2017 Week 3: Episodes 9-12

[Milieva]

This week we will be discussing Season 1: episodes 9-12.  Please mind the rewatch rules.

The official chat will be Saturday 15th April at 19:00 UTC/GMT/Zulu time (3:00 pm in New York, 8:00 pm in London). 

Click here to join the chat

[Mokonalord]

First off, title of the first episode. 'The Magic Knights' Greatest Crisis.' Like, really? Calling the laundry monster their greatest crisis would make about as much sense.

Now, something I brought up in the chat and thought I'd touch more upon here: The Slap Scene, and how some of the anime changes end up making it less justifiable.

This is a scene depicting what appears to be a teenager (Umi) smacking what appears to be a child (Ascot), and we're supposed to be taking Umi's side. If both of them looked like teenagers or Ascot appeared older, you could get away with a lot more in this regard, but since physically speaking, the power differential seems to be in Umi's favor, we need extra justification. In order for this to work, we need to believe that one, Ascot really deserved it, and two, that there was no other way to resolve this.

For the first, yeah, Ascot totally deserved it. You won't find me arguing that he did nothing wrong, cause quite frankly, he did a shit-ton wrong and others ended up suffering because of it. As for the second, well, here's where we get into manga vs. anime territory.

In the manga, when Umi slaps him, they're in the middle of fighting. One of his friends has Hikaru and Fuu, he's joking about playing with them like dolls, Umi's probably starting to wear out by now, and Ascot probably has more creatures he can call to his aid if need be. The odds are totally in his favor, so Umi is totally justified in doing whatever it takes to get this lil shit to stop. She could kill him at this point and it'd be fair game, kid or not.
In the anime, not so much. By the time she slaps him, he's already let Hikaru and Fuu go, and he's not attacking them. Still blaming them for everything, sure, but by now, things have de-escalated to talking. Deserved or not, slapping him was unnecessary.

So, yeah, those are my thoughts for now.

[VKiera]

I see where you're coming from Mokona, but I think Ascot really deserved it either way, and it was needed, but the event was a bit strong in the manga for sure. Guess giving Hikaru her lines in the anime diluted the scene a bit later on. Guess they couldn't have Fuu and Hikaru out cold and useless twice in a row? lol . You could also take into consideration at least in the anime he might deserve it more, since you know, we know he's directly responsible for killing someone that he wasn't in the manga.

[Mokonalord]

It's not about whether or not Ascot deserved it, cause yeah, I totally agree he did. It's just that in the manga scenario, that slap could legitimately be considered an act of self defense, but in the anime scenario, it wouldn't be. The difference is whether or not there was an immediate threat to her or her friends' lives at the time.

Of course, that only really matters if we're to bring some of our own world's laws and understanding of self defense into this fictional setting, and it's not like Ascot would be trying to sue her for it or anything. The only reason I even found it worth mentioning is, again, it's a scene of someone slapping another person that's clearly smaller and physically weaker than them and we're expected to take the side of the one doing the slapping. It was handled just fine in the manga, there was no need to shift the circumstances, but they did, and Umi ends up a little less awesome as a result.

It's like, I don't mind changes to the original, I just want those changes to be for the sake of making things better or more interesting. At the very least, changes shouldn't harm the essence of the story that's being told, unless said story is such crap that changing the essence is the only way to make it any good.

But, anyway, back to the first episode in this set. Ascot learns valuable life lessons about not taking drugs offered by strange women trapped in waterfalls. Not even if they say they can help your friends. Umi accepts that she'll have to save Cephiro before she can see her girlfriend Captain again. And Mokona just let themselves be frozen just for funsies, I guess.