I've seen it, too. Tanjiro reminds me of Rean, except that he seems more psychologically healthy or resilient. Perhaps it's the usual shounen hero immunity to certain kinds of mental shocks. And despite the more brutal setting, Tanjiro also doesn't seem to get screwed over by fate that often compared to Rean, if this makes any sense. That is if the first episode isn't counted.
About the sword forms.
@wuolong77 Forgot to respond to this earlier
I've been trying to associate the forms to the seven elements in Kiseki and the sixth Form continues to give me headaches.
I think this is one of those areas where despite there being seven of a thing, it can't be associated to the seven elements. If you squint really hard and try to jam connections in there you can probably find a place for all seven (for example, you could try and force the Sixth Form to be 'Space' since it shares the character 空) but you really have to force things for Earth and Water.
A related case would be the Divine Knights. Seven in number, check. Matches to the elements... not so much. Valimar (Ashen) and Testa-Rossa (Vermillion) seem like they'd both have a claim on Fire and there's nothing particularly Earth or Wind-ish about Zector.
That was interesting! Watching Kimetsu no Yaiba recently was fun, because of how much the sword forms in that reminded me of the Eight Leaves.
SpoilerCS4 & the 3rdIt's curious that three of the forms seem to incorporate fire. I wonder if that's Rean's influence or just how it is. I don't recall any of Cassius's moves being particularly flaming. Also, I do appreciate how much detail Falcom put into this, so I'm hoping Taito gets similarly expanded upon when we go to Calvard (still banking on the protag being a practitioner).
Yeah, I'm hoping we get more detail on Taito in the Calvard arc as well. We know it's flexible enough that Kilika can incorporate her weapons into it and there's some shared techniques that multiple practitioners have used so it feels like there are some sub-styles within Taito that students might gravitate towards. Angelica and Walter share two Crafts in common (Kilika has her own version of one of them as well) and Zin and Rin share three.
I think this is one of those areas where despite there being seven of a thing, it can't be associated to the seven elements. If you squint really hard and try to jam connections in there you can probably find a place for all seven (for example, you could try and force the Sixth Form to be 'Space' since it shares the character 空) but you really have to force things for Earth and Water.
A related case would be the Divine Knights. Seven in number, check. Matches to the elements... not so much. Valimar (Ashen) and Testa-Rossa (Vermillion) seem like they'd both have a claim on Fire and there's nothing particularly Earth or Wind-ish about Zector.
I have never tried to seriously associate the Divine Knights with the Elements given their true nature. Even if the colors fit for five of them, the abilities they display seem all over the place. If I wanted to squint, I could say that Ashen is also connected to earth, because volcanic ash or even the ash left after a forest fire can serve as fertile soil for later generations of plants, but this correlation is tenuous at best and I also find it problematic to connect Zector to Wind.
As for the Eight Leaves One Blade Forms, my main problem is Earth. I associate Helix with water and space with Morning Moon and my reasoning delves (in part) into real life martial-arts mechanics as well as a reference to Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin no Sho. (I only read the translation of course, so my understanding of that book is also tenuous) Most stuff works for me, but this leaves me with Earth and 'Scarlet Sky' and well...
Perhaps the Calvard Arc gives us something more to chew on. And if it still doesn't fit, I'll have to throw the towel.
Does CS4 ever address the matter of Laura's mother? It's so strange that no one ever asks about her, nor does Laura ever bring her up. We know about pretty much every parent of the other class members (aside from Fie for obvious reasons), so the info is conspicous in its absence. Odds are she's dead, but some details would be nice!
While I have never played CS4 (or 3 for that matter), I remember someone once conjecturing crazily that her mother is Arianrhod (which I can understand where they're coming from), but take that with a gain of salt ;).
I don't remember any details about that specifically either, but for some reason I had died during childbirth notion in my head.
I don't think anything is mentioned about her, actually. The crack theory that Arianrhod could be her mother was Guan's and that one's long since been nixed to the extent it was ever meant to be taken seriously.
Actually that gives me an idea, to write up a list of major/minor unresolved questions that Hajimari could answer and try and guess which ones it actually will.
