Fractale Episode 6: The Farthest Town

The series kicks into gear when a stop to repair the airship leads to a chance encounter with refugees, another Lost Millennium faction, and a mysterious man. Things aren’t quite what they seem when Clain learns a harsh lesson about appearances and we get further insight into the problems of Fractale’s world. UPDATED  November 2012: Fractale Reiterated continues with HD pictures and revised text.

The beginning of the episode is very reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli film as we are introduced to another remote farmhouse like Clain’s. But this one has a gigantic cobbled together antenna array in back, along with a mysterious middle aged man pounding away on it.  From his lofty perch, he spies the Granite’s airship landing in the area.

It is a lovely scene and The Farthest Town is filled with more like it. Visually, this is one of the prettier episodes in the whole series so I found myself taking far more screen captures than I needed to.  But as superficially attractive as it may be, it doesn’t lack in story depth.

Needing to recover from Nessa’s hijinks, the Granite’s split with the men working on the ship and the women preparing food. It is an interesting and deliberate statement of traditional roles.  Even as the crew separate, there are some interesting moments.

When Sunda wonders aloud how they can see Nessa outside of the range of the Fractale system, he’s asking a question the audience wants to. We know she is no ordinary doppel, but the why and how need explanation.  That’s something Phryne might be able to answer, but she is less than open.  In contrast, Nessa has done a 180 degree turnaround on the priestess and invites the priestess to help cook.

How could anyone resist that face? Not even Phryne can, though she looks uncertain and takes a few beats to accept the little redhead’s hand. That certainly is a strange expression on her face.

Her accepting the invitation leads to an amusing look into the runaway priestess’ personality.  Much to Enri’s frustration, Phryne turns out to be a poor potato peeler despite a frightening amount of concentration. It turns out the older girl has her own way of doing things -- surprise, surprise. Nothing stubborn about her, is there?

Things do get worse for conscientious Enri, when the youngest Granite girl and Nessa decide to go swimming instead of helping out.  Once again, a strange expression crosses Phryne’s face while she watches the little girls play.  All it takes is another invitation from Nessa for her to snap and shuck off her dress again. Buck naked, she plunges into the water, showing both her backside and an utter disregard for how she appears.  Yes, it is fan service, the most this series has had. We see her in Barbie doll detail completely from the rear as she dives in.  It fits her character, but didn’t require that kind of camera angle.

This of course, makes Enri worried. After all, she believes Clain to be the biggest pervert on the planet. And so Clain crests the hill on an errand from Sunda as the running joke in the series staggers along, much to Enri’s ire. While being splashed and called “pervert” (naughty is a poor translation), the innocent and very embarrassed boy has his reputation set in concrete with the Granite’s. 

But he is rescued from this predicament by the sudden appearance of the antenna builder. Who is taking pictures. Now ladies, that is far more suspicious than anything Clain has done. But he has been labeled a pervert and that’s that.

Clain pursues the peeping tom, but not for the reasons the gals would like. The man is carrying a working antique camera! Yep, it is love at first sight for the technology geek. It is so pure and oblivious, which shows how young he is.

The camera guy gets away and a little while later a column of refugees is spotted on a road.  Confused by this, Clain finds out from Sunda that they are people from an area which had a Fractale balloon crash and have lost access to the system.  Desperate, they become nomads searching for an area with coverage. While they watch, the peeping tom is accosted by two men who think his camera bag holds food. Summoning his inner geek, Clain tries to help the older man.

All of this commotion is interrupted when two jeeps carrying armed people arrive and fire shots into the air.  Cowed and frightened refugees stare as a colorfully uniformed young man gets out and intervenes in the struggle over the bag – forcefully.

There is something dangerous and charismatic about the man, who turns out to be an acquaintance of Sunda’s named Dias. There is a wary tension between the two despite both being members of Lost Millennium. An offer (seems to be a few of those in this episode) is made to the refugees to follow the rebels to a nearby abandoned town where they will be given food and shelter. All too easily the hungry people accept the offer to follow the Alabaster faction.

Meanwhile, the peeping tom/camera/antenna guy has run off with Clain in hot pursuit again.  The house of many antennae astounds the boy, yet is nothing compared to his reaction to all the old tech the man has lying about. When asked why he’s interested in antiques, Clain explains that it probably began when his parents left an old projector behind in his house.  Watch the older man’s face closely during this scene. As they part, Clain is invited to return at midnight to see something special.

Upon returning to the Granite’s, Clain finds that no dinner is left for him since he was so late. Annoyed, the boy decides to go to the Alabaster camp for food. Enri is not amused and issues an ultimatum. It turns out the Granite’s and Alabaster’s aren’t exactly friendly. Clain’s amazing ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time promptly manifests itself and leads to him pulling night watch. Frankly, he deserved it, the punk.

