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Review: Meikyū Monogatari

^{Published 2019-06-20 natively}

Meikyū Monogatari's animation style is likely, thankfully, unique. The protagonist tomboy is pleasant enough, until she moves or speaks, at which point you might as well be watching a phenakistiscope skip and listening to a squeaky door. This is in contrast to the otherwise splendid visual and audio design, which partly resembles an old-era western animation but with a familiar nip penchant for both quality and strangeness.
Then the first of two arcs begins, and everything changes. For the better. There isn't much time for world-building or plot, as each is only about fifteen minutes, but the visuals are both coherent and very comfy. It manages, in short, to tell a story well without requiring a lot of effort from the viewer. Craft and a clear loving attention smoothes out the dated aspects, and the pacing is tight. But still don't expect anything out of the voice acting.
The second arc is much visually warmer, aesthetically appealing. Our protagonist this time is apparently a company man who wears pink panties, and is therefore eminently relatable. Where the previous arc focused on illustrating a singular event, the second uses a number of devices to convey lapses in time, and illustrate the fundamental principle of entropy, and the lapse into chaos and death. Aswell a certain corporate absurdism. Returning to the overarching context, one is both confused by the significance of the arcs and the abrupt tonal shift from high-technology dystopianism to a crude carnivale atmosphere. Then just as quickly, it's over, in the most inscrutable manner possible. Thus proving that two bombs was certainly insufficient, and the return of the Shogunate is the only possible way to avoid cultural dissolution.




Also for some fucking reason the English title is "Neo Tokyo", which is about as far from a literal translation as Neptune.

HH.

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