the first episode was incredible. the rise and fall and rise of Ai, and the way she acquires that “lies are kindness” mentality already made for something compelling; it could have easily ended at the hour mark with that sort of happy, but “makes you think” type of ending.
but then it comes that she’s afraid to say she loves her children, in case speaking it should reveal the lie. so now that roller coaster of her ascending to stardom: did we get that whole thing backward? did you spend the last 60 minutes rooting for the exact opposite of what makes for a good life, if it just led to this hollowed out identity? suddenly her story is anything but resolved.
spoiler
then a whole lot happens fast. she speaks the kindest words, and sees them to be true, so she should finally be able to move past that “lies are kindness” trap and become her authentic self: the path to resolving her ark is clear and simple. she’s so close, but it gets cut short. in her whole life, the only person to which she’s ever authentic is her murderer, but in a twisted way her honesty there was cruel, as it destroys him. so… what’s left, but tragedy.
yeah, that ending got me good. the next 3 eps were alright, but the change in pace was jarring. it’s not going to be easy to keep up with the expectations set by that first ep, but they’re building a few threads that could be interesting here, so we’ll see (i haven’t read the manga).
style wise: i’m really curious about what all the artists draw from. there’s this distinctive facial structure – most obvious in profile shots – where the entire nose/mouse sticks way far out from the rest of the face: almost like a snout. definitely a newer thing. i only noticed it in Bocchi the Rock, but that’s a different studio, so not sure if there was some crossover or if they both grabbed that from elsewhere. and the eyes… i like whatever they’re playing around with there :-)
I’ll wait until it finishes to binge it all in one go. I’ve read the manga anyways, so the content won’t surprise me.
But the execution of the Anime is pretty damn good. Many scenes hit harder in the Anime than they did in the Manga.
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Another shitty isekai. 1/10.
