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「星とともの果てに」 (Hoshi to Tomo no Hate Ni)
“To the Ends with the Star”
This week it was Seira’s turn on the pain-mobile, as some new friends make her rethink everything she thought she knew before.
Bend or Break
I’ve said it before, but Seira is the type of character who is very strong, but also brittle. She’s the wall that falls during the hurricane, while the palm trees like Ginka keeps on standing. (Sorry for always using that metaphor, but I have family from Galveston. The storm of 1900, look it up.) It’s no surprise that another Daemonia needed to hit close to home for her to rethink her way of doing things. I’m just glad that it wasn’t quite so…painful as the last one. That sound… *winces*
Which brings me to a larger theory I had. So we’re getting a Daemonia-of-the-week format – at least for now. That much has become clear. That’s not bad, but it only really works when the Daemonia effects a character’s story in some way. Compare episode 04, where the Daemonia was largely incidental (Luna heard the Daemonia’s voice, but it had no real link to her character) with episode 05 and this week, where the Daemonia had direct effects on Ginka and Seira respectively. Also, the first three episodes qualify as well, all focused on Akari. Daemonia-of-the-week is boring, unless it ties into the overall plot or gives us insights and development into the characters.
Convenient Writing
If you’ve been reading my posts for a while now, you’ve probably heard me rant about overly convenient writing, which I define as an ass pull (trope!) but on a smaller scale. Seira and Ginka just happening to run into Minori and Hanae or Minori collapsing when they all met again were convenient, but some allowances must be made for the story to work. Besides, sometimes these things do just happen. Minori just happening to slip her cellphone into Seira’s bag, though…what? That’s just dumb. That’s overly convenient, and sloppy writing at that. I could also include Etia asking Seira to fight with her current team one last time, but perhaps she knew what was coming? She is a tarot reader after all, maybe she looked into the future. Though if so, they probably should have hinted at that. Another strike against.
Even If You Understand Them, You Still Have To Do Your Job
I am once again reminded of soldiers in a war. (The old type of war, not the type we have now-a-days – think WWII and the like.) The average soldier on both sides are usually normal young men (and now, women) who don’t much want to die and don’t much want to kill their enemies, but they have their orders just as you do, so you’ve got to kill them before they do the same to you. It’s stupid, especially when it’s so easy to see yourself in their shoes (not hard, since in this case they’re the same boots), but that doesn’t mean you don’t still have to do your job.
This is the situation Seira found herself in. Finally, she understood a Daemonia, and it made her falter – but you can’t do that. Though she understands why someone would fall (or choose to fall, in this case), that doesn’t mean she can avoid doing her job. Unless another way is found, the Daemonia must be destroyed. Do your job Seira, even if it hurts. There’ll be time to cry later on.
Looking Ahead – A Lovely Holiday
I’m still chomping at the bit for the story to go into bigger territory, or at least have an opponent that lasts for more than an episode. Next week though, is going to be a “Lovely Holiday”. Personally, I doubt anything about it will be lovely, but I’m also not sure we’ll get to the larger baddie I’m hoping for either. We’ll see, I guess.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Seira once only hated, but now she understands. Alas that a friend had to die to get her there #geneitaiyou
Random thoughts:
- Seira wants her oppai to turn into muscle? This girl has her priorities all wrong!
- I’m really glad that Minori is getting the surgery. People like her, people who are really passionate about something…well, that’s really attractive. Others are drawn to that passion.
- Thanks again to Zephyr for covering for me last week, and helping me with the screen caps the rest of the time. A quick note, though – I’m totally pissed I didn’t get to cover the Ginka episode!! I even teared up a bit during that one. Not that this episode wasn’t good, but Ginka-chan are her otou…gah!
For more from yours truly, check out my blog on writing, art, and the book I’m working on at stiltsoutloud.com.
Preview
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Man I try to like this anime but it’s just so shit
I dropped it after the 4th episode, the artstyle only becomes decent when the girls transform, and there was this one scene in either EP 3 or 4 where a kindergarten teacher almost got one of her kids killed along with herself because she just stood in the middle of some train tracks and acted like her legs were broken when the distance to get to the other side was not big at all and she had ample time to get across those tracks. I freaking lost it when I watched that and dropped the show mainly because of that. Bad writing is bad.
