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[series:3833#628] | ||||||
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{Rent- or Watch+) All episodes watched): What with the mention of an 'alchemist' in the title I was wondering if this was some sort of sequel/spinoff of FMA, but there was no mention of alchemy in episode one and this is in fact a unique series, at least in terms of the premise. Writer Osamu Dazai finds himself in the place of the main character of his own book, which is based on the ancient Greek fable about the man, Melos, who has been sentenced to death but is granted a parole when a friend of his agrees to serve as a hostage in his place. This gradually struck me as sort of amusing and intriguing. Dazai/Melos meets a stranger who seems to know in advance how the story will end. What's going on? I wanted to know. But not everything was positive. I didn't get the part about Seluntius, the hostage, somehow 'betraying' Melos--how could he possibly do that? And when the evil king's guards suddenly transformed into 'Taints' I could only roll my eyes. It seems that even when you are trying something different in anime, ultimately there has got to be some hacking and slashing, even if it is all taking place in some sort of unreal mind exercise. I'd rather that exactly what is going on within these books be left unexplained than we get the usual lame explanation of bad guys who must be defeated because they are bad guys. Based on the OP sequence, it's clear that a sizable team of sexy dudes will assemble, and perhaps each go out to protect a book from these evil taints, which again is pretty typical except that these guys are writers, who are not your typical heroes. What exactly is going on was left unclear; why do books need to be destroyed or protected? Even the protagonists admit that they don't completely know, which I appreciated. One interesting touch was the mention that civilization itself depends on literature and could not survive without it. So, I was left ambivalent, with some things about this show that I liked a good deal and some that I disliked the same. But it was good enough to make me watch episode two. The first half of episode two was composed of several writers who are imprisoned in 'The Library' discussing their lot. Something about them being 'souls' that have been created by the mysterious 'Alchemist' to defend books--it was a little confusing. If I understood correctly, these are not the actual, resurrected souls of these famous authors but rather some sort of artificial duplicates--I wonder why that point was made. A bigger problem was that this whole business of Taints attacking books was hard to buy and didn't excite me much--especially when everything will apparently just come down to a swordfight in the end. Who or what are they? What are they trying to accomplish? What will happen if they succeed (and why would it be bad)? While this show has an interesting and unusual premise, I can't help feeling that the manner in which the story is told is garbled and frustrating. I sort of fear that this will go down as another example of 'I have a good idea--but I won't take it any farther than that'. I must admit that episode three was sort of fun, and made me rethink my plans to drop this series. Basically, Akutagawa and Dazai track down another author, Ango, who is playing out the role of a villain in his own book and arrange an altered conclusion. Still little explanation of the Taints, but this business of playing with the plots of well-known books is sort of interesting; we know what the climax will be if nothing is done, and the characters must find a way to change it. I wish more attention was paid to this and less to the terrible Taints; perhaps if the characters didn't know exactly who they were fighting, just that some force wanted to screw with the literature that they love. They don't have to do this, but they think literature is worth fighting for. Or something like that. I didn't completely 'get' how the heroes pulled off their victory in episode three, but I could sense how the initially despicable villain winds up seeming pitiful and likable. Early in episode four the thought occurred to me that this series might just have something to it. This episode is largely about an ordinary person who can somehow see the authors while others cannot. It makes an active argument for reading and literature, and why they are still important in this era of instant gratification. If I understood it correctly, it was all basically a dream created by the Alchemist to rejuvenate Akutagawa and the others after they lost a fight with the Taints--it wasn't completely clear. Still, it was fun, in part because it didn't all lead to another swordfight. Most shows don't even try to make a philosophic argument of any sort. This was my favorite episode of the series; I wish the series as a whole had followed a similar line. Episode five was less impressive; basically, back to the usual everything-comes-down-to-a-fight motif. A writer who blames himself for something that was in no way his fault poses a slightly unusual challenge for the authors, since he wants to destroy his own book. But it didn't seem to me that much was made of this unusual problem since, again, in the end they just slugged it out. Episode six was basically comedy as the writers take a break from protecting books and instead try to provide themselves with a more varied and agreeable food supply. Eh, it was OK I guess, but I'd have rather have gotten another episode like number four. The thought occurred to me that it still hadn't been made completely clear why books need to be protected and what might happen if they aren't. In episode seven Akutagawa himself is possessed by the Taints--nobody is immune, apparently. Something about it being harder to beat them if the author despises his own book--I think. When another writer uses a trick to turn things around the thought occurred to me 'Oh, this ought to work--but don't ask me why'. The idea was to get the same end result as the novel in question, but without a tragic element; the Taints don't like that, for some reason. One plus is that we learn that Akutagawa was active in the 1920s. Things seem to build towards a climax as a second Akutagawa appears--is this guy a Taint, or what? But why would a Taint be trying to protect books? I had a hard time following the plots of this series even when they only lasted one episode, much less three or four. Even the double himself doesn't seem to know whether he's a Taint or not. Some of the authors want to destroy him, but Dazai senses something else. We get a semi-plausible explanation at the end of episode 11. In episode 12 (which I had assumed would be the final one, but wasn't), the double himself explains how this came about--sort of. At one point in the episode I had said to myself 'Ah, here's where we might just get an explanation of where the Taints themselves came from'. It didn't quite go that far (unfortunately), but we did get an explanation of how this business with two Akutagawas came about. His problems--perfectionism, worrying about what other people would think of him, etc--seemed all too familiar to me. This guy seems to gain the upper hand, but I just knew that all the authors will be whole and hearty at the end. To a certain extent (though I wish it had been taken farther) making Akutagawa's taint into an understandable character with goals other than pure evil was a good idea. He actually thinks he's doing what's right, which makes him much more intriguing. The climax wasn't all that original but was semi-cathartic. We never really get a complete explanation of why the forces of evil hate literature so much, or who this Alchemist guy is, but the story makes enough sense to be enjoyable. Like many anime, I didn't completely understand it but understood enough to be entertained. Last updated Saturday, August 22 2020. Created Sunday, April 19 2020. | ||||||||
