Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

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Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by takenoko »

Wiki: http://wiki.tvnihon.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Hero_Alain

Since I skipped Ghost, it was kind of nice seeing the story from the side and not from the main cast. As usual, every time they appeared was exhausting.

Mini-series wise, this was awful. I liked the story about Alain and the story of him stalking a little girl for 60 years. But I feel like this was mostly just a clip show from the TV series. How much of this was original? And then the fucking waste of time that was game of Life. It was reaffirming to know that I was not mistaken in skipping this series. Did the final battle really happen in a stage like that? That looked super bad and cheap.

But yeah, the stuff with Alain's character arc was good. It's good seeing Hioki Kaya again. She's a pretty lady.
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Re: Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by Lunagel »

The stuff with Fumi-baa was pretty good, I liked the characterization it gave Alain.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut this should've been part of the show proper. Splitting it off weakened his character and cut out a pretty interesting storyline. It doesn't help that the entire first episode looks like just cut footage from the actual show. At least Drive's Blu-ray extras were actually interesting and had a solid story outside the show. This was entirely unnecessary.

Nice job breaking the 4th wall, Onari.
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by fenrir »

this Alain Saga is MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH better than the original series.
Alain in here have a STRONGER characterization. and his relationship with Fumi-baa IS DAMN GOOD.
it's also logical that Kanon become Alain wife.

so i dont have many complain in this saga. it is good, GREAT even i guess since it based on GHOST STANDARD.

the original series is soooo weak and pointless.
good choice for Takenoko to skip this series. Ghost + Ninninger = such a bad bad duo for super hero time
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by Fat D »

Nice addition to the Ghost franchise, but boring on its own and not enough to get me to rewatch the entire season. Totally knew the girl from the beginning would end up as old lady Fumi.
That said, I did not notice that the one who called Alain back to the Ganma world was Kanon. I am terrible with faces, even European ones, and all the girls and young women just having long black hair makes it hard to distinguish them. I thought it was Alia.
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by takenoko »

I don't know who the people were. I thought the lady calling Alain back was young Fumi
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by Mxylv »

I also liked this way better than the original series. The lack of effects seemed to show that this didn't have much budget put into it, so it seems that without flashy effects to rely on, Toei had to come up with an intellectual way of keeping audiences' attention. The result, whenever the main cast aren't around, is everything I liked about Ghost and then some; even the humor feels reasonable and usually not immature compared to that of the main show, and it really explored Alain's character and how a near-immortal person would react to everyday Earth life.

The only real problem I had was Episode 3's Game of Life. I can see that Alain would have to be introduced to living as a mortal, but I still found it really unnecessary. Breaking the fourth wall got old before it started. At 5:49 I felt offended and I'm not even Buddhist. Maybe the segment was a reminder that there's a reason why the main cast weren't a part in the first two episodes? Episode four didn't do much for me either, though I liked the ending and it gave a nice look into how he's doing now. Overall, though, this gets a 5/5 from me--especially in contrast to the main show.
Fat D wrote:That said, I did not notice that the one who called Alain back to the Ganma world was Kanon.
Wow, I didn't notice that either until you pointed it out. Is that the first/only time she's addressed Alain without calling him Alain-sama?
takenoko wrote:Did the final battle really happen in a stage like that? That looked super bad and cheap.
It started there, but then it turned into a citywide pseudo-kaiju thing. I thought it was one of the better episodes, to be honest.
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by Kurokage X »

I like the Alain saga, if only the saga was in the TV series then it would have made the original arc in the series extra meaning, ok I do like the Alain redemption arc but this this is much better which gives Alain better characterization and hell it even gave me a better understanding of Alain and Fumi-Ba's relationship with each other. I'm telling you guys, Ghost is basically like a video game with the original content cut and given as DLC
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by DarkCrusnik »

whats the song played at 12:20 mins on episode 3?
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by ViRGE »

That was pleasant. Not a fantastic production, but an enjoyable one. I do have some nits to pick in a second, but after Tojuko and now Hero Alain, I like these Blu-Ray miniseries that Toei is doing. Toei being money-grubbing bastards aside, it's a nice outlet for character-driven pieces, as opposed to the action pieces of the main series.

Overall it got a bit too sentimental at times, but it was great to see things in-depth from Alain's perspective. And in this case, having the miniseries span the entire main series - so that we got to see things both from villain Alain and hero Alain - was a nice touch. It just does such a nice job giving more emotional depth to the character. And I know this sounds like flat praise since I can't point to too many specific moments, but everything involving Alain interacting with Fumi-baa's family was great. It was the backdrop needed to have the character let his guard down so that it could be further developed.

(However, we can safely ignore anything involving Onari, as usual)

And the takoyaki gags were great. Which is a bit strange, it seems like they shouldn't work, but instead they're quite endearing. It's subtle humor done right.
Lunagel wrote:Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut this should've been part of the show proper. Splitting it off weakened his character and cut out a pretty interesting storyline.
And here's the downside. Had this material been worked into the series proper, Alain would have been all the better for it. I suppose it doesn't change the character in the end, but it changes how we perceive him and when. Even if the episodes had been translated right away, they still come kind of late relative to the series itself. Though I suppose it would have looked bad for the production if Alain was a better fleshed out character from the start.:P

I'm not quite sure what the best solution is. This material did work rather well as a mini-series, and Ghost isn't the kind of series that can have a stand-alone Whodunit like Drive. But holding this material back does come at a cost to the series.

And as an aside: given that each episode had to be filmed in time for the Blu-Ray to go into production, it shows that the writers both had a plan from the start (a good plan, at that), and that they were capable of writing something deeper and more meaningful than what we got from much of the series. The other wiki says Mouri Nobuhiro, and he did write some of the better Ghost episodes (though with Ghost, it's all relative), which makes it a bit frustrating that KyuuRanger is so flat.
Lunagel wrote:It doesn't help that the entire first episode looks like just cut footage from the actual show.
Having just watched the Brave special, I can appreciate why the writers used as much clip footage as they did. One of the problems with the Brave special was that it came out months after jerkass Hiiro had been reformed, late enough that it really robbed it of its relevance. Hero Alain has the same general problem, but by using clips and showing where these various scenes take place relative to the main series itself, it provides the context we viewers need to understand where the scenes belong, and what stage of development Alain is at. Particularly as a series-spanning side-story, this would not have worked without the clips.

PS, I almost forgot: it looks like there's a typo in episode 2 at 00:55. "To while away your limited hours"
Last edited by ViRGE on Fri Mar 24, 2017 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by ViRGE »

DarkCrusnik wrote:whats the song played at 12:20 mins on episode 3?
Apparently it's called "Timeless Blue".
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by Lunagel »

ViRGE wrote: PS, I almost forgot: it looks like there's a typo in episode 2 at 00:55. "To while away your limited hours"

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/while--away
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by ViRGE »

Lunagel wrote:
ViRGE wrote: PS, I almost forgot: it looks like there's a typo in episode 2 at 00:55. "To while away your limited hours"

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/while--away
Fair enough. Damn British. What do they know about English? :P
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by VTMarik »

Speaking of the full series, are there plans to batch these episodes?
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by DarkCrusnik »

ViRGE wrote:
DarkCrusnik wrote:whats the song played at 12:20 mins on episode 3?
Apparently it's called "Timeless Blue".
its not available anywhere though, why?
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Re: Tengan! Legend of Hero Alain 1-4 released

Post by ViRGE »

DarkCrusnik wrote:
ViRGE wrote:Apparently it's called "Timeless Blue".
its not available anywhere though, why?
Your guess is as good as mine. :?
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