Musaigen no Phantom World – 07
Wagahai wa Neko de Aru
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For all intents, the surface of the show was really straightforward; find a missing kitten. But I love most if not all of the stuff that was purring underneath the hood…. |
…neko wo kaburu…
I like Ruru’s example best….
There are quite a few deep cuts referenced, above and beyond the now infamous Schrödinger’s cat example. I do love how Haruhiro immediately calls it a thought experiment, which is an important wrinkle that many sci-fi boffins never get around to even mentioning. I especially enjoyed how he brought it around to the Von Neumann level, if you will, by clearly stating why the experiment existed in the first place.
But beyond that one, there’s the reference to the Japanese classic I Am a Cat, a Mejii era work about the crossroads of the old and the new, the kept and the discarded, as well as one to E.T.A. Hoffman, who could be argued to be one of the ur-examples of the birth of modern fiction; especially fantasy fiction that is more than just the simplicity of children’s nursery rhymes, even while borrowing heavily from them. Both of these works, along with Haruhiro’s need to bust out on the quantum physics informs the show.
Meowl’s Meoving Myansion….
As I said at the open, it’s nothing more than a straightforward “find the missing X” mission, but by using that as a backbone, you can introduce a great deal along way. I think the first and most important how we place odd values on things. A house is a home, unless it ‘s nothing more than an abandoned building. Until we notice that it’s there, or learn the history, it doesn’t exist. But, the cats might find use for it, even if the people surely won’t, after awhile they’ll just find it a nuisance. But once you start to look at it from another point of view, what does the house value? The cats didn’t abandon it, quite the contrary, they were culled, so it would have a great deal of sympathy for the cats and kittens without a home, even if only on a temporary basis.
But to wrap all the proceedings up in a bow, Kurumi essentially saves the kitten by wishing. Well that’s a cynical way to put it, I guess. But, again from another point of view, she cast a magic spell. That’s what all that business was about with “consciousness causing collapse”. That was the waveform she wanted, so that’s the one she probably used her own powers to bring into existence. All that cat-ifying, cos all us humans are just big odd smelling cats to other cats, had a point when it came to Kurumi, as she finally saw what the house most wanted, which was someone to care. Which is what it ultimately got. I guess a house is just as complex as a person is, a thought that Haruhiro left us with by the episodes closing moment…
Cleaning is it’s own reward!
Meowor Contenyent
I suppose if I had one singular complaint, that would be that the designers should have gone full nekomimi, cause having human ears on side and cat ears on top just broke it for me somehow. But for all that, I love it when Kyoto Animation indulges in episodes like this. It’s just pure storytelling. You don’t get any faux-mysterious good or bad guys with copy and pasted hackneyed origins bringing about some world threatening/saving overly-convoluted plot with no thought beyond, “well they need to look cool doing something“. It’s simple, yet very evocative, and doesn’t forget to be fun along they way; they’re getting to be geniuses at baiting the audience with this sort of irreverent look at fanservice and how dumb it could get if taken beyond the moment. I get the feeling the writer’s are using episodes like this to train our expectations for a larger story. After seven episodes, we’re probably due for the sort of plot a one-cour show can deliver. So let’s see what happens next time….
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
They all need to be turned into
nakednekomimi people.POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Good lord! That’s it! We need to cure this complex, pronto! I’ll get the chains and restraints. Skylion, you get the sedatives and other meds. Make sure they’re long lasting.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Really, Di Gi, you’re allowing the norms to much information about the plan…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Plan?!! I didn’t think you’d be so weak as to be swayed by cat ears!!
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Quick then, we shall have to make use of this one as a permanent *test subject*. >_>
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
You cannot stop the nekomimi! *watches as skylion sedate the test subject* 😛
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
hmmmm, im actually starting to find Phantom world to be pretty hollow. This was one of phantom world’s most visually striking eps (if not the best looking one..well in terms of animation direction) but it’s lacking that ability to tell a good story. With such a wacky setting, it should be easy for the writers to tell wonderfully inspiring stories that comment on the human condition or explore the human psychology, or even explore or characters and develop them in unique and interesting ways; Nope…it chooses to be bland and take the safe and easy way out. Sigh, well at least i found it cute how mai was getting slightly jealous of reina and haruhiro’s closeness. You can even see how close mai and haru are at the end of the ep (the ole classic case of the attractive athletic girl being interested in the frail geeky boy). Heck, small momemts like these i wish the show would focus more on. Illustrate the bonds between these characters; their interactions and how they relate to each other. Even that satisfy me
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
*would satisfy me*
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
As you can probably tell, I disagree with you totally. But them’s the breaks…
He is pretty much the only boy in the story. She’s interested only cause he has that Y chromosome and little else, or little else until it looks like someone else might want it, then she’s all competitive. It’s teens and hormones, and I think they’re playing it brilliantly…
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
“She’s interested only cause he has that Y chromosome and little else, or little else until it looks like someone else might want it, then she’s all competitive.”
hahaha good point. However it does seem like mai and haru go way back. Either that or they’ve had time to hang around each other long enough to feel tightly knit together. It always seems to me that mai doesnt want to appear vulnerable due to her feelings so she always counterattacks by acting like the older sempai; which she is, but you can tell that she doesnt want to level the playing field just yet. In that respect, i feel like the show does an ok job portraying that.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Yeah, that’s a bit cliched, but they’re sticking to it; not being able to confess for fear of….stuff….
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I think you’re expecting too much from a series that from the start never intended to reach for the stars. The feel of a great overarching story was never here. So, to look for such a quality here would be a lost cause from the start. It’s doing exactly what it’s done so far since the beginning: Just being plain simple fun giving in the characters wacky adventures to navigate through while dropping some food for thought at the start of each episode which also serves as the episode’s theme.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The cat theme was strong in this and here I thought last episode went all-out with the bears. For me, the Schrödinger’s cat example was destined to be inconclusive. I mean, what it’s trying to achieve is just plain impossible and if it did, it would be like saying life and death have no weight in the world, no relevance at all.
It was something to see nearly everyone going the way of the cat. I’d say it works on Reina best. Only Haruhiko got away thanks to his lack of sleep.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Schrödinger’s cat is a reaction to one set of interpretations about quantum physics. It’s got as much mileage as it has due to it’s very sinister and macabre set up, as it has for any actual thing it can teach people. Superposition, as it states, it good for theory, but not so good for observation based science. In this regard, it’s much like another scientific term that started out as a derision (an insult really, cause Hoyle was that much of a curmudgeon) and that is, The Big Bang…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Schrodinyaa-
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
See more on Know Your Meme
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Bah. Delete the one above:
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/8190-a-cat-is-fine-too
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 261 comments
so many…Feline Spirits there well u just wait until this cat shows up….XDDDDDDDDDDDD
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…try again…