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18if (TV).

One of the shows I have been watching that does not deserve its own discussion is 18if, and I am writing this after watching episode 5. The show has been lacklustre in a number of areas. If I had to guess the anime's point is to address a number of issues that young women experience, show it in an empathic way by the use of dream like aspects, but most of the time it does not feel like it knows what to do with its aesthetics, or even its message, that it ends up as a mess. This episode itself was BS I think in the meaning ended up being along the lines to wake up from your dreams, the dream here beingspoiler[ that a girl who had been forced into celebrity figure skating could have a normal life, so she could not fight destiny of the rink]. The main guy even kind of said it earlier that spoiler[normal life is boring and she should be happy she has a talent], he has supposed to be written as totally understanding, but this ran counter.

But this does not even overcome the really weird twist in the episode, wherespoiler[ apparently she woke up as an old woman]? What?! There was no foreshadowing to this, the dream world she finds herself in based on her mind is filled with modern aspects like laptops and modern karaoke, not something to hint she had been in a coma for 40 years. This dream world itself has reality concerning problems too, as how would she even know even know what a normal college life was like if she was forced into skating so much. And that is one of the confusing parts of this show, it is left very ambiguous if things are only surface level of what the dreamer would know, or if it is a fully functioning world. The aesthetics in this episode not helping where it would seem everyone but her and our main character were pretty much static images as if just a backdrop, which made him asking around with them just confusing.

And yet the episode tried to get around it in him saying that he is a college student so he should be able to show her around that type of life. But I thought that he had no memories of who is, that was established earlier and I have not seen it amended until he said something like this. And I think is part of an aspect that this show is pretty bad at keeping a narrative consistency. Like in one episode the mysterious girl who calls him big brother is seen on rare occasions and to the cat guy she treated as almost a rumour of being rare, and the next she is sleeping next to the main character like it is nothing and the cat guy questions her being there like it is normal maybe even spotting her when this should be the first time he has seen someone so important.

With episode 4 I could see that the answer to the problem of a spoiler[binge eating bulimic should be that she should learn a healthy way of living of generally eating what makes her happy, and be within reason, that some food will not balloon her and would be okay to eat some things occasionally]. But I don't even quite know what the message was, something about a spoiler[memory of eating curry as a kid], I am pretty sure it was not what it was supposed to be at actually confronting the problem. There was also a douchebag boyfriend that if anything she was lucky to get away from.

Or episode 3, which actually did have a rather interesting idea of playing around with perception with the story, but had some pretty big fails I think in properly telegraphing these changes in perception that it came across as kind of confusing. And I can really recall what the meaning of the story was, and that is one of the big problems, this show sucks at having some moral of the story to take away from these events.

Episode 2 might have been even worse in that it finished with the main character spoiler[becoming a murderer]. That episode was pretty gruesome, and it seemed to be kind of setting up a story with the main character that the heroine of the episode was twisting into something ugly in her search for vengeance. The main character specifically asking if he could watch had a feeling that it was being used to echo back the big psychopath of the episode, that she was being a bad guy, but in the end spoiler[she kills them and then seems to go onto a happy normal life like she is not a sociopath now]. In the narrative it was pretty clear that these guys were bad guys and perhaps was better to off them, but that is something the narrative set up, just to kind of meet this revenge fantasy plot and never face the kind of hypocrisy that was starting to leak through.

And maybe this falls through that I cannot even build a consistent personality for our hero of the show, because it feels like it changes every episode in what he is like. One episode he is getting gifts from cat professor of food (somehow), the next he is being passive aggressive by cooking purposely bad food for him. One time he is ready to dive into the problems facing a girl, the next it was like he did not want to get bothered by all the dreams, and then the next he is jumping in again.

Is anyone else watching this, and are you having an easier time?

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I kinda stalled out after the 2nd episode (I keep forgetting what the show is about and so have little incentive to watch it when I have other stuff to do), and your post makes me think I should just drop it. It's one of those shows that's somewhat interesting while I'm watching it, but doesn't stick to the ribs once I'm finished with the episode.

The entire show feels like it is trying to take the witch labyrinths from Madoka and be about different issues. Which could be fine, that was a really creative part of that series and could be used as the basis of good stories. But it becomes a problem that it feels like the dream aspects are largely window dressing, it does not really know that much how to use it creatively like how Madoka pretty much makes it a spectacle of what is running through the subconscious of the witch, or other parties in general Shaft. And perhaps forgettable because despite there being a build up for some resolution, largely it just does not land it.

I want to find others that might have seen some, otherwise it feels like I am shouting at the void while I am watching something largely meant for the female demographic, like Scared Riders Xechs ( ), pretty much acting like the Grinch.

I still can't believe so few people are watching the show. I know the episodes are uneven but the good episodes are so good it makes it worthwhile. I mean Space Dandy seriously had its ups and downs too and people loved that one, so why the overall feeling of disdain for this one?

I admit that both of these had facets that could be good. Episode 3 a little more for me in how it used a different perspective while being pretty sweet, but as I said I thought it was a little confusing in how it telegraphed these changes in perspective, and really I can't quite remember what the lesson it was.

Episode 2 though, I thought it really muddied its message by making Haruto pretty much a murderer. It had an interesting theme where he might have been used to point out the hypocrisy of the witch in him showing the echoing of events (can I watch?). But in the end it felt like he was just used to empower a revenge fantasy, his character does not always feel consistent.

Things like boobs, dicks, crotch fires, and the like, were kind of I think more used to set up this feeling of being uncomfortable in response to the weird expectations put on idols.

As for Haruto his actions do vary a bit though he does seem to have strong moral convictions. Haruto always takes the side of the witch when he thinks she has been wronged though he does have compassion for the perpetrators when they have shown remorse for their actions. This show is definitely an anthology though and even the narrative style will change from episode to episode.

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I still can't believe so few people are watching the show. I know the episodes are uneven but the good episodes are so good it makes it worthwhile. I mean Space Dandy seriously had its ups and downs too and people loved that one, so why the overall feeling of disdain for this one?