Granbelm, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the magical mecha

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > Granbelm, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the magical mecha

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

The cast and setting are interesting, but the fight scenes are incomprehensible. Most of the time, I have no idea what the mechs are supposed to be doing until after it's happened.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2019 23:58

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:50

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

what the gently caress

# ¿ Aug 9, 2019 20:30

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

I can't believe the people posting about this show going Madoka based on literally zero evidence were 100% right

# ¿ Aug 9, 2019 21:00

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Fangz posted:

Ahahaha And I was thinking that ending was too happy.

I hope their mum is okay.

I'm guessing now that Suishou is a winner of a previous Granbelm who made a wish for the competition to continue?

I thought Nene's mother was the winner? Nene talked about her being a "witch" at this point, and in the most recent episode Shingetsu mentioned that "Witch" is the name given to the winner of Granbelm.

Fangz posted:

Ahahaha And I was thinking that ending was too happy.

I hope their mum is okay.

I'm guessing now that Suishou is a winner of a previous Granbelm who made a wish for the competition to continue?

I mean, technically we only saw blood running down her hand, but she didn't look okay.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2019 00:03

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Spiritus Nox posted:

I doubt those refer to the same thing. Nene-mom called herself a "maja" in japanese IIRC, whereas the winner of Granbelm is called an engrishy "The Witch". I think Nene-mom was just using "maja"/witch as a catchall for mages.

Yeah, you're right. Simulcasts!

# ¿ Aug 10, 2019 00:43

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Kanos posted:

I honestly found this kind of weird and ham-fisted. I initially figured they were going for a "you were always best when working with Shingetsu" angle rather than a "you were actually always completely worthless as a mage and we let you think you weren't to spare your feelings" angle. Once the latter became apparent it just kind of felt stupid that her mom never told her the truth about the technique she was so proud of for what appears to be like a decade, despite it being the primary driving force behind Anna's problems.

"It was to spare her feelings" as an excuse feels awkward and nonsensical when there's a scene in this ep about Anna's mom straight up telling Anna "you can't use our super magic crystal because you're not strong enough and you can't measure up to Ernesta anyway" to her face well before the big reveal, during which she hardly spared Anna's feelings.

It was stupid of them, but not unrealistic. When you lie to a loved one, it often feels easier to maintain that lie�even if doing so requires hundreds more�than to tell them the truth. Honestly, I like that Shingetsu and Anna's mother said the wrong things in the conversation�it would have felt less "real" if they had said the right things and reached a positive conclusion, given the degree of enmity Anna felt and the way in which she had just been taunted by Shisou.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2019 02:30

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Next time on Granbelm: Homura battles Walpurgisnacht

# ¿ Aug 30, 2019 20:42

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Fangz posted:

Don't miss the post-credits.

Okay strong implication that uh... Mangetsu is an armanox isn't she?

I don't think she's an Armanox specifically, but she's definitely some kind of artificial being.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2019 20:51

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Fangz posted:

I do think she's an armanox specifically because the 'threads' apparently controlling her exactly mirror the threads the other contenders use to control their armanoxes

also welp they are getting rid of Suishou early huh

An "Armanox" is specifically a giant robot, though, or so we've been told. Also, strings are used to control puppets in general, both in media and in real life. It's not impossible, but it doesn't seem particularly likely, especially since (again, as far as we know) mage descendants only have one Armanox each.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2019 21:03

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

imo it's kind of lame that Mangetsu's life problems are because she's a magic robot and not just because she's had a crappy life. like, it doesn't totally destroy her character or the series or anything, but it sort of retroactively makes her less interesting.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2019 02:54

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Sindai posted:

I dunno, I don't trust anything Suisho says and the magic castle appears to have almost limitless control over reality, so I'm not going to take her word on what's going on with Mangetsu. If nothing else, it being impossible for her to win Granbelm is almost certainly wrong. Especially if Suisho, who certainly doesn't seem to be human any more (if she ever was) can win.

Suisho appears to be able to "win" in the sense that she can be the last combatant standing (assuming that, at the very least, the present Granbelm is separate from the one Kuon's sister participated in), but she can't become the Princeps even if/when she does win. Because of that, she assumes that Mangetsu, another doll created by Magiconatus, can't win either. But she's not

Also, any portion of this could be bullshit. Given that Suishou intends to win "to prove that no so-called human being can become Princeps," she, at least, thinks that Granbelm's setup is legit. But she might be being lied to as well! Who knows!

