Arata Kangatari Final Thoughts--The Failings of the Revenge Fantasy

What could've been an average but otherwise solid show ends up mediocre due to stumbling over its own plot justifications.


In two different worlds, there are two boys named Arata. One lives in a fantasy universe where the fate of his clan rests on him pretending to be a girl to become the Princess's successor. The other lives in our world, and has recently returned to school after becoming a shut-in due to bullying. But when an attempt is made on the Princess's life in the first Arata's universe and he's blamed for it, he runs off to a magic forest where he switches places with the other Arata. Modern-day Arata has to survive in this strange new world while on the run from the corrupt members of the princess's personal guard and learning how to wield a magic sword known as a Hayagami.

 
I was very excited for this show in the Spring 2013 line-up, but it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of the season for me instead. The premise is great, and the first episode had me interested despite being a bit concerned about the pacing. However, by the end--even without reading the manga--it was clear that this production had bitten off a bit more than it could chew by trying to reach a specific stopping point without giving a lot of thought to how condensing events would affect the plot and the characters.

The result is that when it did decide to focus on something, the shallowness from the lack of build-up became very obvious. The romance subplot between Arata and Kotoha feels like the result of anime cliches more than an actual growing relationship, Arata screams over the deaths of one-episode characters that he barely knows, story arcs are resolved with previously unmentioned power-ups that come out of nowhere to save the day, and alternate universe Arata is completely forgotten as the show continues.

 
However, as frustrating as all of that was, it wasn't enough to completely break the show. That is, until it decides to explain the core relationship that provides the forward momentum for much of the drama in this series: the rivalry between Arata and his bully Kadowaki. The ED of the show plays this up as a big, dark, shared past between the two, but when the actual reasoning is revealed, the rest of the show falls apart because of its flimsy foundation. In the interest of avoiding spoilers I won't go into specifics, but essentially Kadowaki is blaming Arata for his insecurities due to a misunderstanding, and Arata never corrected him on it. Of course, if Arata had then there wouldn't be a show, but Kadowaki is presented as someone who is so bent on revenge he's willing to destroy an entire world as well as himself to get a chance at fighting Arata, so it was surprising to see that all of that rage came from something so easily resolved if he just stopped to think about it for a minute. I've seen defense of his actions by saying that he's full of hate and didn't know where to direct it, and that may be true in the manga, but as far as the show goes, that still makes the rivalry shallow in my eyes because he's not dealing with his actual problem.

 
The show even points out how weak this rivalry really is when it only takes other world Arata one school day to call Kadowaki out on his crap, beat him in a fight, and show his friends and those who fear him that he's actually all talk. What was stopping the other Arata from doing this? Everything else in the show is in service to the big showdown that they're supposed to have, but after finding out its roots, I couldn't bring myself to care. The "realization" Arata makes at the end of the series feels like it happened because the show needed a place to stop, not because he went through any character growth to earn it. In contrast, the rivalry that's presented as a parallel through Kannagi and Akachi is infinitely more interesting because there is nuance to the good and evil here, with which side they fall on the result of their actions, not because of a power fantasy about getting back at the schoolyard bully.


Throughout the show I never quite shook the feeling that there was a truly interesting world here with valid explanations to all the problems I was having with the plot. From the little bit I've read about the manga, it seems that the show did indeed gloss over tons of information that probably would've made it more enjoyable. However, just the animation alone makes it clear that the show wasn't working with the best budget; while it occasionally turned out some amazing animation (the EDs are great), the quality consistently degrades all the way up to the finale, off-character models and all. It's a shame, since the series is fond of big set pieces where the characters have epic, element-based battles. It does make a statement about the show as a whole, though; there is something very interesting here, but it just didn't have the chops to pull it off. Getting mad at character justifications may be better than complete apathy towards what's going on, but because of that I can't recommend this anime either.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.