Author: SuperMario

18if – 05 [The Witch of Ordinariness]

by SuperMario, posted in 18if, Currently Watching:

The fun of watching 18if: It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you’re gonna get. After the disastrous episode last week, episode 5 turns out to be sweet, sad and overall solid. Although the conclusion of the dream sequence is a bit of head-scratching, there’s a lot to admire here. This episode was handled by Minoru Oohara, who had Glass no Kantai as a director in his resume and was an episode director of EVA. Not to say I know much about him but he’s certainly a veteran and he approached 18if this week with such confidence. The pacing, in particular; is a step above from everything we’ve seen so far in the series and the witch this week ends up as the most well-written character 18if has to offer (a bit whimsical consider that she doesn’t technically turn into a witch this week). The visual is on the great side too; carrying out the theme very effectively, while never stand out much for its own sake. I am very satisfied.

Mirei, the witch of this week, has a much more relatable personal issue, although you still need to get pass the unsettling (and somewhat absurdist) sequence of her locking herself up and nearly… chop up her injured leg, with an AXE. I’ll come out and say this, apart from that scene, Mirei has a very grounded personalities and issues, probably even more grounded than all the lead characters combined. She’s a superstar figure skating that more or less the golden girl of Japan, busy both in and out of her professional life. But because of all the time dedicated for practices and commercials, she barely has time for herself. Eventually Mirei yearns for a normal highschool life, a life where she can really have fun and you know… have real relationships. Things take turn for the worst as she injures herself in one of her routine and thus losing everything she has. With so much stress, she falls into deep sleep and as a result, becomes a sleeping beauty.

As I mentioned above, her case isn’t exactly original, but it’s well-grounded. The dream world that she eventually escapes to, is just a typical mundane school where she’s just a plain, ordinary girl who enjoying this university life. It also helps that Haruto this week has more personality than previous week, and here I can feel the chemistry between them. All is fine and dandy until the final conflict. 18if (strongly) argues that Mirei eventually can’t escape the “destiny” that she is bornt to be the skate figure, so she must face it and release herself. I wholly understand that escaping isn’t the way to solve the problem, eventually she will have to embrace figure skating aspect because it has always been part of her life. But dear, no way “shines the brightest when she does figure skating” a valid argument to convince her that everything she has done wasn’t right; that happy moments that she had are all lies. From what I see, she was much happier in her dream than her real life so why the need to show her that figure skating is her destiny? It sounds forced no matter how I look at it, but I can let it pass since the great visual direction more than makes up for its shaky conclusion.

While watching the episode, I also entirely expected that there’s going to be a twist at the end. Indeed, the twist surfaces and it does deepen the narrative, just imagine Mirei spend  her entire youth locking away in her own fantasy really make my heart swell. Although like any twist you needn’t question it too much (because when you do, it opens many more questions – for example, if she has been sleeping beautifully for that long – like 30,40 years, how can she aware of the concept of cellphone? Nevermind – I say). This episode also pretty much confirms us about Haruto’s true existence. He has never appeared in the real world and now he questions himself that he feels stuck for some reasons – stuck in the dream world that must be. Lily also goes far this episode, as this is the first time she actively involves in a case, but more with a purpose to signal Haruto than to help the Witches out. When we see it that way I can see why she insists on calling Haruto “brother”. They’re both the products of this dream world and in a sense, she only has him as a companion. I believe 18if reaches the new height with this episode, and to be frank with this “a director handling 1 episode” approach AKA inconsistent quality, this episode is all I could hope for. Be different, 18if. That’s what we all here for.

ps: They indeed pronounce 18if as… eighteen-if. I’ll be damned. Might try buying a lotto ticket now. Now that I mention it I have no idea what the title even means. Someone here has any idea?

