SEASONAL PRATTLE
Short Check-In this week, but hopefully you enjoy it all the same!: This was very much an on-brand showing from Yesterday wo Utatte in that the moments it wants to illuminate and humanize are there on paper, but in practice pulling them off is an entirely different story. Forfeiting last week’s cliffhanger couldn’t have been any worse of a move given how parched this series has been for tangible progression for quite some time now. And even worse, that decision is followed up by a large serving of Shinako’s indecisiveness despite plenty of viewers being full at this point. Her internal logic in how she approaches and manages relationships isn’t nearly relatable or agreeable enough as eight often attempts to frame it to be – burning minutes on what ultimately amounts to tedious waffling that doesn’t really characterize her or her circumstances any further than what’s already been presented. Thus, this week’s only real gravity comes in the closing quarter with Haru getting soft rejected – writing that was on the wall for a while now and a dynamic that’s been largely dragged out in its own right.
Yesterday wo Utatte is deeply tone-driven, and while it’s frequently preoccupied with attempting to communicate the lived experience of its leads, it’s execution in actually doing so is less than desirable and performances like this one only reinforce that.
Kami no Tou (8)
“Finding itself as an awkward follow at spots”
Returning with an eighth installment, Kami no Tou spits out a wad of content that’s as patchy in production as it is poorly told. It doesn’t take long to realize this episode needed a lot more foundational work to be effective, easily finding itself as an awkward follow at spots due to its previously weak explanation of the tag test’s ruleset in addition to the lack of information relating to pieces that were crucial to how our events unfolded – such as lighthouses. Sprinkling salt in an already open wound, Kami no Tou is an aesthetic rollercoaster throughout this run, presenting some scenes with relative grace but having its fair share of sequences that are roughly composed and lacking proper impact when needed. I would like to see Kami no Tou live up to its billing, but undercooked performances like this clearly make that tough.
Kakushigoto (8)
“Didn’t offer too many rewards in its own right or leverage our usual set of touchpoints”
Lastly, Kakushigoto latest entry was fairly mild, rolling out material with a trajectory that didn’t offer too many rewards in its own right or leverage our usual set of touchpoints to its fullest. On a whole, episode eight was quiet, carrying on with the puppy centric scripting of last week and inevitably blending into birthday party shenanigans that did a reasonable job of generating warmth and smiles, but clearly lacking in comedic juice. There’s hardly anything noteworthy to take home here be it textually or in pure design beyond some not so subtle foreshadowing and whisps of thematic positioning that the after credit scenes tend to offer. However Kakushigoto skates by with no real hiccups either – leveling the playing field and making for a decent watch.
