The level of quality has leveled out. Unfortunately, it’s consistently on the lower level.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first episode of this series was very impressive. The second was very disappointing. That left me very unsure of how this next episode would play out. Unfortunately, the way the second one played out made it seem pretty likely that it would be a more accurate indicator of the overall level of quality the series would continue on with, and even more unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed in this episode.
I guess first episodes just have a lot of advantages over later ones. You don’t really expect much of a story to be told; you just expect an alluring world, characters who can keep your interest, and the introduction you to the beginnings of a story that you can only really hope will be competently executed as it goes through its natural progression. A series really only gets one freebie like that, because it won’t be long before the audience realizes they’ve waited a week only to see yet another introduction without much payoff.
I can’t fault the series for not clearly recognizing this fact, as it does try to move along with the story in the next episode, but as is often the case when the beginning promises such a grandiose story, it doesn’t take long to see that the writing didn’t really account for how specific the storytelling skill has to be in order for that to be successful. It’s a classic hit-or-miss situation, and there have always been a lot more misses than hits. Honestly, it’s not that it’s such a terrible train wreck so much as just another crash into mediocrity that a good enough setup, like the first episode of this very series had, make all the more disappointing.
This episode was better than the previous episode in that there’s no such overwhelming sense of disappointment, but it still hurts to see that, once everything had leveled out and found its place, the end result was far more on the level of said disappointment, rather than validating any of the hope one may have held out for it to start showing a likelihood of delivering on the promise presented at the beginning.
It’s hard to find anything to say about this episode in particular, since it’s hardly doing anything new, neither for the series proper or for its genre and/or medium in general. It’s got a really polished look and an atmosphere that does its best to make you feel engaged, but the subject matter and its execution that reached a point of feeling very generic, so it’s hard to have any interesting thoughts beyond just watching and wondering what will happen next.
I am glad to see that the Shakespeare quotes and allusions aren’t being forced upon us more and more as I had feared after the previous episode started throwing them at us in uncomfortably unnatural delivery, although to be fair, that may be the most original thing about this anime (which is kind of sad, considering its “originality” is simply quoting existing, and very classic, literature).
One of the last scenes of the episode went for something a little different that tied back to the compelling feel of the first episode. It has a group of children singing a song, which, for this type of show, is almost always included in order to be somewhat haunting in contrast with the horrific events surrounding the characters at the focus. The crazy-fun Hakaze joins in with the singing from her faraway island, sounding far more somber than we’ve seen from her character up to now, and thanks to being voiced by the incredible seiyuu Miyuki Sawashiro, enhances the intended effect of the song exponentially when she adds her voice to the mix, subdued as it is.
Some expected questions are posed in regards to the revelation of the existence of magic for the main character. Yoshino obviously wants to bring his dead girlfriend back to life, and the power of this magic, as well as the moral dilemmas that could be introduced by this concept, are brought into the picture in a way that could provide some interesting mental exploration.
In Summary:
I wasn’t exactly holding my breath after the previous episode, but there’s still some disappointment to be had in seeing the series move along with the same level of uninspiring mediocrity that hit the second episode after a first episode that has yet to really be properly matched again for me. There are some new ideas and more promising moments, though, so I can still say I’m enjoying it to some extent, and there’s always some hope for the future.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, 37” 1080p HDTV.
