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「奪い切れない未練」 (Ubai Kirenai Miren)
“Unobtainable Lingering”
Geeze Engage Kiss you ain’t wasting any time are you? Hot off the heels of throwing Shuu’s family history into the open, we now received the second entre in Kisara delivering the goods to Ayano, all the while hinting quite openly about the upcoming choices to be made as discussed previously. This may be a “seen it all before” sort of show, but it’s proving quite hard to pull one’s eyes away from what’s on screen.
Although generic anime is a veritable meme at this point, Engage Kiss is yet another example showing how execution can easily make up for lack of uniqueness. For example the competition between Kisara and Ayano would often be some dragged out affair, a relationship full of misunderstandings and crosstalk which doesn’t really get anywhere. Shuu would in turn be some static stand-in who’s defined more by the boxes he checks off than any sort of vibrant personality, the reward for a pair of girls whose purpose is winning him completely. While the latter can still be said about Shuu (we’ve only just started touching on his mission), Kisara and Ayano, as oh so succinctly indicated, aren’t the harem girls of yore: sure they loathe each other (at least in Ayano’s case), but they talk, they barter, and they speak honestly about what they’re after.
What they’re after of course remains Shuu himself, but it’s interesting seeing the difference in desires. Ayano for one is still harbouring feelings, proving right the prediction that Shuu deliberately left her in part to avoid to pain of seeing him forget memories sacrificed for the act of revenge. Obviously wrong move in hindsight – Ayano’s attempts at isolating him from fighting are enough reason to show that off – yet one with a legitimate purpose behind it. Likewise Kisara is definitely after love herself (even if only the illusion of it) to fill whatever void exists within her, with Shuu simply being the man of the moment to grant her wish. While it remains to be seen if there’s more to Kisara’s goals and her contract with Shuu than simply being the last girl Shuu physically remembers, for the moment this love triangle is quite literally all about love and definitely will be until we finally catch up with the man who can start pointing Shuu in the direction of his family’s killer.
After all, nothing says love quite like rescuing your romantic interest (or romantic competition) from the enemy of the moment, and something tells me Ayano is going to need such saving in the very near future.
Preview
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” … is yet another example showing how execution can easily make up for lack of uniqueness”
It really can’t. Series may compensate in terms of production but it can never make up what it lacks.
It’s a pity really, if you see how much money is thrown at projects like this one while other shows notably suffer from lack of resources.
IMO it’s not production which compensates here, it’s the writing. There’s a degree of depth and nuance present for the characters which you don’t typically see for this sort of series and it’s enough to make things (at least for me) interesting. Not enough to proclaim masterpiece material mind you, but enough to get me excited to see what the next episode brings.
Would it be right to say the lack of communication killed the love between Shuu and Ayano? And Kisara is a third wheel taking advantage of Shuu’s contract with her?
And why does Kisara want Ayano to know Shuu is feeding her his memory to stop the Demons? Isn’t it better to leave Ayano clueless?
Kisara said it herself in ep3: Shuu is sacrificing his memories to the girl he does not love (herself) to achieve his objective and to save the girl he loves (Ayano). The love is still there, clearly and from both sides, although their relationship has been split by Kisara.
About telling her: There are two possible explanations:
First is that by revealing that Shuu is losing his memories, Ayano might get discouraged enough and give up on him. This would be supported by Kisara’s grudging “compliment” that the ‘first girl’ was so resilient.
The second is that Kisara does not want to see Shuu suffer by seeing ‘first girl’ suffer or die. Remember that Kisara has intervened multiple times to save Ayano from death, e.g. dying from falling debris in ep3. She’s one of the most “human” demons I can remember ^_^;
Mentar has basically summed both questions up, but a good summary of the first is that while Shuu’s deliberate loss of memory broke off their relationship, it did not get rid of their love. Ayano shows it best with the pain she goes through whenever certain memories are brought up, but even Shuu at time has displayed agony at knowing he forgot something important about a girl he cares about. If it wasn’t for Shuu’s mission they definitely would still be together as bluntly stated by the memories Kisara brings up of the pair during happier times.
And she may want Ayano to know that Shuu’s memory is not “lost”.
That could be a hint for further developments.
Personally, I don’t think that the story lacks anything.
The “paying with memories” aspect and its effects on the ML and his relationships is unique enough for me to go for it. Also, I wouldn’t describe the relationship between Ayano and Kisara as “loathing” anymore. They are pining for the same guy and get mad whenever they see him with the other, but when push comes to shove, they still help and sometimes even rescue each other.
It’s the development of this triangle and the Black Bullet vibes which keeps my interest going. That the show is looking extremely pretty is a bonus, but not the main reason for it.
Given the way the girls are fleshing out you’re likely right on the loathing part. Ayano still harbours a natural jealousy of Kisara, but Kisara’s necessity in battle and Kisara revealing the truth behind Shuu’s actions has made Kisara somewhat more relatable. Personally I don’t expect Ayano to fully warm to the girl, but she’s definitely gearing up to give her the benefit of the doubt. At least until we find out exactly what Kisara is after 😛
So far this anime hasn’t really impressed me much or has been exceptionally entertaining for me. But one thing that made me serious consider dropping this is that the sound just hurts my ears at times.
Biggest example was during the meeting in the park. That high-pitched noise in the background was just painful and this anime has not shown to be worth any commitment to go through that.