Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – 05
Dat Robin Hood hat and Heidi hair.
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Otakon was an absolute blast – loved meeting everyone – but it sure was exhausting too. It also meant that the first time I watched the latest episode was in parts due to the busy schedule. But it sort of worked because the episode felt like a series of mostly unrelated sequences until everything came together with the main character luckily getting saved from near death by the robot girl introduced earlier. |
I bet the first robot cat girls really will be voiced by Nana Mizuki.
I enjoyed this much more than the previous episode, but I still feel that the show isn’t trying hard enough. We’ve yet to see the creativity or the energy return to the levels seen in that first headless chicken arc. Most of this episode was uneventful with only brief bursts of comedy, and the way it ended with several things happening in quick succession was a welcome change of pace. I hope it can maintain the momentum going into the next episode.
For better or for worse, I was reminded of the first 2 episodes because of the introduction of new realities of the show’s setting, such as the fact that fairies are vulnerable to electromagnetic waves and that seeing them gives you luck. Literally showing and reading out loud the explanation in the case of the latter. It’s a good thing that the writing was so funny, because that presentation left something to be desired. Some illustrations, if not full-on animations, of the scenarios would’ve gone a long way.
If these guys really were charged to 15 Faraday…
As nice as it was to see the show returning to revealing to us more about the world, it also drove home the point that we actually didn’t learn much in the past couple of episodes. The show is less than halfway done, but I’d like the various elements of the setting to start to fit together by this point instead of the show throwing yet more crazy mechanics at us. It’s cool that that one fairy dehydrated himself into a string, but does it really enrich our understanding of this world?
Then again, there was enough to like about this episode, since the main event was the main character exploring a lost city. Those acidic slimes weren’t quite as crazy as the headless chickens, but the city itself was fascinating and its origin story as one of hikikomori afraid to be hit by electromagnetic rays holds promise. I loved the music during the scenes in the city, and they reminded me a lot of Metroid Prime, a game in which you are also exploring a lost city.
There’s something unsettling about characters who never move their mouths.
It’s safe to say that Humanity Is Declined is not the show I thought it would be after the first episode. For one, its similarities to Fractale or Kaiba are little more than skin deep. And so far, the jumble of clever ideas don’t fit together particularly well. I’m starting to get worried that the show is establishing a pattern of 2-episode arcs that are very separate from the others. Ideally, each arc should build on the ones that came before it and help us form a coherent view of the world, but that’s not happening. At least this episode held together well, bringing the fallen monolith, “OYAGE,” and getting saved in the nick of time by the robot cat girl to center stage for an excellent cliffhanger ending. It’s certainly no Fractale, but it sure as heck isn’t Kaiba either.
Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!
About lvlln
A math/science geek and a self-dubbed cynical optimist. I don't care if it's deep, if it can make me feel something or laugh, it's fine in my book. @lvlln
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DAMN IT MOVE THE 😀 face ady!!
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It’s crazy. And those fairies are crazy. Those smiles that never fade away don’t deceive me anymore. At least they are cute when given candies and when not threatened by EM waves.
Ah, still enjoying, even though it’s becoming a little dull. When Jinrui was something incredibly unexpected and new, it was nice.