2014
11.03

Cross Ange Into (the Muff of) Darkness (aka Episode 05) [The Juude]

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We’ve reached a singularity on Cross Ange. After the shaming, laming, and taming, of the show’s titular shrew, she undergoes an event that includes the word ‘inflaming’. This is either due to the snake venom Ange readily receives very very near her nether-regions or her ignited passions because of the Not-Kira Yamato (aka Tusk/Tasuku/Tosku/etc) who rescued her. Either way, as was stated last week we now have Fukuda’s third island episode where two potential star-crossed lovers have to work together to survive, handle different worldviews, and maybe fall in love. Yawn, I’ve seen this all before—

–but I’ve never come across that in previous viewings. Whereas SEED and SEED Destiny was content with their mediocre eps leaving the ecchi with the girls undressed due to wet clothing, this Fukuda product thinks it ought to liven it up by including anime pratfalls of Not-Kira into Ange’s crotch.

After a few episodes’ worth of attempts to accept this strange ecchi stuff as part of the world building, I have to say it’s completely off here. I would think that in some new area that’s free of the weirdness of the Mana and Norma world, there would be different circumstances. Yet, Not-Kira, thanks to clumsiness, nature, and a bevy of other unfortunate moments keeps falling into that magical womanly place. Then subsequently he gets hit, shot at, tied up and left in the rain, tied up and shirtless, slapped and so forth. This is the guy sharing naked screentime with Ange in the intro, you would believe he would be given some high modicum of respect and not be some tsundere’s punching bag.

Yet the show hits you with a sock full of pennies and bellows, “I don’t think so. Cross Ange don’t play that.”

I guess what can said to be… somewhat ‘positive’ is the relationship isn’t so goddamn chaste like Kira and Lacus were, and Not-Kira is a fair enough middle ground between hapless Seijun Otoko and Kirito-esque wish fulfillment. The flashbacks to his past imply something interesting afoot as the series goes on, and his technical ability to fix the Paramail makes him not completely useless. I want more of him and how he connects with the Vilkiss and Arzenal’s past. I want to see what life was like back in his days as a kid and whether or not he’ll hop on the bad foot and do the misogyny thing like Ange’s brother. I want that. I want world building. I don’t want to go back to Arzenal to have another episode of weirdo, pervy, events that—

Oh goddammit, Cross Ange.

Rondo of Notes:

  • Strangely enough this is the best island episode Fukuda has ever taken part in, mostly because it actually allows for a small passage of time showcasing Ange’s ‘softening’. It’s bereft of dialogue and takes place in the midst of a standard Fukuda staple, the insert song, but does more in those scenes than what SEED/SEED Destiny ever did. The first one had to work under pressure and convention, the other wasted time having Athrun deal with a fake Lacus (complete with frilly negligee) in his bed.
  • I’d like to see Fukuda actually try doing a show WITHOUT any mecha, especially an action show. The entire bit of Ange trying to kill off the DRAGON without the Vilkiss was executed better than anything from the derivative Paramail battles.
  • How much do you want to bet that the DRAGONs are the key to get the rest of the world to utilize manga? It may explain why Paramails’s Freezing Fingers tend to encase DRAGONs in ice instead of making them explode.
  • I really want to know WTF is going on with the rest of the world. I appreciate the show’s attempt to give a sense of isolation from it as things go on, but when do we get the ball rolling?
  • Not-Kira had a knife the entire time he was hanging up in a tree and only decided to break free from it after like… lord knows how many hours or so up there.

Previous Cross Ange Analsis:

 

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