A new two-episode arc leaves the otaku world behind for more outrageous fairy behavior. What They Say
We flashback to a time before the first episode, when the Mediator starts her work on the Human Monument.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Oh, what a relief it is to see the fairies once again at the very beginning of the episode!
Without telling us, Humanity Has Declined has decided to go back and tell us the story of how the Mediator Watashi ended up cutting her hair. We’re only able to piece this together because the Mediator’s grandfather introduces her to the UNESCO CLT Director, who you’ll remember from the second episode as the ambitious Factory Foreman hired by the headless chickens. The Human Monument Project has been in the planning for decades, the Director explains, but only now is it beginning to get off the ground. The objective is to gather all of mankind’s culture, history, and knowledge and place it all within a massive storage device.
To help with recovering important cultural artifacts, both Camphorwood village and the nearby ruins of a massive city will have their electricity restored. It sounds wonderful, until the fairies tell Watashi that electromagnetic waves will kill the fairies, and warn ominously of the horrific fates that await those humans who don’t get their daily fairy exposure. Every time the fairies appear, it’s an utter delight, but much of the humor is delivered by having Watashi read a fairy manual. It seems like such a waste of the potential of animation to have to watch a character read, and I really would have liked to have the sequence done with fairy narration and fantastic visuals.
The humans have a celebration with Christmas lights to celebrate the restoration of electricity, and here the Mediator meets an android catgirl by the name of Pion. Has she been re-activated by the electricity? She says she’s looking for a companion named Oyag, and I can’t help think of V’ger/Voyager from the first Star Trek movie.
The next day, Watashi and Assistant head out to explore the old city, and we see an ominous skeleton lying amongst the ruins. They’re tasked with exploring a simple park, but when they enter the park’s dome, they’re taken places unknown by a very confusing elevator system. Lost in a labyrinth, they wander aimlessly for a while, much as they did in the second and fourth episodes. Just when they’re about to ruin out a supplies, Watashi discovers the good-luck ring she was given by the fairies is a fairy itself. The fairy promises to guide the two to water, and ends up discovering a den of slimes instead. They flee, but quickly end up being pursued by a robot dog. Fortunately, they’re rescued in the nick of time by Pion.
Like episodes 1 and 3, the other “first episodes” of the 2-episode arcs, a lot happens here, and a lot of it doesn’t make any sense. I can’t help but think this show would make better viewing on DVD or Blu-ray, when each arc can be watched in one go. Still, I’m happy to see the conclusion of the manga arc, and Humanity Has Declined once again expanding the ambitions of its satire.
In Summary
There’s still nothing as crazy in this episode as those marvelous first two, but the fairies have returned, bringing their cutely sinister antics with them. A lot of information is introduced in this episode: The monoliths, the city ruins, the android girl, but very little of it makes sense thus far. Why did the slimes appear to react with the monolith? How does Watashi re-unite with the others? And how does Watashi screw-up badly enough that she has to cut off her hair in contrition? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
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