「僧院へ」 (Souin e)
“To the Monastery”

The hints about Phryne’s traumatic experience back in episode seven came about this week in a way that I honestly could have done without. It was already unsettling to see Barrot press himself up against Phryne while objectifying her body, so this latest endeavor made him out to be an even bigger sick freak. Surprisingly, I’m not entirely convinced that he’s gone all the way with Phryne after it was suggested that her virginity needs to be intact, but I sure get the impression that he’s probably done just about everything else to his “prized sample”. Phryne mentioning how she and her sisters continually get “defiled” suggests as much anyway. However, it’s almost as if Barrot is so obsessed with creating the perfect Phryne that he “basks in them”, meaning the act of molesting young girls is not the original goal but the end result. Of course, that afterthought isn’t intended to defend his messed up mentality. I, like many others, wish he died in the rumble back in episode eight.

Interestingly enough, Barrot is only part of the problem, as Moeran has some ill-directed hate towards highly regarded clones created after her. If the series’ goal was to make out the monastery to be the most messed up group of individuals thanks to both religion and science, I must say they’ve done admirably in that regard. Rebooting the Fractale System every few centuries is a cult-like obsession of theirs, whereas the science aspect is depicted as the means of doing so. There’s no shortage of old priestesses acting as martyrs to protect Phryne, even after everything that’s happened with her and Lost Millennium. Suffice to say, I don’t think anything they do will surprise me anymore.

At this point, I really don’t care what happens to the Fractale System. All I want to see are these corrupt individuals feigning benevolence to the world exposed for who they truly are and then taken care of in the quickest way possible. Even the likes of Dias appears to be a saint in comparison, which is saying a lot when he can hardly be trusted among Lost Millennium. His connection to the Fractale System did prove handy for hacking into the monastery’s defenses, but there’s really no telling what he’ll pull to achieve his goals. (e.g. Pretending to help Clain only to find Phryne and kill her.) In hindsight, the fallout from the all-out assault has made a garbled mess of the various subplots, whether it be Dias, Barrot, Moeron, or the Granites family. Everyone’s been demoted to a cog in the bigger story, so the only ones that I care about in the finale next time are Clain, Phryne, and Nessa.

Time is ticking for Nessa as she’s quickly fading out of existence as the Fractale System collapses, so I’m curious if our main trio will be faced with the dilemma I mentioned last week. If the series plans to finish on a lasting note, losing either Nessa or Phryne is the only thing I can see achieving that at this point. Of course, I’d be all for a happy ending where the three of them get to live their lives together like Clain’s hoping, with the obvious trade-off being that overall series will not have amounted to much. Poor Yamakan will be criticized to death if that’s the case (if he isn’t a walking zombie already). He has one episode left to prove otherwise.

 

52 Comments

      1. Unluckily it’s not available for my country as well. Thanks for the link anyway 🙂

        And yes my name is from supercell, my favorite band as well. Lovin’ the new album 🙂

        The Story You Don't Know
      2. I don’t understand some licensing companies, they want to stop fansubs but they make their products available just to a few countries and the rest is stuck with releases YEARS later. I didn’t had any problem with Hokago no Pleiades so I really don’t get it :S./RANT.

        Guess I’ll try a proxy or something, thank you anyway Divine! :P.

        haitechan
  1. so much stuff happen this week… wish they could have spread it out a bit more… I find it interesting about Moeran’s back story and such.
    totally waiting for the ending, whether good or bad end, as long as it has impact, I am good for anything.
    ps. Barrot needs to die quick and painful!

    jrj
  2. I think the wait for the next episode would be worse if I watched this now so I’m going to save this one for when the next one comes out. It’s going to be awesome watching both episodes without the week long wait! Of course this means I didn’t read any of this but I’ll come back and read it next week.

    Justa_Dream
  3. I love anime except for 1 thing. The thing I hate about anime is that most often the villians punishment does NOT equal all the bad they did. They do monstrous things all thru a series and then just die a quick almost painless death or even worse are forgiven. Barrot better have a spectacular and painful death!

    Karmafan
    1. Unfortunately, this is so true. The anti-Yamakan maniacs on 2ch and elsewhere have been buzzing with activity ever since Yamakan’s statement regarding the anime industry prior to the show’s premiere. Really, at least for a specific subgroup of otakus the show was “destined” to fail so nothing’s going to change on that front regardless of how the show ends. The constant Ghibli/Eureka 7/Xam’d-ripoff comments on Nico Nico and similar Japanese sites are getting out of hand IMO.

      I do wonder how Fractale will fare overseas – it’s definitely going to tank in Japan as far as DVD/BD sales will go.

      sigmasox
  4. *sigh* This show has a REALLY weak plot. I was really surprised to see that it’s only 11 episdoes long, nothing has happened, little to no character development, and very little is explained, and it feels like the writer just assumed we all got the morals to this, because I sure don’t/

    And for the second last episode, we have no idea about the nature of Fractale and the Key, and whether it’s good to destroy it or not. Hell, we don’t even know what is “good” for the world here. I guess they’re trying to say that Fractale is bad, but funnily enough a lot of the problem are caused by Fractale malfunctioning, which sounds like it would be fixed by the key. I guess there some ethical problems with being hooked up to Fractale, but it’s not like TM’s a better organization, hell, their leaders seem pretty crazy too.

    I guess the biggest thing is the whole “we kill little girls to keep it going thing” and the whole implied rape thing, but again, that seems to be caused by the malfunctions of Fractale amd the people running it, Fractale itself is… pretty benign. They should really be anti-temple, not anti-Fractale. Only reason they want to destroy it is… because they’re really angry hippies I guess.

