Okay, I have to admit: while this show may leave a lot to be desired in terms of building up, at least it knew what it was building up for. That’s not something you see every day. It’s true that the Fractale System completely lacks the depth that it could have had with the right execution, but the past few episodes… they really have been excellent adventures. Starting with the bizarre city episode, this series grew a beard that thankfully made it much wore worthwhile than I imagined.
It’s a good thing, because I was really getting Kannagi Flashbacks at that point. This episode again though: it did what an adventure climax is supposed to do. It’s exciting, the characters have become a lot more interesting to watch. Sopme of the scenes here, like with Phryne and her parents, really kicked ass here. This really could have been much, much worse.
On a more serious note, this piece of news just popped up, confirming that Fractale is very out of place on Noitamina (heck: this means that it had lower ratings than Sarai-ya Goyou). In terms of the long run though, I still think that this is good for the time-slot if it can manage to recover from this dip: experimenting with new formats and reaching out to new audiences was definitely an interesting idea, and something is telling me that upcoming summer will be especially good to the Noitamina Ratings. Which only leaves the rather risky Spring Season.
Oh, and on a side-note: I consider a good OP song to be a song that I can listen to over and over: one that remains fun to watch throughout the entire airtime of its series. At this, Fractale’s OP really succeeded with its simple but unique visuals and surprisingly catchy song.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Yep! This episode of Fractale rocked! And I’m also surprised with the really low Noitamina ratings! You’d think that with Hourou Musuko they’d spike up a bit. What also confuses me is how they’ve survived even though their DVD sales kinda stunk. But I hope Noitamina doesn’t die within the next year or so. I want to see Anohana and Bunny Drop!
The Nausicatrix’s world has no signs that any thought was put into it, its narrative is an aimless mess driven by character insanity and stupidity, and its visual direction actively undermined the story by screwing with the character designs. Unless they tie the knot with the revelation of the nature of the key, I doubt it will even manage to hold its setting together. I want to compare the badness of its writing to that of Origin: Spirits of the Past, but I am not sure that is insulting enough.
I really do not think the show matured any this episode. It became darker and edgier way back when the Luddites murdered innocent people and justified it with an appeal to nature. Since then its only deviations from the gritty world are when the Luddites’ home lives are depicted favorably, when Clain spends time with his father, and when the main characters bond. The rest of the show is sexual violence, cloning horror, a war of extermination, an even more sinister group of Luddites breaking everything, and the continuous failure of the infrastructure underpinning human existence. This episode just provided more of the same, only with the extra special duct tape of using sentimental idiocy to bring together the components necessary for the climax.
I’ll definitely grant that the OP song is good, though. Best thing to come from this entire project.
Yeah, I agree that the OP is great. Probably my favorite theme music of the season.
I also enjoyed the episode. It was interesting to see the true mental state of the arch priestess, and her motivations for renewing the Fractale System. The stuff with Dias still running fast and loose with LM’s principles got my attention as well.
Awesome episode… just one little thing: SOMEONE SHOOT HER ‘FATHER’!
Come one Dias, you seem to love blowing shit up, blow THAT ship up.
Oh come on that op sequence was horrible. I couldn’t bear waste a minute+ on such boring visuals. I do waste my time though cus the song is okay-good. My problem with noitaminA is that they only give eleven episodes for a series. Heck Hourou Musuko had to skip elementary so that it can fit eleven episodes and they’re even cutting episode 10 and 11 into one.
Fractale didn’t feel as much of an adventure too because its only 11 episodes. If we go back last year, I loved Kuragehime but its only 11 damn episodes.
Imo they should stop the 11 episode format cus that block gets the most interesting anime.
This time I only agree the op is awesome. And, by the way, it’s the only reference to fractals, as I still haven’t got what do fractals have to do with this show in the first place.
This show is another train wreck. It does gives hints to serious business, but yet any topic development is rather shallow. I can somewhat agree at least these last episodes have some adventure in them, but it’s pretty little to call it a win.
Well Clain growing some balls and go save his princess is some nice development after 9 episodes of chars running left and right aimlessly.
If noitamina were to deliver serious busines, it’s crystal clear Fractale failed pretty hard at it.
Now I expect the producer to keep his own word and go the fuck out of the business as he said before this crap aired. Luckily he’d not ruin any more show in the future.
It was another show of painful jumps and added depth that came from nowhere and felt slapped on. Did they have a script to follow or did they just make it up as they went along.
Grrr, ….with so many good manga’s out there how can they produce such bad stories. I am not surprised at the low rating.
I really wish they would remember that good art needs a good basic story. Did they think the bad story would be overlooked?
The depth of the story and Fractale system itself are lacking, I agree. But as an adventure series with a good bit of wandering and some really gripping climaxes, it succeeds. This episode really is excellent when taken alone.
Yes, Hoiut, but again, this is pretty low level for noitamina’s standards.
If i not mistaken it was Hourou Musuko who got the bad ratings, base on the early few episode. Fractale ranting not that bad. since the Notamina is the average of the two