Classroom of the Elite – 04 [We Should Not be Upset that Others Hide the Truth from Us, When We Hide it from Ourselves.]

by SuperMario, posted in Classroom of the Elite, Currently Watching:

Haizz, Youkoso. My feeling about this show could be summed up by its very first few seconds. Youkoso opens with a thought-provoking, philosophical quote, and they follow straight up with a boob shot. Kinda defeat the purpose; unless what they want from us is to look underneath the clothes surface. Oh well, I give in. After four episodes, my impression for this show is just like that: interesting in theory but terribly plain in its execution. You can see bad sign when you start watching an episode and feel like you had skipped some episodes in between, and that exactly how I felt when watching this one. Like, since when Ayanokoji and the blonde girl from class B Ichinose become such a close friend to the point she asks the guy to be her fake boyfriend? The last time I saw them together they didn’t even introduce themselves and now this? For this bleak world, I come to suspect any character’s real motive, even the lead ones but this show makes me wary of Ichinose for all the wrong reasons. I heard the anime version cut most of the parts between those two building up to this point, and that come to my first real complain about this anime. They don’t spend enough time for the supporting cast, as a result they appear more as a plot-function device than any real character. That new red hair girl Sakura has this same problem. We hardly know her at all and then she receives a mention when the plot calls for it.

We have the updated scores this time around and by the look of it Class C has gained the most points after the exam and now rivals with class B for the second spot. Surprisingly that Class B doesn’t feel it as any threat because instead of getting furious, all of them praise how well and noble Ichinose is. We have our first glance at the homeroom teacher of Class B and boy, she rubs me the wrong way. Doesn’t fare any better is that Ryuken AKA Nerriot Sparkling Water dude; who I feel more belong to Kakegurui series than scheming his abusive plans here (Yumeko Jabami please beats the hell out of him). His current evil plan, to frame Sudou (again!) for attacking fellow Class C members, which will demerit all the points Class D has gained during the mid-exam results. Class D knows it’s all a scheme from Ryuken, but how they prove it? The way Horikita finds out about Sakura just by the way she acts bother on incredibility here, and I suppose the girl with an interest in photography “happen” to be in a right place at the right time with her camera on huh?

Ichinose seems nice enough to help the class D out, but if I learn anything about how the world in Youkoso works, it might be just a façade for some real nasty intention. If class D should learn any lesson, don’t trust other classes because they’re basically their opponents. Class B has a very well-connected network system here and Ichinose has a whooping insanely 2,5 million points, which really is suspicious. My guess for now is either Ichinose uses her “help” as a mean to make people around her to pay her back; or it’s the class’s points where class members pooling their points to one source – her source; but then for what purpose? As much as I have too many complaints about this episode, I think the conversation between Ayanokoji and Yoshida was well done. The visual cue of that conversation with the dead butterfly being picked apart by ants is really, really effective and it’s easily the highlight of this episode for me. All in all, Youkoso stumbles hard this episode, providing conflict that is rather dull and unexciting and asks us to care for a relationship that was never developed properly beforehand. I can still bear with it but I don’t deny that my interest on knowing how all this turn out have shrunk rapidly.

Princess Principal – 04 [Case 9 Roaming Pigeons]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Princess Principal

And we’re back for some James Bond’s cute girls action’s dose of the week and I am happy to report that we have a very good episode in our hands. In fact, I won’t hesitate to say that this is the best Princess Principal we’ve seen so far. Well, case1 builds more groundwork than this week but this case9 has far more exciting case than previous weeks. Not only that, this episode builds up the interactions and hints towards the deeper intentions of all the girls, save Beatrice (seriously, who’s in the right mind to put her as action spy? She’s a dead weight girls. But somehow… I like her that way). But even in Beatrice’s case, now the team knows how to shut off her annoying scream so I’m totally happy with this episode. Moreover, this week is the only time that I can feel Princess Principal slows down the pacing (it’s still fast though) that allows more character interactions, while still maintains the beat throughout and as a result, the episode flows extremely at ease.

This week, the team uses the Princess’s position to gain access to the Cavorite mine and get the prototype from the underground lab. That prototype, a mini Cavorite control unit – looks eerily similar to the one Ange has. I like the way Princess Principal keeps expanding the use of that special device. This episode, she shoots the device to activate scanning the previous objects situated in the room. In other events, the Princess’s grandma and the Duke of Normandy make sure to let the Princess (and us) know that they have a plan for her marriage with the Russian Empire to calm the high tension between the two countries. The actual search for the prototype is interesting enough, each of the girl contributes to one task of the mission, there is of course twist and turns along the way but those don’t overwhelm the story. Moreover, they don’t pull any overpowered, unbelievable skills in there like previous weeks. I actually have quite a great time following the case this week so I hope Princess Principal keeps this tempo from now on.

