Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to take another stroll downtown, and see what new fever dreams are cooking among the preposterous inhabitants of CITY the Animation. The show has recently been hard at work demonstrating that continuity need not imply coherency, as Mr. Makabe’s adventures with dining out have risen to new heights of lunacy, and Niikura has proven herself some kind of midnight food demon (no doubt at the insistence of her six or seven shoulder devils).
So basically business as usual for these wacky characters, alongside those steady apportionings of genuine mutual support and comfort that provide such a winning foundation for their variable antics. Life is a funny thing, full of moments of glory or sorrow that seem almost willfully disorienting in their senseless distribution. Through its various vignettes, CITY captures the absurdity of life with humor and compassion, providing an exaggerated yet still recognizable portrait of the unexpected trials and triumphs of the everyday. We’re all in this nonsense together, so let’s do our best to make our collective journey a pleasant one!
Episode 8
Oh heck yeah, we’re reprising the actual physical mansion. Love that it’s just an existing setpiece now, used for any establishing shots leading us to the villa
I generally tend to appreciate whenever any anime production embraces mixed media flourishes. The fluidity of reality as presented by animation is one of its greatest strengths – it feels natural to me to expand on that capacity, and challenge the sovereignty of any specific aesthetic paradigm. Obviously control of tone and mixed media embellishments can sometimes be at odds, but I feel for the most part the medium has been leaning far too much towards “convey a simulation of Hollywood cinema reality,” and too far away from the infinite potential of fluid forms and diverse media embellishments. Bakemonogatari or Yuasa’s stuff aren’t dramatically weaker because they embrace a diversity of visual form; if anything, such flourishes tend to demand attention, drawing us into the internal reality of the production by presenting it as just one of many possible interpretations
Apparently the young lady Tanabe’s foot will be healed by the day after tomorrow
It seems there’s a CITY race coming up, surely another natural opportunity to bounce all of our dozens of characters off each other
Physical races tend to demand both consistent character animation and ambitious panning of perspective, making them an inherent burden on any anime production. Of course, this is KyoAni we’re talking about, meaning we get race-like flexes of movement into depth even for stuff like Niikura’s midnight snacks
Tanabe seems to have a crush on Tatsuta Adatara
We continue after the OP back with Tanabe, insistent that her butler Hotaka should not be assisting her in pursuing her romance
The mansion’s decor actually embraces mixed media embellishments, as we pan past a number of paintings in the style of the post-credits origin flashback. There’s a lot of comedic and dramatic potential in contrasting different art styles within the same production, as style shifts like Madoka Magica’s witch worlds make clear
Excellent comedy in Hotaka’s utterly stoic acceptance of Tanabe’s contradictory requests
Ooh, I love this visual framing for Tanabe’s memories, as we see Tatsuta enshrined within a flower-laden outline of Tanabe’s head
“It would not be particularly inappropriate for you to ask him out.” Tanabe is just utterly stunned by this possibility
Love the detail of her rotary phone having its own frilly handle-warmer
We then jump to the local police box, where our town officer is daydreaming about Wako. It’s always a bit of a strange, jealous disconnect to see how police officers in Japan are actually integrated into their communities, acting approachable and ready to help. It’s a far cry from here in America, where they basically just exist to protect the property of the wealthy
Suddenly Riko floats by, so distracted that she’s accidentally shadow cloning herself
Our conflict is another classic Arawi conceit – taking a fanciful interpretation of some concept (like Riko’s cupid arrows representing her inescapable charm) and treating it like a genuine part of the world, as with this police officer struggling to extract the arrow from his heart
The dramatic sax solo really sells the gravity of his task
We then jump to Tatewaku Makabe’s room, as he dreams of becoming a rock star and dazzling Riko. Terrific pacing of this gag as Eri and Matsuri sneak in; the blunt transition from a closeup to a portrait that suddenly reveals them, the held silent shot as they just stare at his reverie, and then the steady curve from staring at his magazine to matching his look of shock as he notices them. It’s a pretty simple gag, but timing is everything, and KyoAni productions utterly excel at timing their jokes
It’s a funny thing, considering comedic timing is something I so often find lacking in anime. So many productions overly belabor their jokes, therefore sapping them of the impact and humor found in effectively punchy pacing
Also a credit to this narrative’s general celebration of the diversity of individual experiences that we’ve basically never seen the siblings Tatewaku and Matsuri in the same room
The girls swiftly convince him to start a band with them
“Band names are oversaturated. Some even say they’ve all been used up.”
