(L) Tensei shitara Ken deshita (Reincarnated as a Sword)

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Rasty

Are Blackcats discriminated against mostly by other beast-humans? The normal humans and elves seem to be more chill with that. Or rather often not mentioning the species at all, so they might simply not be too knowledgeable about all the "subspecies" of beast-humans.

I love how Fran manages to simultaneously be absolutely brutal and innocently cute. I also wonder whether the evolution is based simply on level/exp or if they need to do some achievement and will evolve regardless of level.

The black cats are viewed as the weakest of the races in the TenKen world, being the only beast humans who haven’t been able to evolve. What exactly “evolve” means in this world or how it’s accomplished I don’t know. It’s obviously some kind of strengthening/enhancement, but beyond that who knows.
Who exactly discriminates against them seems to be mostly like racism in real life; it depends on the attitude and personality of each person, rather than depending on race.
But this isn’t exactly the case either. There’s one definite exception that will be elaborated on later in the season.

[Tenzen12]

After very meh first episode, show improving stadily. Fran seems to have fair amount of agency on her own (let's be honest more then MC anyway) and she isn't carried hard. On top of that she's not just supposed be cute, but actually is. I don't think it will ever be masterpiece, but it work perfectly fine as guilty pleasure.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

After very meh first episode, show improving stadily. Fran seems to have fair amount of agency on her own (let's be honest more then MC anyway) and she isn't carried hard. On top of that she's not just supposed be cute, but actually is. I don't think it will ever be masterpiece, but it work perfectly fine as guilty pleasure.

Well like we’ve bern saying, the exposition/infodump in episode 1 was to introduce us to Teach and get all of that done and out of the way instead of spreading it out or just going “here’s our sword guy, no explanation necessary!”

Spoiler for Episode 3:

Fran struggling against the goblins and hobgoblins shows that she’s definitely not being carried hard by Teach and is in fact doing the main fighting herself.

[Tenzen12]

Sure, doesn't change it was one of worst first episodes this season. “here’s our sword guy, no explanation necessary!” would be still better. Well, even if not better, it certainly couldn't be worse at least.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Sure, doesn't change it was one of worst first episodes this season. “here’s our sword guy, no explanation necessary!” would be still better.

Err, that would be way worse because we would have no idea how Teach’s skills and abilities work, how he got so strong, or how he ended up where Fran found him. Exposition/infodumps may not be the most fun thing, but they’re usually needed.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Rasty

Are Blackcats discriminated against mostly by other beast-humans? The normal humans and elves seem to be more chill with that. Or rather often not mentioning the species at all, so they might simply not be too knowledgeable about all the "subspecies" of beast-humans.

It's much more from other beastkin. There is a background explanation for all this but it's unlikely to show up in the anime and isn't plot spoiler.

Spoiler for background info:

The two main factors are that beastkin generally appreciate strength a lot more than others and that beastkin can generally immediately tell if another beastkin has evolved - it's not just a guess/assumption that there's no evolved Black Cats around.

I love how Fran manages to simultaneously be absolutely brutal and innocently cute.

It's a nice combination for sure.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

Err, that would be way worse because we would have no idea how Teach’s skills and abilities work, how he got so strong, or how he ended up where Fran found him. Exposition/infodumps may not be the most fun thing, but they’re usually needed.

Ever heard of "Show, not tell"? Infodump is almost never necessary. Audience isn't stupid and can figure lot without being told. There are exceptions, but that's what it is, exeptions.

[Rasty]

I guess I am the only one who liked the first episode. Certainly, Fran's antics are better, but I was pretty content just watching a floating sword kicking the ass of the poor animals. Then again I also liked the first half of Kumoka WN which was one giant solo leveling arc, so I am pretty unreliable in this.

Looking forward to the next episode, the fight seemed to be getting pretty heated. Though logically speaking Fran should have just retreated since there is no urgent need to stop the goblins right now. But I also can get where she is coming from with wanting to never back off when she now has some power since she didn't even when she was powerless.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Ever heard of "Show, not tell"? Infodump is almost never necessary. Audience isn't stupid and can figure lot without being told. There are exceptions, but that's what it is, exeptions.

