Hmm where do I start with this? Well I guess I should start by saying that this is my first review of anything ever so I am an amateur and this may not be very good. That being said it's bound to be better than this anime was! This was the absolute worst anime I have ever had the displeasure to struggle to sit through. The story is haphazard and badly written and the characters are even worse however worse still is the ideas and morals this story tries to project onto us.
The story basically is about two people Saikawa and Nishinosono a professor and his student trying to solve the murder of Magata Shiki. However we later find out Shiki is alive. The body was her own daughter she killed that looked exactly like her when young. She did this in order to escape her lab facility she was placed in after killing her own parents seemingly in cold blood and to "set her daughter free. " I'll get into the problems with this mentality and the ideas this story tries to present soon.
The characters: First off both the two main characters Sohei Saikawa and Moe Nishinosono are unlikable , unrelatable and irritating. Saikawa in particular got under my skin in just about every single scene he was in. He is completely detached and uncaring for 99 % of everything and everyone and basically wishes to leave the psychical world behind because it's " boring. " Very obnoxious and aloof character that I just couldn't warm up to no matter how hard I tried.
Nishinosono is a little more tolerable as she actually acts like a real human being and has feelings for Saikawa ect , but mostly she just comes across as a spoiled and stupid child who is just pinning after some douche bag who has the personality of an under cooked eggplant. At least she was made somewhat sympathetic when we find out how her parents died and Saikawa is 1% humanized because he cared for her , ( still didn't make me like him. )
Magata Shiki: I couldn't figure out what the writer if we can even call this tripe writing was going for with her characterization. I just don't get what the point was I mean if we go by what Shiki is supposed to teach us then killing your own child is beautiful and it's only natural for everyone to want to die. This woman killed her own child for god sake! Laughed manically after killing their own parents and we're supposed to think of them as some sort of beautiful minded pure genius? Yeah no not gonna happen PERIOD! To me I can't view this person as anything but insane and intentional or not basically " evil. "
( Seiji Shindo ) I will be writing a lot about this character.
When Magata Shiki was only 13 years old, she begins a romantic sexual affair with Seiji Shindō, her uncle and director of the lab. Ironically I found him to be the most relatable and human of the characters. Many would argue he was a bad man due to his affair with Shiki but he seemed to both love and fear Magata Shiki. It should be noted that in the past when they became lovers Shiki was the one who would always touch him inappropriately and want to lie in his lap and kiss him romantically. Shiki would even ask and all but beg for him to make love to her and take her virginity.
Seiji: " There were too many people around her who treated her like a genius. But to me , she was just an ordinary 13 year old girl. No I had thought of her as a girl but... Whenever I was alone with her , there was always a slight sense of terror. She ruled my life. She toyed with it , or perhaps I wanted her to rule it and to toy with it. I wanted to touch her any my hands moved slightly. She always anticipated this moments hesitation. Part of me realized that. This terror was an expression of another different feeling , or so I'd thought. " This sets the whole tone for how he felt manipulated by her and that he was not in control of himself. Episode 4 is where we see the virginity loss. Seiji sitting in a chair in a hotel room : " Summer the year 2000. I stood atop a hill , looking down the long slope I heard her voice. Or more precisely their... " Shiki to herself in the shower: Hey suma san , you were with him for a while right? Yes. Did he invite you or you him? It was I. Do men not find that attractive? No, I don't need generalities. Wouldn't HE find that unattractive? Yes I see I was starting to get nervous. That's a rare thing for you to say , how are you nervous? Without a body you wouldn't understand . Are you OK Shiki? It's my first time so I'm not very confident , but it's probably alright. Don't force yourself. What a strange warning , I was only trying to get you to relax. Kishio in the short time I haven't seen you you've matured a lot. It's only humans who take this long to become adults. " Seiji: I said to her , You aren't normal. and she answered I am not normal. " Shiki emerges from the shower with only a towel wrapped loosely around her young body. Seiji: " Grunt uncomfortably " Shiki: " I have a request. " Seiji: "Put your close on! " Shiki: " Touch me. Please , all you have to do is touch me. " Seiji: Why do I have to?! GASPS " Shiki: ( Quickly hugs him with her naked body while crying ) Seiji: " And I began to fall down the long slope , not knowing where I would go. "
