Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Utawarerumono - The False Masks: How to Defy all Plot Pacing Standards


Last Seen: Episode 17

I've seen plots move in unusual directions before, I mean, that's kind of one of the core sources of gimmicks for stories...
But I have never seen a Plot just go for a jet-speed nosedive for the heart of the story like this! This is amazing. I knew that they would eventually bring to full baring the story from the first season, once Tusukuru was mentioned, that was basically set in stone but...wow. I did not expect it to be so suddenly and forcefully brought to bare. The simple way they went about this, everything they explained in this episode and how they explained it, and then the foreshadowing at the end of the episode, is just too much. I hereby give this a

Recommendation: for one of the most unrestrained breaks from industry standards I've ever seen. Never before have I seen a plot with amnesia and a loaded backstory not get drawn out tortuously slow as the amnesia character slowly picks pieces of memories out and puts them together...or for them to just immediately obtain the memories that make the backstory completely clear. 
[Aside]You may be wondering, "17 episodes in? That's super slow...", but understand that they don't feature the mains amnesia at all until this point. It's all world and character building.
[Aside end]

HOWEVER:

CONDITIONS FOR RECOMMENDATION:
You cannot escape it anymore, if you really want to understand the things that are about to happen in this show, you will need the first season/series' story in its whole. Just as I said before as well, if you go to watch the first part, THOU SHALT SKIP THE FIRST EPISODE, if it begins with anything other than the Masked Man waking up. You can watch it after you finish the series, it literally is an OVA for all intents and purposes for how removed from the rest of it that it is.

Additionally, thanks to a comment in Crunchyroll, I am informed that Funimation is providing the Subtitled version on their website, and have confirmed with my own eyes. Even better, they don't have that retarded first episode, they actually start where the show is suppose to start. Which makes me wonder...if the streaming site I originally watched this on was just straight up stupid and made an actual OVA the first episode because they couldn't tell any better...
If that is the case, I apologize for raving like a lunatic about something completely false for so long.
For convenience sake, despite not knowing if Evil Cat has any particular preferences about not using links in his blog...
Funimations episodes for streaming:
Utawarerumono Season 1

A note about Funimation though: Their stream seems a little slow, so if you plan to watch several episodes at once, I recommend starting the buffer, going to get something for snakes, or doing chores or what not, and then when you come back to it fully buffered, opening the next episode to buffer as you start to watch the first.
Also, if I recall correctly, Funimation tends to lock their Dubbed episodes behind their premium wall after a handful of episodes for each Series, so I recommend just sticking with the Subtitled version.