Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring ‒ Episode 8

Episode 8 of Agents of the Four Seasons leaves me with a lot of questions. Why did the show wait until almost three-quarters of the season was finished to give us the full story of Hinagiku's kidnapping? Why did the show decide to randomly place this episode immediately after the explosive assault on the home base of the Agent of Autumn, thereby disrupting the most plot development the show has seen so far? Most importantly of all, my main question is this: Why the hell does Agents of the Four Seasons insist on showing us flashbacks to the same window of time, over and over, if it isn't actually going to show us anything new or interesting?

I am, in many ways, a critic who appreciates the craft of structuring a narrative into a most effective and meaningful design. This doesn't mean I cannot appreciate a story that abandons traditional plot development and pacing–Twin Peaks: The Return is one of the greatest works of art produced in the last century, and it doesn't give a good goddamn about delivering satisfying payoffs and easily digested character arcs. Agents of the Four Seasons is no Twin Peaks, however, and its reliance on very familiar tropes of anime melodrama means that we, the audience, have no reason to give the show the benefit of that doubt that it might be trying to do anything particularly experimental or daring.

Instead, what these eight episodes have constructed so far is a very pretty and well-performed fantasy story that has absolutely zero sense of forward momentum or emotional investment because it simply refuses to believe that we “get” how badly these Agents and their Guards have been traumatized by the Insurgent attack that split them apart and destroyed Hinagiku's mind. It thinks that, after seven previous episodes of stomping our skulls onto the proverbial curbside of adolescent angst and ugly tears, we need even more details about that fateful day and its terrible aftermath. So, regardless of whatever goodwill and intrigue might have been earned by that ludicrous missile drop last week, Agents of the Four Seasons has decreed that, no, instead of giving us anything new or interesting to react to, it will finally bestow upon us the gift of an episode-long flashback. The whole thing is all in black-and-white, too, which is how you know it's going to be artsy and devastating. It's just like Schindler's List, am I right?

I'm sorry, Agents of the Four Seasons, but I need to put my foot down. Enough is enough. You have become addicted to repetitive, melodramatic flashbacks, and now we are staging an intervention. As a narrative, you seem to be addicted to wringing cheap and unearned tears out of your audience by shoving misery porn into their gullets week after week, but even the most terminally dependent fellow melodrama junkie will develop a tolerance to the same old fix time after time, and I think we're running out of clean veins to stick the needle into. You aren't just frustrating the audience at this point, Agents, you are actively sabotaging your whole story. It's not just that we're bored with seeing the same tired scenes and crumbs of exposition; we're starting to lose hope in you entirely.

Flashbacks are meant to supplement a narrative, not subsume it. When used effectively and judiciously, they complement the events of the actual, present-day story by showing us thematically relevant character beats or revealing new information that changes how the audience understands the bigger picture. This episode of Agents of the Four Seasons accomplishes neither of those most basic tasks. All we really get are more detailed and elongated scenes that depict what the show has already bluntly explained to us a dozen times already. At best, I can give the episode credit for giving us a more meaningful look at Hinagiku's bond with Rosei, as well as the connection that Sakura and Itecho forge when their Guardians meet. If we had gotten this episode maybe five or six weeks ago, and then if the show hadn't insisted on just repeating all of the information we get here over and over and over, then I would likely be singing a much different tune. If nothing else, I might appreciate Rosei more, since up until now, his character has been mostly reduced to pining endlessly for a girl we only vaguely understand his relationship with.

Unfortunately, we do not live in the reality where Agents of the Four Seasons is structured and paced in a manner that is not seemingly designed with the malicious intent of driving its audience mad. We have been beaten over the head with the same basic information for two months straight. We have been forced to watch the present-day story aimlessly wander in ambiguous circles until the anime can feel confident that we have produced a sufficient amount of tears. Thus, we have the version of Agents of the Four Seasons that needs to admit it needs help and be taken to a Tryhard Melodrama Addicts Anonymous meeting before it has any hope of living up to its true potential.

Episode Rating:

Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.