Mekakucity Actors – 03
That’s actually a pretty awesome table.
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Kyo should finally be joining in next episode~. As for the episode at hand, things finally came together quite nicely. |
Things finally came full circle now, with the other side of the events of the first episode being explained. They probably could have just jumped into this in episode 2, but I guess the last episode was more of an introduction to the powers. Momo wasn’t exactly new to the idea of having powers, but she certainly served as a plot device for the viewers so they could introduce the eye powers/Mekakushi Dan. Especially with having her not believe in the explanation, even though she’s totally been through similarly weird experiences. Though the last episode also kind of gave the impression that Momo was a little… slow when it came to some things, so maybe that explains it. In any case, the rest of the Mekakushi Dan is better adjusted to their powers than Momo, so it makes sense that she’d want to join them. They’ve already made a point in the last episode that Momo has had plenty of troubles with her own. There were a lot more character introductions too, but it felt more natural due to having the characters appearing before briefly in previous episodes.
This seems like it was the first real look at the characters eye powers. Momo’s was hinted at, but they took a far more obvious approach this episode with just simply telling the viewer what each power does. Actually, maybe Kido’s was hinted before at as well, since they often had her disappearing suddenly. though of course, that could have easily been mistaken as just an anime effect to make her seem mysterious or of course, Shaft just being Shaft. Anyways, the eye powers seem like just interesting add-ons to help characterize now, but the whole reason behind the characters getting them in the first place has a larger place in the overall plot. …So long story short, there should be an explanation as to why the characters have them somewhere in this.
It also seems that 3+ people conversations aren’t quite the same as the one on one conversations. Maybe it was just the setting, but there was a lot less Shaft-ness going on when the Mekakushi Dan was altogether as opposed to what happens when there are only two characters in a conversation. There were still hints of Shaft, but there weren’t jarring shifts of where the conversation took place or anything. There was more of that towards the end with the really obvious character colour association and whatnot, but that worked fine with the action scene.
As for the Mekakushi Dan itself, it seems to have a pretty good range of characters. Of course, the colour association thing helps keep everyone individualized, but aside from that, their character personalities are also rather distinct. There’s good dynamics there with team work. Obviously Kido, Kano and Seto would work well since they’ve been together since childhood (Marry has been there for less time), but Momo fit right in too when it came down to it. It should be interesting to see how things go for them in different situations, since the teamwork worked so well in this one. …Even if Shintaro just kind of fell uselessly to the ground at the end, was never a part of any of the planning to begin with, and had no idea what was going on at the time.
If you’re worried about the usual “imouto is in love with the onii-san” dynamic that so many anime seem to have fallen into recently, you don’t have to be. This is a pretty normal sibling relationship, even if the episode had Momo being rather concerned with what her Shintaro was doing. It’s more of a (platonic) sibling concern, really. Plus Momo was probably interested in what he was doing, seeing how Shintaro hadn’t left the house for a looong time before this point. …Though if Jin wrote it into the anime script, I could be totally wrong. I don’t think he would though.
At least we can count on Shaft for being spectacularly lazy as always
Yes, this show is definitely better balanced with all of the characters interacting at once. It felt like more actually went on as well, though maybe that’s because they got a lot of the exposition out of the way with a quick explanation since most things had already been set up in previous episodes. I’ve always liked seeing events from multiple perspectives too, so this part in the story was interesting for that as well. They had a music part in this again. I’m pretty sure that Mekakushi Code is Kido’s image song (kind of like how Kisaragi Attention was Momo’s), so it actually fit in pretty well with what was going on. I actually vastly preferred it to the original, since Miku’s voice was soooo high in it, and it sounds so much better in lower pitch. It’s just a shame that the first episode didn’t have Ene’s song. Though it probably would have been hard regarding events that haven’t happened yet and I imagine that they’re going to save that for Headphone Actor. Anyways, this was a good introductory three episodes as far as I’m concerned. Bring on the character deaths.
So now that the introductions are done, let’s get into the more depressing part of the story.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I felt the show clicking in this episode. I guess it’s one thing to labour with narrative and characterization, another to have single beat episodes back to back.
I wish SHAFT would be a bit less SHAFTy, and just let the stuff about the powers play out more natural. It felt weird.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahaha it is kind of hard to tell what part of the animation is the powers at work and what part is Shaft.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
My superpower is SHAFT! It takes many months for me to unleash my true power. Now, excuse me, I have to storyboard my awesome.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Wait, I think I know how this goes. You’ll promise to show us your power eventually, but keep delaying it for large amounts of time.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, I tell you I gots the ultimate Vampire powers, but really I’m a Magical Girl…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Deceiver!! How dare you use the word “vampire” in your fraudulent scheme?!
