the caligula effect – Anime QandA

Caligula Episode 12 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 12

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 12.

Well here we are… the season finale of Caligula, a show you’ve had strong feelings for—mostly good, but occasionally not so. Does the finale deliver or disappoint? It had every opportunity to fail, it could have easily fumbled at the finish line… but it didn’t! Thankfully! Though the opening few minutes had me fearing for the worse.

Oh, why’s that? Well, let’s just say it’s hardly the most flawless of starts, its clumsy and kind of silly—I actually audibly chuckled when I saw Ritsu and Aria flying through ‘space doors’ (not sure what else to call them) with gold sparkles shooting out their feet. It’s the kind of visual design decisions that maybe seemed like a good idea at the time but come across as cloyingly cheesy.

It’s almost hard to imagine what you’re talking about being executed well anywhere, let alone here. Exactly. And the cheesiness, while thankfully not ever-present does pop up from time-to-time throughout the episode, but it’s kind of unavoidable considering the kind of story they’ve wanted to tell and the resolution they wanted to give to the characters.

What do you mean by that? Well, spoilers obviously, but Ritsu re-enters Mobius to rescue his friends in the ‘Go Home Club’ from μ’s reign of terror and destruction. Aria has regained some of her powers and whisks them all away to safety with a few magic words, leaving Ritsu to monologue his heart out in order to bring μ back in line and smiling again.

And how does him talking to her save the day? Basically he lays out his feelings, his ideas about happiness and his various philosophies on life and yeah, it’s all perfectly relatable and understandable stuff—and even though it is a finale built around talkingrather than action I was hanging off Ritsu’s every word. Several times this season this show has proven that words are more powerful weapons than violence and I’m glad the show leant into this in its final episode because—at least for me makes a greater impact than just a messy action spectacle.

And does it work? Well it takes him stripping down his ‘fictionalised’ self and revealing his true irl form, and then confessing his love for her—but yes, it works and everyone lives happily ever after.

And that’d he the ‘cheese’ you were talking about then, huh? Pretty much, I still stand by the opinion that that this show would have been stronger if they’d lost a couple of characters a long the way, the stakes would have felt more real and the drama would have been more palpable. But I guess this is what in video game terms would be classified as the “good ending” where everyone lives and has learnt and grown stronger as people from their various experiences in Mobius.

So what’s your opinion on the ending as a whole? All in all I thought it was a very good ending—perhaps better than I expected—but then again my expectations were lowered by wariness. I don’t think this finale will change the mind’s of people who don’t like this series, but personally I think it told a story well—albeit slightly overlong, and I’m happy to have spent my time with Caligula!

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Episode 10 Review
Episode 11 Review

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Caligula Episode 11 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 11

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 11.

So, going by the previous reviews this’ll either be a really good episode or a not-so good episode. Which is it? Thankfully a good one!

Great, so what happens in this episode that sets it apart from others? Well~ for one thing most of the episode takes place outside of Mobius in the real world! And what’s more we get the classic bait and switch where the audience thinks Ritsu (the protagonist) is the guy we follow around for half the episode only to find out that irl Ritsu is ~actually~ a socially awkward guy who looks completely different to the Mobius persona, and the good looking guy we’ve been following for the first half of the episode is actually irl Ritsu’s team leader.

And is this a big deal? Well, not really… but it’s interesting at the very least that our suave, well-read and confident protagonist has none of the charm or social confidence that his real life counterpart has–it’s all modelled on his out-going team leader. Also, irl Ritsu is the one responsible for μ’s creation (and probably Mobius by extension) and therefore is responsible for her twisted ideals about happiness.

So why’d he leave Mobius and all of his friends inside in the last episode? Well if he’s the one who made her this way then he can be the one to fix her–something he evidently needed to be outside of Mobius to do. Yes it’s time to patch μ!

