The director might have been worried about the number of episodes, or other such details, that would prevent from building the world properly. The sudden lecture was egregious, that's for sure. I'd say the director is incompetent and has no faith in the story to carry itself, but maybe the director knows the Japanese audience far better than I do.
I hope we eventually get an anime adaptation of "The Fantasie of a Stepmother" or even "Trinity Wonder", so as much as I shit on this series, I still hope it does well. Same as the last two manwha's with moderate and crap adaptations.
Episode 2:
That really should have been a double episode last week, meh.
Episode was alright, but the above drags it down, it feels like we're NOW past the opening act.
The other adventurers are dumb. They don't know anything, so why move? Also, the hero was dumb, too, because he CLEARLY knew the inscription was important, yet kept stalling to think about the text and talk it out with the others.
One criticism I have and hope is resolved soon is that we know nothing about the world. There's so much I want to know, starting with "why does he need to risk his life so his sister can go to school and his mom isn't left dying?" Japan surely has a healthcare system that doesn't poor people let die, and school should be free, so unless his sister is going to some prestigeous school she doesn't need to go to, there shouldn't be such dire need for money. Also, portals to another world appear, okay, so what about the other world? Are there ONLY monsters? Doubtful, when there's human statues and weapons and such. So what about foreign relations with the people living over there?
Hey, this is still fun, but I can see how this is a light novel in origin. There's parts that just feel very shallow.
Oh, and why tf must the level up-menu be a menu? :/ NOTHING so far suggested any sort of virtual game mechanism. God, I hate how uncreative isekai have become ...
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
You wanted all of that revealed in the first episodes, huh? We already got one exposition lecture in the first ep.
This takes place in Korea, not Japan. I seem to recall school isn't free of charge in Japan, not sure of Korea. The same for medical treatment.
Yeah, this did make the adventurers look prettu dumb. On the other hand, this was clearly a dungeon different from anything they had seen before, so being veteran adventurers would only work against them, since they couldn't help but try to draw inspiration from their previous experiences when solving problems, but it was utterly useless here, with the enemies being basically unkillable and the way out being a puzzle. They were all in panic, to boot.
The MC would have been painfully consciouss of the fact he's the odd man out (the weakest hunter in the world), despite this series refreshingly not making all the other adventurers be scumbags about it. I guess that was a detail that comes from this being manhwa, not manga, as in Japan he would have been the laughing stock, instead of receiving quite cordial and sympathetic treatment. Nevertheless, he would know he's still only tolerated as an adventurer, fighting for scraps and relying on the healers goodwill to remain alive at all. Such a position wouldn't make him easily deal out advice/suggestions vocally.
Originally Posted by MFauli
It's cram schools in Korea that cost tremendous amounts of money, and they are basically mandatory if a student has any intention of higher education. The high schooling coursework and leading up to the national exam (CSAT) is notoriously brutal for students. The private schools are expensive on top of that, but that's typically for gifted students.
Quoting wikipedia, "The average South Korean family spends 20% percent of its income on after-hours cram schools, more spending per capita on private tutoring than any other country."
Healthcare is absurdly accessible and affordable. His mom is really sick though.
This episode was a lot better.
Although I really hate it when they kill an MC 50 times over but he doesn't die.
I'm not feeling "on edge" when shows/movies do this, it's just unrealistic and immersionbreaking to me because the statues didn't f-around before.
Well whatever.
Episode 1 as a 1hour one would have been better and once again, the association dude talking about how the world works is so unnecessary. The story itself does a well enough job explaining how this all works.
Alright, so I watched this because of the hype.
And fuck those two episodes were a slog. The entire time I'm thinking "Hurry the fuck up with this plot already", and "yeah, these side characters are dumb, get a move on". The puzzle was slightly interesting. To be honest I had no idea what the "praise" bit was going to be.
I disliked that as well. For how efficiently they showed the statues killing everyone, the MC sure dodged a fuckload of attacks - from the shield dude initially to everyone else laying into him while the timer ticked forever.
As for the whole classification thing, I don't usually feel too pedantic about it. Wuxia and Xianxia both end up developing the MC to be stronger through cultivation, though the latter's usually more explicit and spiritual in nature. The former's just through finding masters and ancient combat texts - and isn't usually the MC's main goal initially.
Murin (武林) and Jianghu (江湖) being essentially martial artist politics/society that isn't usually interferred by the state isn't Korean-specific.
As for things like RPG vs these stories, I feel like it's really just application/themes. Before computer games you had all the Wuxia stories where people who chance across a master who needed some help and rewarded them with learning new moves and martial arts styles. They then go on to meet more people, find powerful swords, some evil dude decides to fight them in a month so the MC holes up in a cave somewhere to increase his life essence and power level before the fight.
With computer games, now you see a quest giver and get rewards/skill trees, find items and you farm to increase your level / mana. The power scaling is just more explicit with levels/numbers instead of saying "I am now strong enough to defeat the lead student of the HwaShan Sect" or something more specific to the lore.
Last edited by Buffalobiian; Mon, 01-15-2024 at 04:17 PM.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
@Buff
The issue with LitRPG as a genre is that it allows sub-standard/unpracticed authors to cut corners on actual development and develop good writing techniques. Not all LitRPG authors are trash, but it allows bad ones through far more than most genres.
