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「貫く想い」 (Tsuranuku Omoi)
“Staying True to Your Feelings”
Why was this episode so good? The choreography during the fight scenes was really impressive throughout the B part of the episode. I don’t really know if they’re using motion capture for this show, I really can’t tell. If they are, the animation is certainly cleaned up during post. If they’re animating everything by hand then all the more impressive! Reflecting back, the story might not be all that. It’s predictable at best, with a grandiose self-serving retreat. It touches upon topics that, sure are progressive to Japan. But the rest of the world is far more advance at representing underdeveloped characters in marginalized communities all around the world. And that fruit has certainly grown in the minds of other countries, but societal norms still prevent D_Cide from taking the steps necessary to make it truly great. D_Cide would have made a little bit more turmoil if it took more chances with its narrative.
Anyway, I’ll save my future deliverances on that for next week! Let’s talk about this week’s episode. So, Oda finally meets his long-lost brother, but oh surprise, it’s not really him, but instead one of the church members who took his body and made it his own. By the process of soul transfer, the cultist was able to continue living, he was even a saint at some point. And he’s been waiting since the middle ages so that the situation with the Chutulu god is ready for reincarnation. Oda is pushed to the brink by the cultist guy and is just about to offer up his wish, but Rena comes crashing down and offers up her wish. All she wanted was to protect Oda, so she becomes a sort of Knocker Up / Weird hybrid that basically goes berserk. Some stuff happens and the Weird star manifesting in the real world. And they start killing everyone on sight!? That’s right, they stomp and crush everyone in vast amounts of gore, creating a river of blood. The Instrumentality Project is complete and the doors of Guf are about to open. Oh, sorry, wrong series. Instead from inside the blood, a monster comes forth. The monster design is basic at best. It has chainsaws for a mouth. Not really scary or Lovecraftian. Jessica points out that this monster is only one of many to come. So they must dispatch it quickly. Oh, and Tris also brings the two characters from the game, so that they can also fight the monster. It’s an emergency!
The fighting quickly takes a turn and all of them start fighting each other instead of the monster, who apparently is just sitting there quietly waiting for someone else to attack I suppose. The show just kinda forgets about the monster for a minute in order to give this other fights importance. Oda doesn’t listen and goes off to help Rena, her wish then somehow turns on Oda himself, even though it was he the one she wanted to protect. Not even Oda can get in the way of saving Oda. I mean I guess??? All I’m saying is that the logic is sort of out the window at this point. The episode ends with Rena stabbing Oda! What a cliffhanger.! Sadly it’s a little too late for the show to redeem any of its writing. Nevertheless, this was certainly one of the better episodes of this whole ordeal.
I really don’t know what I was expecting from D_Cide, I guess since I’m a big fan of the animation company and the music house that brought this piece of media forward, I was rooting for them, I wanted this show to be good. But it just ended being mediocre at best. That is not to say I didn’t enjoy it. I had fun with it, it has its own little charm, but the writing is so inconsistent and doesn’t follow its own world-building that I find it a little bit hard to place it in the great anime category. This show is weird, there’s something about it that screams quality. The animation and production are both top-notch. Being a full CGi show it certainly looks better than the rest, it’s well animated and has fluid butter-like movement. But its writing is discernably loose with its self, it tries to build rules for its magic system, and exploits lore from the game to its advantage. Yet it’s never truly jaw-dropping. The cultist at the beginning even had to apologize for winding on such a long exposition, as if the viewers don’t have the attention span to take it all in. It wasn’t particularly had to follow either.
Overall I think D_Cide has brought me some joy here and there, but I’m more than happy, I could say ecstatic, to see its conclusion and move on. With that in mind, I hope to see you next week for the final episode of D_Cide Traumerei: The Animation.
Preview
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End Card
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