I’m mixed on nearly every aspect of To Your Eternity’s new direction. The story? An indigenous ‘virgin sacrifice’ drama, time-tested but lacking in flavor. The human characters? Dutiful vessels for their roles, but they don’t leave much of an impression. The art? Serviceable, but lacking any potential to inspire (a single scene notwithstanding). The music? Worth a round of golf claps for its avoidance of J-rock, I suppose, but you’ve certainly heard its ‘brass-less orchestra’ approach elsewhere. I have no intention of judging the whole 20 episode series by its second installment, but it feels like a manga of Fumetsu’s magnitude ought to be receiving a stronger adaptation.
Here’s an example of how I feel the show isn’t living up to its potential. After the Immortal is revived for the sixth time after a series of deaths, it stops at the edge of a mountain and looks over the valley below. There it sees a winding river, dotted by misty clouds and flanked by forests which rest at the feet of sloping cliffs. The scene is meant to highlight the beauty of the natural world – after all, even a being of pure instinct like the Immortal stopped to take notice of it – yet it looks like this. The vegetation and rock formations in that shot are nearly featureless, and while we got passable versions of both later on, they don’t undo Fumetsu’s failure in one of its biggest moments thus far.
An album of lackluster background art would be the easiest way to expand on this point, but I’d rather move along and mention the episode’s one unqualified success: the Immortal’s first meeting with March. I’m referring not to the abundance of feeding scenes, of course, but to the way its body was stitched back together in that murky pond as a young girl watched with fear and curiosity. The cuts of its limbs and stomach reforming were far more detailed than the ‘wolf to man’ transformation we saw in the premiere, so while the revival wasn’t as explicit as I’d have liked, it certainly did its job. Every other moment between the two characters was less engaging, as the Immortal’s overwhelming hunger makes it a poor traveling companion, but that ought to change soon enough.
Speaking of March, I have to mention her adult voice actor’s squeaky attempts at mimicking a child’s speech, and how much I hated them. I’m sure that Rie Hikisaka was following the notes she was given, but that’s precisely the issue – the general direction for March’s character was “precocious rascal,” which hardly allowed for any vulnerability to shine through. After learning of her impending death, she used a growly voice to express her displeasure, and when that didn’t work, she made a pouty face and bonked her cartoon fists against her soon-to-be murderer’s leg. None of this was a result of ignorance, either, since it took her very little time to grasp the reality of her situation – she’s just uniformly portrayed as a cheeky kid. I know Hikisaka has to eat just like the rest of us, but I wish she had brought a bit more gravity to her role, even if it had caused some friction with the director.
I don’t feel motivated to say much more about Fumetsu this week, as there are plenty of areas where judgment ought to be reserved until later. If the show maintains its insubstantial feeling for the rest of this arc, though, I might need to start taking breaks and doing catch-up posts at milestone episodes. I don’t need a tragic death every Monday to keep me interested, but I definitely want more than we got here.
