Paradise

Summary: Everything goes BOOM!

Mimi: Soooo Phryne slips into a trance-like state and stabs her pedophile father, Dias turns into a suicide bomber (well he sure was a pointless character), the Temple gets blown up, and Phryne decides to become the key after all. Now throw in Clain’s love confession to Phryne, some pretty sparkles, and a coma scene, and that’s this episode in a nutshell. Oh yeah, must not forget that God turns out to be the original 16-year old Phryne who is living in a world like ours, and she created Nessa, the 10-year old version of herself, to cope with a traumatic event, which I suspect was sexual abuse by her father. Well okay…but who cares? In the end, Clain gets the girl, and everyone happily waits it out until the Fractale System breaks down again. What a disappointing, rushed, and messy ending. Annnd they killed off my favorite character, Sunda, which just wasn’t cool at all. I’m just kinda glad it’s over.

To the Temple

Summary: Phryne tries to negotiate with Moeran.

Mimi: As I had hoped, this episode is quite exciting, as it delivers a ton of gorgeous action and intense emotions. Phryne gets in a heated argument with Moeran, expressing her wish to liberate the people from the Fractale system, but Moeran is unable to see how anyone could live without it; people need the ‘easy way out’ and something to worship. It turns out that Moeran is filled with deep-seated anger towards Phryne for being the special one, and she attempts to strangle her. Phryne manages to get away, but instead of being angry at her, she understands her loneliness and suffering as a defiled clone. Meanwhile, Clain and Sunda infiltrate The Temple, and Enri and Nessa go on their own accord. By the time Clain arrives, Nessa is captured and being tampered with, and he blindly fires at the people restraining her. That’s right, the boy who couldn’t even hurt a fly before now jumps into all the action! I’m so proud of you, son.

Interestingly, Dias arrives to help them out with the aid of his Fractale terminal (tsk tsk tsk, he isn’t supposed to have something like that), and he encourages Clain and Nessa to find Phryne. His real objective, however, is to have his own guys track them down to where Phryne is and kill her. If she’s dead, then the Temple simply can’t reboot the Fractale System, and it’ll lose its morale. Phryne barely escapes them and meets up with Clain and Nessa, talking to them through a transparent wall. Then the pedophile father shows up and is sure to end the episode in a sick, twisted way. But hey, something sexual has to happen to make up for Clain not getting any pervert jokes this time. All in all, I really enjoyed this episode. Although I wish it weren’t so late in the series to be able to say this, Clain has become likeable, and the main characters show decent signs of development given the episode limit. Fractale might be a little difficult to review and rate though, due to the mixture of exciting and not-so-exciting episodes, but I’ll be working on that for a while next week.

No Way Out

Summary: The war finally begins!

Mimi: Ah, the calm before the storm….sort of. The Temple openly declares war against Lost Millennium and attacks their villages, leaving them no choice but to fight for real this time. They only just begin to engage in airship combat at the end of the episode; I’m hoping that there will be a lot more of it in the next one (really loves that kinda stuff). For the most part though, this episode is rather calm and tense. Sunda’s crew isn’t exactly receiving cheers and smiles from the villagers after that major announcement, but everyone tries to spend their last moment together as peacefully as possible. Clain, Nessa, and Phryne grow closer than ever before, and Phryne reveals more about her and Nessa–that is, the ‘key’ will be born when they become one entity. Phryne isn’t sure about how that would happen, but she doubts that they will ever be the same again.

What I particularly liked about this episode was Clain’s new found courage. He offers to fight alongside Sunda, although he gets left behind with Phryne and Nessa somewhere. Then when Phryne leaves them in the middle of the night (shouldn’t Clain have learned to set up traps by now?), he quickly decides to set out for her, so good for him. She actually returns to the Temple, believing that she will be able to resolve the conflict somehow. We ought to be having an action-packed finale, so this should be good. I still can’t say that Fractale has been a smooth ride all the way through, and I wish that things were executed differently here and there, but I’m not going to criticize it much anymore. All that’s left is to enjoy the last two episodes as best we can. Bring on the gorgeous fireworks!

