Terrible music directing. It cuts and plays in odd timing. The battle is too difficult to follow and too short at that - a shame since it's supposed to have one of the best in this arc. The hand-castle and the brand reveal isn't too obvious, making it lacking impact. Things are decent on other stuff.
If you can get past the CGI, this episode is pretty enjoyable to watch. Finally. The only thing which seems odd is the battle scene near ending. It feels a tad disorienting with the soundtrack not matching the action scene. But I guess we'll see more on this in the next episode.
The battles aren't the best, but it still looks good choreographically. Except a few scenes (Puck around the tower and Nina with Casca), no one blurts out speech anymore. SFX gets better. Generally consistent with eps 7, which was also a good episode. Significant improvement from episode 1-6 indeed!
Finally a decent episode of the anime. The plot flows naturally, the pace is enjoyable (not rushed like previous episodes), and the characters finally speak like they are actually having conversation (not like a speech competition).
This episode only makes much more sense if you've read the manga. It cuts a lot of things and compressed a number of subplots into shallow scenes. You know this happened and that happened, but you can't really understand why it happened and what is its relevance.
Much improvement from previous episodes. The pacing gets better: the characters no longer feel like they have prepared a speech when they're having conversation; there were more moments of silence between scenes; and they apparently fixed the weird sound effect of the sword. The episode still tries too hard to portray Guts' action scene as "badass", but at least it's not as cringey as before (no more loud, irrelevant generic metal music).The CGIs, however, look worse than before. The difference between 2D and 3D animation is really jarring.
Still a bit too fast-paced here and there, but generally an improvement from the previous episode. Some dialogues seem to be hurried without enough break, but the CGI is overall well done (except a few parts) and there are a number of hand-drawn scenes. There is no awkward music playing in inappropriate moment, and the sound effects isn't jarring like before. Not bad!
The characters talk too much. This is very notable in the battle: instead of trying to kill each other, there were about a minute the episode trying to portray the antagonist's background by a lot of talking. And Guts there just stand still (while being wounded!) and listen to his mumbling.
The episode still has this terrible pacing where every characters machine gun every line without any pause. From one talking to another one talking. It makes some supposedly important scenes to be off and forgettable because the episode just glances it over with the pacing.
A lot of stuff is crammed in this episode, and instead focusing on the available scenes, it dedicates a lot of time with a build up for the next episode. Making this one feels like a filler episode.
Not bad but not good either.
The pacing seems to be off; every characters seem to talk a lot of things in a short amount of time, like they already prepared them as a speech. This especially look weird in the dialogue between Guts and Farnese. The scenes are jumping quickly between one person talking to another, without a moment of silence.
However the animation is slightly better than the first episode. CGI still can't handle expression well (look at some Farnese's expression and the soldier who Guts punched), but it's okay-ish. The adaptation from the manga is also good, unlike the abrupt lumping-it-all-together in episode one.
I don't really have problems with CGI, but it seems off here and there (especially when Guts throw the knife to kill a rabbit). The face also looks pretty jarring somehow.
As for the story itself, I think Isidro's presence is a bit distracting there, cutting off the interaction Guts should've had with Puck. Also why the heck they skip to the Iron Chain Knights right after this episode?
Okay so the episode was kind of dragging on with Rick's group being played around with Negan's group, but I guess it's purposeful to make the viewers the feeling of being toyed with and to give more screen time for the characters for the emotional build up.
However, the ending... with that kind of build up, the episode ends with a goddamn cliffhanger! What the hell is the purpose of 45 minutes long build up? The scene with Negan screams terror, the moment he started to swing his barbed wire lashes out fear, but the episode ends without revealing anyone. It's a shame. Should have shown the victim's face, or at least hair, or anything from his/her back, so at least the viewers can speculate.
It feels like it's been a long time since Walking Dead has a thoughtful, story-driven episode.
First of all I like how we are shown a glimpse of living a woman's life in a post-apocalyptic world here. Issues like motherhood, pregnancy, are handled very well through the talks of the all women characters in the episode. Second thing, is how the show gives an alternative perspective on the post-apocalyptic world seen through another survivor's eye. It's not just Rick and co here who are trying to survive--there's another group, as much as capable as Rick, with their own set of survival skills. As uttered by Michelle, from their PoV (whose group has just been robbed and murdered), Rick's group "are not the good guys."
Third, it actually makes all the pragmatic, ruthless murders we've all been seeing all this time from one episode to another, is not just about "another" murder. Killing people is actually a deed with terrible moral consequence, even when it's done for the means of survival. Interestingly, this theme is explored through the eyes of Carol--who has been known as pragmatic and ruthless.
Very well done episode.
It was intense, to say the least. This episode is good in that it can maintain the action while still doing several character developments: Fr. Gabriel, Heath (the eye-glasses Alexandrian supply-runner), and of course Carol. While everyone is focusing on Carol, I'm hoping Morgan to have more interesting development in the future, especially when his pacifism finally has to face The Survivors' brutality.
Pretty enjoyable, enough tense with this new Jesus character (though it's less the tense if you're familiar with the comics), introduction of new community, and the expected calm before the storm.
Not bad. A light-hearted drama episode with enough tense near the end. More character development of Carl, Rick, and Michonne. Deanna's son overcoming his ineptitude. And the unusually funny introduction of Jesus.
