3ET: Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou

"The cards say 'Bad luck and extreme misfortune will infest
your pathetic soul for all eternity.'"

Studio: AIC

Director: Kusakawa Keizo (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's, Ro-Kyu-Bu!)

Main Cast: Kadowaki Mai as Taiyou Akari, Kitamura Eri as Hoshikawa Seira, Tokui Sora as Tsukuyomi Luna, Tatsumi Yuiko as Shiokane Ginka

Writer: Itou Michiko (Henti Ouji to Warawanai Neko, Ro-Kyu-Bu!)

Music: Kato Tatsuya (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon)



The first show that Kusakawa Keizo directed was Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's, the second (and widely recognized as the best) of three television series in the action-magical girl Nanoha franchise. Since then, he has been at the helm of several mediocre to awful shows. When I mentioned one of these shows to my roommate, Sekirei, he ran to his room and locked the door. I'll assume that one is its own special brand of terrible. With Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou, Kusakawa returns to the same style of show of Nanoha A's, the action-magical girl subgenre. The question is, does he have any directorial skill or was his early success a fluke?

I would answer that he has skill. I say this because I think Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is one of the better directed anime of this season. And I say that because this anime is a fine example of showing, not telling. The example I'll use here is in the first episode. Our main character, Akari, is a tarot fortune teller who lives with her in-laws after her mother died of anime wasting disease. Her cousin, Fuyuna, does not like her. Instead of an awkward scene inside Fuyuna's head where she talks about how much she doesn't like Akari, we're shown a couple moments in Fuyuna and Akari's life. One where Fuyuna gets good grades on a mid-terms and another where the girls are eating dinner with Fuyuna's parents. Quickly, both scenes turn into the other characters in the scene praising Akari, and we see the resentment on Fuyuna's face. This also segues nicely into the first magical girl battle for Akari.

From where the plant is grabbing her, you can tell she
she did not use Necronomicon plant food.

In this scene, Akari is in bed when the exceedingly healthy plant that she grows is possessed and starts to strangle her. Akari nearly dies, but is saved when one of the tarot cards glows with power, giving her the ability to fight back. She defeats the plant-monster-thing, but when she looks down, she sees Fuyuna's corpse in a pool of blood. Then, she suddenly wakes up in her room with the corpse gone. In another good directorial decision, Kusakawa doesn't answer what's going on immediately. We stay in Akari's viewpoint for most of the running time, and we don't get any major answers until she does. This is called effective exposition, and makes us feel attached to Akari, since we're learning about the world at the same time as her.

The last thing I really enjoyed about this show is how there is a moral question that Akari has to ask, and answer in the first few episodes. We learn that when magical girls kill the monsters in this world, the people being possessed not only die, they disappear from the world as if they never existed. So, when Akari woke up after killing her cousin, her aunt and uncle don't even remember having a daughter. This is horrifying to Akari, as it would be to most of us. She is then reluctant to kill the monsters, which puts her in direct opposition to the big organization she joins early in episode two, as well as her new teammates. But, by the end of the third episode, she has made her choice on what to do, and thankfully it's not a total cop out by the director.

The major criticism I have is that outside of Akari, there isn't much of interest in the show. The team she joins is quite dull, with the three girls filling basic archetypes that one could guess based on their names and a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese. The organization appears to be hiding some secrets as to what's really going on, as these big organizations tend to do. I also feel that the pacing is a bit plodding, as in the first arc could have been done in less time, and I hate it when shows waste time. So, I can totally see someone not finding Akari compelling for some reason and being bored by it.

Get it? Her name means light! And she's powered by the Sun card!
That's why her hair is on fire!

But, I'm not bored. I'm passing Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou because competent direction is so hard to find and it's in this show. I'm happy Kusakawa has returned to the magical girl genre, because it's where he does his best work. Now, I won't get angry if someone calls this dark magical girl show a clone of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, because it kind of is, and it's not as good. That's fine though, because if someone is holding all magical girl shows to Madoka's standard, they are going to wait a long time before they find another one to enjoy.