The Reflection Ep 2 Review: To Answer the Call

Alright, so, I am going to say this to start my review a bit differently for once. I did rewatch the first episode. So, the art style honestly, I got used to it by then. The second episode the art style did improve and seemed a lot more fluid. But the second time around, well, there was still that awkward silence. Luckily, episode 2 had little to none of these problems, with awkward silence. I figured it would only be right to start this review to mention these few things.

Anyway, I did enjoy this episode a lot more. It cleared up a lot of information that the first episode lacked. The more I watch this, the more I start to understand why it is not really a highly focused show this season. It is so much more American like then Japanese like, despite being an anime.  More on this later, so let’s get started for real.

The Plot:

Ok, a bit of both a flashback and a lot of important missed out information from the first episode. For starters, the reflection 3 years prior, did not give everyone powers. Most people died from it, only few survived when it went worldwide.

Back to a few minutes before the start of the first episode. Well, one of the reporters mentioned something about a flamethrower in episode one, it turns out it was that fire woman. She is not happy, and well, gives a speech saying how people forgot those who died that day 3 years ago.

So, Stan Lee’s like character connects all these villains telepathically. They seem to be planning something, mostly luring X-on out. However, X-on chased after those other guys, and I-Guy took most of the attention. This was a slight issue with their plan. Either way it continues on playing out another fight X-on had before that water guy showed up.

Ok, now where episode 1 ended. Eleanor is apparently the cute red heads name, which I only found out after looking it up. She did not say her name once in the first two episodes. It is always weird when that happens. Well, anyway, it turns out X-on knew about the plan on trying to be drawn out.

He is also impressed by Eleanor’s skill in finding things. Also, it turns out she is not good with her powers, and more than anything would like X-on to teach her. But he refuses. However he does give her a suggestion to look into Wraith before leaving.

I-Guy’s time for attention, well Ian’s, seeing it is his identity. Well, one, he is pretty much Iron-man. Seeing that this is Stan Lee’s designs for characters, I am not surprised. Well, he is a former musician, and the one who sang “Sky Show.” It was the song throughout episode one. It turns out he makes a killing off it still, despite being a one hit wonder from the eighties, it is also still super popular in Europe. So, needless to say he is super rich because of this.

It also turns out he has a team helping him. Well, a lot of things in episode one, were their planning. This being the song playing, the bam, zap, and other screen effects, and really everything behind the scenes so he can focus on fighting and looking good.

Ian, as it turns out was not so fond of his life three years ago. But seeing that he survived and was given these gifts, he wanted to use them to help. Now he can be a hero. Of course, in LA he is getting a lot more attention for being one.

Back to the villains. It turns out a lot of the Reflected have a strong tendency to become criminals. Perhaps it is the smoke or something that happened that affected them to be this way, who knows, and we will probably know more later.

Back to Eleanor, she does find something on Wraith. The episode ends with a group of girls in Japan decide to pretty much be a team of heroes.

 Overall Thoughts:

This episode was a lot better than the first. I will say I liked the first, but in terms of everything else, it was better. The art looked somewhat better. Even the fights redone seemed better. But all the information that was left out in the first one, I do hope something like this comes into play later. I only say this, because it adds more of a mystery element. It still filled in a lot of missing information, and really some key facts. It does stink that it was a majority of this episode. Honestly if episode 1 was an hour-long, it would have worked a lot better to have these two episodes combined, but oh well.

I am curious to see if the whole Organization of seemingly villains are actually villains. They want I-Guy to be a hero to draw out more villains. Judging by the plot, the probably are, but who knows. There is more than likely some other motive. Otherwise why would they try to bring so much attention to X-on.

As for the episode, I honestly think most of this would have made episode one a lot better. It seemed like it was lacking something. This episode gave the series a better feel to it. Episode one just did not do the series just as much justice as episode two could. Again, oh well, and I am only focused on this because a lot of people are instantly turned away because of the art, and episode 1.

This episode did not give a clear insight on the goals of the villain. One thing I get from seeing American super hero shows, the villain never reveals their plan right away. This series is revolving around their plan. This is not going to be something that is going to be known. The villains will hint at it. But when it is their time to strike they will. Right now, it is clear they want to build the heroes up in order to knock them down. How, why, and everything else they have planned is not known. This is something I am used to. For anime, this is something I am not used to.

Back to what I mentioned earlier, this show reminds more of American stuff then anime stuff. The plot, the heroes, location, and how this series is approaching things, is a lot more American than anime. I am not sure how it could be seen as an anime, or more anime like. This I think may be a show in the gray area of what defines anime. Most of it is American like, does that make it American. Either way, I personally enjoy this. I think this show, as of right now, would be more of a gateway anime for people who like comics and heroes. It is too soon to say about this though.

I do hope by the next episode this show really starts to shine. It started off rough with episode one, but this one certainly made it a lot better, so hopefully the episodes to come make up for that rough start.

Overall Enjoyment: 90/100

I am very curious on people’s thoughts on this show. I have not seen much talk about it, other than the hate for episode one in terms of art and lack of plot.

For those that did not see episode 1, I do suggests at the very least watching the first two episodes back to back.

As always, what are your thoughts on this series?

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As always I hope you enjoyed.

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Again, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.

– Joe