Saturday 3 August 2013

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 5

Ginka gets an episode in the spotlight for this week's Day Break Illusion, as we get some insight into her back story as her own realisations about the nature of Daemonia come to the fore.

Having lived through part of her childhood in abject poverty and with loan sharks quite literally banging on the door, Ginka's father has ultimately managed to turn his life around and become a successful businessman with his own chain of stores, much to the pride of all and sundry in the family.  Ginka's father is also entirely aware of his daughters ability and her role in fighting the forces of evil.


Just as Ginka and her Dad are relating the story of an old family friend (and uncle of Ginka) named Honda who looked out for the family while they were enduring hard times, so said uncle has himself fallen on tough times, and as the loan sharks circle so an unusual offer to save him from his debt comes to him.  The next thing we know, Honda's debts have vanished, as have the loan sharks who all appear to have shown up deceased.  There's no prizes for guessing what's going on here, and it's up to Ginka to face this terrible truth and put an end to Honda's reign of terror as a Daemonia.

Having ragged quite hard on Day Break Illusion so far for its heavy-handedness, this week's episode is another perfect example of what a blunt instrument this series is narratively - every story beat is painted as if with a huge paint brush daubed in primary colours, with no sense of subtlety to its drama, emotions or story-telling.  This leaves the episode, as per the rest of the series, to be an exercise in frustration - the potential of the show and its setup is clear enough, but it's mishandled to completely that there are no surprises, thought-provoking moments or powerful emotional payloads to be found; even the sense of abject misery parts of each episode tries to convey feels like part of some moral lesson from a low-budget Saturday morning cartoon.  If it wasn't for my determination to make it through to the end of the series to see how its wider plot pans out, I would have dropped this series like a hot brick by now.

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