Everyone Is Hated – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Boogiepop and Others’ Episode 6
What’s the show? Boogiepop and Others, Episode 6.
So how’s this episode? Boogiepop (the anime) continues to impress–against all odds–by being completely batshit insane while simultaneously making complete sense to me.
You’re not exactly selling this to me, you know… And I’m not trying to do so either! By now, you’re either all aboard for the ride or left behind at the station.
8/10 at the moment.
Right, so what happens in this episode? I’m oversimplifying slightly but this episode is basically just two concurrent conversations happening at different points in a narrative but still concerning ~vaguely~ the same thing. And it’s compelling as heck while still being a sort of slow-burn series of exchanges. And there’s something admirable in this show’s confidence in being able to deliver an episode like this where action-wise very little happens but still it feels like a lot has transpired.
Ganbatte!
You’re being vague again… It’s hard not to be in this environment–suicide finds itself as a recurrent theme as Orihata contemplates taking the leap off the school building only to be talked down by Kazuko who has all manner of contemplative and deep psychological things to say about the nature of mankind and the normality in being hated by people and how it’s unreasonable to live a life in which you please everyone. Suffice to say Kazuko is probably my new best girl–I say “probably” because there’s so much going on and so many characters coming and going that that could very well change next week.
I don’t know what’s going on but I like it.
Anything else happen? Oh yes. Jin–the guidance counsellor introduced at the start of the ‘VS Imaginator’ arc–has started taking female students into a dark room, getting them to take their shirts off and touching their bare chests. But don’t worry it’s nothing seedy (probably) he’s just getting the ‘flower’ that he sees inside them all to grow so all their fear is removed. Also, after (presumably) her conversation on the roof with Kazuko, Orihata wants her boyfriend Masaki to become a “reaper” like Boogiepop.
Mood.
I’m confused. Trust me, it makes sense when you watch it. Or maybe it doesn’t, I don’t care, either way I’m just enjoying the heck out of the show!
Terminal Velocity – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Boogiepop and Others’ Episode 5
What’s the show? Boogiepop and Others, Episode 5.
So how’s this episode? So this is probably the most cohesive, linear and sequential an episode of ‘Boogiepop and Others’ has been so far. And you know what, as much as I extolled the virtues of the show in previous episodes–comparing its confusing overall experience favourably to the works of David Lynch among others–this show works best when its straightforward with its narrative. Only obfuscating when it makes the most impact rather than for the sake of it.
And in layman terms that means…? It’s a good episode because it’s not as confusing as others but it’s still a little confusing but only when it needs to be.
One good lick deserves another.
Right. So what happens in this episode then? So first of all we’re introduced (or rather re-introduced) to a duo we probably presumed were merely extras in the previous episode. Misaki Taniguchi is a ~nice guy~ and he comes to the “rescue” of Aya Orahito a strange girl who can’t say no to anything asked of her for an innate fear of being “hated”. The two form a sort of bittersweet relationship throughout the first half of the episode until we’re introduced to Shinjirou Anou a bully by any other name, but also a boy infatuated with Misaki. Though it’s not long before his observation of Misaki and Aya draws the ire of a ‘Synthetic Human’ who erases all his desires and passions and turns him into a “terminal”–a servant of the mysterious ‘Towa Organisation’.
As much as the whole “I don’t know why I’m crying” thing is a pretty stale trope, they pulled it off here because it was so unexpected.
Wait I thought you said this wasn’t confusing, I’m confused. Silence, I’m not done yet. So ~things~ happen, Shinjirou comes into contact (not for the first time) with our previous episode’s protagonist Jin. The “Snow In April” motif recurs, Shinjirou is broken from his status as a “terminal” and goes to meet a girl who left a love letter in his locker–except it was a faked letter written by Boogiepop in order to drawn out the ‘Synthetic Human’. They fight a bit, some vague truths are revealed and Shinjirou goes about his life. And all the while this has been happening Misaki and Aya have been dating and getting closer and it’s all very sweet and endearing–if slightly ominous. And then at the end of the episode we get the reason why for this ominous feeling–turns out Aya’s real name is ‘Camille’ and she’s (probably) a terminal for the ‘Towa Organisation’ too.
