The End of the World

[Categories: Anime Reviews]

The Daughter of Twenty Faces halfway thoughts: going solo

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Daughter of Twenty Faces]

Whut? Another Nijuu Mensou no Musume post when I’ve yet to even finish Library Wars? Yep, The Daughter of Twenty Faces takes priority over even that and the new summer season for me right now. For a show that slipped onto the aggregators with barely a murmur, it’s strange to see it right next to Frontier at the top of my watchlist. Well, something had to replace Kurenai I suppose.

What can you possibly say at a time like this?

While Gainax were bold enough to kill of one of the main (and most liked) characters barely a quarter of the way through the series in Gurren Lagann, NMnM goes further by making the main male protagonist die(?) and proceeding to kill off half the supporting cast all in the same episode. The unrelenting bloodshed and the traumatic effect it had on Chiko was quite a shock to the system, and gave a sharp turn in the course of the story. We were being lulled into the heist-of-the-week quite early on - suspiciously so in retrospect - but now the series, like Twenty Faces himself, quite clearly has bigger plans for Chiko.

Everything the series is doing is unconventional, which naturally makes me warm to it even more. The op theme is slow and introspective while the end is rocky and upbeat - the reverse setup to the conventions - while the subject matter is quite different from the norm. I’m not sure who the target audience are here, nor even if it’s doing well ratings-wise; I certainly hope it’s proving to be popular but the lack of otaku-friendly themes and aesthetics make me wonder. I’d also like to point out that although there’s some FAN HAET for Aya Hirano floating around these days I don’t have anything against her at all: this series proves her versatility outside of stereotypical characters like Haruhi and Konata…and she can actually sing!

Nothing more than crocodile tears

Her character Chiko is still, for want of a better word, awesome. There’s a bit of the Miyazaki heroine in her, plus the strong-but-silent demeanour of Kino but she’s one of those protagonists who does everything right in endearing her to the viewer without coming across as an artificial fan service character. Her predicament encourages sympathy (that look in her eyes on the deserted train!) but she never stays down for long enough to demand your sympathy. She can hold her own with the best of them in a fight, and still find the time to make friends and has the common sense to do the right thing. A bit like a Japanese Sally Lockhart with combat training almost.

Although this show has the strong (non-sexualised) female character in the vein of Ghibli and Philip Pullman, it also throws in a bit of film noir-style mystery and old-school storybook adventure: the director, Nobuo Tomizawa, worked on the Lupin III franchise (including the Castle of Cagliostro!) in the past, and it certainly shows - according to an interview posted on Hashihime, the production staff even went to the trouble of getting nuances like the period accents right. Differences in Japanese dialects aside from the Hokkaido twang are lost on me of course, but it’s good to know they go to so much trouble.

The unusual but satisfying melting-pot of concepts that’s brewing away somehow gels to give a rivetting and unpredictable yarn; unlike Allison and Lillia, which is still stumbling around clumsily to get Keiichi Sigsawa’s light novels to the screen. The fact that NMnM is a manga adaptation actually makes me feel more confident of the plot as a whole: the screenplay probably isn’t being made up as it’s going along and the writers are working to a bigger picture. The direction certainly feels more confident and solid, with only isolated moments that felt clichéd or forced.

I’m not his/her biggest fan but this particular adversary is still more interesting than that Tiger guy

I have to say the human tank looked a bit out-of-place but given the technology in the show’s alternate universe I’m willing to let that slide. Besides, an unholy chimera of Frankenstein’s Monster (or Dr Jekyll?) and FMA’s Alphonse Elric has at least some entertainment value. The white-haired assassin and his/her brainwashing tactics are a bit too far into fantasy territory for my tastes too but things take a marvellously sinister turn as the show reaches the end of its first half which kept my eyes glued to the screen once again.

I think it would take a ridiculous plot twist to ruin this show now: I don’t even expect to see any disappointingly obvious get-outs such as Akechi being Twenty Faces in disguise or similar. On the latter, it is a possibility I guess but this show still works at a level that remembers not to insult the viewer’s intelligence so I daresay he’s another individual connected to Twenty Faces’ earlier life.

The overall clincher is of course the cast, who are almost universally engaging. I want Chiko to win out, Ken to regain his faith in those close to him and for Twenty Faces to casually stroll back into the picture to explain what’s going on; of course, I’d like ten episodes of more suspense and adventure before that happens.

[Filed under Anime Reviews]  [Tags: Daughter of Twenty Faces]

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