(L) UN-GO (noitaminA, BONES)

[ars89]

Spoiler for ep 7:

Wow best ep yet imo. So the novelist's girl or the novelist has the power to alter someone's psyche. Like how Kazamori tried to get in touch with Shinjurou. So the Novelist can also control the guards. If he has this much power why does he stay in jail? Wonder how Shinjurou will get out of this one.

[Sides]

Great episode. Like the idea

Spoiler:

having Shinjurou trapped in an illusion/novel. As other are suspecting, it is obvious that the character appearances are not their real appearance, since they are all prisoners. Question is how did Shinjurou got locked up in the first place.

[miketyson]

Quarkboy: maybe I'm not the world's last great detective, then.

At a big picture level I think I get what just happened, but a lot of the details seem pretty murky to me (in a good way).

In any case this will easily be my show of the season as long as it doesn't do anything really lame before it's done.

[zeniselv]

this episode certainly make it feel as aa mystery anime, thing the other epiusodes hadnt conveyed very well, i wanted to see more kazamori though.

[DXMichael]

Hmm, quite the mysterious element in this episode.

Yuuki must be in an alternate world or something created by that girl with the novalist. I'm guessing he's technically hypnotised and unconscious in that room whilst the novalist watches and writes the story out using the girls power.

[wandering-dreamer]

Hmm, is it just me or does it look like they forgot to draw in a prop for Shinjuro to lean on?


Anyway, I remember thinking last week that this episode would deal with his past but, after reading the summaries for episode 0, I realized how wrong I must be and was really pleased by what this episode did instead. No clue what's really going on, I doubt anyone else is in on the illusion and Shinjuro is probably unconscious in a room somewhere while this is all going on but I'd love to be proved wrong.

[DXMichael]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

Hmm, is it just me or does it look like they forgot to draw in a prop for Shinjuro to lean on?

Yeah I remember seeing that scene and thinking "Is he leaning on an invisible wall?" XD.

In the end I just automatically assumed it was the way his legs were positioned and it made him look like he was leaning on something.

[miketyson]

Or maybe it's intentional: it's a clue that reality-warping powers are in full effect.

[wandering-dreamer]

Originally Posted by miketyson

Or maybe it's intentional: it's a clue that reality-warping powers are in full effect.

That could be it, that scene took at least a minute and to forget to add in an element like that would be really sloppy for Bones, maybe he really is in a cell this whole time and there he was just leaning up against a wall the whole time.

[shmaster]

Seigen screen time? Is the preview hinting that he is going to be important? I cannot imagine this!

Spoiler:

On the other hand, I assume everyone in the prison is under the effect of Bettsutenou's reality wrap, and whoever come to visit Shinjuro is getting wrapped as well. Inga and Kazamori probably is the only two not under Bettsutenou's power. Or else, consider they are in a prison, soemone would have noticed something is not write by this point.

[InuoeK]

I'm a little confused about the current episode as well; is Shinjuro in an alternate reality or has he just been hypnotized by the novelist?

[DezoPenguin]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

Anyway, I remember thinking last week that this episode would deal with his past but, after reading the summaries for episode 0, I realized how wrong I must be and was really pleased by what this episode did instead. No clue what's really going on, I doubt anyone else is in on the illusion and Shinjuro is probably unconscious in a room somewhere while this is all going on but I'd love to be proved wrong.

Hmm, possibly, but...

Spoiler for A clue?:

The next episode preview suggests not. Also remember the one scene where it's said outright to the three "actresses" that they can't leave, that they're criminals? Not metaphor, I'm thinking.

[shmaster]

Originally Posted by InuoeK

I'm a little confused about the current episode as well; is Shinjuro in an alternate reality or has he just been hypnotized by the novelist?

The right way to put is that his perception of reality has been altered.

[Kitsu Breaker]

This image make me laught a lot

Spoiler for size:

[Kanon]

I adore the kind of story where the main character is brainwashed/mindfucked and must struggle to discover what's real and what isn't, so I highly enjoyed this episode. I loved the final shot showing the novelist laughing like a mad man in his cell.

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

That could be it, that scene took at least a minute and to forget to add in an element like that would be really sloppy for Bones, maybe he really is in a cell this whole time and there he was just leaning up against a wall the whole time.

It's definitely intentional, as it happened several times throughout the episode. Another example:



It's just another one of the clues indicating he's imprisoned, the biggest one being the tag behind his neck.

I think only the four characters that were introduced the usual way with a sign describing their names and profession (with a question mark indicating they're fake) are real: the three actresses (in reality prisoners) and the director (a guard? A doctor? maybe the novelist himself). Yuki and that other woman are here too though I'm not sure why. Assuming Shinjurou has been missing for a few days, perhaps they were investigating his disappearance and it led them here.

The biggest mystery for me right now is... whether a murder truly took place. I'm thinking nothing actually happened in the present, and that the mystery Shinjurou has to unravel has to do with the three women's pasts. There might be some truth in the script of the movie: three women living with a single man who loved them all equally, but one of them wasn't satisfied with this situation and wanted him to choose between them, until someday... shit happened.

[Mercurius.H]

One may probably notice the library scene. The film DVDs on the shelf.

Half of them, as indicated, are Frank Darabont's works: The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, those two representative films fit well with the "in prison" hint; Also there are The Mist, The Majestic, Buried Alive, themes of which have more or less some connections with the plot of this episode. The Fly 2: The Insect Awakens is also listed although Darabont didn't direct it, only wrote the script.

Also there are other movies. Antarctica starring Takakura Ken, Saturn&Nebula award movie The Dark Crystal, A Farewell to Arms based on the homonymous novel by Hemingway, Alive based on Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash, and B movies like Congo, Arachnophobia, Willow.

All these movies, IMH share a common theme, which entails the distortion, and eventual retention of human nature/humanity by individuals under inevitable and irresistible suffering and dismal in extreme circumstances, be it imprisonment, war/postwar, horror, or adventure. Perhaps it is only my over-explanation. After all, all narratives, literature or film, involve such theme to a certain extent.

There are probable homages as well. 2091年異性への旅 (lit. 2091: An odyssey to the opposite sex) is almost certainly a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 異性(the opposite sex) in Japanese reads the same as 異星(extraterrestrial).
タンポポ畑でつかまえて (lit. The Catcher in the Dandelion) is quite obvious.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Mercurius.H

One may probably noticed the library scene. The film DVDs on the shelf.

Half of them, as indicated, are Frank Darabont's works: The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, those two representative films fit well with the "in prison" hint; Also there are The Mist, The Majestic, Buried Alive, themes of which have more or less some connections with the plot of this episode.

Also there are other movies. Antarctica starring Takakura Ken, Saturn&Nebula award movie The Dark Crystal, A Farewell to Arms based on the synonymous novel by Hemingway, Alive based on Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash, and B movies like Congo, Arachnophobia, Willow.

There are probable homages as well. 2091年異性への旅 (lit. 2091: An odyssey to the opposite sex) is almost certainly a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 異性(the opposite sex) in Japanese reads the same as 異星(extraterrestrial).
タンポポ畑でつかまえて (lit. The Catcher in the Dandelion) is quite obvious.

I would have translated some of those, but I felt just doing "Frank Darabont" was enough to get across the point and the rest would distract from the episode on first watch.

When I saw Yuuki leaning against nothing my first thought was "well, he's just badass, he doesn't need a wall!"

[miketyson]

The "air-slouch" thing is really cool b/c it only works in animation: in live-action and even CGI it'd just look stupid, but here it's a cute clue that nothing is what it appears to be.

All-in-all this is really very masterfully-executed: it's a complicated enough mind-screw that it's hard to figure out the details while you're watching it ("he's in prison?" sure, but the specifics...), but then if you pay enough attention it is loaded with clues.

Final guess @ the scenario until next week:

Spoiler for guesses:

The "director" is either the warden or some other high-level prison guard; all three "actresses" are female prisoners. The director has been having an affair with all 3 ladies, probably in exchange for giving them preferential treatment.

He's been telling them he has some great plan to get all 3 of them out of prison. In reality he doesn't have a plan for the three of them -- he might only have had a plan for one of them, the dark-haired girl with Rie's voice who doesn't show up on his clipboard map -- but the girls all seem to believe in his plan.

That's what the "movie" is about, and that's what Shinjuro confronts the director about: Shinjuro's mad that the warden/director is just stringing the girls along, the director doesn't seem to care and is just having his fun. I'd assume the stuff Shinjuro filmed early on was the ladies practicing their escape plan.

Not sure who actually killed the warden, other than that it wasn't Shinjuro; it doesn't seem like the novelist's style to have Shinjuro do it. I'd guess it's one of the ladies -- or perhaps all 3 of them -- but beyond that I have no clue. It might also have been some other guard, but since we haven't met any other guards yet that'd seem a bit out of left field.

Can't wait to find out the real story (hopefully!) next week.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Excellent episode. The show continues to improve from week to week. Now it breaks from its mystery of the week frame into something more free-form. Where will it go next? I just feel as if the minds behind this know exactly what they are doing and are evolving the show exactly as they want.

[Guido]

I'm giving my free coments for the seventh episode, and what I must say is if the show's second half starts with this- What is this mess? -scenario a la Twilight Zone or Twin Peaks- to attempt to impress me as another audience member then the direction and writing are going downhill, downhill.

Of course, this is my personal opinion, and anyone is free to disagree or not.

The thing that was made clear to me is that the movie set scenario, which becomes the current stage of mystery, was set up by novelist. We and Shinjuurou got ourselves a murder being the Director as the unfortunate victim. What's more is that the added twist places Shinjuurou as the main culprit, though this is most likely due that Shinjuurou wasn't able to timely put all of his thought processes together in order to start working as a detective.
It's just way too convenient for novelist should he had put Shinjuurou right away as the culprit and leaving the mystery unsolved.

But, the appearance of Rie entering the mystery as the Metropolitan Police Detective maybe or not was implemented by novelist as the character in charge of enforcing the rules, I guess?


And, btw, I definitely did not overlook the so obvious blunder with Shinjuurou seemingly leaning on either thin air or an invisible prop.

The guy in this thread who pointed it out beforehand knows what I'm talking about.