A terrifying moment.
Yeah, I don’t even know at this point… Come on, you expect a synopsis written by a drunk to make any more sense the events themselves?! Listen, I know its not exactly a) to b) storytelling but surely you can keep up, right?
Do I even want to at this point? You know what, you’re absolutely right. If your (for some reason) reading these reviews and not watching the show there is no point to continue to do so. This show (and by extension, these reviews) are exclusively for those watching the show as its almost impossible to offer an adequate recap without sounding like an absolute madman.
A tender moment.
And so your review then? Yeah, great episode! Lots of weirdness but likewise lots of heart and character development. Boogiepop in her brief appearance was unexpectedly badass and the rest of the show was perplexing but entertaining. At this point–regardless of authorial intent or execution–I’m just along for the ride. Thank you, more please!
Seeking Counsel – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Boogiepop and Others’ Episode 4
What’s the show? Boogiepop and Others, Episode 4.
So how’s this episode? So last week I made a bit of a proverbial song and dance about how “confusing” this show is–which is a very surface level reading of the series, heck it’s not even a reading it’s just an observation. And as pointed out by some commenters that episode wasn’t in fact as confusing as I made out–which given a moment of reflection was entirely true. That’s not to say that things were straightforward by any means but I was simplistic in my review for the sake of not having to over-explain things and for that laziness I apologise.
How very ‘Disney’ of them.
Wow, an apology right of the bat, what a tone to set for this review. So how’s this episode? We’re given some answers but too we’re given more questions–we’re introduced to some new characters and re-introduced to some old–and there’s also a lot of repeated phrases especially to do with the one “Love is like snow that falls in April, unexpected but not unforeseen.” It’s a gorgeous quote and speaks a lot to the overall sentimentality of this episode. This episode also fits into the formula I spoke about last week and it being similar to ‘Twin Peaks’ and other David Lynch projects (don’t worry this is the last time I’ll bring it up) with soft speaking mysterious figures visiting otherwise normal people and giving them powerful information not to mention the sudden bursts of bloody violence.
This was such a ‘Twin Peaks’ line! (Okay I swear no more mentions of it… this review)
Okay back up a bit. What’s this about new and old characters? Well we’ve got Suiko Minahoshi, the girl people thought committed suicide but it turns out she’s something called an ‘Imaginator’ she has an ability that allows her to see into the future due to something about the brain processing things faster than reality. She appears to the high school guidance counsellor Jin Asukai, who’s an otherwise normal guy aside from the ability to see what’s “missing” inside people which he visualises as a rose. She shows him a vision of the future where he’s violently using his power but he rejects this reality and goes about his business. Later he comes across Imazaki Shizuko, another of the girls who disappeared and she holds a knife to his throat demanding money for her drug habit. Suddenly possessed by Suiko the ‘Imaginator’ the drugged up girl slits her own throat instead. After being released by the police after questioning he sees some bad guys trying to get at a girl and so decides to test his newly developed abilities on them.
Jin’s got a bit of a David Tennant ‘Doctor’ vibe in this screencap, no?
Right. So by the sounds of it this is a new arc with a lot of differences? On paper it may seem like that but this very much still feels like the same Boogiepop we’ve got to know over the last 3 episodes–everything feels connected even as disjointed it may seem on the surface and I appreciate the show for having this overall feeling. Maybe I made a more concerted effort to pay attention, maybe I’m just understanding the rhythm of this show or maybe this was a genuinely more easy to follow episode but I wasn’t left a sense of confusion about this episode. Certainly we have unanswered questions but that’s what the rest of the series is for–to answer them. More than any of the previous episodes this episode felt like it had a promise of something genuinely interesting to come and that’s exciting!
And I don’t think I need to say who he looks like in this screencap, everyone on Twitter already made that comparison!
Puzzling It Out – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Boogiepop and Others’ Episode 3
What’s the show? Boogiepop and Others, Episode 3.
So how’s this episode? So, uh… this show huh… uh-huh *wipes sweat off brow* umm… does anyone have a clue what’s going on here because I could use a cheat sheet or something… no? Err, well okay then, I’ll try my best with what I know then!
