What They Say:
Throughout the years, Dee has been destroying any outside information Alis brings in. But after a month of searching for clues only to come up empty-handed, Ai comes across a clue that suddenly makes matters a whole lot more complicated!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sunday Without God took an interesting turn in the previous episode with the group going to Alis’ home and school where things went wonky so many years ago, which resulted in him being one of the few (or only) ones to escape, though he ended up in another school that was just as damning in a different way. The exploration of the pocket space where Dee had managed to create a world that could be contained and dealt with while avoiding the problem that happened which resulted in the end of the town in the outside was interesting, since it does largely play a groundhog day kind of event. Forcing Ai and the others into it to try and deal with it certainly works nicely to give it all purpose.
Events don’t move forward quickly here, but we get some welcome time as we see Ai turn thirteen in the enclosed world and how Astin takes care of her to a good degree, throwing her a proper party with friends and giving her the gift of a new weapon that will help her in her overall mission. But there’s also Astin darkening the mood with his recollection of what he’s done in this pocket universe where he’s killed classmates – repeatedly depending on how you likely view it – and that it’s eating at him even if Ai tries to soothe his soul by telling him that he knew it would all repeat. It’s a hard thing to swallow since he likely just has the belief that if he made some kind of radical change in killing people, it might set things open again and allow time to move forward properly.
The exploration of a way to fix things is a decent chunk of the episode, though it’s done in montage research mode which works nicely as we see Alis doing his best with this while having Dee watching him and Ai trying to do her best as well. There are some good bits that explores more of the tragedy of what happened and how the class dealt with it and why, but also the plea that caused this pocket world to exist and the kinds of intense emotions behind its continued existence. It’s may be fairly standard material in a way, but it’s nicely executed and with some solid emotion and feeling behind it. And while the main story itself may not have a whole lot to offer overall, the character material works nicely.
In Summary:
Sunday Without God has proven to be one of the more confounding series of the season as it started oddly but with a great hook and then hit a really strong couple of episodes. But after that, it’s had hints of greatness but has been slowed by odd execution and less than engaging stories. Again, with this arc that we’re now in the middle of, it has some great ideas and the visuals and characters are once again strong, but it’s simply drawn out and becomes less engaging as it progresses since it wants to be all atmospheric and somewhat philosophical rather than actually telling the story. The background we get here is certainly useful and the expanded view of what’s going on works nicely, but it’s just not progressing at an engaging pace.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
