Kokoro Connect: This is a great first episode. The premise is awesome. What if girls and boys switched bodies? How would their lives change, when they are suddenly plunged into different roles in life in totally different environments? I guess you could say this is the ultimate test of nature vs. nurture, when even your body and hormones change and only your soul remains your own. The problem isn't just for the people involved. The people who know those people also have to deal with the fact that they've suddenly lost, as though dead, the person they always knew and have gained in reply just some shapeshifter they've never met before, who they suddenly have to treat like family. The possibilities for human drama in such a scenario are endless!
The art is good, the characters are likable, and the ending of the first episode was epic, reminding me yet again why Japanese art is so superior to western art. In Japan, a person is defined by his role in a larger fabric -- his family ties being the most prominent example -- whereas in the West the only thing people care about is the job you do -- which is ultimately just some stupid waste of time designed to earn money and has no larger purpose. So in Japan, every single character is leading a meaningful existence that has a tremendous impact on the people around them, whereas in the West people are pushing paper around between drinking heavily and fighting with their ex-family that they've long ago broken up with so that they can concentrate even harder on pushing paper around.
My only worry is that the story won't live up to its potential, and will attempt to be a gag series or ecchi series or just anything but a spiritual discovery of how important the people around you are to who you yourself are every day.
Sword Art Online: This is a great first episode. We have an extremely likable main character, someone who's confident in himself and proud of his way of life, but not unwilling to help others and completely uninterested in showing people up to make himself look good. I immediately started rooting for him, and therefore at the end when he declared that he definitely wouldn't die his conviction rang like a beautiful pure bell.
I can totally understand the villain of the story too. He wanted to make a virtual world that was just as real as the real world, and simply enticed people into believing it was a game. In fact, it's a new life that, once begun, cannot end save through death, or the completion of the game, which sounds like something that might take a lifetime. The mad scientist made sure to strip away everything that was 'game-like' from his game and return it all to being 'life-like,' and I can almost believe such a plot might work. In any case, the sci fi setting is as believable as, say, Steins;Gate -- and much more believable than Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse.
Here, players have a chance at a new life. We can count on public health care to give the inert bodies IV drips and nurses and the like, so the chosen 10,000 players don't have to make money and pay bills to live anymore. All they have to do is play the game. Their ability at the game is now their ability, it's no longer just a looked-down-upon-hobby by society, but is now the most respected thing in the entire community. Your ability to get along is now redefined to be -- your ability to get along with other gamers, not the vast majority of the world which despises gaming and nerds. Everything has been hit with a reset button, and people for the first time have a real chance at life, when before all they could ever do is run away from it. As hostile as fantasy monsters who breathe fire are, the combined disapproval of society is far more unfair and unbalanced, far more buggy and broken, than any game monster has ever been. Who can possibly take on the whole world, united around systems that deliberately keep you at the bottom, because everyone in the world hates people like you, without ever meeting you once in their lives? But in Sword Art Online, if you can wield your sword and your wits, you can beat anything, fair and square, face to face, one on one. It may seem horrible that this villainous mad scientist has essentially killed 10,000 people, but you might also say he gave birth to 10,000 people, who will now, for the first time in their lives, actually get a life worth living.
Both of these plots are great. Both are supported by great art. Sword Art Online has the legendary composer behind Noir and /hack. Both stories really make you think, and have a larger significance than just themselves. Both are far superior to Arcana Famiglia. But neither can keep up with Tari Tari -- at least not yet.
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