I’m pretty close to committing to Marronnier Oukoku no Shichinin no Kishi, but I won’t deny there is a certain “in the kingdom of the blind” quality to that. The cupboard is so bare this season that anything decent has to get a long look at the very least. And Marronnier is certainly that. Even the production is growing on me, despite its inescapable cheapness. The music is really good, and the direction by veteran Sayama Kiyoko has a good deal of wit and style to it.
This series is relaxed to the point of pathology, but things are starting to pick up a bit in the plot department. Someone (forgive me, I’ve forgotten who) suggested a few weeks ago that this series was somewhat reminiscent of ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka and yes, I can definitely see that. I once said about that show that “If John le Carré and Rick Steves each took 10mg of Valium and made a show together, I bet they’d call it “ACCA”. And there are strong echoes of that here. The tone never changes no matter what’s happening. That’s not so noticeable in the early episodes when not much is happening. But once things get serious and the stakes are considerably raised, it really stands out.
Something is definitely not right in the Country of Long Nights (which could also be known as the Country of Long Names). Again, things are very low-key but this episode does a really good job of communicating that sense of wrongness. Things are a little creepy and weird right from the start, even if we can’t exactly say why. Of course when three weird little blonde girls show up and start meddling with things it gets a lot easier to say why. It seems obvious that much of the core mystery of the story goes back to the father of the seven brothers, who finally gets a name here – Peregrinus – and a scene where he’s telling Eleonora that the land was once divided into 4,000 (!) countries.
The CoLN is superficially beautiful, with its northern European pre-industrial architecture and snowy mountain vistas. It’s surprisingly bright too, with flowers everywhere. And superficially friendly as well – their ambassador seems to have a fond relationship with Marronnier’s. But weird lights are streaking through the sky and handmaids are mysteriously taking sick (thanks to the sentient (?) blue flowers, obviously). Insomniac is taking an increasingly protective tone with Eleonora, which is obviously not appreciated by her. And when the ambassador tells her she’s to take on the role of the demure and beautiful fiancee rather than the fearsome knight (or gorilla) she’s even further out of her comfort zone.
The ambassador doesn’t flat-out share the true nature of this mission, but he makes it clear that he expects the Queen to try and make Insomniac remain in the country – and that there are factions in Marronnier that support this. She and Baribara seem to have some relationship/rivalry but it’s not clear just what – it’s the Country of Might Baribara was exiled from, not this one. The fact that the queen has eight daughters and Baribara seven sons seems conspicuously notable. The group also meets the young Archbishop, who’s stricken by Eleonora’s beauty. This is played for comedy and it’s later noted that raven-haired lasses are an exotic rarity here, but you get the idea there could be more to this exchange.
Yes, the intrigue level definitely ticked up a bit here. Even the intensity, if your instruments are sensitive enough to measure it. Is there an internal power struggle within the CoLN that’s part of this? Insomniac notes that the Cathedral has the position of power here, not the royal palace. That drop at the end about the “the God the lady general sealed in the tower” and “the promise that man made with the world 20 years ago” (just before Insomniac’s birth) is clearly a major reveal. I’m interested – and as well, in whether the structure is going to follow one arc for each brother and each country (all of which we won’t get to in 20 episodes, presumably).
