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A Centaur's Life (TV).


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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:02 pm Reply with quote
Episode 12 (finale)

A really weird choice for a last episode. The first half being an RPG like story, where it was uncharacteristic not only in the subject matter, but also in being very fanservice filled, explained as being a story written by I think the perverted lesbian girl out of the two. And the second half being an arm wrestling competition, which Hime is unable to get anyone to explain why they are even holding on in the first place (despite her winning). The one good part might be that this episode kept to the core cast while other episodes explored other characters, but just weird to finish off on a series that was kind of priding itself on being thoughtful, fanservice and nothing. I probably could pull something though, as I did kind of enjoy the first half for its RPG elements, with no doubt that such a fact is kind of connected to why this show exists anyway with things like modern fantasy games or the like bringing an interest in monster (girls). The ecchi elements almost being a send off to such fetizing having an element in growing popularity, you could practically point to Monster Musume for that. The arm wrestling could almost be looked into a purposeful statement of there not always being a point, that sometimes entertainment of ideas can be for its own purpose, and yet the incidental ideas that pop up in the meantime can somehow have their own value.

Maybe I am thinking too hard about it, that sort of fact would tend to be what one would say about many series. But the thing is that I think A Centaur's Life actually puts quite a lot of work in being thought out in its ideas, with actually leading to what some might see to as very political topics. That the only way I can perceive this last episode is that it might largely be a comment on itself and its genre. Sassassul's comment on being a priestess to a god she does not know of could even be seen as a comment on something, what with that supposedly fake god of mermaids showing up in that one episode (which looked like Dagon), and apparently had some connection with her people. There are probably a lot of other ways to read events in this show that otherwise just sound random, beyond what I was consciously able to do.

And to start capping of this series as a whole, I will say that I enjoyed it. Was not what I was expecting, being quite different from other monster girl show, both in I would say bad and good ways. "Monster" people really being the norm did kind of make it hard to find a place orient myself, but perhaps created a place to compare to topics that in our own society are considered a norm. It both had this feeling of equality politics going a bit too far, but also an understanding of some Importance of such politics. No utopia, but perhaps better than it could the other way, that these different type of people might be hostile to each other, because generally things were pretty good, without the setting saying that there is nothing wrong. And there was a large breadth of topics on display, with various ideas that I don't think you could call it closed minded or ignorant.

For a negative I will say that I think there was a little bit of a problem with characters. Example being that the pair with a mermaid girl did seem kind of underused despite some prominence in things like the OP. There had to be more to say using those characters. With so many characters it just felt like some were left as a bit too one note, without a focus to fully explore them, this could be said of I think the lesbian couple, that might have gone a bit too much on being an accepted same sex couple without any drama. That is almost something to be praised for with anime though. But I do want to somewhat turn that around and say the part way introduced character, Sassassul, was a delightful addition to the show, a diversity to a normal we had kind of been introduced to, with a character who explained she is not even a normal to her own culture. Manami was also a pretty cool character, her not being quite part of the main group, but arguably the secondary main character in so many stories being about aspects of her life like her family, which were an interesting aspect.

I give A Centaur's Life a rating of Good (7/10), I maybe would have liked it to be a bit better, I think it could be a little cluttered with everything it wanted to do, but I did not really see some of the problems others had with it. Apparently some had a problem with the art or animation, but it was never really anything that bothered me, except maybe a few details in wider shots. But it was certainly something worth watching for being its own thing.
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