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「亡者の可能性」 (Mōja no Kanōsei)
“The Possibilities of the Dead”
I like to think that I pay sufficient attention to anime I watched. Especially for shows that I’m actively blogging weekly here on RandomC—I don’t skip ahead, I take notes, all so that the piece I eventually deliver to you, dear reader, will be fully informed. Also, more importantly, so that I don’t make an embarrassment of myself on the public stage; I will leave the success of that venture to the judgment of the reader. Point is, I like to think that when an episode starts flying over my head it’s not my fault. Unless it’s about names, of course. I’ll never remember any names, even delicious ones like Greenhough-Smith. That’s on me.
Although this arc of Dimension W was already double length, I couldn’t help but think that it may really have wanted another episode still. Not only is it heavy on the sci-fi mechanics, but there’s also a large extended cast, taxing our information retention abilities even more. There seems to be a full four groups after the Number, with additional players in the two versions of Sakaki Shujiro and their allies/relations. With so much going on and so many people running around, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t have much time to develop them. Kyouma and Mira are our protagonists, so we’re good with them, and Blondie is tied to Kyouma’s past so we can lump him in with them too. But Elizabeth Greenhough-Smith unfortunately served little purpose than to remind us that Loser is still doing his thing (just without his usual flair this time), and the other thieves were dispatched of so quickly I actually file them under ‘distractions’ rather than ‘characters’. Lots of people were involved, and lots of people died. That’s my takeaway.
On the sci-fi side, there are lots of little things I were unsure of, which creates further distractions in the overall narrative. Normally I’d brush minor technical points aside, but because the entire story was so busy I wasn’t immediately sure what was important or not. For example, the Enamoris—there was was one who was saved but lost her memory, and in the alternate world she died, so don’t we have an extra? Was the Dimension W version actually stuck in limbo as well instead of outright dead, or does she take form the same way Sakaki Shujiro does even he died? And while we’re at it, I understand the water ghosts with the weakness from Signs are tied to the water of the dam, but is that water from Dimension W or just water in the vicinity of the Number? And what about Dimension W gives you superpowers? Is it just the fluid-reality nature of that place? I don’t want to have to think about these things, but once I’m distracted my mind wanders. And there’s no question that a certain level of explanation of mechanics is needed to fully flesh the story. For example, Mira’s epiphany moment is a staple in all sentient-robot stories (and one that inadvertently cracked me up, because Luck and Logic), but I wasn’t even aware that she could be reset, or what that really means for her, or even the ways Dimension W is dependent on perception, so the scene lacked strength for me.
I may have rather critical so far, but I think I still enjoyed most parts of this episode; it was just put together a bit haphazardly without enough mortar between the bricks due to the time constraint. It was actually quite the ambitious story, all things considered, a traditional sort of ghost story with a full set of sci-fi upgrades. The quantum physics nature of the alternate-dmension plot must have been awfully complicated to write about, let alone adapt into an anime, so I suppose I should give credit to even the semblance of coherency. I suppose as an introduction to the full power of the numbered coils (as opposed to the pure eldritch horror of episode 02), it was functional, and at the very least our main characters got development. I was highly amused by Kyouma getting his karmic comeuppance for always unfairly bullying Mira; we’ll likely see him be less malicious as we go. But we won’t really see a real character shift until the reason behind his hatred of coils is revealed. That will probably form the crux of this series at some point. I hope Dimension W will be able to take its time at least for that.
While I like the manga, I’m not a fan of the anime’s fast pacing. It seems like they’re too busy trying to show the major plot points and forgot to tell the actual story. A lot of information and buildup from the original source was thrown out to fit this arc into two episodes, and the result is a rushed, confusing mess.
I’d say adaptation is taking form of it’s own, I didn’t read the manga and honestly this felt like a normal episode to be, a bit dramatic with the whole dam incident and the girl hitting her head.
Lucky i played Star Trek Online, there was some Parallel universe Missions (where Federation are the Bad Guys), so i begin to follow this stuff a bit
https://randomc.net/image/Dimension%20W/Dimension%20W%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
Seems like our “Looser” have many Children. Perhaps they where all Orphans that he take in. Last time it was this Boy and the pigeons, now this Girl also surveillance Bats… seems like he chosen kids with technical skills
It’s probably the same kid…just was hiding his/her gender before or now.
