#animuji thoughts

Post animuji ep 5… goodbye cruel world

I can’t get over how creative yet absolutely gut-wrenching the first 12 minutes of this episode were. Avemuji was the only way Sakiko could express her thoughts and feelings. Without the music, she was truly left voiceless. Watching the scenes build up with different sounds, interviews, radio, crowds, cars, etc, but noticeably no background music. And Sakiko stays silent, storytelling happening all around her but never directly through her, until the only line she speaks in the entire episode. I hate myself. I fear this might be a masterpiece of show don’t tell.

Episode 12 was thematically excellent! I got exactly what I expected—I just felt that from an audience perspective, it was delivered in a less satisfying way than I had originally hoped.

Avemygo are narrative foils—direct mirrors of each other. As such, I have always envisioned them to be equal and opposite forces.

In spirit, they maintain this force balance. However, in my opinion, the drop in writing/pacing quality means that in execution, this balance is sadly betrayed.

What I mean by this: I currently feel that as a narrative, Mygo is easily able to exist and stand on its own without Ave Mujica. Hell, Mygo did stand alone for 18 months without issue. However, I believe the same is not true in reverse—as of current, Ave Mujica cannot stand on its own without Mygo.

In hindsight, maybe wanting a sequel installment to dually function as a standalone was a much tougher ask than it was for its predecessor/mirror. Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop my wanting.

In summary:

Unsatisfying narratively? We all cheered! (Avemuji theme —> unsatisfying = point)