Now and Then, Here and There – 6 [Disappearance in a Sandstorm] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Now and Then, Here and There! We have a big week ahead of us, lots to talk about, and basically all of it is good. So without further ado lets dive in to what is my favorite episode yet!

This week was simultaneously nothing like what I expected it to be, yet everything I wanted. I figured we would get a rather standard invasion; some bad people would shoot some guns, and that most of it would be about Shu’s struggles. Instead we got what is, like I said above, without a doubt my favorite episode of Now and Then yet. For one, just look at some of the stunning visuals from it! Sara’s hair shining in the silver moonlight. The way it created edge highlights all across her face, drifting in the wind. Or how footsteps in the sand disappeared as they walked away. Showing that not only is there truly no way home, but also nothing to return to. Even the grainy, black and white, 1 frame per second way they shot the village sequence was great, though we will talk about why later.

Fantastic visuals aside, lets move on to the narrative. Now and Then surprised me this week by opening up on Sara of all people. I wasn’t expecting her to get any screentime during this expedition. Especially not an entire 7 minute opening sequence. Yet she did, and it was incredible. I loved seeing her step up and take control back from Hellywood. To not only push back and strike down the soldier in what was a really brutal, physical scene. Not just in the violence, but in how blatant, yet without fanservice, Now and Then portrayed the attempted rape. Follow that up with escape and hair cutting, a trope, but a symbolic one, and you have a great start to a new arc. I’m really looking forward to where this takes Sara’s character.

What made Sara’s opening work for me the most, though, wasn’t her self-affirmation. It was how this acts as a precursor for things to come. The young, the children, are rising up and demanding a better future. Striking down those horrid adults who trap them in this cycle of abuse, always saying “it will end” when we all know it won’t. This opening is the first spark of hope we’ve seen in this series thus far. Until now it’s just been Shu getting tortured, Sara raped, Tabool beat, Lala Ru trapped and abused. But now we have our first instance of successful rebellion. It can be done! It is possible! And I’m looking forward to how this event reverberates through the cast and pushes them in the 2nd half.

Speaking of the 2nd half, lets talk about the 2nd half of this episode! While this was much more in line with what I expected, ransacking a village, and kidnapping people, the visual presentation really elevated it for me. The way Now and Then managed to simultaneously save time and resources while hitting even harder than normal animation would was brilliant. I am, of course, talking about the black and white photo effect. The way every shot looked like it was taken by an old 1900’s camera, almost like a stop-motion movie. Reminiscent of the photos you would see when talking about World War 2, or Vietnam. Each one feels like it could be in a history book about this conflict. But what really nails it for me? When the color returns.

I absolutely adore how Now and Then brought the color and animation back for this sequence when Nabuca was showing a hint of humanity. How, for a moment, he stopped being that “Follow orders” soldier and the visuals reflected that. Trying to talk the kid into coming with them peacefully. To not make this any harder, seriously trying to spare him pain. But when push did come to shove? He regressed. Nabuca says he didn’t want this either; the scene once again becomes black and white and we return to stop-motion pictures. It’s only when we cut back to Shu, the only person here truly, against what is happening, that color and motion returns. To me this is simply a genius way to portray what is happening here. Anyone who has seen or read a history book can understand, emotionally, what is happening here. And it elevates it incredibly.

As for Shu himself, while he didn’t get to do too much this week, what did happen I liked. I mentioned last week that Shu was going to have to start compromising on his morals to survive. And while that isn’t what happened, the spirit of the statement stands. Shu hasn’t compromised. He still does what he believes is right, even if it means attacking soldiers and superior officers. And because of that? He isn’t going to survive. He’s being brought back for a court martial. Basically, his actions have consequences and that makes this world feel so much more real. Shu isn’t getting away with anything just because he’s the lead character. I’m really glad that’s the case. If Shu was able to get away with whatever he wanted then the tension and feeling of dread would be lost. And so far? It’s still going strong.

Finally I want to talk about Nabuca and where I see Now and Then going. I’m really curious what effect this raid is going to have on Nabuca and co. Between Shu’s words, about how if they don’t stop it who will, along with Nabuca’s own flashbacks makes me wonder how much longer we have until he snaps. Until Nabuca joins with Shu and attempts to bring the rest of the corp with him. We know it has to happen before they get back to Hellywood. How else will Shu survive his upcoming court martial, short of another escape at least. Is Sara going to get involved maybe, join a separate army and launch a raid against the returning column? I don’t know! But I’m really excited to find out.

So yeah. In case it wasn’t obvious, I really liked this episode. I mentioned last week that episode 5 was on the duller end. That it was a setup episode for things to come and that its value would be seen in the future, once those things came. Well here and they are. And it was glorious. Which means episode 5 did it’s job well. I am bought in for the rest of the series. Maybe it goes down hill, maybe this is the peak, I don’t know. But whatever happens Now and Then has my attention until the end. And if it can keep this sort of stuff up for the remaining half? Then by god we might have something special on our hands.

P.S. One thing I want to mention real quick that I thought of while getting screenshots, but forgot to when writing up the post: The way the town was destroyed after they left. Another great detail for pushing Nabuca and co closer and closer to rebellion, as they realize more and more that there really isn’t anywhere to go back home to. Great stuff.