10 Second Anime - Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 12 [END]

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 12 [END]

The snow globe world shatters, and everyone makes it out, even one who wasn't supposed to, thanks to a wish by a special grave keeper. A nice happy end for the show's end.

Everything gets explained, just in time for the end of the series. As I noted for the previous episode, the name of the student in all the news clippings was Alis. He was the student that died, but I thought it was because he would do something to cause too great of a contradiction for the world to exist, and it would be how the magical world resolved itself. And perhaps Dee was trying to prevent that sacrifice as well. But the explanation was neater than that. He actually died 14 years ago, and it was his class' wish to include him in their happy eternal world.

The Alis from the snow globe world is part of the snow globe world. He was the fake, and the other students, and the people he brought in were the real ones. The reason that he had a real body in the outside world was because he was physically part of the membrane of that fake world. Dee, who was the only one to join him outside, was a ghost because her real body was still inside the snow globe world. But because part of the class' wish was to forget the tragedy of Alis' accident in falling out the window to save Dee, she figured that she was the one who died, but she did not remember it. If any of the other students had followed Alis to the outside world, that notion would not have been built.

Dee did a better thing than Alis did when he tried to break the world before, by making other witnesses to the reset. When Alis "killed" his classmates previously, the only one who saw them die without being reset was Dee, who already knew about the artificiality of their world. But by letting the class see one student get reset, the world started to collapse on itself. Perhaps, this is why Alis did not go that route. He did not want the world to break while the observers were still in it.

This is the one secret Alis kept from Dee: that he was not real. Which was why Ai was so mad at him at the end. He wanted to bring in an observer to gently break the fantasy world, but it would mean he would vanish as well. But how to break the world gently? The observers have to know it's fake, and then exit. All of them. It wasn't enough for just Dee to exit. All the original classmates had to, and it had to be done after all the other people that Alis brought in also left. The quick sequence of events from the class remembering that Alis had died to all of them leaving gave everyone enough time as more exits were created during the upheaval. Finally, Ai was the last observer, which was making the fake world smaller and smaller. When she exited, the world would vanish. But she was already a different kind of person who should not have existed in that world that God abandoned. Do the rules apply to her at all?

I was under the impression that everyone got one wish after God left, but how many wishes does a person get if she were born after the time that people couldn't have children anymore? How would it work? Whatever the case, she used her wish, and resurrected Alis, who had died 14 years ago, who had been properly buried by a grave keeper, so he wasn't an undead. We know it was a wish because she appeared very far away from Ostia at Alis' grave. Far enough away that baby Celica could use her special talent of locating grave keepers she knew, and threw her baby arm in a certain direction. Alis seemed a bit annoyed that Ai saved his life too, but Ai just smiled. And then the show ended.

Final Thoughts: This show based upon the light novels might or might not get more seasons. I can't tell. I do know that how the series ended was a little controversial with its fans, and may have been rushed, but I always say "so what, it's an adaptation." The background art, and its use of music was extremely emotionally evocative. The animation style of the characters may have seemed a little too cartoonish, considering how ultrarealistic the rest of the art design was, but I think that was a creative choice to evoke even more emotion. This was a fantasy story, and we the audience, were discovering it through the eyes of a special 12 year old girl who had never left her village before. Things are not supposed to make sense, until they do.

As a personal observation, by one who has no intention of reading the base material, I don't think this world that God abandoned has actually been abandoned. Why would wishes keep working, especially ones that had to incorporate new information, such as the snow globe world that kept getting filled out as more people entered it? What are the origins of the grave keepers? Did someone wish them into being to take care of the dead? If so, why do new and different ones keep coming? That might be the secret of this strange fantasy world: that God decided to actively answer prayers no matter how frivolous, or how contradictory they were to his original creation. Well, it's a nice thought, anyway. Maybe someday I'll become curious enough to find out.

10 Second Anime - Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 11

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 11

Alis wants the enclosed world to end, while Dee does not, and they've been working against each other for years now. Ai is a brand new wildcard that Dee can't control.

