天下制覇

What exactly were you doing for six months?

Impressions:

Now with that out of the way, I'm going to be betraying a bit of future knowledge, both about the show and the source here, but the thought that got its hooks into my head is that this is a self-declared journey of discovery for the titular character out of regret and guilt for not knowing more about her friends and the world around herself… and then instead of doing that, she shuts herself off in her memories. Never mind that the setting is supposed to be this harrowing fantasy world, filled with death and danger, but she has somehow across centuries not once faced mortality in any way, which is already a bit of a headscratcher. And the lack of growth, learning, or development in this vignettes drives home how much it feels more like superficial emotional tourism to me rather than anything meaningful about life, memories, or connecting with others.

And you can already see that in the first couples episodes in multiple places, most glaringly when she comes back to the warrior dude and he has literally no life whatsoever outside of her. No family. No friends. All that exists around him are some off-screen old ladies to mourn-shame her. And then the priest. This is the last time I'll see you before my death. And then after a short montage, she shows right up at his door and moves in with him for the next few years. We've spent six months searching for these flowers and it's impossible… except for the giant meadow of them a squirrel's scamper away. These melodramatic tearjerker scenes are entirely superficial and carried completely by the music. Insert a few anime boings and faceplants and it could've been a comedy. And it's not helped by every montage having to be followed by exposition explaining whether fifteen minutes passed, fifty years, or any random time in between. It's disorienting to me for no real reason and all it does it highlight how little effort is being made to actually grow or learn more compared to chasing after nostalgia, especially when the 'transient' human characters do not change at all in that span either, not even new clothes. And that's definitely not meant to be the takeaway.

I don't know if I'll get to the other two episodes. I'm beat, and like I said, these episode basically put me to sleep. Sure, that's likely intended, but they don't engage and aren't interesting to write about either. I see from a glance that they fight some random monster in the next episode through the power of standing still and expositing at it, which doesn't fill me with hope that I'll be more hooked by it. There are very few Friday shows this season, so maybe I'll follow up, but for now, I need a nap and food, in either order.