X Densha de Ikou Episode 1 Discussion

What did you think of this episode?

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Nov 14, 2017 3:35 AM

busterbeam

Offline

Aug 2010

207

Holy crap, that was absolutely fantastic and I'm now convinced that Rintaro is a genius. But I don't want to make it sound like something "deep" or try-hard "artsy" because it's not; it was just a surreal, modern-day ghost story with an ESP twist. But what made it mind-blowing is just how well executed it was. The animation, the humor, the extremely unique direction, the stylized and cartoony yet extremely organic and skillful character drawings, it was all absolutely spot on. The only minor criticism I have is that animation shortcuts started popping up in the second half, but given this is such a niche work it's amazing that they could muster so much great animation to begin work.

A lot of people say "I don't get it". Well there's nothing to get. It's the cartoon equivalent of Edgar Allen Poe short stories. See: "The Masque of the Red Death" or "MS. Found in a Bottle". The similar artistic appeal of this story should be obvious to anyone who has even a tiny bit of experience with surreal, spooky stories.

THERE'S NO NEED TO HAVE THAT SHIT EXPLAINED. The entire appeal of Poe stories, the Fuan no Tane manga (that people shit on for "not explaining enough, being too short, too random"), and Take The X Train itself. The appeal of all this stuff comes from the loose ends. IF you understood the story perfectly, there'd be nothing to be spooked about anymore.

Simple but perfect story, amazing animation, genius direction, fantastic and very skillfully drawn character design. 10/10.

busterbeamNov 16, 2017 1:34 PM

Nov 17, 2017 11:24 PM

AnimeEmperor

Offline

Aug 2009

why did you post almost the exact same thing into two threads in such a tiny forum my man

Nov 18, 2017 8:52 AM

busterbeam

Offline

Aug 2010

207

You're right, I deleted it.

Jun 15, 2020 2:21 PM

Rod_Russ

Offline

Jun 2013

578

One of the most different OVA's of its time.

Aug 20, 2020 6:18 PM

mshea1213

Offline

Jul 2016

393

Not exactly sure what I watched but it unfortunately did not hold my attention. Extremely slow paced with nothing that captured my attention to make me think there might be some more meaning to all of this.

I did like the animation, though.

Dec 31, 2020 2:32 PM

alpha_shadow