Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1507 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Mahiru's never gonna get called by her actual name in these reviews, is she.
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Ryujin99
 Posts: 189 |
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Hey! So I'm not the only one who's been mulling over that! Between the male VTuber avatar and her very "boyish" / "tomboyish" behavior and childhood clothing choices, it really does seem perfectly reasonable to assume Kiui is having some real problems conforming to the expected gender norms. Whether that means Kiui is meant to be read as trans masc or not, I'm not 100% sure, but it seems like a pretty sensible interpretation. All that being said, the chuuni behavior certainly didn't help matters any, especially in what looks to be a pretty stuffy, uptight schoool. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1397 |
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Is Kiui's Vtuber avatar male? I know Kiui uses the self-referential "guy" both in and out of character, but the avatar itself wears a skirt and doesn't appear all that masculine to me.
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1578 |
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The "guy" thing from Kiwi was the translator trying to convey that "ore" she started the line with, as it would become relevant later. While "ore" is mostly a male pronoun, it's also more relevant in this stance as the pronoun you'd expect from the boisterous hero persona she wanted to convey (as a vtuber she even refers to herself as "ore-sama" to further drive that home).
Not saying there won't be some gender themes, even leaving aside the "ore" Kiwi is a very mixed bag. She might use that boisterous masculine persona, but she never presents as anything but female. Her vtuber avatar might be tomboyish super hero, but she still added a more unorthodox miniskirt. She might have cutified herself a whole lot after becoming a shut-in, but she still hated that dude leering at her breasts; I mean, anyone would hate the latter, but she doesn't seemed to be used or resigned to that and there's probably something to say about the way in which that visibly hurt her pride.
Oh, she did say "mono", which is something you don't really use to refer to people. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5430 Location: Iscandar |
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I am definitely liking this anime more than I thought I would; it has something that makes want to see what comes next. Doga Kobo seems to have learned a lot from working on Oshi no Ko.
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1367 |
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The reviewer mentioned something i’ve been enjoying: how the ending animations are taking the form of (semi-)plausible music videos posted by the group.
That, and i continue to be impressed by the artistry of the backgrounds. This is a very pleasant series to watch because of its deft use of visual imagery. |
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Hikaru Suzuhara
 Posts: 88 |
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When Kano is able to move past the incident, grow beyond her shallow desire to prove she’s better than the Sun Dolls, than her mother perhaps, will JELEE as a unit be able to reach its potential. That being said, JELEE has four members, not just one. Each has their own yet to be fully out in the open, let alone addressed, baggage holding them back from truly unleashing their creativity.
I have no idea where this is going long term. While Kano’s Sun Dolls obsession is, at least to a degree, dictating JELEE’s general direction now, it’s only a short term issue. If the general character balance in the episodes themselves as well as the regular OP and ED are any indication, this is an ensemble cast, not the Kano and her three lackeys show. It is most certainly not going to be just 12 episodes of Kano sleeping with a picture of her greatest enemy, the Sunflower Dolls, next to her pillow every night while the other three girls repeatedly enable her perfectly healthy, not at all self-destructive, behavior. The fact there was immediate push-back to her unreasonable behavior this episode was all the proof I needed. If you read between the lines by comparing her behavior two years ago to now, it becomes clear just how terrified she is of ruining everything again. Back then when her patience/tolerance ran out, she threw hands. Now, she’s once again found herself positioned as the leader of this new group. In her mind she can’t afford to mess up a second time. The moment her methods are questioned, the instant there is opposition, she folds like a deck of cards, offering only weak counter arguments. This combined with her inability to face what she’d done forces the other to go outside of her to wrap their heads around whats making her tick. As for the other three Sundolls and her mother. I’ll wait till we get more than a few seconds of them not being “on the clock” so to speak. Even though Kano is still a prisoner of her time with them, I don’t see them as being outright antagonistic. You could argue that it’s the difference between creating for the passion of expression versus a paycheck churned out by the insincere corporate music machine. Though it’s not as if Kano, and the rest by extension don’t want to be recognized for their efforts too. She used to be just another a cog in said machine after all. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 39 |
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I'm sure its not going to be, and will stick with its premise as an ensemble show. On the other hand, Kanos relationship with, ultimately, her mother seems certain to be the most significant single arc of the show. We have 5 named Kano-related side characters now; all are more significant than any other side character so far except Mahirus sister (whos absence seems to have reduced the leering from the camera and is thus welcome. Perhaps that was just to get a certain demographic to give the show a try.). Kano is at the center of the group and I'm sure she will be the most central to the show, albeit not totally dominant. The trajectory of the Sundolls/JELEE rivalry is interesting as well (leaving aside the appropriate note that in reality, there would be no contest). Dropping it probably makes the most sense, but not very teenage. I think its probably a more interesting outcome if they "lose". But I'm willing to wait and see; the show has generally made interesting choices so far. |
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 115 |
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I will say I honestly think they at least reasonably telegraphed the potential for Jelee to go viral - Kiui has a decent following as a V-tuber (although it seems to be declining) and she was specifically boosting it, and Kano had already been establishing Jelee before she managed to get a team behind her and it seems like she had had at least some success at starting to build a fanbase. That plus a pretty decent if amateur music video could conceivably go viral from the resources they already have going for them.
