Kyousogiga OVA – 01 Impression

What the heck… This is what I call a show that is high on drugs.

The show had reminded me of Alice in Wonderland with it’s crazy art and idea of a girl chasing after a Rabbit down a hole into an alternate universe.

However, all I know about the story of Alice in Wonderland is that it involves a rabbit, a girl named Alice, some sort of cat, a poker card? all in a dream-like atmosphere. So, I am not going to say that this show is related to that story. Either way, the show definitely “jumps” out at you…

Impression

Summary:

“It’s Kyoto, and yet it is not.
A microcosm of peculiar origins, “Mirror Kyoto”.
A small incident causes a young girl, Koto, to wander into this world.
She runs into a mysterious monk, gets chased around by a tech-obsessed girl, and heartily enjoys her chaotic and colorful new life, but meanwhile, out of sight, a certain plan is being set into motion…
In this mysterious city where spirits and humans have been thrown together, the festivities are about to begin!” – MyAnimeList

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This is a summarised version of my impression of this OVA:

An artistic mess high on speed with plenty of hit and miss moments that had left me scratching my head by the end of it all.

(Perhaps I might need to give it some time to settle in)

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The idea of portraying a microcosm view of Kyoto is interesting, hell, I am interested in any microcosmic view of anything. However, the execution had left me somewhat baffled. If I were to talk about the content, then I could have to say that the plot was choppy, erratic, with hints of hope for better moments to come. But overall, it was a letdown.

The comedy element had came in and out of the episode as quick as everything else, and the timing of those comedic moments were oddly placed. Funnily enough, those particular moments were actually quite humorous and the best parts of the show. Cheap humour? Perhaps. I suppose one could say that it had achieved it’s goal at making me laugh and thus that shouldn’t be something for me to complain about. But then again, making me laugh doesn’t necessarily mean that I will love the show for those few rare seconds.

Then we have the plot. The episode had started off in the midst of a epically messy chase coupled with a tacky synthesized backing soundtrack that was oddly suitable. The fact that such a BGM had felt suitable would be a hint to run in the other direction. To follow the craziness of the plot, the show had decided to add in massive amounts of montages to illustrate scenes, and whilst some of those scenes were pretty nicely done and had reminded me of Bakemonogatari (when I say this, I mean that it had vaguely reminded me of the show), most of the other parts had left me wondering why I am still watching this show.

Then we have the characters. Rowdy kids and demons running around the screen in search of a rabbit whilst creating havock everywhere. Then we have the “meeting of leaders” scene with the adults coming together for a discussion. Naturally, in a show like this, no adult would actually act like an “adult”. Each character were a representation of a certain type of personality. It was only a matter of time where the shit will hit the fan and every character will clash with one another.

If I had to say that the show had any form of consistency, it would be in the incoherent yet coherent manner in which everything had occurred.
Why incoherent? Well, it is hard to tell what the point of anything is with this dream-like state of the show.
Why coherent? The fact is that I had miraculously absorbed something out of watching 25 minutes of this mess is a plus in my books.
(Then again, I am mostly confused by the message of this show and only have a vague idea of what was going on)

Naturally, it is hard to find a show that can be totally original in this day and age, and it is only natural that it would have some of those generic anime moments that may feel familiar to you in the show. This is probably the only time that I had felt thankful for those moments.
Perhaps, you may say that I a person who is unable to appreciate the “artistic style” of the show and should simply stick watching “normal” series. And perhaps, I might agree with you on that point. =P

Now moving on to the art…

Boy is this madness. The artistic palette for this show is simple – anything goes. There is no palette. It is a free for all mess of creativity filled with psychedelic colours and an over crazy amounts of odd shapes that had left me somewhat hypnotized at times. (And I am saying this in all seriousness)

The clash between the colours had actually fit in nicely with all the other madness of everything else. In an era where less is more, this show definitely does the opposite and revisits the notion that more is more. =P For a dream universe, it is believable. For my personal preference? Not so much. I had been distracted way too easily by the crazy colours and odd floating shapes, and for the background to take precedence over what is being said is a bit of an odd thing to see.

Apart from the art, the animation is actually quite decent. The framing can be interesting at times and the whole composition of each scene is definitely never boring to watch. However, my personal taste says that I would much prefer the madness of the art in Mawaru Penguindrum over the art of this show anytime of the day. Sometimes it is good to know when to hold back. You wouldn’t hear me say that the art is beautiful in this series, nor inspirational. The most you are going to get out of me was… “That was… interesting.”

Overall, since this show had all intention to create a crazed spectacle, this episode had definitely achieved that effect on me. It wasn’t horrendous but neither was it good. The fact that everything was so messy and quick cannot be excused by the statement that things were simply meant to be that way. There is nothing serious about this show and that is probably the biggest thing that it has going for it. It is an entertaining watch for when you have nothing else to fill your time with and are up for a challenging watch.

Episode Rating: 6.5/10 – Personally, I was disappointed. I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t exactly this…

Want some craziness in your life? Then perhaps this might be just what you need. =P

Then again, who really knows whether I am still sane and not suffering the high of having watched that mad episode. 😉

-ra