My big discovery – the airship has a name, the Danan.  Did I miss that earlier in the series after multiple viewings or did we just get it now? Anyway, it gets some spectacular beauty shots in the episode. Fan service doesn’t apply just to characters, you know.

Anyway, in the Danan later that night, Phryne is unable to sleep and peers out a window to observe Clain on watch. She spies him ditching his duty and intercepts the boy while he’s taking off. Once again, he says precisely the wrong thing and angers her.  Her reply gives a good insight into her character.

On their hike to see the camera guy, they pass by the Alabaster camp where they witness the refugees lining up to get vaccinations against the “alpha virus.” That impresses the boy a great deal, but Phryne states she prefers the Granite’s.  Now it is Clain’s turn to be annoyed and the friction grows between the teens.  In fact, it gets so bad that it boils over into a footrace between the equally stubborn kids in a wonderful sequence that feels like something out of The Quiet Man.

It ends with the two exhausted at the doorstep of a somewhat confused camera guy.  This is very amusing in execution,especially Phryne’s greeting to the man. What they learn here leads to disillusionment for Clain, a stunning discovery by Phryne, and a real sense of the human cost being incurred by the Fractale system failures.

Thoughts

Well that was a fast episode to watch!  It is amazing how time flies when a lot is going on in a story and this episode is a perfect example of this. So many scenes also had subtle amounts of information hidden in facial expressions or glances that added to the sheer density of the episode. Keep a close eye on faces throughout.

With the Alabaster faction of Lost Millennium introduced, we get more development for the Granite’s as a whole.  Clain’s issues with his captors/erstwhile allies lead him to be a little too impressed with the charismatic Dias and his theatrical displays.  I like how the creators of the show have caught that tendency of rebel leaders to put on a show.  Those shows of vanity seem to be lost on too many journalists in reality. What really intrigues is the disdain the Granite’s have for the Alabaster’s.  It doesn’t appear to be just simple rivalry, given Enri’s reaction at dinner.

By the way, Dias was created by writer Mari Okada late in development in order to lure more female viewers to the show. That is why he is such a pretty boy, or bishounen, and a bad boy type. Even this show which rants about society was vulnerable to compromises that Sunda would never approve of.

The plight of the refugees adds depth to the portrayal of the future society living under Fractale while criticizing the modern socialist welfare systems we have today. The helplessness and docile people are easily influenced.  Just offer them the promise of free food and shelter to watch them go from frightened to willing to follow. This is how slaves are made of men. Sadly, it works all too well.

But there is character development on top of the social critique, such as when Phryne and Clain show their mutual stubbornness.  Neither appears to be willing to leave the other alone or admit that they care what the other thinks of them. Yeah, they like each other in a very early adolescent fashion. Though the priestess is older than the boy, her cloistered upbringing has them closer in maturity than otherwise would be the case.

Phryne’s relationship with Nessa also takes a very interesting turn. Gone is the hostility on both sides and the older girl seems to be breaking through her reservations about the doppel. Nessa influencing her to go swimming was one of those scenes to watch the facial animations. The animators deserve kudos for the expressive work. Loosening up her character made her much more likeable, thankfully.

The Farthest Village was one of the best episodes of the series and also marks passing the halfway point. With it, the players are set and things feel like they will be moving into high gear.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 6 moves at breakneck speed once Clain and Phryne reach the home of the mysterious man.  While the males talk, the girl notices and then steals the photos the man has printed out.  I loved Enri’s comment later at the end of the episode about this act.

So the antenna array turns out to be an amplifier for the Fractale signals and can restore the area once a month during a full moon.  Nifty and pathetic at the same time, which is the first time I have written that about anything.

The sheer power of Fractale to manipulate people’s perception of reality is put on full display here as night turns to day and the ruins into a beautiful town. None of it is real, which adds a very creepy feel to things, especially when the refugees see it.

That’s when the perfidy of Dias is revealed and boy does he make Sunda look like a good guy by comparison.  Clain is horrified, possibly more than when he saw the carnage in episode 3, and runs off.  Something to note is how Phryne watches over him during this. She has gotten very protective of the boy.

A final encounter with the mystery man, who is slowly dying of illness, is touching and a chance for Clain to show how sweet a kid he is. The camera is given to him and will play a major role in the series down the line. But it is the final scenes that make all of this very poignant as Phryne and Enri go through the photos.

Phryne knows who the baby is and so do we. That makes this episode powerfully tragic and also raises the question of just how linked doppels are to their owners. It appears they are much more separated than we thought. Many questions are raised, some will be answered in future episodes, others won’t be. It is a great pity that the grand plans for a universe set in the realm of Fractale will never be realized, for there was so much material to work with.

The son watches dawn break while the father he didn’t recognize works in darkness trying to resurrect a false day. Not a word of dialogue is used in this wistful ending.