Clik here to view.
I was originally going to do one big post to recap my thoughts on the shows in the past week. I took a mental break to grieve my cat, but I still watched everything that came out. But as I was writing up my thoughts on Zenshu’s two recent episodes, it just got longer and longer and longer. So I decided it might as well be its own post. I can complain about the stupid isekai shows and romantic comedies at a later date.
So the creator of A Tale of Perishing is in this world as a really ugly bird, and she’s not the least bit happy about Natsuko changing the events of the original story. Nevertheless, she ominously warns that our heroine’s actions are all for naught, because Luke will still die in the end. Well, it ain’t called A Tale of Perishing for nothing. But let’s think about this for a moment. Sure, as a creator, it must suck when someone takes something you poured your heart into and make unwanted and unprompted changes. But what does this all mean in the long run, though? What happens if the timeline stays the same? Does the world persist into a future where no living being exist other than the void? Or does it reset? Do we replay the timeline again in perpetuity because that’s how the story goes? Other than the director’s emotional attachment to the original story, why does it matter if Natsuko changes the storyline? Is any of this real or is Natsuko suffering from a fever dream after eating spoiled clams? Is the bird-director-thing a real entity with real feelings? ‘Cause if she is, then surely this world would be a lot less appealing if the void takes over. Or is she a concept who exists to try and reinforce some nebulous canon. Shrug, who knows?
The other big development involves Natsuko’s first “ba-bum”1. In other words, the first time her heart has ever skipped a beat. Is it love? The closed caption on Crunchyroll says it’s love, so maybe. Episode seven was all about people who had their “ba-bum” with Natsuko. First, it was a little girl in elementary school, then a boy in middle school, an aspiring director afterwards (gross), and then finally Naomi, her own boss? That’s why I hesitate to call it love. Some people fascinate us, and for these four folks, they were (and for some, still are) certainly drawn to her genius. And perhaps some of them did genuinely fall in romantic love with her. But I don’t want to think that the aspiring director or Naomi were or are in love with Natsuko. I don’t care if everyone is an adult now; get that age difference shit out of here. But what follows is Natsuko’s own personal quest to understand the “ba-bum,” because she’s never felt it before. This involves reenacting classic anime tropes much to her coworkers’ discomfort. And I can relate to that. Not so much the “ba-bum” part specifically — or even the reenactment stuff — but simply the fact that not all common experiences are available to everyone2. Natsuko isn’t your average woman, so it stands to reason that her journey to love will be a bit different as well. But it does come — fortunately or unfortunately.
Luke finally accepts that he is in love with Natsuko, so he goes about confessing to her over… and over… and over. His logic is that since she’s not reacting to his confession, she might not have heard him. So, uh, let’s do it again. But that’s dumb. That’s child logic dumb. And that’s the thing: I can forgive the puppy love thing between kids, but this childish Luke doesn’t pair well with a grown-ass adult Natsuko. Plus, it’s hard for me to connect with the isekai characters, because I don’t know if they’re real or not. “Oh, but they have feelings and emotions like a real person!” Do they, though? Luke feels the need to scream “I love you” as he defeats the void. Does that seem like a real premeditated reaction during a potential crisis? Truthfully, after eight episodes, I’m still not really drawn to any of the isekai characters. They’re not that fleshed out or interesting to me. This is partly due to it being a briskly-paced TV series with half-hour episodes. There’s simply not a whole lot of room for world-building or character development. People like Luke are thus painted with broad strokes. The only truly interesting character here is Natsuko, so as a result, I said “unfortunately” in the previous paragraph, because I don’t feel the chemistry between her and Luke. I don’t see a deep connection here. He cooks for her, and she fights voids. It’s not as if they’ve had engaging, heart-to-heart conversations. Rather, it’s like falling in love with a cardboard cutout.
Clik here to view.
But somehow, a perplexed Natsuko ends up getting her first “ba-bum” when she gets to see Luke in all his heroic yet scantily-clad glory. They’re supposed to be on their “first date” (completely unbeknownst to her) when Luke spots a void on its way to attack the city. How serendipitous for him. None of his confessions were hitting the mark, so obviously, he needs to take action. He needs to make her fall in love with the hero, not just some dork who parrots “I love you” over and over. Still, Natsuko’s “ba-bum” feels expected; after all, this is why she got isekai’d in the first place: to understand first love and thus finish her first feature film. Moreover, he was always her favorite, so she has probably always been in love with Luke the character. When Natsuko met him for the first time at the start of the series, he was kind of a jerk. Nah, not kinda. Luke was a sexist asshole who treated Natsuko like refuse just because he couldn’t see the face behind all that hair. It’s that “never meet your heroes” thing they always warn you about. The character Luke and the actual Luke weren’t initially matching up, but as she spends time with him, those two Lukes are finally starting to overlap. The “ba-bum” perhaps confirms that she can feel the same way about this Luke.
Still, I’m not feeling it for reasons I’ve stated before. The funny thing is that Natsuko has “known” Luke for most of her life, i.e. ever since she first caught A Tale of Perishing in theaters. And since she consumes all content related to the movie, she knows him better than he knows himself. On the other hand, he has barely known her. It still feels like they’ve just met. Ultimately, Natsuko is not an ordinary heroine, so I think it’s a bit disappointing if she ends up with an ordinary love story. There’s still a way out. According to Natsuko, Luke falls into despair when he loses the ones he loves. She’s part of those “ones” now. We can still preserve the ending and Natsuko doesn’t even have to die. She can simply go back to the real world. But while this depressing turn of events might “save” A Tale of Perishing, does it fit the tone of Zenshu, the actual anime that we’re watching? I don’t necessarily want a sad ending either3. Furthermore, the director has already told her story. Her story is a critically-panned film that even the audiences (minus Natsuko) didn’t like. And now Natsuko gets to pen a different one — a fanfic basically. Nevertheless, it’s boring to me if it ends up with the quirky heroine getting her prince charming. You can watch that story everywhere else. Why do it again here?
1I’m going off of the dubbed script, because that’s what I’m watching. I know it’s different in the Japanese dub, but I like the performance of Natsuko’s English VA so I’m sticking with it.
2I don’t personally get that feeling of “frisson” when I listen to music, so I simply don’t. People are always shocked when I tell them that I do not listen to music in my free time nor have I ever been to a concert. Yeah, there are songs that I like and songs that I don’t like. I can tell if a movie or a game has a great soundtrack. At the same time, however, I’ve never felt the urge to put a playlist on loop. It doesn’t do anything for me. This is also me and alcohol. No, I’m not one of those Asians who can’t drink. Rather, the feeling of being drunk is not remotely appealing to me. Nevertheless, you could argue that the discovery of alcohol shaped human civilization.
3I initially wanted Natsuko to learn about love without falling in love herself, if that makes sense. Again, most of the popular love stories out there aren’t remotely realistic, so you can’t convince me that Natsuko needs to experience love first hand in order to make her movie.