The Girl in Twilight – Ep. 3

Pursuing my true self?

Time to catch up on the The Girl in Twilight coverage. I’m technically all caught up on this show so why am I giving Episodes 3 and 4 separate reviews then? Well, apart from my personal aversion of covering multiple episodes at once, these episodes are pretty distinct from each other in terms of plot. If you happen to be watching the show as well, then you know exactly what I mean by that. I’ve learned from experience that it’s best to keep my thoughts separate in such a case so here I am.

At one point, I did consider dropping The Girl in Twilight at its third episode which is a little awkward to admit considering how positive I was about Episode 2. I’d articulate what exactly went wrong here (and I will) but truth be told, the plot kind of just speaks for itself. Nana snaps back into reality just minutes into the episode. She still opts out of the 4:44 ritual because she want to marry her husbando…only to back out of it a scene later…because she doesn’t like how punny her married name will be (hint: chocolate banana). Oh and Tomoya, at least the one in the world of Love and Lies, is actually a Clutter, a inter-dimensional parasite that Seriouska hunts down. And while Seriouska tries to fight him, Nana very conveniently unlocks Magical Girl powers because character development merits that apparently.

You see what I mean? I couldn’t make any of this up if I tried! What a strange series of events to witness. Why Nana wants to come back to her world feels really rushed. In fact, if her lesson is not to make impulsive life decisions, then what am I supposed to make out of her impulsively deciding not to get married because her name will become a pun? That is as petty of a reason to decline marriage as you can get and for it to be the catalyst for one of her actions feels cheap, both in terms of progression and character development. Also, even though magical girl powers were indeed established in Episode 1, I find that aspect so out of left field. You have monsters, technologically-based outfits, laser-based weaponry. It’s a completely different breed from the wacky dimensions these girls are stumbling upon and I’m not quite sure if the two aspects have formed any sort of synergy just yet.

Mind you, the episode isn’t entirely bad. Even though I considered dropping it out of pure bafflement, I later had an epiphany that I was still enjoying the episode. All these turns of events is flat out bizarre but some of it did get me laughing. Admittedly, I laughed out of puzzlement and not actually in favor of the show but it is better to have that kind of reaction as opposed to having my brain hurt.

When the episode does return to Nana’s own personal drama, I was able to take things a bit more seriously again. I still really dig how the parallel dimensions give us insight to these characters. The scene where Nana’s stepdad gives her back her old crystal radio and tries to make amends works well with the theme of her arc. She begins to realize that perhaps she jumped to conclusions about her stepdad and at the end of the episode, you find out that she has started to accept him as family. You even find out that it’s what  compelled her to hang out with the other girls in the first place (and later join the club permanently) as her crystal radio originally belonged to her biological father. If you ask me, The Girl in Twilight ought to lean more into this. More character-driven drama please as opposed to whatever you make of inter-dimensional demons and banana puns.

To be fair, I kind of like how exactly the magical girl powers can be obtained. Nana more or less learns a valuable lesson, strives to become a better person, and that in turns unlocks her powers. It kind of appeals to me in the same way Personas work in Persona 4 in which you gain powers based on the merit of your resolve. I imagine the other girls will follow suit so while I could maybe do without this element, I am at least curious. Asuka is perhaps the most mysterious since we technically already have an Asuka that transform (I wonder how she got those powers in the first place).

The Girl in Twilight is a weird anime. There’s no doubt about that. I’m just trying to figure out if it’s largely the good kind or the bad kind. I guess if Episode 2 had the potentially interesting brand of weird than Episode 3 had the baffling albeit somewhat entertaining variety. Part of me feels like I should drop it because who knows what kind of rabbit hole this anime will be. But whatever, I ended up seeing Episode 4 and considering what that has to offer, I’m kind of glad I stuck around for a bit longer.

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The Girl in Twilight is officially available on HIDIVE.

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