HighWire: [Reaction] Myriad Colors Phantom World, Episode 4

I'm not sure what else you're expecting, but this is a reaction. If you haven't watched episodes 1-4 of Myriad Colors Phantom World, you may want to back out now. Spoilers be ahead.

This anime is sincerely confusing me. After 3 episodes of, let's be honest, insubstantial fluffy story-telling, I was pretty much ready to put Myriad Colors Phantom World into the same Kyo-Ani box as something like Amagi Brilliant Park. Myriad in the first couple episodes seemed content to be a light-hearted supernatural-action show, that didn't seem particularly interested in any sort of over-arcing plot, and was using its crazily awesome setting as little more than a background to justify any zany weirdness that otherwise would require some sort of effort to explain. I wasn't exactly happy with that prospect, but I had at least accepted it, and was ready to downplay my expectations of any sort of over-arcing narrative that would tie into the mysteries of the setting in order to get a fair amount of enjoyment out of this anime. In fact, that mind-set was so ingrained that I was pretty much ready to give up reviewing individuals episodes of this show as they aired, since I had already convinced myself that nothing particularly note-worthy would happen down the line. Then episode 4 aired, and honestly... I now have no idea what the hell to think.
Hello, people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, and welcome to a brand new reaction of Myriad Whatsit Something Phantom World, and to be honest, I'm really at the end of my wits with this show. Lucky me that we still have 9 episodes of this to go. Well then, no more delay. Let's begin.

Episode 4 of Myriad starts in very much the same manner as episode 3, with an inner monologue by a certain character to present that we're concentrating on them this week, which is in this case the phantom-eating Reina, who opens the episode with some fraternal observations. Last week the show did this with Mai, but that episode mostly used her past to explore the idea of how memories change over time, which thankfully concluded with some reasonably decent action, but the bottom line was that that episode did nothing to develop Mai's character in the slightest. It thought it would be the same for Reina this week, since our nerdy protagonist Haruhiko opens the episode talking about how the definitions of family change within culture, with his show-within-the-show where he breaks the fourth wall by openly explaining to the audience an aspect of the psychology of the brain, leaving the veiwer the extrapolate how this information will be relevant to the coming episode and how phantoms have effected society in this alternate world. To be honest, I always find that part a little enduring. But it turns out that Myriad was aiming a little higher this week, and instead of exploring some vague psychology, it actually attempted to intertwine that theoretical psychological with the psychological(and by extension development) of the characters, resulting in an episode that not only turned Reina from a one-dimensional imouto stand-in into arguably the best character of the show, but related her story-line to the other characters(most noticeably Haruhiko, who got tons of subtle development this episode), into a group of emotional charged final minutes that likely is the highest point of Myriad Colors Phantom World so far. Let me explain further.
As I said, this episode opens with Reina talking about her unstable family situation. It seems that her strict and proper parents are judgmental about anything phantom-related, including Reina own powers to swallow phantoms in order to seal them, and because of that, Reina has been unable to tell her parents that she was joined Haruhiko's and Mai's club. Thankfully, this revelation was actually quite cleverly built-up in the last episodes, Reina's deep affection for Mai(who is to her meant to fill-in the gap left by her absent motorcycle enthusiast sister) and her apparent jealously when she watched Mai and Haruhiko on their "date" last episode, is neither cliche or the foundations of a harem sub-plot, she actually views this club as the place where she belongs. She's afraid of being left out or left behind by her fellow club-members, because her own personal trauma lies with encountering that same alienation in her new club that follows her once she returns home from school every-day, and she doesn't want to lose this place of comfort, which incidentally is the unsaid reason why she doesn't want to tell her parents about joining the club. Her mindset actually makes sense, which is nice for this show. And since this is a world where the border between emotion, fiction and reality are blurred, it doesn't take long for a phantom bus to appear as a manifestation of Reina's feelings, a bus that takes her home to "another family" that is joyful and accepting of whatever she does(and just so happiness to be rabbits but whatever), in a saccharine reality brought to life but what I can only assume is Kyoto Animation's attempt to emulate a Coraline kind of feel.

The end of the dream.

The situation is brought to attention to Haruhiko and Mai, strangely enough by Koito(who while makes it clear she doesn't care about any of this, does seem to be helping the club a lot), and they both follow Reina onto the bus and into the dream-world, where after they taste the bunny family's food, fall into a trance where they become convinced they are part of this "happy-family" with Reina. Haruhiko, being as sharp as he is, eventually snaps out of the trance, basically forces Reina out of it in a pure act of "taking-one-for-the-team", and as the reality collapses around them, the bunny family offers Reina to come with them forever, to become her "real family". Reina, ignoring Haruhiko's shouts that she "will never be able to come back", accepts the offer, and walks towards her "new family"(of bunnies, but again, whatever), metaphorical representing her retreat from reality. Haruhiko, in one last desperate attempt, shouts out to Reina's retreating figure, confessing that his own mother left him when he was a child, how his relationship with his father deteriorated afterward, and reminds her that, if her sister did come back and reunited the family, she would be gone from this world forever. The words reach Reina, and she reluctantly comes back to reality, and prepares herself to come back to the home where she feels lonely everyday. The episode ends with a small flash-forward; Reina's parents have apparently allowed her to join Haruhiko's and Mai's club, and as the final seconds drip by, we see Reina looking into the sunset, thinking about her "other family", and hoping she will see them again.

The OP

Let's not get confused here, this is not a great episode. But it's a good one, a definite improvement from the aimless dibble we've come to expect from this show. There's even some subtext stuff that really works, like how we never see Reina's parent's faces, signifying her growing feeling that she does not them. And despite the episode's relatively positive conclusion, I can't help that with Reina's final words she still hasn't completely accepted her situation, and I wonder whether this aspect of her character will boomerang before the conclusion of the anime, signifying either how far she has come since her introduction or not. And as I said, I liked how the other character got some chunks of development by playing of this story-line, Haruhiko's past explains some things about his character, but he still needs some fleshing out to become a main character I can get behind.
This episode got the show back on track, but a couple of overlying issues still isn't making the series quite click for me. I can't help but think an over-arcing narrative is going to be needed to bring this show to its full potential, which thankfully has been hinted at in episode 2 with that broken computer whatsit. If there was any moment to start building momentum into a satisfying conclusion, next week to be the ideal time to start, and I'll be greatly disappointed if the show keeps up the episodic format up. The characters still need some work, especially our main heroine Mai, who currently is nowhere near charming or interesting enough to carry either episodic adventures or a more serious narrative. If the anime can develop her and the rest of the characters to finally make the cast chemistry click(which honestly has been feeling a little weak currently) as it ties into the overarching mystery of the plot, then Myriad could be a legitimately good show. If it decides keep up with the episodic nonsense, well, maybe not so much. Next week pretty much decides it, since if the anime does want to start a story, now would probably be the best time to start without feeling rushed. All I ask is, that with whatever decision the anime makes next week, it consistent from then on, because if it starts shifting focuses without coherence, Myriad could end a lot worse than I thought. Of course, I hope that's not the case. After all, I also want Kyoto Animation to find a way. Goodbye for now guys.

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