What They Say:
It’s the closing years of the Taisho era, a turbulent time when the military empire of Japan is rising to go to war with the world. The protagonist, Hiiragi Kyoichiro, has come to the Imperial Capital, Tokyo, to attend Imperial University. He is determined to pursue a scholar’s path and become a great man back in his hometown. But now the Japanese army has set its sights on Kyoichiro, because of a special ability that he possesses. As a result of a terrible illness from his youth, Kyoichiro gained the ability to see the spirits of the dead.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This series has managed to lose me fairly easily along the way with its approach and how it’s doing things with the chibi/not chibi and the story itself. With this episode we get Tatebayashi that’s come to the store where Kyo is hanging out. There’s some decent dialogue there about the situation and how Kyo’s been told that what their abilities are for is a way to resist against Western powers that are intruding on Japan, though that’s only part of what’s going on. There’s some acceptance of this as fact here but Kyo’s just struggling with what it is he can do in seeing spirits and isn’t sure about the bigger picture. Not that viewers have a real handle on the bigger picture either because the show has been all over the map and without a good sense of continuity or world building to it.
In Summary:
With it mostly quiet and dialogue oriented, we get a decent bit of conversation for Kyo here to deal with and to see that the world, at least through his eyes and what Tatebayashi brings to the table, isn’t black and white with what he’s now becoming involved in. But it’s hard to get invested in it all because of how poorly the series has handled things as it just jumps from thing to thing without any good sense to it. It’s hard to do the short form style with structure and storytelling when it isn’t focused on just gags and this show is definitely struggling.
Grade: D
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.
