I’m feeling much better this week. And thank you so much to everyone who reached out to see how I was. You guys are honestly so sweet. I was just lacking sleep but I caught up! Now I’m super happy and productive. Also a little hungry for some reason. Let’s see if that affects my opinion of Platinum End.
Spoiler, it kind of does…
Ok so cards on the table, I’m still not in any way impressed by Platinum End but I’m not mad at it anymore. In fact, there were a few moments that dipped into the so bad it’s good or unintentionally hilarious spectrum for me. I giggled.
For instance, Mirai seriously and dramatically coming up with the profound line of “Even Saki can hate!”, followed up by a flashback cementing the thesis of hate is bad. Well, that was brilliant! Also, a new character that stumbles in and starts reaching for a cigarette, somberly declares he has terminal cancer and puts the pack back in his pocket. Bravissimo! They even reproduced the Angels in America poster! I mean if the show was just moments like those, it would be a seasonal favourite.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of times where it’s not ridiculous enough to be funny but still doesn’t make much sense. It can come off as lazy writing or maybe somethings getting lost in translation.
Nanato identified Mirai and Saki as candidates because they were looking at Nasse which they shouldn’t have been able to see. It only took 3 episodes and them doing that exact thing approximately 46 times for him to notice. And why did he bring his design portfolio with him to meet Saki and Mirai? That makes sense! Although it seems they are going to do some type of tokusatsu and I am very enthusiastic about that!
In fact, Nanato had a lot of just nonsense lines. They should look out for unusual behaviour (in everyone in Japan?) because those people are highly likely to be God candidates. How can you define unusual behaviour in someone you don’t know? And people act weird all the time, are they all God candidates? Also, there was an incident where a lot of girls got killed but it was by stabbing. Apparently, and I quote “you don’t need a white arrow if you have a knife“. This legendary divine power is accessible to anyone with a kitchen.
Oh yeah, and Metropoliman has a completely unimaginable wish! To bring back the dead. You know that wish that has been the driving force in stories and mythologies since the dawn of man. That unimaginable wish… Ok, you know what, now that I have them written down, those are pretty funny as well.
However, it seems to me like the show doesn’t mean to be funny. And that makes me feel a bit bad laughing at it. I think it’s meant to be a drama or at least an action series and on that level, it doesn’t work for me.
I suspect that it might be aimed at a younger audience. There’s this whole thing about Nanato using the red arrow to make a rich man give a fortune to his wife and daughter. And the characters clearly tell us that this is a morally commendable act. He should not feel bad about this. It conveniently ends there and doesn’t go into how that rich guy lost his house and his family can’t feed their children or how after the red arrow wore off and the rich guy put all the blame of losing so much cash on his accountant who then committed suicide unable to bear the burden. I’m joking but you know what I mean. It’s a sort of very surface-level black and white logic that’s usually used when writers think their audience might not be able to fully grasp more nuanced or deeper reasonings.
And it’s the same type of impulse that has Mirai agree to the plan but on the condition that Nanato does everything he can to survive his cancer. And Nanato just going okey dokey. I get it. Nanato seemed nice. I also hope he gets better… But man that was a quick and nice little bow to tie that plot thread in.
Serious question though, why is Metropoliman’s sister in carbonite? Did she piss off Jabba the Hutt somehow? Cause I would really like to see that story!
Metropoliman’s sister being in whatever suspension she is kind of reminded me of Mr. Freeze in that old Batman movie too . Actually that was the goofy batman movie everyone hated lol
Oh yeah – I see it! Metropoliman vs Batman – I would watch it
I’m glad you got some rest! And I’m glad you’re getting more enjoyment out of the anime.
Sometimes I want to look for the hidden meaning- sometimes i would like for someone to tell me what’s going on. I can go both ways, honestly. Although I couldn’t decipher a theme and what an author is trying to convey to save my d@mn LIFE, so i usually just watch writing analysis videos.
This particualr author sort of goes for similar themes in most of their work. Power corrupts being the obvious one.
I’ve kind of given up on logic and this anime at this point. I don’t hate it but it isn’t overly impressive. I think like you I’m finding it hasn’t gone silly and over the top enough to just switch my brain off and enjoy a b-grade experience and you just cannot take it seriously because when you do it really makes no sense. The ‘dead’ sister encased in whatever was kind of the eye-roll winning moment of the episode for me.
You’re usually more patient than me with dramas but man, this one is a challenge
I’m surprised given the pre-season hype around this one. While I don’t always agree with hyped up shows normally they are pretty functional. This one is just not quite hitting the mark.