Secret of the Underground

Summary: Nessa goes in to rescue Clain.

Mimi: This episode was…alright. Clain gets healed by a Nessa clone, discovers a room full of other Nessa clones, and realizes that they’re all younger Phrynes. Meanwhile, Phryne’s father wants to run a little experiment on her to test if she’s still the key, but Nessa (the doppel) suddenly appears and wrecks the place. Together, Nessa and Phryne find Clain, and they make a run for it. The crew arrives in the nick of time, but Dias blows the place up, hardly allowing enough time for them to escape. I’m sure they’re all fine and dandy in the next episode though.

Like always, the visuals are stunning, but I didn’t feel anything special from this episode. There’s only three left, so I’m crossing my fingers for some excitement. Right now, my rating for the series is wobbling between a 7 and 8. I really want to give it an 8 for its creativity and visuals, but it’s lacking a bit in the story and character department. I can only remember two episodes that ‘wowed’ me, and the rest is just too focused on developing perverted ‘ol Clain who has yet to be a fascinating, memorable character. It’s not that I haven’t been enjoying the show, but it could be better.

Veneer Town

Summary: Clain explores a beautiful city where the Fractale System is still completely functional.

Mimi: Wow, this episode is eye-candy galore! Clain randomly sets off in a smaller ship with Nessa, crashes somewhere, and winds up in “the perfect city” called Xanadu. There, he meets a doppel who dresses him up as a girl and shows him around. Nessa is there as well, but another doppel is holding her captive, and she isn’t feeling well because she has been infected by some kind of virus. It turns out that the two doppels are planning to turn them in to the Temple to get an award. Clain and Nessa attempt to escape, but after Clain gets harmed, Nessa goes berserk and just destroys the entire system.

What comes next is an unpredictable, wtf ending: Clain gets shot, and the Temple arrives to capture them. What a cliffhanger. And worse, there’s no preview for the next episode. -_-! So yeah, things are getting very interesting again. Fractale is simply at its best when it shows off its creativity, and this episode is full of it. From here, it looks like the plot is really going to go somewhere. Hopefully, this will put a limit on those redundant perverted jokes and Clain’s embarrassment around pretty girls because we certainly could use a change of pace.

The Farthest Town

Summary: Clain meets a strange man who carries an antique digital camera.

Mimi: This is an episode mostly about Clain, which isn’t particularly special in any way, but a couple interesting things do happen. One, the crew bumps into another faction of Millennium called Alabaster, lead by a good-looking (and obviously bad) guy named Dias. Two, the last minute of the episode reveals that the old man with the camera to be Clain’s father. It’s really sad that the guy is so sick that he’s dying, and Clain doesn’t find out who he is…but I’m glad that he made an appearance, as I’ve been wondering for a while now about Clain’s parent’s whereabouts. I don’t know if I should be making assumptions about his mother just yet, but it’d be worthwhile to see what happened to her as well.

At any rate, Dias (whose name reminds me of Dio from Last Exile…will this always make me think of that show?)  is an interesting new character to pop up in the series. However, we’re already at half-point, so this is really going to have to pick up speed now. Rather than having another slow episode containing pervert jokes, I’d like to see the series dip into more action and get the plot moving…the crew is fleshed out well enough for now. I still don’t feel good about the series’ short length, but I’m hoping for a decent last half.

Journey

Summary: Nessa plays hide & seek with the crew.

Mimi: Ah, an episode all about the crew and how they operate things. Clain can’t just stand around and do nothing, so he learns how to clean the toilet, hang up the laundry, and various other chores. That’s all fun and dandy until the temperature begins to rise in the ship, and they eventually figure out that Nessa’s appearance is causing the ship to malfunction. She’s just hiding around and having fun while everyone else is trying to catch her. Phryne, who is still a bit sour and refuses to talk about herself, believes that Nessa is causing these problems because of her. She locks herself in a room and is quickly discovered by Nessa who appears to have forgotten her anger. They seem to make up quickly, and the ship returns to normal. Yay!

