A superficial interpretation of this film is that each episode is a short noir anthology of the way in which the MC corrupts the girl into showing him her panties, which never fails to elicit a look of scornful disgust. However, a deeper analysis reveals that it's an apt metaphor for the way in which modern media corrupts us all, as primarily evidenced by the contrast between the dark look of the girl's faces and the cheery ED song. Indeed, if we analyze the ED's lyrics verse by verse:
"I'll gather up all of the love in this world and send it to you
A little extravagant
...
a collapse [sic]
My chest gets hot when you tell me 'I love you'
Let me hold your hand and take you to that place
That place with the best view in the world of our shining stage"
Now the last sentence has a clear overt sexual meaning (complemented by the skimpy girls in skirts adorning the background), but I believe also provides the seeds of the post-modern lens from which to interpret this show. You see, the "shining stage" the lyrics refer to can be taken to represent human society as a whole -- the culmination of centuries of civilization and technological progress that have brought us to our present era
Yet, as the second line implies, modern society portends "a little extravagant a collapse." The odd grammatical structure is perhaps itself worthy of investigation -- furnishing the the phrase with two possible interpretations: a little extravagant" a collapse; or alternatively, a little "extravagant a collapse"
The former is more standard in colloquial english (an oxymoron not dissimilar to the common phrase "a little big") but the latter too has valid grammatical parsing. While both convey the same idea, the tone of the second interpretation is clearly more cynical in nature [just a little "extravagant collapse"!]
Which returns our focus to the crux of this analysis. What precisely was it that was responsible for this collapse of society so-retold by these lyrics?
Sexuality cannot itself be attributed to this uniquely post-modern phenomenon, for works depicting acts of intimacy in an almost-fetishistic sense harken back to the Victorian era [Stoker]
Rather, this modern film-noir-cum-ecchi makes the claim that the proliferation of insatiable lust and hypersexualization ironically resulted from the very technologies that brought about the economic and productivity gains of the 21st century. Further evidence of this is seen in the lyrics to the opening song of episode 2:
"We've dreamt of this moment for so long, and finally we're here
But my heart still beats just as fast as it always has
Say, can you hear my voice? I want you to be the first to listen
It's a little embarrassing but I really wanted to tell you
I couldn't have gotten this far without you..."
Under this lens, the "moment" being dreamt of is nothing but the mass technological revolutions of the past decade, which has "finally" brought us to our present state. Yet, much as our drive for innovation and exploration never cease, so too does the heart of this girl not fail to slow down.
Yet why should the girl be embarrassed? Has not progress enabled mankind to amass riches and attain stability? Alas no -- the economic shocks of 2008 and uniquely modern social crises such as loneliness are a stark contrast to the fabled, promised future.
While the show accepts the premise that such innovation has indeed been beneficial -- "I couldn't have gotten this far without you" -- the very same lyrics also seem to caution that humanity still has a ways to go
So then what is the prescription that this show offers us -- how does it propose we solve the crises looming over our lives?
We turn to the characters themselves -- who have hitherto been nothing but the backdrop over which themes of sexuality have been interposed, but come into their own right when viewed as possible saviors of humanity
The character displayed in the pilot episode is that of a maid -- in particular, a traditional victorian era maid. Maids have a long, storied history in Japanese animation [Kobayashi et al.], and have amassed such traction as to warrant entire genres of animated pornographic material [hentaihaven, 2016]
Yet the maid in this show is not a mere side-character; she is the central aspect around which events of the episode revolve
As she says herself, she is "but an ordinary maid, whose only worry was about which jam to spread on today's scones." With this character in mind, we now turn our attention to episode 3, set in a church with no lack of religious imagery. While we could segue into a discussion about the woman in the episode as a christ figure -- sullying herself for the benefit of the viewer -- we will avoid such a tangent to instead focus on her prescriptive advice. In her own words, she suggests to the viewer "if there is something troubling you, perhaps you should consult the reverend." And indeed, we have established that there is quite a bit troubling humanity as a whole.
With these two character archetypes in mind -- the maid and the religious convert -- it is evident that the author intends for us to live traditionally; not necessarily sacrificing modern conveniences but instead keeping firm to our roots. An overzealous analysis might lend one to the conclusion that the author advocates such drastic measures as prescribed by anarcho-primitivism, but I believe such a leap is unjustified given the context of the second episode which does not eschew large-scale technologies of organization but rather embraces it in the uniquely modern phenomenon of the "music band."
Indeed, part of the brilliance of this series stems from its ability to deliver such potent messages under the ironic veil of softcore ecchi. In short, the girls do not merely mock and scorn the viewer for his sexual interest in their panties; they scorn him for being a mindless, active part of the alienation and ailments that will ultimately befall humanity as a whole
Sep 4, 2018
A superficial interpretation of this film is that each episode is a short noir anthology of the way in which the MC corrupts the girl into showing him her panties, which never fails to elicit a look of scornful disgust. However, a deeper analysis reveals that it's an apt metaphor for the way in which modern media corrupts us all, as primarily evidenced by the contrast between the dark look of the girl's faces and the cheery ED song. Indeed, if we analyze the ED's lyrics verse by verse:
"I'll gather up all of the love in this world and send it to you A little extravagant ... |
