Dimension W

Episode 9

This week's Dimension W gets off to a slingshot start, as Loser gets mad at Kyouma for not remembering what happened on Easter Island all those years ago, despite apparently serving as the “key” to the entire tragedy. Kyouma then gets absorbed into the ball of Dimension W, taking him to a dimension made out of his memories. This walks us through his past in Grendel, particularly a mission in Salva's nation of Isla. Since Salva is also in the Dimwub ball, his memories also appear. Not content with being the second son, he planned to ruthlessly consolidate power for himself. However, when his ambitions accidentally killed Lwai, Salva discovered that he actually cared about the young prince. Lwai's death was orchestrated by Haruka Seameyer, Shidou Yurizaki's evil apprentice and a completely new character to the audience. However, Haruka appears in Salva, Kyouma, and Loser's backstories, making him the closest thing we have to a main antagonist, abrupt appearance notwithstanding. He also seems to somehow be the ball of Dimwub, searching for the "key" that Kyouma possesses. (Also, judging by his preening demeanor and bishounen character design, the catgirl may have in fact been accurate in her characterization of Dimwub as “a homo” – at least in terms of anime stereotypes.) We learn that Easter Island was the location of a super secret Dimwub testing site that Haruka took over. When he went rogue, the Grendels were sent to take care of him. Loser, then called Julian, was a scientist at the facility. Whatever happened after that turned these three people – Kyouma, Loser, and Haruka – into what they are now.

If Dimension W were a better show, this would all mean something to me. Instead, the show continues to be under the false belief that not showing whatever happened on Easter Island creates suspense rather than annoyance. It's like there's a rule that every time this show establishes any distinct plot point, they can't address it again for at least another episode. So whenever we finally get back to something, I no longer care about it. Remember how K.K. is subjecting Antonov to some sort of freaky surgical procedure? Do you remember who those characters even are? Why did Salva even bring a bunch of collectors to this island? We still don't know that either. Wouldn't his own loyal military force be more effective? Are the collectors a distraction, and if so, for what? That raises another issue – the current conflict is also so poorly established that it's still mostly just distracting four episodes in. Why does Salva want whatever's inside the Andrastea facility? Why did he set up his contest like this? Why does he need all these scrubby collectors, and why use this competition format? Wouldn't a paid team of cooperating collectors be more effective? This is all either poorly explained, poorly conceived, or both. I can't begin to care about new developments happening when I'm already confused about the basics. As Dimension W tries to build on a nonexistent foundation, it only loses me more and more.

There are ways to make a narrative that's mostly centered around a mystery compelling. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a great example. The entire series is built around one person's forgotten past that's only revealed very late in the show, but there's a sense of momentum and cohesion leading up to that revelation. It's not a chaotic series of events until the revelation comes and suddenly makes everything understandable in hindsight, because by that point, the audience would already be lost and disinterested. The "revelations” delivered over these past few episodes of Dimension W have meant very little because we barely know what's going on in the first place. Adding new information only makes things worse.

I also have little reason to care about character backstories when I still don't know what their actions mean in the present. Salva wants something on Easter Island to save his country from something. Details regarding his backstory and relationship with Lwai add little because I have no idea what they're supposed to contextualize. He's a ruthless, ambitious executor who managed to develop a soft spot for his younger brother. So what? He set up this dumb competition and then fell into a coma for two episodes, so the guy has barely done anything interesting. The same is true for Loser. At one point, he was a scientist named Julian who was opposed to unethical coil research, but that doesn't really mean anything yet in light of his new identity as a thief. He wants the Numbered Coils, which do something, for some reason. Elizabeth suggests that it's to revive his wife, and if that's true, it's a pretty hackneyed reason. Of course, Salva and Loser's backstories both go back to a different character who we've never seen before – Haruka Seameyer.

Seameyer has a stupid coat and the most villainous face I've ever seen in my life, so I assume that he'll be our big bad. He's a crazy super genius terrorist and mad scientist. He masterminded the war in Isla and led some sort of scientist-coup at Loser's old job. More than anything, he reminds me of the villain from Hamatora, which is not a compliment. His character design is terrible, both cliché (inhuman-looking evil genius bishounen!) and badly served by the show's art style. I particularly hate his enormous coat collar and the arrows pointing inwards towards his face, as if you could forget that he is, in fact, the villain. Dimension W generally has pretty good character designs, but this cheap knockoff of Psycho-Pass's Shogo Makishima is a huge letdown. It makes me actively hope that he's not a major character. (Although he almost certainly will be.)

This episode also delivered on the “Mira is somehow Kyouma's girlfriend reborn” thing. It turns out that her robot body is based on Miyabi's. That's awkward. Well, a physical resemblance is better than Mira somehow being Kyouma's GF reincarnated, although the show might still go in that direction. Mira keeps showing up alongside Miyabi in Kyouma's memories, which is strange considering his active resentment of the robot.

It also doesn't help that this is the worst Dimension W has ever looked. Sections of the episode (most prominently the Isla parts) are just a slideshow. The explosions, fire, and smoke are totally static onscreen. It doesn't get much better when there actually is motion – it's all pretty egregiously off-model. The “world of memories” thing is also a pretty lame direction for Dimwub itself. I'm not opposed to manually taking the characters into their pasts – that seems like a natural extension of the premise – but depicting it as some kind of cosmic zone filled with space whales and elephants jives with the science-y imagery we've seen up to this point. Everything got New Age-y real fast.

Dimension W is rapidly dropping the ball. I'm not sure whether it can recover and become a good show at this point, but the best first step would be to drop the “mystery box” nonsense. I had high hopes for this show in the beginning, but nine episodes in, my expectations have been lowered significantly. Oh well.

Grade: C-

Dimension W is currently streaming on Funimation.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.