Caligula Episode 6 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 6.

And what happened this week? Um, a lot actually. To compare it to a video game (which I suppose is apt, considering it’s based on one) it felt like the tutorial was over and we’re finally getting to the main game. Not to say that previous episodes were lacking in drama, it’s just the stakes feel a lot higher and more of the key pieces seem to be being put into place.

Okay, *fine*, I admit it, I like Aria now…

That’s a lot of episodes spent on a “tutorial” as you put it. Maybe, but at least things are well established at this point that hopefully they can ratchet up the drama a bit more and take a few more chances with the narrative. While the show has been content to march to it’s own drum and often be quirky and literary it’s never really established the dangers of this world. Sure there’s people being chased by angular looking student monster things, but we don’t know if anyone can actually die here.

And do we have an answer for that yet? Well, no. But having μ go full dark-side, alt-rock has to mean things are getting serious. If not it was at the very least a pretty cool scene…

And what else signifies a possible ‘upping of the ante’ going forward? So last week, a girl we’d just met got her ‘Catharsis’ effect activated, basically meaning she’d come to the realisation she was living in a simulation and that no matter how much worse her ‘real life’ was, she wanted out. And by admitting this to herself she gains edgy new attachments and a cool weapon that’s fused to her body. This week, every character of the main and supporting cast goes through this. And while at first I was like, “wow, really, just like that and everyone’s battle ready” upon reflection I realised this was a smart choice, at least considering this show is only going to be 12 episodes.

Smart how? Well if they’d given us full episodes for every character in the show I think it might have grown quickly repetitive and stymied the forward progression of the plot. This way we can get to the more meaty plot developments and just throw a little bit of character development and backstory where and when it’s needed.

Gettin’ dem Persona vibes, except this doesn’t feel like a video game (for the most part).

So overall this was a good episode huh? Yeah more or less, definitely among the more tonally consistent episodes although it was a bit light on the philosophising, which is a shame because I do enjoy this show’s approach to it—and the literary references—which were all but absent. I’m not as confident about this show’s ability to tell a complete story by the end of the series, I don’t know why but I get the feeling it’s not going to end with a satisfying conclusion but I’ll be happily proven wrong.