# ¿ Sep 7, 2019 03:35

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

And yeah, Mangetsu might not be a doll. Unlike Suishou, she can feel pain.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2019 03:36

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Endorph posted:

I'd be really annoyed if the show ends with Mangetsu vanishing forever considering Suishou's whole evil lesbian shtick. Put those two things together and you wind up with pretty rough implications.

Especially since Anna also pulled a big Horny Yandere routine before she died. it's not a great pattern, lol

# ¿ Sep 15, 2019 01:03

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Anyway, I think Mangetsu's anxiety over being worthless and "not having anything" can be pretty clearly read as depression. With that in mind, I read her attempt to vanish at the end of the latest episode as a metaphor for suicide, complete with fake cheerfulness in the period leading up to the attempt (go back and look at all the weirdly-angled shots of Mangetsu smiling) and a literal note. I don't think the series is going to end with Mangetsu vanishing for real, because after this episode that would basically be saying "suicide is good if you're doing it to get rid of a societal problem"�and that's a ridiculous message because in the real world, there are no societal problems you can fix by committing suicide.*

* First person to say "but what about lovely people in positions of power" gets the 2019 Most Irrelevant What-About Award

Elephant Parade fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Sep 15, 2019

# ¿ Sep 15, 2019 01:10

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Tales of Woe posted:

I'm still not really sure what it's going for, in the big picture sense

- Follow your passions and talents, not what you were "born for" (the Anna arc)
- Everyone has something (Mangetsu's arc)
- Martyrdom isn't a fate you should aspire to (the current plot)

# ¿ Sep 18, 2019 15:32

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

some extremely subtle imagery this week

# ¿ Sep 21, 2019 01:03

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

increasingly concerned that Mangetsu really is going to end up martyring herself, but the cross thing might just be an illustration of her attitude/mental state

# ¿ Sep 21, 2019 01:04

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

Endorph posted:

this is my favorite anime of the year

The first episode was a little generic, some of the early fights were tough to follow, and I'm still a bit concerned about the show's messaging re: Mangetsu, but aside from that it's just all-around excellent.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2019 01:02

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

With Anna's arc in particular, it delivered a really heartfelt message about valuing yourself for what you like to do and what you're good at, not just what society values and believes makes you "special," and I think that's an important message in a medium rife with stories about chosen heroes with special powers saving the world.

I grew up being told by everyone that I was a math whiz and that I should go into math. I internalized it; I grew up thinking that I ought to go into math not because I was interested in it (I was and I wasn't) but because it'd make me look smart and I could ~change the world~ with some crazy new math theory. I ended up switching degrees from Math to English because hey, turns out going at things from that angle isn't a good way to keep your motivation (or grades) up. I wish I had been able to see GRANBELM as a teenager.

Elephant Parade fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Sep 27, 2019

# ¿ Sep 27, 2019 01:09

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:50

Elephant Parade: Jan 20, 2018

UnfurledSails posted:

I felt that that message was incomplete, at least in the way you mention it. What was Anna's thing that she was good at that she could have done instead? Were there any hints anywhere that she could have taken a different path other than fight? Do something else? What is that? How does it compare to winning the battle royale?

In any case it seems that she was wholly invested in her goal and had no dearth of motivation caused by it not being her true calling. She just lost because she was not as naturally talented, so the message devolves into more like "You shouldn't insist competing against those who are more gifted than you." Her arc becomes a tragedy because she was built to lose, doubly so because she was essentially tricked into thinking she had the talent to go for it.

Doll-making. I forget if she made Shingetsu's doll or just showed Shingetsu how to do it, but the craft seemed to be something she enjoyed and did well at, only for her to set it aside in order to focus on becoming a magus. It's not very exciting compared to becoming god-king of the world, but half the point of GRANBELM is that becoming god-king of the world isn't a healthy or realistic desire.

As for the message: the way I see it, it's more like "you don't need to inherit the family business, and if you're not the best person for the job, you probably shouldn't." Anna's dedication to magic is, or at least was, extrinsic; she grew up surrounded by declarations of magic's importance. As the daughter of a mage, she was expected to become one herself. The tragedy is that society pushed her to do something she was obviously terrible at.

Endorph posted:

i do think jesus anna and kuon got screwed hard.

No kidding! With how unfair and out-of-nowhere Kuon's death was, I expected her (as well as Anna) to be brought back after the finale, either via magic or as a result of the disappearance of magic. Kuon lives on in her sister, kind of, but it's still a pretty weird resolution to her arc. She shouldn't have continued the cycle of violence, I guess?

# ¿ Sep 27, 2019 03:48

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