What happens in this episode? This series is absolutely committed to making the least amount of sense of ~any~ anime this season… and yet… and yet I can’t resist its inexorable allure. I think that says more about me as a viewer than it does about the show itself.
Boom! Headshot!
Okay then, tell me what it says about yourself then, since that’s something you can talk about in length and detail! Right, so first of all I love the films of David Lynch, the only (media related) thing I love more is anime so imagine my burgeoning increased affection for something that at least has a passing resemblance to one. Fractured narratives, cryptic observations, repeated conversations, characters appearing and disappearing, characters being different people entirely. a mystical entity that talks deliberately and only intervenes when absolutely necessary, bursts of graphic violence in mundane situations. I just described both this episode of Boogiepop and ~many~ things (namely the US TV series ‘Twin Peaks’ but also ‘Lost Highway’ and ‘Mulholland Dr.’) written and directed by David Lynch. That’s not to say ‘Boogiepop’ is derivative, certainly it’s appropriating an ~atmosphere~ less than copying the blatant “weirdness” that Lynch’s works is often described as.
Love this smug bitch.
Well that was very int— Another way I could describe this series that’s in line with David Lynch’s cinematic sensibilities is ~dreamlike~ things kind of float together, scenes and characters passing by one another then occasionally colliding in a frenzy before settling down again.
That’s enough! Geez, I wouldn’t have figured you’d have so much to talk about and say so little. Ouch. Mean much?
The pen is mightier than the sword!
Sorry I just mean I don’t see how this helps in a review of Episode 3 of a TV show you’re not imparting a lot of useful information you know. I know and neither does the show—or rather it’s hard to know what’s useful information and what’s just ~things happening~. Put simply unless I’m theorizing or speculating there’s not a lot to talk about. I know that might make me reviewing this week to week seem kind of pointless but I’m enjoying being able to talk about it at all.
“He doesn’t even go here!”
Right so overall th— I’m also reminded of Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 ~magnum opus~ ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’, starring David Bowie as the titular character. In Boogiepop we have a sort of similar character with Echoes literally being a man who fell to earth from space and who in this episode seemingly returns to space too. Even their initial mannerisms draw compa—
—Guys I don’t think he’s going to stop, so I’m going to cut this review off now. Thank you for reading and I promise to never mention ‘David Lynch’ or anything vaguely arthouse cinema again…
Back where we started.
Previous ‘Boogiepop and Others’ Reviews:
The Evil In Plain Sight – Episode 1 & 2 Review
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The Evil In Plain Sight – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Boogiepop and Others’ Episode 1 & 2
What’s the show? Boogiepop and Others, Episode 1 & 2.
So how’s this episode(s)? One thing’s important and I’ll mention it first, they deliberately released two episodes at once. I don’t think the tone of the show can be properly conveyed in the first episode and so to get an idea what this show’s like two episodes at minimum are necessary.
So do you feel like you’ve got a handle on what this show is about then? Oh no clue, I felt stupid watching this show because things were presented out of chronological order and I wasn’t sure if people were their real selves or cloned, and it doesn’t help when a bunch of characters look similar–or maybe they were the same character. Anyway my head hurts.
Some disturbingly interesting imagery in this show. I like it.
Okay~ so what can you tell me about the plot of the show? It’s mysterious, it’s kind of creepy, there’s bursts of violence amidst an otherwise ‘normal’ surface, and there’s the titular ‘Boogiepop’ who may or may not be a split personality of the main character’s girlfriend. Except she’s not his girlfriend and he’s not the main character and ah~ my head hurts again!
Boogiepop is weird, yo.
Slow down… surely it can’t be that hard to articulate what’s going on? The first episode is a slow-paced, meditative experience that involves a white-haired man shambling along the streets of Tokyo in some degree of distress. Boogiepop ~appears~ and admonishes the crowd for ignoring someone in obvious distress. There’s some obvious social commentary about how society is callous towards a fellow man’s suffering, nothing that’s too uncommon in these kind of darker anime stories. In the second episode we learn (from an unreliable second-hand source) that this white haired man is named ‘Echoes’ and he’s apparently an alien from space sent to learn about the “true nature” of mankind–except he’s not because a manticore says that he’s an experimental being from whom the manticore was cloned from and he’s tracking her down in order to right the “mistake” of her existence. Also she’s a man-eater, like she literally eats people.
My money is on not an alien, just sayin…
I don’t know how but you’ve somehow made it make less sense than before. I know I’m totally overthinking it and there’s probably a bunch of my readers out there going “come on, it wasn’t that confusing.” But for me, as a writer, the writing part of my brain always likes to be 10 steps ahead of the author, thinking about all the possibilities for the narrative to go in and honestly, this whole show had me baffled.
That kinda sounds like a bad thing. Ordinarily it might be but I’m kind of intrigued at how convoluted it felt and how lost it made me feel. Sometimes it’s nice going into a show and knowing nothing, expecting something and getting something else entirely.
I like this girl, I can’t remember her name but I like her!
Right. So then your overall thoughts on the first two episode? Would you recommend it? Something like this is pointless to recommend because everybody’s experience with it is going to be different, even for people who may ordinarily *like* this kind of mystery, horror, whatever, this show is might be turned off by it’s fractured narrative or slow pace or confusing story beats. But for what it’s worth I enjoyed myself throughout, it’s dark and mysterious and dramatic… even if it did make my brain hurt for a couple of hours afterwards.
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Caged Rage – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Zombie Land Saga’ Episode 2
What’s the show? Zombie Land Saga, Episode 2.
So, uh, you weren’t too fond of last week’s first episode of this, are things any better this week? First of all I just want to say I thought about it a lot and I know exactly why I had such a negative reaction to last week’s episode. I was legitimately shocked by the opening death scene and not in a good-way. And I liken it to this hypothetical, imagine you’re meeting someone for the first time and rather than greeting you like normal they decide to scare you by jumping out when you least expect it—that’s forever your first impression of this person now. That they’re just the kind of person who likes to shock for the sole purpose of getting a rise out of someone. That’s Zombie Land Saga for me.
Stop. Get some help.
People aren’t anime though? Well I have no irl friends so anime is my only friend and I don’t like this friend—it’s no friend at all!
(So we’re still going with this analogy) Okay then, so what can your “friend” do to make up for this faux pas of a first meeting? It’s not that simple, I still resent the first encounter so everything for this anime is an up-hill battle, I sat watching this with my arms crossed not enjoying it in the slightest because I was still so worked up over it. And honestly, I don’t think this is a case of ‘time heals all wounds’ if you want to call me being angry at anime a ‘wound’. I think I’m just not into this anime, it can try and win me back all it wants but I’m just not ~feeling it~ in any way, shape or form.
Then find a better show to be in!
Sounds to me like you didn’t even want to give it a second chance. Any truth in that? Tch. Maybe… But whatever, who cares about the extenuating circumstances, if I’m not enjoying something that that’s all there is to it! I don’t like the jokes, I don’t like the music, I don’t like the characters—even the one bright spot I had last week, weird manager guy, was grating on me this entire episode. And what’s more this whole premise is kind of sexist and problematic—a guy is basically holding a bunch of girls (some of them children) hostage and forcing them to perform to further his agenda, berating them if they disagree or dissent and keeping them imprisoned like animals. What just because they’re dead we shouldn’t be seeing them as human any more? If ‘Monster Musume’ taught me anything it’s that Monster Girls deserve to be treated with respect like everyone else in this society.
Imagine this man shouting at non-undead girls with such demeaning language, not so funny anymore is it?
B-but, what about the cop who tries to shoot the girls again (and who shot the main girl last week)? You want me to solve all this show’s issues easily, here: have them where make-up whenever they’re outside and let them live normal lives. Done. You want another, more permanent fix? Hold a press conference to the world, say zombie’s exist, say zombie’s aren’t a threat to anyone once they ‘wake-up’ from being their brain dead versions, give them rights like the rest of people. Done. Maybe this show will acknowledge them as zombies and turn into a Monster Girl positive anime, but as it is now, it’s just creepy and wrong. I don’t see any comedy in this scenario and the more I think about it the more I want to never watch it again!
Someone save these poor girls.
Calm down. Nope, I’m done with this review and I’m done with this show.
