I kind of decided early in this episode I really don’t like Nana as a character. Despite her turning point this episode she just really rubbed me the wrong way early on in this episode and her inconsistencies and incredibly silly decision making just made me hope that somehow she’d be left behind in the parallel world.
Firstly we get the ridiculousness of her deciding to stay in the world because she’s getting married to a hot celebrity. That’s a really random decision to stay in a world that forces girls to get married at seventeen and you have no idea what else is changed in this new world, plus you are giving up your entire world and friends that you actually know. Then she changes her mind because she finds out his real last name when combined with her first name makes it sound like chocolate banana and she vowed she would never marry someone who made her name sound sillier than it was (how shallow is she).
However, if that wasn’t enough we then learn that the step-father is actually a pretty nice guy who saved Nana’s crystal radio from the rubbish when he first moved in with them and is actually trying to protect her. So her hissy fit last week is even less warranted. We also learn that Nana’s stubborn refusal to join the radio club is just more childish actions on her part.
Despite everything I just said about disliking Nana as a character, this episode was a decided step up from last week. It isn’t just that we got a cool fight sequence in which Nana, the girl of the hour, got a transformation sequence. It is just more intrigue into this whole idea of what twilight is and the ‘King of Twilight’ that not-Asuka is trying to find (though part of me wonders if there is a King of Twilight or if the Twilight world itself is sentient which would be a cool twist but hard to fight.
Anyway, I enjoyed this episode well enough but it seems this anime is going to be a rolling case of some moments that really work and others that make me want to bang my head into the key-board. Inconsistencies aside, there are some good ideas at play here.
Linked Reviews:
- Episode 1: If I Believe Enough, Weird Stuff Will Happen
- Episode 2: Parallel Worlds And Arranged Marriages
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
Consider supporting the blog by:
Or use one of my affiliate product links:
Personally I would totally marry someone if it turned out my name would be chocolate banana. Legit.
She just needed to figure out some kind of plausible nickname. Considering how quickly she decided to marry him it just seemed really fickle to about ten minutes later decide, nope not happening.
I don’t have that much of a problem with this show, outside of the duplicate worlds gimmick getting a bit confusing. I still like original Asuka, she’s fun, and serious Asuka is kick ass but I’m a little lost as to why they are no three of her… <_<
I think for Nana, as the vain airhead of the group, staying in a world where she gets to marry her heartthrob is a no brainer for someone like her. Similarly, since she wanted to marry him for shallow reasons, her rejection of him was also silly. I can see how this would be frustrating but that is her character – it's no worse than villains wanting to destroy the world for spurious reasons like in other shows. 😛
A bit more explanation as to how the twilight world operates wouldn't go amiss though…
I don’t dislike the show but it is very up and down in terms of what works for me and what doesn’t in this show. I’m hoping it keeps on an upswing but so far for every moment I’ve really enjoyed there’s been at least one thing that has been less fun.
I’m struggling to find a reason to continue watching this show (hence why no new review this week—watched it but couldn’t be bothered talking about it). Seems like for everything it does right it does something else equally wrong.
Yes I will admit it is fairly low on my watch priority list. As much as I liked this episode more than last week, it isn’t a show I’m desperate to continue watching and if I end up dropping shows due to time constraints this one is a possibility.
Some anime make us all headbangers, but do that too much & bad stuff happens!