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EP. REVIEW: In the Land of Leadale


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Shiremage



Joined: 18 Jan 2022
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:14 pm Reply with quote
I thought the first 2 episodes had some real hilarious moments. Can't wait to see the family dynamics work out.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18220
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:21 am Reply with quote
I did also find the first two episodes to be pretty funny - funnier than the source material, in fact. However, I more agree with Rebecca overall. The first episode was fine, but the second episode leaves me with concerns. It's zipping along in the story (already at the halfway point of a nearly 300-pages novel) despite having little clear direction, and seems to be essentially ignoring any considerations about the outside world or Cayna's past in the game. Granted, some of the little details on these things that the novels filter in are the kinds of things that commonly get left out in anime adaptations, but the writing could still be doing a little better on this point.

Rebecca wrote:
Considering that it's been over 200 years since these NPCs have seen their mother, I was expecting a much stronger reaction or a lot more questions regarding where Cayla's been this whole time. . .

Actually, that has somewhat been addressed already in the anime. During the meeting of the three children, Mai-Mai (i.e., the female elf) mentioned, "Don't you remember why our mother got sick of people and holed herself up in the forest" (at her tower, presumably). Between that and the visit Skargo was mentioned in episode 1 as making to the tower 60 years go, we can intuit that the kids think she was there in isolation the whole time.
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Moonsaber



Joined: 16 Jan 2007
Posts: 343
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:34 am Reply with quote
Thank you Key for referencing the source novels.
They can be a bit inconsistent too, and this anime is really moving at a whirlwind through the source material.
Still, I am enjoying seeing it animated. I hope it slows down a little bit here and there, but I have an idea it is trying to quickly get to some of the other characters and introduce some of the later plot in this cour.
I bet that those who have not read the source are pretty put off by the pace.
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 1001
PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:03 pm Reply with quote
In reference to the review. It was odd that he was going back on what he said literally the the next segment of the show. But I have to say that the mixing of the potion was my favourite of the episode. It is that absurdity of both being able to summon inventory out of thing air and how impractical player crafting is. It had the perfect tone of discordant game logic to tickle my funny bone, and well paced in being just too fast to not overthink it but enough to let you get what was happening.

Not to mention the extra implication it has, that it drives home Leadale still has access to something very foreign to these peoples lives. A game system that only she possesses and perhaps her only link to real life.

I must say, compared to wise man's pupil, I am getting this story a lot more. Its established how everything is working and made her family and the worlds mystery its central point. But in wiseman I am still unsure if the other players even care about being isekaied. As they havnt even mentioned or react at all to their circumstances.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3674
PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:04 pm Reply with quote
I wanted to wait till episode 3 to comment on them, but I'm curious to see if they're going to do anything more with the kids. I can understand why Cayna would be so blasé about them, considering they were cash shop NPCs she bought to farm for her and has no connection to them, but then why do her kids love her so much? You'd think at least one of them would be more annoyed at her. What did she do to earn their favor? Were they just programmed that way and it translated in to real (presumably) life or did she interact with them often? And if that, then why does she not seem to care about them O_o
This probably isn't the type of show to delve in to this, but this is an aspect of the show I'd love to see details on. Consider this, if the two elves were supposed to be her biological children in game, is that still the case now? And if so, who's the father?

Putting all that aside, I've enjoyed the first 3 episodes so far, but it does feel like it might be meandering a bit. Hopefully we get something interesting out of the recent revelation.

That crafting joke was great btw.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:13 am Reply with quote
@Covnam

It is sort of glossed over in the anime, but the novel reports that the game admins paid players to create additional NPCs. In Cayna's case, she kept them with her and had them level up to the mid 500s, making them about twice normal NPCs. No mention of a father.
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 1001
PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 8:16 pm Reply with quote
I do not think that Leadale is shocked about killing people. I think its more she is still coming to terms with this place being real. I think its something she is still struggling with, as demonstrated by her ability to create deadly artefacts from the before times is as simple as using a button. She was coming to terms with her actions having real consequences as opposed to having a moral conflict over killing.

She is still tied into the interface and usage of the world as a gamer with a headset. I think the story is her getting to know the world from this new perspective, rather then seeking out moral questions of being super powerful in a new world. I quite enjoy it for its lightness though, its proving to have some depth while maintaining playfulness.
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Alex_Sandy#915970



Joined: 02 Feb 2022
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 7:01 pm Reply with quote
I don't find her hair trigger temper and tendency to erupt in excessive levels of psychotic rage whenever she feels miffed to be amusing. Maybe she doesn't realize this is somehow a real world now and the characters seem to have lives and are not waiting in the wings for her to give them something to react to.
Maybe that's the point though. Kind of a I am Legend thing, where she is the monster now. In any event I've seen #5 and I feel increasingly uncomfortable about the amount of violence she doles out especially to her family. As a running gag it's just not funny to me. I guess I'm just not getting the jokes because having her granddaughter be more afraid of her than the monsters she faces is kind of creepy.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3674
PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:03 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, not so sure about this show now. Cayna is just coming off as a bit too self centered and callous. Also a bit detached from her situation. I presume she's still seeing this from the perspective of a game and she did show a little bit of self reflection, but she's still been rubbing me the wrong way recently.

