Spent around a month getting into the series! Thanks to @LoopyPanda, I’ve managed to read all the manga adaptations and kept up with the latest animated series. There are other animated adaptations I didn’t get a chance to watch yet, but I’ll catch up to them in the near future.
With that said, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my experience. Loved all the twists, characters, pointless theories, etc. I’m itching (heh) to dive into Umineko and Ciconia in the next few weeks!
So, the latest animated series, Sotsu. I thought it was a decent follow-up to Gou. It gives another perspective of why certain things occurred in Gou, focusing on Satoko. I remember watching Gou when it fired aired, but I had to stop at episode two because it wasn’t an “remake” and more of sequel. But after reading tons of materials, now everything makes sense.
I didn’t mind the repeated scenes since they were offering a perspective of a different character. Do I prefer if they add more original scenes that expanded on that? Of course! But I get it. Animation is hard; it has crap pay (if you follow the animation industry news in Japan, they are overworked and most don’t get the wages they deserved). It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.
But I do like how Satoko orchestrated certain events. Like Rika convincing Keiichi to actually calm down and converse with Rena to avoid the original incident. Rika accomplished that, but Rena was the one that murdered him. One criticism is that I felt there wasn’t as much choreography in the confrontation between crazed Rena and Keiichi as compared to the manga adaptation of that scene.
Interestingly enough, Mion, despite being injected, never really went that deep into the syndrome like the others. It was subtle, small detail, but I like that.
Episode 14 had a lot of stuff that needed to be unpack. Memes aside, I thought Satoko’s point was simple enough. She didn’t like studying, but because of Rika, she felt forced into to appease her friend. Of course, Rika slowly drifted away to others (at least from Satoko’s perspective) while she was held back and forced in a “different environment” altogether. From her standpoint, she felt that because she did all that hard work for her friend, she should have been entitled to Rika, but felt cheated out.
This isn’t to say that Satoko is in the right, but I’m seeing that there’s a lot of grey in that area. Should’ve Rika force her dream onto Satoko? Should Rika really expect her friend to do a turn around simply so they can always be together? I think that was the overall theme of that relationship. Satoko should’ve told Rika that she didn’t want to do it. And she did after getting looper powers. Problem was, Satoko simply didn’t like Rika’s answer. “I’ll go to school; I’ll just visit you when I’m off”; Satoko already believed that Rika will slowly drift away from her despite being there. If Satoko isn’t there, in her mind, Rika won’t bother coming to her at all. Thus, we’re treated with Satoko deciding Rika’s fate by any means necessary. Unlike Rika, Satoko was unwilling to compromise.
Should the anime done better to elaborate the issues between the two? Definitely! But I felt that was easy to convey between the two of what’s really the issue here.
The (literal) battle between the two seems jarring, but after multiple viewings, I grown to love it. Maybe because of the whole time-looping thing was so cool. Some say that it better suited for Umineko, but then again, you have time freeze (with characters actually talking), gods, witches, Akasaka jojo’d walls and punching holes through vans, Keiichi and Rena fighting off adults, etc. It’s not as out of place as one would think :joy:
