Concrete Revolutio

Episodes 14-15

In its first cour, Concrete Revolutio was an ambitious but puzzling show. It made for some flashy, entertaining television, but frequently left viewers scratching our heads as to what was really going on, and most of all, what it all meant. Then in its last two episodes, Concrete Revolutio dropped several bombs, answering most (but not all) of the series' burning questions. While the show still introduced too many new ideas and left other important ones hanging, it was a whammy of a finale. It set us up well for Round 2, which already makes the best of that mighty conclusion.

The first two episodes of Concrete Revolutio: The Last Song, especially the second one, are more cohesive than almost all of season 1. The first focuses on one of the show's best characters: Raito Shiba, the robot-with-a-human-consciousness who formed the core of one of season one's strongest installments (episode 3). That episode tapped into universal human concerns—the desire to create our own destinies apart from our societal "programming"—in a way that Concrete Revolutio has not in a while, due to its insistence on deep meanderings about complicated topical issues. It was nice to see the show refer back to that week as it turns back toward more universal ideas.

Episode 14 shows us how Raito Shiba joined and then abandoned the Superhuman Bureau to join up with Jiro. It answers some lingering questions from as far back as those earliest episodes, like why his hair in the 1970s is blonde instead of green. (It's a result of taking parts from Washizu, a cowboy-like robot spaceman from a race called S Planetarians.) Washizu possesses the absolute faith in the rule of law that Shiba used to, which helps Shiba discover why he can no longer work for this much more questionable version of the Bureau. Shiba even literally calls Washizu "me from the past, back when I had no questions." After he is defeated by the end of the episode, Shiba brings this past self into his present self, very literally, as he finally walks away from the Bureau.

"Bringing your former adversaries into yourself" is a theme that recurs for the main characters in these episodes, as we find out the same has happened for Jiro. Near the end of episode 14, Washizu mentions that there are Fumers (the Bureau Chief's race of gaseous, body-hopping aliens) inside Jiro, but that they don't have complete control over him. Jiro is still mostly himself. The following episode reveals how this came about: Jiro managed to catch the Fumers behind a new museum for celebrating superhumans, in the form of the Japanese politician Chief now inhabits. Jiro battles and defeats the other two Fumers, who can't survive without a dead body to animate. It turns out that this was the Chief's intention all along: he has developed an affection for humans and superhumans, and no longer wants to dominate them like the Fumers had planned. His colleagues don't agree. All three go into Jiro's living body in their weakened form, to help him gain control over his "kaiju" power. The Chief acts like an advisor to Jiro in episode 15, even as he says that he's losing his independent consciousness.

With the architects behind most of the last season now depowered and dying (or at least, that's what the Chief has led us to believe), this is a brave new world for Concrete Revolutio. It puts the power in the hands of its protagonists to forge their own new destinies. This is promising now that the series is centered on Jiro's post-Bureau activities, making him even more of the story's center than he ever was in the first season. That makes this overstuffed story that much stronger, although it further highlights how underdeveloped the rest of the series' (numerous) characters are. This is especially true with our main two female characters, Emi and Kikko, who get the most screentime of anyone in the Bureau through these two episodes. Kikko's "backstory" was a mess last season, but at least there's hope that Emi could get a detailed explanation of her character and motivations later. As this new series has proven so far, Concrete Revolutio has a knack for drawing on old episodes for belated answers to old lingering questions.

Of course, that still leaves it on us to constantly keep track of who everyone is, one of the most frustrating aspects of this overstuffed show. This is another consequence of underdeveloping its massive cast, since what backstories do exist are often needlessly complicated without emotional hooks. Luckily, these two episodes suggest the series is working on that last problem. Shiba's story does a lot to remind the viewer of why we liked him so much the first time around, and episode 15 develops and sympathizes one of the minor antagonists from last season.

