10.19
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, but not Norma (they’re less than human)! Lend me your ears! There was no rape or grope scene in this week’s episode of Cross Ange.
But you DO get Ange pissing herself out of utter fear. So I guess that irons it out and you still have something to be offended by!
I have yet to remember the last time a show really laid it thick on the protagonist that his or her new lot in life is a complete volte-face. Here, I thought the production crew would be content on calling it good with Coco’s Super-Ebola Face for getting Ange to learn her new lot in life. NOPE! She not only causes Coco’s death, but two other deaths as well. Not only does she earn the ire of her squad, but she gets some hard time dragging the newly deceased tombstones around, wallowing in self-pity, wanting to die, and then NOT wanting to die after somehow making her Paramail into the Strike Freedom.
On a base level it’s all fairly procedural but again there is a bit of appreciation to be had for how the show handles things. They could’ve easily had Ange change by showing how Normas are human by the usual rigmarole of positive disposition and nice events. However their emphasis on revealing to Ange how they are capable of grief and mourning is a better alternative as now Ange’s feelings of disconnect are also equally or overwhelmingly matched by those she thought of as less than human. After coming on strong with her rather ‘charming’ view of them in the first episode, which was revealed with all the subtlety of a freight train through an orphanage on fire, it seems only fitting that Ange’s revelation that maybe the Norma are human after all, has the same style of subtlety. It’s karmic really.
I could’ve sworn the hit was initially on the shoulder on the preview instead of the boob.
I could’ve sworn the hit was initially on the shoulder on the preview instead of the boob.
Either way it intrigues me still. Now that Ange’s started her new life and cut her hair (which she’s excited about if the preview is any indication), we can see how she works with the rest of her new squad. Instead of the fish out of water scenario where sides are for the most part uncertain of each other, the feelings between Ange and everyone else are at an all-time low. How do you build something like friendship and camaraderie after those two episodes, and how does that figure into what that Jill woman is planning? Well, with what appears to be a filler episode next week, we will see. We are in need of a breather from bloodsplosions, groping, anal rape, and incest after all.
Rondo of Notes (non-episode specific ruminations about the series proper every week):
· I’m curious on whether they will explain why Arzenal is run like it is instead of say… a concentration camp of sorts where everybody is oppressed to their eyeballs. I guess it is to give them some modicum of freedom and comfort but only enough that they don’t rebel. Normas can be… like humans but still remain in the lower caste. They can have some pleasures, some acknowledgement of agency, but never in the full capacity that they so deserve.
· Passivity vs. Activity: Another comparison I observed was made between Cross Ange and the woeful Diabolik Lovers, in that the former was apparently 50 times worse than the latter. That’s a wash of a comparison, mostly due to how the protagonists operate. I can stomach Ange’s suffering because she openly attempts to resist her fate even if she fails miserably. She is an ACTIVE character. Yui on the other hand is very PASSIVE, as any and all episodes of DiaLovers (or at least the ones I’ve seen) involve this girl with a perpetual deer-in-the-headlights stare being abused by a menagerie of vampire teens without only so little as a yelp to stop. I have no investment in that kind of character where instead of yelling in my head “WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS!?” it’s more of “DO SOMETHING!” Ange will try and pull the story forward by hook or by crook; Yui will just float in the current like a log. To paraphrase from a movie review: “I watch anime to escape people like this not to feel sorry for them. Victims by choice bore me.”
· Somebody I follow put up this nugget of a tweet. It’s a very salient point that may explain the negative emotions on Cross Ange.
· Real shame about how much people despise this show, because that may mean nobody will probably be interested translating any interviews of the production crew regarding the series. I’d love to see how they explain their creative decisions.
· You gotta give the production crew credit. They could’ve had this group of female fighters defending against a malevolent foe all look like the usual moeblob operations like Vividred and Strike Witches. But nope they stuck with fairly procedural anime style woman designs instead. Although that makes me wonder what my reaction would be if the events in the first episode was played out by individuals with Strike Witches-style designs.
· That dog with the pilot cap. He’s everywhere. He’s in the intro, the main dramatic scenes of this episode, and even the ENDING. He gets to be part of the character scroll with everybody else?! Who IS this dog!?
Previous Cross Ange Analysis:
· 10/12/2014 – Episode 02
· 10/10/2014 – Episode 01 (as part of Part 1 of the Fall Clusterfuck)