Fractale finally earns its TV-14 rating as the tone of the series shifts dramatically from light hearted adventure to a darker and more serious story in this pivotal episode. Innocence is lost when the truth about the Temple is revealed to Clain in an episode centered around the Granite faction of the terrorist organization Lost Millennium. Fractale: Reiterated continues with updated HD screen captures and text.
I originally avoided Fractale when it started streaming because the promo art looked too “kiddie” to me. It was not until I read posts talking about the dramatic ending to the third episode that I was sufficiently intrigued enough to sample the first episode. If I had not been browsing message boards in search of intelligent anime, I would have never seen what ultimately became my favorite one. The Village of Granites is a game changer in the series, one that shocked quite a few viewers.
The third episode begins where the cliffhanger in episode two left off with Clain and Nessa suspended in a net and being flown to who knows where. As Clain contemplates the danger and Nessa enjoys the flight, the boy realizes he’s the only one in danger of dying since Nessa is a doppel. They are summarily dropped on the ground at a cliff side hanger of some kind and the ever high strung Enri gets a chance to kick Clain while ordering him out of the net for comic effect. Her obvious joy at oppressing ends as soon as Clain and Nessa see their destination.
Those two have to be the happiest prisoners I’ve ever seen.
Once they get to town, it gets worse for the would be oppressor as Clain geeks out over the old technology to the point of not caring that he has a rifle aimed at him. Not that Nessa is much better when she discovers flowers.
Clain thinks he’s in heaven and even Enri’s threats to send him to the real heaven has no effect. Some women from the village show up and a little girl runs to greet Enri ignoring Nessa completely. The depressed doppel provides for a deftly handled scene that reveals that the Granites have removed their nanomachines that hook people up to the Fractale system.
It also serves to introduce an old man who hates Clain and Nessa on sight and rants about them being a bad influence. Interestingly, he seems to be the voice for the philosophies of the Granites, but not the leader. We’ll see more of him later.
When Clain and Nessa are led off to the real leader, we are treated to some fascinating images of the village which appear to be inspired by a variety of real life abandoned places. Over at Dark Roasted Blend you can find some of the inspirations. I wonder if a theme of reclaiming what is lost was the intent by the art designers or if it was simply because the locations are so visually striking. Given how layered Fractale is and how societal decay is a major theme of the series, I don’t think it was a random choice.
The leader of the Granites turns out to be Enri’s big brother from last episode, Sunda. Once again, he and Clain engage in a conversation that doesn’t go the way Clain would like. It turns out the Granites are a faction of a terrorist group, Lost Millennium. Understandably, Clain doesn’t take that very well. From what we’ve been shown to this point, they seem bumbling and mostly harmless. Sunda alternates from being sly and controlling with grandiose posturing which reinforces that impression.
The Granites are a back to basics community that raise their own food, do their own labor, and teach their children using books in an old fashioned school. This way they are taught to think for themselves and to not rely on “data.” Today we have a society that has become reliant on calculators, laptops, and mobile devices too much, along with the Internet as the first place to get information. Are we thinking for ourselves these days or relying on others to do the thinking? Yep, Fractale has a lot to say about us. Finally, Sunda goes on to reveal why they want Nessa and Phryne before turning Clain loose to roam the village as a prisoner.
While this discussion takes place, Nessa is driving Enri nuts and infiltrates the computer systems of the Granites large airship to stalk the hot tempered girl. Not even the bathroom is safe since there is a computer terminal there too. Here we get a bit of social commentary disguised as bawdy humor. In it we see a reflection of how smart cellphones and Blackberries have removed any hiding places for us from others.
Clain ends up wandering into the village hospital and being baffled by the limited care and crowded conditions. The old man reappears to lecture the confused boy that this is the price of “true freedom.” It is his encounter with the old man that defines the Granites and also makes a sharp point about socialized health care. Everything comes with a cost and this philosophy bothers the teenager greatly.
While he is walking and brooding over this, Nessa and Enri show up with the mischievous doppel offering to tell Clain what color Enri’s panties are (oh those Japanese men and their obsession with panties). The boy doesn’t even hear her and rants out loud that he doesn’t want to know anything like that – meaning “true freedom” but mistaken by the girls to be panty oriented. That is changed in the English dub to have him specifically say he doesn’t care about the panties, which diminishes the intelligence level of the dialogue.