Right. And is the entire episode set in the real world? Or are there some scenes in Mobius too? There’s a few sporadically interspersed between, Marie–or Wicked as she goes by now–continues to throw explosives at the members of the ‘Go Home Club’ and to very little effect I might add… I mean I know glasses girl has a shielding ability as part of her powers, but the fact no one so much as gets a scratch is uniquely annoying. Mostly the scenes in Mobius felt like ‘action padding’ as if to maintain a sense of momentum and add “high-stakes” in this–the penultimate episode.

So aside from the non-threatening action scenes, it’s a good episode? Yeah I enjoyed it for what it is, it gave us some context for certain important plot-points. Namely that Ritsu and his team-leader work for a company that’s made an AI that inadvertently ends up putting certain people into a coma by contracting what seems like a digital disease. And that’s where Mobius is getting its new inhabitants from. It’s quite interesting stuff, and while I can’t help but feel it’s come a little too late in the narrative it still makes for a very interesting episode that hopefully pays off in full come the finale!

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Episode 10 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Caligula Episode 10 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 10

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 10.

Last week you lamented that the show had it’s “worst episode”, or close to it. Have things picked up this week? In true Caligula anime style, it’s slumps are never longed lived. In fact, nearly everything that I said that I missed in the previous episode has come back (at least in part) and something I said I wished would happen may in-fact have happened!

Hmm, the only thing I remember you saying you wanted to happen that hadn’t happened was a character death… Did a character die? Well, no. At least I’m assuming not, but an attempt was made! But that’s right at the end of the episode—we’re skipping too far ahead…

She’s still best girl, even if her backstory doesn’t paint her character in the best light.

Right, so what happens in this episode that makes it better than the previous? Firstly it’s a lot more introspective than the previous one, which always makes for a good time—at least as far as this show is concerned! 99% of the episode takes place in the ‘Go Home’ club room, where the majority of our ‘good guy’ cast has been trapped by ~unseen forces~. They panic a little, try and get out before starting the blame game and pointing fingers at who could be the possible “spy” among them that sold them out to the ‘Musicians’. Our protagonist Ritsu is still M.I.A. so naturally he’s suspect numero uno.

And in what ways is the episode “introspective”? I was getting to that!

I know, I just thought that paragraph was getting a bit long… Right, so Musician defector and all around suspicious guy Kagi-P probes into each character’s back story, as they go around the room and explain what kind of people they were in the real world and what sought them to come to Mobius to escape their real life lives. As far as character exposition dumps go it’s about as overloaded as it gets, literally going from one character to the next as they give their backstories. I admit it’s not the most nuanced or subtle way of giving character development but it gets the job done. I thought Shougo’s tale was quite haunting and I like that despite the fact he’s the suavest, tallest and most adept fighter among them he’s the one who seems more emotionally broken up by recent events than any of them. I’m glad they didn’t go the tired cliche route and make all the girls emotionally weaker to the surroundings.

Wait, so is it good or bad, you just complained that it was too much character backstory all at once? It is, but it’s at least better than incomprehensible action and poor dialogue like we saw last episode. Plus there’s a great quote in the episode that especially resonated with me.

Do tell. It’s a simple one, after learning Kagi-P’s rather low-key real life troubles Kotarou complains to which Kagi-P says “Your hell and my hell are different types”. Which is a nice succinct way of saying just because you’re suffering doesn’t seem equal to another person’s doesn’t mean it’s any less significant to the individual that’s suffering it—a sentiment I can especially relate to.

Fair enough. So what was this potential ‘death’ you teased at the start of the episode? Well Marie comes a knocking and manages to open the door to the club room, except she’s not their to rescue them, she’s there to kill them and throws in a grenade. Turns out she’s actually a ‘Musician’, the one referred to as ‘Wicked’, with barely enough time for the smoke to clear and her school-uniform torn off to reveal her battle form she throws two more grenades into the smouldering chaos at which point it cuts away, and we’re left wondering who—if anyone—survived!

Those are grenades, not Princess Leia buns.

Dramatic. Except you’re already sure no one died, right? Yeah, I don’t hold it hopes that this show will do anything so dramatic as actually killing one of the main cast, even if so many of them are dispensable. After that scene it cuts to Ritsu, who is looking a bit different than normal and just relaxing on a sofa before the episode just ends.