@Alan45 thanks for the info Smile
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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Tue Feb 08, 2022 9:16 am Reply with quote
@Covnam

Keep in mind that Cayna is IRL a seventeen year old who has been on life support for since some time in elementary school, eight to ten years possibly. While she was visited by relatives and had contact with nurses and other hospital inmates, her only significant "adult" interactions has been in the game. I'm not a gamer, but I do gather that people's actions in online games are not always what you would want to see in real life. Also the anime is making her rather more volatile than the novel. Like a lot of teenagers in difficult situations, she is having to be an adult at the same time she is becoming one.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 12:31 am Reply with quote
Episode 6, that whole part with the other player was just baffling to me. Cayna actually comes across another player who has been isekai'd in and the show treats it like a generic bandit encounter. Then Cayna talks him down with a speech about how these people are real and he needs to value human life more and...gets ready to literally murder him after he appears to be understanding what he's done wrong and is completely at her mercy. At first I thought she was just bluffing and would give him a "That's what it feels like" or something but by the end it seemed she was totally serious. What the hell?

Cayna in general is just not a likeable protagonist for me.


Last edited by Florete on Mon Feb 14, 2022 3:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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everydaygamer





PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 12:51 am Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
Episode 6, that whole part with the other player was just baffling to me. Cayna actually comes across another player who has been isekai'd in and the show treats it like a generic bandit encounter. Then Cayna talks him down with a speech about how these people are real and he needs to value human life more and...gets ready to literally murder him after he appears to be understanding what he's done wrong and is completely at her mercy.

Cayna in general is just not a likeable protagonist for me.


Yeah that was bizarre, it took me back to slime and how mass murder was just treated like it was no big deal. Are we suppose to assume that she is some kind of psychopath or something? I mean she wasn't even curious about how he was there, you'd think she'd have a vested interest in that.

I like this show but I'll admit I still have no clue what it's even supposed to be about at this point lol.
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 1001
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 3:25 am Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
Episode 6, that whole part with the other player was just baffling to me. Cayna actually comes across another player who has been isekai'd in and the show treats it like a generic bandit encounter. Then Cayna talks him down with a speech about how these people are real and he needs to value human life more and...gets ready to literally murder him after he appears to be understanding what he's done wrong and is completely at her mercy.


Hmm I wonder. As it is completely consistent with the character that we have experienced so far. Someone with little to no social skills, with a comedically cantankerous personality, that doesnt seem to believe that she is even alive anymore. She has always been light hearted and destructive in these 6 episodes, so for her to make light of someone behaving like a self obsessed murderous brat and also consider that he might be impossible to contain all seems like her normal fair.

Its really only the lack of interest in what he means for her own circumstances which dont mesh with everything we have had so far. Though perhaps our expectations for the show to be something it isnt are too high. Maybe similar to how I wanted slime to be better then it was, but it wasnt. You just gotta accept it, or not I guess.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5847
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 1:25 pm Reply with quote
I think you'll are beating up Cayna a little bit too much over the bandit leader "player" character. Sounds like there is a disassociation of his crimes from the player bandit leader.

If this was happening in the United States, it wouldn't be the police or SWAT teams trying to take him down, it would be the National Guard or worst case scenario the Army.

Cayna litterally had to walk through the hellscape of the player bandit leaders actions. Seeing all the dead villagers, men, women, and children..........Knowing that this was just a small section of the bandit's actions.

I firmly believe that Cayna was justified in her intentions. Not just because of all the misery, torture, and deaths caused by the bandit leader, but because he was a "player" character.

spoiler[The player bandit leader is one of the more formidable person's in the game, not to Cayna, but to the former NPC's and their world. While I don't think they spelled it out exactly, I believe Cayna felt that they former NPC's would be unable to handle him and that he would break free again. Hence the collar, but the collar doesn't prevent the player from not accessing his Item Box. Also, the collar only reduces his stats and abilities. If he is clever enough he still might escape. I don't know if the player bandit leader will be featured in the anime again, but in the novel the former NPC's were unable to execute him for his crimes due to something about his HP, but I didn't fully understand the reasoning.]

While it is fine to feel 'sympathy for the devil' considering he was taken from his world and dropped into this one, the trail of misery, torture, war crimes, and death supercedes all that. Now it is just a matter of who is going to execute him. spoiler[Cayna felt the former NPC's would not be able to handle that because he is a powerful player character, and to some degree she is right.]
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3674
PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 10:53 pm Reply with quote
@Alan45 Yeah, I understand that side of it, but I don't feel like they've done a good job connecting how that influenced who she is. You'd think someone with that past would be enjoying not being in a hospital bed and interacting with others more or perhaps the opposite and be jaded by the lot she had in her last life, but instead she's just basically still playing the game *shrug*
We don't know what "life" was like in the game, so it could have been a great environment or a poor one for socializing. Based on what we see, I'm guessing Cayna was a loner though in there lol

Cryten wrote:
that doesnt seem to believe that she is even alive anymore.

She says that it's the "real world" during her conversation with the other player, so it seems like she believes it's real life

TarsTarkas wrote:

Cayna litterally had to walk through the hellscape of the player bandit leaders actions. Seeing all the dead villagers, men, women, and children..........Knowing that this was just a small section of the bandit's actions.


I quickly skimmed through the last 3 episodes and unless this was just said, didn't see any hellscape of dead villagers. Cayna went from the town, to the fort, to a campsite, to the bandits without any scenes of destruction. Was this in the source?
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