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ElenorCamuel
Posts: 5 |
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Definitely squealed in the last 5 minutes when:
spoiler[ Kano kissed Yoru on the cheek AND the song closed out with « sonna yoru ga watashi suki da »] ❤️ |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1578 |
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Well, one of the conclusions of this episode felt weird.
If I were an amateur artist and just saw that Yoru's previous art was supposed to come across as very flawed and unlearned, it would feel like a punch to the face. |
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Takkun4343
Posts: 1507 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Personally, I have no issue with the whole "there's always room to improve" message. I just would've liked if Mahiru was upfront with the others about the haters in the comments being what made her so she-of-little-faith with her art, as opposed to bottling it up and wording it to Kano in a way that made it sound like there were no external factors to speak of.
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Eilavel
Posts: 39 |
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Short and clear single episode. I feel like the message isn't really that Yorus art is especially bad, but that the world will always contain both haters and people more talented than you, and you have to find a way to move forwards despite that. If you metric for artistic success is no negativity and nobody who is better than you, you will never be able to proceed as an artist. That is, after all, part of why any kind of public creative endeavor is difficult.
Apparently, we are doing yuri to some extent. I wonder if this will tie into the sundolls backstory or not. |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1578 |
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Maybe Yoru's art isn't supposed to come across as bad, but my problem is that the claims that it was were never challenged. Yoru bottled it up and decided to just get better, which might be a good thing, but it can also come across as acknowledging that the haters were right and it wasn't good enough.
In the end the heart of the issue with this episode is that the conflict was resolved without Yoru ever telling anything to anyone. Everything took place entirely in her head and she didn't even quite verbalize what she was going through. Which isn't unrealistic or inappropriate for someone as introverted as her, but it doesn't make for the .ost cathartic or satisfying drama. |
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Hikaru Suzuhara
Posts: 88 |
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The haters were right. She’s knows it. While art isn’t math, there are clearly observable skills involved. You can most certainly get better at art in a number of different areas. Character development is highlighted when we see a different reaction to the same or similar situation.
While Kano’s unconditional support is important to her, at the same time Yoru still cares about her friends efforts as they compare to her own. She recognizes how far ahead they are and though it took some comments online along with fanart from a far more experienced artists to do so, it lit a fire within her to improve. This didn’t start with episode 05. It started with one. It has been festering for years. Recall that her first response to negative criticism was to outright disown her mural and stop drawing entirely. Those were just thoughtless comments from friends, let alone people who might claim to or otherwise actually be experts. Though just as it has been with Kano and her unwillingness to be truly vulnerable in front of someone, despite this she was still able to voice at least some of her fears. It wasn’t the whole truth of what she’s struggling with, but it’s progress. It was the combination of being told her art is subpar, seeing via direct comparison how lacking she was, and finally having someone express to her though not in these exact words that as you are now, are enough and no one can ever replace you was what ultimately allowed her to grow. Yoru’s struggle with art, her struggle with imposer syndrome is a series long one. All four of these young women are struggling with their identities. The pieces of themselves they put out into the world as JELLE and how they react to the response is where their progress is best highlighted. We are not going to see any of them reach the climax of their arcs wherein they each come terms with their past and discover a genuine love for themselves less than halfway through the narrative. Progress is going to be quick given there are four main characters and just 12 episodes to work with. There’s no time to let issues build for several episodes. If the pattern holds, I expect Mei, Kiwi, then Kano will have their own respective focus episodes in the following three weeks. |
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