Amnesia - 11

"XI"

Excuse me while I have a total fangirl moment; Kaori Nazuka actually got to use emotions this time!!!

Granted, it was only like two or three times, and I'm having a pretty bad evening so it seemed that much more gratifying, but Kaori Nazuka acting scared and screaming, or saying a heartfelt thank you is still pretty great considering how toned down her performance as Shujinko has been up to this point. She's still no Eureka, but you could definitely hear some of that talent coming through in the little details, something Nazuka hasn't let happen in ten episodes. It's actually pretty astounding that she can pull off boring-as-dust; it actually means that she's quite professional and versatile and can do what's asked of her, even if it means being completely unimpressive. It's just unfortunate that she's rarely up for lead roles, and that her performances are so varied that it's hard to find her unless you're looking, because Shujinko is what she'll be remembered for in the next couple of years unless she gets a big role sometime soon (well, this and Frau in Robotics;Notes, but since I'm not watching RN until I get through Steins;Gate, I can't vouch for how good or disappointing her performance there is). がんばって、名塚さん！いつも、私は名塚さんのファンです！ (Ganbatte, Nazuka-san! Itsumo, watashi wa Nazuka-san no fan desu!)

Unfortunately, Nazuka being awesome doesn't stop Ukyou from being a controlling psycho. Though perhaps controlling is a strong word, at least when we're talking about the nice personality. He's not like Toma in that he acts on his impulse to protect her through extreme means, but his demeanor and speech does reveal an annoying trend to such thoughts. For example, when he warns her of the danger to her life, he says, "I'd like you to listen and do what I say," which just makes him come off wrong, at least for me. There's lots of ways to say this in a less implicitly controlling way, but I suppose I can't expect much from a series who lets a love interest put a girl in a cage and get away with it. Then, of course, there's Ukyou's murderous split personality, the one who seems to want to kill Shujinko off for the sake of self-preservation, whatever that means.

It's kind of ironic that the series waited until the very end to pull all its plot devices at once, because it probably would have been far more interesting to have this interspersed between the eye candy more efficiently than it was. While I want to know the truth behind everything that's going on, I've lost my enthusiasm for it all and developed a "let's just get it over with" mentality which I feel is a shame. It's definitely a curious idea, the world killing individuals off for some unknown reason, with Ukyou being the main target and switching off with Shujinko by accident at some point, and there's still the greater mystery about how this ties in to Shujinko's amnesia and the travel between the parallel worlds. What happens after the 25th? Will the loop end and Shujinko die for good? Will Ukyou die if she doesn't? Unfortunately this wasn't utilized well throughout the run, and the characters were far too flat to carry the series without it. Well, here's hoping to some more Nazuka awesomeness, be it only a moment, for the finale.