Hello all, and welcome back to Why It Works! Today we’re exploring more of The Girl in Twilight, a show whose first episode intrigued me and second episode impressed me, which makes me eager to see how it expands from here. Using the handy motif of shifting between radio frequencies, Twilight has established a world where disruptive choices create branching parallel worlds, with each potential choice forming its own ongoing reality. But rather than get swamped in the nitty-gritty of scifi minutiae, Twilight has immediately directed its conceit towards questions of identity and society, through first shifting our heroes to a world where all women are assigned a marriage partner at the end of high school.

I was excited to see Twilight using its fantastical elements to immediately explore such a charged and identity-shaping concept. The greatest strength of Twilight’s first episode was how quickly and convincingly it established the dynamic personalities of its main characters, as well as the distinctive relationships they share. With that bedrock already set, the show is now able to explore how culture actually shapes identity – how it conditions us to see certain concepts as laudable or alien, and in this particular world’s case, how oppressive societal mandates can essentially grind down our individual personhood.

All this social commentary and reflections on identity are precisely my sort of shit, but we’ve also got a more urgent problem to deal with: Nana, who has indeed been granted her wish of “a universe of hot guys,” and now may not even want to come home. This place is strange, but she is wanted here – in contrast, she already feels like an outsider in her own original home. Let’s see how her friends deal with her current predicament!

Episode 3

I haven’t watched this show for like a week, and that’s already long enough for Nana’s enormous twintails to terrify me anew

“Here I was thinking it was some world where the butterfly effect had changed a lot of things.” Nana just assumed she was in a different scifi B-movie premise. She is excellent

Another nice detail of this show’s character writing – seeing characters make incorrect hypotheses with incomplete information, rather than just waiting to be told The Truth by whoever’s acting as the narrator

Nana lays down the hard truths: she likes her friends less than she likes the idea of marrying a celebrity. Brutal, Nana

“Before the Wedding Bells Ring.” Very impressed it only took this show three episodes to arrive at an episode-long bride-stealing caper

Fine layout framing Nana as trapped in her mirror. Girl in Twilight is in general pretty light on either visually inspired or metaphorically resonant cinematography; its direction tends to be strictly functional, which is why my commentary focuses on the script that is its true strength

Apparently Chiba Tomoyo is just her fiance’s stage name

Yessss, Asuka is continuing to call her double Seriousuka. What a fantastic name

“Who would’ve guessed Nana would choose marrying a celebrity over coming home with us?” Me. I would have guessed it

We flashback to Nana first expressing interest in their club. Nana seems to act disinterested in most things by default, which is a very common defense mechanism. Expressing interest or passion is also expressing emotional vulnerability; if you’re never invested in something, then you can’t feel either shamed for it or disappointed by it. For someone who’s lost a parent and now feels like they’re being pushed out of their own family, it’s not a surprising affectation

Oh my god, Asuka kept pestering Nana for two months before they became friends. Unstoppable force, immovable object, etc

I like Chloe specifically saying how she never could have imagined being friends with Nana. Fictional friend groups often suffer from this sort of unbelievability – you design five dynamic characters who are all very different and play off each other, but in real life, diametrically opposed personalities don’t often lead to close friends. Here, the connective determination of Asuka makes it easy to see how Chloe and Nana might have overcome their natural incompatibility – and even if they’re friends, this show seems smart enough to understand that not all members of a social group are going to be equally close with all other members

Nana can’t marry him for the best reason: her last name plus his first name reads like “Choco Banana”

They’re followed by the Marriage Enforcement Agency. Their enforcers are two of their teachers, which kinda implies that these dudes really just wanted to professionally bully teens, regardless of their specific occupation

More bunnies are coming through the rift. Seriousuka calls them Noizies, which echoes their disruptive and radio wave-based nature, and is also adorable. Seems like we’ve got the classic problem of traveling between worlds opening breaches in those worlds, through which uglier things can filter in

She’s hunting a worse thing, called a “Clutter”

Aw shit, menacing smile from Tomoyo. Well, this situation is clarifying itself for Nana in a hurry

I like Yu using her understanding of her own Asuka’s personality to question Seriousuka’s motives

Seriousuka’s world is fraying, and to save it, she needs to defeat the “King of Twilight.” Given how this story has played out so far, I highly doubt that’s just going to be some time wizard up in a tower somewhere

Oh shit, now Asuka 3.0 shows up!

Oh my god, this quick cut of original Asuka poking her head out from under the table is brilliant. I take back what I said, this show’s direction is perfect

Ahaha, even Asuka 3.0 believes in Lord Chikuwa. This story is getting incredible mileage out of the repeating elements of their personalities

Ah, this is very neatly done. In this universe, Nana’s stepfather seems to be the only one willing to openly object to her marriage. The circumstances of this world change many things, but most people’s core feelings are consistent – meaning that this world’s stepfather might be able to provide her a message that her own stepfather wishes to, but hasn’t managed

And now we tie in Nana’s interest in the broadcast club as well – it was her father who first demonstrated a crystal radio to her. Thus, Nana’s hesitance to join the club echoes her unwillingness to admit how badly she still misses her father, and how his absence still colors her relationship with her current family

There’s something comforting in how this show’s conceit plays out for character moments like this; an inherent acknowledgment that none of us are our truly “best selves,” because all of us are shaped by our environment in both positive and negative ways. Only this world’s circumstances gave Nana’s stepfather the confidence to make this important step

Oh my god, Seriousuka just fucking decked Tomoya

Nana earned her own cassette tape! Presumably that’s the key for her own badass transformation, though I’m not really sure how “I learned to follow my own path, thus gained superpowers” works in a worldbuilding sense here

Now Tomoya has put on a creepy mask and is spewing death bunnies in all directions. This is one of the worst weddings I’ve ever attended

Seriousuka is down! TAKE UP HER MANTLE, NANA!

“I am never going to be named Choco Banana! Take this, you stupid sexy bastard!” Nana is amazing

“When you overcome your shortcomings and come close to realizing a complete idea, you gain the right to become an Equalizer who can destroy aberrant beings.” So you basically need to become a self-actualized person in order to gain the confidence in your stable selfhood necessary to dispel alterations to these realities. Alright, I’ll buy it – it’s a neat way to tether parallel worlds and personal growth

And she calls her stepfather “Papa.” Character arc securely fastened

And Done

Well, that was an extremely strange and unexpectedly satisfying first arc! Having our first transdimensional journey take us to Wife World was certainly a surprise, but it ultimately facilitated some gracefully executed reflections on society and identity, while also neatly solidifying Nana’s relationship with the overall group. And frankly, Nana’s such an entertaining character that this arc could easily have been carried by her alone; but on the whole, The Girl in Twilight’s storytelling remains both intellectually stimulating and structurally bulletproof, as our team earn themselves a well-earned rest at home.

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.