Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse. Discussion thread!

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse

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Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse was introduced to me recently by one of our forum members here at Mai-Multiverse. Though I've heard of the visual novels before, I have no knowledge of them or the manga series from the 2000s. My journey with this series starts with the recent 2012 anime series. Sort of in the same fashion as how I discovered Ga-Rei-Zero before it's manga sequel. So, for the opening of this thread, I will cover the first two anime episodes only.

So this story starts some time in the late 60s (1967 to be exact) where an invading alien force is discovered and attacks Earth a few years later, starting with the European countries. Our military must kick ass since they were able to hold them back for over thirty years. Cut to the year 1998 where we meet our protagonist, Yui Takamura. Yui along with her friends (and rival) study/train hard to become Imperial Guard TSF pilots at the Kyoto Royal Guard Academy. Yui herself comes from a militaristic family, proud and true. In the first half of Muv Luv's first episode, everything in Japan is peaceful and free of worry. That all falls apart when the alien invaders, called the "BETA", start entering Japan. With Korea going down not that long before, the entire military prepares to engage in hopes of protecting the capital of Kyoto. American mecha forces are sent in later, which was refreshing to see.

Yui Takamura is clearly a hero in the making, assembling and leading what's left of her inexperienced team against the hostile BETA. Tragedy all over the place like you wouldn't believe. Again, Ga Rei-Zero style.

Aliens defeating our nation's best..GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!



Thankfully a very awesome, highly skilled Takemikazuchi TSF saved the day. Once the chaos and destruction ended, Yui is clearly left shattered by the whole idea that even her entire world crashed down on her. The thought of extinction briefly made her lose all hope. What snapped her out of despair was a newborn baby (?), showing Yui that there is life still left. As long as there's life, there's hope. Yui breaks down and swears that she'll never cry again. The second episode ends with a another leap in the future where Yui has become a Lieutenant.

I do like the amazing tension of the first two episodes, it set the bar high for a story about loss and gloom. But I really hope this is not one of those anime where no matter what the heroes do, their defeat is inevitable. I'd like to believe that Yui herself wins the day in the end, but HOW she does it...MUST BE PULLED OFF NICELY. This is a story where we see our heroine climb to the top after paying her dues. I'm also looking forward to meeting the rest of the cast in future episodes. I had a feeling her friends and rivals weren't going to be reoccurring...

Not the biggest mecha fanatic in the world, but the mecha designs are great. The music is really good, the animation is solid enough, the creatures designs aren't anything new, but good enough. Yui is a good protagonist. After busting her ass to carry weight in the first two episodes, we care about her, so here's to more development for her. Oh and I hope she finds a way to blow those shitfuckers into oblivion once and for all.

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Discuss everything Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse.

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

So, I finished the harem/mecha/drama Muv-Luv: Total Eclipse TV series. I'll be giving a spoiler free review on here in the near future. Can't say I'm 100% satisfied with the ending, but it did succeed in many areas. Showing that it is indeed MAN who is the greatest threat of all. Not the BETA. To quote Ripley from 1986's ALIENS:

"I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fuccking each other over for a godddamn percentage."

Turns out the Refugee Liberation Front weren't the real Weyland-Yutani either. Ugh, I need wine.

Yui Takamura = Added to my list of favorite heterosexual protagonists. But to be honest, Yuuya Bridges didn't piss me off. He was a good male lead. O_O; Shocking! Not since Goku and Tamahome have I seen such a thing.

Check back soon...

[Darthtabby]

Since this is the Mai-Multiverse forum, I think its worth pointing out that Yui has the same voice actress as Mai. I actually find pre time skip Yui reminds me a bit of Mai, actually.

But anyhow, I agree that Yui is awesome. So awesome that even Argos Flight's Bridge Bunnies want her.

Its actually kind of funny... Total Eclipse is definitely not a yuri show (it's practically a harem show at times) but the setting actually lends itself pretty well to yuri. After all the justification for the unusually large number of female military personnel in the Muv Luv verse is that there's a shortage of young men.

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

But anyhow, I agree that Yui is awesome. So awesome that even Argos Flight's Bridge Bunnies want her.

Its actually kind of funny... Total Eclipse is definitely not a yuri show (it's practically a harem show at times) but the setting actually lends itself pretty well to yuri. After all the justification for the unusually large number of female military personnel in the Muv Luv verse is that there's a shortage of young men.

It's not at a yuri anime at all from what I've seen. As you said, it COULD be a yuri with it's large female cast. If only the characters themselves showed some kind of yuriness outside of Cryska x Inia. Even that is questionable as Inia is usually fawning over Yuuya. Heterosexuality everywhere!

If only I could kick away my laziness so I can get started on my review. XD There's a lot to say about this series beyond the character relationships. There's Cryska, the constant betrayal by various organizations and nations, the unfair criticism Yui Takamura gets for falling for Yuuya, and so on. So much to go over. @_@

[Darthtabby]

Cryska and Inia's relationship is more sisterly than romantic in my opinion. Inia even considers Cryska (and Misha) to be her family. Which makes sense in a way, they're both products of Alternative III and they've been together since they were very young.