Now I just want you to put yourself in his position and tell me without of a shadow of a doubt that you WOULD NOT have complied. You can't because we were not him and I know if I had been in his position I probably would not have been able to stop myself. When I saw the scenes where Shiki kept trying to seduce Seiji. I each time felt myself be slightly hot and aroused so I cant judge him as I really don't think I would have turned out any better and If that makes me a bad person then I guess I'm bad LOL. Michael Jackson: " Because I'm bad, I'm bad come on You know I'm bad! ♪♪♪ " Sorry couldn't resist adding some humor as I know some people will be tense after hearing me pretty much all but advocate such conventionally questionable relationships
The Final thing as far as Seiji goes that I want to talk about will also lead into my final thoughts on the series and it's morals and ideas and that is Seiji's death at Shiki's hands. Shiki is appearing before Seiji before she makes her escape from the lab disguised as her fake sister she made up to trick everyone to escape. Shiki: (Runs and hugs Seiji ) ( While embracing ) Seiji: " I missed you! " Shiki: " Me too! " Seiji " Your , going to kill me now right? " Shiki: " Don't cry. I wan't to save you! " Seiji: " I wasn't going to give this to you but... ( hands her a book ) I'm really glad I've lived this long. " Shiki: " Goodbye uncle.... I loved you uncle. " ( reaches in to kiss him and as they share one last kiss she stabs him in the back setting him " free " in her mind. )
The Problems with the morals and ideas presented in this series particularly from Magata Shiki the idiot lunatic uh I mean enlightened genius are just downright incorrect. Magata Shiki: “Isn’t the instinctive desire of beings, born not of their own volition, for their lives to be taken in the same way?” So is the anime trying to make the murdering of others appear normal?! “A flower wilts for the sake of a new seed” So it's alright for a child to kill it's mother too? These notions are not justifiable nor are they acceptable in anyway but merely ridiculous and just downright asinine. If we go by these and Magata Shiki's character as a whole and her world view the world would just be a bunch of pathetic saps wanting to be put out of their misery and how beautiful it would be to set them free with death. Now I get why Japan has such a high suicide rate ( just kidding there. ) Dark humor aside though the ideas expressed here open up a Pandora's box of negativity and lunacy that I just can't accept. I get that there truly can be times where dying is the best choice. For example if I got into a car accident and became a vegetable I would want to die and my family knows if something like this ever happens I want the plug pulled. If everyone or a lot of people or even certain people I loved and cared about died I would want to die as well. If I had incurable disease and was in constant pain I would want to be put out of my misery yes. But those examples aren't what I'm talking about at all as those are extreme cases.
My anger and disagreement lies with the idea of killing your own bloody child and viewing that as setting them free and just viewing death as some freedom and beautiful thing to set all of us free. There are plenty of people who don't want to die and that whole " own volition " crap is just a bunch of nonsense and frankly just intellectual masturbation. After seeing Magata Shiki murder her own parents and laugh maniacally I just can't accept her or her crazy views of the world. For what it's worth id she can even feel love like a normal human being I think she probably loved Seiji. Life is beautiful and the majority of us want to live and share that beauty with one another as well as hardships and pain. We live to love one another and to share things with them. If we are remembered by people who love us that is the true eternity and that is true freedom. That is just my two cents though.
Time to wrap it up in a neat little package lol. If you enjoyed this review well first off I want to thank you for reading through it regardless but anyway if you enjoyed this review I'm glad if not than meh I won't lose any sleep. Regardless thank you for reading , ideally I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.