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「大深度地下層(ディープ・アンダーグラウンド)」 (Daishindochika-sou (diipu andaaguraundo))
“Deep Underground”
Say what you will about Clockwork Planet, but the show is never boring. Every week has the uncanny habit of getting laughs out of me even while curiosity stokes the imagination. Yeah a good chunk of the humour is intentional like Naoto’s boisterous gear fetish, but some is definitely unintended. Marie feeling guilt over Naoto’s not-death? Probably meant to sympathize, but all I could feel was my sides hurting at the disconcerting eyes girl was rocking. Naoto miraculously returning from the dead? The cliché comedy writes itself. Probably just me and my sense of humour, but cannot deny Naoto’s roasting of the pint sized terror was hilariously on point.
The interesting bit for me this week though was the focus. A Mary-Halter episode, besides running on the serious side, showed how well Clockwork could function without the usual light novel hijinks. Remove Naoto and the dweeby personality—hell even RyuZU too—give Halter some additional power to compensate for lack of hearing, and the show wouldn’t actually be that bad. Yeah we would miss out on RyuZU and all the fun deriving from that relationship—plus those Marie tsundere-isms—but as a simplistic sci-fi story it could work. Marie certainly has the capacity for bad ass main character if her interrogation tactics are anything to talk about, plus Halter never disappoints with his voice of reason—and hints towards a human past. If anything I’d say it’s encouragement for Clockwork to take more risks when it comes to its storytelling.
Speaking of story, the big reveal this week was the story. For once we have a multi-episode arc on our hands which also includes elements previously touched on. Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen, but Clockwork’s setup is pretty ingenious for its simplicity. Illegal research, government cover up, and public relations boosting through an outside enemy—it’s actually a pretty realistic scenario. Our history is filled with similar tales (ex. Carter’s failed Iran hostage rescue, Operation Rolling Thunder), giving Clockwork some sturdy plot legs to work with. The curiosity for me though is what part of existence the government is trying to justify. Is it the government in its current form, or government as a concept? I can easily believe the former considering Clockwork’s premise so far, but the latter is a stretch, even for this show. The answer will likely involve that old man though, and may also include the allusions to anomalies and world stagnation discussed in earlier episodes. I seriously doubt we have seen the full extent of Clockwork’s plot just yet.
Before we get into such world ending problems, however, first we must beat the big giant robot and its loli master. Considering AnchoR is confirmed acting against her will I expect we’ll see some sort of RyuZU-led intervention on that front while Halter brings down the monster. Not sure how it will all play out, but you can rest assured the results will definitely be amusing.
Preview
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I loved this week episode too, but…
I understand that sometimes you have to make changed when adapting it to other media but I was dissapointed that they didn’t mención the reason because it’s more rational (I am having visions because I am in deny) than tsundere (How dare Naoto worry me). Little details.
The two other things are the skimming over Naoto and Ryuzu trip deep below and the fight where Naoto not only give instrucciones to Ryuzu but Walter too at the same time.
And with Mary’s intention to attack Tokyo, I think that it would leave usShow Spoiler ▼
I wouldn’t be surprised actually if they do tie things together next week. It’s the logical spot to do so.
She’s already a bad ass main character.
If Naoto is removed, the story becomes much bleaker, with Marie possibly ending up like Kiritsugu, or even worse, Archer–every loss weighing heavily on her, growing up embittered and loathing herself so much that she’d try to use RyuZU’s imaginary gear to find a way to kill her younger self. 😛
Naoto’s simple-mindedness serves as a counter, or better yet, an anchor (heh) that stops her from falling to that.
I like the yin-yang dynamic between the two young characters, which extends to their automata companions as well. 🙂
Oh I definitely agree, Naoto adds the comedic relief keeping things balanced, I was just surprised how well the show functioned without him. The ability for Clockwork to become that bleak/serious is pretty damn impressive given the light novel origins and something I’d like to see more of. Particularly Halter, I think his stone cold badassery–unlike Marie this week–hasn’t been fully utilized yet.
Having lost your body and being a cyborg help a lot when you want be a stone cold basada. 😛
@Pancakes: I am surprised by the way that you mentioned it being based in a light nivel as a bad thing.
I haven’t read any NL myself so, are they so awful?
It depends on the light novel, some are terrible quality-wise, but there are good ones, just like any other medium.
The problem is most light novels follow the same format or feature similar tropes/cliches which do not promote imagination. Stuff like Naoto’s personality, the wish fulfillment relationship with RyuZU, or even the “save the world” premise. Some LNs do a fantastic job with these components, but it’s hard expecting any serious originality. This is why my LN mentioning comes across as negative a lot of the time, I’m hard on them 😛
I see.
Thanks for your answer. 🙂
https://randomc.net/image/Clockwork%20Planet/Clockwork%20Planet%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
Nippon… in Clockworks
The funny thing is that, when they showed the planet, I couldn’t see any sea or ocean. ^^U
By the way, I didn’t know that they teach interrogation and torture techniques in posh school. XDDD
I had forgotten that part, and I had read the manga.
Finally found the time to watch it:
How i see…
(inside the Spoilers are my thoughts aka Fan Fiction)
Show Spoiler ▼
The Coffin where RuyZU was inside, at Episode 1…
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@Kinai
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in knights of Sidonia terms thinking…
Clockwork Planet is some kind of Gigant Spaceship Planet Sphere, where the generation of Humans forgotten that
@Worldwidedepp
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@Kinai
Your are right, with Gravity
but…
They still need Air to breath, look at mars… but then i am about to bring Real Life Sci-fi into an Anime.. My bad 🙂 okay let it sink, and i give up on this path or i begin to question every frame of this anime. But i want to enjoy it…
To me this was an important lesson in how bureaucrats in government see everyone else – as nobodies that should willingly die, rather than have their government leaders lose face, position, and power. And how governments are psychopathic enough to enact a “false flag” operation to restore people crying out for an all-powerful government to save them from the threat. Really heady philosophical stuff that points to today’s real-life governments.
“You should just die…are you proud of what you’ve done?” cries the politician. Forgetting the fact that the government was willing to let 100,000+ people die, rather than admit they could not save them.
You need to cut off the snake’s head, and restore honorable people who will act in other people’s best interests, rather than keep covering up for the psychopaths’ failures because it would undermine peoples’ faith in their government.
my Answer…
I give it a try:
Chackie Chan: Snake in the Eagle’s Schadow
the Punching bag fight against his Destiny
Similarity here, he is only there to play the punching-bag, here she should just die as others wanted. But with help of an old Master, he began to fight against his fate (aka Indian caste system)