Alright, guess we’re meeting Asuta’s sister? In a normal show, the fact that she’s clearly a member of White Light would reflect back on the show’s central theme of family in a thoughtful, generally coherent way. But this is Sekai Seifuku, so who knows what the fuck is gonna happen. Let’s get to it!
Episode 8
0:20 – Screen to screen. Ain’t give a damn
4:30 – Guess great lovers of sweets have a very specific look
5:03 – Too adorable can’t stand it
5:14 – This show really loves its silly masks
6:03 – Yeah, it’s great. If you’re gonna be wacky, be really wacky – make your world totally surreal and never apologize
6:26 – Of course. It all makes sense now
7:00 – I WONDER WHICH OF THESE SPECTATORS COULD BE MY LITTLE GIRL NEMESIS
7:48 – I find it amusing on multiple levels that the prize for a kid’s show coopted by adult male nerds would be decided by strength test
8:24 – And she slips her mask on under her mask
9:17 – Cake feuds run deep
10:33 – It takes a great leader to admit her mistakes
12:25 – Poor Yasu isn’t worth hypnotizing. Figures their most deadly foe would have a parallel to the Conquer Power
13:29 – Loved that little bit of action choreography. I actually like that we’re randomly getting a chief backstory episode at the same time the base is being invaded. It’s a comedy show, it can get away with having a distinct A and B plot
16:20 – This show just finds its way to the most marvelously ridiculous scenarios
17:05 – I really like how this episode’s direction is just completely tonally different from the usual stuff. This story works because it’s told with a straight face, and tone dictates that
18:50 – I guess everybody in this show knows each other. It’s all one big family squabble
21:38 – So sad.
Man. That fight was awesome on its own terms, and it also raised any number of questions about the true relationships between the whole cast here. And I loved that “your dream is dead” – cut to Nee-san dying – cut to “world conquest gave me new life!” I didn’t expect Goro of all characters to be given a compelling backstory, but just like with Natasha, when it wants to, this show can use the fewest strokes possible to tell ambiguous but resonant little vignettes
21:51 – Wonderful choice of shot. Like Pierre’s cake, their base doesn’t look like much, but it means everything
And Done
Yeah, that goes on the good pile. This is an inconsistent show, but its high points are quite high. This episode’s details bounced from whimsical to poignant, its story performed an excellent deception (starting out mascarading as a Jimon episode, but actually being a Chief episode the whole time), and it matched excellent direction and fight choreography with the understated character writing of the show’s fourth and arguably best episode. Feels great to see this show can still pull off an episode like that.
I was quite surprised to see just how much of the Chief’s backstory they could fit in one episodes. I wonder how they are all connected.
Yeah, it looks like they’re making the family focus pretty literal. Which I like, since it sort of mirrors how they blur the line on metaphor and reality with the “conquest” stuff as well.
“This is an inconsistent show…”
Completely agreed, but I would argue that anime, in general, is a pretty inconsistent art form. It’s made on incredibly meager budgets by the standards of American TV shows, which have their own issues with inconsistency.
It’s true that when you only have around a dozen twenty-minute or so episodes you probably shouldn’t waste any of them, but I imagine time and money constraints can make perfecting an anime more than a little daunting.
Heck, you hear folks all the time complaining that these shows need MORE time to tell their stories (I’ve read several comments to that effect about Sekai Seifuku) when people seem to forget that shaping something to fit into a limited, predetermined spaces actually SHOULD lead to better, tighter writing and editing. When I was in school, composing a 1,000 word essay was always much harder than writing an open-ended one, but even as a schoolkid, I would frequently have to acknowledge that those concise treatises were the best ones.
That’s not to say that Sekai Seifuku would have been better as a 100-minute movie – who knows, as we haven’t seen the end yet?!
Just that I don’t necessarily hold it against an anime that may be rough around the edges. To compare it to a big, fancy meal – a couple of lousy courses don’t necessarily ruin it, as long as when I get to the end, I’m happy and full, and my mouth still waters at the memory of the best courses weeks or months later.
Sekai Seifuku’s issues won’t stop me from enjoying it, but they still are weaknesses of the show – I’m not just gonna waive my complaints because the overall production is “good enough.” I think with this show, one of the big issues is that it has multiple writers – the difference in quality and even general tone between the better and worse episodes is pretty stark, which in the context of a show that’s already pretty episodic leads to it not feeling particularly cohesive. In the end, I don’t think Sekai Seifuku’s weaknesses are damning, but they do make it a less great show than it could have been.
You know for a long time I found myself not really enjoying Sekai Seifuku for the exact reason of inconsistency. I have no problem with episodic shows (love Adventure Time) but sometimes they throw stuff in there that’s not very well thought out. Take ep 7 for example. Some people found the whole thing of Kate turning into a monster interesting and meaningful (if a bit ambiguous) but the problem for me is what was the whole point of the treasure hunt leading up to it? We had to have it so Jimon could face his fear of Kate and her craziness invading his life? Why the heck would you use a treasure hunt to do it instead of something more personal and meaningful? Pointlessness can be ignored if there’s a point to it and let me explain this stupid sounding statement. Remember in Katanagatari where the whole fight with Hakuhei Sabi was hyped up (greatest swordsman vs. human sword!!!) only for the show to cut the whole thing out to do an ep on Maniwa Corps and Nanami. A lot of people thought it was dumb and just trollish to cut the fight and make the confrontation seem pointless. But the reason the fight was deemed pointless was because Nisio was making a point to tell us the actual sword fights in Katanagatari was secondary to the story of becoming human and overcoming chains for the past. Anywho back to Sekai Seifuku a lot of stuff seem thrown in for no good reason. The defense can be said oh well they made some good jokes from the whole situation and this is a comedy but that seems a bit lazy. Jokes should accompany the show even in comedies (this isn’t Jackass) and the story settings should have a point. Maybe I missed something with the whole ep and I wouldn’t mind being called out on missing the point.
I dunno.
I made this point elsewhere, but will repeat it here: I think Sekai Seifuku is meant to be kind of like a nursery rhyme or fable.
Only instead of Mary having a little lamb, she has co-conspirators helping her to conquer the world.
Of course, that doesn’t completely excuse the inconsistencies in the quality and underlying import of individual episodes, but it at least explains why there might be some seemingly nonsensical scenes thrown in, as Sekai Seifuku isn’t supposed to represent “real life,” it’s meant to reflect upon it.