Here we are now, entertain us.
What They Say:
Episode #4: “Teen Spirit”
Echo and Mu’s first stop in their investigation into the mysterious Jimi Stonefree is Freak Scene Academy. There, the academy’s director offers them the school’s file on Jimi in exchange for their help.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
How many music references can we shove into ten seconds of anime? A lot, it turns out! Shout out to whoever on the animation staff decided to write “The Wall” on the school wall graffiti. This episode features more blatant references than any episode which has come before. (And some not so blatant ones. Is that dude with the pixie flying around him Black Francis? Does that mean the principle is Kim Deal? Smells like Teen Spirit was an attempt to make a song like the Pixies….. oh god, it is them, isn’t it?)
The episode title gives away the entire plot of this episode. We’re introduced to a school full of clicks of counter culture, surfer dudes and hippy chicks, and everything else under the sun. There’s a brief moment where I wonder if Japan thinks this is what American high schools are like. The references come fast and furious, but the main plot is focused on two of the students of Freak Scene Academy for Players in training. The student council president Hole, and the loner girl Nir.
As soon as you realize that we have a Kurt and Courtney analog I was just waiting for everything to go sideways and the episode doesn’t disappoint on that angle. I was in 7th grade when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. So I remember when the rumors about Love and all of the ugliness started flying. I remember attending a festival rock show in 99 where Hole was one of the bands playing and they had to stop multiple times because they couldn’t get their shit together.
So let’s talk about the questionable ethics of having a character who is a depressed student longing for escape, hooked on drugs, with a jack that happens to be located in the side of her head that is an in-universe stand-in for Cobain. Did I mention she’s in a codependent relationship with the student council president? There’s a drug in use in the world these characters live in called “teen spirit” that comes in an aerosol can that people huff. The principle is willing to give Echo and Mu Jimi’s student files if they can find the supplier and stop its spread on campus.
Japan doesn’t often explore or talk about drugs in anime. Probably because the punishment for drug use and abuse in Japan is so much stronger than in the US. When it does come up in anime it’s always a fictional drug. (While Teen Spirit Deodorant is no longer manufactured and sold under that brand name, wow. We almost had a lawsuit waiting to happen!)
Despite the zany antics and questionable inspiration for the plot in this episode, I do like Nir as a character. Perhaps because of the nihilism, the lonerism, the depression and abuse, she feels more real. She doesn’t match an easily mapped anime trope. Her friendship with Echo is paper-thin, but I like the idea that she is now a rival and represents the dark side of fame and players. Her introduction brings to light the fact that many Players live and die in obscurity, addicted to drugs and the high of performing, before having their lives snuffed out young. Appropriate for the music industry and a war story.
In Summary:
This episode doesn’t have enough flannel. What it does have is people huffing deodorant, depression, manipulation, and big robot battles. This whole series is what happens when someone does too much acid and decides to listen to their entire music collection while doodling anime characters and playing with Gundams. It’s so over-the-top in its referencing of music that it has about as much logic as any rock opera does, which is not a lot! It’s an experience, a love letter, and an entirely self-aware dive into the creators’ musical inspirations. The real problem continues to be it lacks an identity all of its own. It’s still entertaining though, if not overly cringy at times referencing all these dead musicians and some still living ones. Prince’s episode is next.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Funimation
