16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Episode 8

Following his surprise jump last week, Mamoru finds himself preoccupied with 1985. While one might reasonably expect his whisking away to operate similarly to Konoha's time slips, making mention of historically important bishoujo titles, that ends up not being much of a factor. It was foreshadowed in the sheer way this substory got started in the previous episode, Tenshi-tachi no Gogo getting a serial-numbers-filed-off version of itself presented in place of the historic artifact. The exact game is less important this go-around than the ideas that Mamoru winds up contending with. Bishoujo games were just barely getting their start in the mid-80s, and it's that creative bonfire that's been prepared over all of Akihabara that this episode looks out over, just waiting for the spark to start the blaze.

Even by Another Layer's exceedingly eccentric standards, this is a weird episode. In a good way. Virtually the entire cast, including Konoha herself, is excised, leaving the proceedings with naught but Mamoru and two out-there employees, plus a dog, all going by the name "Echo". The rules seem familiar enough at first, Mamoru is encouraged to join a game development at the so-called "Echosoft", much like Konoha at Alcohol Soft, with completion promising a return trip to his home time. But even at the onset, Mamoru engages with things very differently from Konoha.

It's not just that Mamoru's less of an outspoken human disaster than Konoha, he's simply not as interested in socializing and interacting with others the way she is. He comfortably buries himself in his newfound programmer role at Echosoft, paring down his communications with the Echoes to workmanlike interfacing or prefabricated reactions of raw numbers. It's easy to imagine a dork like Konoha going gaga over the adorable cosplay antics of Echo Two, but Mamoru can barely be asked to hold up signs denoting his levels of approval. He pays little to no mind to the other released games of 1985, not just because there's lesser selection in this era, but because he's simply less interested in the commercial components of the burgeoning bishoujo artform compared to the raw computational techniques that bring them to life.

That approach does allow 16bit Sensation to go hard on its trademark edutainment elements. As with so many others taking advantage of the technology at the time, Echo One isn't the type to let the simplicity of programming on 80's PCs slow him down. Witness the wonders of "cling wrap scanning" allowing for rudimentary transfer of hand-drawn art to onscreen pixels. Watch as he composes music for the game purely through typing in Music Macro Language. This is old old game dev, the sort of no-shortcuts approach only doable by actual programmers that Mamoru was espousing the purity of back in this show's third episode. He takes to it all well enough, but he still has the innate sense of human curiosity that's propelling both him and the audience along wondering "What's really going on here?"

This is the storytelling summit 16bit Sensation seeks to surmount in this episode: Observing that all the technical know-how and programming wizardry is essential for the smooth production of art like bishoujo games and visual novels, but that alone can't ensure an impactful story. It quickly becomes apparent that the Echoes are some manner of aliens seeking to understand the human capacity for imagination through the immortal cultural touchstone of porn games. The back end of this episode thus becomes a rumination on the nature of imagination itself, and its place in the broader human condition. The episode doesn't become too existential by other standards, but smartly uses Mamoru's more muted, contemplated responses to pry at these questions in a way that Konoha's bluster might not have suited as well.

It's also well served by Mamoru, as his consistently more technical approach begs the question of whether he has any more capacity for imagination than his alien employers. The answer there is a confident "of course". The desire to present stories, to create something that doesn't wholly exist that you might share that experience with others, is an innate part of any human experience. It bursts into an earnest recognition of how Akihabara could come to be hailed as the landmark it is—not simply a mecca for otaku franchises, but an embodiment of the sheer joy of creation that allows anything to be possible. Arguably that's what allows Mamoru to make his return time-travel trip. It's not completing a game, but simply finishing any sort of story, which reaches out across the eras.

It's presented beautifully in a way that's as understated as Mamoru's personality, yet no less accomplished. This episode was storyboarded and directed by Keiichi Sasajima, who affords the entry a confident simplicity to go along with its minimalist cast and material. The use of static framing and cutaways, to me, most immediately recalls Akiyuki Simbo's output at SHAFT, but Sasajima's deployments feel less showy. It's a presentation appropriate for the sort of stripped-down philosophical musings that would be right at home in an experimental, small-crew visual novel. The odd introspective aliens (who will likely be integral to Another Layer's story moving forward) are part and parcel to that. It's a somewhat unexpected sidebar, adding another layer to this increasingly stacked story.

Rating:

Bonus Bits:

• The Echo aliens have been skulking around Another Layer's plot the entire time, of course. They were glimpsed the first time Konoha returned to her own time. Echo Two has been seen in the background a couple of times. And Echo the dog has directly interfered with Konoha multiple times, including nabbing her copy of Kizuato in the third episode, leading to her second time-travel trip.
• Speaking of the Echoes, their time-displaced status is hinted at by things like Echo Two's cosplay choices. Her outfits recall Big One from J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai (the 1977 Super Sentai series), and Card Captor Sakura (the manga which started in 1996, and spawned an anime adaptation in 1998). The designs are as genericized as the copy of "Gogo no Tenshi-tachi" they summoned Mamoru with, but they're still recognizable enough to hint that the group might have been jumping around the timestream a bit before landing in 1985.
• It's too bad Mamoru isn't as much of an anime fan as Konoha, since the pickings in the summer of 1985 are downright iconic. Hokuto no Ken, Urusei Yatsura, Captain Tsubasa, Zeta Gundam, and Dr. Slump would all be airing alongside several others. For my money, the biggest deal is that July of 1985 would bring the premiere of one of my favorite anime ever: The Dirty Pair TV series.

  16bit Sensation: Another Layer is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

  Chris mostly knows many of these VN game characters from the fighting games they popped up in. You can catch him meditating on any amount of game, anime, and manga subjects over on his blog, as well as posting too many screencaps of them as long as Twitter allows.

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