I don’t remember that part clearly but it is hard to tell whether she has ample time to get across those tracks. She may be just passing by when the train suddenly appeared.
for that scene, I agree that…wow, that’s the last child and you already got the child out now RUN. but it’s easy to say such a thing when you’re not in the situation (paralysis due to fear) though I do believe this particular situation still called for a little suspension of disbelief
The horror of the story is amplified by Hanae (who felt worth-less compared to to Minori) sacrificing herself to allow Minori to get her operation. Seira had to kill someone who did the wrong thing, but for noble reasons. I felt this episode explained Akari’s actions more concretely. She is recording the last words of the Daemonia afflicted but still understands that they have to be destroyed. Acting with both empathy and resolve. Previously, it had appeared that she was going to be too emotional to fight effectively, but she’s overcome that. Interesting metaphor (Galveston hurricane). While the palm trees can survive while the walls crumble, at Galveston even the palm trees couldn’t survive being crushed by the massive piles of debris pushed in by the storm surge. You might be able to stand the storm yourself, but be taken down by the wreckage of those around you. I highly recommend Issac’s Storm if you haven’t read it already. I rank it right behind The Perfect Storm AFA a great read about weather and how it affects peoples lives.
Ahaha, you’re actually right! I use the hurricane metaphor more in the general sense, i.e. the ones I’ve lived through (which most definitely do not include the 1900 one). The Galveston one I sighted was more of an edge case where the city was so woefully unprepared for the disaster that came that it was devastated by it.
Even so, your point about other people taking you down even if you can stand the storm yourself is very interesting. I wonder if that might not factor in later on…
(For the record, I’ve read Isaac’s Storm. An interesting book to say the least.)
This was the first episode that I felt was bad.
I really liked this episode for its entertainment value and it got quite dark. Hopefully they’ll move on from this daemonia of the week format now that all the girls are covered?
The card this week was Strength. The infinity symbol was also used on the card.
This is just pure speculation but I felt like Hanae’s sacrifice had no values/morals as she just killed an “innocent” person and which, he/she became a donor for Minori. Thanks to usual Daemonias’ modus operandi she was able to get her wish granted in ugly way in exchange for her life (i.e becoming a Daemonia). I find that very selfish and dishonorable as she has just used someone’s life for her own goal.
Of course, there might be possibility that the donor might be Hanae herself but who knows…
during the episode it, Hanae mentioned that she might kill someone at this rate. though this doesn’t explain how the donor comes up, even if it eliminated the direct “killing” of the donor. I don’t think it can be Hanae herself since she should’ve been erased after being killed. only explanation I can think of is that the bad guy “fulfilled the deal” though I don’t know why they would even bother upholding such a deal.
The subs I got said “At this rate, I might kill someone else”. If the translation is correct, she is implying that she already killed one (I guess the “donor”) but she is afraid she might hurt more people after that.
Ah, but did she receive full disclosure before making the deal, or did she just wish to “be able to provide a donor organ to my friend” only to have it twisted?
Less immoral on her part, but still, not exactly the brightest thing to do.
This scene…
https://randomc.net/image/Genei%20wo%20Kakeru%20Taiyou/Genei%20wo%20Kakeru%20Taiyou%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
>Oh god….!
> Which brings me to a larger theory I had. So we’re getting a Daemonia-of-the-week format – at least for now. That much has become clear. That’s not bad, but it only really works when the Daemonia effects a character’s story in some way.
When not working to further the mystery businessman’s agenda, or when it can be worked into the job, the fortune teller does seem to be targeting people close to the Elemental Tarot users. Akari’s cousin, her club, Ginka’s ‘uncle’, now Sera’s new friends.
I wonder who’s using whom. Well, no, not really wonder…
Even before I clicked on the image, I knew what one you referring to. That scene… ouch >_<
Let me just get it out of the way that I do agree we were seeing some weaker writing from the show this week. From that cell phone thing to the heart problem and more it did really reek of just lazy writing. Even to some degree, the reveal behind Seira’s attitude is also weak writing and… so much more.