It appears Princess Principal will go for a non-chorological order; pretty much Haruhi-style, now that we jump to case9 and my hope for a proper introduction of Chise is still in place; although this episode does spill the beans about Chise’s hidden agenda. Damn, I’d pretty much prefer if they keep it more ambiguous but the reveal does tell us a lot about her motives, as well as her current situation. Well, I honestly wouldn’t expect Chise expresses so much cute reactions but let’s see what she has on a serious side. She works under Lord Horikawa, whom I assume is belong to Japanese Imperial Family; who uses Chise as a spy to determine which side to ally, the Commonwealth or the Kingdom. This “White Pigeon” team is indeed an ideal team as they have 2 members from the Commonwealth, and other 2 from the Kingdom; so Chise can have a clear picture regarding the situations of both sides. She feels insecure about her role in the group, however, as she gets really upset by the way Ange constantly puts her out of action field considering she has the greatest combat skills of the group. What she doesn’t know is that Ange uses her as a safety net for the Princess, to which the Princess doesn’t agree with (very great characterizations all around). How does she and Lord Horikawa found out about the team is anyone’s guess right now, but I’m secretly glad that she isn’t here to kill the Princess or Ange off. Or will she?

Dorothy has also grown a lot on me. Now, it becomes a norm and I am really looking forward to her doing a femme fatale’s impressions to seduce whatever male species in the world. But this episode goes further than that, having her in a bind herself to keep a closer watch on the Princess, the person that she obviously grows accustomed with. Just see how Dorothy feels uneasy about the mission, and then relieves when the suspicion is proving wrong; towards her remark at the end: “White pigeon isn’t grey” and you can sense how much she went through to protect what she considers as friends versus her mission. Speaking of “friends”, it’s worth noting that while Ange considers only the princess as true friend, hence over-protective of her; the Princess considers everyone in the team as friends. Will Ange come to trust other members of her team? They all have different agenda anyways so whatever happens, the end-result will be a big battlefield between the casts. And those who fight for their love usually are those will end up being miserable in the end.

18if – 04 [The Witch of Gluttony]

by SuperMario, posted in 18if, Currently Watching:

Well, it was a very shaky 18if episode this week. After episode 2 when the show went for much darker territory, and episode 3 when 18if filled my heart with its bittersweet moments, episode 4 goes back to the style of premiere episode and even when putting these two episodes together, this one gets pale in comparison. The director of this episode is Hiroko Kazui, who mostly known as the storyboarder of later Monogataries series, and key animation of Tokyo Godfathers. As you can guess from the title “The Witch of Gluttory”, this episode is all about eating, food-porn about curry rice and donuts. Here come one of the main issues of 18if, and it isn’t about the different directors handling each episode; the 18if’s cases lack urgency. Only episode 2 produced some sense of urgency because the cast tried to save the bad guys in real life. Other episodes though, no one in the risk of danger, even the Witch that it’s hard to see any importance of saving the case throughout the episode. One thing worth mentioned is that the girls don’t necessary have a Sleeping Beauty Syndrome or in a coma to become a witch; as Airi still keeps her normal daily routines at day and become a chibi witch at night.

The episode follows a girl who has eating disorder known as bulimia because she wants to maintain a skinny body. Thus, she consumes a large amount of donuts and cakes at night, then immediately purges them out. I know18if is very inconsistent in its art and quality, but what they’re really consistent so far, is how jerk they portrait the male characters who break the Witches’ hearts. This one simply breaks up with Airi because he finds someone else who skinnier than her. Jerk. She ends up feeling insecure about her weight, which lead to her eating disorder and her distaste to her favorite curry food. Well, she isn’t really distaste the curry meal, because she still cooks them tastefully, and in truth I still can’t connect it with her problems. Look, this episode is way too vague about her issues. I bet most of us after watching this episode don’t even know whether she gains weight by eating a lot or loses weight by throwing those foods. Can anyone even guess who was the other little girl in her dream? You can’t? I guess so – why include her then? Consider that this aspect was already the episode’s strongest, you would know how misfired this episode find itself in.

