Mekakucity Actors – 05
Get your game ON!
Oh man, I sure made everyone wait for the return of Kara no Kyokai tag; but, I’m finally here! *strikes a pose* And I haven’t been late because I was stressing over my tan from vacation but rather lots of work, that pretty much equates to zillions of projects but hell, I’m here to unwind so let’s have some fun with my complementary partner, Kara (✿◠‿◠)
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番長がキター~! Yes, it took us a while to finally get things together, but today marks the glorious return of Kara no Kyokai. …Which somewhat coincides with the characters of Mekakucity Actors finally all coming together in the same episode as well. Yay.
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Shaft is so good on awkward moments
It’s very tricky to take a multi-media project and then present it in a different way. The AMVs are pretty well done even if they are fan made, because they are good in keeping its audience engaged even after everything not making sense. Add Shaft into the mix and you have a visually appealing presentation that gets better with time. The current episode was much better than say, one or two’s disjointedness. The pacing actually made sense and I didn’t have to guess around the facts that I missed certain clues just because I have low knowledge of the source material.
This thought brings me to the character of Shintaro, who is slowly climbing the development charts. From the Hikki+NEET teenager, the dude has come a long way in interacting with other people even if it was caused by unforeseen circumstances. Add in the bonus of pervert label and you will slowly see his sanity strip away. But really, getting nekkid on some kawai maiden’s bed just because an AI program dared him to? Tsk, tsk… this boy needs some world knowledge and fast. Still, this was one of the genuinely funny moments of the series with the ridiculous sequence of tiptoeing through the daisies, where he resembled a happy titan from SnK. Ene sure knows how to push his buttons and he just fell into the trap.
DAT ASS
Though, I’m not surprised at his elongated meanderings. When you are eighteen, are you really comfortable in joining a group as chuni as Mekakushi-dan?! I mean sure it sounds cool with interesting looking people but what’s in it for a shut-in like Shintaro? Rather than Momo, I’ll side with him if some shifty looking people suddenly wanted to be my friends… But jokes aside, the gang seems to be bonding and however many doubts Shintaro might have, he has joined this bunch of weirdos for good.
Well, pretty much everyone appeared this episode, and the character interactions are finally falling into place. As expected, Ene fits in well with everyone else’s weird personality and Shintaro is left just simply trying to catch up. I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t have the part where Ene accuses Marry and Momo of being in a yuri relationship, but maybe I’m just not remembering where that dialogue fits in correctly and it comes later. …Not that it’s even that plot important, but it was funny. Though speaking of relationships, I’m not entirely sure if they’re really “canon” overall, but the original Kagerou Project had a few characters who seemed to be paired together pretty frequently. One of the more obvious ones here in this episode was Marry and Seto. Marry’s backstory should come out eventually, but as you saw, they’re pretty close. I’ll probably mention the other ones as they come along, but it works out pretty neatly.
Not a single zettai ryouiki? Where is this guy’s taste?!
They’re mentioning Ayano a lot this episode. Not only in the dialogue explaining that she was the one who formed the Mekakushi Dan in the first place, but also in her appearances in the episode. Also of course, there’s the whole reveal that Ayano was a “strong person”, and yet, she committed suicide a couple of years ago. Which raises the question as to why Shintaro is seen talking to her frequently, or why Ayano needs him to remember that they even talked in the first place. On top of and aside from that, they’re also doing so much in the way of subtle foreshadowing. …Or maybe not subtle, but it’s kind of hard to tell when they’re foreshadowing and when they’re just being Shaft. The part with Ayano and the two somewhat not yet introduced characters was just really well placed.
Just as something to keep an eye out for in the future, if you want to maybe figure out a few things faster…
Also, not really a spoiler, but I hope that you’re all keeping up with the mini story about the “monster” at the end of the episodes. It’s kind of important. …And also adorable.
As for Konoha, there’s not a whole lot I can say about him yet. It’s funny how even Shintaro notices that Konoha is “weird”. …Though Shintaro is probably one of the most normal people on the team, so it’s practically his job to tsukkomi point out how weird everyone else is. But back to Konoha, he has some interesting abilities too, considering how he forced his way into a metal van and summoned snakes out of nowhere. His eyes were glowing red plus the previews to Mekakucity already revealed this long before the anime even started airing, so he’s obviously going to be joining the Mekakushi Dan in the near future.
