetheless, I still don't feel the eps worked that well for someone not familiar with the game. A game player might be excited just to see the stuff animated and voiced on a larger scale, but for me, it feels like the hook was missing. Of course I'm nowadays much more jaded than I used to be. 10 years ago I might have happily watched this, only getting more interested. Nevertheless, you shouldn't write a story so that only after multiple eps it gets more fulfilling and interesting. You gotta capture the audience immediately. Right now this whole everybody vs everybody meaningless chaos didn't seem so captivating. But that's just me, maybe. I don't know why mere fanart made me expect so much. Genshin Impact has fanart endlessly, so much I'm annoyed by it, but I have zero interest in it.

I disagree. Shows are boring if you get the whole thing explained to you from episode 1 onwards.
The hook right now is to find out what is going on exactly. You are basically the Doctor, not knowing a thing. The World has been in a specific state for a while now, what is "my" role in this. What can "I" do, why do they need me, why do they speak of me in such a way.
Why am I so important. Why was I here, who is the voice that talked to me in the beginning?

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Only when the society has more or less collapsed into anarchy, you might declare it incurable because there's nobody serious left looking for a cure anymore.

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What makes you think no one is looking for a cure though? Because the show is literally about a faction seeking a cure, isn't it? I think that, at the very least, has been shown. That faction obviously gets some resources from somwhere or somehow? Or why do they have like hundreds of people on a mission like that with tactical gear and military experience.
Here's a list of diseases or ailments we consider incurable. Did our world collapse and fall into anarchy?
http://medbox.iiab.me/kiwix/wikipedi...rable_diseases
Terminal illness isn't something only the poor suffer from.

China is probably the opposite of anarchy yet people stigmatised the covid infected to such a degree that the infected got their doors barred shut and were forced into quarantine. That's just how fucked up people are.
It's all about priorities. When you need to hide from existence ending catastrophes to survive and maintain order, a disease that cannot be cured right now might be something you don't even want to cure. After all, the infected are cheap labor and there are fewer people to feed.
What do we know about the country Ursus yet?

Ursus = Bear = Russia? Propaganda, royality, infected in THAT COUNTRY are taken into quarantine immediatly and put into labor camps.
It doesn't take much to count 1+1 together and see that the country is rather extremist about the whole thing, and thus the infected suffer a lot under their rule.

The fact that this world uses the mineral and build their economy around it suggests that the world already tried, or maybe even is still trying to fix what it breaks, so that the only thing you get from catastrophes and this minerals are gains, with no downsides.
The fact that they can't yet means that research hasn't found anything yet.
Nothing told so far suggest that they "gave up" on finding a cure. Only that they couldn't find one yet.

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Right now this whole everybody vs everybody meaningless chaos didn't seem so captivating. But that's just me, maybe. I don't know why mere fanart made me expect so much. Genshin Impact has fanart endlessly, so much I'm annoyed by it, but I have zero interest in it.

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My guess was that you like distopian settings, and Arknights has that. Which is why you like the fanart.
After all, the girls in hoodies and tactical gear look awesome. The art of the game is very gloomy and dark.
https://i.imgur.com/EDeLt1h.png
But this show actually captures that as well. So I might be wrong, since you don't seem to like it for that after all, since it seems to me like you prefer to have the answer right at hand without the dark mystery around it or at least you couldn't get into that mood to accept the "lack" of "clear" information causing this distopian setting.

I don't actually like everything explained immediately, in fact I often find it interesting if some things aren't explained at all. The problem here, for me, was not that but that I kept seeing things that didn't seem to make sense. Some of them would have made sense if I had read the description, though, so I guess that was my mistake.

We have incurable diseases, sure, but they haven't been declared incurable and then left on their own as hopeless. Those diseases are being studied and possible causes and treatments developed. With some conditions more than others. I don't anymore remember the exact details that made it seem like in this series world the society had given up, except for the MC's group, who places all of their hopes on the Doctor. Placing all of their hopes on a single person is silly, but on the other hand, if the whole world is more or less broken already, there's not much choice.

Before I knew the details, that is, before reading this thread, I was also annoyed by how the situation in the town didn't make any sense. Now that I know, it's not so bad, though I still can't say I'd like those petty James Bond villains who seemingly want everybody to die and the world destroyed just because. It's kind of annoying because at first it looked like a terrorist organisation founded by the sick and ostracised, for a purpose. But when they start killing and destroying indiscriminately, they aren't working for any cause anymore. Of course they could be madmen being used by the true villain for something, but they look far too organised and with too much resources for that.

