Fractale – 06

IT IS TIME! RELEASE THE TROLL!

Uggghhh, I feel so lazzzyyyyyyyyy *rolls around on the floor* I don’t want to do ANYTHING. I have no reason for being tired, I just…am. Hopefully I am typing something marginally coherent right now, because I’m a bit out of it. Of course the week I feel relaxed, Fractale decides to do an un-relaxing episode. But the important thing is did it redeem itself after last episode?

Some dude is working on a giant antenna attached to the roof of his house, pausing only momentarily to see the LM airship land in the middle of a field. This old man becomes important later! Remember him! Since an active zone is up ahead, they’re using the opportunity to dock and do some maintenance. Of course, the maintenance turns into Phryne being the total spazz she usually is and stripping.

From peeling potatoes to peeling off clothing…

Clain appears just in time to see Phryne skinny-dipping with Nessa (who has all her clothes on), which starts the ecchi jokes again. It’s like a one ecchi joke per episode rule, I’m sure it’s a law somewhere. Other than Clain being a pervert, some guy is being a REAL pervert and snapping some actual photos of the scene. It’s the old guy from before! Everyone else chases him off for being a peeping Tom while Clain chases after him to get a gander at his antique camera.

Despite it being an open field with only hills, they lose sight of him and give up. Instead, they see a group of people wandering along the road. Sunda explains that the balloon in their area went down, forsaking them from the Fractale system. Being totally reliant, they have no choice but to wander until they can find another active zone. And oh? What’s this? The old man is a part of this group and people are trying to steal his camera? Well, of course Clain is going to butt in and protect the camera! GOD FORBID THAT THEY BREAK THE CAMERA.

Before anything bad happens between the refugees and Clain, something ELSE that’s bad happens. Some jeeps appear and a girl shouts “REMAIN CALM!” while soothing them with the melody of GUNSHOTS. They shut up, at least, more out of fear than anything. That’s when the newest character struts in, claiming to be a subdivision of LM in the Hilda region. They go by the name Alabaster, and the leader offers everyone free food and shelter…while he’s practically breaking a guy’s arm. Nice guy, that one.

The albino Izaya makes his entrance

Like sheep, the refugees follow Dias and the Alabaster gang. Except for the crazy old man who runs off. This time, Clain successfully follows him all the way to his house. Maybe having a gun pointed at your face upon arrival isn’t so successful, but at least he wasn’t shot. Clain asks to be best friends forever, so the man lets him in to stare at all his antique stuff. Clain is in heaven.

WOW, I SHOULD GO INTO OLD GUY’S HOUSES AND ASK TO BE THEIR FRIENDS MORE OFTEN!

Clain seems to be on the fence about his feelings for the LM group, so the man decides to show him something at midnight if he wants to know the truth. Conveniently enough, Clain gets night watch duty, which makes sneaking out a lot easier. Or it would’ve been if Phryne hadn’t been staring out the window. She forces Clain to take her with him and there’s not much the poor guy can do about psychobitch when her mind is made up.

They make a little detour to the Alabaster camp, which seems to be going swimmingly. Everyone has food and complimentary vaccines against some sketchy sounding disease no one has ever heard of! Nothing can go wrong! Phryne, like Sunda, is viciously suspicious. It ends up sparking an argument between the two, and they race to the top of the hill where the old man’s house is.

The guy takes them up to the antenna on his roof and does some fiddling with knobs until he manages to steal the Fractale radio signal. Somehow, this translates to the typical, cheery, Fractale scenery to return. It’s very unstable, so he tells them to check out the city that suddenly sprouted from thin air.

The Alabaster refugees are all crying tears of joy…except for the ones with the vaccines. Those with the “vaccines” actually had their terminals removed so they can never return to Fractale. Dias reveals his trollface.gif and forces everyone to fight against Fractale with him in return for the food and shelter. Or else you get shot, like that guy. Just so you lose faith in EVERYBODY, the Fractale city is nothing but a mirage…if there’s actually a giant pit, you will still fall into it even if the Fractale system put a nice-looking road there. Moral of the story: TRUST NO ONE.

The illusion eventually fades, so Clain and Phryne hastily escape. They meet the old man again, who asks them if they saw the truth. Clain asks him to come with them, but he’s too attached to his house. He’s kind of hacking up a lung here, but I guess he has a giant stash of porn he can’t bring with him or something. Anyways, Clain gets his camera, awww. The sweetness of the moment is intensified later when Phryne is looking through some pictures she stole from him – one of them showing a baby Clain in his arms. HE’S HIS FATHER! DUN DUN DUUUUN~

Bonus Snapshots:

Low on your weekly Nessa dosage? I’ve got you covered.

Haha…you can put your gun down, sir…..sir?

Makes you wonder where his OTHER hand is

Oh whew, he’s just a shotacon. And here we thought he was a pervert!

End Thoughts: Okay, so we’re ignoring the main issue of Nessa and Phryne and instead giving us other information to keep us happy? Clever. Very clever. While they still haven’t told us what the hell is happening in this rather muddled storyline, they managed to distract me long enough with Dias to not really care. Throw in a villain who smoothly manipulates others to fall in line with morals that they believe to be right, and I’m good. I really liked the introduction of Dias, who wants to change how things are done….but is forcing everyone to change with him. Whether they want to or not. He’s another one of those grey area villains, who isn’t outright evil, which makes him all the harder to deal with.

I’m glad the anime is exploring some of the more interesting concepts of the Fractale system, such as the refugees and how the Fractale scenery is basically one giant lie. Heck, they even threw in Clain’s dad for good measure. I didn’t expect that one. Since he’s such an antique nut, it doesn’t seem to match the doppel we saw in the first few episodes. This makes me suspicious that the Fractale system has more control over the doppels than the actual uder of the doppel…Creepy.

It was an enjoyable episode exploring some of the cool concepts that come with this setting, which gives me a little hope that they know what they’re doing. They still haven’t fixed the weird way they’ve presented the plot to us in not giving us much to work with, but episodes like this make me feel a bit more at ease. We’re past the halfway point, so things should ramp up from here. Fractale, you need to carry on this momentum into the next episode, okay? Don’t make me have to punish you.

About Overcooled

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.