Monday 26 May 2014

Mekakucity Actors - Episode 7

Having left a sickly Haruka at school under the assumption that he was merely being lazy last week, this week's Mekakucity Actors picks up the rest of Takane's story.

Needless to say, Takane is quick to beat herself up about Haruka being taken ill, especially given his history of such illnesses, and thus she's keen to avoid seeing him or being seen by him at the hospital.  She does, however, return to school to collect his belongings for him, leading to her bumping into Ayano where they talk about Shintaro for a while - a conversation which leads to Takane realising her own feelings towards Haruka.  It seems that this isn't really the moment to do so however, as the next thing Takane knows she collapses, only to find herself ensconced within the digital body of Ene.


At this point, the square is circled, with Ayano being the original "commander" of the Mekakushi-Dan, and Kido amongst others having visited Takane's school.  Any reverie about these shared experiences is interrupted by news of the accident which occurred right in front of Shintaro's eyes - news which sends most of the others dashing off to check up on those involved, leaving Ene left dangling just as they were about to reveal what seemed likely to be a similar "body transfer" experience of her own.  In the hope of knowing more, Ene attaches herself to Shuya, although it seems that he isn't too interested in giving her any easy answers, preferring instead to bring lost memories flooding back to her.

We're now seven episodes in, and I'm still no closer to getting any kind of grasp of what is going on in this show - the connections between members of the cast are now established, and we've had some hints as to a villain of the piece, but I still don't feel like I know why anything is happening, or more importantly why I should care about it as none of the characters succeed in being engaging.  If Mekakucity Actors can't build its narrative to some salient plot points in this many episodes, there seems to be little chance of it succeeding in doing so over the remainder of the series - a shame, given that there are some interesting ideas and nicely delivered moments that crop up within it from time to time.

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