il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 13 (Completed)

As all and sundry around her try to save Akari from Cerebrum's plan, Akari herself seems to be at breaking point in her psychological battle with her own painful memories as she relives Fuyuna's descent into a Daemonia over and over again.

However, breaking point or not she seems to have reached a breakthrough in terms of her understanding of Fuyuna and why things transpired the way that they did.  Although this understanding can't change Fuyuna's fate, it does allow to Akari to reconcile her feelings and actions, thus avoiding the situation which Cerebrum was relying upon to further his plan.

Now that said plan is in tatters, Cerebru has little choice but to attack Akari directly, although unfortunately for him this is also the moment where the hard work of her comrades sees Akari sprung from her prison.  With Cerebrum's attempts to psychologically attack this group of magical girls falling upon deaf ears, he instead turns to attacking them using his true form, leaving us a big old battle between this sentient Daemonia and the group of magical girls to bring the series to a climax.

Having tried to quietly but deliberately hype itself up as a dark magical girl series, Day Break Illusion's target was obvious - what a shame though that it missed it by miles.  There were certainly some decent enough ideas to be found here, but they were all for naught in the face of clumsy character development, poor pacing and messy story-telling, leaving you with a series where you could always second-guess what was going to happen next; without any surprises, there was really nothing left to the series to keep the viewer on-board.  In that sense, this bland finale underlines exactly how off-track this series managed to go, and come the end of it all it's hard to really pinpoint anything that it succeeded in doing.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 12

Cerebrum has laid out his terms for saving Luna and Seira to Akari, and the price for their survival is a high one... effectively, he wants to mate with her in return for their safety.

Akari being who she is however, it doesn't take too much hesitation before she agrees and finds herself whisked away to the Clessidra, a kind of limbo between the Astralux and the real world.  It's here that Cerebrum intends to have his wicked way with Akari, but not before breaking her mind by making her relieve a single event over and over again, that being the day of Fuyuna's transformation into a Daemonia.

Stubbornly, Akari refuses to give in and relives this scenario over and over as she tries to figure out how to save her cousin - meanwhile, a recovered Luna and Seira are now free and able to join their former employers in the hunt for Akari.  With the likely location of Cerebrum pinned down, they rush to Akari's aid, and even find themselves joined by a very familiar face as they begin their fight to free her.

With its decent soundtrack and some reasonably interesting ideas, this is another episode of Day Break Illusion that serves as a reminder of the potential that the series had, while also showing why it never quite managed to execute upon it as it rushes through things or throws in additional plot elements that feel like they've come straight out of Dragon Ball Z (I'm looking at you, Ginka).  These missteps dilute any emotional power or shock value the series could have hoped to have and leave it floundering at key points where it should be driving home its key moments - something which Day Break Illusion seems singularly incapable of doing as the missed opportunities for it pile up high.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 11

Their establishment-cum-base in ruins, Luna now serving as a Daemonia and Seira stripped of her powers - things aren't exactly going too well for Akari's employers at the moment.

They have, however, managed to escape with their lives in the wake of the riots and arson which razed their property to the ground, and as they regroup it's time to decide their next course of action.  Any such decision is as of nothing compared to that faced by Seira - having tracked down Cerebrum and Luna, she's faced with an agonising choice between allowing her former friend to live on as a Daemonia and leaving her without her Elemental Tarot powers, or killing Luna and regaining those powers as a result.

As Seira faces this dilemma, so Akari finally learns some of the truths that have been hidden from her at the behest of the Leguzario - information pertaining to her mother, the circumstances leading up to her birth and, crucially, the fact that she is effectively half-Daemonia herself.  All of this explains both Cerebrum and the Leguzario's interest in her, but it also leads her into a quandry of her own - whether to give herself up to Cerebrum in the hope of saving her friends or fight on and potentially lose everything precious to her.

By this show's standards, this week's Day Break Illusion was actually pretty good - it finally got to the heart of some of the elements of its plot, and the revelations surrounding Akari are at least mildly interesting, as is Seira's dilemma with regards to Luna.  None of this is enough to save the wider quality of the series as a whole, but it at least holds a glimmer of hope for a decent ending to a series that has singularly failed to live up to what it clearly hoped (and perhaps even assumed) it would be.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 10

Now that Luna has been attacked in her own home Cerebrum, things are about to become nigh-on impossible for our group of magical heroines in this week's Day Break Illusion.

