So (annoying space there), the focus shifted in this episode to another set of people. At first, I optimistically wondered 'Could this be the birth of another Mahou Shoujo?'. Reality struck me down. This was just the tragic birth of another Daemonia. As interesting as the conflict between the Elemental and Diabolus Tarots are, this is starting to become a weekly formulaic occurrence, and one has to question where the story will take off in a different direction. If anything, Gen'ei requires a change of scenery, some extended plot development which will allow for a climactic resolution. Otherwise, it'll just end up being a poor man's Madoka.
Our Daemonia of the Week was... the unfortunate victim was an unimportant side character: Okakura Kiyone. While her eight minutes of fame was an exposition necessary to advance to plot, I couldn't help but feel pity as this will be a character no one will spare a second thought for ever again (since Seira didn't give Akari the chance to hear her out). However, she points out a stark truth, in that Akari is only trying to help herself, and ease her own predicament behind all her heroics. The main story ended up being less of an impact than the side story, but that isn't necessarily negative in the long run. Too much focus on certain aspects, and the audience will have this uncanny feeling that repetitions are happening
The visuals, for one. That’s what first drew me to this show, and they have not faltered, especially when they get abstract and darkly creative. What they do even better than that though, is evoke pain, madness, and atmosphere. The show never really gets happy-go-lucky, and is always mired in this low-grade horror that dominates everything, but it's when they’re showing a character's descent into madness that it really works, no matter how unimportant they are. Art, and art direction really are its greatest strengths, and while it’s not always as subtle as it could be, it gets me in the mood it wants me to be every time.
As beautiful as Tree of life they made on the chalkboard, it’s not entirely an accurate representation of it. There are three paths missing in this version of the drawing making it a total of nineteen paths between the circles instead of the twenty-two it’s suppose to have. Speaking of tarots, after re-watching the episode, I decided to check which cards were used in our victim’s transformation, since it went by awfully fast. The card that was switched started as 11 – Justice, and it changed to 15 – the Devil.
Tarot is all about interpretation, but to boil those cards down to a single word, Justice would represent something like “rationality”, and the Devil would be “temptation” – as I understand them. Without digging too deep, the implications should be fairly obvious – completely discarding all restraint. It fits with what the snakelike (note the hood) fortune-teller said as he roped in his new recruit:
“Just be honest about your feelings.”
“People try to stay straight as an arrow, but that’s not always right.”
“At times, I believe that it’s natural for a person to be true to their desires.”
Seeing as how the use of Tarot cards almost automatically means the inclusion of abundant, readily accessible symbolism, I’m surprised I only started checking the cards before now. Apart from getting me further interested in Tarots (JoJo's Stardust Crusader being the progenitor), there's much to look forwards to in this series. The next episode will probably be about Ginka, since she's had the least development, and it doesn't seem like Akari and Seira's relationship will be improving anytime soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment