Kyousogiga (series) – First Impressions

Well, I decided that I had to come out and talk about this, since I was so excited for (and a little let down by) the original ONA, and I still think it has one of the coolest PV’s ever.  My problems with the original were mainly those related to it’s running time: a mere twenty-something  minuets.  Now that isn’t really a whole lot of time for a standalone story, especially not one that takes place in a world as crazy as this one.  Thankfully, it looks like they kind of worked out that issue this time around, because this series is now getting a five episode series type-thing.  However, these episodes are apparently all going to be only ten minuets long for whatever reason, so I really hope they buckle down with the writing this time around and provide some kind of idea about what exactly the hell is supposed to be going on here.

One of my other biggest problems with the ONA was it’s story.  I said before that the original felt like it was a random episode out of a much loner series, and I still think that’s a pretty good description of it.  The ONA had little to no explanation about what was going on in the world, though that was somewhat understandable given the time restraints they were under.  However, now that they have more time, I wonder if anything that happened in the ONA will actually be cannon for this series, because if it is, I guess I know the ending… kind of.  Even this first episode didn’t do a whole lot to help me understand what’s going on in this world.  The scenes with the scientists (that were also present in the original) kind of give the idea that the “Mirror World” or whatever it’s called, is some kind of computer simulation type thing that the characters are in.  But the whole world gives off much more of a fantasy feeling than a sci-fi one, so maybe I’m not clear on that.  I still don’t know what Koto is at all, I don’t know what she’s training for, I don’t know who that fox guy is; I just don’t know jack shit about anything that’s going on here.  But I guess that’s okay for right now.

The original left me with the impression that it was an incomplete work.  Thankfully, something was good or popular enough to allow the creators to continue it, and I’m glad they did. Although this episode gave me almost nothing in terms of plot, I’m hoping that will change after the next few episodes.  But it would be so much easier to follow if they would just slow the hell down and stick to a single timeline without jumping the fuck all over the place, in the normal world one second and the mirror the next, with absolutely no sense of continuity between the segments.  I mean come on guys, just a hint of an idea of what exactly is going on would be nice.

Like the original ONA, the artwork is also really unique and creative and kind of reminds me of a more tripped-out version of Spirited Away.  It’s certainly one of the more  visually interesting anime I’ve seen in a long time.  But for some reason I can’t find a high quality version of this episode anyone (the same thing happened with the ONA), so I guess this is also being distributed over the internet.  For a series as colorful and elaborate as this I don’t know why they would choose to stream it over the internet instead of just opting for a DVD/Blu-ray release like a normal OVA, but I’m sure that’ll come eventually.