10 Second Anime - Dimension W - Episode 1

In a world with newly discovered unlimited energy, Mabuchi clings to his old ways even while employed as an enforcer of the new ways. A chance meeting with Mira, a robot who is more than she seems, gets Mabuchi involved in a mystery surrounding the inventor of this new energy source. Season Premiere.

File.01 - "Collector"

First Thoughts.

Wow! It's been a long time since an action thriller grabbed my attention the way the first few moments of Dimension W did. An old-fashioned guy working on a classic car as he hears the radio announce that a new gasoline tax is going to make prices about 28 bucks a liter (112 dollars a gallon!) quickly introduces a main character in Mabuchi who is a nonconformist, iconoclastic and downright stubborn. Even worse, fueling his resentment of the new, he's a bounty hunter tasked with retrieving black market "coils," the source of this new energy he hates.

And then, I saw the opening credits.

A guy wearing ninja shoes busting '90's dance moves! I was hooked in straightaway. And then there were the action sequences. Oh my God! It's the second coming of Darker Than Black, down to the knives with wires attached. The rest of the episode did not disappoint with its pacing, tantalizing hints of the underlying story and a detailed world dealing with the consequences of unlimited energy controlled by a central power. Give me more!

Heh.

Hey, did you know there's a sexy robot in this show? Well, the opening credits made sure you knew what to look for.

I am so GAR for Mabuchi.

I haven't seen a main character in anime so Steve McQueen since Golgo 13. And then he started throwing knives around.

Swoon~. Just make sure he kicks some ass every episode and I'll be more than happy.

But let's not kid ourselves.

We're also here for the sexy robot with a real girl personality.

Yeah! Our gruff hero surrounded by bad guys? Sucks to be them.

Our helpless little girl taking care of a sick father turned out to be not so helpless.

Watch out for Mira's slaps, Mabuchi. That's going to turn into a thing between you if you're not careful.

Mira's "father" turned out to be the Dr. Yurizaki responsible for inventing the "coils" which tap into the 4th Dimension W to transmit power. Intriguing flashbacks of an assassination attempt, a dead wife and daughter and a two year disappearance make an interesting backstory to drive the plot of this show.

I told you, Mabuchi, to watch out for Mira's slaps. By the end of the first episode, Mira asks to join the mercenaries who track down illegal coils. You know this is somehow related to the work she needs to continue for her father who suicided instead of being captured by the company he founded. That singularity he created also destroyed all the coils within its range. There just might be something sinister about collecting energy from Dimension W that he and his wife discovered.

Hmm.

As a former astrophysicist, I have to break it to you that there is no 4th dimension. No. Time is not the 4th dimension either. The dilation factor for Relativity is only based on the distance light would have traveled in the same amount of time that two measurements of some event took place. Yup. The supposed 4th dimension of Special Relativity is distance too, not time. That's why General Relativity, which describes the geometry of space-time affected by Mass, only cares about how the path of light is altered in those situations. Time has nothing to do with it. Dimensions beyond the 3 spatial ones we're familiar with are only employed in Math and Physics for certain scenarios because that's just how we're able to measure them. Particle physics likes to use 6 dimensions, with the other 3 being momentum space (Mass X Velocity in three directions) because, hey, we can measure mass and velocity in cloud chambers. All very practical, but not really mind blowing.

Besides the issue of this Dimension W, I'm curious as to how robots and artificial intelligence progressed so quickly in the world of this story. Having Mira around should be a nice way of answering those questions. Well, just having Mira around is nice anyway, just to look at her and behold her "otome" mannerisms and earnest voice.