With everyone raving about Fractale despite the mess that Yamakan cause with the disruption of the simulcast, I actually enjoyed it. The first three episodes impressed me with the animation and of course, the story. (Image Source)
The story focuses on the Fractale System with the usual “technology could be evil” stance when people become too reliant towards it or use it for an evil purpose. The Fractale System basically embeds chips in people, which allow them to live a good life without worrying about health, ability to see Doppels without glasses and other things. However, there is a drawback with the Fractale System since it feels like a cult religion. When you have the chip embedded, there lack of personal freedom, privacy and individuality, which ultimately cause brainwashing. This is shown in Episode Three when people who participated in the Star Festival were possessed. This possession and control of a person is a potential drawback to this system.
On the other hand, the Lost Millennium wants an organic life with individuality without being too reliant on technology. Basically, all the learning, hospitalization and farming are done manually with technology being used sparingly. Since they don’t have an embedded chip in their bodies, they have to use special glasses that resemble “augmented reality” to see the Doppels. Unfortunately, with their gruesome shootings of innocent people and priestess at the Star Festival, this does not do any justice. As a result of their action, they are not better than a terrorist organization that wants to push their agenda on everyone. Therefore, I felt that both groups are morally wrong. They should just get along and use peaceful means to convince people to go on the other side instead of using violence.
The story is told with the perspective of a young boy named Clain. He lives a pretty normal life despite having Doppels as his parents. He meets Phryne, which was injured by the people who were chasing her down. When he realized that, he brought her back to his house. In turn, she left her Doppel with him and mysteriously disappears. When Clain woke up, he notices the jewel and researched it. Suddenly, a human like female Doppel popped out from the Jewel and her name was Nessa.
Nessa is probably the most moe inducing character you can possibly get from this show. Despite being a really hyper girl, many people compares her to Yui from K-ON since Nessa sounds and has a very simular personality. Surprisingly, Hanazawa Kana that usually voices the timid, soft-spoken girls voices takes the role of Nessa. So essentially, Nessa is what drives the comic relief for the show such as causing trouble and getting excited over everything. While the comic relief is mostly use to divert the viewer from the drama, it sort of cause mood backlash in some episodes like Episode Three.
Overall, I think Fractale is a very interesting story with the mystery of the Fractale System. While the system makes lives better, there are some drawbacks that are still unknown besides the Star Festival. In addition, the scenery and the animation looks great that shows Yamakan’s great direction for the show. Hopefully future episodes continue to be interesting when they reveal more secrets in their journey.
Don’t conflate “brainwashing” and “lack of freedom” with communism. One doesn’t axiomatically lead to or imply the other. That’s just a right-wing misconception.
I may have phrase it wrong since I was trying to figure it out…
FYI, I support the democratic party.
I just want to know what’s going on. I think I should be paying more attention to the episodes when I’m watching them, but instead I’m sitting there doing 3 things at once and mostly just paying attention to when the adorable that is Nessa is on the screen.
I got the gist of what is going on with the first few episodes… but yeah, Nessa is really cute and so moè.
In short, the first four episodes focused on this respectively
1. The introduction of Phryne, Clain and the setting.
2. Nessa
3. Lost Millennium and the Star Festival, which had mine control.
4. Fractale System’s true colors and Clain’s and Phryne’s escape.