Because when you start mentioning other aspects then it falls apart rather quickly. The dream sequence is string of cartoonist wacky adventure (with overloaded cakes) and experience a severed tonal issue that it’s hard to take any of this seriously. Not only Haruto, our recurring cast fares so much worse and overall are inconsistent with their character so far. The scientist has a “curry kick” and singing and exaggerating with no purpose whatsoever; Lily suddenly has an urge for donut that makes her more superficial and goofy than engaging; and Haruto has zero chemistry with the Witch that I don’t feel any emotional investment in any of this. The story and its pacing all have its problems and worse they can’t even maintain a consistent tone. 18if is fascinating project, that’s for sure, but they need to do better than this to really engage us. This episode is a big “meh”, not bad enough to be a disaster, but unmemorable and uninspiring.

Classroom of the Elite – 03 [Man is an Animal that Makes Bargains: No Other Animal Does This – No Dog Exchanges Bones with Another.]

by SuperMario, posted in Classroom of the Elite, Currently Watching:

Just like what the long title suggests, this episode’s all about “bargaining” and establishing the hidden rules behind this academy. If you originally think Class D got the high scores due to their own efforts, well you’re in the wrong show then. You see, the bottom line here is that you can use the points to buy off everything within the school: old test’s questions and even buy off the exam’s score. Not only they get away with all that, it is heavily implied the teacher and the school expect them to work that way. That’s the world they live in huh? It’s just a matter of knowing and exploiting the system (what they call as a S-System). So, using points as a trade for something they need, that’s one part of this system. The next past would be how to gain points for the class then. From what I understand, all the points class D received from the midterm test are 87 points – not that much by any means but when you compare how many points class C improved after the test (from 490 to 492 – 2 points), it does indeed feel the gap has narrowed. But in order to aim for the top they need to have a bigger plan to gain points and slowly move up their rank – which I believe will be the main plot of Youkoso going forward.

But the way Youkoso executes its theme and its plot still leaves a lot to be desired. The story did jump back from few days before the exams and Sudo gets a fair amount of screen time this week but never at once we see him make any real effort for the test, so why go your way to save someone like him then? I feel like Youkoso just creates a situation so Ayanokoji has to step in and uses his negotiation skills to save the day. The show also introduces many characters from other class, most notably the bullying Ryuen from class C (who got praised from the “elites” of class A for gaining 2 POINTS), and the blonde Ichinose from class B – for my money they will become their respective class representatives when the time comes. I know this school setting isn’t supposed to be realistic, but they really stretch the idea too thin: Teachers who never explain the rules but berate the students for not figuring out themselves; tests that don’t change for at least 2 years, down to the exact words; the scores are already announced but somehow can be altered. I guess for the sake of enjoyment, we just need to look away those foolish details but even then, the story so far doesn’t have any lasting power.

How Youkoso handles the main leads though, is far more successfully. Ayanokoji proves to be the right main behind the job who would do anything necessary for the sake of the class and Horikita shows another soft side of her of wanting to help her classmates out – something that she would never consider doing before (on that note: it completely lost me why she had to lower her English score for the sake of helping Sudo? Could anyone give me an explanation?). But the powerstar of this week, of course is Kushida as she reveals her other ugly bitchy side of her. It’s interesting to note that in the novel, Kushida gets pissed at Horikita in a part where Horikita just shrugged of the “3 Fools of D-Class” from her tutorial and she still gained Ayanokoji’s trust nevertheless. But in the anime, Kushida revealing her true colors come from her jealousness towards all the attention Horikita “gets”. In other words, more bitchy and cruel. Again, same content, different meaning. If you ask me which version I prefer, in this particular case I’d go for the anime version; since what better way to show another dark side of a character than showing of their selfish bitchy side? I like the way she handles Ayanokoji by intentionally let him grab her boob. Give boob-grabbing the whole new meaning.  As much as I like the new personality-twist, this week unfortunately isn’t Youkoso’s best moments.

