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Well now, even by Jinrui’s whacked-out standards I’m not at all sure what to make of that one.
First things first – was there a timeskip somewhere I didn’t catch, or a reference to this episode being a flashback? I can’t think of obvious reason why Watashi seemed to meeting the UNESCO CLT Director for the first time, and hearing about the Human Monument Project for the first time (Y spent several minutes talking about the latter at the beginning of episode three). The thing is, I’m not sure whether her ignorance is supposed to be some sort of clue, or simply reflects a continuity gap – I know the LN chapters are being adapted out of sequence.
Setting that aside, this episode was quite the change of pace – but I’m getting used to saying that with Jinrui, which is proving itself a series of many moods. Nowhere near as frenetic as the conclusion of the “Factory” arc or as overtly satirical and meta-comical as the “Subculture” arc, this was something close to a world-building episode – heavy on the information download and on the mysteries, which were piled up pretty heavily. As a consequence it didn’t end up being one of the more entertaining efforts so far, but I suspect it’s filling the same role that episode 3 did, setting up a faster-paced and funnier second half of the arc.
Here’s what we know, and what we’re left to wonder about. A “monolith” appears in what looks to be an asteroid crater at the start of the episode – a black rectangular object about the size and shape of a tablet PC. Grandpa is convinced it didn’t come from space as it didn’t burn up on re-entry, but there’s something distinctly odd about this clearly artificial object – and the first thought that naturally springs to mind for me is “2001, A Space Odyssey”. That monolith, if you recall, was alien technology that, when discovered by prehistoric man, seemed to influence his development into a technological society for the express purpose of eventually making contact with its creators millions of years later.
That’s a big leap, of course, but there’s lots of other interesting stuff here to grind the teeth on. The CLT Director, as part of the launching of the Human Monument Project, is using a “newly discovered functioning satellite” to provide electricity to Camphorwood and the adjacent city ruins, and having a “Culture of Electricity Festival” to celebrate it. Electricity from space – orbiting solar power station? In any case, the rub here is that the Fairies are hightailing it out of town – apparently EM waves are deadly to Fairies – but not before giving Watashi a dire warning of “death and disease” to follow (could these little bastards get any creepier?) along with a good-luck charm and a book hilariously and meticulously explaining the equation “no fairies = humans SOL” via real-life-ish examples.
Further complicating matters is the arrival of what appears to be a cat-eared android, Pion (Mizuki Nana). Pion’s arrival seems suspiciously coincidental with the discovery of the monolith, and she’s complaining of “memory leakage” – and she tells Watashi she’s looking for someone named “Oyage”. That these names are conspicuously in English (we see the latter written clearly later in the episode) is interesting, as if the fact that they almost spell out the names of the two spacecraft man first sent into space looking for signs of alien intelligence, Pioneer and Voyager. Further fuel is added to this fire later as Watashi and Joshu-kun explore the city ruins and get trapped underground, only to discover that Watashi’s “good luck charm” is actually a Fairy who’d twisted himself into another form – and is reconstituted as a fairy when she accidentally drops him in her hot mug of tea. That’s where they find the “Oyage”, not to mention another monolith that looks exactly like the one that fell to Earth above ground. Courtesy of the Fairy a lot of information comes out here – first off, that the ruined city was actually one that was built specifically to block EM waves for residents afraid to go outside – a “City of Hikkomori” as he calls it. There are also weird alien blobby things, which the Fairy says are “something we drink”. One of these blobs seems to merge with the monolith to plug itself into a wall and turn into a robot dog – one which attacks Watashi and Joshu-kun before Pion shows up, defeats it and thanks Watashi for “providing the electricity”.
