This week on Platinum End, we learn about unusual wing placement!
I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t really looking forward to this episode. In fact, I put off watching it until the last minute. And you know how it is, sometimes you already decide that you’re not going to like an anime even though you haven’t watched it and it gets very hard to give it a fair shake. That’s sort of where I was. I mean I was already rolling my eyes at the “intended for mature audiences” disclaimer and that wasn’t even part of the episode.
In my defence, that warning about mature audiences at the beginning was immediately followed by a series of events that not only seemed to have been written for a fairly juvenile audience but also by a fairly juvenile author. I’m just saying, Platinum End doesn’t quite strike me as a complex and subtle drama meant for adults. Is all.
But wait, much like Platinum End itself, this post has twists! Even though I had pretty much decided to hate the episode and was already composing a scathing review in my mind as that annoying comedian guy bit it… I just didn’t. I still don’t think Platinum End is a great show for me but I liked this episode way more than I thought I would and way more than the first one.
Part of it is certainly that I have adjusted my expectations but it also felt like in this episode, Platinum End wasn’t taking itself quite as seriously. Like it kind of wanted to embrace being a bit of a trashy supernatural soap opera and I think that might be a great move! I also enjoyed the idea of one of the candidates playing superhero. It’s both fun in how deeply childish it is and sort of twisted. I play on the whole power corrupts notion that the author is fond of in a very direct way.
Also, the main character, after accidentally murdering his aunt and finding out his entire life was a lie, has found a new zest for it. Life that is. He’s still a bit on the mopey side but he doesn’t want to die and is going to work hard to get a lovely high school experience. I much prefer him this way over the edge lord thing he had going on last week.
And so, by the time he was trying on his new school uniform, well… how can I put it. I didn’t hate the episode. I would watch another.
I mean there’s still plenty that doesn’t make sense and if you think too hard about the story it sort of falls apart. I love the idea that God specifically wanted suicidal people as candidates. The justification that they would want to change the world because they aren’t happy with it is all sorts of flimsy. After all, they have specifically given up on it. Some people have depression without actually hating the world and plenty of non-suicidal people want to change it. I think God may just be trolling the angels for giggles.
I’m also not so sure how to feel about the idea that Metropoliman is also a high school student. I thought it would have been funnier if he was an adult. The fact that he and Mirai will most likely be engaging in a cat and mouse game each trying to discover the other, while the rest of the student body is oblivious but also at risk. Well, it sounds a bit too familiar.
So in summary: butt wings!
