Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara Episode 2: Magic is scary

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This series still looks really good, and I think a lot of the plot points are intriguing. I’m curious to see how a lot of it develops, but I also feel like the information the series chooses to focus on is a bit weird. Additionally, I don’t get the sense that the world is developed too well, even though it’s supposed to be an alternate world where magic is more common. I still like what we’ve seen so far, though, and I’m definitely curious to see how Kohaku changes things up.

Does it really need to be specified that the stone is passed down through the family? The constant focus on the azurite in the first episode kind of makes this obvious, so I don’t see any reason to dwell on it.

I think it’s hilarious that the school forces Hitomi to sign a waiver before entering because of her grandmother.

This scene’s pretty funny, but I still hold the same opinion as I did in the first episode. I’d be more interested in these scenes if we had a better sense of the technology from Hitomi’s time before she had left. These scenes are hints, but I don’t think I’m understanding more about the world in this series from them.

While the callback to Kohaku works well, I feel more confused about the world from this scene. Is magic that rare? Was this also the case in the future. I assumed magic was just a part of this world, so I feel like I’m missing a lot of information.

These people are so scared of Kohaku’s magic, but they upset at Hitomi’s tamer form of magic? Make up your minds, people. That’s really hypocritical.

This scene has a weird sense of subtlety to it. We can see the colors of Aoi’s drawing reflected in Hitomi’s eyes while she looks at it, but she doesn’t really confirm that she can still see the colors. Since it’s still early in the show, we as the audience have no way of knowing whether that encounter was just a one-off. Since she didn’t make a huge deal about seeing the drawing, it’s probably safe to assume that she could still see it, but the scene felt weird as a result.

I’m not sure if I’m supposed to read more into this final scene. It’s certainly interesting, because it implies that Hitomi turned on the light outside. I really hope I’m not overthinking that. I’m just wondering what I’m supposed to take from that. Does it just mean that Hitomi has hidden talent? Or is she potentially dangerous since she’s not fully in control?

3 thoughts on “Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara Episode 2: Magic is scary”

  1. “These scenes are hints, but I don’t think I’m understanding more about the world in this series from them.”

    I actually kind of like that approach… What RAH called “and the door dilated” moments [in SF]. That is, worldbuilding details are revealed implicitly in the course of the natural action rather than explicitly (all too often via infodump). This approach makes sense here, because it avoided filling the first ep with masses of detail that become largely irrelevant once the story shifted to the present time. It also lets us see the (present day) world through Hitomi’s eyes rather than as a detached third party observer. That’s also consistent with the rest of the narrative structure.

    We’re used to massive infodumps and excess detail because that’s a standard part of LN and game adaptations… But I find it refreshing that Iroduku is reaching back to an older and more literary style of worldbuilding and storytelling.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. so, i agree that this idea of “revealing the world” is pretty interesting, but my point is more that i get the sense that im making a lot of shaky assumptions because i know nothing about either the present day world or the future world. i could understand “seeing the world through hitomi’s eyes” if we knew where she was coming from. im guessing it will make a lot more sense as the show progresses, but i currently feel like im stuck between two large unknowns.

      Liked by 1 person

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