Year In Review: N-Squared List
Just like last year, I guess some things have not changed. This could be a reference.
It’s an Asura Cryin’ Shame When Good Girls Go Bad
There’s something weird about Asura Cryin’ that I can’t quite put my finger on. The show itself has a very compelling set of characteristics. The characterizations are hit and miss but they are all come across interestingly conceptually. The plot is overall solid even if unfolded in a way that can be a turn-off for those who can’t do nonlinear storytelling. The core conflict is a bit cliche, like a second-rate console RPG from Japan, even in the way in how it aspires to be something more than the sum of its parts.
[Is this how it feels to watch Nanoha StrikerS? ]
The way people fight among each other to keep their Asura Crying/Daughter/Demon nonsense in check was just child’s play to the equally nonsensical “saving the world” main plot arc. It really helped the show when it begin that story arc because it put everything into context of everything else that has happened/explained in the show. It is as if every episode gives the viewer a random piece of the jigsaw puzzle but you don’t know what the final picture is until the last story arc begins.
What was most compelling about the show was its set of “good girls.” Because almost every girl in the show is a “good girl.” Even the bad ones. What is a “good girl” (henceforth GG) and why do I put quotes around it? I think this is a concept I first picked up from people talking about some of the characters from Simoun, who stepped up to the plate and did what dirty business they had to do to preserve their ideals. Like Mamiina, right? But the concept applies to all sorts of valiant, angst-tormented girls that are somewhat commonly found in anime, who, despite what prior acts they may have committed, finally align their morally understandable and commendable motives with “the right thing to do” at the time, and exits the stage on that high note.
