UN-GO – 07 Review

Episode 07 – Daydream

What was that all about? (=_=?)

The episode was titled ‘Daydream’ and I know that dreams can be seen as an augmented reality, but this episode had left me wondering what the point of it all was meant to be.

I am not sure how the review of this episode will turn out since I can truthfully tell you that I have not grasp the main point (or direction) of this episode. =/ All I can do is share my thoughts on what I believe I saw. =P

The whole barcode on the neck reminds me of the cyber-punk sci-fi TV Series ‘Dark Angel‘ that was set in a post-apocalyptic time. This probably means nothing but I thought it was interesting.

The show has suddenly gone all sci-fi in this episode with alternate realities mashing together with “hypnosis” caused by the newly introduced “greater evil” in this series – The Novelist.

Through the idea that The Novelist writes reality instead of books, we can assumed that he has used his “powers” to create a alternate reality for Shinjurou by playing with his mind.

By the way, the version of the subs that I was watching was by the sub-group HorribleSubsXtreme. Boy does those subs have some issues with them. =/

This whole concept is as supernatural as the existence of Inga and I am not sure where this series is heading. The show seemed to have fully jumped on-board the train of ‘all things supernatural’ and has left reality far behind whilst dragging the concept of War along with it.

The whole acting and movie theme sets itself up as being a metaphor for some “hidden bigger message” in this series, but this is where I draw the line and say that the episode is too heavy for a relaxing Friday night when all I want to do is unwind after an exhausting week at work. I mentioned in a prior Mawaru Penguindrum review that there comes a time where a show becomes too cryptic for it’s own good and this episode has just crossed that line. By being so ambiguous, it is easy for a view to get bored of the dry and dialogue heavy scenes, especially due to the lack of proper explanation of what is happening on screen.

The previous episodes were all relatively heavy with the dialogue and are constantly filled with themes hidden under layers of content. However, nothing has been as “heavy” as this episode. I honestly haven’t a clue what the movie’s main goal is meant to introduce Shinjurou to. Is it meant to make the audience question the meaning/purpose of war? Is it meant to show us the different takes on how war can be good for humans? Is it meant to be some odd warped reality that seems somewhat Matrix-ish with characters from the “normal” UN-GO universe materializing in that world due to Shinjurou’s mental break?
It was all too confusing, but I am sure that that was the main point of the episode – to confuse the hell out of people like me and then surprise us with some profound ending. =P

It was nice to see a different side of Shinjurou’s character with him being filled with self-doubt of what reality is, even though that felt a bit odd to watch.
(However, I do wonder if this personality of his was pre-Inga/pre-war times)

Then we have Shinjurou constantly harping on about “the mystery” of the movie, and whilst I was curious at first, I kinda wanted to know why it took so long for a dead person to appear on screen. I had honestly thought that the show had decided to ditch it’s previous format of all things investigative and simply go with introducing some new sci-fi post-appocalytic sexual idealistic mambo jumbo scenerio without a real case except for the actual dream. (I have no clue what the hell I am saying anymore since this whole dream vs reality thing is so hard to describe. See what this show does to me?)

What especially did my head in, aside from the constant talking, was the 3 actresses and their takes on war, as well as the director’s behaviour towards Shinjurou (which I know is probably meant to be a personification of some other theme). I am going to hold out hope for this arc until I see the next episode because this is starting to seem like the start of a proper on-going series plot that has only just started to develop itself. This had really felt like a take two of the first episode of a series for me; where I am constantly wondering what direction this is suppose to be going in and what the heck is actually going on.

I would really like to know what’s so funny. Care to share the joke Mr. Novelist?
I am sure you guys have noticed that all those “breaks” from the “dream-state” has Shinjurou placed in a prison scenario.

The upside to this episode is that this new unknown situation has made the show more engaging and interesting to watch (or at least for me, mostly due to me trying to get a grasp on the situation) and it has definitely introduced a new “pull” to the series where the previous 6 episodes had seemed to be lacking that “x” factor which would make me anticipate the next episode. So for me, whether this whole new situation proves to be a good thing or not would highly depend on whether the next episode clears things up or continues on with it’s ambiguous/cryptic storytelling nature.

Episode Rating: 7/10:

It was too tedious in it’s twisted manner of explaining things where everything is wrapped up in riddles. So why a 7? Simply because I do want to see what happens next with the barcodes, prison, murder etc. and the episode was actually pretty solid despite it’s different tone.

The downside is that since it is structured in a dream-like scenario, that in itself makes it a flaw as I dislike stories that allow themselves the excuse of “everything is a dream” – which can be interpreted as being ‘anything wrong can be forgiven’. It gives way too much leeway for a show to break any format or “rules” that the series would have created previously. Oh, and things have a high chance of becoming ridiculous when that happens. Thankfully, this episode was still pretty “down-to-earth”.

-ra

P.S: That whole War=Sex thing was way too weird for me. But it did well in tying back to the series’ theme of sex and it reminded me of the RAIs. What that is actually meant to mean still baffles me, and the same goes with all the other themes. =P

Ra’s Question of the Day

A photo is meant to be a way to freeze time.
If you could take just one image with you as you are running out of your burning house. what image would that be?

Personally, I am torn between being cliche and saying that I would bring along my childhood family photo and, a photo of my friends and I together.

After much deliberation (a whole 10 seconds) I think I would pick the photos of my friends since they represented hope in a time where life wasn’t all that “entertaining”.