Sunday, August 28, 2011

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7--Cocaine is a Hell of a Drug

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 8 Screenshot 1

Back to business as usual this week, with no hint that anything is going to change. Clearly the show is happy with its book-of-the-week format.

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7 Screenshot 2

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7 Screenshot 4

This episode could have been mixed in with any of the previous ones without missing a beat. The structure is the same: Huey and Dalian randomly get caught up in circumstances generated by a Phantom Book and then basically stand witness to what happens. This time around, it's about a perfumer who accidentally created the next big drug to hit the streets. With the next episode preview promising another double feature next week, I've given up on seeing an overarching plot for this series. At best, there will probably be a mini-arc in the last couple of episodes to wrap up some of the bigger questions that are still circulating, but as of right now the show is giving no hints that it wants to do anything more.

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7 Screenshot 5
Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7 Screenshot 6
Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7 Screenshot 7

However, that's not going to stop me from continuing to enjoy what I've liked about the show all along; the animation is fantastic, the fight scenes are well-choreographed, and the music is beautiful. Once the expectations about the plot are dropped, what the show is doing right becomes apparent. And there is still the possibility that I will be proved wrong in the next six episodes and the show will surprise everyone. But for right now, I'm looking forward to an episode where Hal and Flam return and when we get more information on the third pair and why they hand out Phantom Books to people.

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7 Screenshot 8
Huey summarizes my feelings when I realized that there is no overarching plot.

Images from NicoNico.com.

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