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This is the penultimate anime episode, and overall, it does what penultimate anime episodes do. That means it’s mostly setup for the finale – raising the stakes, setting the stage for the gang’s final live broadcast, and all that good stuff. It’s well done for the most part, but it’s not all that fun to talk about, especially when the mysteries surrounding Live’s past won’t be openly explored until next week. So I want to focus on the first half of this episode and how well it exemplifies this approach Ma Zhongquan There’s a real understanding of the mechanics of online connection in a way that I’ve never seen in anime before.
It happens when Masaki finally breaks under the pressure of a million (or it feels like a million) negative comments, and he escapes to a rural hot spring. As she desperately tries to detox from the Internet, she can’t help but notice every phone screen around her—including a nearby teen who happens to be a fan of the Hyped-Up Sisters. She recognized Masaki. Masaki recognizes her identity and every fiber in our heroine’s brain prepares for battle… only for the girl to freak out and demand a selfie. Masaki was confused that all she could do was yell into the thin air before drinking her questions away, and she could just as easily have done the same; just chalk it up to someone with A two-faced teen who defaults to cult-like adoration when she encounters people who say bad things online.
Except…for example, did she say anything bad about Masaki? Sure, the comments here may be a little rude, but I’ve seen people say worse things to their favorite e-celebrities twitterit all happened under a false sense of joyful banter that we sometimes share with our friends. I’m sure her jokes about Masaki repurposing ideas or throwing haymakers are funny to this girl, and she considers herself part of Masaki’s support base. However, the anonymity of the internet completely strips away that intention and context, until for Masaki it’s another faceless and heartless hater ready to throw her to the wolves for what she’s done. The interaction between the two is not necessarily negative, but through the collective asymmetry of social media, they become one.
It’s just a small thing at first, until you realize that every interaction Masaki has with anyone with a cell phone involves a level of social calculation. Then it quietly became the most profound portrayal of modern interaction I’ve ever seen in anime. Combined with the rest of Masaki’s breakdown, it paints a powerful picture of how this pressure can build up, and it’s not even entirely from bad actors or “haters” or anything. I don’t know if this is the final decision Yolk Medium Punch It’s all over the internet – and it’s fitting enough that the final episode seems perfectly poised to resolve half of Vampire’s premise. If it is, that’s a good choice, and if not, I hope its last sentence is as compelling as this one.
grade:
Yolk Medium Punch Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the majority shareholder of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