Princess Principal – 03 [Case 2 Vice Voice]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Princess Principal

We have another fun action-spy time this week. While this week isn’t as great as the week before, the decision to group the girls in different pairings make this one entertaining to watch. This means Ange is pairing up with Beatrice, and the Princess with Dorothy (just to make it more consistent I will address Ange the spy as Ange, not Charlotte and the current Charlotte as the Princess). Admittedly, the first pair receives a larger amount of focus than the other duo since this week is all about their first mission together and in Beatrice’s case, accepting those girls as her companions. Beatrice has a decent DARK backstory here, but her character is still the simplest out of our main girls and the way she’s obsessed over the Princess is way too much for me. On that I think all the clues have been suggested regarding how those girls’ relationship gonna pan out. The Princess really intents to become the next Queen so that she can order the fall on London wall. Ange agrees to play along with her even if it means she’d deceive the Princess and deceive herself. Of course, when she’s going to deceive the Princess she has to deal with Beatrice so that development can create an interesting crack between the main cast. Take heed that even work together as a team, each girl has different agenda and at the end of the day it’s a matter of who achieving their objective, so I expect the last “conflict” would be within the group.

Their mission this week is to retrieve a stolen printing plate (make me wonder what’s the currency they use in that fictional world? Do the two divided nations use the same currency? North Pound – South Pound?), and that somehow involve dodging bullets outside of a floating airship, explosions and tandem parachute jump because… when you’re a spy so you just have to make some noise huh? Dorothy again steals all the limited screen she has here with her seduction femme fatale technique (looking forward to her arc), and I’m glad to see many events don’t go as Ange’s plan during the mission, thanks largely to Beatrice. Still, she possesses an amazing superhuman skill of listening to multiple phone lines but still be able to remember all the conversations. As far as this mission goes it’s fun to follow at best, but gives little insight for us to delve into. On that note, how the hell Beatrice can intimate voice from some random caption that she has never meet before?

The reason why Beatrice can alter her voice has been revealed this week, and well, it certainly is sad and twisted. Her father uses her as a lab rat and he changes her vocal chords into a mechanic one. That explains her unnatural high pitch “himesama” voice but it would prove to be useful for spying. Ange and Beatrice share nice chemistry together, although I don’t really like the way they’re linked together by the Princess. Indeed, the Princess role plays a great impact here since as soon as Beatrice realizes how Ange truly cares about the safety of the Princess, she lets her guard down and agrees to join the spy team. Chise is nowhere to be found in this episode but from the look of it, I expect her to make an appearance soon, probably next week and it will be interesting to know her stand and her role in all this. A fairly enjoyable but a bit forgettable episode. Still my muse of this season. And like Rick remarks at the end of Casablanca: “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

18if – 03 [The Witch of First Love]

by SuperMario, posted in 18if, Currently Watching:

At this point, I wholly expect 18if to bring different approach, have different style on its same themes each passing week. This week, they indeed pulled a very different episode from its first two. It was a fascinating episode. I said “fascinating” because if I’m gonna mark this week as a standalone episode (or as a premiere episode), then I wouldn’t rate it too highly because its flaws are massive. But If I see this episode as one jigsaw piece in this 18if universe, then it adds up. Episode 3 addresses the issues that I have with 18if from the very beginning, even with the expense of the main cast. In order to sell us on the Witch’s case we have to invest to the Witch, and this episode spends a fair amount of time to develop her. Tojiro Fujii, an animator most famously known for his work with studio Pierrot, was given full creative control on this episode, as he directs, writes, storyboards and animates this piece, and his input surely shows: the characters are more expressive and the dream world is more grounded, with muted color palette. This episode actually reminds me of Flip Flappers for good reasons, so despite its shortcomings I don’t deny that this episode is my favorite 18if so far.

