/a/ - anime/random

Or this one.

The second episode was much better than the first, and I already quite liked the first.

I really want the Crimson Vows nendros ;_;

This is actually the nicest way I've seen this kind of a backstory be done.

>>28978
I thought it was pretty bad. The tone here is jumping all over the place, Reina's backstory is too dark for how lighthearted the show has been so far, especially when the primary villains so far were a group of comic relief who wanted a loli harem. The only indication of her having any trauma over it is her saying at the end of this episode that she does.
I have to imagine that the source material was much more serious and the anime has made it more comedic, because surely the original wouldn't be this dumb.

>>29000
Huh? Nope, the tone never jumped to being dark. The lighthearted tone despite these backstories is kind of the whole point. And no, she doesn't claim to have PTSD over it. How tense her mental state is, sure. Which seems to affect her magic too. But that's not what one would call a PTSD. Same for the rest of the girls: they are all true nonoriris and the shit, mentally strong with a few loose screws. Just like an entertaining main cast should be.
The backstories don't really show the girls being traumatised. They explain the opposite: why they are so ready to do what they do. Pauline's scary battle tactics is just who she is, which she takes from her mother - and the death of her father is there to demonstrate this, not to traumatise her. And the first episode: Reina's going into back alleys isn't just the typical DM shenanigans for getting the party together, but Reina just lacking aversion towards killing. And Mavis was there because she wanted to prove herself.

tl;dr: if I have to guess, the source material had even more jokes than the anime. Maybe that's what it lacked for you, consistent reminders that the tone is lighthearted.

>>29003
Dude no, the tone was completely dark during Reina's actual flashback, it was only after the flashback ended and the others began that it shifted back to comedy. Or are you going to say that the kid having her father killed in front of her and then being attempted to be sold into slavery and then having her adopted family be killed in front of her afterwards isn't dark? The anime did not try to present this as comedic like it did for Mile's backstory.
I didn't say Pauline should be traumatised so I don't know why you're running with that. Reina just has her attitude of KILL ALL BANDITS but having her family murdered in front of her twice should probably lend itself to a bit more aversion to getting close to people.

>>29004
Sure, the tone of Reina's flashback wasn't light, but it wasn't dark either. There were no color changes, no heavier soundtrack, no nothing. It was just presented as-is. Mile's backstory had more jokes, but it's quite the fucked up story too, right? It's essentially a buildup thing: present the story without setting the mood in stone, then dump the reactions of the characters as the payoff and the tone-setter of the scene. That worked only for Reina, of course, because for the others the expectations of the viewer would work against it. What's more, it doubles as a realistic scene in-universe, as the consequent storytellers would of course fit their stories to the tone of the moment. When viewed from this angle, this says that Reina herself wasn't overly dramatic or dark while she was telling her own story - in-universe, she was the one to include the my-pic-related and the your-pic-related jokes in her tale. So the lighthearted campfire mood is set by her herself. Of course, that's just conjecture as it was not shown on screen… but who cares. It's internally consistent, and consistent with the overall presentation (the anime went out of its way to mark the deviations from what Mile herself told the girls), so I feel confident to claim that this is the intended effect.
To put it more concisely: for me the intended takeaway from this episode is exactly that the girls can talk about their troubled pasts in a levelheaded or even lighthearted manner, without setting a dark tone to it.

P.S. I only mentioned Pauline because I was making a comparison with the other girls - it's mostly the same shit for all of them.

>>29006
Either way, best girl. Her, or Pauline. I'm not sure yet.

>>29068
Why is she such a perv?

>>29092
She's been a virgin for some 30-35 years, that's why.

This was great. Mile will eventually get raped by her harem, however, considering how dense she is. Season 2 when?

I'm not convinced what to think of the backstory. Is it the same world? Maybe, but it smells of a red herring to me. Though my first theory got disproved by the flashback with the god.

Season 2 never, it seems, as they more or less skirted through or outright removed ALL of the plot hooks that were present in the novels.