For starters, there's Luna herself, who is sent out to attack her former comrades now that she's becoming a Daemonia.  Although Seira has no qualms about fighting her one-time friend in this new state Akari simply won't have it, and the result of this sees Seira attacked and bitten by Luna in her new form before Akari enables both of them to escape.  With the remains of the other magical girl team attacked by their doppelgangers and with the bite on Seira stripping her of her Elemental Tarot abilities, the group is left decimated in a single night.

As a result, Akari is left to go it alone in fending off the Daemonia night after night, while also trying to come to terms with the loss of her friend and the fact that all and sundry insists that she has to kill Luna if the two are to meet again.  Of course, when this does actually happen, Akari has no intention of killing Luna, and does at least manage to reveal a slither of humanity still left within her friend.  This is of little comfort however, as Cerebrum looks to destroy the academy and coerce Akari into joining his own forces.

Unsurprisingly, this week's Day Break Illusion is again a clunky affair - it's heart is in the right place, but it rushes through its material without giving any of it time to sink in or resonate with the viewer.  The result is an episode where no shortage of "stuff" happens, but it remains impossible to actually care about any of it; a quandry not helped by the half-baked and predictable plot and characterisation.  At this point I'll just be glad to reach the end of this series, as it's a poorly executed affair that deserves to be put out of its misery sooner rather than later.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 9

Ginka's fateful encounter with the "pair annihilation" phenomenon (which, as the name suggests, didn't end well for her) reverberates heavily through this week's Day Break Illusion as her team-mates try to come to terms with her lost.

Perhaps surprisingly it's Luna who is the hardest hit by these events, albeit mostly out of fear for her own life - thus, while Akari and Seira remain committed to the cause, Luna requests some time off to return home and get her head in order.  It's a rather tall order too given everything that has transpired, and a look into Luna's past shows that her entire life has been a rather tough one, compounded by the disappearance of her sister, who just so happens to look a little like Akari.

Speaking of our protagonist, she appears out of nowhere to hang out with Luna and take a break together with her until Luna has sorted her head out and is ready to return, allowing the pair to become closer than ever.  But is everything here really as it seems?  No, as it turns out, as Luna's love for Akari is turned back on her and then some as the truth of this particular scenario is revealed via a gruesome climax...

As seems to be the norm for this series, this week's Day Break Illusion seems to be running under the impression that it's pulling the rug out from under its viewers in some clever and shocking ways without realising that the whole thing was patently obvious from the outset - of course that wasn't really Akari visiting Luna, and it was so obvious from the very start of that scenario that there was no real shock when the twist finally came around.  It's yet another example of this show's clumsy writing that continues to thwart its every turn to be anything more than mediocre at best, and at this point it seems fair to say that this series is going to struggle to do anything to capture the audience's imagination for more than five minutes.  A shame, given the possibilities inherent within parts of its premise.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 8

This week in Madoka Illusion... sorry, Day Break Illusion, another spanner has been thrown into the works for our team of magical girls.

That spanner comes in the form of a phenomenon known as "pair annihilation", and put succinctly it means that meeting a Daemonia which shares the same Tarot Card as a magical girl means that regardless of the outcome of the battle said magical girl will be (as the name suggests) annihilated.  With no escape from this fate, the advice in such a scenario is simple - run.

Meanwhile, Cerebrum's plan seems to be accelerating apace, removing political opposition to his master with one hand while taking more than a passing interest in Akari for some reason with the other.  It isn't Akari but Ginka who is the focus of the next Daemonia attack however, and you can probably guess where this is going as she meets her "clone" - after running from their first battle, Ginka decides that she has no choice but to face this enemy despite it sealing her doom.

So, we can now add another item to the list of "things this series does to try and be as edgy as Madoka Magica", that being a requirement to start killing off its main cast.  This isn't necessarily a bad decision by any stretch of the imagination, but again this week's Day Break Illusion is lacking in its execution - as soon as it invokes the idea of pair annihilation we know exactly where the episode is headed, and given the way other character dynamics are set up there's no huge shock to find where the focus of this concept is.  Given that we still have no concrete idea as to what the forces of evil want or hope to achieve with their plans, even eight episodes in this series still feels like a case of stuff happening with no concrete reason as to why, and it's perhaps this above all else that is making it tough to actually care about anything going on within the show or regarding its cast.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 7

Something is amiss in Moscow, with news breaking that a Tarot user at that particular branch has been obliterated by Daemonia - something is clearly amiss, and it's becoming increasingly certain to those in positions of power within the organisation that recent events haven't just been occurring randomly.