Lots more questions than answers here, but there’s certainly circumstantial evidence to suggest alien involvement (and a possible clue as to where the Fairies came from?). It’s fascinating stuff, even if it lacked the sheer volume of entertainment Jinrui has shown at it best. The moment when the Fairy popped out of Watashi’s mug and said “Hi!” in English was probably the funniest anime moment of the week, though…
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Beckett
July 30, 2012 at 4:39 amThis episode had it's moments but overall was significantly less funny than the preceding 2 arcs. Hopefully this was all an important setup for a funny second half, I do hope this show isn't starting down the SRS BZNS path.
admin
July 30, 2012 at 4:48 amWell, there's always been an extremely morbid undertone to what was happening so it can't be a complete surprise if things go even darker. I'm certainly not panicking over one "canon" episode.
James
July 30, 2012 at 4:59 amI don't know if I remember correctly, but I recall something about Watashi "messing up" on the human monument project (which led her to cut her hair). So this definitely seems to come chronologically before the episodes before it.
Also, being saved while jumping off a 20 story building seems awfully familiar to what happens eventually to her at the factory and her sentient hair.
iiiChan
July 30, 2012 at 6:05 amHi Enzo,
Sorry for bringing up this request of mine for a link exchange here on this post, can't find your contact page. Is it possible if you can put my blog (http://www.aniplogs.com) in your blogroll? Mine's an anime blog too but I don't do episodic anime reviews as much as you do. Hope you consider my request.
Thanks and Regards,
iiiChan
Ishruns
July 30, 2012 at 9:04 amI that if we have just 2 ep arcs then we'll just get mysterious, weird odd numbered episodes and hilariously sarcastic even numbered episodes assuming this is a 12 ep show.
Highway
July 30, 2012 at 2:00 pmWhen I saw the black 'monolith', the first thing I thought was 'Space Shuttle Heat Tiles'. I didn't make the connection between Pioneer and Voyager, but that's a good observation.
I interpreted the end differently. The robot dog just appeared, separate from the black ooze that they jammed the tile into, and the ooze got the electricity, but because Pion's tile was embedded in it she was able to get the electricity and revive.
I didn't care for the plot device of the fairies being afraid of "EM Waves". How can they go out in sunlight?
SQA
July 30, 2012 at 5:27 pmThe translators called it EM, but there's extra potential subtext to the term "denpa" in Japanese. So it's hard to say they were really afraid of EM waves or of the psychos about to pop out.
And I can't believe I missed the "Pion = Pioneer" reference. The "Oyage" reference (which, to the original Japanese viewer would be "Oyaji" or Old man) was pretty good.
The interesting bits were just how many sci-fi series references were in the episode. We got at least 2001, first Star Trek movie, Casshern, Independence Day plus a few more I couldn't place.
The "shounen ass pull" manual was pretty damn good, as well. Apparently the writing quality of a series has a 0f to 20f scale. Though I wonder if "f = fails" in this context? And what anime has had a Pegasus save someone falling from a building? Should be interesting to see what people can track down.
Though the best question of this series: how is a nekomimi android showing up in an episode the most "normal" aspect of the episode? I so love this series.
To me, the funnest moment was Watashi in dazed & confused eyes after the elevator ride, after having just previous effected the "you've got to be kidding me!" face before it really got going. I was laughing pretty hard at that one.
admin
July 30, 2012 at 5:40 pmWhen I hear Pegasus I think Saint Seiya, but I can't confirm anyone being saved from a 20-story fall…
The Kenosha Kid
July 30, 2012 at 8:48 pmMy (admittedly little) experience with Romeo's other work is that he can be really, really depressing when he wants to be, so the somewhat more serious turn that things have been taking isn't entirely unexpected for me. As much as I've been enjoying this show's comedy so far, I've also been waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak.
Anonymous
July 31, 2012 at 9:18 pmI think it's not a spoiler at this point to say that the episode arcs are being animated out of order. This was clearly true in the last arc, as well as in this (which explains why she has no super-strong hair).
Given the basic title of the series, a turn toward the more serious doesn't seem at all out of the blue, and like everyone has said, the series has always had darker undertones and moments. But the characters are stuck with what they have, so they make the (hilarious) best of it.
I was also fond of the line about "Does the doggie want to play with humans?"