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Agronox
Feb 4, 2005


So this first post is pretty much spoiler-free, but as this thread is going up after Ep. 6 you should expect spoilers from there on out.

KEMURIKUSA is director Tatsuki's latest broadcast anime after getting ruthlessly sacked from Kemono Friends after the first season ended. It's a vaguely sci-fi story in a post-apocalyptic setting where a group of girls and a tree embark on an endless search for water while trying to fight the deadly robots they call "bugs" with magical leaves.

Uh, it's kind of hard to explain, so let's talk about the characters.



Here are Rin, Ritsu, and Rina, respectively. Rin is the overly suspicious fighter of the group. Ritsu is Midori (the tree's) primary caretaker and has cat ears. Rina is playful and has a healthy appetite for strange foods.

They are joined by this lad, Wakaba:



I hope you like this kind of dialogue, because he says some variation of it four thousand times per episode.

Anyway, the show has (in my opinion) a slow slog of a start, but it gets pretty interesting by episode 5 or so. It has roughly the same production values as Kemono Friends episode 1, so don't get your hopes up too high in that regard, but if you didn't mind it there you probably won't mind it here.

I'm curious where this series is going to go. I honestly have no idea. I hope it is good!

(Kemurikusa is streaming on Amazon Prime.)

Hat tip to Dzhay for the thread title, which is much more clever than whatever I would've come up with

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Agronox
Feb 4, 2005
It's pretty cool that this is being made!

https://twitter.com/GoodSmile_US/status/1094423232260784130

Cipher Pol 9
Oct 9, 2006


I don't care for Rin's "poison" schtick but she has a cute design and she is a cool person on her own so I am proud of her and her mega cute figure.

Episode 5 pushed it up from Just Okay but Interesting and 6 finished the job by cementing it as Good and Really Interesting for me. That journal was something else. Give me more of that post apocalyptic lore.

El Burbo
Oct 10, 2012

It’s worth noting that this series is based on a doujin project by Tatsuki that started about 9 years ago. You’ll have to google where to find fansubs, but the animations themselves are on YouTube. Slightly spoilery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyN_O55G5Ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl5Y_VomkGo

Additionally, there are some short animations that tie in to the anime, and reveal a little more. Fan subs are also available for these.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/1080473924553428998

El Burbo fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Feb 15, 2019

Lurking Haro
Oct 27, 2009

I haven't seen the doujinshi stuff yet, but I think each girl represents a sense.

Rin is Sight, Ritsu is Hearing, the Rinas are Taste (one for each: salty, sweet, etc.?) and the latest sister is Touch. One of the others should be Smell, which leaves one other less classical sense.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Lurking Haro posted:

I haven't seen the doujinshi stuff yet, but I think each girl represents a sense.

Rin is Sight, Ritsu is Hearing, the Rinas are Taste (one for each: salty, sweet, etc.?) and the latest sister is Touch. One of the others should be Smell, which leaves one other less classical sense.
I'm betting on Proprioception.

Brutal Garcon
Nov 2, 2014



Lurking Haro posted:

I haven't seen the doujinshi stuff yet, but I think each girl represents a sense.

Rin is Sight, Ritsu is Hearing, the Rinas are Taste (one for each: salty, sweet, etc.?) and the latest sister is Touch. One of the others should be Smell, which leaves one other less classical sense.

That works as a loose theming. The remaining one could be temperature or pain.

Better question, what the hell is Wakaba? Did Midori make him? "Normal human" seems unlikely, and slightly lame.

Brutal Garcon fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Feb 15, 2019

Lurking Haro
Oct 27, 2009

Dzhay posted:

That works as a loose theming. The remaining one could be temperature or pain.

Better question, what the hell is Wakaba? Did Midori make him? "Normal human" seems unlikely, and slightly lame.

He's probably an admin.

Zeruel
Mar 27, 2010

Alert: bad post spotted.
I can't believe I'm voluntarily watching an isekai in tyool2019.

It's good, though! Tatsuki is great at mystery. Having a male MC really threw me off for whatever reason.

Ghosts n Gopniks
Nov 2, 2004

Imagine how much more sad and lonely we would be if not for the hard work of lowtax. Here's $12.95 to his aid.
Probably the most unique post-apocalyptic concept I've checked out in my life. The twitter shorts are good pre-TV filler but the OAV might spoil depending on changes from the original story. Keep the mystery of this insane show growing, it's unbelievable.

IShallRiseAgain
Sep 12, 2008

Well ain't that precious?

