Takuya Arima lost his mother when he was very young and his archaeologist father in a much more recent cave-in, so he now lives with his stepmother Ayumi, who manages an unpopular construction project near the archaeological site his father had been studying. Strange events, including accidents and unexplained lightning strikes, have been happening, but things get personally weird for Takuya when first a bizarre relic and then a treatise on parallel worlds gets shipped to him, apparently from his deceased father, all at the same time that a new transfer student arrives. Stranger still, he briefly meets a naked, elfin-eared girl at a time and place specified by his father, while one of father’s research associates demands the relic he has at gunpoint and insists that his parents are alive but somewhere else. After more lightning strikes lead to an apparent time-and-space shift, no one else present at the incident seems to remember it the next day. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation
Episodes: 26
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Takuya recently lost his father, though considering the circumstances he’s dealing with it fairly well. His dad was a researcher who died doing what he loved, which is about as much as anyone could ask for. In the meantime, Takuya passes his time being the class goofball and engaging in lewd talk with some of the women whose paths cross his (including his teacher).
Takuya receives a couple of packages that say they’re from his late father – they contain a strange object and a book that speaks of strange things like parallel dimensions. A new transfer student warns Takuya that the construction project headed by his stepmother is treading in dangerous territory, which turns out to be true; in addition to strange earthquakes and lightning strikes, Takuya discovers that it’s also a focal point for his father’s research when his father’s research assistant confronts him there. He also encounters a mysterious elf-eared girl, and his connection with her (as well as the strange bejeweled object left to him by his father) initiates some sort of warp. When Takuya wakes up the next morning, no one seems to remember what occurred the night before; is it memory loss, or something more extreme?
Impressions: One criticism I often see leveled at pieces of media is that they’re “unrealistic.” That’s a word that can mean a lot of things, and when you think about it it actually has some pretty broad implications. Fantasy, by its very nature, is unrealistic because it portrays things that can and do only exist within the minds of its creators. Dragons and magic are things that don’t exist in our world – they’re not real. Science fiction entertainment is often seen as a genre that builds upon the current reality to portray a version of reality that could conceivably come to exist at some point. The universal translator technology from Star Trek didn’t exist at the time it was imagined, but as computer algorithms become smarter I expect we may one day achieve something akin to it, at least when it comes to our own Earthly languages. The idea that we might easily hold a conversation with someone with whom we do not share a common language was at one point in our history unrealistic; now I’d classify it as plausible and even, in some cases, very possible.
In most cases, the word “unrealistic” has become a very poor, or at least a non-descriptive criticism, somewhat akin to calling something you don’t like “stupid” without elaborating further on why it’s so vexing. However, I think it’s a word that still has some very specific uses, and it’s a word I prefer to use when I sense that some piece of media I’m consuming isn’t obeying some sense of internal logic. Allow me to elaborate a bit further.
I’m a fairly avid fan of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise. It’s a set of anime series (and manga) that are definitely not for everyone; the action can be exceedingly violent, there are some story elements that are pretty darned sexist, and the visual aesthetics certainly take some getting used to. I’ve been able to reconcile all of these things and manage to quite enjoy myself, partly because despite being what some might label “unrealistic,” I find that the series operates on a sort of internal logic that I find very interesting. All of the important characters are super-powered, and we know that they’ll be able to manage whatever obstacles they encounter by out-thinking one-another in some manner that can only exist because of the powers at their command. The franchise spends a lot of storytelling energy convincing us that the Joestar family is fated for heroism, showing them as they learn to manage their special abilities, and explaining that the commonly-accepted rules of mortality that exist within our own world are somehow altered in that one. So it clearly makes sense when a discontented guy puts on a stone mask and becomes an undead vampire, only to be decapitated by the hero and by some coincidental luck attach his head to the body of the same hero who died tragically saving his young family. Perfectly sensible, perfectly logical, and perfectly realistic in the realm of “Jojo logic.”
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a long-running story that’s had years to build up the good will required to pull some of the plot maneuvers it has in its time. But what of YU-NO, an anime series with just a few episodes under its belt? It asks a lot of the viewer in its first episode, and much of what it asks I’m willing to accept. Its story revolves around time travel and/or alternate timelines, and while that’s something that’s rarely handled well even within some of the best productions, I’m more than willing to give it a chance to describe its version of that scenario. Mysterious earthquakes and odd, plot-convenient weather patterns? I’m fine with that. Mysterious naked elves who kiss the protagonist with no prompting and then suddenly disappear into thin air? Well… I can kind of deal with that, too. These are all the sort of things that some might call “unrealistic,” and to which I’d reply “yeah, obviously.” It’s a fantasy scenario about something that doesn’t exist, so it’s by definition “not real.” The issue is that this episode transitions from “not real” to “brazenly unbelievable” quickly when it’s left to describe the type of person its protagonist is.
Takuya is the type of stock male protagonist whose primary defining trait is that he happens to be at the center of this story. Older women are either inexplicably willing to entertain his weird, immature flirtations, or somehow have the ability to overlook his perverse behavior (see above). He’s also not punished or reprimanded in any way for exhibiting behavior that, at best, could be classified as a form of sexual harassment, as this is really the only distinguishing item in his character repertoire. Truly, this is baffling; the characters in the image above are so thoroughly Over This Shit™ and yet the situation isn’t even lively enough for the characters to punch him in disgust as would be the norm in other series with hornball dudes. It’s like they’ve already checked-out of the situation.
In any case, I don’t mind being asked to believe in the goofiest of sci-fi concepts, and as an anime viewer I’ve experienced some real doozies. But it’s this episode’s complete disregard of social mores and propriety in service of what it attempts to convince us is humorous (because look at how wacky it is!), and its process of character development that’s as solid as ballpoint pen written on a block of Jello that thrusts me so far out of the moment that I cannot muster even the most nominal amount of goodwill toward its decidedly lack-luster storytelling. It’s not outright terrible, but it operates so far outside of what an audience should be expected to tolerate in the behavior of a main character that it self-sabotages itself and causes audience members like me to disengage.
I suspect most viewers will be able to look past many of these complaints and even find the sci-fi, parallel universe story engaging, and in a way that makes me a little envious. I often think that it would be nice to be able to overlook certain things in favor of my own entertainment, but the ultimate trade-off would be too big a sacrifice for me. I will give this episode kudos for allowing me the opportunity to go off on such a grandiose tangent and have a little bit of “meta” fun, because even if it doesn’t have a lot to offer me, it was in a strange way somewhat thought-provoking (just not in the intended way). I just think that my time could be better spent.
Pros: Lays some groundwork for a story that could be interesting.
Cons: The protagonist’s poor behavior is treated as a stand-in for character development and for humor, and doesn’t work as intended in either case. The women around Takuya are somehow able to tolerate him.
Grade: C-