Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time! Today we’ll be embarking on a new notes project, as we explore the first episode of 2018’s The Girl in Twilight. This show was technically just the first wing of a theoretical multimedia project that also included a mobile game, a specific cross-promotional mix that has become increasingly common in recent years. It’s only really the mobile game aspect that’s new, though; anime are rarely green-lighted as fully self-contained commercial objects, and are generally intended to at the very least sell toys or music. In the age of massive mobile game sales, anime productions have naturally migrated towards promoting more mobile games; though in The Girl in Twilight’s case, the game it was promoting barely survived until the end of its own seasonal airing.
Moreso than its promotional intent, The Girl in Twilight’s most noteworthy feature is the presence of Kotaro Uchikoshi, who contributed the show’s base concept and scenario. Uchikoshi’s anime work has been pretty limited; his biggest “claim to fame” there is writing 2015’s Punch Line, which was a conceptually interesting and visually appealing production whose unfortunate “if I see panties the world ends” gimmick kept me from sticking with it. However, Uchikoshi is also responsible for writing the acclaimed Zero Escape game trilogy, along with a variety of other reality-bending, mystery-centered visual novels. The golden age of visual novels has tragically passed (they too have largely been replaced by mobile games), but Uchikoshi is considered one of its titans, and I’m excited to see his ideas at work in The Girl in Twilight. With our journey’s first steps established, let’s dive into The Girl in Twilight!
Episode 1
We open with a dramatic pan up what looks like Tokyo Tower, a shot with plenty of potential implications: electronic connection, life in the stars, or maybe just the intent to make a visually impactful first impression
From there, we cut to a sleepy-looking town, where a group of girls are throwing dice in the woods. DELINQUENTS
“Radio frequency set.” They’re using the randomized dice to determine their radio wavelength. That explains Tokyo Tower, I suppose
They’re attempting to contact travelers from other worlds, but just kinda winging it in terms of their ritual mechanics. This is an efficient, charming, and clever introduction; it plays with our expectations regarding anime’s frequently fantastical storytelling, by presenting a theoretically fantastical ritual, and then revealing it’s just some teenagers finding ways to pass the time. It’s an effective comedy beat, and also an efficient way to make these characters feel relatably human
New authors frequently trip over themselves in their rush to get to the exciting parts of their narrative, but if you want an audience to believe a character is real, showing what they do when they’re bored is actually a terrific way to do it. Audiences can’t necessarily relate to bombastic, life-or-death drama, but they can relate to the sensation of being bored – and if your characters feel convincingly human in moments like this, the attachment we start to feel towards them will carry over into the dramatic, less immediately relatable stuff, keeping us invested there as well
All of the other girls start ragging on the leader for her belief in other worlds. Strong dialogue here; they feel like believably jaded, snarky teens
Asuka is the main girl. She reveals her family has made miso for six generations, and seems to take some pride in that. Though she dreams of other worlds, her own life is as quiet and provincial as can be
Nana, the girl with incredibly impressive twintails, wishes for a magical world of hot guys
“If they’re just going to play boring old music, they might as well not play at all.” This cast continue to feel like convincingly sullen teenagers
And so Asuka commandeers the radio broadcast, getting them all in trouble. This brief cut of Nana jamming out to Asuka’s tunes is great
After the gang meet back up at a coffee shop, Nana reflects on how she’s actively worked to create a persona where the adults in her life have no expectations for her, and thus never give her any trouble about the crap she does. This writing is both naturalistic and absolutely packed with information regarding both their personalities and personal lives; the show’s visual design has been so-so, but the script is excellent
