「魔術幻燈 Fantasmagorie」 (Majutsu Gentou)
“Phantasmagoria”

If the goal of this episode was to make Oscar out as a fun-loving grandfather with all the cool toys, it worked wonderfully in that regard. Enseignes du Roy sure has a different atmosphere to it when Claude isn’t around. It was as if Oscar wanted to show us the history of animation, starting with a projector they dug up from the storeroom that scared the daylights out of Alice and Yune, followed by a phenakistoscope that made them look like two kids in a candy store. It was very cute on both fronts, even though Alice’s “dragon” looked like an earthworm. Yune’s cat was a lot better, but still paled in comparison to herself. The sight of Yune in cat ears made me wonder how a minicon like Takanashi Souta react if he ever found himself in 19th century France, having watched the pre-airing of Working season two recently. My guess is that he would be all over her like Alice… except on crack.

On a more serious note, this was probably the first time that we got to see how much Yune has settled into her new home. Everyone at Gallerie du Roy seems to know who she is now, unlike before when she was too scared of Parisians and couldn’t even ask them for directions. As for Claude, it sucks that he’s constantly compared to his father, seeing he wasn’t mentored to be his successor. A man of few words, Jean Claudel didn’t even look like he cared to teach his son anything and instead, expected him to figure everything out on his own from watching. Knowing that, it was nice to see Claude tell a regular customer of Enseignes du Roy that he’s not his father yet try his best to live up to his name with his own designs. Judging from the flashback, I presume Claude had a love-hate relationship with his father. He resents him for never giving him a proper chance, but at the same time, he takes pride in being the son of a talented blacksmith. The thought of that makes me wonder where Jean got his cold attitude from — especially when Oscar’s nothing like that — but it’s pretty clear to me that Claude takes after him.

Admittedly, I’m not too sure what to make of Yune thinking she saw Claude enjoying himself amongst the crowd, but there’s little doubt in my mind about Jean looking over Claude’s shoulder. The way I see it, it goes back to the competition idea that Yune had, where Claude can make his father acknowledge him through the quality of his work. Even in death, Jean is watching over Claude and waiting for him to show him the extent of his skills. Unfortunately, the thought of that doesn’t really provide any real sense of closure though. With only two episodes to go, it’s also doubtful that we’ll learn anything more about what their relationship was like. Still, it was nice to learn something about Claude’s father, who left quite a legacy in Gallerie du Roy.

 

Preview

16 Comments

  1. Magic lanterns! I never thought I’d see the day they were incorporated in anything I watched. Magic Lanterns are devices which originated in the 17th century that use light to project glass slides, originally with oil-based candles. Unlike our understanding of projector slide shows, they would be simple theatrical productions. A notable example, the Phantasmagoria, was the precursor of the horror movie, almost 200 years before we even had film. There are also slides that allow movement, since they are two glass slides on top of each other.

    PCF
  2. Well Claude sure was fast to go back to Paris from Dijon in one day.
    Jean’s work was really pretty by the way especially the first one (the one for the flower shop).

    It was nice to see Alice being good with other, Claude was wrong when he said she was just like Camille when she played with him.

    Divine >>> well I think that the final will be on how Jean died; maybe we’ll see Alice and Camille’s brother too.

    KTNO
  3. Feels like a filler episode/chapter. Though it’s really cute and entertaining to watch Alice adjust herself to interacting with others. Claude was not wrong about Alice being similar to Camille, just that he was wrong about Camille’s intentions. As for why Jean was the way he was, I’d say we don’t know how Oscar was when Jean was growing up. He may be a Jolly grandfather now, but it does not mean he always was like this. Two more episodes to go, this anime turned out better than I thought it would.

    x
  4. Well… only two more episodes. And honestly, this series hasn’t matched that relaxing, peaceful feeling Aria has. Maybe I had really high expectations because it’s the same director, or that Aria had not a single annoying character, but right now, Aria > Ikoku.

    1. Well, Aria has a light tone to the series, everything is so relaxing and loving. Even quarrels between the characters are nice to watch and touching. I think Ikoku has more darker tone to it (Claude’s complex with his father and with Camille, Yune’s trying to adapt to France at the beginning of the series) with Alice and Oscar as relaxing factor. The source materials have a lot to do with it too.

      By the way, if you like Aria, I recommend you check out Amanchu! (manga) too, written by the same author. It has the same relaxing atmosphere like Aria and it’s really fun to read.

      Serapita
  5. Felt a little filler-ish but it was a good episode. Even though I’m fine with Alice and Yune doing cute things, I really want to see more of Claude, I really like the guy. Seems like next episode is about Yune’s sister, Shione. Show Spoiler ▼

    haitechan

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