All of this is of no concern to our quartet of magical girls however - Seira and Akari have finally resolved their differences and are getting on like a house on fire now and what's more the opportunity arises for the group to have a day off, allowing them to take a little holiday together.  Cue lots of wandering around sightseeing, eating and so on, although the new-found bond of friendship between Akari and Seira seems to be bothering Luna somewhat, which I believe is what they call foreshadowing...

During their wandering around town, and as the girls complete ignore all kinds of signs of potential turmoil just around the corner, Akari spots a familiar face - one of her fortune-telling Aunties from the start of the series.  It turns out that this entire group of fortune-tellers has moved out here after their previous home burned down, and they seem to be doing a roaring trade.  Offering to read the fortunes of the four girls provides some disturbing results that hint at a dark future (who would have thought?), but that doesn't dissuade them from providing some entertainment in the form of a test of courage.  Oh, and cake.

For an episode where nothing particularly massive happens, it's a little surprising that this felt like possibly the most proficient episode of Day Break Illusion yet.  Sure, its foreshadowing of future events was all as heavy-handed as ever, but at least the interactions of the main cast seem to have settled down to the point where it all feels a little more natural, and the lack of any overt Daemonia issues to deal with let the rest of the instalment breathe a little.  I wouldn't go so far as to call it good, but an improvement is still an improvement and maybe this can provide a launch pad to some more compelling story-telling in the show's second half.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 6

Having spent the series so far being stand-offish, it's time for Seira to get her episode in the spotlight with this week's instalment of Day Break Illusion.

The episode begins with Seira helping out another magical girl team (well, duo to be precise), to whom she admits that she doesn't even really feel comfortable calling her own set of comrades a team, mainly due to her inability to hold any appreciation for Akari's ability to hear the voices of Daemonia, believing it to be nothing more than an unnecessary distraction.

When Seira bumps into a pair of girls out shopping and befriend them both, it brings us a glimpse into exactly why she's so determined to terminate Daemonia without prejudice - it's an attitude put to a stern test however when one of her two new-found friends collapses with heart problems, and the other proves willing to do anything to help her friend get the transplant she needs...

Once again, the only illusion this series seems to have about itself is that it has some truly fascinating dark story-telling to hand, whereas all it actually has to offer is clumsy and blatantly obvious narrative to dole up every week.  As soon as Seira was rolled out as the main character of this week's episode you could see where it was headed, and lo and behold some suitably silly back story was delivered against the backdrop or perhaps the most obvious plot ever to grace the small screen.  When you can map out an episode in your head a good fifteen minutes before any of it happens, it's hard to even call it entertainment any more, and more patience with this series has pretty much run out at this point.  Hopefully it can at least kick on and do something a little more interesting now that most of its heavy-handed character development is out of the way.

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.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 4

Yume Higashiyama is the kind of girl who is made to be envied - she has a wealthy and influential father, a promising and burgeoning artistic talent, and a boyfriend.  No surprise then, that some look upon her life with more than a passing sense of jealousy.

Classmate Kiyone might be a quiet girl, but as time goes on so the envy within her burns brighter and brighter out of both a dislike for Yume's attitude and a genuine belief that she's a better artist than her feted cohort.  It's these emotions that are ultimately prayed upon by a mysterious fortune teller, who proffers Kiyone a Tarot card and suggests it might help her the next time jealousy strikes her.  Once Kiyone spots Yume kissing the boy she herself likes... well, you can probably guess what happens from there.

So it goes that Kiyone gets at least some of what she desires with Yume out of the picture, but this isn't enough and before we know it she's gone berserk and transformed into a full-blown Daemonia, meaning that it's time for our team of magical girls to attend the scene.  Having had another spat about the nature of Daemonia and their origins, Akari and Seira are still somewhat at loggerheads, although this battle also allows Luna to witness that Akari can indeed hear the voices of the Daemonia.  Once again, this makes little difference when faced with such out of control insanity, with Seira delivering the final blow in spite of Akari's protestations as she again laments the abilities which she has at her disposal.

