Sakugan – 11

“SOUND OF DREAM”

Has Sakugan finally acknowledged one of Memenpuu’s character flaws? I certainly think so. It’s often that children need a 3rd party to truly understand and actually analyze their own behaviors. I personally think Sakugan saved its character development for the end. Even though I had the suspicion that this was yet another episode full of shenanigans (which it kinda was). It actually turned into a teaching moment for Memenpuu. Gagumber has tried, and the word is tried, to tell Memenpuu what her problem is, it’s not with herself put towards other people. But his harshness and overall candor parenting made Memenpuu defend herself and retreat into a shell, which is most often the case for children who have absent parental units. Or come from broken homes. Still even with a complete household, sometimes it’s not enough.

Memenpuu’s family situation is not great, and she had to make sure she could take care of herself, resulting in her extreme intelligence, she is a gifted child after all, and part of the tantalizing, Rainbow Children. Furthermore, her true parents could still be out there, as apparently, Gagumber is not the real one? Or could it be just a tactic that the Shirobato guys are using to confuse Memnpuu? In those final moments, it seems like she got kidnapped, so I wonder what will happen in the season finale? How will they wrap all of this up with a nice little bow tie? I do not know. And from the plot currently being conveyed, it seems like an inevitable cliffhanger is about to dawn upon us. This is upsetting since Sakugan has done such a terrible job at telegraphing its own story, and has all but glossed over important character moments and details, not giving them enough weight. Of course all in my humble opinion at least.

The important tidbit here is that Sakugan had an original point, a call to action to get the journey started, but it seems it has all but forgotten about it. Instead, this episode decided to introduce a new character, an idol at that, and has made Memenpuu and Gagumber go on an adventure with her. They were bound to meet, it had to happen, otherwise, this whole episode would have been one big waste of time. I mean with the season finale upon us, Sakugan seems to want to dwindle in all but a B plot. Sakugan seems more interested in taking you along for the ride rather than build more on its dull but interesting world or dig deeper into its characters.

Memenpuu did have some sort of revelation this episode, she’s finally asking herself the big question, why can she follow her dreams, but other people cannot. It doesn’t make sense to her! It’s called privilege my dear Memenpuu-chan. If Memenpuu is not actually Gagumber’s child, then it would make all the more sense why he’s following her, even though he has other priorities in mind. Not only does the original incident fall hard on his shoulders, and the death of some characters as well, hence why he would want to escape into other colonies, but his overall detachment from Memenpuu as well. Sakugan still has some questions in the air, but it has little interest in answering them.

On the other hand, Gagumber has unresolved personal issues as well that stop him from becoming a full-fledged parent. His inability to grow would make sense since he doesn’t need to for Memenpuu, he might have been forced into the role of a parent, and thus feels resentment towards her for robbing him of his youth. Of course, this is all speculation as you know I like to jab into these characters, it’s easy food if you ask me.

Gagumber has an unresolved inner child issue, not so present in this episode, as he was actually good this spell and followed Memenpuu on her little sidetrack adventure, they became fugitives and that might be one of the reasons why they stayed together. Gagumber felt the need to protect her from getting arrested.

The life we choose over the life we want to live are very different things, sometimes you need to bend your dream, be it over lost time, or because the circumstances of your birth dictate how you’re going to live the rest of your life. Will you take over the family business, or will you pursue a completely different career? I think those are some of the topics this episode touched upon. That’s why I’ve been so harsh on Sakugan, because it does have something to say. It just doesn’t know how to say it. Whether intentional or not, having something to say is important to entertainment. It doesn’t need to be a complete literary analysis of the metaphysical state of our human existence. (EVA) Or how humans are ruining nature and have lost contact with it. (Mononoke) You don’t need to say these things flat out, but they are implied, hidden messages within the work if you will. Sakugan has tried to do this but fails in that regard, it comes out as flat and superficial. Trying to actually talk about it is worse than not doing so. Show not tell and all that. Anyway, I’m diving off the deep end once more, I know some of you don’t appreciate that. So I’ll stop there for today.

We’ll have to wait and see how this series actually ends so I can give you some of my final thoughts, however, I blame the original work in all of this. An adaptation can take creative liberties if it suits the final product, and from what I’m seeing here, that is not the case. Stories need beginnings, middles, and ends, and Sakugan is still very much in the middle, all but with one episode left under its belt! Oh, but bet, I won’t be touching this for a second season or cour for that matter.

Thanks for reading!

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