Number24 #01 — Guilt Trip – The Anime

January 8th, 2020

 

Sad boys in sweat.

Impressions:

The point where this episode went from eye-rolling melodrama to almost parody was not the entire first third that was all two dudes awkwardly primping over each other in excessive guilt. It was when the one dude overheard two randos talking about how much they hated the dude because the guy who was driving the motorcycle in the accident that gave him career ending nerve damage was their friend, and their friend felt guilty for it. You thought this was about rugby? God no. There's no rugby in this episode whatsoever. This is just about dudes feeling guilty. It's guilt upon guilt, all the way down. And as if to solidify that, we move on to the second half about a secondary guilt-twink who feels guilty because despite working himself into the hospital, he hasn't Worked Hard enough. So thanks to a pep talk, he redoubles his effort to Work Hard, but in a slightly different way.

It does answer the question of whether this is going to be a sports show or an angsty pointy-chinned boys show pretty resoundingly though. The promos had been all about the rugby. This episode was most decidedly not, and could have easily been about anything at all, and I'm pretty sure there was something with this exact premise, including the nerve damage, about a piano or guitar player, though nothing is coming to mind. Probably not even an anime then. I'm rambling because it was a boring episode that dealt entirely in character introduction when it didn't go any further than "dude is putting on a smile to hide the bottomless depth of woe and guilt that tortures him every single moment," with the subtlety of a brick to the face, and then a random kid pops out of quite literally nowhere solely to be rescued. Narrative? Pfft. Don't need it.

 

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