English Dub Review: Dimension W “The Key to Adrastea”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

According to Wikipedia, Adrastea is a Greek word that translates to “Inescapable” and is synonymous with Greek Mythology and Jupiter’s 2nd Moon. Since it’s now ground zero where he is, The first definition seems much more fitting. And from what we’ve seen here, Apparently Kyoma was able to escape the “Inescapable”.

Loser and Prince Salva also get more backstory and Loser’s real name is Julian apparently, and I still can’t figure out whether his child is male or female. Is it a trap or is it a reverse trap? Ellie’s disguises are more inconsistent and androgynous than Ginnifer Goodwin’s short hair.

Oh, and Salva actually likes his little brother which surprised me the most. I thought elder brothers generally do not like their younger siblings but I’m the oldest in my family and treated like the youngest. 😛

The introduction of the mysterious real bad guy behind so much of the disasters that have occurred feels like it comes out of nowhere. There are definite problems here with condensing the source material, yet there’s still something weird and compelling. Even if they get to the heart of the island and get rid of the anomaly, it’s not like these broken and suffering characters can change the past. Maybe they’ll be able to put the past behind them and move forward, at least.

The animation takes a noticeable dip in quality during this episode, which sadly isn’t unusual in almost any show nowadays. Consistency across the entire run of episodes is apparently a lot to ask. Hopefully they’re saving the impressive stuff for the finale.

The episode was very good. Although while it overused flashback scenes, it answered some questions, raised some questions, and had some gorgeous scenes to boot! With only a few episodes left, I assume this is when Shit gets real! and it’s going to lead up to an outstanding finish. Bring it on, Dimension W!

I wonder if part of the reason kyoma calls mira a “piece of junk” is related to the fact that the technology inside of her couldn’t save his wife

Mira was most likely repurposed after the transplant failure. Since then, a lot of experimental technology was added to her.

I felt that was kinda the point/theme of the episode.
I felt right there as Kyoma really worked through his grief and past since all he did up till now was live in denial of it and shut off the human part of him

Damn I’m so intrigued by Loser’s backstory, and the fact that he knew Kyoma must mean that they’ve met before the accident. Also can’t wait to see what else he can do with the Numbers he’s got.

Dimension W layers every other possibility of what could have happened in a given moment on top of each other and the coils are programmed to convert them into electrical energy. All the accidents we’ve seen where lots of copies of the same person appear fused together or massive protrusions of rock appearing are those alternate universes all happening at once and being brought into our universe.

Dimension W is connected to the physical world by memories. So all possibilities are built on what the past holds. That’s an interesting idea. I assume the universe is made up of memories comment is meant to say that the current universe is the result of one of the countless possibilities that could have existed and memories give birth to those possibilities. Can’t think of an alternate event for something that hasn’t happened or been witnessed.

Though, I’m curious how exactly they filtered whatever there is in Dimension W to extract only energy from it. From the looks of things, no one has exactly gotten a hold on Dimension W’s dangers and uncertainties.
This show is improving and has got me pretty hooked. Looking forward to next episode.

I thought that was future him narrating past events, but I suppose what you say kind of makes sense in that he’s doing the same thing as Kyoma. Reliving memories rather than just replaying them, so he might act differently based on what he subconsciously knows has happened.

Also interesting to note that Kyoma is aware of their similarity, which is probably one reason why he refuses to let himself get attached to Mira.

Strangely during Loser’s speech to Kyoma, A random montage briefly glances at the other characters including K.K. performing some sort of dubious forced surgery on Yuri, while Lwai is on his way and Lashti is with Cassidy.

The production value looks different this episode, like they outsourced it. It’s like they forgot to use a filter (the colors look a little too crisp and bright), and they zoomed in on artwork that was meant to be shot further back. A lot of the faces that would be fine when zoomed out look derpy here.