    What does the Key really do??? They say it “restarts” Fractale. I guess it’s good for the pro-Fractale group but… they haven’t really explained. And if it is good for the pro-Fractale people, why did TM save Phryne? Why wouldn’t they just kill her??? Were they going to use the Key to do something else that we don’t know it can do?

    *sigh* Even with all this, this anime was still more fun to watch than most of the other Winter ones.

    yanipheonu
    1. Wow, dude, you really need to rewatch it then and or, I dunno. Think more about it. The show doesn’t flat out pick a side about the fractale system being good or bad, that’s why Clain is the main character and neutral about the whole thing. It’s up to you to decide yourself if you think the world is better with or without it as far as morals go.

      You’re really overthinking it, hontestly, we’ll find out about the reboot system next ep when they start it up and how the keys come into play. And why help phyren? Well they’re not extreme members like Dias group who would just kill her on sight, why kill the key if your goal is for the system to crash/stop which it’s doing on it’s own anyways? Keep the key away and wait, no bloodshed in the process.

      GP007
    2. (sigh) another person bashing a good anime just cause their thinking to much into it rather than watching and enjoying XC

      just be thankful the people took the time to make this for your viewing pleasure

      makes me sad >.>

  5. To my mind, this show never really got started. It just kinda spluttered a bit and now it’s close to finishing, with everything, characters and world, feeling unnecessarily insubstantial.

    Mappy
    1. Don’t know if it’s possible, but remember there’s a serialized novel being done for the show, as well as the manga sometimes giving out stuff not in the anime, or they wore in the anime but submerged in it all. The novel will be based on a different story, still within the Fractale system (to my guess, through the eyes and life of someone else). Also I see the story trying to balance out the opposing viewpoints, which hopefully was already too much for such a short anime. Which leads me to also think of them not having been given the budget for more episodes. But, if it all sums up to what i think it does, could mean they are throwing a good ol’ All There In the Manual.

      Ine
  6. I like the show but The story is just a clash of extremist in my opinion. I don’t understand why MA is forcing everyone to live without the fractale system. If a person chooses to take it out they could. I see MA as the badguys in this story. IDK if the temple was violent towards people taking out their fractale systems but it didn’t seem so at the beginning.

    Bobula
    1. The Fractale system is like a drug, a braod mind controlling drug yet a drug nonetheless. Would you like to be sucked into a system that controls what you think and do and feel and basically turns everyone into mindless sheep of the system? This ep does a good job when the high priestess says her line about “people living without knowing love or a purpose till they die”. The system is totally evil, and regardless of how nice and sugercoated it seems at first, it’s still totally evil.

      GP007
    1. Ideally the 2 merge into 1 person and THAT person gets to go home with Clain. Or Clain becomes the new leader of the resistance group and they continue to fight on against the Fractale system as there is so much thats unanswered.

      I’m smelling a very open ended finale with a 2nd season to continue whats happened so far (like the Tower Of Drugna did).

      Karmafan
  7. Art quality looked noticeably more consistent this episode. Also, Clain looked a lot better with goggles on.

    Some powerful scenes in this episode, so lets hope the final episode wraps it up well.

    Soiyeruda
    1. While the manga was released first, I’m pretty sure it’s still an adaptation of the anime. And visual differences between the manga and the anime occur in every series. It’s usually never a result of someone trying to make a character ugly in one version but cute in the next, rather different people draw things differently.

      Bossun
  8. Finally got around to watching the episode.With the way things are looking, I predict Nessa and Phyrne are gonna be gone in the end, and Clain will probably end up living alone.A TTGL ending, which I hate.

    anishuma
  9. This is only 11 episodes long? Isn’t it normally 12 or 13? We did lose a week of Fractale somewhere early on, but 11 episodes doesn’t do this story any justice. The Matrix took 3 movies!! and an Animatrix

    Lucia
  10. Now that we are down to one final episode, this is my thoughts about the FRACTALE system…

    I wouldn’t allow Lost Millennium to have it their way. I agree with what the Priestess is trying to say here, without the fractale system, the world as they knew it will vanished and its people sent to oblivion and despair. While I for one doesn’t agree with the system, I doubt the ability of the Lost Millenium in handling things once the system has fallen, I’m thinking on how much worse they could do given the fact that they aren’t any different from the people running the Fractale system, each of them have different agenda and motives, I’d rather have the system rather than a world ruled by them.

    If I will compare the Fractale system to my point-of-view on how the “real” world works, it would be something like this:

    “As much as I hate Pax Americana, the way they blinded and give this false sense of security and prosperity to the rest of the world – I can’t help it, I’m just too dependent from the system they have created, it is the one thing that enables me to function and live a fairly comfortable life, remove that system, everything I am enjoying right now will surely perished. I don’t like it but I’m very dependent on it – hence I accepted it, but if I have to choose, I wish it didn’t exist.”

    Now, I hope for a bitter sweet ending, something that is acceptable for both the people dependent on Fractale and the people who have chosen to live without it.

  11. For some reason, if we get the ending that seems to be eminent. (The one that Divine spoke of.)I have a feeling that part of the Fractal network will survive, if nothing more to just to keep Nessa around. Maybe a portable version that Clain carries, so that Nessa never leaves his side. Though she probably wouldn’t anyway, if she had a choice.

    -that just my opinion.

    Hey it beats the Phryne and Nessa, becoming one theory that i keep seeing on other sights.

    Snicket
    1. On that note, do you remember how in episode 6 that old guy tried to reboot the fractale system locally. I’m wondering if Clain might do so to ‘resurrect’ Nessa if it comes to said ending.

      I reckon that episode 06 could have been foreshadowing something like this.

      Hrmmm

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