Terrible pacing. It starts really slow, boring the audience with too many character introduction and flimsy animation.
Dammit Morgan, why did you turn from everyone's favorite to peace-loving hippie who can't read situation?
This must be the most cliche moment in TWD this season: stupid teen getting too emotional and messing up (Ron), dumb kid being scared and making loud noise (Ron's brother), and some idealist (Morgan) insisting on his ideals--all of them risking the lives of other survivors.
This first half of season 6 seems to miss the opportunity to build upon the group dynamics to a more interesting twist. In the start of this season, on one hand we have the hot-blooded Rick, leader of the survivors who have went through hell and back, dare to risk anything for the safety of his group. On the another hand we have the de jure leader of peaceful community Deanna, who have never seen the horrors of TWD's world. And on the another additional hand we also have Morgan, the guy who have survived insanity, traveled alone with his newly-founded unorthodox ideal.
We have a hard-boiled survivor vis-a-vis naive unexperienced leader, with a fellow survivor--who has a very different outlook on life--in between. The season did a good job in the first four episodes portraying this.
But by the end of the mid-season, Deanna's leadership simply returns to Rick and Morgan has become nothing more than eccentric guy who seem to give more trouble than counter-balancing Rick's brash and heavy risk-taking leadership. And in the process a lot of people died... died too clichely to give way for Rick to his leadership. And as Rick take the leader role once again, we're presented with another opportunist hostile stranger groups (The Wolves) who always have no purpose than raiding the groups--just another trouble to make the groups life more difficult. Not much characterization, not much to have sympathy for.
And I like the throwback to Season 1's zombie disguise (and other throwback in previous episodes), but in this episode it just seems off. It seems to lack the tense, the breath-taking risk that it had back in Season 1. It feels like it's guaranteed the plan must fail to certain extent--and that failure is caused by none other than Alexandrians naivities.
The Daryl subplot is interesting: it introduces new group which seems to lead to new antagonists. I wonder if they're hinting more Wolves involvement here since they went into that trailers that are overrun by zombies (the same trailers that Aaron and Daryl visited in previous episodes?).
The Abraham-Sasha subplot though, not so much. Not that it's bad but the show can flesh more on Abraham's character.
Nothing much is going on, as usual it's the "build-up episode" which gives clues and prepares build-up for future episodes. TWD always has episodes like this (Wolves, Terminus). So don't get so fed up, I guess.
The only thing that bothers me is: why the heck don't they kill those walkers one by one like they did back in Prison?
I wonder why they put Morgan's flashback in this episode. I was expecting his flashback to be told a bit later, or with more exposition. It's nice, but it feels a bit too hurried in the last half of the episode.
It's surprising, to say the least. There's been an obvious dead flag throughout the episode, but this person has escaped from such dead flag again and again. This time though - this person doesn't survive.
Lots of people die in this episode, so the death is a bit unexpected and and the same time... seems a bit less dramatical. We had a whole episode for Tyrone, a climactic end for Beth, even moments of atonement for Merle. But this person seems to be one of the crowds. Which, actually, makes sense in a post-apocalyptic world such as in Walking Dead's - it's unforgiving and death is just a statistic. But for a person who's been with the audience for a long time to be gone, just like that, seems a bit unsettling for me. I guess there's still more to come.
It started a bit slow but once it gets into the action it plays really nicely. Some people were seemingly presented to be cannon fodders, on the other hand some scenes make you wonder if one of the recurring cast is going to survive this season or not for their way of life in Walking Dead's post apocalyptic world. Especially with one Alexandrian holding the gun.
Carol once again takes the spotlight for being a badass. And the cold-blooded Carol is contrasted nicely with Morgan's peaceful approach. In the middle of conflict, there's also this little bit of drama of some Alexandrian still holding resentment to Rick's group. Good episode.
Not bad, but not great either. Especially for a premiere. The plot seems to reconnect the people after-Reg (and shows subtle, potential conflict), while in the same time it moves on with a new matter at hand. I don't really take issue with the plot but the editing could be better, I guess.
This episode plays the classic trope of a zombie film and it plays the trope well.
We get decent intense action, we get the character development, we get the plot build-up. Sending least competent fighters of Rick's group as scavengers (except Glenn) isn't the best choice I think, but contrasting them with Alexandrian scavengers make them seem to be more than capable. Even Eugene looks more competent than Aiden! Which is nice: a character development for Eugene.
This episode build-up continues from the last episode: Rick's group "slowly" overtaking the Alexandrians. It shows the contrast between the more experienced group and the naive population. The tense is present too. The stylist's husband does not seem to like it - even the construction leader, Tobin, seems uncomfortable giving his position to Abraham.
The disconcerting "revelation" from Father Gabriel puts the tense even bolder. Seems like the incident with Terminus people traumatized him that much - why Rick didn't even spend the time to explain the context to him?
Last, Carol's ending statement really puts me to ask the question: would Rick's group be the new antagonist in the next season?
Pretty decent episode. Emphasizes a lot on the drama so it may disappoint those who expect action, but still good nonetheless. We get the bonding between Daryl and Aaron, Sasha's stress, Rick and the barber Jesse, and that "W" letter hint again. And Carol! From an "invisible" lady to a threatening killer in an instant. That scene is priceless.
A number of things are still going on here. Still a decent episode.