Deep Insanity: The Lost Child continues to put out puzzle pieces in this episode but has yet to offer any kind of satisfaction in terms of resolution or information for the viewers. Sure delaying revelations and building mystery can be fun but I’d like to know that this had a clear direction and then I’d be content to wait. Instead we kind of bounce between potential main plots and it really isn’t clear what is important and what’s just background noise.
Deep Insanity has so many potential plot points and yet seems content to develop nothing.
After being a little disappointed that the disease discussed in episode one seemed to cease to be a problem in episode 2, episode 3 starts us with a talk by some big-shot discussing how Randolph Syndrome might be the start of a mass-extinction event but that could be an opportunity for a revolution for humanity. Whenever guys in suits start preaching about revolutions or evolving humanity it’s always a sure sign that things are going to go very badly.
Honestly, I was kind of getting Gendo vibes from Evangelion, only clearly this guy is a little better at playing an audience which potentially makes him more dangerous. Let’s be honest, Gendo probably would have been more successful if he hadn’t had to fight internal battles continuously because everyone hated him.
Though, we still don’t know what this guy is actually up to or what his plan really is. He’s just one more moving piece in this story and after a few scant minutes we move on and he’s not seen again this episode.
Instead we join Larry, Daniel and the rest of the team as they decide to go shopping in Cliff Town. Fortunately we’re spared a montage shopping trip as the gang all split up except Daniel and Larry and Larry swiftly leads Daniel into another plot that might not end up going anywhere but it was definitely more entertaining than watching characters shop.
Can I just point out though, that at least half of Daniel’s dialogue seems to be made up of repeating the last thing that was said to him and making it a question.
Larry: “Do you want to come to Cliff Town?”
Daniel: “Cliff town?”
If you’ve watched the last two episodes of Deep Insanity you already know that Daniel is an incredibly bland protagonist. He could take on every isekai and blank-slate harem lead for least interesting character ever and probably win that match up (which given he’s not operating in either of those genres just makes him real special).
Anyway, Larry and Daniel use an illegal entrance into Asylum (because sure, a heavily regulated space will just have a back entrance – and I just wrote Abyss instead of Asylum and had to fix it but seriously the setting is definitely giving me Made in Abyss vibes and I just keep wishing I was watching that because it was much better) and end up in a forest complete with cute anime girl exile El-Cee.
Naturally, Daniel ends up saving her.
Can I point out how random it is that this girl who lives in Asylum (so clearly has managed to survive this super dangerous place up to this point) suddenly has a life-threatening encounter and needs to be saved by our protagonist who as far as I can tell is pretty useless?
It just makes you question the validity of the statement that she’s living there, though Deep Insanity doesn’t really seem bothered by small details such as how has she survived up until now if one monster is enough to end her life.
While we’re on the negatives though, let’s point out that the monsters in this anime aren’t getting any better. The design, the animation, everything about them is ugly to look at and it makes watching the characters fight them just visually yuck.
However, I’ll be fair and also point out that this episode did have some decent interactions between Daniel and Larry. While they are both still pretty lame characters, I feel we actually did get a bit more insight into them throughout the episode.
Anyway, the episode ends with us returning to the question left at the end of the last episode and that is whether Daniel would take on his commanders super secret mission. Which leads to a terribly coincidental reveal which largely just makes the events of this episode seem even more contrived.
It did however succeed at making me a little curious so points for that to Deep Insanity.
You can read the full review here.
Images from: Deep Insanity: The Lost Child. Dir. S. Oonuma. Silver Link. 2021
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Karandi James
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