I think the backstory is really adding something to this anime, but on the other-hand the more they explain Dimension W the more I’m being putting off. I would have preferred it being left as a “place you get energy from”, the explanation is taking something away from it.

If there’s one thing I want from this series, is that I want to know what the hell numbers do. They did show what illegal coils do extremely well in my opinion, but not for numbers. What exactly is it about numbers that’s so bad? (At least to the point where Kyoma attacked Loser (or Julian as he was originally called as it was revealed in this episode, solely because he had them) Please don’t tell me that I missed this in a previous episode.

Needless to say, this episode was a ride. A rather confusing ride. I’d really like to see what the show is going to be like now that it’s info-dumped most (if not all) of what it wanted, Only time will tell as they say.

Characters are interesting, good exploration of backstory going on at the moment. Some people have complained at the way MC treats robo-girl and how that hasn’t changed enough, but I’m in the camp that that makes perfect sense considering the story.

What’s easily the biggest flaws in this episode?

1. The show continues to be under the false belief that not showing whatever happened on Easter Island creates suspense rather than annoyance. It’s like there’s a rule that every time this show establishes any distinct plot point, they can’t address it again for at least another episode. So whenever we finally get back to something, I no longer care about it as much as I wanted to.

2. Nearly Everything about this episode of Dimension W is a bit of a mess due to the rush to deliver some very important narrative information to the viewer. As a result, much of the info dump regarding the w dimension falls comically flat, and it’s hard to pull apart metaphor from reality, assuming we’re supposed to.

3. This episode of Dimension W is likely to loose some viewers. The animation takes a noticeable dip in quality, and the already fuzzy science takes a turn for the metaphysical. The introduction of the mysterious real bad guy behind so much of the disasters that have occurred feels like it comes out of nowhere. There are definite problems here with condensing the source material, yet there’s still something weird and compelling. Even if they get to the heart of the island and get rid of the anomaly, it’s not like these broken and suffering characters can change the past. Maybe they’ll be able to put the past behind them and move forward, at least.

And finally 4. There are ways to make a narrative that’s mostly centered around a mystery compelling. Kill La Kill is a great example. The entire series is built around one person’s forgotten past that’s only revealed very late in the show, but there’s a sense of momentum and cohesion leading up to that revelation. It’s not a chaotic series of events until the revelation comes and suddenly makes everything understandable in hindsight, because by that point, the audience would already be lost and disinterested. The “revelations” delivered over these past few episodes of Dimension W have meant very little because we barely know what’s going on in the first place. Adding new information only makes things worse.

For me the highlight was Salva’s internal dialogue and also Mira. We see that with Mira, many things tie into how she perceives her self identity (and how human she is).

Originally when Dimension W aired the episodes featuring Miyabi I was disgruntled because it felt like they were simply introducing her and then forgetting about her existence. As the episodes have aired I’m finding that is less and less the case and more and more we are seeing the significance of Miyabi and the impact she has created. Wholly accidentally, one of the best love stories ever was created in Dimension W by making a love powerful enough to humanize the trop-ish stoic Kyoma while also allowing him to remain as cool and collected as before. He remains significant for his own reasons, yet all his reasons are tied to Miyabi.

I’m intrigued how Miyabi was going to transferred in to what would become Mira’s body. Whether it would be an organic brain inside a metal body or they were going to digitise her mind somehow. Because if its the later then it’s possible that part of Miyabi’s mind was transferred before the accident occurred and resulting in Miya being an incomplete copy of Miyabi.
With memories being the key part of Dimension W, it’s possible that the transfer of memories is what caused the accident.

Honestly It continues to be a delight to see Miyabi is still a character and more than just your standard “Women in a Refrigerators” trope. I have theories about the characters; perhaps more than Mira’s body is Miyabi’s and we’ll see more? I can only dream. I’m eagerly awaiting next week hoping the shows momentum keeps up. With only a few episodes left, Dimension W has to have some sort of satisfying conclusion. Let the last 3 episodes Begin!