To Aru Kagaku no Railgun -- pre-postmortem

One episode to go, but already some comments about it. Spoilers, below the fold:

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The biggest problem for anime writers is coming up with believable villains. That means that we have to understand why the villain is doing what he is doing, even if it's something we ourselves would never do.

But creating a solid justification for villainy can be tough, and most of the time they don't bother. They fall back on the old standard, insanity. Or Eeeevil. The villain is doing something bad because, you know, that's what villains do. If the villain had a conscience, she wouldn't be a villain, would she?

"Insanity" can be the basis for a good villain. That was the basis for Friagne, in Shana, and he is one of the very best villains in anime. (Friagne and Cell are my top two of all time.) But that's because Friagne's insanity was coherent. We knew what he wanted, and understood why he was willling to go to any lengths to get it. It was an insane desire, and that's where the insanity came into it. But everything he did derived logically from it. Once you understood his insane goal, everything he did to achieve that goal made sense.

Too often, however, insanity is used as an excuse for incoherence, and that's when it fails and leads to shitty villains.

Kiyama was a relatively good villain, at least in this regard. There's a solid reason for why she created the Level Upper. But Telestina isn't a believable villain; it's clear they're falling back on insanity as an excuse. She was her grandfather's first test subject and it's obvious it's affected her mind and made her eeeevil. Probably there's going to be some sort of explanation of the sort of her wanting to finish her grandfather's work, or some sort of ambition to herself become level 6 and gain the godhead, but it'll all be window dressing. As soon as I saw her cackling, I knew it was all over.

It also lead to her doing the classic "I've got the hero in a death trap so now I'll reveal my grand plan and gloat about it" ploy -- which is a plot excuse for exposition so hoary that it's covered with rust and mold. (The only time I've ever seen it used well was by Toriyama, between Piccolo and imperfect Cell.)

The last episode is going to be action. All the protagonists have been identified, and the prize is clear. The good  guys are assaulting the stronghold of the bad guys; and though the good guys are outnumbered they're really strong and very motivated. So it'll be exciting.

But it won't be good story telling.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:25 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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