[Locke]

Third episode of Kyoukai.

Thanks to the Hollow thing coming, this episode seemed to use this as an excuse to plod about, so minus a brief but visually impressive action sequence this was just a long episode of people stood around being 'quirky' and 'animenese' before it all kicked off for ready for the next episode.

Sometimes the conversations would vaguely steer towards on topic, dropping vague and minute hints at the world of this show at large, but for the most part it just involved a guys incestuous feelings that Japan for some reason plays as gags in anime shows.

About the only positive I have to say about this manner of storytelling is dialogue feels surprisingly natural. A big problem with shows like this, is you have a LOT of internal mythology to convey to the audience and getting across that information is always difficult, feed to much at once and it just feels like characters are dumping exposition feed too little and all you do is frustrate your audience. This show strikes a good balance, with the heroes flipping to on topic conversations which are descriptive enough to allow us to understand what is being said, without it feeling like the characters are just dropping fact sheets on the audience.

The same goes for their abilities. In a visual medium, we can see what their powers do, so unless the animation and direction is just balls, we don't need lengthy explanations for their powers. So seeing them just use them as naturally as they would be for their characters was refreshing.

Sadly, the characters abilities are about the only original bone in this shows body. None of the clichés in play here are bad ones, and the show does them really well, but it's still kinda hard to get into something that is so generic beyond its gorgeous animation. Maybe I made the wrong decision after all...