I assume that’s significant? Well I guess the conclusion that could be drawn is that Ritsu’s back in the real world now. Which if that’s the case he’ll either have to save the ‘friends’ he left behind from the outside, or go back in to save them. Or just abandon them—but again—I don’t think this show would do something that dark. Only time will tell what will happen, and whether this show will end on a ‘good’ episode, or a ‘bad’ episode.

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Caligula Episode 9 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 9

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 9.

So how’s this episode? I don’t know, kind of wasn’t really feeling it this week. Like I was kind of almost dreading writing this review because I didn’t think I’d have enough to say to fill out a blog and make it a worthwhile read? (Edit: Turns out I had plenty to say!)

Then why didn’t you put it off and make next week a double-episode review like you’ve been doing for Hinamatsuri? Well I figured I owed it to the people who are keeping tabs on these reviews to at least give my impressions of the episode and why I wasn’t ‘feeling it’.

That line is probably the highlight of the whole episode. Slim pickings.

Oh? What did it do—or rather—what did it do wrong? Not any one thing drastically wrong but rather a lot of things ~slightly~ wrong. Forgoing complaints about animation as I never like to talk about superficial things like that (and it’s never been the best looking show anyway), there’s a lot of odd choices throughout this episode. The characters kind of feel like secondary window dressing to a plot that’s going on around them and that they have very little impact on. Nothing really gets accomplished other than to put doubts in your head about characters motivations and there’s some mediocre incidental dialogue that felt like they were padding for time.

So what is the central plot point of this episode? Basically, the Musicians are angry, specifically and especially Shadow Knife, who we get some tragic back-story about before he’s killed. A plot point that kind of only exists to let the main cast of characters know that if you die in Mobius—you die in real life. An overused plot device for sure but one that at least ups the stakes? Or at least would if they didn’t all survive an explosion on top of a skyscraper mere minutes beforehand—totally unscathed.

Uh-huh, stakes without stakes. Anything else? Protagonist Ritsu is up to something. Which will end up being a red-herring for sure, they just needed something ~interesting~ to end the episode with…

Wow, sounds like you’ve really soured on this show and quickly too! This show has always been inconsistent week-to-week, some weeks have high quality storytelling and literary references and whatnot and other weeks scrape the creative barrel with Alice in Wonderland-esque plots. I’m not writing off the show entirely, the show is great when it’s more intimate with one-on-one scenes between characters talking about the nature of reality and what it means to be happy and all that juicy philosophical stuff. But it doesn’t seem to know how to do ensemble scenes as well. This show has too many characters but I don’t think is brave enough to kill any of the ‘main ones’ off. Time will tell if it will end high or low but right now the chances are 50/50.

I can think of at least 3 characters who add little to this plot and could be killed off. Is that harsh?

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Caligula Episode 8 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 8

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 8.

So after the slow first half the episode got back on plot with μ waking up and things being set in motion, how are things going forward? It takes place a week before the previous episode.

Oh… so not really moving forward at all then? Funnily enough, this is probably one of the strongest episodes in a while. Even though it’s something of a flashback, or rather a telling of the Musician’s side of the story from after μ’s destructive outburst but before her awakening, it’s a pretty great episode and helps flesh out the “villains” a little more.

Doesn’t anybody else find sleeping with headphones on incredibly uncomfortable?

How so? Well with μ ‘asleep’, the Musician’s power—namely getting whatever their heart desires served up to them on a platter—is waning, to the point where their utopia is looking more like the hell that they left behind in the real world. This episode mostly follows the Musician; Ike-P a playboy who’s idolised by fawning high-school girls wherever he goes and kudos to this show, it actually makes his plight at least passingly sympathetic. Like you kinda feel sorry for the guy, he’s just an unpopular dude who’s made fun of in the real world and here in Mobius he ~finally~ had a taste of the good life but it’s slowly being taken way with μ’s power fading.