While I could certainly make an argument for this being the strongest episode of Day Break Illusion thus far, it still really isn't all that satisfying.  As per previous instalments, a fair amount of the story setup feels forced, and although things feel a little more interesting as a whole now sufficient layers of the story have been peeled back and revealed to us I can't help but feel like the show is already becoming a little formulaic in its presentation.  Some nice visual touches here and there aside, there's nothing that really hooks me into the series or any of its characters, and without that emotional connection Day Break Illusion is little more than a colourful shell.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 3

Having learned at least some of the sinister undertones beneath her new "work", Akari has decidedly to leave the school that would train her and give her shelter to strike out on her own.  But is there any escaping this establishment, and more importantly is there any escaping the Daemonia which will target her wherever she goes?

Having stumbled across just such a Daeomonia as it goes about its evil business trying to kill and destroy, Akari can swear that she can also hear it's plaintive cries for help, which prevents her from doing anything to stop its rampage - when some of her fellow students appear on the scene, she even does her part to stop them attacking the Daemonia, allowing it to escape.  The same can't be said for Akari herself, as she's forcibly returned from whence she came.

After being informed that leaving the academy simply isn't an option, Akari finds herself locked in the establishment's dungeon to consider what's she done, giving her time to roll everything she's seen, learned and done in her head as she tries to reconcile her supposed destiny with her desire not to harm others.  It turns out that she isn't the only girl with such doubts in her mind, and upon returning to active duty and facing a second crack at defeating  the same Daemonia, she again protects it to try to learn more about it, only to learn that all the former person within that demonic shell wants is for an end to be put to their life.  Is Akari's destiny really to function as executioner?

There's certainly nothing wrong with a series setting out to be dark, but Day Break Illusion is trying so impossibly hard to do so that it threatens to descend into farce at times.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of the threat presented in the second half of this week's episode, as a cart full of children is placed in front of a fast-moving train to create what should be a high moment of drama that instead turns out to feel laughably desperate - I'm surprised the Daemonia didn't kidnap a screaming woman and tie her to the rails instead.  It's this kind of heavy-handedness that continues to plague the series, detracting from some interesting concepts that I can only hope are better explored as the series progresses.  Certainly, something needs to give this show some direction and a sense of focus rather than just throwing "things that are dark" at the viewer like some kind of cheap death metal music video.

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.

il sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion - Episode 1

Akari Taiyou is an enthusiastic young Tarot card reader - so much so that she's working as an apprentice to a group of fortune tellers, in what must surely be the most Italian anime series since Gunslinger Girl.  I mean, just look at that title!

Anyhow, it seems that Akari is loved and doted upon by pretty much everybody - her grandparents, her classmates, and her adopted sister.  Although does her sibling really love Akari all that much?  The more we see our protagonist being praised and adulated by all and sundry, so Fuyuna's irritation and jealousy grows to an unstoppable degree - after some strange episodes, we see a creature outright attack Akari as she sleeps, the outcome of which seemingly leaves Fuyuna dead.

The next thing we know, we've wrapped right back around to the previous day as we once again find ourselves at the two-year anniversary of the death of Akari's mother - only thins time, Fuyuna is nowhere to be seen, and she isn't even mentioned by her family.  Returning from her mother's grave, Akari finds her workplace ablaze with her colleagues inside, and her attempt to rescue them ultimately reveals even more surreal goings-on as another creature attacks, only to be fended off by a team of magical girls.

It's surprising that we haven't seen more attempts at creating "dark" magical girl series post-Madoka Magica, and from this first episode Day Break Ilusion certainly seems to be setting itself up along these lines by bringing us a blend of death, violence, insanity and confusion all rolled into a single episode.  Indeed, it could be argued that this opening instalment is trying to do entirely too much - with no time to explain or reveal anything to the viewer, this episode feels rather messy and rushed as it jumps around hither and thither.  While some of these unexplained confusion is both deliberate and effective, it certainly hasn't succeeded entirely in drawing me into the series at this early stage - I'm intrigued by it, for sure, but compared to the elegant way Madoka Magica built and then continued to build upon its world this feels clumsy by comparison.  Perhaps such comparisons are unfair, but then again what do you expect to happen when you craft a series like this?  Still, hopefully this show can shrug off those shackles as it progresses to mark itself out in its own right.