Zeruel posted:

I can't believe I'm voluntarily watching an isekai in tyool2019.

It's good, though! Tatsuki is great at mystery. Having a male MC really threw me off for whatever reason.

I don't think its an isekai, more likely its a distant future of earth.

El Burbo
Oct 10, 2012

IShallRiseAgain posted:

I don't think its an isekai, more likely its a distant future of earth.

Possibly. Various landmarks match up to real life landmarks. For example, they passed by Space World Japan, and the latest episode had an old fountain in Osaka station







However the exact geography of their trip doesn't exactly match reality. Also, Space World was permanently closed last year, and the fountain is set to be demolished this year.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

I wonder why the latest sister doesn't want to reunite with the others? Did they fake their own deaths? That would make sense since the Rins talk like the other Rins are dead.

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

This show is really good, it's a shame it's been cast off to Amazon Prime.

Some of the earlier episodes were kind of shaky even with the good world building but 5 and 6 are finally moving things forward and things are getting quite interesting. The atmosphere makes me feel like I'm playing Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, especially with the "tree leaves as power" theme.

Agronox
Feb 4, 2005

El Burbo posted:

Possibly. Various landmarks match up to real life landmarks. For example, they passed by Space World Japan, and the latest episode had an old fountain in Osaka station

Tatsuki sure likes his decaying architecture.

Zeruel
Mar 27, 2010

Alert: bad post spotted.
The isekai thing was mostly a joke.

Also post-humanity is best basis for anything.

Stumbling Block
Nov 6, 2009

El Burbo posted:

Possibly. Various landmarks match up to real life landmarks. For example, they passed by Space World Japan, and the latest episode had an old fountain in Osaka station

However the exact geography of their trip doesn't exactly match reality. Also, Space World was permanently closed last year, and the fountain is set to be demolished this year.

Well that's just great. I rely heavily on that fountain as a landmark to get my bearings. What with being underground, everything there looks the same and I've been lost down there.

Ghosts n Gopniks
Nov 2, 2004

Imagine how much more sad and lonely we would be if not for the hard work of lowtax. Here's $12.95 to his aid.

Agronox posted:

Tatsuki sure likes his decaying architecture.

Tatsuki is a softer Tsutomu Nihei

El Burbo
Oct 10, 2012

Stumbling Block posted:

Well that's just great. I rely heavily on that fountain as a landmark to get my bearings. What with being underground, everything there looks the same and I've been lost down there.

Well, they’re gonna renovate the whole place and replace it with a fancy new fountain

https://www.sankei.com/smp/west/news/190212/wst1902120023-s1.html

Ccs
Feb 25, 2011


I respect how this guy is making a certain kind of sub par CG into an aesthetic. I mean that in all honesty. It means some interesting stories can be told with bad budgets.

Agronox
Feb 4, 2005

Ccs posted:

I respect how this guy is making a certain kind of sub par CG into an aesthetic. I mean that in all honesty. It means some interesting stories can be told with bad budgets.

I agree. And I would love to hear Tatsuki and Irodori's story sometime; I suspect it would make a hell of a movie.

Zeruel
Mar 27, 2010

Alert: bad post spotted.

Ccs posted:

I respect how this guy is making a certain kind of sub par CG into an aesthetic. I mean that in all honesty. It means some interesting stories can be told with bad budgets.

It's like the thing where making super widescreen Imax HD U4K blu-ray betamax editions of old things, or things in general, can water down the horror. Grainy VHS tapes made distinguishing things hard, and as a result, you were never safe because your brain couldnt always make out what is hiding in the pitch blackness.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

I am honestly very happy to see the growth they're showing, both Midori chan and Rin and Wakaba. It was a bit of a heartbreak to see that their moment of peace was disrupted so callously by the Red Bugs, but it kind of makes another mystery to me. These Red Bugs are like caterpillars, but we hadn't seen a butterfly or moth Red Bug, at least not yet. That might be a tad terrifying to face for their group.

Good Listener
Sep 2, 2006

Ask me about moons
Fact #1 The Moon is really cool
I've been enjoying this more each week and am curious to see how things go for it. I really enjoyed meeting sharp sister the other week and am looking forward to seeing what they found~

Revalis Enai
Apr 21, 2003
<img src="https://fi.somethingawful.com/customtitles/title-revalis_enai.gif"><br>Wait, what's my phone number again?
Fun Shoe
The walking on tree at height reminded me of dark souls a bit. I also went from finding Wakaba obnoxious at the beginning of the show to liking him now. Also loving all the music so far.