Also, I support Yui/Yuuya. I like Mai/Tate for crying out loud -it's not like I have a problem with het pairings in general! But this is a rather yuri-oriented board, so I figured it would be worth pointing out the setting has a lot of untapped potential for yuri.

As for the series overall, I generally enjoyed it but there were things that dragged it down. I disagree with the people who basically say the show became all fan service and harem antics after the first two episodes -I think they're exaggerating a lot- but I did find it got to be a bit much on a few occasions, particularly towards the end of the Blue Flag arc.

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

Cryska and Inia's relationship is more sisterly than romantic in my opinion. Inia even considers Cryska (and Misha) to be her family. Which makes sense in a way, they're both products of Alternative III and they've been together since they were very young.

Also, I support Yui/Yuuya. I like Mai/Tate for crying out loud -it's not like I have a problem with het pairings in general! But this is a rather yuri-oriented board, so I figured it would be worth pointing out the setting has a lot of untapped potential for yuri.

As for the series overall, I generally enjoyed it but there were things that dragged it down. I disagree with the people who basically say the show became all fan service and harem antics after the first two episodes -I think they're exaggerating a lot- but I did find it got to be a bit much on a few occasions, particularly towards the end of the Blue Flag arc.

Granted, I just felt Cryska and Inia's relationship was the closest thing to a yuri. As a Mai-HiME fan, you can't help but get a Miyu x Alyssa Searrs feel out of them.

I didn't mind Yuuya x Yui either. As I stated before, Yuuya didn't rub me the wrong way as most male characters do. Yuuya wasn't overconfident or a jerk, he was just a regular guy wanting to succeed at his own personal goals. He had confidence, yes, just not so much. Yui falling in love with him was to be expected and I'll never understand why fans find it offensive. Yes, Yui is a hard ass Lieutenant who comes from an elite family of samurai and soldiers, but she is still a woman.

I watched the entire series on Crunchyroll and I'll tell you right now that everybody's got it all wrong. They criticize Total Eclipse for not focusing on humanity's battle against the BETA. I didn't mind the filler episodes in-between the war, because they help establish and study characters. While I wish the series closed on a high note with Yui and Yuuya destroying the BETA for good, we were left with a major victory and our two leads being closer than ever.

[Darthtabby]

It may partly be that I spend a lot of time on animesuki, but I thought the Yuuya X Yui pairing was actually fairly popular among the show's fans.

Personally I thought Yuuya was something of a jerk in the early parts of the series, but at least he wasn't generic loser male harem lead #infinity plus one. Besides, he had some good character growth over the course of the series. I actually wish Yui had a little more character growth in the later parts of the series. In the source material she starts off quite nationalistic -I think if they'd played up her gradually coming to embrace the multinational XFJ program it would have made a nice compliment to Yuuya's coming to terms with his heritage.

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

It may partly be that I spend a lot of time on animesuki, but I thought the Yuuya X Yui pairing was actually fairly popular among the show's fans.

Personally I thought Yuuya was something of a jerk in the early parts of the series, but at least he wasn't generic loser male harem lead #infinity plus one. Besides, he had some good character growth over the course of the series. I actually wish Yui had a little more character growth in the later parts of the series. In the source material she starts off quite nationalistic -I think if they'd played up her gradually coming to embrace the multinational XFJ program it would have made a nice compliment to Yuuya's coming to terms with his heritage.

Perhaps there are more open minded fans within the Muv Luv fandom than I thought. Remember, my assumptions stems from the hatred of this ship on YouTube and Crunchyroll.

Yuuya wasn't really a generic loser male harem lead, as he was generally smart and capable as a person. He wasn't someone who had nothing going for him aside from the girl he was lusting over. Throughout the series, he is clueless about Yui's obvious feelings for him. Strange, as he dated the lovely Sharon before. I heard in anime canon, they dated but didn't have sexual intercourse. As opposed to the visual novels where they did. Whatever the case may be, Yuuya did have experience dating women and somehow Yui was hard to read? I'll need to give the series a second watch, because I feel like I'm forgetting shit already. lol

[Darthtabby]

From what I remember on animesuki, there was some criticism of Yui and Yuuya as individual characters early on when they were at each other's throats, with Yui in particular getting looked upon pretty harshly by some. However there was relatively little criticism of the idea of pairing the two together. Quite a few people seemed to be hoping they would end up having angry sex, actually. And by the end of the series the pairing actually seemed to be pretty popular, at least among the more active fans.

