I'm seven minutes into ep 18 and I really don't want to watch it.

The very epitome of a filler episode is to pluck a minor character out of the background and tell a story about him or her. That's what's going on here: it's about Kuroko and Mikoto's dorm supervisor, who until now has been presented as a battleaxe.

The coincidence of Saten and Uiharu being at the same place is too much to take; it's a deus-ex-machina, not a coincidence. But the worst aspect of it all is that characterization is drifting. Kuroki is not like that. She has her catty side, but this isn't it.

Starting to skip now.

UPDATE: That was even more worthless than ep 17.

UPDATE: Ep 19:

That's for sure. She's out of character too. Kuroko in ep 18 and Uiharu in ep 19 are like parodies of themselves.

UPDATE: I guess the way to approach ep 19 is to take it as broad comedy. Uiharu does have a tendency to otakuhood when it comes to the upper class, and in this episode they're playing with that full out.

There's a point where there's a joke that doesn't really come through in translation. Uiharu starts talking with an oujo-ben, I guess you could call it. She starts using watakushi and ending her sentences in desu wa. She's affecting an upper class accent. But there isn't really any good way to render that in English, and Chihiro's translater didn't try.

Saten's response to that was completely in character. She flipped Uiharu's skirt. Complete deserved, too, for a change. Worked better than a bucket of ice water would have, I think, to bring Uiharu back down to Earth.

Saten seems to glory in being plebian. I wonder if it's part of her process of trying to become comfortable with who and what she is after the Level Upper incident?

UPDATE: It looks like the main purpose of this episode, in terms of serving the long term story line (such as it is) was to let us see Touma after his "accident". But aside from that this episode was another total loss.

It was interesting to see that it's not just Uiharu that's a Mikoto fangrrl. The other girls in the dorm all seem to idolize her. She's Tokiwadai's Ace; it's inevitable, I guess. She's notorious, known all over the city albeit not necessarily recognized by sight. When she unlimbers her power, people instantly know who she is -- at least to the extent of knowing that she's the Railgun.

That's a lot of weight to carry. I can see how it gets her down sometimes, but overall she does a pretty good job of carrying the load.

OK, now to switch over to the Ayako directory and to pick up ep 20, which IIRC is the beginning of the final plot arc. I'm not expecting much, but it might be OK.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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