If we didn’t have infodumps or exposition, there would be so many animes where we didn’t know what was going on or why it was happening.

Originally Posted by Rasty

I guess I am the only one who liked the first episode. Certainly, Fran's antics are better, but I was pretty content just watching a floating sword kicking the ass of the poor animals. Then again I also liked the first half of Kumoka WN which was one giant solo leveling arc, so I am pretty unreliable in this.

Looking forward to the next episode, the fight seemed to be getting pretty heated. Though logically speaking Fran should have just retreated since there is no urgent need to stop the goblins right now. But I also can get where she is coming from with wanting to never back off when she now has some power since she didn't even when she was powerless.

I liked it too. It was good how they got the info out of the way in an entertaining manner, and as a Super Robot Wars fan, I’ll always enjoy hearing Shinichiro Miki shouting Nendou attacks.

[kari-no-sugata II]

For what it's worth, in the manga version, the first chapter is almost entirely Fran's POV (up to when Fran gives the sword a name) then chapter two is a flashback from the sword's POV. I thought it worked pretty well and had expected the anime to do something similar.

[Marina2]

Ep.3

Fran is cute in her new clothes. She's enjoying her new life of freedom for sure.

Here is something I don't understand......I know that sword guy doesn't want to reveal that he is an intelligent weapon in front of other people so he let Fran use him in those situation. But when Fran was fighting will goblin alone and was in disadvantage, what stop him from flying out of her hand kill all goblins himself? It seems to be more effective that way if he is as good as Ep1 showed.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Here is something I don't understand......I know that sword guy doesn't want to reveal that he is an intelligent weapon in front of other people so he let Fran use him in those situation. But when Fran was fighting will goblin alone and was in disadvantage, what stop him from flying out of her hand kill all goblins himself? It seems to be more effective that way if he is as good as Ep1 showed.

Fran won't gain experience (in the general sense) that way. Longer term it's to her benefit to basically put her in control with the sword providing support. Fran doesn't want a comfortable life with the sword providing everything for her.

[moridin84]

After the last episode I was fooling around with NovelAIs image generation. Generated lots of Fran images. Obviously, it's automatically generated so it is a lot of "artist license" to say they are Fran. Fran like images. The model super struggles with swords, just getting characters to hold a sword is hard sometimes.

https://imgur.com/a/tMmc77p

Spoiler for a new of the images:

Giant furball makes this the best one.






"There is no way my catgirl daughter can be this cute" pose.

Originally Posted by Ghostfriendly

Posts trying to claim that this show has a novel premise miss the point; combining cliched elements in an less hackneyed combination is still an Isekai made up entirely of cliches, and not well-used or beloved ones.

It's an isekai. What's the point in watching an isekai and then being upset about it having the basic elements of an isekai? Hate watching?

If Fran was Raphtalia, this show would be as unfit for human consumption as Shield Hero. Her having been a slave and continuing to be dependent on sword-guy's OP JPG powers are lesser offences, but they are offences, as I've plainly stated already.

There is nothing wrong with the main character being a former slave. Stories where the main character is a slave or former slave have existed for as long as slaves existed. Because slaves are people too, why can't they be the main character of a story?

Women having male mentors isn't inherently a problem. Thinking it is a problem just because of their gender is the textbook definition of sexism.

Very few shows are made with the primary motive of attacking women, rather than pandering to societal prejudice. I said clearly that male mentors reflect a societal problem rather than necessarily being a problem; this male mentor is problem for reasons given in previous post, which all stem from the same societal chauvinism that the default to male mentor-female mentee reflects.

Nobody here cares that this "reflects a social problem".

When I was growing up society didn't care about me, so I don't care about society's problems now.

Fran is cute in her new clothes. She's enjoying her new life of freedom for sure.

