Konnichiwa Anne – 36

Yes! Yes! The creators actually got Edna right! Oh, all signs pointed towards her getting the same treatment as all other secondary characters in this series in a lame and shallow episode that rewrites characters through cheesy dialogue instead of developing them. But they actually got that bitchiness of her right, while adding a bit of extra depth to her at the same time!

Throughout the majority of the episode, I feared the worst though. The point where Anne saw Edna sneak into the shed and talk to her imaginary friend was truly facepalm-worthy. This episode just kept throwing hints that it was going to give Amy Thompson and Edna cheesy one-line backstory, Anne gladly recapped the entire series through cheesy morals and even when the series did begin to look better (the letter from the Cuthberts arrived!), there was Tessa with her endless whining who ruined it. Sure I of course don’t mind a bit of sadness, but the way that Tessa kept bawling was just a case of hopelessly overacting.

But then that final scene. I’m not sure what happened, but we actually saw Edna putting up a very cheesy act that any adult would have seen through, yet Anne in her childish gullibleness believes (which, let’s face it, any kid her age would do). At the same time, it also looks like the creators put their best artist on the job of animating these scenes: the art is powerful and very expressive, and probably the best animated scene in this series.

The thing that separates good WMT-series from average WMT-series is among others, their sense of morality; nobody is purely good. Cosette was weak, hardly did anything and dependant, Marius was a one-minded revolutionary and Jean has had his past issues. Porfy was naive and often picked fights, Anne of Green Gables (not this Anne) pulled quite a few hi-jinks as a little kid. The Anne in this series however is always morally on the right path. Her weaknesses are all meant to be charming and are actually hidden strengths. This was actually one of the first times in which one of Anne’s weaknesses was actually exploited against her.

Now the question of course is going to be: can the final three episodes finish the job? The thing is that the creators aren’t done with Edna yet. It’s obvious that her plan is going to fail, and I definitely hope that the creators aren’t going to make her jump the shark after all. That’s another point at which this series differs from good WMT: in the WMT, you know things are going to happen, you just don’t know why. In the good series, this in no way lessens the impact of these scenes. In the lesser WMT-series, they become pretty dull spoilers that make the story even more predictable than it already was.

However, the thing that worries me even more is the following: why hasn’t the next WMT been announced yet? We’re about to dive into 2010. We can assume that Nippon Animation might be planning to keep the next one at 39 episodes as well, but even then there’s nothing certain yet. Oh, I really hope that they’re not planning to abandon this franchise again.
Rating: * (Good)