Another Shigeyasu Yamauchi episode. The animation was less messy, but still: you could really see his influence. And holy hell what an episode it was!
Shigeyasu Yamauchi’s style loves the use of close-ups, and weird camera angles on small details and objects to create its atmosphere. On top of that, he often works together with Kenji Matsumoto for the background art, making this episode look utterly GORGEOUS and unique. In this episode his style worked particularly well because of its build-up: the climax of this episode came together wonderfully, and with such talented directors and artists working on it it only got even better.
I also believe that the use of CG in this episode was really good. You could see that it was used, but rather of it looking out of place, it was very creatively used: it either looked totally in place, or totally not (those pills). Either way this episode looked really experimental, and I love it when a TV-series does that. Experimental animation for the win!
So my theory of Shun was a bit wrong. However, the way in which he explained what happened to him was incredibly tense, and it showed how serious of a deal Cantis is. It’s so easy to go out of control, and that’s exactly what happened to Shun. The way in which those rat people believed that humans were their gods suddenly gets a totally different dimension when they were mostly likely created by them. The whole human society is tightly controlled, yet everyone is incredibly paranoid for the case that someone goes out of control again.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)
I feel sorry for Shun. As several persons noted, the stories that the children read aloud in class seem to have a connection with the respective child. Time to go back and re-watch that episode. I also feel sorry for the poor dog, he was loyal until the end.
Turns out there’s a manga for this as well, and I stress the term “manga” because when I first came across it on a thread, I thought it was an h-doujin, and ended up searching all over for it. several weeks later I find out was the official manga and found it on a regular viewing site. People who were upset with episode 8 might be relatively pleased with this. and a bunch of other stuff gets revealed as well.
and a shingeki no kyojin anime seems to be confirmed… looks like you don’t really have to read the manga anymore!
Why do I feel like I’m watching Casshern Sins?
Dunno, I feel like I’m watching Elfen Lied. Actually, no. Shun’s berserk psychic powers make a diclonius look like a harmless kitten. Still, it’s along those lines.
Its the same guy that did Episode 5 which also had the crazy style/ color palette / designs that HIGHLY mimic Casshern SINS. Just look at screenshot top right, wouldn’t look out of place at all in a SINS post. Which makes sense since this guy worked on it lol.
My only concern is, how many generations has there been since they started this method of sealing powers through psychological manipulation. The reason is, after a few generations, wouldn’t the true meaning of going beyond the ropes loose its original intent and there be more likely for those to wonder off. There is so long you can deceive logic with childish stories.
I think the adults learn the truth but the stories are meant to control the children. Think of our own “The boy who cried wolf” and other similar stories which are simple ways of communicating more complex messages to very young children.
The more I watch it, the more I find it is a stupid story, with some shock elements added to fascinate pre-teens.
You don’t have that impression of a ridiculous emotional set-up, with the high-heeled cat and the nice dog ?
What !!? what’s exactly stupid about it !!!, besides .. there are no shocks this episodes except that they killed-off one of the main characters (even that isn’t 100% certain based on the preview of next episode) .. the story overall is very well made so far .. and there are hints all over the place since ep1 in relation to the revelations that Shun made this episode … and it all fits together .. every scene that didn’t make sense before or didn’t seem important is fully explained and given more depth and meaning (including the story-book tales the characters were reading at the start of the series) .. the only thing that shocked people for real was ep8 homosexual tones .. but even that was hinted at before the episode and has a good explanation.
If you are going to be making such claims as “the story is stupid” at least put some effort in them XD
Getting interesting. The style change worked, the sense of darkness worked and the animation blended well this time. I’d say Saki’s means of killing the first cat was a bit… crazy, she didn’t just kill it, she twisted it into a lump of flesh, blood, and broken bones. They definitely made her appear more mature, which is appropriate given the nature of this episode.
This show shows why it’s probably good we don’t have control over reality to this degree, we’d have difficulty not distorting things into oblivion. Makes you wonder what kinds of mistakes we’ll make when technology starts to give us more control over reality, will we make mistakes like Shun did and distort/destroy reality?
Shun didn’t make a mistake. He did not have control over the process.
The animation style was really well used in this episode, it really emphasized how everything around Shun was totally warped and distorted by his cantus. I also never considered the part about the rat people calling them gods, but now it totally makes sense, in a very messed up way since they were in fact probably created by this “warped” environment related to the crazy out of control psycho cantus syndrome (keep forgetting the name for it)…Also I seem to remember in the forest arc when the minishiro and some of the other creatures were about to die, Saki was able to see their “true form” (maybe)…I just remember some of them turning into human figures, so maybe that’s a hint that these creatures used to be human and somehow they were turned into something else?
interesting and trippy episode