Oh jeez, two episodes to go. Last episode made me a little worried about this series’ conclusion, but I’ve heard this one steers the focus back onto the family, so that’s a relief. It’s honestly kind of terrifying to me to watch a show as good as this one as it’s airing – as with my OreGairu writeups, I pretty much approach every episode praying “don’t screw up, don’t screw up” to myself. The easiest way for this show to screw up would be for it to forget its own strengths – its careful character focus and ability to build intimate family moments. And it wouldn’t be at all hard for the show to do this – finales naturally tend towards bombast, the original ONA for this series was bombastic as fuck, and the busyness of the conflict with Shrine and need to save the Mirror City could easily overwhelm the small character conflicts the show spent its first six episodes building. To stick the landing, this show will need to avoid indulgence and keep the focus on its fundamental emotional truth. Many shows feature a lot of busy stuff happening – few shows are able to make their events mean something.
Tag Archives: Capital Craze
Fall 2013 – Week 9 in Review
Nothing too out of the ordinary this week. The season has settled – the good shows are very consistent, the bad shows have been dropped, and those in the middle are 2-cours, hopefully building towards something noteworthy. Running it down…
Kyousogiga – Episode 7
Oh man am I ever ready for this one. The prologue flash-forward has been reached, Koto has been devoured, and we’re well on our way towards new, uncharted material. This is a delicate stage for any show actually seeking emotional truth – the search for a resolution that doesn’t invalidate the poignant, complex nature of the feelings presented so far. “Koto’s back! Everyone’s happy!” wouldn’t do it – that would basically end Yase’s arc without any growth whatsoever, and wouldn’t be particularly meaningful for either Kurama or Myoe. “Everyone escapes the Mirror City!” certainly wouldn’t do it either – both Kurama and Myoe need to learn from this place before they can be given their rewards. However narrative victory is achieved will be somewhat beside the point – this is a show about people, and waving a wand to fix characters’ problems renders any story about people emotionally meaningless. The key here is obviously young Koto – she’s the new variable, the person who’s already succeeded in giving Myoe something worth protecting, with the potential to change the other two as well. Her return from her visit with Mom should herald some serious shifts – though as I said in my week in review post, I’m hoping that return doesn’t cometoo quickly, because I’m eager to see Myoe legitimately angry at his siblings. In fact, I’ll take more of Myoe however the show feels inclined to show him – he’s easily my favorite character of the season. So let’s get to it!
Kyousogiga – Episode 6
So apparently last episode concluded the material originally covered by the OVAs. Which, first of all, seems kind of crazy to me. I’ve heard from people who watched the OVAs that the current season’s patchwork nature is fairly apparent, but as a first-time watcher, this has all felt like a remarkably cohesive work – each episode seems paced extremely well, each episode has told its own cohesive current story, each episode has also detailed the life story and motivation of one of our principles while knocking the overarching plot a few feet down the road. Episode two built perfectly towards the source of Koto’s confidence – episode five neatly danced around and then revealed the nature of Myoe’s emptiness. If this is what the show can do even while working around existing material, then…
Well, I’m excited to see what happens next.