What They Say:
Shintaro wakes up alone in a strange room… a girl’s room! But how did he get there after the events at the department store and is he safe? One thing is certain about his situation – Ene will make is as difficult for him as she can!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I thought the opposite would be true, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to read this series. The first few episodes ended up tying into a Möbius strip of sorts, an engaging enough literary device even with such basic execution as this. As we moved onto a new group of characters with a minor connection to those established earlier, it seemed like there was potential for the series to be able to flow along a little more smoothly, finding its niche comfortably enough to not feel so jarring with each new venture. While there’s no question that each episode has definite connections to all the others, the manner in which it’s all unfolding is a bit disconcerting.
Specifically, this episode returns us to the story of Shintaro and the rest of the Mekakushi-Dan. This of course now includes his little sister Momo and the characters that each of them encountered on their separate journeys, and with the way the story of Hibiya, Hiyori, and Konoha has been developing, the family is sure to grow in a similar fashion once all is said and done on that end. For now, though, there’s little acknowledgment of what the entire previous episode focused on, and while it will surely all be fleshed out and tied together at some point, the lack of real narrative direction in that episode left a major thirst for closure or proper explanation still yet to be sated. Instead, Shintaro breaks from the rest of the group to intersect with this newer group of characters, meeting Konoha and seeing Hibiya and Hiyori involved in some sort of plot I don’t believe we’ve been briefed on thus far. There’s some slick animation and intriguing imagery, but ultimately we don’t get much of an impression of what’s really going on as it relates to what we’ve seen until now, making it difficult to genuinely care at this point.
Interestingly, while the episode continues the trend of a cryptic storybook motif in the post-ED segment and also injects a bit of that at the very beginning, it forgoes its usual musical piece. This feels a bit wrong considering how the entirety of the series has been structured up to this point, and I must say I was curious to hear each of the original songs re-imagined with real, human singers to get a better impression of how the story was originally told. On the other hand, though, it would be a bit hypocritical to now fault the series for not spending time on what I had felt ended up taking away from what could be stronger storytelling without it, so I can’t say it was a horrible decision to go without it for this episode. After all, there are enough questionable choices in execution without that. I’m definitely curious to see what the pattern will be for such choices in the future. Consistency is nice, but rote repetition isn’t necessarily.
In Summary:
Another episode of Mekakucity Actors leaves me wondering why more and more, something I wasn’t exactly hoping for at this stage. More than the mystery in the story is the mystery of its method of unraveling, and I can only hope it proves my worries unfounded before too long. Rather than continue with a focus on Hibiya and Hiyori, we return to Shintaro and the rest, eventually meeting in the middle but not giving much indication as to how what we see relates to what’s happened before. There’s no musical number, which may help more than it hurts in some cases, and the overall production values at least make it always worth checking out in some way.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.
