What was supposed to only be an urban myth turns out to be very real when high school student Asuka Tsuchimiya and her friends open the door to a parallel world when they perform a ritual. – HIDIVE
Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 12
Source: Original
Episode Summary: When the skies are clear, a group of five girls gathers at sunset to perform a ritual of their own making. In doing so, they hope to open the gate to another world, but thus far they’ve never been successful. After yet another failed attempt, one of the girls finds an odd crystal on the ground and utilizes it to operate a crystal radio. After a while all the girls swear that they can hear odd, alien noises somewhere within the static. The girls decide to make another attempt at the ritual, even though the skies are cloudy. This time, their makeshift prayers are answered and all five are transported to a strange golden world.
Unfortunately this world is a hostile one; creatures which first appear cute and harmless band together to become a mortal threat. The group is saved through the intervention of another girl who resembles Asuka, their bubbly ringleader. The mysterious stranger defeats the creatures and guides the group back to their dimension, ordering them never to set foot in the Twilight World again. Unfortunately, she collapses before returning to her own world and Asuka is left to take care of her. It takes Asuka a while to realize that this girl, also named Asuka, may be her equivalent from an alternate dimension. The next morning, Alter-Asuka is gone, but she’s left behind a locket with the photo of a young boy inside.
Impressions: The Girl in Twilight was one of the series I was looking forward to this season, if only because conceptually it sounded kind of interesting and I have a soft spot for original anime productions (though this one is also linked to an upcoming(?) smartphone game). The first episode is not necessarily mind-blowing, but it does lay a bit of groundwork for a story that might turn out to be fun and functional.
I should mention that, for ostensibly being an ensemble cast series, this episode spends very little time developing any of the characters beyond Asuka. Asuka seems to be the one who’s central to the story, so it makes sense for her to be the focal point, but I’m left wondering about the other four girls and how most of what we know about them is that they don’t exactly seem to mesh well with one-another. Their dynamic feels like it would be more appropriate for a slice-of-life comedy; each of the characters seems to have a very trope-y personality (or at least an identifiable personality quirk) which is what one would expect for a series taking a lot of moé shortcuts. It’s easy to generate comedy when the characters are all lovable misfits with clashing personalities. This series feels like it’s supposed to be much more straight-laced, however, so the friction and dissonance feels like it’s getting in the way of something that ought to be more harmonious. I’m not sure if the other characters are meant to play equally important roles later on, but I’m left wondering how that will pan out when they don’t feel like they belong in the same anime series.
I do think Asuka is a fun heroine. Her “genki” attitude gives the impression that she might be more of a side character, but in this case her peppy inclination and willingness to believe in the supernatural is what gets the plot moving. She also serves as a sharp contrast to her alternate-universe self, which is obviously intentional; I believe we’re meant to ask what sort of horrible things could have happened to such an upbeat, bubbly character to cause her to become grim and sullen. Clearly her younger brother(?) is gone in both universes; why has she accepted this and gone one to live a typical life in our universe when her alter-self has become so worn-down? I suspect the story may be moving to answer this very question.
The visual style leaves a bit to be desired. The animation quality isn’t bad by any means, but I wouldn’t have identified this as an “Animax 20th anniversary project” just by looking at it. The character animation is somewhat inconsistent throughout the episode, though I do have to call out the fact that all of the characters have enough differences in their facial features that they’re not suffering too horribly from “same-face” syndrome, as tends to happen when multiple female characters share the same anime space. The Twilight realm utilizes some 3D animation which looks fairly decent; in one scene a group of sinister snow bunnies combines to form a multi-headed serpentine creature, and the visual is fairly effective. I feel like it gives those scenes some dynamic movement that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. I do have to question the choice to make the Twilight Realm quite so yellow; I realize it’s supposed to emulate the evening sunset but the effect is low-key nauseating rather than tense and mysterious.
What I am pretty jazzed about is that this dimension-hopping sci-fi story stars a cast of women. I feel like these types of stories tend to be the purview of young male characters. Steins;Gate and Erased immediately come to mind, as well as this season’s RErideD to some extent. Time travel plotting so often seems to revolve around men and their pain – lost loves, missed chances, the desire to save others. Orange comes to mind as an outlier, but even that dealt much more with character drama than with the details of the time-manipulating mechanic that allowed the heroine’s letter to travel into the past. With the genders (and the gender balance) reconfigured, somehow a series that doesn’t otherwise stand out all that much feels a bit fresher and more interesting. While that’s not a trait that can sustain the narrative all the way through, I think it does provide something unique for the viewer to latch onto; it’s a storytelling angle that’s sorely lacking in a lot of other anime.
I’m definitely not blown away by this episode, but I do find it encouraging in many respects. While I have nothing against slice-of-life anime, it does become a little exhausting when those are the only types of series in which one can typically find several female characters of any importance. Rather than just observing the characters existing, I would rather, sometimes, watch them acting and doing. The selection of this type of anime gets better and more robust all the time, but that doesn’t mean we should stop celebrating it when it arrives.
Pros: The main character is engaging and fun. It’s nice to have a sci-fi story with so many young women.
Cons: The cast thus far are under-developed. There are some iffy aesthetic choices.
Grade: B-