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What’s the important information? Happy Sugar Life is a Summer 2018 psychological horror anime that ran 12 episodes from July to September. It is based on a manga series written by Tomiyaki Kagisora.
What’s it about? On the outside Sato is a bright, beautiful and very popular girl but inside she is deeply troubled and scarred—the only thing in life that brings her joy is her ‘relationship’ with a little girl named Shio who she’s kidnapped and keeps in her apartment. The two live a blissful life together that Sato would do anything to maintain, even if it means committing murder.
Happy together.
Why did you watch it? Believe it or not I actually like ‘dark’ things, despite my preoccupation with CGDCT and slice of life shows seemingly dictating my choices in anime watching. So when there’s a series that combines both—at the least the latter of which aesthetically if not literally—then you better believe I’m going to watch it!
Did you enjoy the show? As of the writing of this rundown ‘Happy Sugar Life’ is my second favourite anime of all time. Does that answer that question? I adored pretty much everything about this series to the point where I struggle to find fault with anything.
Just like me and this anime.
What was your favourite episode? Episode 9 “Dissolving Rain” had the single most dramatic moment I’ve seen in an anime in a very long time—the fact the build up to it was so masterfully and artfully done is just a small factor in why it was such a sublime episode. Plus the way it turns from honestly loving and beautiful to knuckle clenching tension to absolute horror within the space of minutes is something to behold.
Some breathtaking imagery in nearly every episode.
What were your most favourite things about the show? While this probably won’t be the same for most people, the fact that I could sympathise and even gravitate and dare I say sit in awed wonder of a character is morally ambiguous and downright sadistic as Sato says a lot about the quality of her characterisation and the writing. Not since the ‘Hannibal’ TV series have I been so enraptured and captivated and even siding with the actions of “the bad guy”. Artistically too, this shows pastel aesthetics are absolutely gorgeous and work as a visual contrast to the dark themes throughout.
In both senses of the word.
What were your least favourite things about the show? For a show to have made its way to Number 2 on my favourites list you’ll be hard-pressed to find me saying anything negative about it. Truly the only thing this show is weaker for is the fact that it’s only 12 episodes. I could have easily spent twice as long with these characters.
Who was your favourite character? Sato commands presence whenever she’s on-screen and even when she’s not on-screen the reverberations of her very existence permeate every characters respective lives, she is the burning sun at the centre of this universe, the tyrant at which all obey, all fear and many seek to bring down.
What’s that quote about staring into the abyss?
Thoughts on the OP (opening) and ED (ending) and the soundtrack in general? As if it’s any surprise but both the OP, “One Room Sugar Life” by Nanawo Akari and the ED “Sweet Hurt” by Reona are both absolutely gorgeous. The OP is a tense but still exciting and catchy prelude to each episode and sets the mood perfectly, while the ED serves as a sweet and reflective palette cleanser from the darkness that came before.
What’s something unique about this show? Rather than mention something specific about the series as I find everything about this show uniquely brilliant. A fact that still staggers me is the fact that something as beautiful and artistic as this was made by a first-time anime studio. There’s not much information about it that I could find but kudos to ‘Ezo’la’ for coming out this strong and confident with a series like this. I await any of their future series with interest and anticipation!
I love the recurrent motif of eyes in this series.
What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? The contrast of cute to dark content is of course reminiscent of such classic series’ as ‘Puella Magi Madoka Magica’ and more recently ‘Magical Girl Raising Project’ but as I discussed in my episodic reviews the US series ‘Hannibal’ feels like the most accurate and appropriate comparison as the darkness in this show comes from nothing more than human desires and there’s nothing ~magical~ about what transpires between these characters.
Who would you recommend it to? I think there’s a certain level of arrogance that comes in recommending a series you love so much to everyone just because it is your favourite. But in that arrogance is an enthusiasm and hope that ~someone~ out there will find as much joy in it that you found in it. I don’t doubt there will be—even among my readers—people who can’t stand this show, but if I can even convince one person to like this show and they find even an ~ounce~ of enjoyment out of this show than that makes me happy.
Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘With the ‘Happy’ comes tragedy, with the ‘Sugar’ comes the sour and with ‘Life’ come death.’