Really great dynamic between these three – you can tell they grew up together, as Tatewaku very easily slips into the same nonsense register as the two girls
We then jump to Nagumo, who is stopping in on our local playwright in the midst of another beating by his animal compatriots. The more we establish a continuity of these gags, the sillier they become
I like how these various community activities both serve as narrative focal points for individual episodes, and also naturally emphasize the importance of social events as the glue binding a community together. Whether “Throat” actually turns out to be a theatrical masterpiece or not, it’s still an important marker in the collective life of this community
Tatewaku of course sees this play as a chance for a date with Riko
“Maintaining this level of likability is impossible with 500-yen t-shirts”
He heads down to the boutique to get a proper date outfit, and is promptly dazzled by the audacious, totally happening outfits of all the cool folks outside. Love this inherent implication that fashionable people just lurk around clothing boutiques like they’re a natural biome
But what’s this!? His current clothes aren’t even cool enough to let him enter the boutique! What can be done!?
Tatewaku is so astonished by the fact that fancy clothes are expensive he suspects some kind of space-time anomaly. Wild CG effect for these morphing balls of disgruntled emotion leaking out of his brain
Love the dramatic movie poster-style freeze frame at the end; there weren’t enough actual characters involved in this stupid vignette to fill the poster, so they just include the anonymous stylish guy wearing suspenders from outside the shop. Delightful nonsense
Everyone at the family restaurant is stunned by Tatewaku’s incredibly terrible “distressed” t-shirt
Arawi has clearly mastered this new “embarrassed for your sake” expression between Nichijou and CITY, as it’s played a crucial role in sequences ranging from this to the “your choices in bread are your choices in life” bit
Eri you bastard. How dare you let him head to his date looking like a hobo who just got hit by a train
His loitering outside the Izumi residence unsurprisingly gets the police called on him. This episode has actually got a pretty tight structure to it, making strong use of the parallel main families, as well as this police officer as a bridge between them. Plus that overarching “first love” theme helps it all cling together
“Nobody would look at Tatewaku in his current state and not feel upset.” Brutal but truthful assessment from Eri. Also nice seeing these two more directly engage with the affairs of their friends and family
“In a place where there was no rivers or laundry or woodcutters.” Play performance off to a good start
“Feelings of hostility towards ogres were encoded in his very DNA.” You really can’t watch that much anime without picking up a secondhand understanding of Momotaro, Journey to the West, and Izanagi/Izanami
I don’t see what’s so revolutionary about this interpretation of Momotaro, but I will admit that his little animal buddies rushing to join Nagumo on the stage is incredibly adorable
Thus they defeat the ogre with sulfuric acid and bring peace to the world
I gotta say, it is certainly helping my imposter syndrome watching this playwright’s utter confidence in his nonsense production. Ya gotta believe in yourself first
That really is the point, in the end – sharing your passion with your community is its own reward
And Done
What a surprise, another excellent episode! By largely avoiding the show’s main trio, this episode was able to really hone in on Tatewaku’s daily troubles, as well as his relationships with his friends and family. Basically every new perspective in this show demonstrates anew the vibrant array of connections linking all of them, whether they’re bound by familial bonds, fellow striving for love, or simply shared attendance of their city’s various communal activities. That play thus felt like a tidy summation of this show’s philosophy, demonstrating that committing yourself to shared community experiences will always be a worthwhile endeavor. But don’t end your play on a cliffhanger, you jerk!
This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.