Events seem to be moving slowly but Rio's mental state is slipping away from here bit by bit.
What They Say
There is no happiness in the world.
There is no joy. If anything, it is a dark and needy world.
However, that is just one state of the world...
There are beautiful things, filthy things, harsh things, and even enjoyable things...How you take them will be up to you?
The Review!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
In a way, my expectations for this series have dimmed a bit as time has gone on and I wonder if I had them set a little too high based off of that first episode. There seemed to be a world of possibilities for it but the direction it went wasn't a bad one but rather one where the focus is on the smaller stories of the characters with an occasional nod towards the way the world is at large. We do see a lot of the town of Treize and the fortress with its importance to the citizens, but how it all fits into the world at large is only given a few cursory nods here and there, though they do mix in some intriguing potential from the past.
While talks of the peace talks continues to be a subject that comes up often in the last few episodes, Kanata is more interested in Princess Iliya now that she's gotten a glimmer of who she was and her importance. These ideas around the edges are tantalizing and intriguing but they're just trappings to the main events themselves unfortunately. The focus at the moment continues to be on Rio who is struggling with the things contained in the letter she's received, which has caused some of her recent poor performances as we saw build up in the previous episode with Filicia covering for her. Kanata is still trying to get her back on track though and she ends up asking her for help with an elderly woman who has been kind to her that's gone missing up in the mountains. This brings the three of them together and becomes something of a soothing series of moments for Rio as she struggles with her own past.
The old woman's past comes to light later and it's an interesting lost romance with issues surrounding it that has an admittedly beautiful if sad ending to it. The things from the past that we tie ourselves to, and the way we change our entire lives to try and capture some of it again, becomes and intriguing aspect to the episode as the events play out and we see how both Rio and Kanata deal with it. Kanata's past is touched upon lightly again as well as we understand what her parents wanted, but the deeper meaning continues to be with Rio who is coping with her past and how it's still affecting her present, try as she might to get past it instead of accepting it and making her present her own.
In Summary:
The playing of the trumpets in this episode reaches a new level where it's done in a way that can truly move you, much as it moves the people of Seize as they hear Kanata and Rio play together. There's a lot going on in this series, though much of it plays out around the edges, but if you take the core of it as watching Kanata's growth since she arrived you can definitely see her progress by the end of this episode. While she's still somewhat unsure of herself and young, she's become more confident and more capable of following her dreams because of those around her. With a few more secrets slowly coming to the surface, the upcoming episodes may provide some challenges for her that will be worth watching.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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