After having watched the first two episodes in airing order, I found a list of the largely unfollowed production order, and am now following that. While this aired as episode 4, this was actually the first episode produced. It does have the feel of a pilot, establishing our action news team through a monster menace that rises up through their very office building. It's moodily directed, the visual effects of the giant flower are fantastic, especially bits of stop motion used for its blooming and the buildings cracking apart. Love that we even get a helicopter overhead shot. They even justify the focus on the pilots though a chemical which needs to be dropped from the air. The main problem is it's still not a very well written episode, and I'm just not hooked by these characters as our lead team. The action pilot and his comic relief are bland, and I already know future episodes will struggle to justify them. Sakurai remains fun as the lead journalist, but she's still sidelined from what should be a story driving role.
Pretty fun special effect of plant roots or vines attacking people, but this is story was disjointed to me. And the mammoth flower is a bad effect in its full grown state.
Shout by noelctBlockedParentSpoilers2022-09-30T01:33:41Z
After having watched the first two episodes in airing order, I found a list of the largely unfollowed production order, and am now following that. While this aired as episode 4, this was actually the first episode produced. It does have the feel of a pilot, establishing our action news team through a monster menace that rises up through their very office building. It's moodily directed, the visual effects of the giant flower are fantastic, especially bits of stop motion used for its blooming and the buildings cracking apart. Love that we even get a helicopter overhead shot. They even justify the focus on the pilots though a chemical which needs to be dropped from the air. The main problem is it's still not a very well written episode, and I'm just not hooked by these characters as our lead team. The action pilot and his comic relief are bland, and I already know future episodes will struggle to justify them. Sakurai remains fun as the lead journalist, but she's still sidelined from what should be a story driving role.