>>As is mentioned several
>>times, "Neuroi-chan" got vaporized during Operation Trajanus,
>>and for the anime that appears to have been that. I think it was
>>something like a plot arc that just got completely tossed.
>
>Gryphon addresses this topic elsewhere on the boards in much greater
>detail than I'm qualified to discuss--I don't know a lot about it--but
>the gist was, 'the creators seem to have tossed it on purpose because
>they rethought the wisdom of making the Neuroi relatable to the
>audience'.

You're probably referring to this post, from the discussion of episode 15. Those are, I hasten to add, my own speculations. As noted, the canon itself has nothing at all to say about what the Neuroi are, what they want, or whether most of them are even intelligent. (A lot of the time, particularly in the anime, they don't especially seem to be. They're a lot smarter, tactically speaking, in the light novels - at least the one I read the comically stilted English translation of - but still never actually attempt to communicate in any way.)

>I can't agree or disagree with finality, but they certainly
>started on that interesting story arc and threw it out with alarming
>speed. (Arpeggio went the other way--the NeuroiFog are quite relatable
>once they're not blindly following that silly Admiralty Code
>business--and it worked out quite well.)

Arpeggio of Blue Steel is in a slightly different position, in that - despite its occasional flashes of incongruous, scratch-your-head zaniness - it isn't really a Wacky Comedy Romp like Strike Witches usually tries to be. As such, the creators aren't as conscious of a need to avoid depicting The Horror of War - although it's worth noting that very few of the Fog characters who have a human face (as it were) actually die in Arpeggio. I think the writers set up the "ships below heavy cruiser don't have Mental Models" thing specifically so that the cannon fodder wouldn't be as relatable. (And even then, Iona is routinely saddened when they have to sink Nagara-class ships.) When they did end up killing off a couple of the "face" characters, they spent a whole episode on it despite having only a dozen to work with, and had pretty carefully established beforehand that those two were assholes who shouldn't be missed.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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