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
It’s okay, skylion. We know how much money Magical Girls make. Surely your Vampires will surface eventually. …Maybe after another couple of seasons of other totally unrelated projects.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
You know the choice between being Shinobu-chan and a Magical Girl is very hard to make. It would probably crush you. Be thankful I am taking the burden.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
I have a contract here all drawn up for you to be a Magical Girl. Please sign on the dotted line. :3
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Really, having Magical Girls and Vampires at the same time would be the ideal situation, but apparently that’s hard to achieve.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
By technicality and depending on their level of LOLipowa, vampires can be classified as Magical Girls.
Eg. Remilia-ojou-sama and Flandre-imouto-sama.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
He’s buying time. Whatever he has planned is not ready yet.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
The
formerMotherfoshing Gandalf arrives exactly when he means to.POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Episodes 2 and 3 were much better, both from a story interest point of view and a character point of view. It was also nice to get a bit of a break from Kana Asumi manically blathering on. I like her so much better as Tensai in Nanana, than the almost-Nyarlko character that Ene seemed to be in the first episode.
I will say that if the point of the story is to kill off the main characters one by one, I’ll probably bail pretty quick.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I prefer Ene when she’s being quieter as well… Though what can you do. That’s what her character is like. Looking at her past should be interesting.
Er, I wouldn’t quite call that the point of the story, but I don’t know how you’re going to take some of the later developments.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
A lot better now that multiple cast members joined in. The dialogue is still there (obviously) but shared.
Going by the glowing blood red eyes and various powers between Momo and the Mekakushi Dan, they’re not completely human. I go by saying “not completely” because Kana Hanazawa’s character Marry is stated to be ¼ Medusa, which makes sense of her ability to petrify people by glaring at them. And who knows? Maybe Asagi Aiba is one of them. 😉 Everyone there has one thing in common: they love wearing hoods.
Rather than disappearing, Kido’s power is more like suppressing her presence to others, she’s there but no one can tell while Momo is the opposite drawing attention to herself. Two sides of sides of the same coin. And for a new recruit, Momo fits in no problem. The conversations are so casual that it’s kind of shock it’s their first meeting. The probable incest factor with Shintaro wasn’t much of a concern since the atmosphere indicated they don’t spend a lot of time together. Plus there’s Momo career as an idol that was surely filling up her schedule.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
The character interactions in this are definitely one of the more entertaining parts. A lot of the characters have some interesting quirks and I hope some of them are mentioned in this. Like Marry being a fujoshi. xD
Marry is kind of… special. The others are human though. They’re just kind of caught up in something larger. Hell, even if they’re new and not even officially part of the group yet, Ene and Shintaro are also caught in it.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Then you know Ene wasn’t a program to begin with? Something happened to her to make her what she is now.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ene’s character is interesting, but I’ll talk about that when we get there. Headphone Actor is one of my favourite arc(?)s in this series~.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hopefully it won’t take long to get her whole story out in the open.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I assume it will be in the anime, since they have a bit from it in the OP
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Marry is a fujoshi!? Lol. I don’t recall I ever saw that side of her in the manga.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Oh, by the way, since I know you’re a Persona fan, Kara, here’s a little news: Persona 4 Golden Gets TV Anime by A-1 Pictures in July.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yeah, I saw that when I woke up this morning. …Which I guess is awesome, but reeeeeally pointless since Golden was the exact same story with one extra character + gardening/skiing/other events that do absolutely nothing for the plot.
Though if this leads to them making something based on Persona 3 Portable, even though they’re JUST making the movies on the original Persona 3 now, I wouldn’t mind (because the female protagonist and whatnot).
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It would be really pointless for you if it’s the same. I remember you Tag Teaming the anime with Overcooled when the original was airing. One of my most embarrassing comments on Metanorn was mistaking Naoto’s gender.
I’ll only talk about the other one if asked.POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yep, good times with OC. But yeah, a whole new Golden anime seems like it would be pointless unless they add in a lot of plot. If they go by the game though, I think it will just be a lot of slice of life time outside the television.
Ahaha okay, I’ll ask. xDPOWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
In one of the Metaverse posts, episode 18, almost two years ago. A comment I made turned out to be a huge wall of text, massive, because I was explaining the animes I watching at the time and why I liked them. What didn’t come to mind was how much was being written in the process and to me, it didn’t seem like a lot, so no big deal. After it was saved from the spam filter, it shocked everyone who saw, even Kyokai and Fosh. Check it out yourself if you’re in disbelief.
Then later on, on one of Overcooled’s posts, I can’t remember which one, a reader posted a comment and worried if it was too long and it wasn’t. To ease the reader’s anxiety, OC suggested taking a look at that Metaverse post, saying it was more than any commenter or blogger made and apparently the reader was dumbfounded yet relaxed after seeing it. I was so embarrassed it wouldn’t have surprised me if steam came out of my ears. If anyone asked how I left my mark on Metanorn, it wouldn’t be by my comment count alone but that monstrous stack of lettering I left behind.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Marie being animated makes me hyped. Also looks like the drawings improved compare to P4tA. Hope that P4G anime will lead to P4A anime.