Even if I might sound biased in my "answers" I will from now on refrain from pointing out that I still believe that this show could turn out horrible in the next few episode. In fact, I don't remember a WHOLE lot from what is happening. When I played the game, not much was actually *answered* but lots of things were heavily implied and the origin of this all and what certain things are was still a mystery
I'm just mentioning this to make my position clear here that I think 2 episodes are too early for most of these questions. It's basically a "reverse" build up. You get the action first, and the explanation later. "We" can't remember stuff after all. I think the Doctor is a great medium for that type of storytelling.

Well, that is that.

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We have incurable diseases, sure, but they haven't been declared incurable and then left on their own as hopeless. Those diseases are being studied and possible causes and treatments developed. With some conditions more than others. I don't anymore remember the exact details that made it seem like in this series world the society had given up, except for the MC's group, who places all of their hopes on the Doctor. Placing all of their hopes on a single person is silly, but on the other hand, if the whole world is more or less broken already, there's not much choice.

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Hmmm.. I can't tell what could have made that impression either.
The Doctor was hyped up as someone special who had his mind set on curing the disease. But to me it was more about how the Doctor might have made some progress in the past and that is why he is important. It hasn't been implied that research in the world, overall, has been canceled.
I don't think they even placed *all* their hope on him. But he is obviously a very important person that could potentially get results.

It's worth mentioning that OUR world is a world of relative peace. In a world infested by war and disputes, coordination might be harder to do. I believe in one or two more episodes, you will realize what a "nomadic city" truely is. You should give it a try. MAYBE it will help, but I can't tell for sure myself, it depends on how they present it in the show after all.

Spoiler:
All I can say is that it reminds me of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
/Spoiler

Just as a third voice, I've never played the game, refuse to play the game (tower defense not my thing), but overall, I think the show has promise.

It is teetering on the latter side of the line that demarks "Just for Fans" and "Good for cold viewers of a franchise."

They're handling the exposition very nicely. You can sorta tell where a lesser studio would be pulling right from the IP and dropping an info-dump to the player, but at least so far, they've integrated it nicely with other character's dialogue or even the no-name guy complaining.

The grim, but almost clean/Brutalist atmosphere is something relatively uncommon, and I do enjoy the vibe of the town setting thus far.

The enticing mystery and hook to the series is why the Doctor was in a sarcophagus in the middle of a hostile city for however long(?) while the others, all relatively young, have a long history with them.

The character designs are good too, like Amiya being a bunny girl without being the very anime-kind of bunny girl, and I assume the knight is a horse person because of course she would be, in the vein of monstergirl centaurs who are always knights and I like that trope.

The downside is very obviously the villains. Flat out, Mephisto is a completely shit character. The others make sense, you have a very angry population of tormented Infected who lose control, do horrible things that most rioters and rebellions do, especially when they're backed by either powerful or charismatic(?) leader like this Talulah (presume dragonewt monster girl?), or the Crownslayer girl who is after some info. But Mephisto undermines everything they're doing, is a cardboard flat "crazed guy" and the other normal footsoldiers have absolutely zero incentive to follow him or his orders. He's the kind of character who gets killed in their sleep by their compatriots because the illogical behavior will only cause them to lose. Never actually threatening in any way despite what the series attempts to portray. Just annoying.

So maybe Talulah fixes the villains angle of the series, but overall, doesn't she still have the incentive to let them go?

I guess everyone wants The Doctor real bad for their own reasons, and only Rhodes Island has an altruistic one. Their rescue operation is fucked at this point. I assume they're going to have to lose nearly everyone shown so far to get out of this.

So far Talulah seems no better in my eyes. Isn't she just another crazy, indiscriminate mass murderer? Whoever doesn't want to lick her shoe soles gets brutally killed. That's the kind of impression she gives me.

I don't like the Doctor because his kind of amnesiac isn't that hot in an action series. He had a minor moment or two, but otherwise he has been baggage. It's not his fault since his head is empty, but it's still not enjoyable to watch. Fortunately if he does pull his weight later, I could easily start to like the character.

I like Talulah better than Mephisto because, even though both are crazy, Talulah probably just lost sight and couldn't handle the shit happening anymore to the point where her hatred grew so much that she just wants to end it all, while Mephisto is just batshit crazy to the point he doesn't even understand what he is doing.

"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee" - is one of my favorite quotes and character tropes, because it happens so often in real life as well.
And the contra to these characters is just as fun to witness for me as well, because those that really look into the abyss long enough, will eventually see light and not the darkness - and that light will remind them of what they were and what they stood for in the past.

So while their redemption often ends in death, I enjoy these characters. The regret they feel in the end, the tragic circumstances that made them turn to that, mostly involuntary yada yada etc. etc. Bible, Jesus went to hell for our sake (no really, that trope is connected to it as well)

And Talulah seems to be more than just a bloodcrazed killer in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

And Talulah seems to be more than just a bloodcrazed killer in my opinion.