So it looks like the red fog has turned a tree red? And it's somehow generating those caterpillars and is able to regenerate itself pretty fast? I wonder what they're trying to do?

Next week can't come fast enough for me.

Agronox
Feb 4, 2005
Yeah, it's pretty fun, and I hope we come back to the delinquent sister before too long.

Anyone know what kanji was flashing on the blue wall there?

Lurking Haro
Oct 27, 2009

Agronox posted:

Yeah, it's pretty fun, and I hope we come back to the delinquent sister before too long.

Anyone know what kanji was flashing on the blue wall there?

警. In this case it means Warning, like in security alert.

Agronox
Feb 4, 2005
Thanks!

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012
We know that every color of Kemurikusa basically has the same or similar abilities. Red seems to be some sort of infection affecting the robots and apparently now a tree. Blue is clearly all sorts of walls/barriers. Green counteracts the effects of Red and also heals and repairs (which might be why it affects Red). Orange seems to be of some sort of utilitarian purpose. We've really only seen two at work. Pink is what all of the sisters have at their core and is what gives them life.

El Burbo
Oct 10, 2012

Remember Nissin x Kemono Friends? It’s back, in leaf form

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHySQSN9xIA

Ghosts n Gopniks
Nov 2, 2004

Imagine how much more sad and lonely we would be if not for the hard work of lowtax. Here's $12.95 to his aid.
The Rinas were extra adorable in this episode, and the legged Roomba even more.

Things have been getting weird and I theorize a grey matter event happened, or whatever the scenario was called where a blob of self-replicating absorbing nanomachines would grow and take over the world. Nature evolved and what few survivors managed, evolved along with it too. Mad lot of genetic modification. This could be deep sci-fi only taking place on Earth. I love this show even though it feels like it's sometimes crunching content and skipping events, happenings, explanations.

Ghosts n Gopniks fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Feb 27, 2019

Lurking Haro
Oct 27, 2009

I have to rewatch an episode because I don't know what the deal with the Rina with permanently closed eyes is.
I like them merging into one and just popping out the back as if they were standing behind each other just right.

They also seem to be based on (sensory) organs instead of just senses?

Sindai
Jan 24, 2007
i want to achieve immortality through not dying
The walking animation on the roombas is adorable.

Agronox
Feb 4, 2005
The poor little robots. At least they died doing what they loved, chilling out on a boat until someone told them to hack up some tree roots.

Bit of a turning point for Wakaba and Rin too. Good ep.

Xelkelvos
Dec 19, 2012

Ghosts n Gopniks posted:

The Rinas were extra adorable in this episode, and the legged Roomba even more.

Things have been getting weird and I theorize a grey matter event happened, or whatever the scenario was called where a blob of self-replicating absorbing nanomachines would grow and take over the world. Nature evolved and what few survivors managed, evolved along with it too. Mad lot of genetic modification. This could be deep sci-fi only taking place on Earth. I love this show even though it feels like it's sometimes crunching content and skipping events, happenings, explanations.

I think, what can be assumed is that this "world" is extremely post-humanity and everyone but Wakaba is some sort of artificial life form powered by Kemurikusa. It may also be some sort of artificial world which would explain the Islands and robots literally fading away with Wakaba being the first human to basically access the virtual world in aeons.

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

So is there a visual way to actually tell the Rinas apart that I've just been missing?

El Burbo
Oct 10, 2012

Well one of them seems to always be sleeping (the one with the core leaf, I think?)

Zeruel
Mar 27, 2010

Alert: bad post spotted.


Tatsuki fuckin loves those udon.

e: man i need to scroll up

Zeruel fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Mar 6, 2019

Ghosts n Gopniks
Nov 2, 2004

Imagine how much more sad and lonely we would be if not for the hard work of lowtax. Here's $12.95 to his aid.
Episode 9 blew my mind start to finish and Tatsuki is an old experienced professional writer of many awards, right? Because this is just that great, compared to everything else. It's got mysteries in it, the unexplained and the inexplainable! Some people are allergic to not getting everything explained and it would suck to be one of those, unable to enjoy the values of this.

Show is definitely cutting things out in order to speed things up and fit everything into 12 episodes, but I forgive it because of the quality of everything but the visuals, they are more tolerable than nine out of ten CG shows as it is anyway, then the framerates often being 3-4 times higher, it's insane.

Tatsuki and Tsutomu Nihei could make some mad sci-fi together.

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Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

Ryoku instantly becomes the best character :allears:

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