I've been waiting since the season premiere to get Vueko's & the Ganja's backstory, I even remember commenting that I was a bit disappointed that the first episode shifted directions back towards the main trio, I wanted to see the series fully commit to this seeming side-story. But obviously the placement here works me, people talked about some scene shifting from the manga adaption, I have no idea on that, but giving us the first taste in the premiere and waiting until halfway through to delve into the origins was a smart choice. If the manga didn't start with that teaser & just adapted the full backstory from this point in the story, I think the anime made a really good change here. It helped carried the intrigue for the in-between episodes to already know context Vueko, Belaf, Irumyuui, & Wazukyan. Added a lot of mystery & anticipation for the origin reveal as we're feed more information about how the Sages ended up. I haven't talked about the last batch of episodes, but I've enjoyed them for the most part, with the intrigue of "what happened" & "how this came to be" being one of the strongest elements. Outside of the growing obsession of fecal matter stuff, the only other thing I haven't really enjoyed as of late is Mitty's return into the fold. While it does showcase the Village's powers, it does feel a tad dramatically cheap to bring Mitty back into the fold but whatever.
Anyway, this episode did what I requested earlier and focused entirely the Ganja, I even love them forfeiting the OP for a simple title card instead. Surely a decision made to fit this entire section into a singular episode, apparently they had to also sacrifice lesbian sex so clearly their was a time concern, but I think getting rid of the more upbeat OP helped this episode keep a pervasive foreboding & ominous tone. At the core, this episode really showed the immense struggle of survival in unknown lands, where even securing safe water to drink can seem like an insurmountable task. The damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario they found themselves with the water is a horrible one for sure, and Irumyuui of course goes through her own unending nightmare as a solution. As messed up as the solution is, I appreciate how it's all built up throughout the story. We've know about her inability to give birth since the first episode of the season, we saw the journey with the pets, and we of course understood enough about the issues plaguing the Ganja. If the climax of the story is going to be incredibly fucked, I appreciate that it's built up upon multiple elements ranging from character motivations to the established world-building, makes it feel less like edgy gratuity when it's well-structured into the plot.
Arguably this is all still a bit gratuitous regardless. Do we really need to see the diarrhea and the touching/inspection of such? Probably not, and while it's a disgusting inclusion, I do think there's some level of value for having a series incorporate these elements that would often be disregarded, even if they are a likely symptom. Even if there's a fetishistic angle to it's inclusion, it's still effective way to unabashedly showcase just how horrific this expedition could be. I don't want other series to start including this, and I'd prefer if excrement stuff like this was saved solely for instances like this rather than also being used as like comic relief with Riko's bathroom problems, but regardless, I think in this circumstance it works.
I'd be lying if I said this episode truly disturbed or horrified me or anything like that, but it definitely captivated me the entire time. And with all the comments hinting towards much worse to come, I look forward to seeing how this finds an even darker shade of black, and if that darkness will affect me the way this seemed to for many. I would probably highlight this as my favourite episode of the season, so I'm excited to see finish the story of the Ganja and the origins of the village. |