Show Spoiler ▼
or most likely this is his kid; i was under the impression in ep 2 that loser’s child was a female but it was just a hunch. This ep either confirms it or he/she is a trap
as a matter of fact, im pretty sure she’s a girl; her bust is anatomically depicted and even albert, who seems highly perceptive, refers to her as a girl
Well… the following tidbit got dropped for Loser himself to appear…That’s some mask there btw…
*WARNING – MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD*
Show Spoiler ▼
Honestly, i had no problems following what happened this ep (and it seemed most of what i said last week rang true this ep) but yes is it ever apparent that things are being rushed. According to manga readers, this arc should have been 3 to 4 eps in length. I really like dimension w but it is unfortunate that it’s starting to suffer from 1-cour rushed production syndrome
I don’t know. Maybe this arc itself was really too complicated to adapt that the producers decided to just cut their losses and give it only 2 episodes, in which case it’s understandable that they’d do that. It still did its job well in demonstrating the extent of possibilities the numbered coils are capable of, even if it’s still ambiguous. However, as a result of this treatment, cutting out what feels like a lot of material that may have aided our understanding of what the hell was going on, this arc turned out not as compelling as the previous arcs which did focus on the important parts that made us understand the arcs just fine.
Sigh. Such is why I don’t feel comfortable with 1-cour length most of the time. I’m hoping the following arcs get back to the pacing of the previous arcs. Also, more of Elizabeth please. She didn’t get much needed insight for her introduction.
About the Mira part, it didn’t make any sense to me either. Technically she was rebooted in the 1st episode when she lost her illegal coil due to her father’s Dimension W EM wave and received her official coil, right? She’s just as kawaii and cheerful as she was before. Or maybe because her mind being trapped in this horrific version of Dimension W that maybe she’ll lose her current “self”?
If someone understood that part well, please explain it to me as I’m just plain confused.
Most, if not all robots in this show can be restarted; it’s basic knowledge to most people in the world of dimension w. Mira didnt get rebooted in ep 1, it was more like she got shut down temporarily and had to be turned back on. What this “reboot” was referring to is something similar to a system restore from an older image in a computer or reinstalling an operating system; that’s how far gone mira was at that point until of course she used her will to break free of dimension w. All information in regards to her up until now would disappeared and her personality would have started from scratch. And in regards to ellie, i think most people missed the true point of her introduction. It more served the purpose of revealing that we had already met her before (as mira pointed out last ep) aka loser’s child
@sonicsenryaku
Huh, really? Guess that makes sense about Mira.
And about Ellie, this is kinda silly but I hope she’s a girl, not a boy 😛
Thnx for the explanation.
Im almost 100% sure she’s a girl. in ep 2 I had pointed out how loser’s child seemed to me to be more feminine. It was somethings about the way she talked and the hat that she wore that kind of gave it away to me. I dont know what it was, but i was convinced that she was disguising herself as a boy. After this ep tho i am certain that she is because 1. she clearly has boobs; those dont look like stuffing or some stupid shit like that. Ellie’s breast are clearly connected to her body. 2. albert schumann refers to her as “loser’s girl” and al is clearly too sharp to not be aware of her gender
@yoloalchemist.
Maybe Mira was just afraid she would loose her ‘life’ and be trapped in the alternate reality like the other Ghosts, and was wondering wether her restarted body in this reality would be still be ‘hers’ or another personality would arise.
But dat cheesecake doe.
Yeah, these past two episodes went completely over my head.
I understood the basis of what was going on. There were 2 parallel timelines going on that started when the author tried to decide whether to save his friends, or the girl who was drowning, and the author from that other timeline saught vengence on the author from the other timeline by murdering him. I think the confusion just comes from accepting that Dimension W can fuckin bend space and time and converge them together!?? Where the hell did this come from?? I know W is shrouding in mystery even to the characters, but the audiences still need to get invested!
pretty much although some pieces are missing: when the incident happened 21 years ago, parallel realities were created because you know, that’s what the w dimension does. One reality in which shiro saved enamori, and the other being the one where he didnt. The dimension in which he didnt save enamori existed because the numbered coil remained active. Mira explains that memories and events are usually backed up to the w dimension. Most of the time, this information eventually dissipates. At times, those memories or events can split into alternate realities; however, even those can be fleeting before converging back with reality. This dimension existed longer than it should have because the coil remained turned on. The older shiro who saved enamori, figured through professor kuroda, who was his professor in college (that name seems like it’s going to be important in the future) that enamori’s memories ended up being tied to the coil and the w dimension as a result. This most likely happened when she hit her head and so her memories were stuck in limbo between their world and the w dimension. After the older shiro learned of this, he decided it would be best to keep the coil on and hide it somewhere safe. The younger shiro had always thought that enamori passed away…because well, she did and as such, he couldnt perceive her ghost because she thought that her frozen body within the coil was the enamori that existed in the older shiro’s dimension. Keep in mind that younger shiro probably wasnt aware of the reality split till some time later. Anywho, older shiro had also decided to keep the coil on because he felt that this was atonement for allowing his friends to die that day. he felt that if they could at least live on in another dimension, then that would make up for his “sin” of not saving them in his reality. However, the ghost were under the impression that shiro did this out of spite and cowardice of facing his past; the years of being in the w dimension drove them mad. When Mira broke the casing to the coil, revealing that young enamori was never encapsulated in it, young shiro was able to see young enamori again, but that’s because he now understood that enamori was saved. The ghost young shiro sees are the memories that older enamori lost after her accident (whenever older enamori dreamed, she would see the alternate reality through the younger enamori ghost) the memories that were in limbo between the w dimension and their dimension. After mira stabilized the core, the realities converged back into one, therefore things have gone back to normal. No more alternate reality, no more ghosts of yasogami. Older enamori knows who she is and a numbered coil has been safely retrieved by fox mulder and Dana Scully..i-i-i mean kyoma and mira..the end.