But, I’ll let the show off because even still, those moments got to me. We got to see the show, albeit somewhat casually, be COMPLETELY brutal and cruel in terms of what can happen to the character, in a way we hadn’t seen (in my opinion) since episode one with Akari and her murdering of her cousin.
We’re at the halfway mark and honestly, I’m concerned this will be another case of ‘not enough time for the cooks in the kitchen to decide how to finish their dish’ for this show. But now that we’ve got this ‘mandatory’ main cast character development out of the way, perhaps the show can ‘finally’ get back on track to expanding on its world and lore.
Hopefully!
So we finally see the story behind Seira’s hatred of the Daemonia. She’s out to avenge her dead friend, and is focused on herself becoming stronger. No wonder that when she falters while cornered into fighting someone she once knew and befriended, she is completley broken as she feels herself weak and useless. Ironically, it is Akari that shows true strength in this fight… And then consoles heartbroken Seira.
Stilts, your metaphor of war and soldiers has reminded me of the masterpiece that is “Platoon” – namely the scene when main character gets to see letters and photos of killed North Vietnamese soldier and begins to wonder why is he fighting – and why his enemies are.
Finally, when we are at the storm metaphors, I’d have to qute a classic masterpiece, Conrad’s “Typhoon”:
“A gale is a gale, Mr. Jukes,” resumed the Captain, “and a full-powered
steam-ship has got to face it. There’s just so much dirty weather
knocking about the world, and the proper thing is to go through it with
none of what old Captain Wilson of the Melita calls ‘storm strategy.’
Sometimes all you can do is to go straight into storm and do your best.
is it wrong to think this https://randomc.net/image/Genei%20wo%20Kakeru%20Taiyou/Genei%20wo%20Kakeru%20Taiyou%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2032.jpg reminded me of this? https://randomc.net/image/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Madoka%20Magica/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Madoka%20Magica%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
brain! why must you make madoka refrences 24/7? <XD
also, concidering the phone thing, if it were me writing it, i’d would of have minori and hanae invite seira to lunch or something, and then reveal the heart condition. [you can agree to disagree, but that’s how i would have done it]
on a side note, maybe that scene was a bit of foreshadowing to etia seeing the future, but i guess we will have to wait and see…
[sry for commenting twice in a row ^^;]
That’s exactly what I mean. It would have been easy for them to invite Seira & Ginka out and Ginka be busy (overslept, doing a make up test, etc) than have such a contrived reason. Hell, Ginka could have even been there, it just wouldn’t have affected her as much as Seira.
That was just lazy writing on their parts.
This show is just way to predictable. After seeing the first 5 minutes of the episode I already knew what was going to happen. Whenever random characters never seen before interact with one of the main characters it’s always that person that turns into a Daemonia. And of course Seira’s backstory is cliche as can be. Another one of those generic characters who are hell bent on revenge. So she completely disregards other peoples feelings about killing Daemonia and then she has to nerve to hesitate when she is faced with the EXACT SAME SITUATION the others have been facing till now. Honestly this episode made me dislike her even more. yeah i’ll probably get downvoted but that’s just my opinion of her so far. Might change in the future but i’m not thinking it will.
I’m hoping the story can actually go somewhere now instead of using the same “Daemonia of the week” formula that has already overstayed it’s welcome.
Don’t know if anyone’s said this yet but the crow’s eyes are reminiscent of the marking on the mysterious boy’s hood. And the cat’s tail is reminiscent of his sister’s ponytail. And they have the ability to shape shift as the boy demonstrated when he transformed into a woman. So I’m guessing that there’s a good chance the headmistress’ crow is the boy and the assistant headmistress’ cat it in fact his sister in disguise. And the two women are probably aware of this fact but hiding it from the students for a yet undisclosed reason related to the “experiment” the two animals were chatting about in an earlier episode. Either that or the crow and the cat are related to the daemonia distributors in some way…
Hell, the girl is even wearing a kitty button pin- could they make it any more obvious…XP
Now that all of them have experienced hearing the Daemonia, I got a feeling that we’ll finally get something new next episode…
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