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「三年四組I」 (San-nen Shikumi I)
“Class 3-4 I”
Today’s arc marked the return to a cohesive plot, centering around the nature of “strong wishes” and the people who have them granted. The wishes have been known to grant children superpowers, trap children in suspended animation, and recently we’ve discovered that they can form entire worlds independent of the real world. It’s an idea that sounds similar to that of the Law of Attraction from The Secret–a book that claims that people find success when they believe that success will find them. Wishes may not be directly related to the issues of defining morality in a world with the lines of life and death blurred, but it does provide an interesting look into the morality of interfering with other people’s wishes.
It’s weird that Alis has a strong desire to destroy the world that Class 3-4 has created. Although he is correct in saying that his classmates are “trapped” in an infinite loop (as well as the thousands of others he’s convinced to enter), is there anything inherently bad with the world that they are trapped in? The world is self-maintained and doesn’t seem to bring any harm to anyone in it, and as such looks to be a comfortable place to stay in at first glance, especially considering how tough it can get in the real world. It is understandable that Alis wants to destroy the illusion in order to save his classmates, but is that really the best course of action? Perhaps the strongest argument that can be leveraged against Alis is Dee–the greatest enemy he proclaims, but in reality may be the person that cares about the situation the most.
It is easy to dismiss Dee’s stance on opposing Alis and Ai at first glance–the story sets her up as a jealous character who stands in the way of our protagonists. I myself even fell into that trap, considering how shallow the show has been so far. On closer inspection though, Dee has a very valid reason to oppose Alis’ actions, especially with the information of her supposed death presented near the end of this episode. Not only does Dee not find any benefit in destroying the one world where she can sense the world physically, but also she does not find benefit in destroying the world that allows her to physically be with the one person she cares about. With a stable life that is full of friendly people without any worries of life and death, Dee probably finds the comforts of being “alive” and having not to worry about the real world to outweigh the repetition of the dream world–which actually prevents death by never progressing time farther than a year. The snowglobe, and by extension the ferris wheel, now makes sense as a symbol–the ferris wheel eternally rotates around and around in the snowglobe, but it is protected from the troubles of the outside world while also providing a beautiful view every single time. Being a ghost is pretty cool, but at the same time, I imagine it must be one of the loneliest experiences one can have.
Of course, Alis has his own legitimate points about the issue, but those are fairly easy to understand as compared to Dee’s conflicted situation. Once again, Ai will have to decide who is right and which idea will advance the saving of the world. Should she continue to support Alis in breaking the illusion that has deceived everyone, or should she support Dee who wishes to maintain the dream that people explicitly wished for? Though we do have to reveal more about the intentions of Class 3-4 in creating this world in the first place, the main effects of this arc have already begun to show themselves. It’s pleasing to see more explicit moral conflict returning to the show, and hopefully this arc can end without jumps in plot similar to its predecessors.
Preview
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Best episode by far, simply because the anime team finally gives us a better explanation of things and not a fast paced story like usual.
Despite the flaws, I still love this series.
Not to mention the the characters also grow their character per travel.
Yeah I agree, the anime might be even longer than we thought. We still dont know what exactly is going on, there is still so much left to explain and space to develop.
Almost feels like with every new episode Kaminai is gaining more and more potential. It is one of few animes I am really curious how the plot will continue, without being really able to guess or assume it.
Somehow, I have a feeling that Ai might go towards “the needs of many outweighs the needs of few”, or in this case, “…of one person”, just to save the world (ie. the 53k people plus the class 3-4).
So Ai-chan, prove me wrong.
Extra train of thought: Is Scar (or as I like to call her, Scarlet) now “broken” in a similar sense as Hana was?
it’s pretty obvious she damn is.
Boooo, the pacing sux, it’s going waaaay too slow now. There are serious issues with the plot, like how that baby hasn’t been fed at all, yet it’s still alive, unless it’s a dead baby, but babies aren’t supposed to exist in the first place. Waaah waaaah, this show is a trainwreck now.
How about a car that never runs out of gas and yet we don’t see gas stations, stores, malls, etc…
That is a good one, is the audience supposed to believe that car is the only one in existence? How was it moving in the first place? They never filled up for gas anywhere, they just “fixed it”.
No, the did show it being filled up once.