Through all of the flashbacks, we see that Alis has been trying to disrupt the enclosed world by introducing things from the outside world that it cannot reconcile. Things like bits of news from after the July 28 date. But Dee has been following Alis around, and removing these bits. Even the new people haven't really changed anything in the enclosed world, but none of them have joined the class and altered the timeline with a simple vote about what activity the class should do for the school festival.

And Alis is not the only one to have killed students trying to force the world to break. Dee has even killed Alis, only to have him reset too. Another revelation: it was Dee's accidental death that caused the class to wish the whole world would keep replaying that same wonderful year over and over again. It's unclear whether even Alis remember this, but it explains why Dee is a ghost outside the snow globe world.

So, Dee doesn't want to die, and doesn't even know if the other students will be alive if the world breaks, since they've all been killed and reset over the years. Better to live with their happy certainty, then to move forward into reality. And that's the thought that makes the image of a fly bouncing off glass to escape evocative to Dee. The fly will just keep hurting itself hitting the glass. She was reminded of that when the group was traveling to Ostia, and a fly was caught inside the van, hitting the windowpane trying to escape. But Ai simply reached over and opened the window, letting the fly move forward. No wonder Dee left back to Ostia on her own shortly thereafter.

Now comes some spoilerish stuff from actually reading the news pieces, which were written in French, that Alis tried to smuggle in. In Japanese, the only thing allowed for the audience was the headline "1 student dead, 17 missing at Ostia Academy." But if you read the story, they actually name the dead student, which shows us the resolution to this arc. Alis has said that he is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone to break that snow globe world, and Dee seems to think it is she that will be sacrificed. At least that's how it's presented to the Japanese audience. But she must have read the news pieces that Alis was bringing into this world, and has been trying to prevent the death of that student. It is apparent to me that the missing students have just re-entered the real world from the broken one 14 years later.

And one final note about wishes in this world. It looks like Alis did not wish for his perfect aim talent himself, but Dee did. And Alis stopped playing basketball soon after, because, as he said, it's no fun if you can't miss. This personal conviction is a part of what is fueling his desire to break the snow globe world. It's no fun living if it doesn't matter, if you can't grow, if you can't make new memories. It's no fun if you can't die, which leads to the ultimate source of tension for the world God left behind.

10 Second Anime - Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 10

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 10

Alis goes back to his hometown, which is caught in a time loop, and this is the world he wants to destroy to save it. Dee, the ghost also known as Whisper, opposes him.

We see a bit more world building and character backstory this week. Alis' hometown has been caught in a time loop since the great calamity when God left, obviously powered by someone's wish that the same year be kept playing over and over again. Alis and Dee found a way out, and Alis has been trying to break the loop ever since, by breaking things inside it, even people, and by bringing thousands of people into it over the years. When the time loop hits July 28th, everyone and everything in it gets reset. If they take too much damage while inside the loop, they get reset. And the only ones aware of the loop past the resets are Dee and Alis.

While Alis wants to end this fictional world, Dee wants it to remain. Outside the illusion, she's a ghost. Inside it, she's flesh and blood again. They don't know why. This strange pocket of time is really like a snow globe, where you can just shake it up, and the snow starts to fall again. And it's protected from the outside as well, since only the living can pass through the black portals.

There will have to be a reckoning between Dee and Alis on whether to preserve or break this snow globe world.

10 Second Anime - Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 9

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 9

Scar's post-partum depression leads to a road trip to the origins of the gravekeepers, some of them anyway. This world that God left behind is truly mysterious.

Another world-building episode, with character development thrown in. Not a bad thing.

Baby Celica knows which way Scar has gone, so Ai's group follow her little hand. Along the way, they reunite Tanya with her parents, and the other students decided to stay there until they can make their own ways home.

While following Scar, Ai and Yuri insist on celebrating Alis's birthday, who seems reluctant about the whole thing, since it's not important to their overall goal of changing this world. Ai, remembering her father, stresses the importance of remaining human, which means focusing on the little things once in a while. Yuri sure knows how to make campfire cake, even if the presentation is a little meh.