The "Angel Stars" were a superhuman girl group under the careful control of Imperial Ads, the company who served as a constant thorn in the Superhuman Bureau's side. Imperial Ads was pro-superhuman, but mostly for their own business interests, and they often stood against the Bureau by supporting student protests and unleashing kaiju on the populace. Now in the early 1970s, their cherished Angel Stars seem to have gone rogue. One former member, Aki (known as "Arachne" while in the group), is killing alien superhumans in search of something within them. Her former bandmates have rushed to her rescue, urging Jiro to protect her from the Superhuman Bureau, who have identified her as their prime suspect and want to arrest her.

Jiro does this, and in the process, he and the audience learn a great deal about this lost girl. The Angel Stars never had any real motivations of their own; they just did what they were told. Jiro suggests that turning away from the Imperial Ads was her quest to "find her own justice," but Aki laughs at this, giving a brief history of Japan's wars for justice to show what a subjective and illusory ideal "justice" really is. (In other words, she basically sums up the show's point so far.) While she admired superhumans like Rainbow Knight as a little girl, Aki now follows more personal goals: love.

She was in a relationship with one of the other girls in the band, named Fanny, who mysteriously died a few years previously. (The Bureau believes it was a suicide, bringing to mind the old tradition of lesbian "mutual suicides" in yuri manga, especially considering Aki's reaction.) Aki insists that she's still somewhere "in the stars," and wants to access the power of the Fumers—the thing she's sought out in these murders—in order to follow Fanny there. Fanny is "free" there in a way that Aki can never be while she remains on Earth, as she's constantly shifted between the different things that all these forces—Imperial Ads, the Public Security Forces, the Bureau, and now Jiro—want for superhumans. She wants to chart her own path, but even outside of Angel Stars's careful management, the world still prevents her from doing that.

I admired how the show set up the reveals about Aki's past. When Kikko and Emi question Imperial Ads about Aki, and they say that she's a former member of the group who was forced out because of a "scandal," we get another glimpse at Kikko's naivete, since Emi must explain to her that "scandal" is code for "something involving a man." When she voices this though, the manager says "not necessarily a man." It's not exactly subtle, but I like how it showcases that even Emi's worldly-wise-big-sister attitude hides a limited perspective. We've seen other hints in this direction throughout the series, and I hope it's something that the series explores further when (if) Emi gets her own backstory.

Concrete Revolutio was also good at working in Aki and Jiro's revelations to each other about their pasts. They were both necessary for the final confrontation, where Aki realizes that Jiro is the person she's searching for and they fight. These reveals never felt squeezed into the script. They flowed naturally from Aki and Jiro's previous conversation. That is a real accomplishment for this show, which often struggles with realistic-sounding dialogue in its effort to deliver so many sermons about justice and the 1960s-70s political situation (or whatever the topic du jour happens to be). Even in its stronger episodes, characters have never felt like they talked like people, more like constructed talking heads. Episode 15 finally cleared this hurdle, suggesting that Concrete Revolutio may finally be turning itself around.

That doesn't mean there aren't still areas for improvement. It would have been nice if Aki and Fanny's romance were developed better, earning the viewers' emotional investment instead of just serving as a means to a thematic end. The episode ends with Aki riding into the sunset with Rainbow Knight's helmet (a gift from Jiro), along with the rest of the Angel Stars. We don't get the sense that we'll ever see her again, though Concrete Revolutio has a way of bringing back those kinds of characters in unexpected ways. Aki was mostly a plot device, and her story was never the focus, but I can't help but be curious about the more interesting tale around that corner, especially in light of the series' underdevelopment of female characters. It's remarkable how much more Concrete Revolutio did with Aki in one episode than its two female leads across the past 15.

Concrete Revolutio still has many of the same issues it did in its first season. Luckily, it seems like its creators are at least aware of these problems and trying to address them. Episode 15 in particular was very straightforward, simple and easy to follow—while still deep and thoughtful—in a way we've never seen before with this series. If you liked the ideas behind it, but were frustrated with the execution of Concrete Revolutio, these first two episodes might renew your faith in this show.

Rating: B+

Concrete Revolutio is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.