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DRAMAtical Murder
Episode 11

by Gabriella Ekens,

This week on DRAMAtical Murder, it's the penultimate episode of a mediocre sci-fi thriller, which means it's time to infodump hardcore before putting the baby to bed. And it's a mighty info dump. We're told that Aoba has a split personality and a long lost twin brother and also amnesia. I'm surprised that they didn't make Toue his father. They might as well have--Aoba's an experimental clone baby born with vague-destruction oriented voice powers and kidnapped at birth by pink-haired grandma, and thus raised separately from his brother, Sei, who has vague-creation oriented eye powers. This is revealed to Aoba by his plaid-clad rapist stalkers, Virus and Trip, who it turns out were in charge of Morphine, that gang that was doing… something by tagging over everyone else's graffiti five episodes ago, all along. Fortunately, before they can get down to the serious business of molesting Aoba, his boyfriends show up to rescue him (including Clear! Yay!).

This rescue sequence works pretty decently. All four of the boy toys have characteristic traits that are expressed in their fighting styles (Koujaku clubs people with a sheathed blade, Noiz punches them in the back of the neck after distracting them with his hologram bunnies, Clear falls on them from the ceiling) and there's a believable emotional connection between them and Aoba. In terms of narrative, DMMD's greatest failing is its plot, which is a nonsensical cyberpunk pastiche, but what keeps it going (albeit on an almost empty tank) is its story, which is essentially about Aoba helping out a bunch of weird sad dudes with their emotional issues. It's never great, but it's not always broken, and that keeps the series floating just above the realm of irredeemable failure.

The second point where this DMMD succeeds is in building up and realizing Mink's conflict. The resolution to his relationship with Aoba didn't happen in one episode, as it did for the rest of the dudes', but in two, with each of them doing double duty as Serious Plot. The way that Mink gets out of his initial confrontation with Toue, where the evil mastermind exhibits the same voice-control powers that Aoba does, is cleverly implemented. They never have even an ounce of romantic chemistry, but I can believe that Mink was affected by Aoba in some way. Like the last couple, this episode also ends on a cliffhanger (Ren's been infected with a virus! Oh no!). I think that's why this series has developed some momentum – by threading incidents from one episode into another, the show retains the audience's investment and creates the impression that they're interrelated and consequences. It's Storytelling 101, but it's also a big issue for visual novel adaptations, which often struggle to tie together what are in reality multiple sequentially isolated continuities.

The fight scene, which features Koujaku, Noiz, and Clear working together, might be good fanservice for someone who's desperate to see some dramatical teamwork, but it suffers from the fact that this installment also saw a noticeable decrease in animation quality. This might be the worst looking DMMD since episode three, particularly in terms of actual animation, although most of the close ups of characters' faces (which continue to dominate the direction) at least manage to be on-model. Right now, DRAMAtical Murder still isn't the best version of itself - which would be campy, silly, and sexy - but it does have enough momentum carrying it forward to trudge across the finish line.

Rating: C

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. She writes at animeintrospection.tumblr.com.

DRAMAtical Murder is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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