Hi everybody! I hope that you have been able to sort out your winners and losers for the season so far. As we head into the next week, many shows are going to be on episode 3 at this point. This means many of them might not get a discussion post if people haven’t commented on the episode 2 thread.
Please use this thread as a dumping ground for all your anime questions, thoughts, recommendations, etc.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
I think Train To The End Of World has been great so far with its Galaxy Express/Petit Prince story structure.
Episode 3 was great, but episodes 1 and 2 i found to be largely very slow and bogged down by dialogue. If it does more short story type episodes with the different stations I’ll be happy to see more, but I’m just not sure which parts we’ve seen are indicative of the overall quality, if that makes sense.
This type of show is like an anthology.
Even though we have the same characters every episode, they’re thrown into new settings that are thinly disguised parables for something about the human condition that the writer is trying to say.
Galaxy Express 999 and Le Petit Prince both lean into pathos, with GE999 laying it on especially thick with its soundtrack.
The 3rd episode is also pathos, but it’s much more subtle.
The mushroom people are just falling over and dying, but they just accept their fate, and in denial proudly saying that they’re living life to its fullest, although there’s little evidence of that.
The only thing I can see is they just continue living on, knowing they’re doomed, not even pausing to pick the dead off the street.
So you what does that correspond to in real life? Nothing too obvious. Maybe a type of person that the writer doesn’t like?
edit: Or maybe some Japanese social criticism that I’m not aware of?