I guess the visual novel usually has that graphic of the red line going down, and then curving upwards sharply. So this is kind of a high-budget version of that.

Kinda scary that you can just throw Gae Bolg anywhichway and it'll still hit the heart. OP

Also, I forget, when do they explain that it's because of Saber's Luck rank that she got out of it?

I would've preferred there be a bit more inner monologue while performing magic. A lot of it kinda sets the stage for the "goddamn, Shirou's doing this shit so wrong" realization.

[1:25:42 PM] Shawn: awesomesauce, thoughts?
[1:26:12 PM] Aaron: Pretty good. I looooved Makashima's death scene.
[1:26:32 PM] Aaron: You can tell he's just basking in nature/the moment, feeling what it really means to be alive.
[1:28:10 PM] Aaron: The series overall was pretty good, a nice look into the nature of justice
[1:28:33 PM] Aaron: the scifi touches are really cool, inspires that right amount of "wow I really want to have that, when is the future going to be here"
[1:28:44 PM] Aaron: with the right counterdose of the negative, but rational side of progress
[1:28:47 PM] Aaron: ie. sibyl
[1:29:05 PM] Shawn: yeah, that was a really good scene, the way it was just the 2 of them and how Makashima seems so content with dying by the hands of a man who isn't controlled by the Sibyl system in that moment
[1:30:05 PM] Shawn: yeah, there was some really cool technology and you get the feeling a lot of the people do live wonderful lives in peace
[1:30:29 PM] Shawn: but at the same time, the series focuses on the reality of the kind of system they live in
[1:30:41 PM] Aaron: also, when that women gets beat to death
[1:30:48 PM] Aaron: and everyone just stands around recording it on cellphones
[1:30:51 PM] Aaron: we're living in the future
[1:31:11 PM] Shawn: ugh, that scene seemed so real to me
[1:32:10 PM] Shawn: when you consider how sheltered most people are from violence and how some people even today think "oh cool" when they see someone getting brutally murdered
[1:32:21 PM] Shawn: unnerving as hell

I think PP does a good job of raising some questions in the second half of what's considered almost idyllic in the first half, particularly through people's willingness to don the helmets, and the resentment of the 'upper achievers' by those who were basically dictated into a set position of life. It really takes seriously -- like most dystopias -- what an ideal society would be that prioritizes "order and optimal efficiency" over stuff like freedom. But without making it toooo cartoonishly evil, like Equilibrium. I mean, Sibyl is still cartoonish at times, but its counterpoint to being composed of the worst specimens of humanity as, "haven't our contributions to society since compensated for that" is a very good question, and is pretty much the basis for a rehabilitative instead of punitive judicial system. Ironically, Sibyl itself employs a punitive system almost exclusively.

Some of the villains, particularly in the first half, were pretty cartoonishly evil and stock for detective fiction (the innocent damsel in distress, the creepy stalker person (though that was second half, the schoolgirl serial murderer, etc) -- one of the flaws in Urobuchi's writing is a tendency to conflate sexual violence or violence against women in general in a way that's sometimes sensationalist (the rape scene in episode one, complete with neck-stretching chokehold, spookie boogie's strangulation, etc). In his defence, a lot of male characters get subject to pretty horrifying violence as well, but the female characters tend to be a lot more passive about it. Though at least the "female character dies to fulfill someone else's character development" was Yuki for Akane, and mirrors pretty closely Kogami's reaction to Sasamaya (or however that's spelt)'s death.

Speaking of Akane, she was definitely one of the highlights of the series. I really loved seeing her development as a character and her toughness, without becoming the more generic "hard-boiled" type like Kogami. The vulnerability she shows occasionally to Masaoka, Kogami, or Kasamori (I think her name is) contrasts wonderfully with her competence when working a case or when staring down Sibyl (literally). Her ability to emotionally mourn, get angry, and rage at her inability to do things goes hand-in-hand with her ability to do her duty. Plus her mysteriously low Criminal Co-efficient makes her have some things in common with Makashima, and she herself even wonders if she's "that cold-hearted." And her eloquent defences of the law to Kogami and to mental!Makashima are cool, and I like that the show respects her viewpoint and doesn't shoot her down for it.

Makashima was another favourite character. But then, I'm always a sucker for literature/philosophy-quoting manipulative geniuses. And he still does have his principles of sending a message.

two minutes into the second episode of F/SN UBW and I already want this purple-haired chick to stop saying "Senpai." Forever.

OH MY GOD THAT GAE BOLG.

WHO ANIMATED THAT.

THAT ENTIRE SCENE WAS AMAZING BUT

THAT GAE BOLG STOLE THE SHOW.

such effects

much photoshoop

wow

Akane is a raging badass now/the good ol' principled detective archetype. She's way too great not to get killed off (probably by wavy-haired ominous Enforcer guy in OP), probably as a catalyst for her kouhai inspector's character development.