Episode 4 – Dusk Beyond the End of the World

I think more anime should embrace the idea of ​​a double date plot. On paper, they sound cute and allow for a lot of creativity. So I felt conflicted early on in the episode: on the one hand, maybe the double date episode could have been a charming little piece of storytelling that might also give our protagonist some much-needed likability? On the other hand, I myself can’t care about these characters and I wish the series had told us more about OWEL or gotten down to business already.

The core problem here is that, as I talked about last week, we just don’t have a good romance thread, and romance has been at the heart of what’s going on here so far. So far, aside from his fondness for Towasa, Akira’s only defining characteristic is his dexterity. That’s it. Meanwhile, Towasa doesn’t seem to have any social experience – more specifically, Akira is the only person her age, full stop, that she’s ever exchanged pleasantries with. Then there’s Yuugure, a Towasa-looking robot who wants to marry Akira, but we know next to nothing about him. You can’t create a compelling love story without compelling characters, but that’s not the case with them.

Of course, the romance between Faith and her brother Carl Krom is what the show wants to focus on this week. It’s too early to tell if this will lead to any meaningful payoffs, because the way this episode ends I’d say it’s 50/50 that we’re either recurring supporting characters or we’ll never see them again after next week. I lean slightly toward the latter, but I admit that my reasons are entirely arbitrary. They just have some side character vibes, I don’t know.

Speaking of the ending, Akira gets shot again, but this time he’s unlikely to have another cryo chamber to save him. But there’s no way this series would have the guts to kill off its main character, let alone in such an unceremonious way. I’m sure next week, Yugure will show off some cool power or medical knowledge she has to save him. I don’t think it’s because of the suspense of “oh, what happens to Akira?” though. Just as it draws parallels between Yuugure and Towasa – more specifically, Akira took a bullet for both of them, their relationship is definitely there, but we’re still not sure. But I have little feeling for a potential Akira/Towas romance, so the idea of ​​the series trying to give itself some drama by giving Towasa an antagonist in Yuugure makes no sense to me. So, okay, shrug emoji.

I think what this series needs to turn around is tell us more about what’s going on in the world they’re in. We’ve seen some cool world-building going on in the background, and we even got some off-the-cuff references to OWEL in this episode. This is obviously more interesting than anything else that happens in this series. I care less about Akira’s journey to find Towasa and more about why OWEL wants to keep Akira away from everyone else. Episodes like this only emphasize this and provide more stakes for the series, giving us a meaningful payoff. So for the sake of this series, I hope it sticks the landing when we finally learn more about what happened to Akira after he fell asleep. Because at this point, I think that’s probably the only thing that has the potential to revive it. It would be nice if I could go into cryosleep until I finally get to that point.

grade:

Dusk at the end of the world Currently live broadcast
lurking.