The And before someone makes the comment that it seems that the creator of this show makes the w dimension do whatever he feels like…yes that’s true…that’s the point. The w dimension is this nebulous place, but it’s supposed to be that. That’s what makes the w dimension intriguing; all that potential. People can draw infinite energy from that dimension because it’s a place of infinite possibilities. The modus operandi of this show is exploring different cases, all x-files-like, about the various phenomenon that are caused by the w-dimension (there’s a reason why the title of each ep is referred to as “file”). However, the w-dimension avoids being “a cheap plot device” because each attribute we learn about builds on the next and adhere’s to those traits.
So the big question is how did Mira Accidentally Access the Alternate time line? was it due to her coil?
>How did Mira access the alternate Reality?
Notice how Mira was rendering the information she read in the Books. Those Books described the place as it was before the Dam, but, as horror stories, the environment was rendered accordingly.
Ghost Sasaki asked Mira “How do this reality looks to you”. Meaning the memories stored in Dim W must be constructed somewhat to become ‘real’. Another way to materialize them is through Enamori’s dreams. It looks like the number coil need a processor or a brain to connect to this side of the real world.
Nice analysis, yeah i think you got pretty much what happened there spot on … and i have to add that i can’t blame the show creators for cutting down the length of this arc to two episodes because while it does have some character development and world building (after all Dimension W is the title of the show) it didn’t move the main plot forward at all, spending 3 or 4 episodes on that arc would have been a waste considering they have a very limited number of episodes.
so. did anyone see the ghostly figure at this scene as the screen goes black? https://randomc.net/image/Dimension%20W/Dimension%20W%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
this episode had me thinking: Huh?
you too?
Can I quote you on that?
I am not a fan of this episode, no – actually of the whole double episode. It felt jarring for Dimension W to change gears without proper execution. I am liking the first half more just because it is not that clumsy then this episode…. I don’t know if it is trying to cram as much as information it needed but ugh. The opposite happened. I think I get the gist of parallel worlds created by the fourth dimension but all I can say in this episode is: eh? What a let down.
I am not even sure if this arc should be in Dimension W because no matter how we look at it, it feels like these are filler episodes with plot points sprinkled sporadically. That is, unless this show opted to take the coil of the week approach (which I am dreading to watch) until the big bad boss. Until then, I am going to watch this show.
I just think the author is expanding on the concept of the tesseract. It’s showing variuous effects of the dim W when used/missused. A black-hole in the first episode, a rapture in the Loser arc, a gps tracker in the children’s arc and an alternate reality generator in this arc. As long as the author keeps adding to the world building like this while balancing plot devices and coherence, everything should be fine.
I honestly liked the first three episodes of this series because it was able to tie the coil of the week thing along with the continuity of the story. Here, it just… get.. then.. boom… then.. it ended. I kind understand the need to do exposition for us to understand this Dimension W though.
Anyway, I am still looking for another week in Dimension W because ,well, Kyouma. I literally want his attire.
This episode isn’t doing a very good job explaining what Dimension W is. In the same arc, one of the three abductors sat through the professor’s lecture on Dimension W prior to the mass adoption of coils as the main supplier of power. It is explained Show Spoiler ▼
Actually this example should be posted into spoilers cause it’s the very same from the manga.
If you rewatch the past episode, there’s half an explanation about how Dim W worked.
Lol already a spoiler. Scratch that. (but not the suggestion to go watch the manga. It explained everything much better than the anime)
Good, so it wasn’t just me. I had no trouble following what was going on but it lacked the depth to fully understand and enjoy it. Did felt obvious that it was an adaption problem so that says something good about the original story. 🙂