Nijusseiki Denki Mokuroku: Eureka Evrika (Sparks of Tomorrow) – 04
That ep was basically a snooze for me, apart from the brief surrealism sequence in the B-part. But I will say it was kind of messed up in a way I wouldn’t ordinarily expect from such an inoffensive piece of work as Eureka Evirka. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, as boredom and blandness are about the nadir when it comes to writing about a series.
In the first place, that trick Kihachi pulled on the old proprietress of the Nishijin textiles shop was extremely iffy. Sure it was a cool application of essentially an early wireless communication system, but – seriously? I guess one can take an end justifies the means approach, and say anything that helped the old lady out of her funk was good. But to pretend to be her departed husband? I think that crosses a line I wouldn’t want to cross.
Then that ending. So Yousuke apparently has built an automaton version of Seiroku? That he hopes to re-animate using the electrical catalog? Or is it Seiroku’s actual body, which would be even creepier? Yousuke remains a complete whiff for me, and Inako is pretty insufferable too – and it is a problem when two of the three most important characters in a series annoy you. I do love the visuals, and the steampunk technology stuff is sort of interesting (the electric bath is hugely popular, but I’m not a fan). Off to the ballot it goes, and we’ll see what happens.
Sayonara Lara – 04
No question about it, between these two bubble babies Goodbye, Lara is the more interesting in terms of story. Not as exceptional visually – that’s a very high bar – but still quite nice. I find the story to be a bit scattershot but not in an unappealing way. It’s just hard to pin down, but I like that it’s not a mass-produced model. I’m not exactly riveted by any of the characters but nobody is grating on me either, so that’s not a bad state of play.
Even Mari was sort of tolerable this week. Lara is hard-core obsessing over finding her prince (we’re still not sure of that’s the true love she needs to find), exhausting the Netflix options for overwrought romance tearjerkers. She nags and nags until Mari finally agrees to take her to school. On an exam day with no club practice, which she thinks will be safe. She draws a line in the sand and threatens Lara with no TV is she crosses it but Mari’s brother – Yoshiya is his name as it turns out – lures her out to search for prince candidates. Yoshiya is a slacker apparently, but a nice enough guy even if not the most popular prince in school.
That would be Ouji-kun, whose osananajimi is Himseka-san. In this series everyone’s name is significant, clearly. The whole side plot with the prince and princess was mildly interesting in an odd way, and provides Lara with her first non-TV reference point for modern teen romance. It doesn’t end well for Hime, but that’s not really the point. Except to the extent that it foreshadows that what Lara is searching for might not be what she’s supposed to find.
Finally, Lara’s big sister Lisa finally makes contact. But not directly – it’s through the masked boy who’s always with her, Kouta. They talk on the phone but despite being right around the corner in a car Lisa lies and says she’s far away. Apart from the fact that she and Auntie Witch are in opposition we don’t know much about what’s going on with Lisa, or who the heck Kouta is. I remain the same sort of mildly curious I have been for most of the first four episodes – we’ll see how long that sustains me, if it doesn’t change.