Well I guess if they can make that sympathetic the show must be doing something right… It helps that you can tell beneath his flashy and smug exterior he is actually a nice guy, when a shop-clerk has a pile of clothes he was carrying knocked over and some school-girls look on and laugh he admonishes the jeering girls and helps the clerk out. The other musician’s also get a taste of ‘reality’, but I don’t think their scenes or the characters neither benefited from this reality check, nor seemed too affected in the long run—nevertheless—still interesting to watch.

And what about the rest of the episode? It’s probably the most tonally consistent episode so far, and narratively consistent too. It gave context to a few things from the previous episode that didn’t make sense while also preparing for the inevitable battle that’s no doubt about to take up a few of the final episodes. I also liked the small but important scene between our protagonist Ritsu and ex-Musician Kagi-P (or Kensuke Hibiki).

The enemy of my enemy etcetera etcetera…

So it’s a great episode then? Anything else to add? I’ll leave you with this, every episode of this show has had exceedingly verbose but nonetheless interesting titles, and while I don’t ~normally~ talk about them I felt like this episode’s title was especially good: ‘Your life shouldn’t be built from someone else’s blueprint. No matter how unskilled you may be you should draw it yourself.’ Wise words.

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Caligula Episode 7 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 7

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 7.

Last week, as I recall, the stakes were raised considerably when μ went on a bit of a rampage? How does it follow on from there? Hot Pot in the club room!

Huh? Yep, the first half of this episode is just the majority of the students in the ‘Going Home’ club having hot pot made by Aria.

Oh…kay. Didn’t expect the stakes to fall so quickly. What happened? I don’t know, I guess the writer’s thought we needed some downtime between the more cerebral, action-oriented and plot-centric episodes? That’s not to say the second-half doesn’t have a bit of this but the laid back pace of the first half is particularly jarring after last week, I imagine it’d be even more so if you were binge-watching it!

So… does the hot pot look tasty? Yeah, a bit. Though that expensive meat looked amazing.

Are we seriously reviewing anime food right now? Hey, you asked!

Right, right. So the second-half then? Things get weird, good weird to begin with as our protagonist Ritsu is walking to club, minding his own business when he’s mentally summoned to this purple-tinged limbo world, and it’s considerably eerie. There he meet with μ and the two talk about what happened last week, and why she went berserk and reiterates the fact that she just wants to help people and we get glimpses at what Ritsu may have been like outside of the simulation and it’s not explicit but it’s heavily hinted that this whole AI thing might have been Ritsu’s doing, at at the very least his idea.

The creator in his own trap? Interesting. It’s a thoroughly interesting, though messily edited sequence that’s not quite up to this show at its heady best but still poses a few interesting questions. Like how happiness isn’t something that can be quantified or portioned to people en-masse and that it’s a very personal and fragile thing.

Fair enough. Anything else? We get to see more of the Musicians, the people who are pulling μ’s strings, though it seems there somewhat dependent on her too, which is a small but very important detail which will no doubt factor into the end-game, with our heroes having to win her over to their side in order to relinquish them from this artificial world—or so I’m guessing.

Right, so a “good” episode, first half not withstanding? I didn’t mind the first half it was just a bit overlong, and didn’t really add all that much to the story or the characters. There were a few interesting interactions and we learnt that Shougo is older in the real world than his virtual avatar and that Kotarou has an alter-ego of a masked hero that helps perform good deeds around the city. Either way, while I foresee a somewhat predictable ending I do still enjoy the show’s sometimes surreal visuals, literary pretentiousness and overall aesthetic.

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Caligula Episode 6 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 6

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.

Previous Caligula Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Caligula Episode 3 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 3.

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 3.

So last week you were mildly complaining about the fact that the show had lost some of its initial ‘weirdness’. What about this week? Well objectively speaking things are weirder this week, at least aesthetically and tonally. Straight off the bat we’re subjected to Alice in Wonderland-esque madness as two of our female characters find themselves seeking answers from a sweet obsessed “cute girl” and her decidedly disturbing flower princesses.

Right… It’s a bit hit and miss, but it all has a point which is the flavour of the day as it were. It is a weirder episode but all of it—well most of it—has a direct purpose within the episode.