Return of kuchinawa-san
Okay, so my introduction to Kageru Days was via Kara, no surprises there. I was never much into Vocaloid except for few of their popular songs so this is one fandom that I haven’t really delved into. However, some of the music videos that I watched by Jin were fascinating: Lost Time Memory, Kagero Days and Outer Science comes to mind. And it seems, Shaft was perfect to capture this into anime form because of their psychedelic rendition of notorious material, the more scandalous the better. Overall, I’m enjoying this series even when the beginning was a bit bumpy with disjointedness. It’s still not making much sense but in the midst of all dream sequences and what-ifs, the hints are taking form and I can only hope that they will become a promising cohesion by the end.
Ahaha I had my own problems figuring out things when I first got into the Kagerou Project, but at least the anime is helping me connect a few dots. It’s not the most coherent of stories. But at the same time, I definitely don’t think that this would be quite the same series if they just told things in chronological order. I mean, when the PVs were first coming out (and they definitely didn’t come out in chronological story order), half of the fun was trying to figure out how all of this fit inside the bigger picture. Though of course, I’m also having a lot of fun with how Shaft is throwing genuine foreshadowing in with their usual weirdness. Once the plot reveals what’s really going on, this might be a good series to watch again from the beginning.
Not that it’s very far away, but a major cuteness warning for the next episode. I just about died from moe overdose the first time I went through the Headphone Actor/Yuukei Yesterday arc.
Next up: Headphone Actor
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Remember something related to “someone from Shaft having foot fetishes”? I guess that was why Shintaro’s photos were like that. So many foots.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I dunno, I’d say that Shintaro’s fetish seems to be legs as opposed to feet. Or maybe “legs with heels”.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Shinbo the Director, has a foot fetish, clearly seen in Monogatari series.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Uwa, I’ve been skipping the Monster stories at the end because I thought they were kind of boring. I might have to start paying attention again…It’s a confusing series (especially for someone with zero knowledge of the source material) but it’s fun. I’m glad the gang is all together now too, because it makes things a lot more easy to follow with everyone working together towards a goal instead of being scattered about everywhere. It’s starting to get good!
Anyways, it’s nice to see Kara no Kyokai make a return!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It is really confusing. I hope it makes some sense going forward, although jumping around from character to character and time frame to time frame sure isn’t helping that.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…like, OC, I have no knowledge of the source material. But I find it kinda interesting to piece it all out.
But this felt like the nakama episode that couldn’t. And they did it that way on purpose? Am I far off?
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
@Cools, It will help if you see all the previews together (so try running them from epi 1 to current, there’s more cohesion then). And I’m with you on no prior knowledge but still the characters are keeping me glued.
@HWY, It is but as I like such stories where I have puzzle out the plot, this is something right up my alley. :3
@skylion, I think we will be seeing more nakama episodes with Mekakushi Dan adding more people. Of course, everyone’s identity and backstories will be incorporated as well.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Has anyone tried participating in the Mekakucity end card contest? Though I hear you need a Niconico account to join though.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Not sure we have too many artists here but with the bloated Kagerou Daze fandom, I’m pretty sure getting selected is pretty cutthroat.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
That the first I heard of it XD Though I do draw stuff on paper a lot.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
DAT MANLY ASS and that run omg it had me dying! LOLOLOL
High five for continuing to cover this Kara! It seems the general feel for MCA is more towards the hate because people can not look past the original music videos or just saying screw the anime and reviewing the music instead? That just seems dumb to me since this is an anime series >.>
I think Ene was once human and I haven’t seen the original videos or seen any wikipedia pages.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Honestly, Shintaro’s ass looked more feminine than anything to me but yeah, I was rolling on the floor with the whole happy titan run. xD
I don’t understand the hate really. Just because you don’t fully understand the story? People can be weird but at least for the sake of KnK tag, our goal is to present how things are with some reference to the actual AMVs from Kara.
And you are up to something on Ene. 😉
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Dat ass.
I’m not so sure about Shintaro’s development since I find the time to be too short to see his development (so many episodes for 1-2 days), but it seems that Shintaro does have the ability to interact normally to other people, despite of being a Hikki. I mean, there are other Hikkis who has worse reaction than him when they interact with people, so yeah, Shintaro can be normal. Now I’m wondering what turns him into a shut-in
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
From the usual Hikkis we come across to in anime, Shintaro actually has a pleasant personality. About him being a shut-in, my theory is that it’s either connected to his mother/Ayano dying. Could be a mix of both but we’ll find out.