Sorry if this is an obvious question. But regarding the name 'Trails from Zero'. I just assumed that 'zero' wouldn't remain Zero because well. 'sora' changes from Japanese to English, so does 'Sen'. I'm not aware of any Japanese word spelled 'zero' in romanji, but I guess I just assumed it was a word or something in Japanese with a different meaning than the number '0'
So am I to assume it's called Trails from Zero because something in the game gives it a deeper meaning of 'trails from nothing'? (or something to that effect)? Sorry I can't really articulate what I'm trying to ask well.
Sorry if this is an obvious question. But regarding the name 'Trails from Zero'. I just assumed that 'zero' wouldn't remain Zero because well. 'sora' changes from Japanese to English, so does 'Sen'. I'm not aware of any Japanese word spelled 'zero' in romanji, but I guess I just assumed it was a word or something in Japanese with a different meaning than the number '0'
So am I to assume it's called Trails from Zero because something in the game gives it a deeper meaning of 'trails from nothing'? (or something to that effect)? Sorry I can't really articulate what I'm trying to ask well.
Actually, "zero" is a perfectly normal loanword in Japanese; see also RE: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (RE: Zero - Starting Life in Another World), or Zero the protagonist of Code Geass. In the game proper, it's symbolic of something that I don't think gets explained until Azure.
Separately, after playing Persona 5, I've realised something about Bleublanc. I originally assumed that his name was a reference to his colour scheme (or vice versa), blue and white. But I've come to realise something else. It's also a reference to Maurice Leblanc, author of the phantom thief Arsene Lupin stories. In Japanese, they're even spelled the same (Buruburan vs Ruburan, the c being silent in both cases).
Separately, after playing Persona 5, I've realised something about Bleublanc. I originally assumed that his name was a reference to his colour scheme (or vice versa), blue and white. But I've come to realise something else. It's also a reference to Maurice Leblanc, author of the phantom thief Arsene Lupin stories. In Japanese, they're even spelled the same (Buruburan vs Ruburan, the c being silent in both cases).
Nice catch! I read the original Arsene Lupin novels when I was still in middle school, but I didn't see the connection despite Maurice Leblanc self-inserting himself into his novel and being aware of the Lupin/Bleublanc shout-out. (Though different than modern self-inserts, the author is an observer whose 'story-sections' serve as a framing device)
It goes even beyond Bleublanc's name being written like Maurice Leblanc's, the kanji for his Enforcer title is the same one used in Japanese to render the French Gentleman-Cambrolieur and Strangerock Castle from Xanadu Next is written the same way in Japanese as L'Aiguille creuse (the Hollow Needle) from the Lupin story of the same name. Someone at Falcom's clearly a fan.
So am I to assume it's called Trails from Zero because something in the game gives it a deeper meaning of 'trails from nothing'? (or something to that effect)? Sorry I can't really articulate what I'm trying to ask well.
Like Velorien mentioned, in Japanese 零 can be (and frequently is) read as 'Zero'. And yes, there is a deeper meaning to 'Trails from Zero' but you won't find out what it is until near the end of Azure (which also explains its own title). Right now the only one with a title that doesn't have a very concrete in-universe explanation is the Sen/Cold Steel games with (閃) and that might change soon.
Question regarding some dialogue at the end of CS2
That's plot-based so you'll see it no matter what.
Okay, thanks!
Because of all the Eight Leaves One Blade talk there's one thing I always wanted to ask. How is the title of Divine Blade written in Japanese? Does it happen to be the same as Miyamoto Musashi's Sword Saint title?
And an Ao question for good measure.
Due to that nasty ability of the final Ao Boss, my current speculation is that KeA actually did something more outrageous and completely rewound time on a global scale whenever she became powerful enough to do it and everything that happened until then was basically undone from existence. Which is kind of frightening to think about, but it also leaves me with even more questions, because we know that there are different planes of existence in Zemuria and there's even an Outside....so when KeA rewound time, were the different planes also affected? And what about the Outside? I mean, due to Divergent Laws and stuff, I'm more inclined to think that she wouldn't be able to affect it even with all the Septerrion power in the world, which leaves me with the strange implication that anybody who could watch from the Outside into Zemuria could have observed how that world kind of turned back the clock in its entirety.
This is kind of meta, now that I think about it.
I mean with all the stuff that CS4 endgame throws at us about Ouroboros, this would be an important point to clarify in my opinion.