One thing, for better or for worse, that you can all take out from this week is that episode 3 feels and tastes different than the previous two. Instead of the excessive LCD psychedelic images of the first episode, or red blood disturbing atmospheric second episode, this one is surrounded by isolated normal town with only Kayo, the third witch, and Haruto, stay in. Kayo wanted to experience the normal high school life, but she was so sick she missed all the activities most of the time. All those visual choices actually help deepen the insecure state of Kayo, from her sitting alone in the middle of the empty town, to how 18if maintains the distance between the Kayo and Haruto (If you split the screen right in the middle, then those two would fall on different side) until she opens up to Haruto. This isn’t showy type like previous episodes but this is very well-handled direction, which I greatly appreciate. This episode also develops Kayo greatly by telling the episode from her point of view, so we can get into her thoughts, her nervousness and what she wants to achieve. Haruto and Kayo spend some solid chemistry together as well and seeing that little girl having small moments of happiness make my heart swell. I don’t really like the romance first love part but it does have its merits. The direction and the great development of the Third witch are understandably the highlight of this episode.

But its flaws are too big to ignore. Haruto spends an entire episode being passive, hanging around and doesn’t know what to do. Remember his main mission is to solve the case and get out of the witch’s dream? Well, this Haruto doesn’t have that purpose anymore, or any purpose whatsoever except for playing around with Kayo. I don’t like to say this but he has no personality this week so his tears in the end just don’t do anything to me. Other recurring characters are all relegated to some small lines and one-off, which of course hurt the consistency the show has established so far. And honestly I don’t know what to make of Kayo transforming into the witch. By any mean she would become extremely dangerous but 18if simply leave it aside. Well, witches aren’t necessary dangerous but when Kayo doesn’t use any of her power then what is the point of making her the Witch then? In the end, I consider this episode an anomaly in this 18if universe as it doesn’t follow the game rule established in previous episodes, and the results have its fair share of strengths and weaknesses. My usual complaint for 18if is that this is style over substance series, and I guess that’s likely where they will go for the rest of their run, but this episode proves that 18if still can go deep into the psyche of characters to tell a compelling personal story.

Classroom of the Elite – 02 [It Takes a Great Deal and Skill to Conceal One’s Talent and Skill.]

by SuperMario, posted in Classroom of the Elite, Currently Watching:

Something about Youkoso, after the end of both first two episodes, that left me there hanging. Something that I feel “off”, but I can’t quite put my fingers on. I guess a big part of it was caused by the pacing, which it takes way too long to get into the intrigued part. I mean, a huge part of this episode for example, is about group study, which excites no one, both to the characters and to us. So, I went ahead and read the chapters where this episode adapted from, and to my utmost surprise, it was different from the Light Novel. They cut down important parts that both reveal new sides from the cast, and leave out the details about the rules. I’m sure they’d save these events for later development so it’s fine for now but even more head-scratching, they include the pool sequence that has no right to be in there in a first place. And I still don’t get the obsessions over gazing at Kushida’s big boobs because as far as I see, Ayanokoji doesn’t get excited by her boobs. It’s just blatant fanservice that don’t go together with the tone of Youkoso. Or maybe that’s just a normal treatment every girl with big boobs will be received in anime, doesn’t matter if it’s relevant to the plot?

In terms of settings, Youkoso introduces one of the more intriguing school-settings that we haven’t encountered for awhile, the academy displays the social structure, the social functioning that we can relate from the real world. In this, class members work together so that they can gain points and raise up their social’s status. We already have the “underdog” here so it’s easy to root for class D, the lowest of the low and I can see heaps of interesting angles Youkoso could explore. First, this is clearly more of a team-work effort than any single individual’s performance so it could provide the real test for both Ayanokoji, the loner and Horikita, the superior complex one to reach out with the rest of the class for their own sakes. Second, the criteria for allocate students to their respective classes and “gaining points” system aren’t strictly academic achievement, meaning that even if the class passes the midterm exam (means that no one got expelled), it is not guaranteed that they can earn more point. Figuring out the best method to raise their rank and beat out the other classes would prove to be interesting and I’m eager to see how the plot develops from here.