So we’re given some answers? Well like I assumed from the previous episode this is some Matrix style virtual world these characters are living in, except it seems like whoever they are externally they at least chose to be in this world, even if their virtual personas have varying degrees of cognisance toward this fact.

Hmm, that’s interesting. There’s also some kind of suspicious group of ‘overseers’ who speak with a lot of ‘music references’ who are evidently in some kind of control over this virtual world. As if it wasn’t obvious music, specifically that of μ, a virtual idol plays a very important part and oh no…

What?! I just looked up the synopsis for the show on the internet and it basically spells out everything I just spent 3 episodes slowly learning in a couple of brief sentences.

Maybe you should research shows more before you watch them… And maybe you should shut the hell up! Listen, I’m fine discovering a show at my own pace, it’s just kind of annoying to know that I could have been clued in this whole time just by reading the wikipedia synopsis. I don’t know, I guess I just thought I was being clever figuring out what was going on before it was explicitly revealed, but turns out everyone already knew what was happening all along!

And how does that affect your enjoyment of the show? Well, uh, it doesn’t… it’s just it makes me consider why other reviewers may have been less than impressed by the mystery given they already knew so much going in!

I see… so are you still enjoying the show despite whatever the hell you were talking about? I think now that the premise has been established it’s either going to get better or worse, there’s a lot of pieces in play, a lot of characters introduced and there’s a certain level of depth to the plot that could result in some compelling story-telling. Also I’m down for a lot more weirdness as long as it’s better than the kind of stuff we got in this episode which was uneven at best.

Caligula Episode 1 – Anime QandA Review

An Anime QandA review for Caligula Episode 1.

What’s the show? Caligula, Episode 1.

Oh no, this isn’t an anime about the sister-loving Roman Emperor of the same name is it?! I already made that joke in my post about which anime I was watching this season…

Well excuse me! But I wasn’t invited to that post, was I? Indeed. But no, unfortunately it’s not. Fortunately, it’s something much much better.

Wait did you just say “unfortunately” to the fact it’s not siscon?! Moving on!

Man you’re a handful, so what’s this show about anyway? I’ve got no freaking clue, but I mean that in the best possible way. Like this is stream of consciousness anime at its best (well maybe not best, Bakemonogatari still claims that crown) but I love how seemingly disjointed the parts feel and that it comes off like this anime is being birthed from some kind of chaotic, troubled, intellectual mind.

Sounds kind of douchey. Yeah, there will be those who can’t get into this style and will think it’s either confused or wanky, or confusing wank. But I couldn’t get enough of it, like this is the kind of show I love. Yes, I’ll always have a place in my heart for cute girls, but this shit is my crack.

They’re pretty lax with the dress code at this school.

Sell it to me in a way that’ll convince me. It’s like a Christopher Nolan movie—the weirder ones, not the Batman ones—it’s stylish, and smart (or at the very least it’s learned and well-read) and it isn’t afraid to leave the viewer with a whole host of questions and little to no answers by the end of the first episode.

Most people while watching this episode.

Interesting. So can you tell me a little bit about the plot? I didn’t know anything about this show going in and I think that works in the show’s favour. Obviously it intends to tell a long-form story and I think the way it sets it up is brilliant.

You didn’t really answer my question… As intended.

Fine, I get it you want to let people go into it the same way you did. Can you tell me anything else about the show? I don’t say this often but I love the male character designs, main guy and guy who likes to fight have a very cool look, and I may or may not have a crush on the main guy, Ritsu. But there’s a lot of cute girls in this anime too! They’re just not as cute as some of the boys…

Well this is certainly a change! So I guess you recommend the show? I do, but I’m fully aware that is the kind of show that’s going to annoy some people who want to know what kind of show they’re getting into from the get go and it’s the kind of show that could easily go off the rails. It feels like they’ve started with a fairly high-concept idea, or at least have executed it in a way that makes it feel that way. The messy, stream of consciousness aesthetic pushes all my pretentious buttons and I loved every minute of this first episode, and am totally along for the ride!