Finally, the little van makes it to a highway heavily damaged by craters and littered with purple crystals. The group witnesses the birth of a gravekeeper. This particular one spawns many copies of itself in a big flash of light that uses up the energy stored in the crystals. Yuri explains that there are many different kinds of gravekeepers, and some can be one of a kind, like Ai's mother, and Scar. At this point, Whisper, the ghost who had been following Alis this entire time, abandons the group, seeing how she doesn't have the full share of his attention anymore. I'm sure she'll reappear at some point.

They find Scar in the middle of the crater she was born into, still struggling with her feelings to be a new mother for Celica, or to continue her original mission in seeking out the dead and burying them. Quite possibly the same struggle Ai's mother went through when falling in love with Kizuna Astin. Love and motherhood win out, with Yuri promising to watch over them. The kids take this to be a marriage proposal, but Yuri insists they are all one family now.

10 Second Anime - Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 8

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 8

The plan for the great escape from Gora Academy hits a snag when some of the students don't want to leave. After some convincing by Ai, everyone comes along, only to be caught by the sharpshooting principal. Someone else might be a sharper shooter.

Tanya, Mimi, and Meme don't think they can go home because of the trouble their return would cause their parents. But then Ai demonstrates the difference between simple and easy when chasing your dream. "Do everything you can to fulfill your dream to go home to your parents. And if that home won't do, find someplace else. And if you can't find it, then build it yourself." Simple steps, but not easy. For Tanya the synesthete, Ai burns too bright when she says those kinds of things.

After exchanging stories about how they grew up, Tanya still seems set on staying, but as they're all leaving, she shows up at the last minute. Class Q all makes it out of the academy, only to be confronted by the principle (final boss!). She takes out her six-shooter when the kids refuse to come back, and Alis uses his special ability that's been hinted at for the last two episodes, one that he seems to hate: perfect aim. Not explained is where he got his own gun from, but he shoots down all of the principle's bullets, she concedes, and the kids are picked up by Yuri in the VW bus. But, cliffhanger, Scar isn't with him.

10 Second Anime - Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 7

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi - Episode 7

Ai goes to school, never mind that she was kidnapped to do so, makes friends with some very talented children, and plots an escape with an ephemeral witch.

It's the start of a new arc, which means new characters, new details about this world that God seemingly abandoned, and more back story about Ai herself.

In this world where people can't die, they also can't have children, so very soon, schools will become unnecessary, especially since it's been about 15 years since the calamity. Schools get a huge subsidy from the government for each child they have enrolled, but finding children is very hard as they get rarer since they grow up and become adults. This particular school, Gora Academy, is particularly ruthless, kidnapping children opportunistically. And the principal is more like a warden, making sure the children stay enrolled.

Because Ai has never been to school, as she was the only child in her village of dead people, this is all a new grand adventure, and she makes some new friends too. In talking with her classmates, Ai discovers that the children are not ordinary children, but all have special gifts when they made strong wishes during a near death experience. These kind of details flesh out this mysterious world, where people die, but wake up again in their dead bodies, and only stay dead when buried by Gravekeepers. But another wrinkle is the granting of wishes by God, as is the case with these children, and with Ai's father, who wished not to die until he had found happiness. I'm still not sure how that mystical part works. It's like everyone was granted two wishes, and almost everyone's strongest desire is not to die. And we know from the graves of gravekeepers all around Ortus that they can die without waking up without being buried by another gravekeeper. Well, we're discovering this world through Ai's journey, so let's see what we can see.

Now, some of these students at this school really want to get out of there, and helping them is Whisper, a witch without a solid body. She has been following Ai since she left Ortus, so we don't yet know what her agenda is.

10 Second Anime: Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi Episode 6

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi Episode 6

 

There actually is an idol of death, whose gaze the living cannot escape.

 

This week on The Sunday without God, it is revealed that the living who wish to migrate to the city of the dead, Ortus, must attend a ceremony before becoming citizens, and we discover that the Princess of the city has a mysterious power whose gaze, speech, or touch causes death. The Princess also has a twin sister who has not aged during the 15 years after God seemingly abandoned the world, but upon Scar the Gravekeeper reaching through her protective barrier, the spell is broken, and an infant joins the road trip through this mysterious world.

 

Such an evocative anime, where plot is not so much the focal point, as it is the imagery in parallel with the concepts of life, death, faith, and mere existence bounce around for half an hour.