Here is something I don't understand......I know that sword guy doesn't want to reveal that he is an intelligent weapon in front of other people so he let Fran use him in those situation. But when Fran was fighting will goblin alone and was in disadvantage, what stop him from flying out of her hand kill all goblins himself? It seems to be more effective that way if he is as good as Ep1 showed.

Because the main character is her sword.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

If we didn’t have infodumps or exposition, there would be so many animes where we didn’t know what was going on or why it was

That just mean people making these anime are incompetent in opposite way, but equally to one's that make boring infodumps.

Edit: I got carried away by correcting whole this "infodump good" nonsense, that I actually failed correct other part argument and that is that first episode DOES NOT have problem with infodump in first place. If it did, it would still bad writing, but at least it would only take 5-10 min of exposition. Instead we got "show, not tell" done wrong and had to watch 20 minutes of pure grind.

[Rasty]

^ I don't see it that way. The sword-only part has a lot of uses that establish the premise:
- The general world/skills/monsters/power system info
- Establish the MC (sword) and why we should care about him, this is the most important, otherwise, it would be a story of a sword wielder, not a story about a sword and his wielder
- His personality traits: wish for power, diligence, creativity, having kind emotions (graves), not minding murdering things, being lonely and wanting to have a partner, etc.
- MC's abilities (skills), growth potential, power scale, and limitations (the way he can be trapped in a single place forever)

Also, the comedy was good and the fight scenes were reasonable, so I pretty much enjoyed it even if I ignore all the world-building there. Btw., it's about 12 minutes, not 20.

[Metaneo]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Ever heard of "Show, not tell"? Infodump is almost never necessary.

And if we try Show don't Tell, we'll have another group of people complaining in the opposite direction. What you're stating is an opinion, not a fact. I myself can appreciate an info dump once in a while.

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Audience isn't stupid and can figure lot without being told.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

Audiences aren't as smart as you think they are. If you were to actually go looking for the interpretations that people come up with for media you'd realize that many viewers can't think past the end of their own nose while watching TV, Movies, Video games.

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

There are exceptions, but that's what it is, exceptions.

There are a ton of "exceptions" out there, take a trip through social media and you'll find they move in herds.

[FlareKnight]

When it comes to “show, don’t tell” I think it’s important to keep it as a general concept than a hard rule. It’s generally easier to tell than show so poor writing tends to go to that extreme. But ignoring either would be a mess. Not that I think the show has mismanaged that. It told us how the level growth, skill gaining, and abilities he gained in episode 1 worked. But the it showed them in practice after giving understanding and context. That’s a good approach.

I’ve enjoyed the show more after episode 1, but I do think the setup was important. If nothing else I’m having a really good time with this series. It’s maintained good storytelling balance in the latest episode and I’m curious to see how the present situation will play out. I can’t imagine that Fran will just power her way through this with her depleting stamina and the goblin’s coordination getting better as time goes on.

[Dark Wing]

YupnI definitely going to keep up with this one but once again have to ask the same question I did with Faraway Paladin. Am I the only one who thought this story didn't need to be an Isekai?

Like Fern could've just stumbled upon a magic intelligent sword with an eccentric personality?

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

YupnI definitely going to keep up with this one but once again have to ask the same question I did with Faraway Paladin. Am I the only one who thought this story didn't need to be an Isekai?

Like Fern could've just stumbled upon a magic intelligent sword with an eccentric personality?

Teach bringing his mentality as a native from our world actually comes into play at several points, plus it helps him to understand and relate to his stats, skills, abilities, and growth.
Teach using isekai materials to make food from our world for Fran and seeing her adorable reactions is an added bonus.

There appear to be plot reasons as well, but a) I can’t say any more, and b) we don’t know too much about it yet anyway. (as a manga reader, I don’t know how far the plot has gotten in the light novel)

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

YupnI definitely going to keep up with this one but once again have to ask the same question I did with Faraway Paladin. Am I the only one who thought this story didn't need to be an Isekai?

Like Fern could've just stumbled upon a magic intelligent sword with an eccentric personality?

A lot of isekai stories are like that.