Fractale

[Buffalobiian]

Plot Summary: The story takes place in a fantasy setting where a thousand-year-old Fractale System has maintained the world and turned it into a paradise. In the present, the system is breaking down and no one knows how to maintain it anymore, causing a lot of people to perceive it as the end of mankind’s happiness. One day, Crane finds an injured girl called Phryne under a cliff. She disappears leaving a pendant. Crane sets out for a journey with the girl-shaped avatar Nessa to look for Phryne and discovers the secret of the Fractale System. -ANN, Randomc

Links: ANN, AniDB, Official



Umee - Episode 01
UTW - Episode 01

-

[shinta|hikari]

This is probably the most original this season, although that in itself does not say much.

[Buffalobiian]

This is probably the most original this season, although that in itself does not say much.

Yeah. It's a good setting - now I'm just hoping it carries itself well to the end. The older character designs were instantly likeable in any case. I did, however, think the avatar girl looked better with purple hair like in the picture above.

Umee's translations near the beginning left me a bit confused, so I'll probably give UTW's a try later on.

[Kraco]

UTW seemed good to me. Though I was reminded of umee's "What is this shit? Ghibli?" tokyotosho comment the moment I saw the flying things. Seemed very appropriate.

Certainly a series to keep watching for now. The only negative detail I can say is hearing Rio Kazumiya every time Clain opens his mouth. Yu Kobayashi uses exactly the same voice here. Otherwise it was all good, from the thought-out looking setting to the goofy villains.

[Buffalobiian]

UTW seemed good to me. Though I was reminded of umee's "What is this shit? Ghibli?" tokyotosho comment the moment I saw the flying things. Seemed very appropriate.

Resembling Ghibli is always a good sign in my books. Not much can go wrong there.

I picked up something of interest from that first family conversation before. The fact that the father has quit the trading business and lived in L-something for 5 years without the mother knowing reveals that they never brought it up before. The only reason I see that it didn't happen was that they simply don't care where each other are. and that they can truly live through their doppels as if they were really there. It's a lot different from our webcams and other such things, since no matter now connected we are, we still maintain a sense of self - and a sense of "here" and "there".

[Kraco]

Resembling Ghibli is always a good sign in my books. Not much can go wrong there.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I really like Ghibli movies and have been collecting the dvds. But it really did remind of Ghibli.

[David75]

What might have been borowed:
Nausicaa->Sky motorcyle
Nadia-> trio with a fat and a tall guy and a female (although the later is very different), pursuing a girl. They also have a balloon type vehicle (altough more of a 1900's like mecha in Nadia)

Oh! My Goddess->A tad stretched maybe, but Phryne's comments about how Clain cares for old hardware is almost a direct copy of Belldandy's ones in the same "Girl descends on guy" situation.

[Ryllharu]

I saved this for a while when I'd have the time to appreciate it.

It definitely reminds me of a cross between Nadia and Castle in the Sky with a strong dose of Dennou Coil (or maybe even Summer Wars) thrown in. I couldn't possibly hope for more. David, I think you nailed it on the comparison to Nadia. The girl and the attendants are perhaps technologically superior, but they're also a bit dull for thinking their deceptions would work.

Phryne was also very likable. She had an impertinence about her that was pleasant. She began judging Clain from almost the moment she met him and relented appropriately when she found the collection of old electronics and later the projector.

I'm not sure what to make of Clain yet.

[David75]

I don't know about Dennou coil, never watched it.
Regarding Nadia, well the trio behavior really is similar, and the trio in Nadia has a far superior machine in terms of functions, size, manoeuvrability. It's just that its design looks like 1900 hardware.

I just hope they took a great inspiration from those shows for a very good reason and the show will be awesome. At least I can wish

Regarding Clain, I admitt I'll need some time to tune to the character, as I still hear Rio from "Sora no wo to" whenever he speaks... and since I liked Rio's character, that'll be hard.

For now, I do not have enough material to further judge the show. I'm still neutral, which is quite good considering the probing I did on many shows this season with bad outcomes.

[RyougaZell]

I was confused when Phyren simply left and then the red-head girl appeared out of nowhere. And on the pic on the first post of this thread she has purple-hair? Uhh...

Seems interesting enough to follow.

[Buffalobiian]

I was confused when Phyren simply left and then the red-head girl appeared out of nowhere. And on the pic on the first post of this thread she has purple-hair? Uhh...

Seems interesting enough to follow.

She came from the brooch (or whatever that thing is). Apparently it stored data (and really old data at that), and when he loaded it, it became a person now (Avatar?).

The brooch symbol was also on that building that he takes refuge in because it blocks out all radio waves. Putting all that together, I'd go and say that Phyren's not from the future, but from the past.

[Everon]

Heh, I guess I'm not alone in feeling that i've seen this setup before. For me I got some vibes of Eureka Seven and Nadia. Character designs and setting seems to hint they took time to create an interesting background for this universe. It'll probably two more episodes before I can figure out if this is going to be good or not.

[MFauli]

Im seriously put off by the violet hair of that girl in the OP´s picture. So before I might give this show a chance: Are those comparisons to great anime like Nadia, Eureka Seven and Denno Coil also comparisons to these shows´ quality? Or is it just an anecdotally "oh, this character looks like that one" and "I remember something like that from X"? I had my fill for underachiving series for the moment :/

[Buffalobiian]

Im seriously put off by the violet hair of that girl in the OP´s picture.

Her hair is actually maroon in the anime.

[RyougaZell]

Her hair is actually maroon in the anime.

I though she was a red head.

[Buffalobiian]

I though she was a red head.

She is too. It's definitely red than maroon.

[David75]

first ep wasn't enough to be able to give a proper answer.

[Buffalobiian]

UTW - episode 02

[David75]

That ep had a much better feeling to it.
Liked it.

So this is a world where there's no war because no one ever interacts with each other anymore.
God awful.

[Buffalobiian]

That ep had a much better feeling to it.
Liked it.

It was the complete opposite experience for me. The first episode was engaging. This episode had Clain dragged around town setting stuff off and following a little girl, walking through the completely foreseen journey of discovering that he did not in fact hate Nessa.

Both Nessa and Phyrene are selfish in the way that they do what they want, when they want. At least Phyrene had a sort of mysterious charm to her though. Nessa's just a kid, and an annoying one at that. Hopefully she'll stop touching stuff now (and stop asking Clain to touch her) so we can finally get on with the real story - finding Phyrene and fixing the Fractale system.

Much of the negativity I experienced from this ep was probably just disappointment. I was hoping we'd start exploring already.

I'm alright with the stupid villians at the moment. They're not quite "Team Rocket's blasting off again" stupid. Twice they've been shown that using their brawn works better than their brain, but I doubt they'd learn that.