Julie Dmitriyevich; ladies man extraordinaire!
- Last week, Ai and her new friends finally found a way to break out of Goran Academy.
- Summary: After leaving Goran Academy, we learn that Scar has been missing for a while. So now Julie, Ai, Alis, Dee, and the infant Celica are back in the vintage van, roaming the badlands of the world on their new mission. After a while of driving, the team discovers that it is Alis’s birthday, so they all stop and make a big deal out of it, much to his dismay. After that, the team gets back into the van, but stumbles upon a strange area in the road with crystal formations sprouting up from the ground. They omit a strong electrical blast, which confuses the team. But Alis informs everyone that they are essentially how gravekeepers are “born”. While sifting through this are on foot, Julie stumbles across Scar, who shows a full range of emotions. Julie then tells her that she’s not a gravekeeper, since gravekeepers cannot cry.
Triplets? Clones? Or just an elaborate mirror trick? You be the judge!
- My Take: Well, I for one could not be happier that the Goran Academy arc was only two episodes opposed to the conventional three that this show has established. It was a terrible arc that was full of filler. Leaving that behind now, we have a new episode to talk about. This week’s episode, Where Gravekeepers Are Born, isn’t perfect, but it’s a step back in the right direction. I found this episode to be much more tolerable than the Goran Academy arc, mainly because we get a little bit more information about the world this story is set in.
Just rename the show “Sunday Without God: I am Going to Save the World!” already
- Plot twist! Scar isn’t a gravekeeper. Well, it’s not too shocking. In a world where the definition of “gravekeeper” has been pretty loose, it’s no surprise that Scar isn’t a “true” gravekeeper. But that makes for an interesting arc in her character. I could easily ask, “Well, if she’s not a gravekeeper, why did she think she was one?” I find that this twist is actually very interesting because it opens up the door to so many possibilities in character development (yes, even this late in the series. I have hope).
That’s right! Man up, toots! Whaddya doin’ showin’ all that emotion?
- On the flip side, the dialog between these characters is just as stale as ever. In this episode, there was no charisma between these people, and their conversations didn’t have any stimulating or interesting moments. I know that everything is scripted and written down, but the point of this medium of entertainment is to not perform it like that. Some of the interactions between Alis and Ai during his “birthday party” were pretty flat, with neither character saying anything of real interest other than the phrase “I am going to save the world”.
- In episodes like this, I wonder why Julie isn’t the main character. He’s the most interesting one, and he also has the most knowledge of the world these guys live in. However, he seems to be pushed to the side in most of the episodes he’s in. Heck, I actually want to know what he did while Ai was trapped in Goran Academy! I think that the writers didn’t really didn’t want to deviate from the novels too much, which I can respect. But sometimes it’s important to take liberties. I would much rather see a show with Julie as the protagonist than any other character in this show.
- The explanation for how gravekeepers are “born” makes such little sense that I can’t help but love it. Many of my friends know that I am a sucker for campy sci-fi flicks from the 50s, and the whole “birthed from crystal formation + electricity” aspect is straight out of that. Yeah, it’s really cheap, but honestly, it’s too perfect for me, so it’s strangely something I’m fond of in this episode.
That’s the same look I give people when they say this to me. Strange…
- In short; this episode was not perfect, but we’re getting back on track here. If anything, just don’t go back to Goran Academy, and we’ll be fine.