Musaigen no Phantom World – 13 [END]

Haru and Ruru Part Two

So what do the masters of the 22 minute movie do with the second part a two-part finale? They do a damn good job, is what they do…Settle in, I’m going long…

Fighting the True Enigma

Phantoms are easy, people are complicated

Actually, this was the last of a three or four part finale/arc when you get right down to it, and maybe one of four plot arcs; yeah, I know, in a character driven and episodic show, I’m saying plot!!! But more on that when I cover the my feelings on the whole of the series. I opened up with this idea last time,”I don’t think it takes any careful or special attention to the show to see that it’s always told things in a continuity”, and that still holds true here. There are easy to follow, guided by numbers, check-boxed plots, and then there is something much more compelling and interesting; that being a character driven narrative. Which is what I think KyoAni was going for with this series all along.

Phantoms are much easier to read than people

It was the characters, and indeed the people in the background as well, that created this world, and developed the plot. From the very beginning we are dealing with Creatures of the Human Imagination given shape. It was never said you had to be anyone special to create, or should I say distill, the phantoms, nor did it really endorse any silly “chosen one” nonsense about who get’s what power and why. “This is who you are, this is what you got, go out and deal with the world” is the name of the game. Imagination, by the way? Full of hopes and fears, which are two brilliant ingredients in fantasy storytelling.

Three cute girls and a big teddy bear…this should be a rock band!

Without going into to much detail (I still think scene by scene review is kinda tepid), the basics of this arc was the reconciliation of the self. When you get right down to it, people are the biggest enigmas; weird, power grabbing monster need not apply, but since one did, let’s apply what it has. We have a reconciliation of these basic tropes. It’s basically everything people complain about with light novels; pretty much written to factory standard, repetitive, samey, let’s not deviate from ridiculous fan-service, bombastic yet still disconnected action, and derp plots that center around savior male exceptional leads who’s sole motivation is at first if you don’t succeed by dip-shitting, dip-shit even more. But again, I’ll hit the nature of light novels up come the series review. But in this respect the main conflict of this arc is laid bare: Defeat the evil parent that separates you from your friends and takes you away from your stuff. So yeah, there is some pure escapism there…

Oh, yeah, well I evolved my ‘mons!!!!

I rather like the lead in this arc had built with the previous episodes. Since we know what Ruru looks like “embiggened”, and since that resemblance to the genderbent Haru is all but cinched, that she is a facet of his personality is now much more approachable, personal, and believable. Haru’s feelings for his departed mother were already explored with Mai a couple of episodes back, where we also witnessed her deepening feelings for him. This allows her something to fight for as well, and she step up as first among the “harem” without any obvious broadcasting on the shows part. This rounded out both characters very well. So the emotional release he had with his mother was shared with Mai. They had the money in the bank, and then some, to cash that check. With that as the goal, the fight, or what could have been the thing of any other show, was really just some damn good animation, showing KyoAni is getting freaking awesome at this combat animation thing, while already being tops at all the fundamental stuff….

We know who won the HaruBowl….

A few more favorites…

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Now it would have been easy, from a direction point of view, to just slap all those tropes I mentioned above around, and make a press release that said it was all satire all along, and then just let that be the dog’s lunch. Instead, Kyoto Animation embraced these well worn cliches and approached them with tongue firmly planted in cheek. They played it well with a series of short games. In other words, they knew when to make fan service something evocative and remotely suggestive, without really allowing it to overstay it’s welcome. So many mistook the content for the context. Content is just raw material, context is how the artist makes the piece come alive.

This is where they are the master of the craft in my opinion. Where as so many LN’s, and by extension the adaptations, are recycled from season to season – with little authorial intent to make the work stand out as a statement beyond a publishers bank book – KyoAni took those tropes back to basics and made them hum in their own unique way. Character, not empty characterization, came first. We were dealing with real people, or at least as real as a 22 minute piece can allow. Given those provisions I have a much easier time relating to this crop of characters than a lot of other actiony shows; based on LNs, manga, or original idea….

Now to get into the broader arcs the series explored: The first two episodes established the very easy to understand rules of the world, and since then it was just finding the cool crunchy bits and evolving them. The second arc was pure character building, while furthering the established rules, the crunch bits. This gets us up to episode seven. Then you had the two completely random, fun, yet silly fanservice episodes, cat themed and school swimsuit themed, but still continued to build on what came before. Then you had this final four episode Haru and Ruru (and sometimes Mai) arc to bring us to a conclusion. Damn good stuff really.

I’ve been seeing a ton of nay-sayers across the web saying their nays about this one. It’s not really all that surprising, as it takes all kinds to make negative opinions, and that is just the nature of the game. But to see long time KyoAni enthusiasts call foul on it really made me scratch me head. These were the fans that encouraged other’s to give shows like K-ON or Tamako Market a fair shake, those who wouldn’t let the moe content be the just whole of the rub that the hater’s dished on, also those that encouraged other’s to watch them for context. I kept seeing the concern – or more accurately in this argument, conceit – that Phantom World was “beneath the studio“; and the tone of those conceits told me that they only watched the first episode with what had to be eyes half-closed, if all they could do was dismiss it due to “fanservice”.

Yes, I set this up to savor the irony, why do you ask?

That’s a long tail to track, and I hope that I at least touched upon some examples to counter that. But to sum up I have one simple message, and it’s a paraphrase of Neil Gaiman talking about George RR Martin to a rather hard to please fan: Kyoto Animation isn’t your bitch. Seriously, they aren’t. Comparing it to Hibike! Euphoium (to name just their most recent show, and arguably most acclaimed) is to put both in places they don’t deserve to be, and honestly won’t create a space where you enjoy/hate either one any more than you already do/don’t.

Also to keep paraphrasing Mr. Gaiman, “as if your buying into the series you liked by them was a contract with them: that you would pay over your money and attention, and KyoAni for their part would spend every waking hour making the exact the thing you think you want.” As a fan, I think the less sense of entitlement you have, the more you enjoy something. I mean, seriously, why haul that baggage around?

Keep that male MC in his place, girls….

But in closing, since I’ve gone on quite long. This was a very character driven program that challenged a bunch of tired light novel tropes and succeeded within the storytelling parameters they set and the height they shot for. In retrospect a few bits and pieces could have been better executed, but not by much really. With just a bit of natural hesitancy I can easily name this my second favorite show this season. But I’m sure you have your opinion on the matter. So chime in!

Oh, and I keep losing track of this thing whenever I have made a new post the past couple of times. But – this is my 307th solo post and the end of my second full year. Thank you to everyone for their support, I appreciate the hits and comments. And that’s me for the Winter 2016 season. I’ll see you soon with some Spring goodies. So ’til then….

Thanks for Watching!

…Oh, and keep your eye out for the real fanservice. C’mon KyoAni! You’re not making my arguments to the punters go any easier…

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