This episode isn’t really anything spectacular, but it’s still enjoyable to see how everyone gets along. Clain and Phryne are slowly enjoying themselves, and now they all look like one big happy family. -^_^- My favorite part was when the crew gathered in one area of the ship, and they started dancing just before they all tipped over on each other. Major kudos to that one Team Rocket guy for doing such a hilarious dance! He deserves to be called by his real name now. Takami, is it? I really can’t believe that I’m starting to like this guy.

Well, considering the short length of the series, I’m guessing that this will be the only carefree episode on the ship. The remaining six episodes ought to introduce a problem designed to move the plot forward so the ending won’t be rushed. At least, I’m hoping that it will work out that way.

Departure

Summary: Phryne joins the crew.

Mimi: Ya’know, this is starting to feel a lot like Last Exile. There’s flying ships, crazy technology, adventure, and the Temple sort of resembles the Guild. Most importantly, they share originality and great visuals, so I’m really digging this series more and more. I’ve actually taken a liking to Sunda’s crew, especially now that Phryne is a part of it. She carries the same ideals and is totally against the Fractale system. Her personality is a lot of fun, such as when she pulls off crazy stunts with Clain in this episode. Unfortunately, she and Nessa (the doppel) have a pretty rocky relationship, as Nessa can’t stand to be anywhere near her now. Does this mean…that there will be less of Nessa being annoying around Clain? Nuuuu! D:

I sure wish that Fractale was going to be a longer series, but I’m hoping that the pacing will be alright for the remaining 7 episodes…whatever is going to happen! Ehhh slightly going off topic now, but since I mentioned Last Exile early in this post, I thought I’d say that I’m really looking forward to its sequel. I kinda doubt that it’ll be as good as the original (I need more details), and Alex thinks that it’ll bomb, but I’m still a fan, and I’ll probably like it regardless of what it turns out to be. All new characters exploring the original world of Last Exile…this I gotta see.

Anywayz…can’t wait till the next Fractale. =]

Granitz Village

Summary: Clain is fascinated by a village that is not controlled by the Fractale system.

Mimi: Wooooah.. With this amazing episode, Fractale has finally captured my complete attention! I didn’t expect such a serious, dark ending to what began as another lighthearted episode. Clain, Nessa, and Team Rocket arrive at Granitz Village, where the people don’t depend on the Fractale system whatsoever. They produce their own food, run a hospital, educate kids through schools, and they live naturally without a single doppel in sight. An old villager isn’t too happy when he sees Nessa, but all the others welcome her warmly. Clain is particularly fond of the village because people do things the old-fashioned way, and he has never seen so many of them gathered in one place before. Interestingly, Nessa begins to feel a little insecure because she realizes how different she is from everyone–she can’t taste that yummy homemade soup, and Sunda just refers to her as ‘data’.

It turns out that Sunda, Enri, and those two goons belong to an organization called “Lost Millennium,” and their purpose is to liberate people from the Fractale system. Although they had taken Clain and Nessa along with them as hostages, they endeavor to show Clain the reality of what is going on and involve him in their affairs. Sunda also explains that they’re after Phryne because she is “the key to the world,” and Nessa is believed to be holding valuable data. Towards the end of this episode, they jump back on the airship and fly over to another population where people are preparing to celebrate the “Star Festival.” This is more like a ceremony where villagers and priestesses gather to pray to the stars so that they can receive the benefits of the Fractale system. However, Sunda reveals that the villagers are actually being brainwashed by the system, and the terribly shocked Clain gets to see everything in action. Suddenly, the whole group crashes the ceremony by shooting at the priestesses, and another Nessa is among them. Annnd she’s Phryne’s sister. Wowza! o.o

So yeah…I totally didn’t anticipate that bloodbath happening any time soon (or at all). And did one of the Team Rocket goons actually get shot? Wow. This really feels like a major turning point considering that the previous episodes were just silly and lighthearted. I love how this is getting all serious now!