I don't remember the anime specifying whether Yuuya ever slept with Sharon when they were a couple or not. As for the visual novel, its not actually out yet. While the Muv Luv franchise got its start with visual novels, Total Eclipse actually started out as a serial novel published in a magazine. It ended up becoming more popular than expected, so the company started making a VN version that has been stuck in development hell. Its even put the serial novels on hold since they don't want to spoil the game's ending.

As for Yui being hard to read... one of the posts made by a blogger who is familiar with the source novels implies that Yuuya gave her that unflattering "Japanese Doll" nickname in part because she didn't display the range of emotion he would expect from a normal person.

http://type94.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/total-eclipse-03-05/

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

I don't understand the criticism for their bickering. Both Yui and Yuuya had differing opinions during war time, that is considered natural by any standard. Yui's been through Hell, she had to be a hard ass to whip her fellow pilots into shape. It just comes from experience and knowing you have a lot to live up to. =p

Really? My mistake then, though I could of sworn it were mentioned in one of the games or something. Do you recommend the Muv Luv franchise beyond just the anime? I'm still tipping my toes into it as it's average so far, though maybe the novels of old are better?

Yes, I recall that. Yuuya refers to Yui as a "Japanese Doll" in the anime too, if I'm not mistaken. Oh and maybe you can help me with something, Tabby:



^ I took that from a Muv Luv group on Facebook a few hours ago. It mentioned that it's Yui Takamura's birthday in Japan. Is today her actual birthday or is that some other implication like the seiyuu's birthday? I tried looking for Yui's canon birthday date, but so far, nothing.

[Darthtabby]

I did a bit of searching to see if I could confirm Yui's birthday. I found March 13, 1984 listed in several different places, but I'm still not sure what the original source for it is. Its not a reference to Mai Nakahara's birthday though -her birthday is in February.

As a side note, Cryska's birthday is supposedly December 24th.

I haven't actually been able to read the novel version of TE since as far as I know it has not been translated to English (though at least some of Schwarzmarken has been). That blogger I linked to earlier thought the anime was actually a pretty good adaptation though. He even praises it for some of the changes it makes.

(For the record, I like TE, but also feel that its a series that had the potential to be much better than it was.)

As for the Muv Luv games, I've only played the english patched version of Alternative. (The first game in the series is Extra, which is a silly rom-com game. The second game is Unlimited, a much darker game where the player character in Extra suddenly finds himself waking up in an alternate timeline where the BETA are overruning earth. Alternative is a sequel involving multiple timelines where the protagonist gets a chance to stop what he saw happen in Unlimited.) While there are parts which make me see why it was praised so much, I actually found it quite a slog to get through since it's so freaking long. I also didn't like the original cast as much as the TE cast. (Though I do rather like the character of Meiya.)

[Luu Sky Sapphire]

Yeah, me neither. Like I did with Mai-HiME/Otome characters, the best place to look for is in art books. Stupid question, but maybe you can find the official birthday information for all the characters there?

Total Eclipse could of been better, I agree. It needed to focus more on Yui, honestly. Yuuya should of been the supporting role, with Yui getting most of the screen time. Some of the really skilled female pilots like Stella Bremer could of used more time as well. Stella proved to be both seductiive and highly knowledgeable, I would love to see more of her.

As for the games, they do look fun from all the YouTube videos I've seen. I hate the BETA myself, I'd like to lay waste to them rather than other TSF pilots (like a VS game where the good guys fight each other) I think the alternate timeline thing is a problem for me, as I don't count or mix AU storylines with what I'm used to. Very DC and Marvel-esque. ;p However, since they're games, I'll do what I always do and focus on the gameplay itself. The length of the game isn't a problem for me as I just plan on dabbling. I can't spend hours on a single game like I used to. XD Not with my busy life.

How about a list of Muv Luv games where Yui Takamura is not only involved, but also the Muv Luv titles where I can play *as* her?

[Darthtabby]

I actually don't have access to much material for Muv Luv personally. And even if I did, I don't know Japanese. I really quite a bit on what other fans have translated.

Most of the official Muv Luv games are visual novels. You know... those things where you look at images and scroll through line after line of text and occasionally get to make a choice that may affect the outcome somewhere down the road? I'm unaware of any official Muv Luv games where the gameplay allows you to control a TSF yourself (though there are plenty of scenes where your character controls one). Though there is a turn based strategy game.

With regards to the AU stuff, its actually a major plot point in Alternative. Takeru wants to find whatever "Causality Conductor" is responsible for his being in another timeline and destroy it. Though he also wants to find a way to prevent what he saw happen in the Unlimited timeline (which he was also dragged into) first.

TE supposedly takes place in the same timeline as Alternative.

Yui is basically the main love interest in the source novels (and presumably the soon to be released Total Eclipse VN as well). The first two episodes of the anime that focused so much on her were anime original (they were supposed to help newcomers get a sense of the setting). As awesome as she is, the creators never intended for her to be the main character.

And yes, Stella is pretty darn awesome. She's might seem like a good natured Miss Fanservice, but she's actually pretty sharp.

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