10.12
I’ve decided to take it upon myself to chronicle Cross Ange. This may not be surprising given how my impression of the first episode could be said to be the most ‘positive’ of the bunch (although I completely understand everyone’s revulsion to it). You are right to think I am crazy to cover this, but think of it as a public service. I watch this so you don’t have to; you get live your life of no inequality, poverty, war etc while I voluntarily get anal violation so I can fight this dragon off somewhere.
Oh wait I’m sorry… D.R.A.G.O.N.
Never change, Fukuda.
So does Episode 2 continue the descent into depravity that was established by Episode 1’s end? Not really. After the high emotions, the show then treats the viewers to rather muted, possibly mundane, series of circumstances meant to acclimate Ange to her new surroundings. Of course she is loath to do so because princess, and of course the ladies of Arzenal won’t take that kind of crap. So in an attempt to establish her in the new pecking order, she has a knife put to her throat, she gets thrown out into a corridor naked (seen by all of two people) because she doesn’t want to change clothes, and almost becomes the object of one of the mech pilot’s pleasures, complete with tongue and groping.
In an ideal world this would instill in me moral outrage and confusion, but the show surprisingly does an effective job making the situation work with the atmosphere. The staff of Arzenal, aside from some hopeful new recruits and possibly more, inundates the tone with a potpourri of fatalism and gallows humour. They’re women who know they are thought of as less than garbage by the world proper, and as a result they either marry themselves to their work or indulge in pleasures of the flesh. What happens to Ange is degrading, but they do not come from a mentality of “Let’s just torture the girl for no reason!” but a clash between Ange’s defiant superiority and how Norma deal with troublemakers as a result of their sordid state of affairs. It is an acted out enmity between the Have and the Have-Nots.
…Except for the groping part. Dunno if that’s necessary but… I guess it shows how broken some Norma are?
It gets even more awkward when a couple of innocent newbies try to become friends with the Princess. Arzenal it seems is rather selective in its treatment of new Norma. Some like Ange have to be disciplined; while others operate in a blissful naiveté that hopes for something more as they commit to their duty (somehow I doubt they’ll be violently groped later in their career). So Ange clashes with another worldview of lesser people who instead look up to her as an ideal, despite her complete and utter disdain for them. It is a nice complement to the world building and character development as it provides for converging paradoxes in character outlook. It also provides for a comically tragic set of events that, again, is effective in establishing the show’s disposition and REALLY screwing up Ange. You can tell things won’t exactly be kosher if the next episode is any indication.
A charming allusion to the feeling everybody had of the 1st episode.
Is what is shown there just as offensive and irksome? If this episode is any indication, not anymore, as it shows that Ange’s actions in trying to get out of her situation gets an opposite reaction. She is a slow learner and as such must be schooled in hard knocks. How schooled she’ll be and how worse the show will get for her to realize that? Well… next week Cross Ange’s still a thing. Best you watch if you haven’t raged quitted already.
If you did that’s fine. Again, you’ll have me.
Rondo of Notes (non-episode specific ruminations about the series proper every week):
· One of the reviewers of the first episode made an interjection of how Mahouka is better than Cross Ange. Personally I’d rather root for the young lady yanking herself out of her unfortunate circumstances to change for the better than the boring Randian ubermensch with the fawning younger sister. Also Mahouka is gleeful in its undertones of incest in protagonists we’re supposed to root for, Cross Ange while brazen rightfully puts its incest overtones squarely on the creepy brother.
· Those flippant next episode previews are truly by delicious design. Their confused but ultimately dismissive tone provides an amusing sense of cognitive dissonance on how pretty-looking bishoujo can not only be hurt but also be petty, vindictive, and cruel. It’s the cri de couer of “Why are bad things happening to beautiful people!?”
· I’m going to upset people on this but… yes, people who say what had happened to Ange in the last episode was a lot less worse than others MAY have a point. I mean it’s been 20 years since Casca was raped by Griffith in Berserk and she’s still in a regressive childlike state and Guts has yet to jam his entire sword into Griffith’s head. At least with regards to Cross Ange (unless there’s a Cross Ange Destiny heaven forbid), there may be a resolution to her suffering just yet. In Berserk I’ve yet to get that goddamn sense of satisfaction.
· Unless something exceptionally tacky is established, no lamentations about wardrobe from me. It’s a waste of time and quite frankly there are worse (e.g. Strike Witches, Moetan).
· Next week’s ep will be the first major test of how effective the action scenes are in this show. Will they be actually well done if a bit influenced by Fukuda’s propensities? Or will it just be a recycling of SEED footage only done to CG?