HighWire: [Reaction] Myriad Colors Phantom World, Episode 10

If you didn't gather, this is a reaction, so if you're not caught up and don't want major plot elements from this episode and the entirety of Myriad Colors Phantom World spoiled for you, it's probably a good choice to turn back now. For the rest of you, let's get started.

The time seems right to finally admit to myself that Myriad Colors Phantom World made its choice a long time ago, and if you think I sound slightly dejected right now, good on you, you can apparently decipher tone from words on a page. Now is about the time in any anime season that shows begin to start wrapping up and introduce whatever elements will be present in their climaxes, which we've seen. ERASED finally dropped the big bomb-shell last episode that is going to determine the direction of the rest of the show, Dimension W has been building up whatever the hell it thinks it has been building for a few episodes(unknowingly digging itself deeper and deeper into its own sh*t), and Durarara!!x2 Ketsu has been perpetually in "finale-mode" for about half of the season trying to wrap up the loose ends of an endlessly convoluted franchise that has spanned 5 cours. Myriad Colors Phantom World, on the other hand, has been doing nothing. And that's exactly my problem with it.
Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you're doing well, and today we're tackling what could very well be my last episode reaction to Myriad Colors Phantom World. Not because I'm bored of it particularly, but because I fear I may have run out of things to say. Now then, let's begin.

We've had at least one episode focus on each member of the cast so far, so it's hardly surprising that this week the little fairy phantom Ruru gets her turn in the spotlight. Ruru up until this point has been little more than a mascot for the show, flying around and agitating Haruhiko and me, to be perfectly honest. Despite that, I'm not totally against Ruru getting her own episode, after all it's only fair when nearly every other character in the show has had a chance to drive an episode's narrative vehicle; it's just how the show goes about it that was my main problem. Ruru is essentially an unnecessary comic-relief character in an already light-hearted and crazy show, so an episode concentrating on her psyche may have benefited from being slightly more serious and subtle than usual, as to juxtapose her typical chipper attitude. Unfortunately, the main conflict of this episode is about as low-stakes as you can get.
See, Ruru is tired of being small, partly because Haruhiko keeps stepping on her by accident and partly because she can't drink a full bottle of ramune, so when a wish-granting phantom conveniently appears before her, she jumps on the opportunity and wishes to be a normal human. Transferring into Haruhiko's class and eventually the club, Ruru can stay a human as long she doesn't lose a special pendant hanging around her neck, or if nobody figures out her true identity, which eventually leads to such hilarious high-jinks like Ruru to crafting a complete sob backstory in order to gain the club's sympathies, or forgetting that she can no longer fly as she jumps out a 2-story window. But the dream can never last long. As she tags along with the club to a fireworks festival, a firework phantom(incidentally given a chance to "go out with a bang" by that same wish-granting phantom that gave Ruru her human form) eventually crashes the festival and threatens to blow it up(and by extension Haruhiko, who somehow ended up in the firework phantom's mouth), so Ruru must return to her original form and save the day, reverting everything back to the status quot.

Our main heroine for this episode.

I don't want to give the wrong impression, there was absolutely nothing wrong with this episode, in fact, there were even several parts I rather liked. It was funny seeing Koito, usually the straight-man in this comedic show become completely invested by Ruru's fake backstory, and there's a sweet little scene where Haruhiko carries Ruru on his back after her feet get bruised from wearing sandals(tbh, I feel her pain), and fondly recounts his feelings toward Ruru(unaware that she is right there with him). It was a perfectly acceptable episode okay? But really, the problem, or my own personal wants really; I want it to be more than acceptable.

The troublesome wish-granter.

From the beginning, Myriad's setting has always been rife for potential, since the truth behind the phantoms and how that ties into various human psychological states could have made for a really clever show, and that's a big reason why the show playing it so safe has frustrated me. The setting so far has been nothing more than an excuse to have wacky situations happening without having to worry about any sort of explanation, and the psychology of the whole matter hasn't really tied into it at all. That's why episode 4 remains the only good one, 10 episodes into this show. It got me excited for just what this show could do with its premise, but ever since then, we've had nothing but fluffy filler that hasn't had a meaningful impact on the characters or the shafted narrative that has been completely ignored.
That's what I mean by "Myriad Colors Phantom World made its choice". If it really wanted to, Myriad could have slowly integrated an over arcing narrative into the episodic format relevant to the mysteries of the whole idea of its world, a narrative that I've repeatedly stressed is imperative to raise this show above the sea of mediocrity. But here's the truth I've had to accept over the span of filler episodes we've had since episode 4: Myriad Colors Phantom World, from the beginning, has had no other ambition than to be light fun. I mean, this is a show that has the main character summoning a puppy with angel wings and literally Cthulhu. In the end, it seems my ambitions for this show, and the show's ambitions for itself, are completely unaligned, which means it's probably time for me to give up hoping that the anime will become something it clearly has no intention to be.

That's a little tough to swallow, frankly... because I wanted to see KyoAni pull off this improbable magic trick. I wanted them to take this cliche and totally formulaic premise that many dismissed merely by its PV and inexplicably turn it into something good like they always seem to, just like they did with Hibike! Euphonium last spring. I wanted KyoAni to find a way. But that's just not the case this time. Goodbye for now guys.

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