Cute Girls Doing Dead Things – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Zombie Land Saga’ Episode 1
What’s the show? Zombie Land Saga, Episode 1.
And what’s it about? Sakura Minamoto is a normal high school girl who dreams about being an idol, when on her way to an audition she is struck by a passing car and killed. 10 years later she is resurrected, along with other girls from various eras by a man named Kotaro Tatsumi who intends for them to become an all-zombie idol group to help save the flagging interests of Saga prefecture.
Well… that’s certainly an interesting premise! Did you enjoy the episode? Not really. Well, not at as a whole.
“Despite all my rage…”
Oh, well that’s a rather ~vague~ answer do you want to elaborate on why exactly? Well I guess it makes sense to start from the beginning. So we see Sakura getting ready for her day, she steps out into the street and is hit by a small truck, her body begins cartwheeling through the air, which we have to watch for a minute and a half as the opening credits play—now already they’ve got me off base, this is the kind of edgy bullshit that I loathe. Added to that I watch anime to see cute girls doing cute things, not cute girls being killed.
Gotta love that rain symbolism.
So you didn’t like it because it was dark? No I didn’t appreciate it because it felt like it was trying too hard to be shocking but the biggest problem isn’t even that, while yes it was shocking and I’ll admit it ~triggered~ me, there’s a way to recover from that. And that’s by being tonally consistent, which it did for a little bit, Sakura escaping the “haunted house” full of other zombie girls, stumbling into the rain-drenched streets only to find a police officer who straight up shoots her in the chest because she’s a zombie and she didn’t even realise it at the start. That’s dramatic material and it was well paced and tense and then he shows up…
*insert death metal screams*
Who is this “he” you’re referring to? That’d be Kotaro, who bursts in like a fifty-ton freight train of energy and derails all dramatic potential this show once had and instead turns this into a zombie version of last season’s Music Girls only with more head banging. Seriously, the tonal whiplash from the first third of the episode to the last two-thirds is enough to break my neck.
Seems legit.
So you don’t like the main guy? No, he’s great, he’s played by Mamoru Miyano—who voices Okabe from Steins;Gate (and Steins;Gate 0) and he’s in full Hyouin Kyouma mode with the ridiculous laugh and exaggerated poses. It’s a whole lot of fun and contrasts perfectly with Sakura’s kind of deadpan delivery and total “not having any of this” attitude. What I don’t think it contrasts with is the first part of the episode. It starts off as one kind of show and more-or-less sells what it’s trying to achieve and then pretty much abandons it in favour of a slice of life, cute girls doing cute things series just with the fact that they’re zombies being the only major change to the formula. And the second part is good too, I mean it’s pretty predictable but that’s what CGDCT shows are so it sells that too.
Contemplative zombie.
So let me get this straight, you ended up liking the first “darker, more intense” part then you ended up liking the “lighter, more tropey” part too but you still somehow have a problem with this show? I can’t say I have a problem with a whole show after a single episode—but I do think its something of a failed combination. I’ll keep watching to see if it sticks to how the show felt in it’s latter half or if it continues to flub it by flip flopping between the ‘edgy’ stuff and the ‘lighter’ stuff or maybe even if it just learns to integrate the two sides better.
*party hard*
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In Memoriam – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Happy Sugar Life’ Episode 12
What’s the show? Happy Sugar Life, Episode 12.
So the series finale of this twisted little show, how is it? *deep breath* I’m going to do by very best to give an even handed and bias free review of this season finale in order to articulate the pros and con—THIS WAS THE BEST THING IVE EVER SEEN!
Well that lasted all of seven seconds… so are we going to go into full spoiler territory or are you going to be ~kinda~ vague like you were with your Steins;Gate 0 Finale review? I’m going to spoil some major events of course it’s impossible not to when talking about a series finale of a show like this but this isn’t going to go through absolutely everything that happens in the episode. So bare that in mind.
Fair enough, so what’s got you so excited about this ending? Well it’s an ending for one, which is terrific—there’s nothing worse than a non-ending for a show you’ve invested so much time in. But what’s more impressive is that how’s its stuck with me, it’s been 12 hours since I watched the episode and I’ve watched other things in-between then and now but still my mind is occupied with what happened and unlike some finales which can deliver an initial impact that upon time and reflection open it up to more and more critical thinking and in turn bring up issues of continuity or plotting. The more I think of it the more perfect of an ending I think this show gave us.
