Saturday 13 July 2013

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 2

After proving to be slightly confusing in its opening episode, Day Break Illusion has its second crack of the "making any sense whatsoever" whip this week.

After being caught up in some kind of strange, magical battle at the end of last week's episode, Akari awakens to find herself in another strange place - a place which, it turns out, is a training ground for a team of magical girls whose abilities correspond to Tarot cards.  Needless to say, Akari has just what it takes to become one of this number, and before we (or the series, it seems) knows it she's co-opted into the school via its front as a place to train apprentice fortune tellers.


Although school life itself seems to be very standard, with regular lessons and pretty regular classmates and teachers to boot, things soon change when the alarm sounds and the group of girls we're following are sent on a mission.  So it goes that Akari joins some of her cohorts in her first foray into the supernatural world of their enemies, the Daemonia - but it's an encounter which brings back a horrific memory forgotten by Akari and others around her, that being the death of Fuyuna.  It's a revelation that quickly pulls back the curtain on the darker side of Akari's new role and life; is it really something she'll be able to accept?

If nothing else, this second episode of Day Break Illusion has managed to build its world a little further and add another interesting layer to its story as it progresses - I just wish it could have done so in a batter fashion.  Much like its opener, this second instalment often feels rushed in a "blink and you'll miss something important" way, while other aspects of this progress simply feel clumsy in their execution.  You could say that the series is trying too hard to be "dark" and inject this darkness into everything it portrays - perhaps this will level itself out as the series progresses and gets into its stride, but for now Day Break Illusion is still very much in the "heart in the right place, but suffering from poor execution" pile.

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