Tokyo 24-ku (07)

Episode Synopsis:

Ran and DoRed, who have been spreading graffiti opposing cPhones and the new KANAE system, find themselves in a Graffiti War with someone overwriting their work with the mark of Carneades.  Koki begins work in a new department working on the KANAE system.  Shu fills in for his vacationing father at the bakery, where he tries to discover the secret to making the bakery’s signature item, the Golden Sunrise.

Episode Review:

Guys, I’m worried about Toyko 24-ku.  If you told me that this was the same show as the high-quality, heartpounding action spectacular that was Episode 1, I’d have a hard time believing you.  Part of it is the significantly lower quality of animation on display.  There’s a bunch of the usual stuff – eyes slightly misaligned and so on – but there’s also two instances that really stood out to me.  One was when Koki walked over to sit down at his new MEGA DESK over at KANAE headquarters.

I hope that chair has wheels, because he’s going to be rolling back and forth a lot.  There’s no way his tiny arms can ever reach that touchscreen of course. 

The second issue that caught my eye is also a perfect lead-in to my other concerns.

What is up with his hands? His massive club hands with their thick short fingers? This is also a good lead-in to a more serious question, “where are we going with the plot of this show?”  This episode has about 10% Ran trying to fight off an encroaching surveillance state with graffiti, 5% Koki becoming part of that surveillance state… and 85% Shu staring at every woman near him while he imagines groping them.

The plot this episode involves him trying to bake the perfect bread, and he thinks this is part of it.  Putting aside (and it’s difficult to do so, trust me) how incredibly stupid every single second of this plot is, what happened to, I don’t know, ANYTHING I CARE ABOUT?!?

Where are the interesting mild superpowers being used to solve trolley dilemmas?   Where is Carneades and his weird ability to create(?) natural disasters? Where is any hint that the three main characters are going to work together, or even against each other?  They just seem to exist in completely different stories.  I get that we need to have some setup for plot events later, but it feels like we’ve been doing “setup” for multiple episodes now, and The Adventures of Bread Groper doesn’t really feel like it’s setting up anything except disappointment.  And don’t even get me started on this guy:

Anyone who can spout lines like that and this:

…is someone you just KNOW is going to be an irritating waste of time.

Oh well.  At least this episode featured the clearly best character, Shu’s dad:

Even though he genuinely feels like he’s from a completely different show (remember how that other girl lost her father in a tornado?), his appearance and actions at least put a smile on my face.

In closing, I’m hoping the show can pull itself together before the end, but it’s looking iffy.

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