“Playing the part, eh? I wish I could play a different part.” What’s more, their conversations actually wind and evolve, as characters pick up on specific details that interest them, or get distracted by other concerns. Weaker writers have a tendency to write dialogue as a series of announcements, or announcements and reactions to those announcements, as if all the characters are always focused on the same ideas – because they are, because the writer has failed to give them a sense of distinct individuality and internal perspective, and is rather writing from a position of “all these characters are different aspects of my own voice.” But well-written characters have their own selfhoods, and when well-written characters collide, their conversations are messy and complicated, reflective of incompatible perspectives and priorities attempting to either express their truth or come to a common understanding
The next line’s a perfect example, as Asuka expresses great excitement at receiving her tea, and then asks the others what they’re talking about. Asuka’s priorities and focus are very different from her friends in this moment, even if just in a small, comedic way
Meanwhile, the blue-haired Chloe has been attempting to read sounds out of a crystal she found at the ritual site
“We can do the ritual even when it’s cloudy?” “I mean, the original reason was because we thought twilight looked pretty from here.” This crew is great
Apparently Asuka found this ritual on the internet. Nana is suitably unimpressed
Nana is quickly becoming my favorite. She’s here to have a good time, and she does not give a fuck
Excellent spinning cut for Asuka’s teleport into this golden realm. The relatively minimalist background allows for a very ambitious cut here; the background becomes an overwhelming blur, tying us closer to Asuka’s own feelings of disorientation while letting her expression work take all the focus
The team runs into fluffy little snow bunny creatures!
Yu, the skeptic, is not pleased with these developments
Oh my god, the bottoms of the bunnies are all teeth
Nice filter effects for the introduction of their savior. I like the electronic “visual noise” we see as these creatures are struck; it’s an inherently evocative effect that also implies they’re likely in some kind of digital or radio world
The new girl seems to be Asuka from another dimension, who faces off against some tragically unconvincing CG monsters
“Come forth, my twilight self.” Hah, her sacred artifact is actually a Walkman. That might imply this is actually our own Asuka, just from the future or something
Dynamic cinematography for this action scene, though the CG is still not great. Once again, the block-color simplicity of this space’s backgrounds enables the camera to dive and swoop, following the arc of these giant serpents’ necks. The massive monsters actually somewhat ground the camera’s movement, keeping the action clear through a trick Land of the Lustrous also consistently employs
Ooh, I love this low-angle cut as Asuka 2.0 approaches the monster. The camera panning along the ground’s edge as Asuka runs in the same direction creates a fantastic sense of momentum here
Strong traditional effects animation, too. These explosions compliment the CG quite well
“You’re from 633.0, huh?” So the radio wavelengths actually do determine which reality they’re from, in some way
Asuka 2.0 sends the gang home, and urges them to forget this ever happened
Unfortunately, she collapses right afterwards
A brief dream of happy childhood as Asuka 2.0 sleeps. It’ll be interesting to see how her memories diverge from our Asuka’s reality
Asuka says everything will be fine, and all of her friends share a knowing look. I feel like we’ve gotten to know this crew extremely well in one episode
Womp womp, Asuka walks in on Asuka changing
Asuka sends up an extra plate of food for Asuka 2.0, revealing there was a death in the family at some point in the process
Kyohei Tsuchimiya. So Asuka had a sibling who passed away, presumably
“Even in this world, he’s…” And this brother is dead across timelines, likely because of something that also crosses the timelines
Oh my god, our Asuka has only just realized they look the same
This time we see the missing brother in a dream, walking away into the golden world
And of course, Asuka 2.0 is gone in the morning
And Done
Interesting stuff! I haven’t actually played any of Uchikoshi’s games, but my impression has generally been “engaging casts and winding mysteries,” and this episode certainly held true to that. I’m not much of a mystery person myself, but I could appreciate the care with which this episode set up its fantastical premise, and the confidence of its worldbuilding. And most crucially, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the sequences featuring Asuka hanging out with her friends, which demonstrated consistently flavorful, organic dialogue, and did a terrific job of building up her whole social group as believable, sympathetic characters. Wherever Asuka’s world-hopping adventures take her, I’m hoping her friends are all coming along!
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