Hands and eyes are recurring imagery throughout the series, I could do a whole post about those! (I won’t though).
Okay, enough with the praise get into the details! So Satō and Shio intend to leave the country to start their new life while Satō’s aunt will help assist Satō’s disappearance by burning her apartment down and using the body of the previously murdered Shoko as a way to fake Satō’s death. But due to Satō forgetting her ring they hurry back to retrieve it—which ends up being their undoing. Shio’s brother Asahi turns up with the intent of bringing back her little sister and he confronts them at the bottom of the buildings elevator. After several failed attempts to escape the burning building from various other floors Asahi finally gets to talk heart-to-heart with his little sister. But Shio doesn’t want to go back to her family, she has a new family in Satō—at first he doesn’t understand but Shio explains that she felt so betrayed by her mother abandoning her that she can never go back to that unhappy life.
You make a decent point but still…
Okay so then what happens?! Satō and Shio retreat to the rooftop where they embrace one last time and resign themselves to the fact that their lives must end but they’ll end together as there is no more happiness to be had in going on—that this is the end of their ~happy sugar life~. They leap to their deaths, visions of a life they could have had flashing through Satō’s mind and it’s then she realizes what love truly is. Cut to a few days later and we find out that Satō took the brunt of the 14-storey fall and died but in doing so allowed Shio to live. Visiting her in hospital Asahi asks her kid sister if they can finally be a family again—but something has changed in the little girl. She tells her brother that she can’t because she and Satō will always be together, that she’s a part of her now. And the look she gives is positively chilling—Satō may be dead but the legacy lives on.
Those eyes… Sato’s eyes…
Right… that’s certainly dramatic. It’s more than just dramatic—it’s transformative television! If you’ll allow me to put on my pretentious cap for a minute and reference something old and somewhat niche, it somewhat reminds me of the second season finale of US series ‘Twin Peaks’ (P.S. spoilers for a show that aired in 1991) our incorruptible hero and moral centre of the show Special Agent Dale Cooper escapes the madness of The Black Lodge only for him to look into a mirror and see the reflection of Bob—the series’ embodiment of evil—looking back at him. Now obviously I’m not comparing Satō to the embodiment of pure evil, she was a deeply troubled girl and a victim of emotional abuse from her twisted aunt, but the concept of “ideas” and “behaviours” being passed from one person to another is an inherently interesting one.
At least Satou’s aunt is arrested for the arson. Though I have a feeling she’ll be pretty popular in jail…
Okay, thanks for the reference, grandpa. But wait, the fact this series ends with that, doesn’t that mean that the most interesting thing this show does doesn’t even get to be explored? Well maybe we’ll get a new season in 25 years time (that’s a Twin Peaks reference btw!) but I never said it was the /most interesting thing about the show, and besides it’s ~more~ important that the show left an indelible mark with its finale than feeling unfilled by a newly emergent plot line. This one season tells all of Satō’s story and does so perfect, to ask for any more or to call the way this series ends unfulfilling or even cliff hanger bait is missing the point entirely!
Fire walk with me. (Yep that’s another Twin Peaks reference, can you tell I really like Twin Peaks?)
I don’t know that anybody is calling it that but I get your point. So I know you don’t talk about overall opinions of a show in episodic reviews—you save that for the QandA Rundowns, but suffice to say this show you endlessly raved about week-to-week ended with your expectations sated? Absolutely, every week delivered an intrinsic piece of a puzzle that was Satō’s complicated life, who she was, what she was doing, where she was going and who would be left in her wake. And this finale capped everything off perfectly; it offered a tragic and untimely but ultimately ‘happy’ ending for a person who never really belonged anywhere. A quote from Taiyo (one of the supporting characters) to Satō echoes in my head as I sit here typing on my computer, “you could chose to have a normal happy life, why are you so set on Shio?” And the answer, as it turns out is both the most simple and most difficult thing in the world: love. This was a love story: a beautiful, horrible, adorable, twisted love story.
Anime QandA 