This scene highlights one of the flaws of Fractale. There are scenes like this where it appears that they are pandering to the perverted sense of humor that anime fans demand while simultaneously trying to undermine it. That’s quite a tightrope act and it doesn’t always work. The relatively mild fan service aspects usually don’t mesh well with the rest of the series and stand out too much. But at least Clain isn’t your typical perverted anime male and has more serious things to think about.
A village dinner party is held to celebrate the capture of Clain and Nessa, with a delighted Nessa being the focus of attention. Here Clain is introduced to real food for the first time as he had only gotten sustenance from “tubes” (the juice packets seen in episode 1) his entire life. An amazing bowl of bean soup leads to one of the most endearing and amusing scene in the series as later that night Nessa demands that he explain how it tasted. She has no point of reference to flavor, so she asks him to dance the flavors.
The Blues Brothers (Butcher and the one I can never remember) watch the interpretive dancing from outside the room and this cements Clain’s reputation as a player. The poor guy can’t catch a break and neither can we from that running gag. Fact is, Clain is horrified they’d think he’d have those thoughts about a little girl and that is a direct attack against lolicons who make up a good percentage of anime fans.
FYI: Lolicon is a politically correct way to say pedophile and quite a few anime’s sexualize prepubescent looking girls. It is a very disturbing aspect of Japanese culture that possession of child pornography isn’t illegal. Fortunately, censorship laws cracking down on this kind of thing are going into effect in Japan this summer. Update: A year later, the censorship committees have done nothing in reality, so it was just a political move to look like they were doing something about it. The sexualizing of girl children continues worse than ever from what I can tell.
The next morning the duo awaken to the sounds of preparations. The Granites are up to something big, something that requires assault rifles and flak jackets. What follows next changes the atmosphere of the series dramatically.
Thoughts
Episode three was the one that absolutely clinched my finishing the series. Too much happened and the unexpected ending made me realize this wasn’t going to devolve into a kiddie show. In fact, it made me realize this was going to be a very intellectual story and one that also reached for the jugular.
Nessa once again is an utter delight to watch. Filled with joy and curiosity, she is adorable as can be. The interpretive dance scene is fantastically creative, not to mention great fun. It also serves as a setup for the sucker punch coming.
The Granites airship is very impressive looking and it looks like something out of a Miyazaki film. Here on Blu-ray, the CGI work meshes better than when it was broadcast and streamed. All series get touched up before video release because they tend to be rush jobs finished a day or so before broadcast.
BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!
With the “stars” brainwashing all who attend, the true price of being in the Fractale system is revealed – all thoughts questioning the system are erased as are family bonds. Modern media has done this to our society as well, with family dinners a thing of the past as entertainment tailored to individual tastes have taken over. The previous scenes showing the lives of the Granites are quite the contrast to how Clain’s life was depicted in earlier episodes.
I particularly liked the scene of Sunda forcing Clain to look at the enthralled worshippers. It is an intense moment as ugly reality hits the boy only to get uglier moments later.
The death of Butcher and Enri’s horrified scream is also memorable, given the tone of the series to that point. Seeing death up close for the first time is also more than Clain can handle. The final scenes contain absolute carnage as both sides casually blow away the paralyzed worshippers, including a young girl who has half her torso blown away. Seeing people of all ages getting killed in the crossfire is shocking given how the series has been presented up to now. With both sides shown in a very negative light, a certain amount of moral ambiguity is being set up. Or is it?
The interesting thing about episode three is how it sets everything up for a knockout blow in the final scenes. Clearly, the theme of innocence lost runs through it when we witness the bumbling terrorists turn out to be the real deal and Fractale to be a very evil system. Clain is the classic innocent dropped into circumstances beyond his control and understanding. By lulling him and the audience into thinking things weren’t that dangerous, the impact of the slaughter was made that much more dramatic. So both Clain and the audience lose their innocence at the end of the episode.
Now we go from light adventure to a serious rebellion with the scope of the story widening slowly just as Clain’s world is. Danger and death have entered on to the stage and they won’t be leaving.
Also entering on stage are two familiar faces. The first raises big questions, one of which is why is there a little girl priestess who looks like a darker haired Nessa? The other belongs to someone more familiar and her entrance back into Clain’s life makes for quite a cliffhanger.
MASSIVE SERIES SPOILERS!
This episode begins hinting more about Nessa without actually giving much away. The Grand Priestess of the temple called her the “key to the world,” but now we have Sunda calling Phryne that. With the reveal of the little priestess looking just like Nessa and calling Phryne “big sister,” we have the first indication of the cloning program that is revealed later.
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