Wow… you really want to see them taking a bath, eating, sleeping every episode?
i wonder if ai’s answer will run along the same vein as her decision to keep ortus the way it was. there are very explicit differences between the two situations, however. for one, time always resets unbeknownst to the world’s residents, and ai would probably want to know if whether or not alis mislead 35k+ ppl in the world or if they sought refuge. it’s an infinite world of the living with a twist, making years that have passed worthless and increasingly unremarkable.
kamisama seems to have a way of presenting its viewers the picture of life, then slowly tearing off small pieces of the edges and cutting holes while asking, “is this still life?”. ai’s village lived happily amongst itself, but the coming of hamburger helper revealed that truth and death were absent in ai’s world. it was decided by ai’s father that life was not life without truth. and so he killed them. afterwards, ortus presented itself without death, more so than the wasteland since they will not even allow gravekeepers to bury their denizens, but ai could not come to an answer on how to deal with that. alis’ world is all without truth, death, or time. therefore, it is possible that ai, in accordance to her father’s past actions, will not see alis’ world as able to carry on the way it has been.. but it’s entirely in the air what her answer will be because of her actions in ortus.
not really sure if i’m looking forward to ai making the right answer, so much as i am to see what she decides how to define “saving” these people and what her justification is. i was pleasantly surprised at the end of ortus, it takes a lot for a person to say “i don’t know” rather than hastily choosing an answer. i’m going to make an assumption here that the ending to this arc will be as nice if not cooler.
For me this was the best episode in a while – maybe since EP 01 or 02. Amazing how taking a few moments to set up a story by giving viewers some much needed background information makes all the difference. It’s also a little bitter-sweet since it provides a clear reminder of “what could have been” in terms of the series as a whole.
I don’t know if this is a 12 or 13 episode run. I’m hoping that it’s 13 since one more episode might give just enough time to adequately address most if not all of the issues raised. We certainly have an interesting one here in terms of whether class 3-4 & the townsfolk are better off trapped in a fake “paradise world” set on an annual loop, or despite much harsher conditions, living in the real world.
IMO, this is really just another version of the same basic question raised a few episodes back with the “City of the Dead” (forget the name) arc. OK, the being dead part is a bit odd for sure, but there wasn’t any real strife or misery. Heck, it kind of had a festival atmosphere to it with all the masks. Was such an existence better than being “alive” given the current state of the “real” world?
In this case, rather than sacrifice one’s “life” (or perhaps even “humanity”), class 3-4 sacrificed their future. Is escaping the harsh reality of the current world worth that price? Clearly Alis didn’t think so, but Dee seems to have reached the opposite conclusion.
We didn’t even start to explore for an answer to this question during the “City of the Dead” arc. I hope somehow the show can manage to explore it along with some other lingering issues (grave keepers, etc.) before the season is over. It would be nice if Kaminai ended on a high note.
I think you’re on to something here. Ai’s mother tried to create “heaven” for the dead. Ortus did much the same. Dee appears to have done something similar for the living(?) or at least herself. In a world such as this is a fantasy better than the grimness of reality?
Notice too, that we have a replacement for Hampnie in Alis (an unaging immortal with a gun).
Good point about about Alis being a Hampnie replacement (fits with Ai taking up her mother’s role). This arc seems a bit different in that the others were more “setting the stage” while we may get some sort of resolution here. At least I hope so.
This is a really solid episode.
TQ
Hmm….
Not sure what to make of this. I was under the impression that despite her fickleness that Dee was firmly on Alis’ side…but now I’m not sure what to make of this all…
I’m guessing that:Show Spoiler ▼
Of course , I can’t be sure.
put the theory in spoilers just in case.
Given the Gola arc, people on the verge of death can gain a superpower to sustain them. As was pointed out about the ending, it seems obvious that Dee was given the ability to reset time.
Assuming that Dee does have that ability, it raises more questions for me in terms of scope. From what we’ve seen, apparently, her power is limited to the area around class 3-4 (i.e she can’t move somewhere else and reset time there). Perhaps she’s somehow tied to that spot in exchange for her power which is why she becomes a ghost when she tries to leave.
If she is “trapped” in that sense, it makes sense that she would oppose Alis. I have a feeling that if the time loop “spell” is broken, there might not be a happy ending for Dee (she ends up dying or will die if she leaves that area). IDK, I just get the feeling that there’s more to Dee’s motivation than simply “I like things better this way”.
It’s good to see the show come up with plot I actually care about, because this setup isn’t actually that bad. The moral conundrum at the core is clear and isn’t as simple as it appears to be at first glance, because, basically, both Alis and Dee end up on opposing sides because of the same reason – they both want to live a normal life. It’s likely that Dee ending up as a ghost in the outside world is for a good reason, so this is the only place she can ‘live’ in. Alis, on the other hand, wants to grow up and not be stuck in an eternal timeloop, which is understandable as well. I’m kind of taking Dee’s side for now, though, but I wonder where they’ll be taking this.
Funny what a bit of worldbuilding can do, huh, show?
At the same time, MAL states there’s only two eps left, so I hope they won’t start rushing it like crazy again.
Did someone say “destroy the illusion”? GET TOUMA OVER HERE! He’ll break that illusion for you!