Episode #02 “ What Came was a Little Sister”
Now that we know what’s going on with the Land Beyond the Looking Glass, we have to go back and discover who the young woman with the mallet is. An inter-dimensional traveler, sure, but who sent her? She appears to be under the command of the “Planetary Unified Organization,” which is otherwise called The Shrine. They’re tasked with maintaining the order of the world.
Koto is reintroduced as a timid little girl who was brought into the Shrine organization by her ‘sensei’ Inari, a young man in a fox mask, of course. Her red eyes weren’t just a style decision, they are apparently an ill omen. The other men in the organization wonder if she’s a monster.
Well, if she’s a monster she’s a made one. The very next scene we get to watch her beat the crap out of a school yard full of boys. Chastised for her behavior, she’s ordered to go to class and her exam, which she does. It’s interesting to see that there’s apparently a research team assigned to her. Inari departs on regular excursions through gates which I assume lead to alternate dimensions. Koto is left on her own, or in the company of Inari’s two familiars.
Koto can handle herself and easily take out challengers, but without Inari around she’s lonely. Upon returning to the empty and abandoned school up in the mountains that the two call home, Koto wanders through the darkened halls and lays down on Inari’s bed alone. In the quiet that follows she digs out a hidden key and heads off to a locked room which holds artifacts of a time and place which are familiar to us.
Then things get… fuzzy. Dream and waking seem to mix as Koto meets with a black rabbit that shares her name. Following it leads her to Inari, who cries in his sleep. Koto the black rabbit and Koto the little girl meet, under the framed illustrations of a city of dreams.
As they sit on a hill and Inari reads Alice through the Looking Glass to Koto, she addresses him as Dad and tells him she’d like to go meet Mom someday.
A tale of love and rebirth, hmm?
Koto finally makes it to the Land Beyond the Looking Glass. It looks like things are starting to come full circle.
Episode Grade: A –
In Summary:
There is something tantalizing cosmic about this series. The space and time themes mixed with the fantasy and mythology all meld together into a strange mix of elements. A story of love and rebirth, and a world in which magic was forgotten and replaced by science. Koto is a joy to watch as she embarks on her quest to find the black rabbit.
Forget the plot for a second, because the animation is what is making this series shine. Expressive, fast, detailed, bright and colorful it’s a sensory overload in the preview episode. Toned down and paced out for the actually series it is a strong contender for one of the best looking series this year. Toss in the fantastic soundtrack and this is A+ material.
Of course it’s probably not going to be for everyone. While Episode 0 is fun it might give people the wrong idea about what they’re getting in to. I’ve seen viewers become lost watching far simpler anime series, and they interwoven plot elements in this show would make their head spin. Others have compared this series to FLCL, and I’d say that’s apt. It has the same energy and complexities, even a certain aesthetic, even if it’s following a very different plot line.
Series like this don’t come around very often, and there’s definitely a labor of love feeling to it. I’m eager to see more.
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.8.4, via Safari 6.0.5, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