Instead of detailing their struggles, epiphanies, training, or how challenging something is or how much stronger they are than their opponent through detailed descriptions...Number go up.
Even basic stuff like how wounded they get or pain they're experiencing or how threatened the feel. Instead they write, "I got hit. It hurt. My HP went critically low!"
That's quite true.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
That dungeon was a little bit to human in many ways. I wonder what is truly behind those.
The puzzle feels like some sphinx enigma, but also very similar to one of the Indianna Jones movies if anyone has seen those.
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
Episode 3
- - - - - -
We finally got into the bread and butter of this show, after the intro. Now begins Jinwoo's journey of leveling up.
The goblin fight was pretty good. The vast majority of cheap fantasy/isekai these days would have had the goblins stand pretty much still (in lack of animation budget and skilled animators), yet still pretend the MC is in danger, but here the goblins were fast and vicious.
First episode I didn't like.
I have 2 major gripes with this one:
First, we suddenly virtual game world. Yes, this was started at the end of last episode, but here they went full-in. This is so dumb. So far it was like a fantasy world with magic, connecting gateways between worlds. Now we introduce the boring, thousand-times done game world-gimmick. BORING.
And then he went into a dungeon by himself. There was ZERO reason for him to go into that dungeon at this point in time. He could have just left the key in his menu. Could have kept training himself. Could have asked others to join him. But nah, just go straight intothe dungeon at his still low level. So dumb.
Oh, actually 1 more complaints: The pentalty for not doing the exercises was way too harsh. How did he even survive for 4 fucking hours? Those centipede monsters should have gotten to him instantly. The way we saw him doge them via cameraman was Bugs Bunny-level of cartoonish.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
4hrs was indeed ridiculous. If hunters were stronger than regular people then that'd be one thing, but they commented that he's essentially a civilian. All of this previous fights suggest the same as well - which makes 4hrs of running beyond what he's actually capable of.
As for going into the dungeon himself - I suppose he had the impression that you could always leave. If you assumed that, then dungeons would be considered safe. That said, he did just encounter a boss room that did not allow anyone to leave, so he indeed should have been more careful.
Overall he just seems to get overconfident, and his currently levelling up has done nothing to address that. He is eager to earn money to help his mum, so at least that's noble.
The biggest standout of this show is actually the art style where people are rather lanky, which gives it a more oldschool vibe. The contents of the show isn't exceptional though. It's pretty in line with all the other "MC has a special RPG skill" shows.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
No, it started when you read the series name for the first time. Level ups are something that happen in game worlds. I also prefer non-game interface worlds in isekai, but game interfaces are super popular both in Japan and Korea, so what can you do?
He ignored the first task the system gave him, and as a consequence was running for hours for his very life. Don't say he should keep ignoring stuff again. If the system gave him a private dungeon key, it's obviously for a reason, just like that physical training was. What others would he bring with him? He has got no buddies, as he's basically only baggage who's tolerated out of pity and general human decency, but that's it. It's entirely possible others wouldn't have even seen the entrance, nor be able to enter it, just like they didn't see the game interface.
So, all in all, his choices are to trust the system, that he can solve the current tasks with his own, still pitiful, strength or... die trying. In the end, if it looks like a game, it's not unreasonable to believe it's designed like a game. It's not like when you start a new game, it immediately throws you against the last boss, making it impossible for you to ever play further.
At his civilian strength/abilities level even 4 minutes of running for his life, in sand, in that predator's ecosystem/turf, would be far too long.
It's essentially the same as surviving against hungry white sharks hunting you at sea.
We knew from the start the show wouldn't be realistic and/or true to its own rules.
Now it's clear you can trash those ideas and hope something gets your interest.
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
That art style is pretty standard for most Korean manwha. The high-profile series that we've gotten previously (God of High School and Tower of God) are actually some of the rare exceptions.
This and Gekai Elise this season is closer to the norm.
@Kraco:
It's fairly usual in rpg-games to get access to content you're supposed to play later on. There was no pressing need to use the key, it was dumb. And he could have ask his healer friend. "But she has a trauma", OK, SO DOES HE, more reason why he shouldn't have used the key. He's an idiot.
Also agreed with Buff, even 4 minutes would have been too much. I actually read it as "4 minutes" at first, then realized in the next scene that it was HOURS. You know, I'm fat so I can't talk from experience, but can regular people even run 4 hours nonstop? I doubt it.
Sharks would actually kill you. Now building-size, fast monster centipedes? THOSE are easy to outrun /s.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
You are missing my point. It's safer for him to assume there is a pressing need than not. Like has been said already, the whole four hours in the centipede monster world was already over the top (a pity it was made so unrealistic). By now he should be realising the tasks will keep coming, and it's extremely dangerous to fail them, so he needs to get strong fast if he intends to survive. Since it's a mixed game reality, it's reasonable to assume the key will open a private dungeon that he should be able to survive, but it will provide him with valuable experience. Experience he will probably absolutely need since there's no stopping or avoiding the tasks.
Did the key tell him there'd be a penalty if he didn't use it asap?
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
I don't think there was such, but missing an opportunity to get stronger is a penalty in itself. The centipede punishment world ought to have been enough to tell him the game system is not just a joke. But even outside of the game system, his wish is still to get stronger. He has had enough of being the world's weakest hunter.
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