At this moment, I like the main cast of Ayanokoji – Horikita and Kushida although they still remind me greatly to the cast of Oregairu. This episode, unfortunately, doesn’t convince us clearly the motive of Horikita when she decides to help out the Bad Three. Such a shame because in the novel, they made it quite clear: Horikita is shocked about being put into class D, while her score is always near the top; thus aiming for the top has always been her objective and she will work out every solution to reach that goal. In the anime I just don’t see it. Youkoso however does shed a new light on her characters with her even more high horse and abusive brother (who happened to be a council student president huh?) and that’s the only time where we can see the real reason behind her superior/inferior complex.

The male lead Ayanokoji is also an amusing lead. He knows much more than he lets out and people around him start to pick up on this. I quite like his cynical point of view so far but damn, after reading the Novel I feel like they haven’t use the characters to full potential. Like I said earlier, the way this episode adapts from its source gives me some concerns: if Youkoso want to focus on the characters I honestly don’t see the reason they cut down the important parts, whereas if they want to concentrate on the process of the class working together to raise above the zero ground, then they fail when rushing abruptly to the final test results. I still see Youkoso has a lot of potential, hopefully they know what to do with the intriguing setup.

Princess Principal – 02 [Case 1 Dancy Conspiracy]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Princess Principal

Man, plot twists. Through many twists and turns within the episode, we have a big switcheroo Sixth Sense-size at the end that completely change the context of what come before. I mean, Princess Principal walks on a really thin wire here. On the one hand, deceive and betrayal are the backbone of spies, guessing the motives of each character and how they double-cross each other make this show intriguing to watch. On the other hand, major plot twist like this is always tricky, you can’t make viewers invest on something and then pull the rug from under their feet. It has to deepen the narrative. This revealing works because it deepens the narrative, but I feel more worried than happy to be completely frank. It seems to me that Princess Principal relies too much on such twists and if that is the case, they will fall quickly because the plot won’t hold up anymore. If what I was ranting above doesn’t make it clear enough, there are spoilers down below so you might give this episode a watch before continue reading. Now, for those who remain, let’s head down to the episode.

We’re heading back to case1, the start of it all – when the spy and the princess agree to make a pact deal together. Let first begins with the Control, the headquarter that consist of 4 important figures from the Commonwealth- Military General, head of Spy, a Governor and the other that I assumed is a Duke – to plan out all the spy affairs. They come up with the bold (and ill-fated) Operation: Challenging, intend to replace Ange for the Princess. This episode not only deals with the outcomes of that Mission, they also cram in “retrieving some important key” mission somewhere in the middle and then flip them all over again with the reveal that the Princess already knows everything and then Ange single-handed controls everyone to get the results her way. Pacing-wise, it’s too much to take in that the key-subplot don’t have time to sink in. When you really think about it, the plot’s development starts to reveal some inconsistencies. For example, the guards serve more as a bunch of mannequins than actual guards because they should’ve figured out Dorothy as a spy the moment she came close to the guy and picked her immediately after finding out the key was disappeared. The Operation: Challenging sounds pretty implausible at best, and I’m already taken into account Ange’s impressive ability; but, how they gonna deal with the real princess when the plan succeeds? Lock her away? Kill her? What about Ange’s cover as a student then? Moreover, the moment when the bell chimes and everyone was distracted (as plan? I guess) was too much of “luck” factor involved to be taken seriously. I honestly don’t buy any of these.

Now, let address the elephant in the room. Ange and the Princess (Charlotte) have a history together and it’s heavily implied that they swapped roles as a young age due to some accidents. So, Ange WAS the real princess – Charlotte, and Charlotte’s real name is Ange. I swear it’s a goddamn effective twist because all the hints have been planted well before. Now that all the vague conversations from last week, like “some lies become truth in the telling” or “Because we’re complete opposites” from their introduction have a new deeper meaning. But then, who else know about this? For me, it’s no coincidence that the Control advises Ange to replace Charlotte in a first place. From what I gather in the first episode, the remaining girls don’t aware about it either. It’s interesting to see how the show goes from there as if anything, Ange’s chain of actions heavily shows that she has a more personal objective than following higher-up’s orders and I would say that the main chemistry between Ange and Charlotte is the show’s central emotional development.

