Spring 2021 Summary – Weeks 12-13

Wooper: It’s just me, myself and I for the last of the season’s recap posts. I’ve gone through a bunch of shows over the past few months, and dropped a fair few of them – here are the series that still had my attention at spring’s end. (Also, I won’t be running this column over the summer, so it’ll be up to a different author to pick up the torch if they’re interested!)

Yoru no Kuni – 1-2

Now here’s an interesting project. Yoru no Kuni is directed by ryo-timo (animator of the iconic running scene from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and features music from Aimer (whose songs have served as EDs for After the Rain and Vinland Saga). These are both artists whose work I enjoy, so I’d follow this ongoing web series regardless of its merits, but thankfully it’s quite good. In both episodes, a noble half-avian creature named Yoru serves as a guide for a troubled child, entering their dreams and gently prompting them to resolve their emotional issues. There’s a painterly look to Yoru’s “Night World,” as he calls it, where shooting stars, glittering hillsides and luminous butterflies have their own unique textures. Despite that brightness, watching Yoru no Kuni is a soothing experience, with visuals that don’t grab your eyes so much as they caress them. The second episode is noteworthy for maintaining a dreamlike feeling despite the questions of its older and more cynical subject, who nevertheless has a profound epiphany within her dream. Both episodes can be found at [these] [links] if you’re interested – I highly recommend them if you’re into animation with a storybook vibe.

Godzilla SP – 10-13

I didn’t enjoy Singular Point’s final block of episodes very much. Each one only strengthened my feeling that the series will be remembered as a potpourri of Tou Enjou’s interests (physics, cryptography, mythology), rather than a standout entry in the Godzilla franchise. The characters and script were shackled to those fields of study, with talk of MD5 hash strings and Orthogonal Diagonalizers crowding out any chance for human connection. The computerized kaiju remained off-putting to the end, and the ubiquitous red dust that obscured them was just as ugly as the thing it was meant to hide. The convergence of Pero 2 and Jet Jaguar’s present and future selves made very little sense to me, never mind their defeat of a 100,000 ton lizard with atomic breath. But you know, despite my lack of satisfaction upon completing the last episode, I don’t regret watching this show. It challenged me to appreciate a style of storytelling that hyper-focuses on details – details that I find worthless, but that others may view as highly significant. There’s room in the world for more anime like Godzilla SP (and judging by the post-credits scene, there may be room for a sequel, too).

Eden – 2-4

After an initial round of pleasant surprise at Eden’s visual design, the remainder of its run brought me back to earth. While its environments remained appealing from start to finish, the plot was so straightforward that a blind man could walk its path without an ounce of hesitation. A brilliant scientist loses his family, is driven mad with grief, and transplants his consciousness into a robot? The TV Tropes page for that premise would probably take hours to read. Sara’s multiple escapes from the scientist’s clutches were too convenient, and the forceful reprogramming of her caretaker robots was so prolonged as to be tiresome (her seiyuu’s cloying performance didn’t help matters, either). With so many predictable getaways and tragedies packed into the second act, my interest in the third was minimal, so Dr. Robot’s redemption missed my tear ducts by a mile. I treated the ensuing mecha fight and midair acrobatics as eye candy instead, and came away appreciating Eden solely for its place in the evolution of 3D anime. It’s got the same flat shading and uncanny expressions as a lot of other CG stuff, but the integration with the 2D backgrounds was strong and steady. Hopefully this tech will be paired with a better story next time.