Fractale - Episode 5

Having managed to escape the attentions of the Fractale system and those behind it, albeit for the time being at least, it seems like a time for reflection and a little relaxation for the escaping Granitz family, with even Phryne and Clain seemingly reluctant to upset the applecart at this juncture.

As he decides not to try and escape via the handily provided parachute, Clain is instead made to work for his living aboard the massive airship - a novelty for a boy who has spent his life being served by machines all of his life, and a rather tiring one at that.  Interestingly though, he soon seems to settle into this lifestyle and the sense of community which pervades every aspect of living on board this flying blimp, with his own real worry the face that he still hasn't seen hide nor hair of Nessa, although it soon comes to his attention that she is at least on board.

In fact, Nessa's presence soon becomes less of a mystery and more of a problem, as her unique properties as a Doppel effectively allow her to hide "inside" the ship's computer system, causing all sorts of problems that seem irreparable until Clain uses his old technology geekery to figure out the root cause.  So, the race is on to find Nessa, although of all people it's Phryne who eventually unwittingly stumbles across her in the aftermath of an attempt for her to leave the ship which peels away another layer of the relationship between Phryne and Nessa while also proving they they aren't quite away from the prying eyes of the Fractale system just yet.

After a couple of pretty deep and fascinating episodes of Fractale, this latest instalment left me feeling rather unimpressed - it didn't have a huge amount to say for itself and thus frittered away much of the episode on nothing in particular as a result.  Okay, so there were some obvious discussion points, namely whether working for your living makes living that life more fulfilling, but that isn't really up there with the kind of more existential questions posed in previous weeks.  On top of that, the whole "looking for Nessa" aspect of the episode just... well, wasn't very interesting really, and even the small reveals about how Phryne feels about Nessa weren't particularly eye-catching either.  Maybe it just isn't a good idea to watch this show (or anything, for that matter) after Madoka Magica, but there certainly wasn't the sparkle of previous episodes in Fractale this time around.