The show’s aesthetic remains distinctive and overall stylish. I dig many shot compositions and I even like the high shot angle when Ange and Charlotte introduced to each other; but whenever the CG panning appears it does distract me from the show a bit so I hope they tone it down. Character-wise, Ange and Charlotte steal the spotlight and at least Dorothy is watchable (her smoking scene is hilarious), but Beatrice is under-developed thus far and others function more as a plot device than actual characters. I’m fine with that though, as long as they develop the five girls I won’t have any complaint, and I suspect the Japanese samurai girl Chise will have a proper introduction next week (while at it, did anyone else notice that we have A, B, (double) C, and D for our lead? Interesting). So, with all the rambling, did Princess Principal deliver a great episode? Well, again, yes and no. I’m not fond with too many twists and turns, especially with this series since those twists could potentially destroy the emotional investment you have for the characters and the spy case of the week is frankly, weak but this particular plot twist is a game-changer, and makes me really excited for the next episode. Love it or hate it, let’s all see how the mystery will unfold.

18if – 02 [Time Stopped at Age 12]

by SuperMario, posted in 18if, Currently Watching:

18if (pronounced as eighteen – if… nah I’m kidding) is an anime version of a multimedia project The Art of 18 which also include a mobile game and a VR game. Watching the first two episodes you can see a clear influence in its game format: a self-contained case that more or less has the same setup. Haruto wakes up in a dream, enters through red door, encounters the Witch of the Week, solves her problem, exits via blue door and goes back to sleep. It’s worth noting that each episode is handled by different director (Space Dandy-style) with overall supervised by the great Kouji Morimoto (Memories, the Animatrix), hence explain the slightly different look both in terms of visual and character’s designs. Unlike the premiere episode with overloaded with random visual, this week’s dreamscape is much more stripped down, yet they nail the mood with the atmospheric dark murder room and everything bathed in red blood gore scenery, down to the red heel. Overall, this episode goes much darker territory than the first, we have more details to work with the dream settings but 18if still has issues with its storytelling.

The main case of this week starts with the murders of the whole family where three members were brutally murdered, leave only the youngest daughter alive as she was hiding in a closet. The three murderers, who all were minors at the time, didn’t receive a proper punishment and years later, they re-enter the society like nothing happen. If you think this is a jab at the Japanese criminal justice system, then rest assured that 18if just drop it as soon as they mentioned it, and it works more as a setup for the girl to kill them in their sleep, Freddy Krueger-style. As much as I found the concept intriguing, I can’t fathom the fact that after all those years of sleeping beautifully, she didn’t kill them then and just waits for 10 years (is it?) carry out her plan in 1 day. Seem pretty random to me except for the purpose that Haruto can come save the day. Other aspect that surely will raise conflicting opinions from viewers is the moral ambiguity towards murdering someone in the dream world. 18if stands by the side that those three former murderers deserved to be killed, even Haruto helps out to finish the last guy off. Revenge is a dish best served cold after all. But are they? In the end the Witch and Haruto get away with all the murders. While I certainly see those guys are garbage, do killing them like this make the Witch feel better? 18if says yes.

This episode further confirms the theory that Haruto isn’t a real person. Throughout the course of two episodes, he never appears in the real world. Maybe Katsumi (the talking cat) has the key for his true existence, as aside from Lily and the Witches, he’s the only person who interact with him and his only line of communication to the outside real world. As for if Lily was Katsumi’s sleeping sister, it remains to be seen but as of now I don’t think it’s necessary a case. Might be Lily is similar to Haruto, an entity who wanders in a dream and save people’s problems (she calls him “brother” after all). Again, the shortsighted in storytelling and characters’ development still remain. This case, by all mean, is bold and surely grabs viewers’ attention, but dig deep into the case and you find nothing much. The Witch this week has a compelling reason and for me she’s an improvement from the Thunder Witch last week, still I can’t call her role exceptional. She just doesn’t have much time to develop and again, the ending wraps itself up too clean that when it’s all said and done nothing much to remember, except for its gore and its atmospheric blood red visual design. 18if relases with both Japanese and English dub versions, while I haven’t checked out the English dub I’ve heard good reception from it. I will try the English dub out but make sure to check out its OP. Lovely groovy song.