Well I liked half of this episode! This one definitely had some strong things going for it, with chief among them oddly being the fact that Shoutarou and Sakurako were barely in it. Kougami really hasn’t had much time to develop a character so far, but the pacing of an episode with her, along with her back-and-forth with her teacher, made for a much stronger base dynamic than the usual stuff. There was even a conversation that made use of what we know about her as a person! Additionally, this episode was also just very pretty – better direction than usual, and some very nice backgrounds. The actual plot was bad, but hey, this is Beautiful Bones, of course the plot’s going to be bad.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Summer festival time. An episode featuring whatsherface again, the girl with the grandmother
Kougami, right
Kougami gets a really nice scene by herself on the bridge to the festival. Strong atmosphere, no music, close to her perspective
Nice animation and framing. Great panning shots from right in her perspective
She finds the ring the mysterious woman left in an envelope
She runs into Isozaki, a teacher
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me for going to him.”
Very rich purples and reds in the backgrounds
And they run into Utsumi, the derp officer
They can’t get in contact with Shoutaro or Sakurako
More really nice backgrounds
“Has anyone important to you ever passed away without warning?” Strong conversation with Isozaki and Kougami
“The briar will continue to grow, but it’ll never flower.” Ugh, this prose. This is still a good episode, but this prose
Yeah, they’re overselling the drama of this
Sakurako gets called to the lost child area. Lol
“It’s not valuable?” “Well, not to others” nice line
This mystery is boring and obvious. This episode’s second half kinda sucks
You say Isozaki made for a nice alternative to Shoutarou, but wouldn’t he have reacted the same way to teach’s edgelord tripe? The teacher himself hasn’t really done anything to really justify his existence (much like the episode as a whole) since all he was doing was exerting pessimism to set-up debate that’s easily one-sided in Isozaki’s favor (unless you’re a sociopath). Can’t say I’m particular interested in seeing more of him.
I really liked the interaction between Yuriko and the teacher too — I find that the discussion and ‘treatment’ of death seems to be the point of the show, more so than the mysteries.
Interesting that you (and others) have pointed that out. Aoki Ei was pinch hitting (storyboard and direction assistence), and mentioned on twitter that the show’s animation compositor had told him that this was the most difficult episode for him to put together so far…
The show was pretty in terms of designs too, but it usually is. I did find the “titled camera” and even fully reversed at once to be overblown and forced. And some of the show’s prettiness was absolutely murdered by the banding this show suffers from, and the artifacting in darker scenes, which this episode was almost entirely comprised of was like a piece of sand caught behind my eyelid.
Regarding what you said in the ANN piece, I think Sensei’s words (which were, yes, awfully phrased) were exactly his answer to “Did you lose someone when you weren’t ready for it?” He was taken aback, so I think this small speech by him is actually him answering that he has, and how it has stayed with him up to now, making him into this cynical person, and also explaining why he did agree to go with her for another hour.
Yeah, pretty hammy, but as far as this show goes, very subtle.