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At the moment that's all we have on her, but I hear her name *a lot* when the game gets talked about (e.g. "Not as difficult as Talulah"/"Harder than Talulah") so I assume there's a lot more to her.

As for the anime itself, we got told she was sent to take control of the command tower, so even though we see her melt a building, then melt the rest in the plaza to trap the Rhodes Island team, we get to understand that she has a fair amount of self-control should she want to use it.

Mephisto is just bad writing.

Oh, I was kinda referring to what she said when they introduced her.
Not sure if "nihilistic" is the correct word here? But it's not like she is looking for enjoyment like Mephisto when she kills or destroys.
It's more like she has an actual goal to see something through. She is not doing this on a whim.

edit: just watched the ED-song.
The game has amazing music, everything from Linkin Park-ish, Opera, Rap, Hip Hop, Electro, Rock, Metal, Pop, Chill and heck, even Sea Shantie-ish stuff.. lots of vocal ones as well, I hope the anime has as well. The ED is sweet at the very least!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHwRNdJXLIM
Sweet! One of my favorite characters from that game (VA is the same as Saber's), seems to have gotten a theme song recently.

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Originally Posted by Ryllharu

As for the anime itself, we got told she was sent to take control of the command tower, so even though we see her melt a building, then melt the rest in the plaza to trap the Rhodes Island team, we get to understand that she has a fair amount of self-control should she want to use it.

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She has just enough self-control to make her even worse than Mephisto. Mephisto is just a total lunatic, so he's predictable because you know you can't deal with him at all, it's either fight or flee, and you know Mephisto will try to kill you nonetheless. However, with Talulah there's a chance she possibly has something bigger going on, so you can't immediately predict her actions. Nonetheless, she destroyed a number of buildings here, not caring if anyone got killed in the process, if they were hiding in the affected buildings, or if they were too slow to avoid her plasma attacks. It's, in a sense, even worse that she purposefully left some of the Rhodes Island folks alive so that she could give a little sermon before finishing them off, by the looks of it.

Episode 3

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For me, this episode was a bit worse than the first 2 due to all the exposition which was the "in your face" type which Kraco probably longed for in the first episode(s). It just doesn't do as much for me... I think everyone gets it now, but I don't like it getting fed to me like that.
Either way, I still believe the world / setting is kinda awesome.
It truely is similar to "Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak" the vehicular-cities and sites are awesome. Landships rule. Knowing what is ahead a bit, I can't wait for the Lungmen stuff coming up.
I wonder how far this show will go. I started playing the game again and I have say, even though the artwork from the game is just breathtakingly beautiful, I just prefer the storytelling device that is anime over the game's "Visual Novel" style.

Yeah...the exposition was a slog this episode, though it started strong with Amiya vs Talulah, Ace sacrificing himself to save whoever he could, and the mysterious W letting all of them go because she was more curious who Amiya was.

All great overall plot hooks.

But the exposition killed the momentum of this episode really badly.

I'd also say the landships stuff is probably influenced more by Mortal Engines more than anything else. As far as I know, it predates all the other IPs with mobile cities.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

For me, this episode was a bit worse than the first 2 due to all the exposition which was the "in your face" type which Kraco probably longed for in the first episode(s).

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Hell, no. I don't enjoy that kind of exposition at all. I just wanted a few bigger pieces somehow revealed because so little seemed to make sense to me. But like I said before, it was due to not having read the series description at all. As it is, this episode was a real drag, largely thanks Amiya, whom I hate more and more. The Doctor is still no better either. He/she can't remember anything, but apparently emo is in his/her genes, so there's plenty of that going on, all the way to that hood-mask thing. I guess that headdress allows the Doctor to hide his/her countenance, even his/her eyes from everyone else, which is what emos love to do.

I don't know how much longer I can keep watching this. The world is actually pretty interesting, kind of like a mix between C&C and Chrome Shelled Regios, so it's a pity I don't like the main characters. The Doctor's pitiful state is emphasized all the time, he/she even does it themselves by that emo lamentation, but still the empty head Doctor will be sent to take care of the next mission? Like what the heck?

Actually, isn't the Doctor a clone, not just someone who lost their memories? When I looked at the Reunion troops, and how they kept increasing despite the commanders not giving a single shit about their lives or deaths, I thought they must be easily mass-produced clones. Perhaps the Doctor is also a Reunion clone, just not a mass-produced one? That would explain why the Reunion was so aware of the Doctor and seemed to know what's going on better than the Rhodes Island. It would also explain why they necessarily didn't want to get him/her back, as they would have known the clone's head is empty and weren't sure of what to do with him/her.

Dobermann best girl of the show

I don't feel like the Doctor is in such a bad shape. She/He doesn't seem emo to me either.
He/she seems to be rather normal in my opinion.